Destiny 2’s The Final Shape is a love letter to its fans, it’s the best of Bungie. A triumphant last hurrah from a 10-year-old franchise that has seemingly owned its past mistakes. It manages to mesh past and present together, telling a powerful story without leaning on unearned nostalgia and ends of an enormous high. Gameplay feels as engaging as ever, with loot worth playing for and fresh challenges that players both inexperienced and venerated will love. While the past and future of Destiny is murky at best, the present is a gift.
Despite The Crush House’s flaws with characterization and storytelling, I can’t deny that I was strongly compelled by its narrative. While parts of the core gameplay feel dissonant from the premise of the game, it rarely spoiled the fun I was having whilst playing. If you’re looking for something a little different this year, you could certainly do a lot worse.
SCHiM is a great concept that was drawn too thin. The beautiful art direction and an understated soundtrack make the game worth playing through at least once. However, the game can get repetitive quickly except for some standout stages, suffering further with a lackluster and simple narrative. This may be worth it for some players but definitely wait for a sale.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is the sequel that fans have been begging for. While the lackluster Multiplayer and occasional dip in performance drag the game down slightly, if this game is even a taste of what future games in the franchise may be then we will all be having a Monkey Ball!
Anger Foot turned a brilliant and engaging game demo into an ok full release. It feels like Free Lives took their winning formula and tacked on mediocre features to pad content. Its level design may stumble a bit early on but the game catches its footing by the latter half of the campaign. Anger Foot has a solid core, making sure to prioritize the key details in both visuals and audio — essential for the type of game this is. It’s just unfortunate how much the lower moments in the game tragically drag the greater parts down.
#BLUD features some of the liveliest animation of any game I’ve played this year, something that should desperately be celebrated. Unfortunately, the game’s fantastic story, art, and sound design are severely marred by the disappointing gameplay that drags the rest of the experience down the whole way.
Despite its very frustrating minor game design decisions, the rest of Hauntii is a genuine marvel. Despite the game’s shortcomings – its artistic direction, dynamic score, and strong but simple narrative create a truly immersive journey that deserves to be experienced by everyone.
While Pepper Grinder is a relatively short game, every second of it is filled to the brim with awe-inspiring action! The attention to detail in every cell of this game makes the game a must-play. It does a service to the platforming genre and I cannot wait to see more, not only from this world but from this developer.