Demon Tides (PC) Review

From last week's review of the Zelda-like Under the Island, we're returning to an indie island theme with my review of Demon Tides. Instead of just one island, though, it's an entire archipelago! Let's dive in and explore!

Demon-strably fun platforming ahead

3D platforming fans are eating well in 2026. We've had Big Hops already earlier this year, and just recently we've also seen Mr. Sleepy Head release this month, too. That's not to mention games like Dracamar and Bubsy 4D coming down the platforming pipeline, as well. To say that 2026 is the year of the indie 3D platformer would not be speaking out of turn, methinks! Now, the much anticipated sequel to Demon Turf is here and ready to set sail on the open seas with Demon Tides. With a new, fully 3D look, a much more ambitious take on the genre, and plenty of spunk and charm thrown in for good measure, will Demon Tides be enough to "tide" 3D platforming players like myself over until the next game in the genre from indies arrives?

After becoming the Demon Queen in the previous game, Demon Turf, Beebz receives a letter from her absent father, the king of a massive chain of islands known as Ragnar's Rock. She opts to take her merry--and decidedly quite eccentric--crew of friends to her father's kingdom, where she quickly discovers his "mad king" rule. The denizens are suffering, the islands are in disarray, and Ragnar rules with an iron fist. Beebz decides to join the resistance, offering her expertise in trouble-making and butt-kicking to help put a stop to her father's tyranny, find out why he sent that letter, and discover why he's been absent for so long in Beebz's life.  

The gang (...crew?) is all here!

If I had to describe Demon Tides, it'd be a combination of Super Mario 3D World's Bowser's Fury half and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Our heroine Beebz traverses the wide open seas--well, mostly wide open, as they're divided up into three separate sections--in search of various islands with plenty of platforming to be found. Successful platforming finds Beebz earning new cosmetics, new talismans, and of the utmost importance for her adventure to meet Ragnar, Golden Gears. 45 of these are spread out across Demon Tides' world, and these are essentially the Power Stars of Super Mario 64 in Demon Tides' terms. As Beebz's Golden Gear collection grows, a new third of the overall map opens up for exploration. Of course, before being able to travel to the next section of Ragnar's Rock, one of King Ragnar's three right-hand villains overseeing the havoc caused in that particular region must be routed.  

Feet, don't fail me now!

Earning Golden Gears is accomplished by completing tasks across the dozens upon dozens of island locales in the game, all involving platforming of some sort--as one would expect. These tasks or challenges range from racing through rings and going from point A to point B, doing plenty of jumping, running, climbing, wall-running, wall-jumping, rail-grinding--you name it, to approach the treasure chest where the Golden Gear or other goodie (talisman, cosmetic, or otherwise) lay in wait. Other times a chest will be completely locked, but the nice thing about seeing such a locked treasure chest is that upon examining it, the camera will focus on the character whose problem you must solve in order to have them part with their treasure chest's contents. 

Feel that ocean breeze while grinding on those rails. You'll feel like a new demon!

Beebz has plenty of prowess to perform the platforming required for most of these challenges. Being a demon queen, she has the ability to effortlessly and virtually seamlessly transform into various forms while running and jumping around. A double jump will automatically see her transform into a bat, able to then enter into her spin form to gain some extra distance from said double jump, or perform a cannonball maneuver to get some quick speed and elevation before plopping downward towards the ground. Meanwhile, the snake form grants super speed, though a bit unwieldy to control at first, especially when precision is the aim of the game. I had to learn that movement was dependent on the direction where the camera was facing and make corrections as needed to go where I wanted to without as much frustration. Regardless, this snake form is the best means to jet around the waves, get to destinations in a hurry, and better succeed in the previously mentioned races.

Of course, Beebz could be perfectly fine with just this set of transformations and base abilities, but to better help players, the inclusion of talismans is available in Demon Tides. Talismans are essentially game and moveset modifiers to assist in making the experience easier or more difficult depending on the player's wants and wishes. Some affect Beebz's health, giving her an extra heart (pill capsule) to work with or one less to make the game harder. Some grant boosts to Beebz's wonderfully wide repertoire of moves, from giving Beebz's bat form a triple jump as opposed to just the double jump, to allowing for more time in Beebz's spin form to... well... spin! 

Protip: Red and black goo is bad for Beebz's health.

