Feed aggregator

YouTube Shorts adds Veo 3 AI video tool for instant 8-second video generation.

Forget prevention, containment is key to protecting OT systems

On the surface, Bandai Namco’s roguelite game Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree may look like a mystical take on the classic roguelite formula emerging in the wake of Hades’ huge success. And, with Hades 2’s arrival looming, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree could easily go unnoticed, but it absolutely shouldn’t; there’s a lot to like in this dual-character adventure.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release date: September 19, 2025

You play as Towa, the child of a god and the eternal guardian of Shinju village in a far-off mystical land. The forces of evil Magatsu are on the rise, and thus eight allies from Towa’s village and beyond joined forces to help her defeat the evil and purify the land.

From its lucious, sprawling levels to its dynamic characters and enemies, it ticks a lot of boxes at first glance, but what stands out among an increasingly crowded genre is its teamfighting mechanic. Two guardians from your party at a time will take on the roles of Tsuguri, the main damage dealer, and Kagura, the spell caster, with a great variety of combinations and playstyles to tinker with.

Just as enjoyable as playing these combinations is learning about the relationships between those characters, and seeing how they progress during short rests along the way. Throughout the game, tender moments and the passage of time tinge the vibrant world with an air of wistfulness; it’s very welcome, though there are often moments of extensive dialogue that can interrupt the pace of grinding through runs.

It’s awkward in places, yes, and sometimes the control system for the Kagura feels like an afterthought, but I’ve found it hard to put down – and a welcome excuse to play on my Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode.

Stark beginnings

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Your journey begins with a short tutorial level, in which you play with Rekka as Tsuguri with Towa as Kaguri to learn the ropes. You primarily control the Tsuguri, switching between two swords with different movesets as their durability decreases and amping up the combinations by dashing, slashing, and landing Fatal Blows when your mana maxes out.

The Kagura trails behind and can trigger two spells to support your main damage dealer. Each character has two elemental attributes (water, fire, fighting, earth, lightning), and you can unlock different spells ranging from AoE to automatic projectiles. You can also control this character, but with a console controller that involves using the right trigger along with the left while also trying to land hits, so it’s only really something you’ll want to do in a pinch or for specific combos.

Worth noting is that there is an optional co-op mode where a second player can control the Kagura; however, the tether still applies, and it’s really quite a limited play experience. It would have been cool if they could have somehow transferred the weapon switching ability or Fatal Blow to the Kagura, so there’s a bit more to do.

With the tutorial out of the way, you learn that Towa’s godly gifts allow her to mess with the flow of time to revive companions, but at a terrible cost. When Magatsu pushes back against Towa, her allies are whisked off into some sort of purgatory where they must endlessly fight against Magatsu’s forces. Meanwhile, Shinju village continues to evolve and grow, and Towa, severed from her companions, must instruct their movements from across dimensions while continuing to protect the townsfolk.

(Image credit: Future)

Certainly, in the early levels, there’s a learning curve to lugging around your Kagura and learning which guardians pair best with each other’s movesets. For example, I quickly learned that some guardians like Koro and Akazu didn’t really gel with me as Tsuguris, but both made excellent Kaguras to my favorite frontliners like Nishiki, the buff koi man, and Bampuku, the giant furball puppy.

Once you’ve started to get the hang of the controls, it’s great fun, although it took me a while to get past the annoyance of the tethered Kagura constantly taking huge hits from powerful enemies. Weapon switching on top of all of the other attacks in the game is perhaps one thing too many for my brain to handle when I’m not totally locked in, and I often found myself letting my weapons durability drain completely and just button-mashing through weaker enemies – however it feels great when you make the effort and execute a killer combo.

That’s only the start of the fun; there’s a lot of configurability and some really fun pairups, and as the game progresses these only amplify in ridiculousness, landing combos in the hundreds as you mash through waves of enemies. You can switch out your weapons, customize buffs, increase skill stats and choose different spells for each of your eight guardians, but the game keeps this relatively high level of customization balanced by sharing unlocked content across all characters.

