Aaron Riccio's Reviews
Mizuguchi has made strong, confident choices with his approach to Tetris, the Zone ability most prominent among them, but he’s done so uncompromisingly. And that’s an effect that’s as likely to leave tetrominos burned into your retinas as it is to simply leave you feeling cold and alone.
Apart from the fact that combat is resolved by placing cards into rows as opposed to moving units across a map, there's little difference between Thronebreaker and similarly hand-drawn, resource-gathering, unit-upgrading games like Heroes of Might and Magic and The Banner Saga. If anything, Thronebreaker offers a deeper strategic experience, given the distinct feel of these custom-crafted battles, with their special victory conditions and unique cards.
Before you know it, Starlink turns playing with toys into something that feels an awful lot like work.
Super Mario Party has enough rough and baffling components such that the "Super" tucked into the title feels a bit undeserved, but it shows a developer operating with the best of intentions, attempting to offer up a party for every sort of player.
Super-charged in almost every way, Guacamelee! 2 makes its predecessor look like a backyard wrestling match.
WarioWare Gold slightly redeems itself only after you've suffered through the feeble punchlines of the Story mode and have unlocked Challenge mode, which puts bizarre roadblocks in front of the player that affect your interactions with the microgames.
Motion Twin's Dead Cells is a game designed for those who don't particularly like roguelikes.
The Switch delivers Captain Toad in a higher-resolution format, and with better gyroscopic controls.
Despite the variety of tasks to manage throughout, there are remarkably few ways in which to handle them.
Although its absurdist comedy would certainly allow for it, the game never actually throws a kitchen sink at players.
Kirby's powers are diluted when spread out across four players, yielding a more carefree experience.
Because the game puts no emphasis on leveling up your kingdom, the majority of the side missions feel aimless.
Fe is filled with rote tasks, and its hyper-stylized imagery impedes attempts at emotional connection.
What separates Celeste from masochistic games like The End Is Nigh is that it's not bleak or unyielding.
By keeping things so simple, the game is able to keep our focus entirely on the joy of discovery.
The game sacrifices specificity of environment, story, and characterization so as to ensure that the car is king.
It aims to tell a story of the brotherhood of soldiers, but it's ill-served by undeveloped characterizations.
In single-player or multiplayer, Hidden Agenda is a game in which winning almost always feels like losing.
Knack 2 falters when it stops reinventing elements from other games and starts cannibalizing itself.
When the game settles into straightforward action, it comes across as a retread of past Uncharted entries.