These talismans are unlocked through normal play, hidden in treasure chests from completing platforming challenges much like the Golden Gears (though talismans aren't progress gates like the Gears are), but they're also available to purchase on the traveling hub ship of Beebz and the gang's. This is done through the collection of floating purple eyes cleverly called Eyetems, the currency and secondary collectible of Demon Tides. The ship also houses a shop for cosmetics, from different hairstyles, to full clothing sets, to color variants for Beebz, as well.

As a collect-a-thon-style 3D platformer, Demon Tides is great for attempting to 100% the entire game through literally 100%-ing each locale in the game. That's collecting all Eyetems at each locale, completing each task, and opening up every treasure chest. Not every locale houses Golden Gears, Eyetems, and such, but each is worthwhile enough to scope out. I often found myself saying, "one more island", "one more discovery" in my head before quitting each gaming session I had with Demon Tides, and of course, that led to three more islands I'd play before actually being done with said session. There is an addicting quality to discovering new islands and locales, as that's a whole new series of potential Eyetems, Golden Gears, talismans, and cosmetics to find.

Levels offer lots of verticality and unlockable shortcuts so you don't have to repeat climbs!

That said, I pretty routinely found myself as well quickly seeing a lot of asset and locale-style reuse. A fair amount of the discoveries are crow's nests, which aren't too terribly exciting--and they're not meant to be--but moreover, the similar discoveries of dilapidated, sinking cities with the same building types to meander over, through, and under got somewhat old relatively fast. Fortunately, the other discoveries of islands were more exciting to find. Though, that isn't to say that the platforming in the sunken city locales weren't enjoyable. It was less that and more that the environmental variety was lacking.

Otherwise, the variety in environments in general is rather pleasing. For one, I had to remember this was an indie effort, and a 3D platformer with a vast world to explore, at that. Expecting each location to be brand-new and wholly original was not realistic. And the locations overall are different enough either in design gameplay or appearance-wise. 

Last game offered the "turf", so it only makes sense that Demon Tides brings the "surf" part.

There is a Mediterranean-style area in the first section of islands where Beebz has to navigate across windy, narrow paths, scurry across walls, slip and slide down a chute of water, and scale up a tower of platforms to reach a broken windmill. Another locale is unassuming at first, but upon venturing underground, there is a vast network of moving mine carts riding over hazardous lava that Beebz has to jump back and forth on to advance. One last highlight to mention--but there are plenty more--is a science base in the arctic area of the game, which features extreme frigid temps. Only through Beebz staying near lit lanterns can she stay warm, otherwise outside of these sparse sections of heat, she'll slowly lose health from the major cold. This is all the while she needing to find and collect five pieces of a broken Golden Gear spread around and across the open area campus.

An island completely frozen in time thankfully makes these mortars safe to jump on and off of.

Less thrilling, but totally optional unless you're aiming for 100%, are the Mr. Mint trial levels. The "loved by me, hated by Beebz" character is hidden away on many islands, and opening up a teleporter for 100 Eyetems sends Beebz to a Super Mario Sunshine-esque challenge stage. These are ones that require total concentration, revolving around different platforming gimmicks seen throughout Beebz's adventure, generally the gimmick of a given Mr. Mint level is similar to the one upon the island where you find his teleporter. At any rate, while these stages could be fun challenges, they're mostly overlong in length, and you get no checkpoints whatsoever. Nothing like making it three-fourths of the way through an otherwise easy four minute stage only to continually mess up in the final fourth, having to redo everything easy leading up to that one, difficult part. 

It doesn't help that oftentimes I found myself fighting the controls and especially the dang camera. Depth perception is a strong issue I had with Demon Tides, particularly a lack of proper awareness to where Beebz was in relation to tiny, narrow platforms. Outside of these challenge stages, I didn't mind so much. You can usually place a really nifty manual checkpoint at pretty much any moment there is a non-moving surface or platform. Perish? You'll wind up back at that checkpoint automatically. Miss a jump, fall, but don't want to redo all of your previous platforming handiwork? Then, you can manually send Beebz back to that checkpoint, too, with a hold of a specific direction on the D-Pad. There are just some occasions a checkpoint is simply not possible to use--Mr. Mint levels being one of those occasions. This makes sense, but because they're so lengthy in duration, that makes for an annoying issue.