Those who we protect

(Image credit: Future)

While most of the action in the early game takes place with the banished guardians in another dimension, the village serves as the main hub between runs. As Towa, you use this area to level up your party and loadout, but also to check in with the townspeople and keep their spirits high.

There are various shopfronts and tradespeople around the village; you can exchange ores and resources from your travels at the emporium with the grumpy stooge Kafuu, or head to the Eureka Tower to purchase and equip inscriptions for the Kagura staff to boost your champion’s base stats. At the Dojo, you unlock skill points to tweak each champion’s abilities, while the shrine offers boons that effect the odds and effects during each run. As the game progresses, the village grows with more tradespeople, and you can upgrade buildings for more perks

There’s even a fun blacksmithing minigame, in which you select a sword design, build materials and buffs and can bolster these further by scoring highly in each stage of smithing. It’s very Cooking Mama-esque, but instead the feedback comes from a burly blacksmith who barks encouragement at you.

Best bit

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Relatively early in the game, you encounter one of my favorite minibosses: a giant octopus with whopping great big tentacles that’ll slam on you as you dash around the deck. Oh, and there are live explosives, for some reason, and the octopus head will gnash down onto you if you’re too slow. Beautiful chaos, wonderfully rendered.

This, and a slightly rootless fishing game that earns you points redeemable with the bird-like Kei shopkeeper, are the main interactive features that give the hub an almost cozy game-esque softness, but it’s the cast of lively NPCs and shopkeepers who breathe life and love into the village.

Through their loving (and sometimes love-hate) relationships with Towa, the guardian that has protected them for generations, you gain a sense of the stakes for the main characters; there’s a lot to lose and a lot to protect in their hometown, and they’ll go to any and all ends to do it.

Any and all ends, in this case, might just involve self-sacrifice, as the guardians learn that each time they defeat a powerful Magatsu-hi, the bosses at the end of each run, the Kagura in that pair must sacrifice themselves to restore Towa’s mana and protect the village. None of them know what that might mean, or whether they will escape purgatory through their sacrifice, but each commits to the cause.

Each time a Towa absorbs the mana generated back in the village following a successful run, time moves forward, and the village can develop once more. New faces appear, and familiar friends fade; the passage of time is treated with an air of melancholy that undercuts the otherwise vivacious aesthetics of the game, and it makes for an excellent hook.

The rocky road to Magatsu

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Practically speaking, the party sacrifice mechanic has a big impact; once their mana is absorbed, the Kagura won’t appear in camp, so you have to think long and hard about which pairings you want to save and which are good enough to run with but not too good to lose. Later in the game, this is further augmented; the fun is in adapting to this yourself, so look elsewhere if you want spoilers.

The core mechanics of each run are pretty similar to the likes of Hades: fight a room full of enemies, grab your reward, and then choose between different gates that hint at the next room’s rewards. Each run is split into different terrains with their unique enemies, traps, and layouts, and generally, each terrain will contain seven rooms, including mini-boss fights to offer a little more challenge along the way.

The waves of enemies are great fun throughout the game, with some inventive designs and a lot of variety across the board. I particularly liked the flamethrowing giant eyeballs and the kamikaze snails; there’s plenty here to keep you on your toes. Combat is rewarding and varied enough, and though farming can be somewhat of a slog, the scaling is decent, and there’s always a good amount to do.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 3

(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 3

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Most often, you’ll be choosing between Graces as your reward for a battle well fought - collecting and upgrading these will boost stats and unlock abilities for the course of the run. These are cards from different elemental decks offering different effects that can make or break your matchup, so learning how to optimize these helps blast through the baddies.

