Evan Norris's Reviews
The results speak for themselves: solid shooting, interesting scoring mechanics and level designs, and carefully curated experiences at each difficulty setting.
Even without console ports or the mysterious R-Gear, Ray'z Arcade Chronology is a remarkable collection. It features three entertaining arcade games, including one of Taito's very best, surrounded by a bevy of options, special features, and settings that make those games more accessible and interesting than ever before.
Returning to A Wonderful Life after 19 years is a comforting, warmly nostalgic experience. The colorful characters and climactic moments in Forgotten Valley stand the test of time, even if the mechanics and gameplay possibilities compare unfavorably to modern takes on the farming/life simulation model.
Regardless of whether it’s superior or inferior to its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom is a staggering achievement in video game design and programming, and one of the very best games of the generation.
Unlike a lot of games that pull together pieces from the Souls-like formula and the Metroidvania template, Afterimage manages to give equal weight to each half. Better yet, it mostly delivers on the best parts of both sub-genres.
It never manages to reach the mechanical and stylistic heights of its inspiration, due to its ordinary storytelling, generic art direction, and a predictable gameplay loop, but overall it's a decent RPG with a good amount of content, some likable characters, and an engaging tactical weapons system.
The base game is one of the boldest, prettiest, most audacious arcade games of the era, even if it's eventually undermined by a late-game difficulty spike.
While the games themselves aren't outstanding, the effort to enhance and preserve them certainly is.
If you're a fan of Flashback and the sort, you really can't go wrong with Lunark, even if it's a tad forgiving and far too short. If you're less comfortable with the sub-genre, or want something meatier, consider waiting for a sale.
Dead Cells fans will find a lot of value in the add-on, as will any Castlevania followers willing to tolerate a considerable amount of repetition and randomness.
Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition is an interesting experiment. On one hand, the re-release shines a light on the mediocrity of the original game. On the other hand, it revives a niche title, augments it while retaining its authentic core, and brings it to modern players who might have gone their whole gaming lives without ever encountering it.
While the game's poor sign-posting and insistence on replaying levels inevitably introduces a feeling of tedium, it doesn't undo the good things Demon Purge is able to achieve in mechanics, controls, content, and art.
While the core shooting mechanics and elemental weapons deliver the goods by setting up engaging, open-ended tactical battles, all of the elements that surround that core are lacking in some way.
Thanks to the inclusion of six games, 21 total game variants, quality-of-life upgrades, and bonus features, this feels like the definitive compilation of Wonder Boy titles, unlikely to be dethroned anytime soon.
Delivers that crunchy, stylized arcade action that helped make the Genesis generation so memorable.
A modern RPG classic; a game that would have made a splash on SNES, even surrounded by all-time greats like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger.
River City Girls 2 is a fairly good beat-'em-up title. It's certainly an improvement over River City Girls, although it carries with it some of the original's flaws, including tedious backtracking and repetitive enemy encounters.
By combining bullet hell shoot-'em-up gameplay, Metroidvania-style exploration, and tactical deck building, developer Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team has crafted something original and unique.
This is an extraordinary effort to preserve and cherish Atari's legacy and the history of early electronic game development in general. Despite some clunkers and a few omissions, this collection is required playing for any serious student of video games, or anyone ever moved by the magic of Atari.
It doesn't thoroughly unpack its good ideas, and relies too heavily on repetitive combat scenarios and fetch quests. Still, the game's focus on character swapping and backtracking exploration delivers decent results and the quirky characters of the RWBY franchise go a long way. Ultimately, Arrowfell is neither a good licensed game nor a bad one; it sits squarely in the middle of the pack.