Wyatt Daniels
Ninja Pizza Girl showed a lot of promise. The gameplay was solid enough, a lot of the music choices were great, and there were funny and quirky ideas. Unfortunately, the game frustrated me in several other areas. While the game had many rough edges, I still saw charm and effort put forth by Disparity Games.
Risk: Urban Assault, while flawed and bare-bones, has renewed my interest in Risk. Risk’s biggest issue, pacing, is only half-solved in Urban Assault with the “Fast AI” system. Most Disappointingly though, it lacks any semblance of a campaign
While all MOBAs have gone one direction, Awesomenauts Assemble! is still – after all these years – one of a kind. Its 2D platforming and overall accessibility make it great for kids, people new to the genre, and MOBA aficionados looking for a cool distraction from their main game.
Jotun isn’t a long game by any means, but it packs in a lot. The diverse environments are beautiful, the boss fights are expertly designed, and Norse mythology is just cool. It also tells a personal story that makes the ride all the more enjoyable.
I admire Dear Esther for what it did, when it did it. It was a novel concept that came from the humblest of beginnings. Unfortunately, the product of it all is short and unenjoyable. It feels like a dream in the worst way. It’s confusing, fatiguing, and the feeling of relief comes when it’s over. In that way, they couldn’t have done a better job.
Eliminating the rough edges and making the leveling up actually fun and frequent would go a long way to improving Rogue Stormers. It drips compelling things every now and then, but those don’t justify all the grind and frustration that lords over them.
Saying that the later levels in HoPiko require precision would be a gross understatement – they require absolute perfection in timing and all else. Some may like that about it, but no one will enjoy dying randomly and starting over on levels they’ve completed a dozen times already.
Nebulous is a challenging puzzle game that allows for creativity and freedom in completing the levels. There are aspects of the game that are unnecessary and there are a few polish issues, but what remains is a game with more than one unique idea.
Pixel Heroes: Byte and Magic simply decides when it's your time to die and doesn't equip you with enough tools for a fair fight. The combat is not strategic enough to justify the difficulty. The characters fleeting charm doesn't justify the headache.
I feel confident in saying that Subject 13 is adequate and passable to those who enjoy the more open and complicated variety of adventure games, especially for the asking price. For me, the back half's frustration far outweighed all the other things that it had going for it. Adventure games of this kind – of any production value – just don't seem to be my thing.
Typoman: Revised creates a unique and clever experience that ends just in time to salvage a positive experience. The game may not be perfect, like Limbo, but it still looks and plays great, has a message that resonates, and is a genuine surprise in its own right.
Troll and I was a miserable experience in just about every way imaginable. There are technical problems abound and the sum parts of its design baffle. Don't play it out of curiosity, you won't enjoy it.
When I started playing Talent Not Included, I was blown away by its tight controls and stage setting. Towards the end, I was still enjoying it, but my enthusiasm waned considerably compared to where it once was. Still, its unique presentation and complementary design does make for a good time.
At times I could see the appeal, but there's just too many core problems with this game to recommend it to anyone who hasn't already immersed themselves in the series. The mixture of boredom and confusion made me wish I was doing just about anything else.
Portal Knights certainly takes inspiration from Minecraft, but does enough different to stand on its own. It's procedurally generated environments and visuals impress the most, which make for a nice laid-back adventure.
The town of light does some really unique and innovative things for the horror genre but its adventure game aspects are simultaneously mundane and confusing. Still, its real-life horrors stick with you longer than the more fantastical and gruesome images that are commonly seen in other games.
Prison Architect allows for freedom and creativity with its deep simulation systems and the multitude of player options. Players may become surprisingly invested in their prison and in their prisoners, something that can only be achieved by letting them mess with every small detail.
Despite the outside-the-box premise and the unboxing mechanic, this package is a by-the-numbers platformer with a few rough edges. 'Feel' is a huge part of a platformer and in that regard, Unbox: Newbies Adventure is fine for the majority of the time, that is, until the physics decide to freak out.
Chromagun is videogame love letter to Portal, with an entirely different and unique puzzle mechanic. It may have made a bad first impression in its pre-release version, but eventually won me over. It's a game I have a lot of confidence in recommending to puzzle game fans.
Feral Fury plays it safe in many ways, but it also plays well, runs well, and does enough to satisfy the roguelike enthusiast. It isn't crazy enough or unique enough to recommend to anyone who isn't already a fan of the genre, though. The laziness in the world-building was also a key disappointment.