This latest one is the most accessible and easy to follow yet, but it is still a spreadsheet simulator, and it services a very niche audience.
Between The Rebel Collection and the Assassin's Creed 3 + Liberation packs, the Nintendo Switch has the pinnacle of the series available for it now, as far as I'm concerned. Having these games available for on-the-go play makes the mild concessions made more than a fair tradeoff, and it speaks to the quality of Rogue in particular that I was more than happy to play it through yet again. It's a rare game indeed that ropes me in for a third replay.
Darksiders Genesis gets a lot right. It has plenty of personality and a dynamic, engaging action system. Its only real problem is that it has tackled a thematic challenge that it can't deliver - hell should not be dull, empty or repetitive, and yet this game fails on all fronts there.
The band of people interested in Princess Maker Go!Go! Princess would have to be very narrow, but it does provide a sound board game experience, backed up with some lovely art and a charming theme.
I can't think of a single thing that truly disappointed me about Transport Fever 2.
FuRyu continues to establish itself as a publisher with a knack for finding the most interesting and creative games.
This is a VR experience I can lose myself within for hours at a time, and will no doubt keep coming back to for many, many years to come. Keep it up, Degica!
The presentation is pedestrian, and the gameplay basic. It's genuinely difficult to imagine who would get much value out of this package.
Square Enix has been on a bender with its classic library in the later half of this year. The Mana collection came a few months ago, and there have been two SaGa titles re-released in just the last month as well. Star Ocean has always been the forgotten brother of the Square Enix catalogue, but it deserves better, and now that you're able to play four of the five in the series on your PlayStation 4, there really is no excuse if you haven't dipped into them already
It works, and if you're going to buy it, then you're going to get exactly what you're buying.
Good intent doesn't cover for a game this poor though. I would love to see the developers learn from this one and come back with something more, because there is a lot to admire about Decay of Logos. Enough so that I don't think I've ever felt quite as deflated having to give a game a score like this.
Lost Ember has its heart and soul in the right place, and every time I discovered a new area I was left amazed with the gorgeous vistas and intense beauty of it all.
As it is, there's more than enough of the sniping action to see the game over the line, but at times the successes of Contracts do feel like they come despite the development team's best efforts.
There's nothing wrong with how Black Future '88 plays. It's actually quite exceptional. But there are a lot of exceptional roguelikes and hardcore 2D platformers, and Black Future '88 lacks the narrative or context that it really needed to stand out against its many competitors.
There's nothing offensively wrong with Labyrinth of the Witch. It's a cutsey Mystery Dungeon-like roguelike. There are already so many examples of that genre, though, and the Nintendo Switch didn't need another one whose only innovation was to bring a mobile gaming grind to proceedings.
There's simply no reason to play something so utterly bereft of thought as Narcos.
Shenmue 3's real strength is in the way that it suggests a different way of looking at the very storytelling of videogames.
Civilization VI is essential. Not only is it a game that's educational, informative, and inspirational (see my video above for more thoughts around that), but it's also deeply pertinent to today's world and gives players a way of seeing - and grappling - with the topic on their own terms.
There aren't enough rhythm games that make the piano the central instrument, and Deemo is an elegant example of how to take an elegant, classical instrument and spin it into an interesting rhythm game.
There's a lot to like about Fishing Star World Tour. It's a lightweight, highly accessible, and charming little arcade-like take on fishing, and while it's never going to top anyone's list of favourite games, it's the kind of mindlessly relaxing thing that's useful to have on the console for those times where you really do just want to chill.