Another slightly annoying issue is that of combat. It's just not very good in feel nor in practice. Beebz uses a homing attack sort of similarly to Sonic the Hedgehog's in Sonic Adventure and beyond, but this has about as much consistency as Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). That is to say, it doesn't have much at all. Trying to hit moving targets in the form of fast foes is an effort in minor futility and major frustration. The boss battles fare better, whether they're the main baddies that take up one of the three sections of Demon Tides' world, or the optional Gearserker mini-bosses. Though, the latter suffers from a lack of variety in the encounters. Honestly, I'd have preferred combat be limited to bosses and have little peon enemies not be a thing at all. It doesn't work well in Demon Tides, whose focus is better served on the platforming action.

There are plenty of Gearserkers to battle, but if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen most of what they have to offer.

And when the platforming action works, it works like an absolute dream. There is so much freedom to be found in chaining Beebz's large arsenal of moves, transformations, and jumps together to flow so well and wonderfully. When things like combat, the camera, or sometimes even the controls get in the way, Demon Tides is less of a dream and more of a nightmare.  

Mostly, however, Demon Tides' nightmare moments are fewer and further in between than the dreamlike portions, fortunately. The game all-around took me approximately 18 hours to 100% complete. I am relatively competent at platformers of this style, so that's important to note with regard to completion time. Even with my aggravations, I found the game overall a winner.

Beebz is the captain, now.

That extends to the presentation as well, for the most part. There are some early areas, especially the boss-controlled areas, that are incredibly, ungodly garish in purple and pink colors. It's a sight to make sore eyes, as it's just egregiously bad and a bewildering artistic design decision. Thankfully, an upcoming patch (and it might even be out already before this review's published) plans to mitigate the obtrusive colors on display in these sections. Otherwise, most everything else graphically is rather lovely. Some geometry and graphical glitches are present, though. I noticed on the island with the giant lighthouse that I could go under it in Beebz's snake form because said lighthouse's foundation wasn't entirely grounded. I also saw trees that didn't stick firmly into the ground, only partway, which looked quite off. 

On the sound side, Beebz and the cast sport charming dialogue and partial voice work. I say "partial' because only the really important to accentuate lines of dialogue are spoken out loud. Everything else is silent. Musically, the compositions and tracks are serviceable. They work for Demon Tides in the sense that they fit the areas they play in, but they're also missing that special something and not really anything I'd run to listen to outside of playing the game.

Running off my Steam Deck, Demon Tides mostly held up well, with some frame-rate spikes and dips in later areas.

Demon Tides is a superb and ambitious 3D indie platformer that casts a wide net of adventure. The ability to customize your playing experience through the helpful talisman system is a pleasure to have. It truly assists in making the game more enjoyable and less frustrating when control and camera quibbles try to ruin the fun. While these problems do rock the boat a little bit, making for a non-ideal experience, all in all, Demon Tides offers more of a smooth ride rather than one in abundantly choppy waters. There's more fun than frustration to be found in Demon Tides. And like many of the locales in the game, there are clever level and gameplay concepts and a robust repertoire of moves that are mostly well executed to discover throughout Demon Tides, making it one I recommend 3D platformer fans to play.

[SPC Says: B] 

Mario Tennis Fever (NS2) Review

Happy Mar10 Day, everyone! With today being the portly plumber's special day, it only makes sense to grace SuperPhillip Central with one of his games--and a recent one at that: Mario Tennis Fever! Let's take to the court with the SPC review.

Mario and Friends' Swing Fever

I've been a bit hard on Nintendo's sports offerings on the original Switch--but for good reasons. Both Camelot's games on the Switch, Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf: Super Rush, launched with a paltry amount of content for the asking price, especially when compared to past entries. While both games also received free post-launch content, it's stuff that should have already been in the base game and not released piecemeal. As if listening to me directly (and many other players, too), Nintendo and Camelot come bursting onto the court with a brand-new Mario Tennis entry that seems to be the genuine article, at least when content is concerned. After all, content is king.

Mario Tennis Fever is the latest iteration of the famed Mario Tennis franchise, and it's Camelot's first foray on the Nintendo Switch 2. Is this a fever you'll enjoy, or one that you'll want a cure for?

Nintendo heavily marketed--or at least portrayed--the Adventure Mode as some big deal content-wise for Mario Tennis Fever. It turns out, it's merely another version of a tutorial. It starts with Mario and company recovering a Golden Fruit for Daisy, who has succumbed to some type of illness. While the recovery attempt succeeds, it isn't without consequence. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, and Waluigi are transformed into babies in the process, and without much fight to them, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi will need to go back to the practice courts to have their tennis know-how and skills eventually return to them.

