Evan Norris's Reviews
Despite the lack of ancillary features, Volume 3 is the best installment of the Irem Collection so far. Not only are the games here rarer than in earlier volumes, but they're better. Indeed, there isn't a bad one in the bunch; all of the titles range from good to great. If you're a diehard shoot-'em-up fan on a budget who wants to invest only in a single volume, make it this one.
By retaining the core components of the franchise — farming, fighting, and flirting — and infusing them with addictive town planning and people management aspects, deeper tactical and strategic combat options, and more meaningful romance pathways, Marvelous has pushed the franchise forward in a bold new direction.
Judged on its own mechanics, systems, and merits, it's a brilliant racing game, a GotY contender, and one of the finest entries in the entire Mario Kart canon, not to mention another in a long line of exceptional launch titles from Nintendo.
Survival Kids on Switch 2 is a middling game — not because it doesn't follow the template of the Game Boy original exactly, but because it fails to leverage its rules and mechanics in interesting, engaging, and dangerous ways. As it stands now, it's fine for younger and less experienced players, but not ideal for those seeking something more involved, challenging, and long-lasting.
If Fast Fusion featured online multiplayer, better image quality, and 6 or 7 more race tracks, it would enter the game-of-the-year conversation. Even without those things, it's yet another gem from Shin'en Multimedia. The Munich-based studio has once again punched above its weight, delivering a blisteringly fast, mechanically nimble futuristic racer with outstanding track design and excellent music.
No matter how you experience Capcom Fighting Collection 2 — online or offline, in single-player bouts against CPU opponents, or in versus mode against human rivals — you're likely to have a good time.
Going into Deliver At All Costs, you would understandably assume it was mostly about driving, destruction, and Grand Theft Auto-esque high jinks. And for its opening hours — its best hours — it is. But the game quietly and gradually moves away from open-world mayhem toward a more focused, intimate narrative adventure, gaining emotional heft but losing some ingenuity and player freedom in the process.
Last Defense Academy has a lot of disparate parts working simultaneously, but it never creates any sort of disharmony. If anything, the visual novel, turn-based strategy, resource collection, and relationship management aspects complement and reinforce each other, creating a product far greater than the sum of its parts.
All the things that made the game special in 2015 — extraordinary world-building, impossibly deep role-playing systems, an obscene amount of content, and a unique gameplay loop that at times straddles the line between RPG and MMO — are present here, along with new story elements, mechanics, and quality-of-life updates.
It doesn't compare favorably to the better run-and-gun and shoot-'em-up titles from the fourth generation. That said, it's an absolute work of art from a technological and artistic point of view. If you're interested in the history of game design, especially in SNES assembly coding and pre-rendered 3D graphics, and you love tough-as-nails 90s-era shooters, this new release has a lot to offer.
Some of the warts from the originals remain, but they don't detract significantly from the overall experience. If you're even the slightest bit serious about 90s-era role-playing games, you need to add this package to your collection.
While this version isn't perfect — it carries over the original's limited interactivity and introduces some new localization issues — it remains required playing for visual novel aficionados, due to its mysterious storyline, heady science-fiction ideas, lovable characters, huge replay value, extraordinary voiceover work, and evocative music. Even those lukewarm on the genre should give it a try.
If you're looking for a mysterious visual novel with shocking twists and provocative ideas about science, technology, and what it means to be human, you can't go wrong with Ever 17.
Players now have the golden opportunity to try one of the better games on GBA without taking out a second mortgage to do so. Before they do, though, they should understand that this is essentially an enhanced port, not a remaster or remake. If they reconcile themselves with that reality, and prepare for the game's short running time and old-school level of difficulty, they'll be in for a very good time.
As a preservation effort, the Early Days Collection deserves a big round of applause... judged on its software and features, however, it's less impressive. Ultimately, the compilation is best suited for collectors, historians, and older Yu-Gi-Oh! fans interested in reliving fond memories of their own early days.
In the end, Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is less essential than last year's Tomb Raider collection, entirely because the games are inferior. While The Last Revelation remains one of the franchise's better entries, Chronicles is merely decent, and The Angel of Darkness is subpar. Still, thanks to control and graphics options, paired with the 60 fps boost, this newest compilation represents the superior way to experience these titles.
While this remake introduces many worthwhile additions — remade sprites, remastered music, helpful quality-of-life upgrades, and a brand new co-op offering — it doesn't do anything to remedy the original's balance issues or elevate its rudimentary scoring system.
Although it's not the celebration DK deserves, it represents the finest version of the game.
Shooting Insight is a remarkably solid space shooter, both for Macross fans and shoot-'em-up players without any allegiance to the anime.
If you're looking for a low-stakes, relaxing life sim to carry you over to 2027, or whenever Nintendo decides to release the sequel to New Horizons, you could do a lot worse than Hello Kitty Island Adventure. It's colorful and cozy, and packed with things to do and discover — as long as you can overcome its faults.