AWAKEN - Astral Blade offers beautiful environments and engaging combat but lacks the polish to compete with genre leaders. For metroidvania enthusiasts seeking a new adventure, it provides satisfactory exploration and combat, despite its narrative and technical shortcomings.
#DRIVE Rally is for those who love to set best times on online leaderboards. The game offers a solid racing experience with a good sense of speed. Outside of time trails, there’s little else in the way of goals and there’s limited customization. The talkative navigators, while an interesting idea, I feel will find themselves muted fast by most players. And those looking for a proper rally experience, be it arcade or otherwise, best look elsewhere.
I personally appreciate being introduced to games I’ve never experienced and found a deeper appreciation for the rich history of SUNSOFT. I’ve really grown fond to Ripple Island in particular. For enjoyment however, it can’t compete with the company’s first cartridge on Evercade.
What Riven did, and still does, is connecting all its puzzle pieces into a coherent world to explore and learn about. Not through someone telling you, but by stumbling about and being forced to learn its frame of reference. And in that regard, Riven is perhaps not the most taxing puzzle game out there, but it is still an amazing experience that will demand your attention to fully comprehend it.
If you’re in for challenging and engaging combat, daring dungeon dives, devious traps and clever puzzles, you’d best look elsewhere. However, if you’re in for a fairly casual exploration of strange lands and get drawn into some interesting lore, Dread Delusion can still deliver a fun experience worth your time!