They might be babies, but this won't be an Adventure Mode in Babysitting--they can take care of themselves!

The first half of the Adventure Mode takes place in the same tennis practice area, having Baby Mario and sometimes Baby Luigi as his doubles partner partake in various training exercises, each delving into some facet of tennis. There are mini-games to play, opponents to take on, and each of these generates experience points for Baby Mario to level up his skills and stats. 

By the time the training wheels come off and the actual ADVENTURE part of the Adventure Mode begins, it's short lived. There are a handful of areas to explore in a super linear fashion, more opponents to take on, story elements to enjoy, mini-games to play that are more organically interspersed in the adventure, and bosses to battle. 

The adventuring part of Adventure Mode sees a lot of variety, but it's also incredibly brief.

Really, and to reiterate, the Adventure Mode is meant to serve more as a tutorial than anything else--the appetizer to the main course which is the rest of the game. Instead, the heavy focus on the Adventure Mode from Nintendo made it out to be more important to the Mario Tennis Fever package than it actually is. That's not to say the mode's not worthwhile, but at the same time, a five-hour tutorial isn't the most compelling concept.

The lackluster Adventure Mode aside, what truly drove me as a Mario Tennis Fever player was the other additional modes included in the game. There's your traditional Tournament mode--a three-cup, three-round apiece series of matches that can be played in both Singles and Doubles play. Though I wish the game denoted which characters have earned trophies in that mode. For as much as I disliked the initial offering, Mario Tennis Aces gave some replay value and longevity by logging and recording which characters completed which cups in Tournament mode. As is in Fever, there's no real incentive to replay the mode once it's beaten in Singles and Doubles because there are no trophies for individual characters to earn. Not to say that this unlocked anything in Mario Tennis Aces, but it was just nice to have, again for longevity and replay value purposes. It was rewarding on its own to see my full roster of unlocked characters shown as having a complete catalog of tournament trophies earned.

Mario, with the backhand return to continue the rally!

Regardless, Mario Tennis Fever does deliver a wide range of unlockables all the same, even without this aforementioned exclusion. There is a slew of achievements, and these aren't just for show. These unlock new characters, alternate character colors, tennis rackets, and courts, too. To unlock everything that Fever offers, I sunk a fair amount of hours into the game's multiple modes. 

Apart from the Adventure and Tournament modes, there are special score challenges. Such challenges include: Ring Shot, Piranha Plant Challenge, and Auto Tennis. Ring Shot has you in a rally with another player as you attempt to aim your shots and volleys into rings of various sizes and point values to meet a point requirement before time runs out. The Piranha Plant Challenge sees a Piranha Plant coming out of one of three green warp pipes on the opposite side of the net, firing tennis balls one at the other. Your character has to return them without the player on the opposing side returning them back to you. Lastly, Auto Tennis takes a mechanical Piranha Plant that shoots out tennis balls, and your goal is to return them atop of various score tiles for points.

Tournament mode gets rather challenging, so make sure you don't lose your focus.

Then, there is the meatiest mode within Mario Tennis Fever--though it doesn't appear to seem so meaty right from the get go--it's the Trial Towers mode. This mode is essentially the Events from Super Smash Bros. Melee put to tennis tasks. You have three towers to take on, each with ten challenges to complete. Every time you fail a challenge, you lose a heart. Lose all your hearts, and it's game over and you have to start from floor one on a new run. 30 challenges or missions spread across three towers doesn't seem too exceptionally content-rich, but after the third tower is completed, it's then where the content pours from every orifice of Mario Tennis Fever's Trial Towers. 

Variety is the spice of life, content is king, and Trial Towers delivers both.

After beating each tower, unlocking the characters associated with each, you unlock 100 trials to take on, and this time in any order. Simply select a trial and then take it on. These are similar to the missions seen in the three preceding towers, such as taking on an opponent with them using a certain racket to make things more difficult or battling a powerful opponent as three weaker, but faster baby characters, for instance. The difference is that these individual trials have three goals each to them, and you earn a star for completing each--whether that's not losing a point, not getting knocked out, or something more challenging like not taking damage at all. Understandably with 100 trials, this mode will last players a while.

