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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Georgie-Yolkie is a game that clearly shows a considerable amount of heart and soul went into the project, but one that, in terms of gameplay, can't live up to its ambitions, and above all falls flat technically—at least on Nintendo Switch. In its current state, I can only advise against Georgie-Yolkie. If the technical problems get fixed, genuine genre fans can certainly risk taking a look, but even then, they shouldn't expect any major leaps when it comes to the level design.
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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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I, Robot is a simple jump 'n' run that can be a lot of fun, and especially considering its age, it's enormously impressive. It's a shame that I, Robot became a huge flop back in its day and that original arcade cabinets are hardly findable today, because I, Robot is in any case a remarkable part of video game history.
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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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Axiom Verge 2 is an excellent Metroidvania that focuses heavily, gameplay-wise, on its clever exploration mechanics and strong level design. Although the idea of two parallel worlds certainly won't win an innovation prize, the implementation of the concept may indeed be understood as a unique selling point.
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Consequently, partly due to its slow pace, I find Chicory unbearably boring for long stretches of the game. To the game’s credit, the characters are likeable and the visuals are playful and beautiful, but in my view that does nothing to change the fact that Chicory is very thin on both gameplay and narrative, and stretches what it has to offer over a framework that is far too extensive.
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Epic Dumpster Bear 1.5 DX: Dumpster Fire Rebirth is an extremely entertaining, self-ironic and pretty crazy 2D jump & run that promises plenty of fun. There are indeed a handful of small bugs and the final boss fights are mechanically rather uninteresting, but the platforming is intense and enjoyable.
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Gigantosaurus is an appealingly designed 3D platformer that, while offering no new ideas and will likely be far too easy for experienced players, provides plenty of fun especially for its young target audience. The multiplayer mode also makes the game a good experience for parents, and compared to the Paw Patrol games, much more effort has gone into the game design here.
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Crash Bandicoot 4 is a lovingly crafted tribute to the PlayStation classics; whilst it introduces new ideas only very cautiously, it implements them with the utmost care.
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Hirilun is a short but entertaining 3D platformer that, while not bringing any particularly standout ideas, still provides good entertainment for its playtime. Achievement hunters can engage with numerous additional criteria for each level—for example, refraining from using special abilities or earning all three stars—but those who have absolutely no desire to work their way toward better performances in the levels will probably not get much out of it.
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