Otherwise, some gates at the end of levels lead on to resources, or else timed battles and other challenging mini-bosses with decent payouts. However, you’ll also encounter friendly faces of the shopkeeper and food stall, too, where you can spend the in-level magamutsu currency for ores and Graces or to receive buffs for the next few levels. Hot springs can also be found along the way for health regeneration, and there are usually two campsites along the way where your heroes can take a slightly longer rest.

In these quiet moments, each pairing has different conversations and relationships that unfold over a series of short rests. Tender moments of openness, the resurfacing of long-buried hatchets, and even philosophical debate weave a wonderful picture of the main cast, and I found myself becoming attached to each party member through listening to their interactions – even those I initially couldn’t relate to, like the impetuous Shigin and carefree Origami.

Plus, the more you play a pairing, the further you’ll see their conversations develop. I particularly enjoyed the brother-sister duo of Bampuku and Mutsumi, whose misunderstanding of each other’s love language causes some unrest that gradually eases through conversations over the campfire, but even more obscure pairings like the Academic Akazu and devout Nishiki bear unexpectedly heartwarming fruit.

A home worth fighting for

(Image credit: Future)

These moments of reflection, however, do feel at odds with the game, and that’s a running thread throughout my whole experience with Towa. Roguelite as a genre doesn’t just imply fast pace; it demands it, and I don’t always want my focus to be pulled out of high-octane combat to listen to idle chitchat.

You’re rewarded for listening, not just with resources, but with depth and worldbuilding, much the same as the progressive interactions that crop up in the village as your journey continues. Of course, you can choose to avoid these or just fast-track through the dialogue, but I find it hard to skip through because it’s so charming – and that’s not a problem I often have with games! It’s obvious a lot of care went into the richness of the narrative, so I find myself at an impasse when it comes to maintaining the energy to play sometimes.

The game does compensate for this with progressive feature unlocks and twists, but ultimately, I did find myself needing to break from the game a little more than usual because I kept losing my flow. However, I couldn’t put it down for long.

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree envelops you in its rich world, abloom with color and light as well as the gorgeous OST from Hitoshi Sakimoto of FFXII and Final Fantasy Tactics fame, and its grip is as strong as the poisonous tendrils of Magutsu’s miasma. You have to work around its quirks and give it a little room to breathe, but patience is rewarded for those who play with their heart.

Should I play Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree?Play it if…

You want to try something that breaks the mold

With its unique dual-character matchups, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is an inventive take on the genre that makes for a challenging but fun balancing act.

You enjoy story-led roguelites

The narrative takes precedence in a way that might be slightly jarring to those who like the fast-paced action of rogue games, but it's delightful if you do enjoy a good story.

Don’t play it if…

You struggle with button blindness

There are a lot of mechanics to consider and a lot of different controls, and that's not for everyone. I found independently controlling the Kagura challenging, personally, and weapon switching often slipped my mind.

Accessibility

Within the settings, you can change the difficulty to story-led mode, which weakens the enemies and allows you to focus more on the storyline. All dialogue has voiceovers with lively acting as well as subtitles, and there are nine supported languages - English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean.

How I reviewed Towa and the Guardians of the Scared Tree

I played Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree for 30+ hours, making my way through most of the main storyline. I tried both story-led and regular difficulty levels to measure accessibility for players at different skill levels, and played in both handheld and docked modes on my Nintendo Switch 2.

I love roguelikes and roguelites, so I compared my experience to popular titles like Hades, The Binding of Isaac, and Dead Cells. I considered factors like the art direction, pacing, and complexity within the pairings.

First reviewed September 2025

Looking for Quordle clues? We can help. Plus get the answers to Quordle today and past solutions.

Looking for NYT Connections answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, plus my commentary on the puzzles.

Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

The world of Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is packed full of heart, staking its claim in the roguelite genre with a unique dual-character mechanic. Here's our full review.

Intel to design custom x86 CPUs for Nvidia as $5 billion investment boosts struggling chipmaker.

ChatGPT-5 Thinking now has a new thinking-time toggle that Plus and Pro users can activate to reduce waiting time.