Of course, all the modes and content in the world couldn't save Mario Tennis Fever if its tennis gameplay double faulted. Fortunately, Fever's tennis action is better than ever. For one, it forgoes the elimination-based power shots that Aces supported. For me, the timing for Aces' counters were waaaaay too strict, often resulting in me getting eliminated from matches when all of my rackets shattered. While there is a gimmick to Fever's tennis with Fever Rackets, losing all your HP does not mean you're permanently eliminated from the match. Instead, it's either temporarily in Doubles play, or you simply play with less stamina and trudge along the court in Solo play until your health recovers. 

I'm seeing double with this particular Fever Racket!

The Fever Rackets are indeed the main draw and gimmick of Mario Tennis Fever, understandably so. There are 30 or so rackets to unlock, and with over 30 characters to play as, that means you're going to get a lot of different character and racket combinations to experiment with. When your Fever Gauge is full, you can choose to unleash a Fever Shot with your given racket. If it hits the court before your opponent can return it, your racket's ability will be utilized. The Volcano racket, for instance, erupts on the court where the ball hits to reveal a fiery crater that launches fireballs out. Any player that comes in contact with them will get burned and lose HP in the process. Meanwhile, the Golden Dash racket is better served for defensive play, offering a temporary but super helpful, speedy boost to the player that uses it, allowing them to jet around the court with relative ease.

Diddy, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Of course, your opponent can counter a Fever Shot, and if the ball lands on your side of the court, the area-of-effect power will happen there, which means you'll have plenty of dodging to do as you try to contend with hitting the ball back to your opponent. It's absolutely riveting to have an action-packed rally where players keep hitting the ball back and forth, not letting it touch the ground, to keep the Fever Shot chance going. A counter to a counter, to a counter, to another, until ultimately someone finally misses and the Fever Shot hits the court, resulting in chaos on their side.

Rosalina sees how the Mario Tennis Fever action can heat up in a most literal sense.

That said, if you prefer traditional tennis, like Mario Tennis Aces before it, there is an entire mode of play dedicated to that. Have yourself a no-frills, no Fever Racket, pure game of tennis! Though if you want to unlock most of the content within Mario Tennis Fever, you're going to have to engage with the Fever portion. Still, it's nice to have the option to play without the extra craziness and have it come straight down to skilled play, outmaneuvering, and leading your opponent into a disadvantage for you to earn the point.

Disappointingly, at least for me, is the number of courts in Mario Tennis Fever--just seven, with multiple variations of court types (i.e. grass, sand, concrete, etc.). While the number of courts is similar to past installments, I would have loved to see more in the way of locales and venues. That notwithstanding, what is here is enjoyable, whether it's the gimmick courts like playing tennis within a pinball table, or a court themed after Super Mario Bros. Wonder, complete with unique Wonder effects that occur mid-match.

One of the handful of gimmick-themed courts to play on. If you prefer no gimmicks, you can play without 'em!

If you're the type who prefers to play online and show the world your tennis ability (or for me, my lack thereof), there is obviously online play to participate in, either in Singles or Doubles play. You can play with or without Fever Rackets, as well. Ranked play pits opponents against each other in a tiebreaker best of seven series. While some may balk at the idea of such a relatively short match instead of something set-based, it keeps matches quick, the pace of finding new matches even faster, and if you're completely getting decimated in a match, you can get it over with lickety split. Unlike Aces, there are currently no tournaments or unlockables to earn through online play--it's simply there for those with a competitive spirit to engage in.

Online play is like Yoshi's armpits after a 20-hit rally--sweaty.

No matter the type of tennis you prefer to play--online or offline, with or without Fever Rackets, solo or multiplayer--you're getting a gorgeous game with colorful and crisp visuals. I absolutely love how animated each character is and how much personality they show in everything they do on the court. Fever's replays after every point would be better if they could be turned off entirely (a strange omission), but what's there are entirely epic showcases of sharp shooting shots and points earned. So, too, would it be nice to be able to turn off the Talking Flower, also from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, for commentary. I enjoy the action-packed words from our floral friend, but not everyone will. 

The courts are colorful, the characters are crisp--Mario Tennis Fever is a winner in the graphics department.

Camelot Software doesn't exactly serve an ace with its first Nintendo Switch 2 offering, but Mario Tennis Fever serves in general as an excellent starting point all the same. The tennis gameplay is great as ever, the amount of characters and rackets means that you'll have loads to experiment with to find the best character and racket that suits your play style, and the level of content is absolutely satisfying this time around. The Adventure Mode disappoints once again, but the rest of the package is more than worthwhile. I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more tennis with Mario. Now, pardon me as I take some more sick days due to this Fever of mine.

