Star Wars: Episode One: Jedi Power Battles Remastered could have been a charming beat’em up and fixed the list of issues that plagued it several years ago. However, with no real changes to gameplay, visuals, or its structure, Jedi Power Battles is the same bad Star Wars game it was 25 years ago. While co-op can alleviate some of the tedium and frustration in the controls, platforming, and combat, there are simply better games out there that also provide a better playing experience.
Despite an exciting trailer, Scar-lead Salvation is a huge miss for Compile Heart, despite a good premise. You are touring the same boring levels, enemies, and the few guns and passives you pick up don't shake up the repetitive nature of what Scar-lead Salvation is. While the breakable armor could have been an outlet for some impressive fan service, much in the same way it helped Steller Blade, here, it is such a miss that it is laughable.
Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League is a co-op game that feels stretched out to accommodate the live service model. The Arkham games meant a great deal to its fan base, but Suicide Squad clearly shows that even the best marksman can miss their shot.
Roxy Racoon’s Pinball Panic is certainly aimed at a younger audience, but nearly everything it does pushes against that intent. Its menus are obtuse and incoherent on what you are actually selecting, and the story mode has significant difficulty spikes in the score you are meant to achieve.
Xuan Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament is unfortunately a very poor experience, regardless of having the fundamentals of what should be a good game. From horrible presentation to constant mini-map glitches, there is almost nothing to like here. Combat is bland, environments are incredibly lacking, and the voicing acting and direction of this game is atrocious. Xuan Yuan is meant to be a treasured series in China, but nothing here is convincing me of it. Xuan Yuan Sword 7 was a very impressive game, but The Gate of Firmament is simply awful.
Lost Records is certainly enjoyable depending on whether you get the true ending or not. Its resolution is brief but wonderful, and despite a poorly executed second chapter that led to it, it’s a package of two episodes that waver greatly in their quality. Bloom did a great job at building the bonds between the girls, but Rage fumbles so much of its potential to get to its ending.
Shadows of the Orient should be right up my alley. Pixel platformers are often joyous and engaging, but here, the game felt like it was fighting me at every step. Had the dash been available from the start with a better way to climb up when you are right at a ledge, then Shadows of the Orient would be downright impressive, instead of another platformer I’ll forget about by next week.
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos is a complete miss. It feels like a glorified DLC pack for a previous game that never approaches anything deserving of its own release. The story and presentation feel like the first draft of what could have been special, and the driving itself is lackluster and boring. A proper racing game along the lines of Mario Kart could have been impressive, especially considering the roster of console waifus throughout the series. Instead, it is a creature collecting driving games that is extremely disappointing and barely worth your time.
South Park: Snow Day, likes its use of COVID here feels out of date across the board. The simplistic visuals feels several generations behind, and its shallow gameplay cannot be saved by a card system that shows some true promise. As a lifelong South Park fan, I know the series can produce strong and compelling video games because we have seen it done twice before.
Neptunia: Sisters vs Sisters was the first title in the series to really disappoint me, and yet Game Maker R:Evolution hands down disappoints me further, making me question if this series is even for me anymore. Its combat and level design are barebones and empty of anything remotely engaging. While the visual novel charm of its writing and characters are as good as they have always been, it's not a strong enough outing for the game's flaws to not be front and center.
Shadows of the Damned was a fairly mediocre release back in 2011 and a proper remaster or even a remake to change a few design choices that were forced upon the creators, could have really made this something special or at least improved elements of the game that needed it. Instead, this “Hella Remastered” release is nothing more than an up-res’d port with a few costumes and a newgame+ mode. The Adaptive Triggers and Gyro Aiming on the PS5/Switch might be able to entice some players to jump in, as well as the cheaper buy-in price of $24.99, but this is still nothing more than a straight port of a 13-year-old game that wasn’t that great to begin with.
Wrath of the Mutants as TMNT brawlers are rarely bad, but while this expanded port is by no means bad, it’s a pretty remarkable disappointment in that it offers more than what was present in the original and yet feels lesser in many ways.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is an extremely lacking Nintendo debut for the titular Princess Zelda. While the experimentation is often engaging, the menu system to explore that creativity is an utter annoyance. That said, you’ll often use the same tools over and over again to get the results you want due to them working well enough that newly discovered items will either cost more to summon or lack the flow you already have working for you. Monster AI is awful when it comes to using them in battle, and Zelda’s inability to even fight or defend herself with the Tri-rod is disappointing, especially since she has to rely on an unsurprising ally to engage in combat. Echoes of Wisdom can be charming and look the part, but it’s evidently clear that Miyamoto wasn’t evolved as it lacks that typical Zelda magic.
The controls, camera, and audio, are painfully executed here and create moments of frustration that could have been addressed, especially the audio. Honestly, I probably heard the Wilhelm scream at least a hundred times each level. The presentation of the story, and the story itself is fine for what it is, but so much of that fades from your view the moment many of the game’s issues present themselves. Bounty Hunter is a game that should have benefitted from the same remake sensibilities of others around that era that are recently being reintroduced to a modern audience, instead of showing new players just how clunky games of that era used to be.
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster will certainly find its audience, but I'm unsure the dated design will cause new players to have the same appreciation for it that its established fan base already has. It's a shame Nightdive Studios didn't offer the same remake treatment of the original, considering how great the previous game’s remake played and the wealth of visual upgrades that greatly helped its trek into modern gaming. While System Shock 2 is certainly not for me, I can still respect what it did many years ago, even if it hasn’t aged particularly well.
What Dead Mage has crafted here has incredible promise, but the full release at launch feels half-baked and designed around being a single-player experience that just happens to allow for co-op, without the instance loot and balance to pull it off. You can easily have a solid few hours of fun here, but I don’t see many players seeing it through to become the titular Wizard of Legend.
Hot Rod Mayhem joins a genre that is packed full of some of the best games ever made. Sadly, it brings nothing to make it stand out or add to the genre, making it very forgettable. While its courses are pretty enjoyable, with several ways to engage with them, this is nonetheless a title that will remain in the rearview of a stacked collection of gaming greats.
I went into Another Crab’s Treasure expecting it to be a solid adventure. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t into what the game offered after a few hours, leaving me with a world I didn’t want to explore, and one that felt like a chore to even navigate. While it has some decent accessibility options, and even a gun to one-shot anything in the game, the standard approach here is nonetheless pretty challenging, especially given its aesthetic.
Slitterhead’s issues run pretty deep as it’s a repetitive experience that doesn’t really play around in its horror aspects nearly as much as it should. Slitterheads run from you as opposed to the player being stalked or hunted. The game shows its hand very early and never changes up its combat, exploration, or mission design. There are genuinely maybe four unique missions here that then get repeated countless times in favor of a time travel story of “how do we fix it this time” that doesn’t pay off. There are interesting ideas here that could translate to a more improved sequel, but nothing here indicates that this game will do well enough to even warrant one.
Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a product of its time, and Purple Lamp has done a fine enough job at rebuilding its world and tending to maintain what it was, even if I truly feel it needed some more work to make it fun for today’s standards. Despite my issues with the core game still being a bit too outdated, this is easily the best version of the game as it is considerably better looking and has a far better framerate. It doesn’t bring anything new to the genre that you haven’t seen before, and despite the Paint and Thinner mechanics knocking at that door, they are far too basic to really be revolutionary or inventive, even for the time. Epic Mickey was a fine enough game 14 years ago, but now, it’s an outdated relic that is the definition of paint by number.