Unsurprisingly, Scattered Spider returned.

How ChatGPT Projects on the free tier means anyone can now use it to organize personal hobbies.

Not looking your best? Zoom’s AI avatars will cover your imperfections, so you really don’t have any excuse.

The company's first ever reasoning video model can handle more complex action sequences.

Those lingering shots of abs and pecs? Hallmark would never.

Your home security camera and doorbell videos have protections, but police can seize them under these conditions.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a racing game that has finally given Nintendo’s Mario Kart franchise a run for its money. While I certainly enjoyed Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2, the rather empty open world and questionable approach to track design left me wanting more.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release date: September 25, 2025 (Early Access on September 22)

Sonic Team’s Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds feels like a direct shot across the bow, squarely aimed at the good ship Nintendo. Full cross-platform play is supported, and a dizzying amount of modes and content at launch have kept me busy long after clearing every Grand Prix event.

What impresses me the most about CrossWorlds is that it isn’t content to simply be a great kart racer; it innovates, too. The titular CrossWorlds mechanic is brilliant, lending unpredictability to every race by transporting players to a completely different track for the second lap. Meanwhile, the superb gadget system offers countless ways to tweak how your vehicle behaves.

In today’s day and age, the game offers an incredible day one package stuffed to the gills with things to do; not to mention a boatload of items to unlock from vehicle parts and music tracks to higher speed classes and even the odd alternate character skin. CrossWorlds does, of course, have a comprehensive downloadable content (DLC) roadmap, but what’s here from the get-go is already very impressive.

Speed of sound

(Image credit: Sega / Bandai Namco)

There’s no dedicated story mode in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which is probably for the best given the interminably dull one that was featured in 2019’s Team Sonic Racing. Instead, developer Sonic Team has focused its efforts on more worthwhile aspects. The game boasts 24 race courses and a further 15 accessible via Travel Rings, for a grand total of 39 tracks.

It also has an impressively large character roster that has most of what you’d probably want from a kart racer. The usual suspects are all here, but I’m also happy to see less-represented characters like Blaze, Silver, Jet, Wave, and Storm all make the cut, too. Some deeper cuts would’ve been nice to see, like those from the beloved IDW Comics series, but what’s at launch in terms of roster is incredibly solid.

Grand Prix is your main single-player mode, featuring eight cups (with even more to come via future DLC) of four races each. The final race here is a bit of a cop-out, simply being a lap of each of the cup’s main three courses. But track variety remains impressive. You’ll find plenty of circuits inspired by beloved Sonic locales - such as Sonic Adventure 2’s Metal Harbor and Radical Highway, Sonic Unleashed’s Apotos, and Sonic Frontiers’ Kronos Island.

Courses unique to Travel Rings also impress, and these are a bit more gimmick-focused. Magma Planet is largely flight-based, having you gliding through perilous sections filled with giant lava worms. Holoska is an icy world where your vehicle will transform into a boat to speed through waterlogged caves. Meanwhile, Steampunk City offers plenty of routes through its winding industrial highrises.

Oh yes, I should also mention that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed‘s signature gameplay mechanic returns here. Tracks in CrossWorlds are cleverly designed around land, water, and air travel. Most tracks will also change up significantly on the final lap, opening up new routes for your transforming vehicle to take advantage of, while also sprinkling in new hazards and a few extra boost pads for good measure.

Grab those golden rings, those things’ll make your engine sing

(Image credit: Sega)

Track design - not to mention the amount on offer - is a big win in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. But that’d all fall apart if the racing itself wasn’t any good.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has some of the most fun, polished, and fast-feeling racing I’ve ever played in a racer of its kind. Drifting is especially fantastic and has a bit of a Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled feel to it, in that max-level drifts give you significantly more speed. And snaking - the act of chaining together smaller drifts in a straight line for consistently high speed - is absolutely something you can do here. So you can be sure there’ll be a pretty lofty skill ceiling when you hop online.

