Daniel Bischoff
Thankfully, Triple Deluxe doesn't save the best for last and instead sprinkles it throughout the adventure like a good Dream Star should. If you've been following the franchise for years, you'll love this title and if this is your first shot at Kirby's brand of suck, don't be scared. While this review may have been a mouthful, breathing enemies in and out will come naturally.
I've played enough Mario Kart in my life to know that this is the best version of the venerable kart-racer since the Nintendo 64 era.
These missteps get corrected through truly next-gen multiplayer that'll pervade the experience if you let it, along with gobs of side-objectives, collectables, augmented reality games like NVZN (third-person alien blasting around the city), and digital trips that allow Ubisoft to add fantastic elements like the Spider tank. The focus on setting up Watch Dogs as a new franchise will pay off in the years to come, but it does come at the main game's expense.
Tomodachi Life does its best to cut through a lot of society's hateful garbage to produce an incredible island paradise of distraction and more often than not succeeds, but not without stumbling all over itself, revealing too many embarrassing inner thoughts. Just like that kid in gym class, it's possible to cross a line trying to prove a point. There's no progress in Tomodachi Life without you and maybe that's to the game's advantage. It puts no pressure on you to keep playing if you really hate the game, but revisiting your island paradise later won't leave you feeling guilty since you don't have to worry about picking a bunch of weeds.
Even at less than two hours of playtime, I can't complain when it costs more to go to a movie. In that way, Entwined feels like Journey and that's high praise for upstart developer Pixelopus.
While less emphasis on DLC, a practice mode, and a better explanation of the submission game would have been helpful, EA Sports UFC gets a no-contest from this reviewer. It doesn't hurt that there's no other MMA game to compete against, much less on PlayStation 4, but the game's presentation has all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a fully loaded fight card. You'll have to stop short of beating the virtual opponent in front of you to death, but bruises and blood will leave you feeling like your TV just fell on you and got the clinch in two moves.
Knowing your role makes Intercept one of the better cooperative experiences available on PlayStation 4 right now.
As with any adventure game, you might feel like you need to backtrack a little too much, though the potential for getting stuck is severely limited by a generous hint system. Valiant Hearts could very well be the most poignant World War I game ever made, especially as it tells a tale from both sides of the conflict without getting bogged down in the unnecessarily stupid allegiances and battles that wasted thousands of precious lives.
[W]ith persistent cooperative play and plenty of exploration, genuinely fun combat, and gorgeous 1080p graphics, it's hard to find a better value for your digital currency of choice.
People love scores, the score here isn't changing.
Try not to approach Hohokum with the mind to "complete it" or "solve it" as many avid players like to treat their video games. Instead, try to think of the experience as a lesson in how games still manage to combine music and moving visuals to instill an artistic push in another.
If CounterSpy doesn't look like the kind of game you'd want to play, don't. Even for indie fanatics it's missable, though I doubt you'd want to give up the visuals or the procedurally generated levels.
With all the playtime, all the free updates, all the unique class-changing items, and the online community that will surely stick with the game post-launch you'd have trouble finding a game with much more to offer.
Her imprisonment and Sucker Punch's use of a familiar location at the crux of this story breathe new life into neon-powered gameplay loops that had already proven themselves one of the best open-world mechanics yet.
Whether or not the horn sounds on home ice, every goal will give the fan in you the same satisfaction as if the game were live right in front of you.
Give Destiny a try if you like the idea of cooperation blended evenly with competition. The truth remains in its satisfyingly responsive mechanics, relatively forgiving checkpoint systems, competitive multiplayer, and the opportunity to blast away a million and one guys if that's what your story really needs to framed around. If not, there's always a beautiful sunset behind the Traveler in the tower.
Hyrule Warriors benefits from allowing the Zelda series to take some big risks. Even if the graphics and gameplay feel like a generation late and a few stellar dungeon designs short, I'd like more third-party developers to pitch projects like this as each leaves me more hopeful that Nintendo consoles won't have rely on strictly first-party wares.
There is a time and a place for decisive tactics aimed solely at victory, though Minimum hopes to draw a line in the sand. Then, it hopes to add a few 90 degree angles and complete a box. Then, it asks you to put a bullet through that box guy's head. It's up to you whether you decide to follow through with that or try the flaming swords.
Middle-earth just wants the player to explore it like a playground. You can climb up structures, leap from them to tackle a wild creature of the land, and even enlist your own group to drive the dramas that ensue. Shadow of Mordor paints the pictures that rest somewhere between bookends.
Even if you're likely to move onto the console version or you don't play your 3DS much, this edition of the venerable brawling series offers everything you could want and will likely become a standard bearer for the platform.