In Cosmophony, you die. A lot. If there\'s one thing to know about the game before going in, it\'s that. The developers know this, too, and the entire game is based around you dying with regularity. The experience is made up of five 2-to-3 minute levels that gain length purely through your failure. Fortunately, it\'s challenging in just the right way, and offers ways to get better, so in the end Cosmophony winds up being a must-play for any who yearn for the days when a game would utterly and completely kick your butt.
Human Resource Machine is great. The gameplay is superb, finding the perfect middle ground between complex riddles/simple solutions wrapped in an stellar set of gameplay systems. The visuals are expectedly gorgeous, clever, and unique. The music is stellar, and the story, world, and characters are engaging. There's even some well done humor thrown in. The puzzles may get too complex at times, but Human Resource Machine is a game anyone with an interest in challenging puzzlers should play.
All in all, Level 22 is a very worthwhile purchase if you are in the market for a top down stealth game. It is loaded with charm and has some well designed gameplay. It's not perfect – what game is? – but many will find a lot to enjoy from Level 22. You might be one of them. Just don't stay up too late playing, or your boss could get mad.
If I were to describe Knytt Underground in one word, it would be \"contradictory.\" In some ways, it\'s everything I could hope for in a metroidvania-style game: it\'s beautiful, intuitive, clever, and most importantly, fun. For large portions of the game, you are pulled into an almost dreamlike state, exploring the massive world and marveling at the eerie ambiance. It\'s then that the game truly shines. But then, it turns around to have horribly unfitting dialogue and characters that pull you out of the experience that the developers work so hard to involve you in while the game simultaneously grows more and more tedious.
All in all, A Beggar’s Ride is a short, simple, and ultimately quite enjoyable puzzle platformer. If you’ve got six bucks to spare, then the charming visuals, impressively developed mixture of atmosphere and story, and solid puzzles will make the game worth a purchase.
Those looking for a deep story or compelling adventure gameplay may not find it, but there's a lot to love in this first episode. It's just not for everyone.
All in all, Toto Temple Deluxe is a game you buy if you have friends to play it with. Solo, it can be no more than a brief distraction, but with friends it becomes an exciting brawl-fest. Solid modes and an impressive number of stages makes sure this multiplayer title is one to check out.
I cannot suggest Story of Seasons to everybody, but those who like the idea of a calming experience that lets you peacefully escape to a charming world should definitely consider Story of Seasons. If you can get over a painfully long opening before the game opens up and lets you actually play the game, a poor soundtrack, and dull characters, you will be rewarded with an engaging world and a ton of variety and options. It is a fun, relaxing experience – just remember that it is anything but perfect.
Alphadia is a game that is faithful in its homage to JRPGs of yore, yet cannot quite match them in its execution. Environments are all the same, the story inches along, the characters are barely characters, and the combat lacks the depth it should have. And yet I still had a lot of fun playing Alphadia. It’s… simple. It’s pure. Its problems do not keep it from being obscenely charming. Alphadia is not a great game; but it is a good one. For those that desire the experience of a classic JRPG, and do not mind that this one does nothing new and has loads of problems: Alphadia may actually give you a better time than it has any right to.
Whispering Willows is by no means a masterpiece, but it is a beautiful world and an engaging atmosphere that unfortunately is wrapped in undeveloped gameplay and a not very compelling story. Still; it's an experience with a lot to offer for those with a love of eerie and beautiful games.
But again: many people will enjoy this type of gameplay, and if the simple joy of running around as a LEGO Avenger sounds appealing to you (and you can't play the console version for whatever reason), pick up the 3DS version of Lego Marvel's Avengers. Just don't expect it to blow you away.
Ultimately, Mighty No. 9 is just not worth the price. It has a satisfying set of mechanics, but that is all it has going for it. The visuals are atrocious, the music unmemorable, the story painful, and the level design mediocre.
All in all, Outside the Realm is not great. At just fifty cents at launch, it may be worth a playthrough if you want something mindless to play for thirty minutes. Yet it lacks any depth and challenge; it's reasonably good by Wii U budget title standards, but unfortunately it never steps into its own potential to become truly worthwhile.
All in all, it is hard to recommend The Perplexing Orb. Certainly it is not incompetent — the physics work, and the core is fine — but nothing is done to make it stand out. The level design is totally unremarkable, the length is short, and the visuals and music, while mostly not unpleasant, are just unimpressive. Even so, those that like rolling a ball through an obstacle course will find something to enjoy here.
Much as we may not like to admit it, Flappy Bird was a legitimately clever game. Taking its extraordinarily simple premise, it wrapped the challenging gameplay in a coat of exceedingly charming paint, masking the constant frustration it ought to have elicited and instead gave players the drive to do better. Within the confines of cheap, too-close-to-Mario sprites and one-note gameplay, it garnered a massive following as people joined together to play with – and against – their friends. Flappy Bird worked because it was simple. It did exactly what it needed to do; had it been any more fancy, any more complicated, any more detailed, it would not have become the phenomenon that it was.