Vehicles are governed by five stats: speed, acceleration, handling, power, and boost. Your choice of character has an effect on overall stats, while also having a primary specialty in one of those five categories.

I’ve found that pretty much any approach is viable here; having an acceleration-based character like Tails on a boost-focused Extreme Gear board can help you stay swift and recover quickly when hit by items. Meanwhile, a heavy like Zavok or Eggman brings power to throw their weight around and hit hard with items, but slotting them in a handling-oriented machine can offset some of their unwieldiness.

Best bit

(Image credit: Sega)

Finding a singular best part of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a challenge, because the overall package feels so complete. But of course, the meat of the game is its racing, which is impressively fast. Drifting is exceptionally satisfying, and the gadget system provides tons of ways to tweak your playstyle - from giving you stat boosts and items at race start, to fundamentally changing how your vehicle behaves.

During races and time trials, collecting rings scattered around the course will increase your top speed, but you’ll lose some if you collide with walls, other racers, and stage hazards, or when you get hit by items.

Speaking of, items are another area where CrossWorlds has vastly improved over other Sonic Racing titles. There’s a good amount of them, too, from boxing gloves that home in on racers ahead of you, all the way to the hilarious monster truck. Others include defensive items like a tornado that breaks incoming projectiles, sawblades that temporarily cut an opponent’s car in half, and a large magnet that latches onto vehicles, influencing their direction of travel.

To put it simply, races in CrossWorlds can be hilariously chaotic. But very rarely were there instances where I lost a race because of these items. Items are balanced so that catching up to the pack is a breeze. And sure, there’s occasionally an element of Mario Kart-esque luck involved, the odd spot of final stretch shenanigans, but there’s nothing as outwardly powerful as the race-ruining Blue Shell here.

Under the hood

(Image credit: Sega)

Another element that really brings races alive in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is the gadget system, perhaps the game’s biggest innovation. Gadgets offer you a way to tweak your playstyle beyond your vehicle’s stats, and there’s a metric ton of them. You start with a gadget plate with a single slot, but you’ll get a total of six slots unlocked gradually by completing race events.

Gadgets offer a wide range of stat boosts and modifiers during gameplay. There are simple ones, like giving you marginal stat increases, allowing you to carry more rings, or letting you start a race with a specific item.

However, many more interesting gadgets are available. One speeds up the time it takes to perform an air trick, for example, letting you chain more together for a bigger speed boost upon landing. Another causes your car to spin whilst drifting for a more aggressive playstyle, while another still adds a fourth level to your drift gauge.

You can have multiple gadget loadouts, but you’re only able to equip one per race. Furthermore, certain gadgets can’t be used during time trial events, such as one where you start with a boost item.

It’s a rich, deep gameplay system that offers tons in the way of player expression. As well as online, AI opponents appear to also have their own gadget loadouts during races, making things that much more unpredictable during single-player content.

A mountain of unlocks

(Image credit: Sega)

Something that I found extremely impressive with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is just the sheer number of things to unlock. Not only that, but unlockables are spread throughout the various modes of the game, giving you great incentive to check everything out.

In Grand Prix, you can unlock higher speed classes and even a mirror track mode, as well as additional gadgets. Over in Race Park (a collection of race modes and custom race options for single and multiplayer), you can race against special teams and unlock their vehicles upon beating them three times.

In Time Trial, getting an ‘A’ rank on three different tracks (including Travel Ring CrossWorld tracks) unlocks a selection of music from throughout the Sonic series. Expect to unlock songs from Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Mania, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, Sonic Lost World, and more here, for use in the game’s Jukebox mode (more on that soon, actually).

Ancillary unlockables include alternate skins for certain characters, decals for use in machine customization, and titles for your online profile by clearing specific challenges. There really is a dizzying amount of things to unlock that should keep players coming back for hours on end.

Once you’ve got some decals and machine parts under your belt, then you’ll probably want to try your hand at making your very own custom vehicle. And the options available here are certainly plentiful.