[SPC Says: B] 

Under the Island (Multi) Review

Our first review of March takes us all over the island, atop the island, and yes, under the island in... Under the Island, a Zelda-inspired title from Slime King Games that launched last month on most current platforms. Let's take our hockey stick in tow, raise it over our head, and proceed to take to the island with this SuperPhillip Central review.

A strong Zelda-like that won't grind your mystical gears.

Indies are exceptional for their creating unique gameplay ideas and mechanic concepts, and so many times we see such off-the-wall experiences that would be deemed too risky for larger devs. Sometimes, however, it's also awesome to see indies take previously built, tried and true concepts and expand upon them in their own, unique way. This is what developer Slime King Games has done with its game, Under the Island. Taking the formula and foundation that Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda franchise created, Slime King Games offers a charming and enjoyable adventure that was for me, quite reminiscent of Link's Awakening.

Under the Island follows a teenager named Nia who begrudgingly relocates with her archaeologist parents to Seashell Island for a one-year research expedition. Quite quickly, she meets a girl named Avocado, and the pair unexpectedly stumble into some ancient ruins under the main town of the game. There, they encounter a bipedal bird who informs them that Seashell Island will sink deep into the ocean if four mythical gears are not collected and reassembled. Thus, Nia has her mission, the MacGuffins to go after in the form of the gears, and an entire island to explore, one area at a time.

Time to get our rears in gear, it seems! We've got an adventure to embark on!

The narrative of Under the Island is one that engages in plenty of verbose cutscenes. These weren't annoying to me, offering some further personality to flesh out characters, but I do imagine that a fair number of players will prefer a "less is more" experience. This is especially so because a lot of the conversations between characters are rather long-winded and don't provide too much on offer to say. Furthermore, some typos and dialogue issues are present in the game, and a notable puzzle in the final dungeon of the game confuses "its" and "it's", the contraction, which is somewhat immersion breaking.

Don't mind me. Just passin' through!

Regardless, that niggling nonsense aside, Under the Island is a rather lovely Zelda-like experience. It offers an expansive map to explore, opening up little by little as Nia obtains new items--generally the more robust set of tools offering the most utility are discovered in the game's dungeons. The items range from a flower that spits out flames, which gets plenty of use throughout the adventure--from lighting torches, to burning faraway bushes, for example--to chow that can lure animals on top of buttons to weigh them down, for instance.

This plant, for our purposes, has one welcomed case of heartburn!

Nia herself sports a hockey stick as her main weapon. I say, "main weapon" because while you can unleash that previously mentioned fireball-shooting plant at foes, it's much too slow and weak to actually be useful in the heat of battle. The hockey stick allows for a three-hit combo, though I must admit that this weapon takes a bit of getting used to. It's rather clunky to use at best, and it's also not very powerful at the beginning of the game. Fortunately, there is a tent in the central town of the game, which provides upgrades for a price of money and dropped materials from enemies. 

Thankfully, penalties involving "high-sticking" don't happen off the ice!

Thus, combat is not the best part of Under the Island, though it also doesn't ruin the experience either. Instead, I would say the most entertaining portion of Under the Island comes from its exceptional environmental, world, and dungeon design. The island is both entertaining and enjoyable to explore, offering dozens upon dozens of dense areas--many of which are optional but reward players for careful investigating and going off the beaten path. Areas are interconnected in ways that make logical sense, with it always being a pleasure to figure out the path forward or how to reach a certain, seemingly inaccessible doorway or cavern. 

Fortunately, if you're not feeling like hotfooting it across the island, fast travel is an option, and even this brings some clever ideas and requires some exploration to unlock as well. For each fast travel location, there is a hidden nearby, block-pushing puzzle room, necessitating Nia to solve. Once solved, these open up the means to fast travel to that given destination. 

These block-pushing puzzles can certainly be brain-busters, but the fast travel reward's more than worth the effort.

Of course, Nia won't always be out-of-doors despite being on an island, as there are dungeons to delve into. These aren't always your typical dungeon fare, offering such locales like a greenhouse and even a cereal factory. These dungeons are home to various puzzles to solve, treasure chests to open (many of which containing Zelda-specific dungeon items like maps and compasses), and baddies to beat.

These baddies include bosses, which, too, take a different, unique approach to your traditional Zelda game. Circling back to the greenhouse, the first major dungeon within the game, the boss here is less a major enemy and more a set piece. It features Nia making sure a stage production goes off without a hitch, requiring her to adjust the lighting and culminating with her needing to fend off overzealous fans backstage from ruining said production. 

