Gone in November manages to be a nice insight into someone's final days, but it never really justifies being a game. It's confusing, often directionless, and its poor decisions involving text make it hard to follow the small grains of plot you're supposed to be finding. Perhaps in another life, it could have been a book or short film. Unfortunately, in this life, it is a game—and one that doesn't really work very well.
The Girl and the Robot has a lot of heart, which is why the myriad of issues are so upsetting. Rough movement, clunky combat, frustrating puzzles, and unresponsive controls make this a tough sell. It's sad, because there's a lot of potential here hidden under all the rough patches.
DreamBreak fails to offer much because it's just so dull. Sure, the controls are bad for the most part, but that's made up for by some enjoyable, yet again, mostly boring gameplay. It never aims to be much more than a typical adventure game, and fails to even get that right thanks to its myriad of issues. Due to that, it really can't be recommended to anyone other than genre diehards, and that cousin of yours you're trying to trick out of his birthday money. "Bet you can't beat this game without throwing the controller." Don't take that bet!
Pulse, if nothing else, doesn't feel finished. It feels like an alpha build that got pushed out so early it may have upset Early Access customers. While it obviously has potential (it's walked away with awards, after all), it feels largely incomplete, and like it should have been pushed through play-testing a bit further. If it gets some more depth, or, at least, if the depth it has gets fixed up and becomes more cohesive, it may live up to a lot of the hype it's generated. Until then, it's a game that exemplifies that just because an idea is good, it doesn't mean the product will be.
Super Dungeon Bros functions, but gives way to repetitive dungeon layouts, poor enemy balancing, and less than interesting gameplay. Even with friends, it feels a bit watered down, like it wanted to meet the basic requirements of a dungeon crawler without upsetting any fans with risks. It's just too plain to be forgiven. In other words, sorry, bro, but this dungeon is a bit weak.
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood has great level design that squanders its puzzles, beautiful artwork that wastes its characters, and gameplay that ranges from boring to being a bit broken. Truth be told, though, it does manage to pull you back in just as you were getting ready to leave. Sadly, it's unlikely anyone will have the patience to see it all the way through, as so much of the game is spent fighting the bad puzzle design and the atrocious platforming.
Color Guardians is the kind of game that feels like it needs to be liked. It almost feels like it was secretly released already. It took notes, amped up what the test group really liked, and then degraded the things they didn't. While the soundtrack is great, it's also very much what would be expected. Twitchy and very demanding (in some very unfair ways, more often than not), and dull and repetitive graphics remove any good work the soundtrack does. This leaves behind a game that, for all intents and purposes, falls short of all of its goals.
EarthNight is really a product of its genre. It's rare that auto-runners feel truly unique, and while this does a decent job of introducing new mechanics regularly, it does such a poor job with enemy placement that you will have to run through the same kind of courses over and over before you get to see them - unless you skip on through the fray, and that only works so long. Even when you find these new ideas, they are often just one tweak shy of something a lot better than they ended up being, and it's a shame such an original idea feels so flat.
Ling: A Road Alone is absurdly difficult for the sake of being absurdly difficult. If that's your kind of thing, the kind that is often unfair or sadistic in its difficulty, then Ling: A Road Alone is a must play. Otherwise, there's not much here that can be recommended.
Legend of the Skyfish is a good game that's hanging out with a bad crowd. Sure, there's the cute art style, the level design is mostly passable, and the gameplay itself does its job most of the time. It's like it knows what it wants to do, and it knows how to get there. Still, every once in a while, presumably on cold, rainy nights, it likes to play dress up. It's cosplay of choice being a much less enjoyable game.
Thanks to half the game not utilizing the Godheads, that half is relegated into a standard couch experience. Even when the gimmick is brought in full force, it has a tendency to feel more obnoxious than fun. Fans of arena style titles, but not those who like a lot of depth, will probably find something of value in Oh My Godheads' digital battlefields. However, this feels more like a base game, for which the developer can build upon later. It feels surprisingly empty, and in the hallowed halls of local multiplayer, like it's just too plain and bland overall - which is sad, because the first couple of hours are actually pretty fun.
A slow episode that shows that many of the game's characters don't have a long shelf life. Hopefully episode four can right the ship.
Fjong is a decent game wrapped in some weird design choices; namely, should this be on the PC, or on mobile devices. Regardless, it features decent controls that occasionally feel wonky, and not much beyond the main action to really do. Truth be told, fans of physics games should definitely give it a shot, but for everyone else, don't expect Fjong to change your mind.
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe is beautiful, sounds great, and controls very well. The story is engaging and the lead character is instantly loveable and well worth your time, putting an investment into getting to know it better. Unfortunately, that beauty hides the fact that planets don't change enough to be distinguishable from one another, and much of the gameplay is vapid. Definitely come to visit this enticing universe, yet just make sure expectations are correctly set first.
Redout: Lightspeed Edition is a good pastime for fans of the zero gravity, faster than light racers, but it doesn't manage to be much more than that. Even if you forget every other title in the genre, the weak controls and, occasionally, subpar graphics, don't really sell the game up too well. Overall, this functions as a good way to kill time once you get the hang of the controls, but it won't really suck you in beyond that.
Mononoke Forest is difficult to recommend, because the learning curve is difficult to describe. Honestly, it's enough to make many gamers turn away, and for good reason. If one were to get past the obnoxious controls and the initially confusing gameplay, however, there's something enjoyable buried here - it's a shame that it's so frustrating getting to it, though.
Tokyo 42 is an engaging isometric game that is hurt tremendously by a mechanic that should have been a selling point. While the game plays fine, the need to constantly manage the camera ruins any sense of intensity that comes with a lot of the missions. Instead, it makes the player feel hopeless, as enemies barrel down on one side of them, and an unseeable escape remains hidden behind the gorgeous environment.
Akiba's Beat really only works every so often, but fans of the genre will likely appreciate it on some level. While the dialogue is difficult to get engrossed in, and the combat feels unresponsive at times, there's still a cult classic buried in this little title. Not every game can be perfect, and that definitely applies to Akiba's Beat. Still, it's clear it will be perfect for many people out there, and that's what matters.
Rain World has so much potential, it's infuriating to watch it crumble under the weight of trying to be difficult. There seems to be a new mantra in gaming that the game's not good unless it's brutally hard, and this is clearly misguided. If it controlled better and gave the player a bit more sympathy, Rain World would have been sublime. As it stands, though, Rain World is just an angry experience, yelling at gamers for every little mistake.
Styx: Shards of Darkness sometimes feels like it's the purposely edgy teenager who doesn't want you to like it. It's, by all means, a game any stealth fan should try, but it's not going to grab and keep you coming back for more. Instead, it feels like wading through mud, and the payoff you're receiving is too small to really gloat about. There's potential here, but behind buggy AI, clumsy controls and a lead character who is more annoying than likable, it all feels for naught.