I love Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. The game feels like a cult classic from the PS2 era. The exciting mixture of tower defense and hack'n'slash is a hell of a lot of fun and gets better and better as the game progresses. At times, the combat becomes too chaotic. Graphically, the game makes a solid, if unspectacular, impression. In a world full of huge, highly polished and generic AAA games, “Kunitsu-Gami” feels like a breath of fresh air from a simpler gaming past. I want to see more small, experimental and crazy games like this from big publishers.
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The concept of “Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition” is simple and ingenious. The little speedrun challenges are nerve-wracking and addictive — both in single player and in local multiplayer or online mode. Overall, I would have liked a few more NES classics and more game modes. But for the relatively low price of the game, you still get an extremely entertaining retro package that lets you experience NES classics in a completely new way.
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Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is a fun game that particularly impresses with its extensive adventure mode. The majority of the 200 levels are challenging and creatively designed. In some levels, the game suffers from frustrating controls, an annoying camera and performance problems. However, I can almost entirely avoid these frustrating moments with numerous help functions and cheats. The competitive mini-games are disappointing, though. They struggle with frame rate stutters in both offline and online multiplayer. For the budget price, however, you still get a decent package with plenty of replay value.
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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a classic Mario role-playing game that every fan of the chubby plumber should play. If you've already played the original, it's worth taking another trip into this paper world thanks to the completely revamped graphics and soundtrack. The simplified role-playing mechanics and the interactivity of the turn-based battles make the game accessible even to beginners and players who don't usually like RPGs. The numerous environments impress with their quirky humor, excellently written characters and a beautiful paper look. What I didn't like were the annoying backtracking passages and some tedious mechanics. They unnecessarily slow down the pace as the game progresses.
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Apart from the poor story mode, Endless Ocean Luminous is a lot of fun for the first few hours of play. I am constantly rewarded with beautiful underwater worlds and exciting facts about various animal species. The game feels like a playable virtual aquarium. The more I discover of the underwater world, the more tedious the experience becomes. The gameplay loop of Endless Ocean Luminous reveals itself to be simple and superficial, the rewards trivial and unsatisfying. The initial intrinsic motivation to learn more about the animal species of the Veiled Sea gives way to a purely extrinsically driven appeal that revolves solely around increasing levels and scores. Even the largely well-done online mode doesn't help much. It's a shame, because the game's fundamentals show a lot of potential.
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Stellar Blade is a brilliant PS5 exclusive with tons of over-the-top action. It mixes numerous elements from other games and genres to create a unique work of art. The aesthetics of the sci-fi world and the oversexualized protagonist are contrasted with ultra-ugly and superbly designed enemies. The dreamlike soundtrack perfectly underlines the melancholy atmosphere of the desolate sci-fi world. Graphically, the game looks excellent with a few exceptions and is one of the prettier games on the PS5. The combat system is fast, fluid and intuitive. Aside from the spectacularly orchestrated battles, there is plenty to discover with excursions into other genres. The frustrating platformer passages, the moderately exciting side quests and the largely empty open game areas tarnish the otherwise fantastic overall impression a little.
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"Children of the Sun" is a clever puzzle shooter with unique game mechanics. Controlling the bullets you fire is a lot of fun. Scoring headshots is bloody and satisfying. I'm motivated to find the perfect path through the levels, even though some of the larger game environments can feel exhausting. The audiovisual presentation delivers a surreal and disturbing atmosphere. Despite the low purchase price, the game is a little too short at just around three hours of playtime.
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Pepper Grinder is a beautiful game that surprises me with new and crazy ideas every couple of seconds. Moving around with the giant drill is fast, challenging, and satisfying. The intuitive level design guides me through the game with subtle hints and teaches me new gameplay mechanics without much explanation. The only thing that drags down the extremely fast pace of the game are the boss battles, which are a little too long. After around four hours of drilling and jumping, I saw the end credits of the game. If I wanted to collect all the remaining items and unlock everything, I would add a few more hours. Despite the short playing time, I recommend the game to all fans of challenging platformers. It's a perfect gaming snack for a rainy weekend.
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Rise of the Rōnin is a fascinating game. It makes up for its lack of polish with a considerable amount of charm. And this charm makes me like the game more than many other polished but soulless AAA games. Yes, the graphics are dated, the mission design is repetitive and the enemies are dumb as dirt. But the combat system and traveling through the open world are so much fun that these criticisms pale into insignificance. When I switch off my brain and enjoy the excellent action, time flies by with the game. Rise of the Rōnin may not be flawless, but it offers a damn fun and captivating gaming experience that no fan of samurai and Japan should miss out on.
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Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a worthwhile remake of a GBA classic. For the price, however, I would have expected more additional content or a more impressive visual presentation. Regardless of the price, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a fun and addictive puzzle game. In the later levels, the game suffers from its imprecise controls and strange collision detection. At least these shortcomings can be counteracted with the new casual and co-op modes. I'm definitely hooked and hope that Nintendo will continue the series with a "real" sequel after the remake.
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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is not a bad game, it's just ... boring. The solid shooter gameplay mechanics quickly turn into a monotonous slog. This is mainly due to the uninteresting missions, boring upgrades and the lack of gameplay variation between the characters. The monotonous shooting is more fun with real team members. However, if you prefer to play the game alone, the online constraints are annoying. The promised new content sounds good in theory. But unless the new characters and locations fundamentally change the game mechanics, I won't be returning to Metropolis any time soon.
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Infinite Wealth is a chaotic masterpiece. The game celebrates its silliness and just lets me have fun in its colorful open world. The revised combat system offers additional strategic depth and a highly entertaining, over the top presentation. The side activities are the best in the series. The addicting "Sujimon" and "Dondoko Island" mini-games in particular allow you to completely lose yourself and invest countless hours in them. Despite its silliness, Infinite Wealth manages to establish believable characters and evoke deep emotions. Kiryu's touching story in particular will bring tears to the eyes of long-time fans. Newcomers will quickly be overwhelmed by the countless characters, storylines and gameplay mechanics. If you want to get into the Like a Dragon series, I recommend you start with an older installment and save this wild work of art as the crowning conclusion.
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Another Code: Recollection is a comprehensive remake of two forgotten adventure gems. The reinterpretation of the original material adds substantial new features, but cannot quite capture the magic of the original games. This is partly due to the puzzles, which have completely been reworked, and the lacklustre audiovisual presentation. Despite the points of criticism, I had a lot of fun with the games during my fifteen or so hours of play. I love the melancholy world of Another Code I'm and am glad that this series has been given a second chance.
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The PS5 upgrade of Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic PS4 drama "The Last of Us Part II" scores with exciting additional content. Graphically, not much has changed.
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