Steve Knauer
Difficult games are fun, and we're all capable of accepting a decent amount of challenge, but Tharsis seems to teeter on the edge of "I can figure this out eventually if I try hard enough" and "YOU STUPID DICE, WHY DO YOU KEEP ROLLING ONES AND TWOS!?" Luck plays a bit too heavily into the whole concept.
In the end, Punch Club looked like a fun, light-hearted sim game that ended up being a way better game than anticipated. It could do with a bit more in the way of interactivity, but it does present itself as a fighting simulator and not a straight forward fighting game. It delivers a lot more than it advertises, so these gripes are only so big.
In the end, The Deadly Tower of Monsters was not very good. A funny game still needs to be fun to play and this game wasn't. It felt like a bunch of guys got together with a good joke and tried to fit a video game under it without any real game design experience. There really was potential in the storytelling, but it fell flat when the journey between joke A and Joke B was peppered with thoughts of shutting the game off out of boredom.
With loads of new features, XCOM 2 turns out to be another hit out of the park. It's obviously not a game for everybody due to sheer difficulty alone, but anybody with the patience to learn should be pleased with the love and attention put into this title.
Pocket Card Jockey is, for all intents and purposes, a pretty good game. What it really came down to for a final verdict was the price. It was fun, but 3DS is pretty well known for their high price tagged games.
It's similar to its predecessors, but not so similar that you'd be buying the same game twice.
Police Tactics: Imperio is a police station simulator with good ideas that don't go as deep as a simulation fan would like.
Nights of Azure could have been better than it was. The story and basic concepts of the battle mechanics had something special about them, but they fell flat when they weren't expanded upon and were expected to be repeated over and over.
Estival Versus is a short game in terms of the main story, but has high replayability with the 27 characters to choose from. If you're a fan of fast-paced anime action and cutie anime girls (It's okay, I won't tell) then this game is definitely worth pick
Shiness is a breath of fresh air with its gameplay, while also reminding us what made the PlayStation 2 era so great with its originality and narrative decisions.
Sometimes a puzzle in Full Throttle Remastered is really clever, deserving a smile of accomplishment occasionally. But some puzzles end up with you just clicking around until you figure it out
Little Nightmares is a "child must traverse horrifying and dangerous predicaments" simulator; something 'Inside' and 'Limbo' fans would find familiar.
Mr. Shifty is immediately reminiscent of Hotline Miami. Shift into a room, punch Mr. Mc Pistolman twice, shift out before his friend can get a bead on you. Repeat until dead.
Dragon Quest Heroes 2 pays homage to the legacy that is the Dragon Quest series, but it also offers something different at the same time.
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers is a tribute to a classic. Street Fighter II made the fighting genre what it is today, and this game certainly celebrates it.
Cthulhu doesn't chase strong, bearded space marines down hallways. He and the many old gods slowly bend the minds of their victims until they've lost them completely, and Conarium reflects that.
Battlecrew: Space Pirates is a side-scrolling online action game, which is a genre that has infinite room to build upon, but Battlecrew didn't seem too interested in that.
The Lion's Song makes one want to like it for what it's trying to do, but it's very dependant on taste.
Pyre was still fun with the platform they ultimately decided on.
The combat is beautifully choreographed and well thought out. It's really fulfilling, but the game does little to help you figure out how to perfect certain moves.