So: Fun but unbalanced, or unbalanced but fun? I legitimately still cannot decide which part is more meaningful for the Dark Scrolls experience, but I can say this: I did have a good time with the game, and I respect the passion put into the old school vibe. Even the digital game guide filled me with nostalgia!
Seriously, what a joy! This game reminds me of some of the earliest phone games that hit the sweet spot between being very simple and very addicting, and I mean that in the best possible way. Kabuto Park isn’t the type of game you really sink your teeth into, and it never tries to be, but sometimes rather than a full meal, all you need is a snack to go along with your summer vacation. If you are looking for a short and sweet game that runs on good vibes and repetition, definitely pick this up.
Man, this one hurt me a bit. I was really hoping I’d love this game more than I did. And it’s not like I hate it either! The characters and story in Tales of Berseria keep me extremely engaged, but the actual gameplay part annoyed me deeply for so long that I couldn’t fully forgive it. Is the game much more fun by using the exp bonuses and the option to just turn off encounters? Oh yes, tremendously, but I just can’t feel good about the solution being “just don’t play this part; it sucks” rather than some more positive changes. It’s a remaster, people, come on! It has been 10 years! If you have already played and enjoyed the original Tales of Berseria, this doesn’t have anything new to make it worth your while. If you are a new player like me, I’d never suggest playing the original over this version.
You know how I said that Wander Stars feels like an old anime? I mean it, with everything that it entails. How many of those have had pacing issues, weird storytelling decisions, and so on? These old shows aren’t perfect, but that comes with trying new things and eventually finding their footing, and above everything else, Wander Stars feels like a truly earnest story. It looks and feels like it was made with love, by people who had a lot of fun with it, imperfections and all, and I love that. Many old anime shows are imperfect products of their time, but the imperfections make them memorable in a whole new way. Wander Stars feels a bit like that to me. It’s not an incredible game, but I enjoyed my time with it as much as I did watching my favourite shows, filler episodes and all. I was very much engrossed in the adventure of Ringo, Wolfe, Canela and Ax across the stars and if there’s ever a sequel, I know I will be there, hoping to encounter those wandering stars once again.
God, this game is awesome. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance felt like the dream mixture of a Devil May Cry game with a beloved Saturday morning cartoon’s theatrical movie. The story and characters are so over the top, covering ninjas, private armies, yokai, death itself and all sorts of crazy shenanigans and ... it just gets the blood pumping! It’s not perfect, but it’s awesome. In some ways I feel like it could have been ambitious enough for an even higher score – a little more time given to the story and characters in between the incredible gameplay may have pushed it further, but it didn’t truly have to. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is as awesome as kids in the 90s thought ninjas were, and more. Sega may be old, but between this and Crosswords… they proved that they still got it!
I have never had a bad time playing a Shantae game, and I am happy to report I did not start with this one. In a world of ever more complex games that leaves behind some of my favourite classics like Mega Man, Shantae always delivers the great platforming fun that I love. To me, Shantae games have become synonymous with fun, rock-solid platforming goodness. WayForward has never disappointed me, as even the worst Shantae game is still solid, with a respectable baseline of expectations, and I will always be looking forward to another adventure of my favourite half-genie.
Am I too used to modern games? While I was playing Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, I truly felt like the game didn’t do anything wrong and was actually caught off-guard by some challenging sections that required platforming and timing, but I also felt myself losing focus often. If I’m playing a big gorilla, how come I can’t just slap the tikis away? Why are my rolls so short? I just felt like I needed to be able to do more. As someone that doesn’t have a lot of nostalgia for the Donkey Kong games, I feel like I may be able to ignore minor issues if I had great past experiences to look back on, but as it is, I’d say Donkey Kong Country Returns HD feels like a great entry game for people that are not used to platformers or games as a whole. It’s fun, potentially challenging, and undoubtedly good, but it’s nothing special.
I’m really easy with platformers—I just really love them! Even when I’m very bad at them, the way that I was at The Meating. I had a great time chewing through this game, and finding out how challenging it truly was when I, at first, didn’t think it would be such a prime cut was very rewarding. I’m not what people would call an OG gamer from the NES era, so I have no nostalgia for the console. That wasn’t what attracted me to The Meating; it was the good humour and fun-looking gameplay, and I’m happy to report that it meats my expectations.
Doomscrolling complaints aside, I had an absolute blast playing Echoes of Wisdom. I’ve been a fan of the previous open-world Legend of Zelda games, as you can tell by my other reviews, but there truly is something else about the old style games that was missing, and this game brought them back in a familiar yet refreshing way. I hadn’t realised how much I missed this style of gameplay until I was hours deep into Echoes of Wisdom and caught myself grinning ear to ear!
Sure, there are some things that made me do a double take, but Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is still a really good game! There is more than enough to sink your teeth in and really enjoy your time with this version. It’s so chock full of little details, interactions and possibilities that I had a blast playing it and taking my time. Playing it for the first time was amazing, and I’ll be going back for more very very soon. I truly feel like I want to experience everything the game has to offer in as many ways as possible, and I fully believe the developers did not disappoint.
To me, a perfect game isn’t one that does everything and can appeal to every single player: it’s a game that succeeds in everything that it proposes itself to do, in how it executes itself and in its own experience. Unicorn Overlord is perfect. This review took a while as I truly legitimately sat down and mulled over the game, wondering if there was anything that I truly had a problem with, but the truth is that I didn’t. I enjoyed every single second of Unicorn Overlord in a way that I haven’t enjoyed any game in many years. This was my first taste of a Vanillaware game, and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have hit a jackpot and picked up an absolute masterpiece on my first try. As a fan of RPGs, as a fan of fantasy and fiction, as a gamer and generally as a person, I cannot recommend Unicorn Overlord enough. If you have any interest in its genre at all, it will be well worth the time invested.
