TheGamer's Reviews
Despite its combat and platforming only being serviceable and the overall package needing a bit more polish, Mutants Unleashed still managed to be a turtle surprise because of how much love and understanding it has for the source material. It may not reach the same gameplay heights of Shredder’s Revenge or Splintered Fate, but it has one of the best tales to tell of any TMNT game.
Jackbox Survey Scramble is a solid showing which offers a nice selection of short simple games to slip into your rotation as filler. The codes for the room remain on screen throughout, meaning people can drop in and out of the games for maximum flexibility.
Just like the first game, Shiro and the Coal Town highlights the joy in ordinary tasks like collecting bugs and getting to know your neighbours, but with its stronger cast of characters, array of side quests to complete, and well-developed trolley racing minigame, it has a lot more to offer and is a significant improvement on Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation.
Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven is likely to be your weirdest friend’s favorite RPG. It is a playfully obtuse, mechanically deep outing paired with a story that is almost charming in its simplicity. It feels dated, but it also features a singular vision that sets it apart from other games in the genre. I suspect, at the end of the day, it will carry on the legacy of the Saga franchise and be a divisive title, which is probably a good thing. We need more divisive games.
Cozy Game Pals delivered a sweet experience perfect for those who want an effective short Halloween story and have a place in their hearts for how games used to look a couple of decades ago.
It frustrates me that few of these improvements trickled down into Sonic Generations, but as a whole product, it’s hard to fault a package that gives us a faithful remaster of one of the most beloved Sonic games, and a great Shadow game to boot. I only hope now that Sega trusts itself to look to the future some more, and keeps moving ahead with the new formula that Sonic Frontiers - and now Shadow Generations - promises us.
Even when my time leaping into enemies was interrupted by these technical issues, Unknown 9: Awakening’s excellent cast of characters and inventive soul-hopping combat mechanics kept me invested all the way through its gloriously last-gen adventure. With how depressing this generation has been at times, that is absolutely meant as a compliment.
This is the kind of indie game that I would love to see succeed, and the next steps post-launch, both in terms of ongoing development and community support, will be crucial in determining whether it’s remembered as a Justinian or an Honorius.
But I also hope that it experiments more with its ideas, because the Overlord’s realm and the platforming stagnate pretty early on, never reaching the heights they could. That being said, the game does a brilliant job at making you feel like each character, all while stepping foot into lovingly hand-crafted worlds brought to life with stunning pixel art that perfectly encapsulates what makes these worlds so iconic all these years later.
Super Mario Party Jamboree is a return to form for a series that stumbled as it arrived on the Switch and barely steadied itself with Mario Party Superstars' greatest hits runout. Jamboree brings creative boards and a range of enjoyable minigames to the table, but overcooks the single-player stuff.
Neva is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, from the watercolour art style to the clever direction.
While I’m sure that’s not going to be enough for those who have already played hours of Worms Armageddon or who already own it on PC (which remains the best way to play), for everyone else it’s a nice way to experience the series at its best. Hopefully, above all else, it’s a reminder to Team17 what makes Worms works so well - and it isn't when it's trying to be a battle royale.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a new peak for Atlus. It takes so much of what was great about Persona, refines it, and throws that powder into an exciting fantasy setting with incredible lore, well-developed characters, and a fresh new battle system.
Its smart evolution of Budokai Tenkaichi’s combat, stacked and detailed roster, and near-endless amount of modes and features make it one of the best Dragon Ball games of all time and one that’s going to be nearly impossible to Toppo.
Phoenix Springs deals with the abstract, from its twist on genre mechanics to its narrative, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I’ve tried to find examples to compare it to and come up short. The point-and-click genre may never be the same, and neither will I.
Bloober Team’s version of Silent Hill 2 often feels like a high fidelity version of the original with remixed puzzles and item locations. The combat is reasonably satisfying, the boss encounters have been improved, but what is fundamentally a great horror game is partially undermined by the over-the-top sound design, injection of jump scares, and general lack of restraint.
The original Diablo 4 campaign ended with a promise that the worst was yet to come, and Vessel of Hatred ends the same way. It gives us a better idea of what that eventuality will look like, and raises the stakes in some pretty compelling ways, but some are going to walk away wishing they’d just waited for the full story to come out before diving back in. I’m glad I didn’t wait though, because I think this might be the moment Diablo 4 finally hooks me.
There's just too much to fix to make Funko Fusion worth your time. Even if all the broken issues were fixed, the onslaught of enemies, the confusing puzzles, and zero incentive to help the player will remain. Even after several patches to balance some of these issues, the overall product remains the same, and so will the fundamental issues affecting it.
While they are some of MK1’s strongest characters (in terms of how they play at least), they can’t make me overlook what is otherwise a weak expansion greatly overshadowed by NetherRealm’s last offering.
This instance aside, there are no serious bugs in Apartment Story. I wouldn’t recommend playing if your idea of cinematic games is a highly polished triple-A experience. But if you don’t mind a bit of jank, if you don’t care about bowls clipping through each other in the sink as you wash the dishes, then Apartment Story will spin you a fraught tale in which there’s as much tension in getting a shower as there is with your home invader.