The strength of the ghost-hunting adventure lies in its humor, charm, and fitting sound design — and that remains unchanged in the HD remaster of Luigi’s Mansion 2. The numerous cutscenes are especially enjoyable to watch, and Charles Martinet already did an excellent job back then bringing Luigi to life.
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Our favorite plumber shows the ape who’s boss once again. Especially in multiplayer, we had a great time with the game, and now it’s all about beating each other’s best times! Even though this is ‘just’ a remake, it’s a great way to kick off 2024, as the title is cleanly executed while also being meaningfully expanded.
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Another Code: Recollection is recommendable if you have never played the original Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii titles — or if it has been a very long time since your last encounter with them. In particular, the game benefits from its unified experience on a single console, helpful quality-of-life features, and new additions such as a well-executed voice acting performance. It is an emotional yet also engaging adventure.
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WarioWare: Move It! is another excellent entry in this long-running franchise. It brings back motion-controlled chaos, offers a variety of fun modes, and features over 200 wildly absurd microgames that are as colorful and delightfully silly as ever.
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Players looking for a challenge will also get their money’s worth, either through badges that increase the difficulty or once the game’s difficulty spikes significantly later on. However, the latter can sometimes feel like hitting a wall. While you may breeze through a four-star level on your first try, a five-star stage can easily cost you 20 lives just to reach the checkpoint. There are also levels where players are deliberately unable to place helpful markers, even if they would want to.
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Even though the game is clearly aimed at a younger audience in terms of difficulty, adult Pokémon fans will still find plenty to enjoy, as we all remain a bit like children at heart and continue to love Pokémon.
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Relaxation and coziness are the cornerstones of Fae Farm, allowing players to experience the game entirely at their own pace and preference. Anyone looking for a comforting, feel-good game that can keep them entertained for hundreds of hours can safely pick up Fae Farm without hesitation. Inclusion is clearly a major focus at Phoenix Labs. Not only can players customize their pronouns, equip their character with a headscarf, and freely choose their skin tone, but the game also features a wheelchair-using NPC. Aspen, the town’s carpenter and construction advisor, is presented while seated—something rarely seen in video games and highly commendable.
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Fun is guaranteed, and with friends, nothing should stand in the way of a long party night. Just keep in mind that this game also works perfectly as a complement to your existing party game collection, helping to offer your guests as much variety as possible.
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Technically speaking, Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia isn’t exactly a showcase title for the Nintendo Switch. In addition to the lack of a minimap, there’s no save function or even the slightest hint of autosave. You just have to trust the game and quit it if you’ve had enough for the time being. The story unfolds as you progress through the game and I actually enjoyed it, though you shouldn’t expect a Hollywood blockbuster here. The battles are sometimes very easy, but at other times extremely challenging—especially when the opponent frequently switches out their Bakugan for no apparent reason or uses multiple attacks in a row, which slows down the action since you’re immobilized during the animation.
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YO-KAI WATCH BLASTERS features the Nintendo 3DS’s 3D mode; unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test it on my New Nintendo 2DS XL, but I still had a lot of fun with the game. I was a bit confused every time I had to tap “Get Ready!” during a mission, even though the instructions said to “head out” on the mission. These kinds of incorrect descriptions aren’t uncommon; they’re annoying and could have been avoided. The real-time combat system is fun and shows me that the YO-KAI WATCH series isn’t standing still but is constantly striving to evolve. The cutscenes also look as if they were taken straight from the anime, which makes the anticipation for YO-KAI WATCH 4 grow immeasurably. The game’s scope is enormous, which is why the single-player mode offers a solid 15 to 20 hours of entertainment—a duration that can be extended indefinitely through the multiplayer component. Fans of the series can jump right in without hesitation; everyone else should start by getting a feel for the universe with the first YO-KAI WATCH game.
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Well-thought-out ideas executed well. The Adventure Mode is essentially a long tutorial, but it’s still well-designed and fun to play. The tournament mode is also a blast and gets pretty challenging after a while, but I don’t see the incentive to play through it with all the characters when you don’t get anything for it in the end. It’s a real shame that Nintendo decided not to call out the characters’ names—like Mario, Luigi, and so on—during matches, as they did in Mario Power Tennis, for example—you can do better than that, Nintendo.
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All in all, Detective Pikachu is a great Pokémon spin-off for Pikachu fans and lovers of thrilling detective stories. One negative aspect I noticed is that Pikachu’s interactions aren’t always easy to interpret. For example, right after talking to a witness, Pikachu wants to speak with you to give you a clue. Sometimes, though, it’s just a new cutscene that doesn’t really move the story forward. The ending isn’t really satisfying either. It remains unclear whether the story will continue in a sequel or the announced movie adaptation.
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