Review Round-Up - October 2026

Two horror-adjacent titles served as spooky bookends for the month of October on SPC.

Greetings, boys and ghouls! It is I, your host of horror for the month of SuperPhillip Central reviews that now rests in peace. ...Or does it?! Like a zombie rising from its grave, our terrifying roster of October reviews rises back up for one last dread-inducing display with the Review Round-Up!

We started the month with the macabre and morbid (as well as damn difficult and deadly) Maximo: Ghosts to Glory for the SlayStation 2, as our first retro review of the month. It slashed and sliced its way through zombie flesh and skeleton bone to earn a B-.

From there, we took on a different tact, but perhaps one that even more horrifying than our previous game! It's one terrifying title... of tennis!!! Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip delighted with some adrenaline-spiking serves and rallies, netting an A- for its effort.

Garfield: Escape from Monday bravely followed with a horror beyond all horrors that Garfield was doomed to suffer... vegetable lasagna! (Did you see lightning strikes and hear thunder claps just now, too?) Perhaps the scariest aspect about this 3D platformer was how average it ended up being, getting a C grade.

Finally, last but not least, it was a wonderful night to have a curse with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. Like Maximo before it, it dialed up the death and doom for brave players, making for quite the difficult game. It ended our run of frightful games this month with a B-. 

Let us now put this month's repertoire of reviews back in the cemetery and its designated plot before it causes me to go... further insane from attempting to continue this spooky shtick. Seriously, that was draining!! But in the meantime, please check out the SPC Review Archive for all previous reviews ever published on this site--which I can also safely say our reviews are thankfully alive and kicking, unlike my aforementioned shtick. 

November should have more review activity with some big titles, too, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. So, while you hopefully look forward to November on SPC, I'll leave you with this month's quartet of review snippets with accompanying links! 

Maximo: Ghosts to Glory (PS2) - B-

While some gaming franchises absolutely stuck the landing into moving from 2D to 3D (Mario, Zelda, and heck, let's say Ninja Gaiden for a closer point of comparison), Maximo: Ghosts to Glory doesn't quite do that with the Ghosts 'n Goblins series. Don't misinterpret me: it's still a success, transitioning its tone, gameplay, presentation, and old-school difficulty to 3D to great effect, but the disappointing camera makes the level of challenge not always an enjoyable one. The save system is less a point of contention, but its execution will still understandably put off a significant portion of potential players. It's not a masterful jump from 2D to 3D, but Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is a conversion that was worth waking up the dead for. 

Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip (PSP) - A-

In the end, Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip certainly serves up a heavy and hefty amount of fun. It certainly balances the line between arcade experience and simulation really well, but that's not without lowering the level of accessibility for every type of player out there. Those accustomed to tennis in Wii Sports or even Mario Tennis might find a bit of a learning curve if they're transitioning to this particular tennis title. Either way, the rallies are heated, the amount of content is immense, and the level of enjoyable tennis gameplay is off the charts, all making for a tennis game that is one of my favorites to date. So, if you have the chance, you're more than welcome to join the Love Tennis Club, too. I saved a spot for you

Garfield: Escape from Monday (Multi) - C 

While Garfield: Escape from Monday is hardly a bad game, it's also not a great one, either. My experience with this particular 3D platformer was one where I was going through the motions. Perhaps that's a bigger sin for a game that it's dull and boring rather than being interesting and playing badly. Escape from Monday plays well enough, but it's just a game that doesn't really do anything truly special. I'm sure it will be just fine for younger players--after all, I'm not really the demographic in mind here, despite platformers being my favorite genre, by far--but there's also just SO much out there that's better, too. I think of Garfield: Escape from Monday like eating a whole cake: It's tasty on the way down, sure, but it's also empty calories that could be better spent elsewhere--that is, you could do much better playing something else.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse (Multi) - B-

Konami's long-lasting, long-running series featuring a motley crew of vampire hunters continues on and boldly enters a new era with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. The movement feels great, for the most part (aiming the Arcane Whip notwithstanding), the challenge level is certainly present and accounted for (I'm thankful for the inclusion of Custom Mode, as will many potential players), the boss battles are some of the series's best, and the art is absolutely astonishing all-around. While not all aspects of Belmont's Curse carry that well-established Castlevania flavor, what is here works and works relatively well. It's certainly neither a monster nor doesn't belong in your gaming world. Just be prepared to cry some Bloody Tears at the difficulty at times.

Meanwhile, Garfield and some tennis were sprinkled in between. Yes, horrifying, as well!