Gabs Tanner's Reviews
Cornerstone: The Song Of Tyrim covers all the basics of a fun title, but lacks the polish and finesse required to create a truly memorable experience.
NO THING is a surreal constant runner experience with simplistic gameplay mechanics that make it accessible to everyone. It’s still a title for eclectic tastes though, due to its abstract narration, weird visuals and difficult challenge level.
Leap of Fate is a rogue-lite title that brings together a lot of separate elements to create a very fun experience.
Despite some basic puzzles, and uninspiring characters, episode one of The Descendant is abundant in atmosphere. The title provides players with an engaging story that will leave them curious to know what happens next.
Deathsmiles manages to hit the perfect difficulty level so that both newcomers and old hats at the genre will find the challenge level they desire. The bullet patterns, crazy bosses, and badass protagonists all combine to create a fun experience, even if a run of the campaign can be completed in half an hour.
Hero and Daughter+ utilises an interesting core mechanic that makes for a refreshing RPG. Much of the combat and art style is straight from RPG Maker, which may put off a lot of players. However, the dialogue is full of humour, and there are plenty of optional side missions to keep things interesting, making the overall gameplay an engaging experience.
While the controls in Dub Dash are simple, beating stages is a challenge. Lovers of rhythm games may appreciate the variety and pacing of the stages, while those new to the genre will struggle to see later levels. When the music and gameplay match up, the game can be incredibly satisfying, but frustration kicks in from trying to complete levels with one life, in conjunction with some moments of unfair design.
Project X Zone 2's overall plot is pretty basic, but the focus is clearly meant to be on the numerous gaming characters, and their humorous banter with each other. The mixture of RPG combined with strategy and fighting in the combat gives the game a unique feel, even if the formula does get a bit repetitive at times.
Return to PopoloCrois is a charming RPG with a cute world, and characters, that players will find themselves getting attached to. While the basic combat is enjoyable, it can become repetitive if the random encounter rate is set too high. That being said, it is possible to break from the main quest at any point to go farming, befriend the local ladies, or complete side quests, that all work towards keeping the game fresh.
Adventures of Pip is a charming platformer, with an amusing story and world born from the game's central mechanic. The platforming and puzzles increase in difficulty with each level, while adding new challenges to keep the gameplay fresh. Some aspects of the platforming require a lot of precision, but this encourages players to improve their skills.
Between Me and The Night will draw in players with its atmosphere and puzzles, but may lose them with the confusing story. It has great variety between reality and a game-world, but a lack of depth limits player engagement and satisfaction.
Temple of Yog presents itself as an interesting roguelike title, promising a progression of characters, while enhancing a civilisation through the gameplay. A number of features are worth looking at, but the game in general could have done with more time in development. If the problems are fixed, and more variety added, it has the potential to be a great addition to the Wii U library.
Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is a 2D platformer with a retro game style. The title tries really hard to capture the difficulty of old NES games, as well as the character of the Angry Video Game Nerd. While the graphics, music, and controls are all fantastic, it falls a little short in the level design, story, and humour.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is an RPG that has players exploring the beautiful world of Mira, while helping the human race to survive on their new homeland. The story is slow to get going, but the game is packed full of side-quests and missions, meaning players will always find something to do. Meanwhile, the combat has an impressive amount of customisation, with a choice of weapons, skills, and classes, that allows the player to create fighting style tactics to suit their preferred play style.
Hard West is a strategy game that enjoys exploring its Wild West theme. There are strategy elements both in the RPG story segments, as well as the turn-based combat, which keeps the player invested. Unfortunately, too much time is spent outside of the gun-fights, and the RPG elements quickly get repetitive, meaning they end up being more filler than fun.
Freedom Planet is a fantastic fast platformer with lots of content. The three different playable characters all have different styles and levels, encouraging replayability, while the levels themselves include multiple pathways and hidden collectables. Any negatives are small, and easily forgotten about.
Mushihimesama may be on the short size with only five levels, but packs in a range of difficulty modes to make up for it. It is a fun game, which makes players feel over-powered while attempting to dodge beautiful and well-designed bullet patterns.
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water keeps the essence of previous titles in the franchise with its setting, story, art style and gameplay, while creating fantastic atmosphere and tension. However, the combat can be fiddly, while the necessity to traverse the same location multiple times, as well as the repeated information in the story text, may leave some players with a lacklustre experience.
The Park is a single player experience good for a short game with lots of tension. There is a minimal amount of actual horror or action, with the focus instead being on a psychological journey for the protagonist, while surrounding the player in a tense situation and environment.
Whispering Willows involves a lot of interesting concepts that unfortunately haven't been fully utilised. It's a pleasant experience that will keep players engaged for the few hours of gameplay it has, but the puzzles are very easy, while the tension and horror is lacking.