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.
In spite of the wacky and colorful art design, Shikhondo: Soul Eater is a bland and unfulfilling experience. The gameplay is just okay, and there are no hooks that give this Flatline a heartbeat.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My Hero One’s Justice is not a poor offering, just a thoroughly uneven one that only the hardest-core Manga fans will be able to immerse themselves into. I enjoyed the fast-paced, accessible fighting with an art style that looks great in action, but everything around that gameplay leaves things to be desired.
In this particular version of the Conan the barbarian, the world was too dull and unpolished to lure me in. The crafting system – while confusing – is unquestionably deep, which enabled me to build some cool things in an environment that offered no true variety or immersion.
Knights of Azure 2 was not an awful experience, just a thoroughly mediocre one. Combat is dull and simplistic; game performance lacks; many of its systems never amount to much and – its visuals are likely held back by the Vita, a device that westerners forgot about 5 years ago.
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.
Many aspects of Time Recoil show potential, but the only part that is actualized is its gameplay. The typically confusing time-travel plot impedes enjoyment as does the randomness in levels, which nearly diminishes that stellar gameplay.
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.
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.
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
Candle: The Power of the Flame is a beautiful game with a charming and emotionally resonant story.
With Pit People, Behemoth tried something new and was only partially successful. It has excellent art design, unique world-building and some truly funny moments, but the problems with its combat and structure hinder what could be a hit. Understandably, the game's weakest parts are those that the studio doesn't have much experience with.
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.
Riddled Corpses' solid gameplay and faithful "retro feel" mostly make up for a limited and sometimes disappointing progression system. It's likely to please those who don't mind grinding as well as those who enjoy a challenge – superficial and linear as it may be.