Ultimately, The Escapists was such a success because it was fun, entertaining, and smart. You could perhaps argue that the sequel doesn't do enough to build on the foundations of the first, but that's only if you don't use the multiplayer options. Those alone breathe fresh air into the whole experience, and, as I said at the start, the Nintendo Switch hardware itself is just perfect for Mouldy Toof's endlessly entertaining vision.
Planetbase is good, and I'll never complain about having more simulators to play on my PlayStation.
You'll feel deflated – if not outright miserable – after playing it, but it's also a truly masterful example of writing and storytelling, and it's the kind of game that people should play, because it will prove to be genuinely challenging and, hopefully, encourage them to think a little more critically of the world around them.
What Tiny Metal, as a clone of Advance Wars, does unfortunately abstract things too far, to the point where there's no real strategic depth left. It's decent fun and there's certainly a lot to it, and that multiplayer mode, when it comes, will be a good time waster with a couple of beers on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but as a tactics or strategy game it's all too limited for its own good.
Derivative and bereft of any meritorious ideas of its own, Fallen: A2P Protocol is the first really big disappointment of 2018, because in the hands of a mature, talented developer, that idea could have been brilliant.
Play Stikbold for a few hours and you'll still be doing exactly what you did at the start, exactly the same way, and while there's nothing offensive about that, it's also not particularly memorable.
Truly this is one of the nastiest video games ever made.
The Coma doesn't outstay its welcome, and tells its story over five or so hours. Sadly it's just not frightening enough.
For a game made by such a small team, Plague Road drips with genuine quality.
As it is, it's a clever, albeit limited, time waster.
Somewhere down the track DragonFangZ might be patched again, and if, at that point, it's comprehensible enough to tell its minimalist story in a compelling manner, and get its tutorial in order, then it might well be worthwhile. It has all the presentational and gameplay elements it needs to be really great. But this developer's track record isn't there, so what we've got here is a game with a translation bad enough that it effectively breaks the game.
This is one of the more unheralded Super Nintendo JRPGs, but the update is of a high quality, and while I don't think it's a classic example of the genre by any means, it is still a very enjoyable game. A clean, enjoyable combat system, plenty of enemies to fight, and a bit of exploration and puzzle solving on the side; this is the kind of classic JRPG experience that I'll never get tired of.
It's Worms, and Team 17 has done a good job in restraining itself this time around so that the only gimmicks within the game genuinely add to it. What's important to note here is that the Nintendo Switch is absolutely perfect for Worms, and that fact alone makes this the best entry in the series in years.
There's nothing of value in Wonder Boy Returns. It's the weakest platformer I've played for years, and were it a free Flash game, as it so closely resembles, I still wouldn't recommend it.
Yōdanji is eminently playable, and perfect for short bursts in between more meaty games.
As someone who has every intention on buying his own pinball table at some point (or, hopefully, more than one), the appeal of having real pinball experiences is such that I'll buy all of the tables in Stern Pinball Arcade, but it's lacking the features and robustness to allow it to properly compete with Pinball FX 3, and the lack of leaderboard features just kills its long term appeal.
Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock serves a particular niche; it's for people who are both strategy game fans and Battlestar Galactica fans. I don't know how many of us are out there, but I hope there's enough that the entire development team gets rewarded for the excellent work that they've done. Yes it's a budget game and a really authentic Battlestar Galactic experience really should also have solo flight and ground missions, but as a complement to the overall franchise, I couldn't ask for more. This game is brilliant.
The actual experience of playing the game is so much better. Pinball runs smoothly on the Switch, and it's even possible to flip the console to a vertical orientation so you can play the game with a form factor that more closely approximates the shape of actual pinball tables.
The biggest challenge I found with the game was finding the motivation to actually finish it; it might not get anything wrong, but it's such a lengthy quest that it really needed a greater thematic depth to maintain my interest, and unfortunately it wasn't quite able to replicate Nihon Falcom's own, brilliant, Trails of Cold Steel in offering that.
Star Ocean 4 is, as far as I'm concerned, a modern classic, and I am so, so glad to have had the excuse to play it through yet again.