Cocoon is a fresh, imaginative action-adventure game with a focus on creative puzzle-solving. It’s very well executed, and the core concept is explored in a way that’s both varied and, for the most part, thoroughly covered. In that respect, Cocoon offers a well-rounded gaming experience, though it could show a little more confidence in the player’s abilities and resilience to frustration.
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Donkey Kong Bananza is a fresh and accomplished 3D Jump & Run that from my perspective cannot keep up with the team's Mario games. However, those who particularly enjoy wild destruction might view it somewhat differently.
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Ashes of Elrant is a well-crafted piece of downloadable content that adds further narrative depth to the characters – particularly Lenne – and shines with its well-designed boss battles. The DLC’s greatest strength is, of course, inherited from the main game – the combat system is varied and strategic, and offers a wealth of options. As it is set towards the end of the main game, the system is able to shine here in all its glory.
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Dungeons of Hinterberg is a relaxed Zelda-like action-adventure that shines with well-crafted puzzle design and an unconventional game structure offering great freedom in dungeon selection. Those who miss the classic Zelda formula and are inclined toward Social Sim elements—or can at least live with skipping them generously—will undoubtedly find their match here.
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Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer is a successful implementation of the arcade classic at a fair price, which can be wholeheartedly recommended to arcade racer enthusiasts who are aware of the game's limited scope.
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Frogun is an interesting game concept that unfortunately suffers from an unreliable aiming mechanism, which severely affects the second half of the game.
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Tatake! Big Fighter offers intense arcade action with varied enemy and level design, making it a solid choice for arcade shooter enthusiasts. The ability to switch between the two forms is unusual but gives the game a successful individual touch.
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The Smurfs 2: Prisoner of the Green Stone starts off extremely disappointing, but recovers significantly around the midpoint and ultimately becomes a decent 3D platformer by the end.
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CrossCode is a very well-designed role-playing game featuring entertaining, fast-paced combat and clever puzzles, as well as numerous optional side quests. The puzzle concepts feel fresh and the dungeons are impressive in their sheer scale. All of this is underpinned by an interesting story and an appealing pixel art style.
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The Smurfs: Mission Blight is an entertaining linear 3D platformer with influences from Super Mario Sunshine but also many original ideas and solid level design. The technical implementation is rather unstable, however, and will undoubtedly spoil the fun for technically demanding players.
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Ever17: The Out of Infinity is a well-written visual novel that, however, is cumbersome in many ways and therefore falls behind Uchikoshi's later works. The story construction is quite clever and whoever takes the trouble to fight through some blatant redundancies will be truly rewarded in the end.
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Boti: Byteland Overclocked is a somewhat slow jump & run with perhaps slightly too long levels, but which was designed with a lot of love and doesn't do much wrong gameplay-wise. However, the occasionally severe bugs, which especially demand a lot of repetition from the player, cloud the fun and can prove to be very frustrating. If these bugs are fixed, Boti, setting aside the quite stressful final boss, is a great game especially for newcomers to the genre; otherwise a frustration resistance is necessary that young players probably won't bring with them.
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The Smurfs: Dreamland Adventure isn't merely significantly better than any Smurf game should ever be — it competes effortlessly across every field except difficulty with Sackboy's PlayStation 5 launch title. Anyone who enjoys linear 3D platformers should definitely give Dreamland Adventure a chance.
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Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is a playful, lovingly designed 3D Jump & Run that sometimes gets a bit too lost in its own gimmicks and thereby loses comfort.
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Downward Enhanced Edition combines a dynamic, entertaining game mechanic with an open and quite interesting level design that unfortunately suffers from difficult navigation.
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Astro Bot is a focused, idea-rich and carefully designed 3D Jump & Run that feels constantly fresh and energetic throughout the entire duration. With its clear emphasis on interaction and playfulness, Astro Bot sets a welcome accent to the majority of Sony's rather bombastic lineup, and according to my personal ideas of a video game, Astro Bot is not only a celebration of Sony's history [...]
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Cadence of Hyrule came as a huge surprise to me, as I can’t stand roguelikes and have been thoroughly disappointed by Zelda games over the last ten years, even though it’s actually one of my favourite game series. However, Cadence of Hyrule is far more of a classic Zelda experience than one might expect and, I would argue, even more so than the last two main entries in the series.
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Blue Fire is a thoughtfully designed 3D jump 'n' run featuring interesting dungeon designs, fluid and entertaining gameplay mechanics, and a successful variety of gaming tasks. The only stumbling block is the in-game navigation, which suffers from minimal communication and the absence of a map, particularly for the overworld.
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Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two is a disappointing sequel. While the team at Junction Point tried to breathe fresh life into the game with a second playable character, unfortunately every innovation compared to the first installment feels like a step backwards, and the experience oscillates between fun and frustration without ever offering the player anything truly special.
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Frogun Encore is a well-designed 3D jump & run that picks up the Chameleon Twist core idea and smooths out its awkwardness. As a result, Frogun Encore is very entertaining most of the time and even manages to surpass its predecessor.
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