It’s weird—I actually did like Pepper Grinder plenty, and I think that it did an amazing job making its gameplay responsive and intuitive, but it legitimately feels like they got a very sturdy base and forgot to build the rest on top of it. I want to play more, but the game loses me after a small handful of stages, and I can’t shake the feeling I’m drilling by myself in an empty place. Gameplay twists, some dialogue, more expressiveness, maybe some plot - there are plenty of things that could’ve elevated Pepper Grinder from a quick snack into a great meal, but they’re just not present. I do still recommend that you pick it up if you enjoy the aesthetics and the platforming style, but ultimately - it needs more seasoning
Look, I can go on and on about problems as much as I want, but at the end of the day? This game is a blast. Berserk Boy is exactly the fix of action platforming that I needed in my life, and it’s just the perfect mixture of fun and challenging. Yes, I wish that the characters and the story were a lot more interesting, and I genuinely believe that it could have been done, but this game is just plain fun as hell. Sometimes a game conquers all of its problems on vibes and hype alone, and boy am I glad that Berserk Boy is one of these. Not only did this game make me happy, it gives me the feeling that if the creator decides to make more games, they will be gems. I’m excited to see more, and definitely recommend you pick up Berserk Boy.
I love this game. It’s one of the most addicting, simple-yet-fun roguelikes I’ve experienced in a long time and it’s exactly because I loved it so much that it upsets me how little of it there is. Alina of the Arena is definitely a must play for any roguelike or tactics fan, and I have absolutely no reservations saying that. The studio that published it, PINIX, is a Taiwanese studio with only two games to their name, including this one, but Alina of the Arena immediately put them on my radar. I’ll be waiting patiently for whatever they cook up next, because this was delicious.
Being honest, Sonic Superstars didn’t really catch me, but I don’t think that’s the game’s fault. It does nothing horribly wrong, and it may be that I’m just not the correct audience for the “Do it again, but faster and better” gameplay loop that it seems to encourage. I didn’t come out of it disappointed, though: It’s a competent game that looks great, can be played in short bursts and keeps up the sense of speed that the franchise has always been known for. Really, I have no reason to complain on the execution front at all. Superstars turned out to not be my cup of tea, but I definitely think that it’s worth picking up for people that are looking for a solid entry in the franchise and already know they’re all about the high-speed world traversal. It’s not for me, but can you blame me for not being able to keep up with the Fastest Thing Alive?
Did you know that vanilla is my favourite ice cream flavour? And even I think that Silent Hope needs more to it. It’s like vanilla without any sugar. It has a good presentation and looks great, but it’s so bland. There is nothing to really sink your teeth in. It’d be perfect as a 5-minute phone game, but that’s not the ballpark that it’s in, being a full release for the Switch. I don’t feel like it’s a bad game. It’s pretty, pleasantly inoffensive and accessible to all. But the only urge I have to play it again is because I feel upset that these cuties are all so forgettable and keep asking myself if there’s maybe something more that it can offer, even though I know the answer. I want to like it just because I have no reason to hate it, and I don’t think that’s a good place for a game to fall in.
Sea of Stars is definitely a good time. I enjoyed my time with the game a lot, but the more I thought about it, the more the nagging feeling that it was missing something grew inside me. I still recommend it as a well-made and very fun game, but it lacks some aspects that really give classic JRPGs the spark that makes them masterpieces, and it fumbles its own story and characters far too much to ignore. On the counterpoint, though? The parts that are good are really good. I can go on and on about wasted potential all day, but Sea of Stars delivers a great experience, with a lot of fun to be had and beautiful visuals from minute one. I enjoyed all of the good it offered me, and I am excited for what its developers will cook up in the future; they’re definitely worth keeping an eye on!
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is good. It is actually really hard to put into words how much of an absolute gem it is because, as I said before, there is just so much to it. This is the type of game that deserves large essays written about it, in the best way possible. The internet has been flooded with explanations as to why so many of its system mechanics are ground-breaking and how incredible it is - and they are all correct. Tears of the Kingdom has done the impossible: it has fully lived up to its own hype, and we all know how huge that hype was. The only thing keeping it from a perfect score is the fact that its few negative points are very much connected to its most front-and-center positives as well; but make no mistake, Tears of the Kingdom is, without a doubt, at the very top of any “must play” list for the Nintendo Switch throughout its entire lifespan.
Despite my going on at length about the cons, I would be a dirty liar if I said that 30XX isn’t phenomenal. Its cast might be barren compared to the Mega Man series and other roguelike games such as Hades, but it never set out to compete with them in those aspects. Sure, it could have put more effort into them, but the results speak for themselves. It’s addicting, fun, replayable, and wonderful in many ways. It is sheer platforming excellence, taking the best aspects of its inspirations to make something truly special. Mega Man Zero is among my favourite video game series ever, and 30XX feels nostalgic in the same way, despite this being my first foray into the series. 30XX is more than just a game that was inspired by Mega Man: It’s a love letter that is written masterfully enough to become its own story. And I dearly hope that it has a great future in the years to come.
There isn’t a world where I say that ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree is a bad game, but I did get a distinct impression that it didn’t want to be a game. ATONE feels like a project that wanted to be a visual novel rather than a puzzle game, and that made it much harder to play than it should have been. A lot of care is given to characterisation, visuals and music to craft an immersive, interesting experience, but that care does not seem to extend itself to much of the gameplay segments. And gameplay is the thing that sets video games apart from other media. It is still enjoyable and of course, it still does more than enough to be a puzzle game, but it feels like only half of it was approached with ambition.