Joonatan Itkonen's Reviews
Eiyuden Chronicles is the spiritual successor to the Suikoden series, and a heartbreaking farewell to Yoshitaka Murayama, who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. As such, it's a bittersweet experience: one that thrills and excites, only to remind us that we'll never see something like it again.
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With gorgeous visuals that have aged gracefully, a stellar soundtrack, and a solid, perfectly playable experience right on the card, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an easy recommendation. It’s yet another home run from Nintendo and their Switch console.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Endless Ocean Luminous, warts and all. It’s not a game that would be my first recommendation for most, but it is something that I wish everyone gave a chance. There’s a lot to love in any project that has this kind of purity of vision. Even if it’s vision to a fault.
Sand Land is a traditional action-adventure made better by the iconic style and wit of Akira Toriyama. It's also a sorrowful farewell to the maestro who helped revolutionize how the West viewed anime. We're lucky his final outing is this much fun and provides a fitting conclusion to his career.
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Stellar Blade is exactly what it says on the tin. It isn't big, original, or even novel, and the experience turns tedious well before the 20-hour campaign draws to a close. The aggressive fanservice is equally dour and does nothing to hide the lazy shortcuts the narrative takes.
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For under 15 euros, it’s one of the more solid dungeon crawlers out there, and a perfect pick-up-and-play experience for fans of the genre. It’s the kind of indie gem that you can recommend for just about anyone, thanks to a low barrier of entry and a solid difficulty curve that makes repetition a joy.
Mixing Wallace & Gromit with Terry Gilliam, the delightful Harold Halibut has charm and artistry to spare. It's just a shame the gameplay gets in the way of a good thing, and often left me wondering whether this would have been better as an animated special instead.
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Two years after its console debut, Forbidden West arrives on the PC with a respectable and often breathtakingly gorgeous port. The game still struggles with its linear story spread over a massive open world, but Aloy's post-apocalyptic adventure is still a wild and intoxicating vision worth experiencing.
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Played with friends, Operation Galuga delivers exactly what it promises. A frenetic and over-the-top run-and-gun experience that is perfect for couch co-op sessions. In an era of 100 hour epics and online games-as-a-service sludge, Operation Galuga feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s simple, direct, and precisely what we need right now.
Princess Peach: Showtime! is an easy game to recommend. If you’re a fan of platformers, you’ll enjoy it. (Though, let’s face it, you’re not going to grit your teeth with this like you would with Super Meat Boy or something.) If this is your introduction to the genre, you’re in for a treat. It’s a deft balancing act between familiar and innovative that is consistently engaging and, above all, fun.
Put together, and Rise of the Ronin is a happy and welcome surprise in the genre. Whatever limitations it has, mostly due to its budget, are really ignored thanks to a well written story, beautiful open world, and fantastic action.
Dragon's Dogma 2 does plenty of things right, especially when it lets players immerse themselves in the superlative open world. But the stupid save mechanics and numerous performance issues eat away at that enjoyment to the point the gameplay feels like a chore. It's still fun, but it could be so much more.
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Berserk Boy is a rare gem of an indie title. The kind that overcomes any comparison with its competitors, and stands proudly alongside them as an addition to a vast and storied genre. It reminded me why I love side-scrolling action games in the first place, and reignited a passion I had feared lost. It’s one of the best games of the year, and easily among the best additions to the genre.
For solo players, this is a tougher sell. It’s a great game, but one that requires friends to get the most out of it. If you already have a squad ready to go, you’ll find that Space Marine II delivers everything you’d want out of a game like this.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a game without a beginning or an end, yet it's the kind of audacious, breathtaking, and superlative artistry that redefines what we expect from the genre. Square Enix has proven itself once again as a master of the RPG.
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Mario vs. Donkey Kong is still fun and inventive, but there's a sense that this probably didn't need a full Switch release. It has much more in common with mobile games, and the fantastic Mario Run proved we could have an addictive Nintendo experience on that platform as well.
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As a budget God of War, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden deserves praise for its ambitious and often deeply touching story. It's just a shame the gameplay is nowhere as fun as its inspirations. Nonetheless, this is still a worthwhile title to explore, if only to support story-driven adventure games like this.
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Infinite Wealth is like Avengers Endgame for the Like a Dragon franchise. It's full of fanservice, it's bloated, and everything is amped up to eleven. Despite this, it just works, and this emotional climax to multiple storylines from the past decade and a half hits every high you could want. I loved it.
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It’s not my favorite game of the generation, but it might be one of the most important ones, nonetheless. After all, very few other titles have inspired this much conversation or interpretation. If that isn’t the sign of a future classic, then what is?
Forza Motorsport is fine, just fine, and that's about it. It squeaks by with the same dependable racing experience that, at this point, is starting to feel stale.
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