Weave through this boss's bullet hell-like attack.

Outside of the main dungeons and story progression, an immense number of optional side quests are available to take on, granting wonderful rewards to make the extra effort worthwhile. These can be exclusive items that Nia would otherwise never encounter on her adventure, or of course, a Zelda staple, the means to generate additional health. Though, this is performed by visiting a gym freak who in exchange for four Heart Coins will bestow Nia with an extra heart container, for lack of a better term.

Under the Island took me about 13 hours to fully complete. That was with unlocking all achievements, which included clearing the story, maxing out Nia's health, obtaining all cassette tapes, and other optional objectives. Overall, it was a really good time, and I found myself extending my play sessions just because I was enjoying myself so much.

Caves, treasures, and more await skilled explorers.

This extended to the presentation, which I also liked. The chibi sprite art is remarkably cute, the environments and landscapes are outstanding in detail, vibrant, and colorful. I was impressed by the enemy variety as well. Rather than utilize a simple handful of enemies and sprites across the entire game, Under the Island instead opted to change enemies up depending on the locale with matching monsters and sprites that fit each indubitably. The music, too, offers plenty to enjoy, full of tunes that are decidedly nice enough to bop one's head around to and tap one's toes to, as well. 

While its combat is a bit too loose, and its dialogue a bit too much in general, all in all, Under the Island won me over big time. I was able to tolerate those small-to-medium sized quibbles to fully enjoy and complete the game. There's such a wonderfully enjoyable world to explore with Under the Island's... well... island, that tracking down every last Heart Coin, every last item, and making Nia one lean, mean, baddie-defeating machine through upgrades discovered around said world was something I thoroughly loved doing. If you're yearning for a new, highly competent, top-down, traditional Zelda-like experience, Under the Island will fulfill that yearning indeed. It won't rival the highs of exploring The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening's Koholint Island, but then again, what does?

[SPC Says: B] 

Review Round-Up - February 2026

A theme from this month of reviews is that heroic teams come in all shapes and sizes 
as seen with some of our reviewed games for February 2026.

A shorter month means a shorter list of reviews for our February 2026 Review Round-Up. That said, however, we had some delightful titles reviewed on SuperPhillip Central last month, and we wasted no time getting to them!

Let's begin with the Tribute Games' Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which offered an immense amount of heroes, moves, and abilities to brawl and battle baddies in. It rose to the challenge with a B. Following that was a retro-style, room-based 2D platformer, Lovish, which also got itself a B.

Our lowest grade of the month, a D+, was for a GameCube golf game that played and looked similar to PlayStation's Hot Shots Golf franchise: Swingerz Golf--though the quality was decidedly different and diminished due to its sometimes unfair difficulty. 

We marched towards March with three final reviews: the colorful and charming co-op-only game POPUCOM (B), a late look at a retro Star Wars game remastered with Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles (C), and finally, the Star Fox-like, Rogue-lite FUR Squadron Phoenix (B-). 

With the Ides of March ready to rock and roll, so too is SuperPhillip Central for our next month of gaming action. In the meantime, be sure to check out the SPC Review Archive for all past and present reviews on the site. 

Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Multi) - B

From the impressive amount of unique moves and abilities each playable character possesses, to how great the actual "beating 'em up" feels between attacks having a right amount of "punch" to them, to the superb art style and presentation, Marvel Cosmic Invasion delights. Whether you're a Marvel fan or no, this beat-em-up will have you coming back for more time and again.

Lovish (Multi) - B

Overall, though, Lovish is a delight. Its humor and satire of genre and game conventions are most entertaining, its references and guest appearances are delightful, and the game itself plays well and is structurally sound, even if the Devil Lord's castle isn't always--looking at YOU, crumbling floors and breakable walls! Lovish succeeded at getting its hooks into me, and through the now and then frustrations of one-hit deaths, repeated attempts of levels and bosses, and tricky platforming perils, I merrily pushed forth with a smile on my face. Well, in between utterances of curse words on failed attempts, of course. Those looking for a challenge will get one with Lovish, as well as an enjoyable game that doesn't take itself at all seriously either.

Swingerz Golf (GCN) - D+ 

...after bashing my brains against trying to learn to play and try to enjoy myself despite the game doing everything in its power to ruin that for me, it's certainly and decidedly not for me. It's just a shame that the developer never got a mulligan, as there are some neat and nifty ideas here, but they don't form anything worthwhile enough to suffer for.

