Exploring and watching the story pull itself together merely from interacting with objects is a difficult task that Ether One successfully pulls off with bravado.
A very basic and reductive way to describe Valley would be to say it’s a virtual jungle gym riddled with various toys and obstacles that are complemented well by the LEAF suit.
Valhalla is a dark and moody dystopic game with an infectious underlying optimism. It’s comfort food, a relaxed experience welcoming you with soothing music, cooly-colored visuals, casual conversation, and a calm sensation. This, mixed with its brilliant approach of telling a story through the experiences of its characters, makes it a smart and inventive new take on the science fiction visual novel.
Ratchet & Clank is a veritable power fantasy fueled by rockets and carried by specialty gadgets.
Soft Body is a bizarre, captivating puzzle action game with great visual effects and challenging gameplay.
Fast Racing Neo is a grueling, rewarding racer. The temptation to chuck a controller across the room after instantly jumping from first to last will likely strike a handful of times, and it's a bit thin on customization options, but when all of its high notes line up, Fast Racing Neo is an exhilarating, devilishly grueling game that absolutely pulses with energy.
It's a surprisingly faithful and endearing approximation of playing a pen-and-paper RPG like Dungeons and Dragons, taking core pieces of the culture and structure of a D&D game and stripping it down to basic, easy-to-understand mechanics.
Super Galaxy Squadron feels comfortingly like an arcade cabinet I might have once slipped a quarter into at the Pizza Hut down the road.
Whispering Willows wants you to learn its story, connect with its characters, and become engrossed in its world.
A Bird Story uses nuanced visual language to tell a wonderful, heartfelt story about friendship and loneliness.
It takes many cues from the classic shooters of old, cutting out the more superfluous mechanics and flourishes of today's shooters and instead focusing on brutal combat.
Using the interactive nature of a video game to great effect, This War of Mine brilliantly conveys this message by forcing the player to not only witness it, but to live it, experience it, and suffer through it firsthand.
It's a bold experience; one that takes itself seriously enough to present the player with often-mature subject matter, but subverts its heavy themes with well-timed dark comedy.
Velocity's emphasis on speed and item collection gives it an incredibly exhilarating feel.
It's as much a living homage as it is a natural successor to Nintendo's 2D Metroid games.