Crimson Keep is unplayable.
Atlus has proven that Persona 4 DAN was not a one off, and while SEGA and Atlus seem to have lost the Hatsune Miku license recently, it is clearly not because the company has lost the ability to produce a sublime example of the rhythm game genre.
Darksiders III is a fine return for a series that fans were hoping against hope to see again.
Intriguing, intense and extreme, Killer7 is as relevant, playable, and valuable as it has ever been.
It doesn't offer the dense and intelligent narrative of Final Fantasy at its very best, but it's a joyful and heartfelt ball of fun, and it's great that Square Enix is able to find a way to balance out both approaches with its premiere franchise.
If nothing else, the developers are doing genuinely good work in highlighting a job that we should all be much more aware of. We don't survive without our farmers, after all.
There's no forced path or endless pile of hints to the point that the game almost plays itself. Hitman 2 lets you play your own way, and it's all the more rewarding as a result.
Nintendo and Game Freak have managed something quite special with Pokémon: Let's Go.
It's by no means an essential game, but it's passable for (very) short bursts of play.
I'm sure there's something good at the core of Road Redemption, but over and over again the developers made some truly horrible decisions that let that core down. Coupled with an attempt to emulate the aesthetic of Mad Max without the slightest understanding on why Mad Max is such a revered series of films, Road Redemption comes across as a wild swing for glory that didn't even come close to connecting with the ball.
Over and over again some truly baffling decisions let it down, and while the scenarios justify the asking price in themselves, for any of us that prefer the sandbox mode of the simulations that we play, Townsmen is a complete misfire.
This is a deeply immersive, elegant, intelligent take on Tetris, and the best example of it since the original on Game Boy, all that time ago
It's a pity that everyone that doesn't have a VR headset will miss out, because Déraciné is really quite remarkable. It's rare that a game developer has attempted to make time a thing to explore to the same extent that we usually explore space in games, but FromSoftware succeeded there, and esoteric as it is, the darkly emotional story that is spun around Déraciné's unique structure makes for something truly compelling.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with Mercenaries Wings: The False Phoenix. When you're in the mood for a tactics JRPG, but not necessarily concerned with narrative, then this no-frills approach to the genre will scratch the itch.
Of course, it's also "just" another match-4 title, and perhaps that's why the developers didn't feel like putting the price up to something more appropriate to the size of the game. Lucky us, then; because while Swap This! is by no means going to end up on anyone's favourite games of all time lists, it's bright, pleasant, and perfect for those times that you do want a quick burst of puzzle action. And all for the cost of candy bar.
In that context, 11-11 Memories Retold is something precious; it’s a rare foil against the lies about war that the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield get away with far too easily.
While it might make you uncomfortable, as far as extreme horror goes, Death Mark also offers an unparalleled sense of atmosphere and a genuinely engrossing mystery to follow along with.
For this collection to be really worth the price of admission, SNK needed to dip into its more recent history, and particularly the fighting game genre, where the company has a genuine leadership position. It didn't do that, so it's hard to shake the impression that you'd be better off with a couple of the dozens of Neo Geo Classics that are available as individual purchases on Switch.
It's not without its issues, but these are the kinds of experiences that really stick in the mind, and I'd rather that that yet another stock-standard action game that neatly fits within structures that we've already seen dozens of times before.
Hidden Folks is good as a mild diversion, but doesn't offer much beyond that. The development team seems to have missed what made Where's Wally books truly special - it wasn't simply in packing the books full of stuff, and then challenging people to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. It was in filling the books with vibrant, exciting, and imagination-stirring scenes. Hidden Folks doesn't do that.