POPUCOM (PC, NSW) - B 

For those with the means to play POPUCOM--i.e. another player available either locally or online--you're going to get a wonderful cooperative game to enjoy. The levels constantly amaze and delight with new ideas that are iterated on in smart ways, the boss encounters are generally great, and the cooperation required to get through both types of challenges makes for truly fun and rewarding times. That's not to say you and your partner won't get flustered or annoyed with each other or the game every now and then, but overall, the experience will be a strongly positive one.

Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles (Multi) - C

...Jedi Power Battles is a guilty pleasure of mine. I know it's not a great game mechanically, but the pieces fit together for an enjoyable enough romp. I love tossing a thermal detonator for an oh-so-satisfying small, contained explosion to send a group of foes flying. I enjoy hearing Yoda giggle upon picking up a power-up. And I liked extending my lightsaber to double its size in ridiculous fashion with a power-up as well. Frustrations from glitches to game crashes (especially in Coruscant, the longest level in the game, unfortunately) hampered my fun at times, but overall, I felt my time with the game was worthwhile and didn't feel my nostalgia was ill-founded.

FUR Squadron Phoenix (PC, NSW) - B- 

With eight missions, three that take place in the real-world where experience is not gained, and five in VR where experience is gained, FUR Squadron Phoenix won't last ace pilots too terribly long. The pool of available upgrades is rather limited as well, which makes for a short-lived experience all-around even when attempting to max everything out. That all notwithstanding, I definitely enjoyed my time in the cockpit with FUR Squadron, and would recommend FUR Squadron Phoenix to potential players, given they realize their time in the skies, in space, and even under the sea, won't last too terribly long.

It was also indeed a month of indies, and I couldn't have been happier for that pleasure!

SuperPhillip Central and my YouTube Channel, SuperPhillip Plays, are Now on Patreon!

Happy weekend, all! I'm excited to announce that I have made a Patreon for my work on my blog SuperPhillip Central and my YouTube channel SuperPhillip Plays. As some of you may know, the former has been around since 2008, features over 4,000 posts, and over 1,000 reviews, while the YouTube channel is still in its infancy. 

Here is the announcement post on my Patreon page (please consider checking it out!):

"Greetings, friends and followers alike! For over 17 years now, I've written for my own gaming blog called SuperPhillip Central, housing over 4,000 posts and over 1,000 reviews since its founding on June 5th, 2008. 

I've also started to dabble in creating videos on my YouTube channel, SuperPhillip Plays--offering Let's Play and original list form content as well!

It's with great excitement that I start this Patreon page.

A question you might ask is: Why Patreon and why now? 

Both excellent questions. To be totally transparent, as stated, I've run my blog for nearly 18 years now, and I haven't really ever monetized it. I've attempted putting ads on the blog, but they were so clunky and frankly, an eyesore. Also, with ad-block software and plugins being so popular (I use them, too), the revenue generated just wasn't worth the aforementioned eyesore of ads plastered on my blog. Thus, ads were short-lived, to say the least!

Instead, I'm opting for direct support through a Patreon. I'm hoping that I can start generating some semblance of income, as currently I am unemployed and disabled due to mental health reasons. By no means do I want anyone to feel obligated to support my Patreon, but if you do enjoy the written content I've put forth onto my blog over the past decade and change, and/or if you do like what you see on my YouTube channel, then please do consider supporting. I would greatly appreciate it.

Either way, I wish to and will provide enough content to Patreon supporters so that I can not only give you all my super thanks for your support but also give you a glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak. Some behind the scenes looks, I think, would be fun for both of us--you to get a look at early concepts and for me to share such content! Win-win!

I'm also very much open to hearing your feedback on what other benefits and bonuses I can provide to make your support to my Patreon extra special and worthwhile. I think of this as a collaboration rather than simply a one-sided effort. Therefore, please feel free to let me know if you ever think of something you'd like to see added as a bonus in a tier!

Additionally, never feel obligated either to keep supporting if you find you aren't getting what you desire or if your financial situation changes. There are no hard feelings for cancellations, but putting down a reason for said cancellation (make it as general or specific as appropriate) will certainly help me for the future, for sure.

Thank you so much for your time and for your consideration in supporting this new Patreon endeavor of mine! I appreciate you all, and I hope to continue to provide worthwhile blog posts and YouTube videos to everyone!"