Niche Gamer
HomepageNiche Gamer's Reviews
Super Mario Party Jamboree is the best entry in the franchise yet and I recommend you pick it up this holiday. Even those who may not like the previous Mario Parties can enjoy different aspects of this game.
The pacing is drawn out and intended to be contemplative, nostalgic, and relaxing. Gathering stuff most of the time and bouts of intense break-neck racing do not always make the best experience and will turn off a lot of players. It is worth sticking with it and bearing with the grind because the story is genuinely interesting and the trolly races are fun.
The Smurfs: Dreams is surprisingly fun and beautiful-looking. This is the best outcome for an IP that is traditionally used as shovelware fodder. It is disappointing that the core gameplay is overly safe and derivative, but the young target audience won’t know that. The lack of effort for the narrative and characters makes it hard for anyone to care about The Smurfs as a concept, but the trade-off is imaginative and wild levels.
So if you are looking for a different kind of Souls-like experience then it is worth picking up Enotria: The Last Song. If you are just looking for a new action-adventure game to check out then you might want to consider something else. Maybe once the game is released on the Xbox Series X, it will be more stable.
Ultimately, Rogue Flight is a love letter to retro anime and manages to impress with its story and voice work. The combat is a bit too hectic to be considered strategic, but conversely that makes it an easier game to pick up.
The novel premise is executed as well as it possibly could have been. The imagery is haunting, the flavor text is creepy and Home Safety Hotline will make you chuckle when you least expect it.
While the story itself is nothing special, the action is rousing, and the cycle of running through the cave is stimulating. Getting the sexy outfits is the real journey of the game and will take gamers well over 20 hours to earn, which is a huge value for ten dollars.
There’s a good chance you’ll be able to enjoy Foresight‘s gameplay and story content like you would any other dungeon-crawling RPG, unless you are a die-hard Touhou Project fan who expects a very specific thing from the Genso Wanderer series.
If the entry price barrier is dropped, I think there’s some hope that this game will survive and grow. It’s just hard to gauge how well a VR game will catch on, but this one is worth checking out if you have a VR headset – just maybe wait to see if they drop the barrier of entry.
Ys X: Nordics simplifies and streamlines aspects of its gameplay compared to some of the recent entries, but it more than makes up for it with its fun and epic scale, and flashy spectacle. Adol may be along for the ride in Karja’s story, but her story is compelling and any RPG with fishing in it is always an RPG worth playing.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is an utterly enthralling breath of fresh air for the Zelda franchise. Straying away from swordplay and quadrupling down on puzzles, magic, and monster summons is exactly what these games needed after decades of Link’s games adhering to a strict template.
Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 manages to be a worthy alternative that honors the original while also adding enough content to make it justify its price. It’s an epic survival-horror game that’s jam-packed with content and scenarios that will keep players on the edge of their seats and impress with its masterful art direction.
Rogue Waters is a solid title for those who like the weirdly common overlap that pirates and the supernatural have, and will definitely please those who enjoy a good Firaxis-adjacent turn-based combat system.
Ultimately, Dustborn is an amazing tech demo. Red Thread Games could do amazing things if they took the mechanics of the game and applied it to something… ANYTHING else.
Overall, Funko Fusion looks, plays, and runs like an Unreal Engine fan project, while simultaneously having no charm of its own or any real art style aside from the game’s characters being Funko vinyls. The game’s attempts to replicate more popular things fall flat and don’t feel in sync with any of its source materials, as it fails to deliver anything interesting.
If you have a hankering for some mystery-solving with a strange and fun cast of characters, cheeky puzzles, and light fan service, then Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus will deliver on all fronts. It looks better than ever and has less downtime while exploring Kanai Ward’s soaked and dank streets.
DeathSprint 66 is a fun action-packed racer whose only flaws are a lack of an online community and a themed story mode. The game does have some latency issues which cause some untimely deaths that can seem like bugs. The game does require a minimum of 10 GB of RAM which can be a lot for older computers.
The game does its best to stretch its playtime by having you half-explore places before being able to come back with the correct gadget and access one or two extra rooms, which would be enjoyable if its puzzles and gameplay weren’t simple to a fault, instead creating an overall forgettable experience.
Shogun Showdown is a challenging game and a hard game to put down. The tactical scenarios during every run are enthralling since even with a less-than-desirable hand of cards, it is possible to overcome with cunning. It’s a deceptively simple game with crude pixel art at first glance that becomes a black hole that pulls you in with its alluring strategy.
Playing The Meating on a modern console strips it away from its only novelty. This is strictly for fans of Crazy Castle who wished the protagonist could jump and do other things. Everyone else will be bored to tears.