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!

FUR Squadron Phoenix (PC, NSW) Review

FUR Squadron Phoenix launches today on Steam/PC with a Nintendo Switch release happening next Wednesday, February 25th. This review covers the former. Get to ready to take flight with the SuperPhillip Central review.

Let the FUR fly.

There's no doubt a Star Fox-shaped hole in gaming that Nintendo doesn't currently seem interested in filling. That's alright, as like F-Zero before, indies are more than willing to step up to the proverbial plate. While not completely creating rote same-as experiences to mimic Nintendo's titles, we've seen a fair number of indie developers try their collective hands at making their own efforts to fill the gaps in fans' hearts.

Enter FUR Squadron Phoenix. This is clearly inspired by Star Fox, from the cast of furry bipedal characters that make up said squadron to various nudge-nudge, hint-hint references to Nintendo's flight-based shooter. That notwithstanding, FUR Squadron Phoenix also does enough to distinguish itself from its source inspiration.

Starting off, you're flung immediately into the action with the first mission. The simple controls get taught with a simple fire button, holding said button to charge a homing shot that can zone in on foes and defeat groups of adjacent baddies, a barrel roll (though not specifically called that), and a special weapon. 

The latter weapons aren't limited to Star Fox's tried and true smart bombs. Instead, you can--and in later levels against bosses are pretty much required to--use the D-Pad to switch between one of four weapons. There's bombs, rockets, an armor-piercing laser beam, and a nuke, which takes all weapon energy to utilize. 

At least it's not "too Raph" instead!

Flying back to the first level before I get too ahead of myself, it features your playable character, a bird named Robin, who enters into a mission where things go awry rather quickly. Her two squadmates end up eliminated in battle, and she of course blames herself. Fast forward ahead to months later, and Robin is a new recruit with the FUR Squadron, under helm by a conveniently enough furry creature named Blaze. To get back her confidence, Robin undergoes training in a VR simulation, crafted by the axolotl named Axel, taking a Slippy Toad role in this game.

It can be difficult to read dialogue and contend with the antics on screen.
Voiced dialogue (and not the Animalese used here) would have worked wonders.

FUR Squadron Phoenix features eight total levels, which might not seem like a lot, but there is some replay value to be found here. No doubt players will struggle even with the first VR level, perhaps even crashing and burning in an attempt to play it. Fortunately, roguelite elements appear in the game, offering purchasable upgrades with in-game points earned from casual play. The higher your score on an attempt, whether a successful one or not, the more points you earn. These points can be spent to increase Robin's shield capacity, attack power, "barrel roll" speed, and also upgrading her special attack prowess.  

You can get up to a 150% multiplier on downed enemies, as long as you don't take damage yourself.

The roguelite influences seep into the levels themselves in FUR Squadron Phoenix. Runs through levels generally feature randomized elements to them. That could be as simple as different enemy configurations or even alternate side missions. That said, the randomization is awfully limited in scope. You'll constantly see and eventually grow accustomed to the same, exact enemy fighter formations, only appearing at different times and intervals in levels. The set pieces offer more interesting design, delivering some pulse-pounding segments and sections, like one where instead of taking the fight above sea in one level, another instead goes deep underwater, having you thread your ship through submerged ruins.

That holographic dragon is big, but trust me when I say this level's boss is even bigger!

On the subject of those previously mentioned side missions, these come in the form of miniature tasks to perform mid-level. For Axel the Axolotl, those Slippy Toad influences come back hard, as you need to defeat a bogey on her tail. For Blaze, it's defeating a specific group of enemies in a section of level. Lastly, for the Falco-inspired member of the squadron, Kiro, you need to follow him through three green, glowing rings. 

An example of some ace flying required to get in Kiro's favor.

Completing these impromptu side missions gives a twofold reward. For one, Robin's relationship with that squadmate grows, resulting in new dialogue scenes in between levels, as well as stronger Overdrives. Overdrives slow down time when used, allowing Robin to take out groups of enemies and especially blast bosses with greater ease. They're best saved for trying times, as they eventually can restore Robin's ship's health and weapon energy immediately.

Ideally, I'm sure the developers wanted players to be forced to return to levels multiple times, as they perhaps bashed their heads against them, making more and more progress with each run. Unfortunately, at least in my case, this simply wasn't how the game happened. Generally--and this is said without meaning to brag--I was able to clear each level in my first run, even reaching the high score target to unlock a ship skin for each given level. There were only one or two levels that saw me needing to return to them to either attempt to survive them or to try to obtain a high score that narrowly escaped me the first time. 

Scripted sequences like these really raise the adrenaline level.

By the end of my three hours with the game, I had pretty much maxed out everything there was to do in FUR Squadron Phoenix. I rolled credits, I had all ship upgrades, I unlocked all ship skins (even the one for finding and firing at a treasure chest containing a Phoenix Badge in each level), I had Robin in great esteem with all squadmates, and obtained most of the achievements to be found in the game, too. That isn't to say there's no reason to return to this game or that everyone will blast through it as fast as I did. That's also just the nature of an on-rails game like FUR Squadron Phoenix is, too.

FUR Squadron Phoenix runs well on Steam Deck, which is where I played the game. Not a lick of slowdown or frame-rate issues seemed to present themselves, and everything played smoothly overall. While the game lacks a full-blown Nintendo Switch 2 release, those who play FUR Squadron Phoenix on the hardware through the Switch 1 release does have performance options available, allowing users to increase the frame-rate, if desired, for an even smoother flying experience. 

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.

[SPC Says: B-] 

A review copy was provided by Raptor Claw.