Alex Santa Maria's Reviews
Whether you’re alone, with friends, or living in a box, Trine 4 is an old school co-op adventure worth taking.
With only a scant amount of truly unique experiences coming to the few reaming arcades in America, it is great that Killer Queen Black exists.
Picking up exactly where the Shenmue franchise left off in 2001, Shenmue 3 is a marvel of persistence and vision.
Darksiders Genesis masterfully shrinks down the long-running franchise into a top-down action game that’s just plain fun to play.
Like each campaign before it, King Knight’s quest is a uniquely thrilling 2D experience that needs no asterisk assigned to any praise. This isn’t a retro throwback or an NES hanger-on, but a masterful platforming action that stands up to any and all contemporaries.
Darwin Project isn’t an also-ran, it’s a trendsetter, and anyone still interesting in dropping in hot should take notice.
Rocket Arena offers fun that's fit for all ages.
Fight Crab's insane crab combat surprisingly works.
Planet Coaster on consoles is a game defined by its PC counterpart. It's slightly reduced in content but almost equal in complexity, for better or worse. We live in an age beyond console-specific PC ports like Civilization Revolution and Battlefield: Bad Company, but it still would have been great to see some console optimization for those looking for a plug-and-play experience in the living room. However, if players really want to dig into a huge sandbox of theme park creation, Planet Coaster is a deep and joyous rabbit hole that's worth an Annual Pass.
All food, sleep, and play make Red & Blue happy.
The Apple Arcade showpiece arrives on Nintendo's portable.
Deftly dodge space debris in Habroxia 2.
SamSho just got smoother.
The main takeaway from Star Wars: Republic Commando's rerelease is that this game is a great addition to Switch in spite of its flaws. Even players who don't consider themselves Star Wars fans will find a lot to like in this sci-fi war story. The squad gameplay was ahead of its time and still excels today alongside the excellent AI. The most obvious element that's aged about this game is its graphics, and that annoyance fades quickly once the lasers start flying. Republic Commando was one of the best Star Wars games of its time when it arrived in 2005, and despite over 16 years passing since then, it remains a captivating and engaging title in 2021.
Melee mastery with a side of screaming.
In a genre where many feel that they've seen it all, Curved Space succeeds in providing something new. The titular curves may not be a huge innovation, but the game borrows enough from its procedural cousins to make its shooting feel refreshing. Curved Space likely isn't going to win over anyone who prefers something more than a high score chase, but anyone cruising a list of ROMs more than a digital storefront will probably want to give this one a look.
This one small change from anonymity to recognizability makes Watch Dogs: Legion - Bloodline a vital addition. It's the best story content in the series since Watch Dogs 2's main campaign, and it effectively redeems the story of the original game by acknowledging the cognitive dissonance of Aiden Pearce's rampage through Chicago. Anyone who jumped on with the second game likely won't get a lot out of these revelations, and it's still probably not a great idea to spend 40 hours with 2014's vision of a hacker just to play this DLC, but anyone who's been with Watch Dogs since the beginning will find a lot to like here.
Shadowverse: Champion's Battle isn't going to be remembered as a game of the year candidate, and fans of the original game will likely have more fun continuing to play on phones rather than giving this a shot. However, for fans of the anime and those who enjoy a good family-friendly JRPG, Cygames has put together a well-rounded experience that shouldn't be ignored. It's fun to spend a few dozen hours remembering how engrossing an absurd story about a group of friends saving the world with card games can be, and Shadowverse: Champion's Battle does that better than most.
Thankfully, there is enough in WarioWare: Get It Together to keep fans plugging away at high scores and microgame mastery. The character movement can make some of the games far too simplistic when compared to the timing-based gameplay of past series entries and in the similar Rhythm Heaven series. However, the trade-off in pure variety makes for microgames that keep players on their toes for far longer, and anything that keeps the WarioWare train going is a good thing. Even after excising the baffling online mode, this is the same great WarioWare experience on a platform that lets players bring it to the couch and share Wario's distinctive brand of gaming with friends and family.
Overall, Lemnis Gate brings a lot of innovation to the table, surpassing its time travel rival to present a strategic FPS that's well worth some attention. While held back by a lack of modes outside of online multiplayer and an outdated presentation, launching on the hugely successful Xbox Game Pass service makes the game palatable to those with an existing subscription. Whether it's jumping into an online lobby or gathering a group of friends for private matchmaking, there's nothing else quite like Lemnis Gate on console, and it's well worth a look for anyone who wants to see one possible future of the FPS genre.