Making your own vehicle or Extreme Gear board is a moreish endeavor. You can mix and match the front and rear appearance of the vehicle, apply color schemes, and decals for a more personalized touch. Vehicle paint also comes in a variety of types, including metallic, pearlescent, and candy variants.

A few rough patches

(Image credit: Sega)

I really don’t have much to complain about with the overall package here. The game’s price point is on the steeper side for those used to Sonic games often coming in at less than full retail price. And that’s a bit of a downer, and may make the game a bit of a hard sell in and of itself. You certainly get what you pay for here with a mountain of content, but waiting for a sale isn’t a bad idea, either.

Otherwise, a couple of side modes are pretty underwhelming. You’ll eventually unlock a ‘friendship’ system that lets you spend tokens earned from races on character-specific titles and decals. But there’s no unique dialogue here, and it just feels like a last-minute addition to dump tokens into things to get some fairly inconsequential unlocks.

However, the Jukebox mode is the biggest letdown for me. I do love having loads of Sonic music to unlock and listen to, and these tracks can be assigned to races, which is nice. Unfortunately, you’re unable to set music on a per-track basis. Instead, you’ll assign a playlist to the three laps you’ll race on.

On top of that, the selection is entirely random. So you’ll more often than not end up with something unfitting like Infinite’s theme from Sonic Forces playing over a relatively innocent track like Colorful Mall or Chao Park.

I sincerely hope Sonic Team patches in a way to choose songs for individual courses in the future. CrossWorlds’ own soundtrack is really good, though some songs can be a little overbearing with harsh synths and obnoxious final lap chanting spoiling things a bit. So having a way to swap out songs on a per-track basis would be extremely welcome.

Should I play Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?Play it if...

You’ve had your fill of Mario Kart World
If you’ve grown tired of Mario Kart World’s weary open world, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a stunningly fast alternative with plenty of modes, unlockables, and cross-platform online play.

You want a racing game that'll last you a long time
Post-launch content seems plentiful, but there’s already so much to do at launch that it might make your head spin. Loads of Grand Prix, time trials, and custom Race Park events offer hours upon hours of things to do without even needing to jump online with others.

You like deep customization
Machine customization and gadgets are both incredibly deep and allow you to show off your personality and play style in-game. The simple act of jumping into customization to spin up a whole new ride is extremely enjoyable.View Deal

Don't play it if...

You’re wary of the price tag
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a relatively expensive title for the wider Sonic series, being at full price for the base game and even more for its deluxe edition. I think it’s definitely worth the plunge, but I wouldn’t blame folks for wanting to wait a bit longer for a sale.

Accessibility

There aren’t a ton of accessibility options in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, but what’s here is welcome. The main gameplay options come in the form of a steering assist that prevents you from veering off-course, as well as an auto-accelerate setting and trick assist for if you don’t want to be flicking the stick constantly in midair. An ‘original’ camera setting also exists that reduces the motion offered by the ‘dynamic’ camera mode.

How I reviewed Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

I played Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for around 15 hours for this review. I played the game on PlayStation 5 with a DualSense Wireless Controller, on an LG CX OLED TV.

I completed every Grand Prix cup on Sonic Speed, and some on the higher Super Sonic Speed class, as well as the unlockable mirror mode that inverts circuits. I also spent plenty of time customizing vehicles, unlocking stuff like car parts, music, and decals, too.

First reviewed September 2025

After playing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 at Gamescom this year, I’m quietly hopeful for the long-awaited role-playing game.

Soundpeats H3 promise high-quality audio and advanced hybrid ANC, with a stylish look, for a surprisingly low price

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds isn’t just the best racing game of the year; it brings a confidence and energy that the genre has rarely seen over the past decade and a half. Here's TRG's full review.

CrowdStrike announces $260 million deal to acquire Pangea Cyber, aiming to offer broader protection against growing enterprise AI security threats.