Evan Norris's Reviews
Despite the visual and mechanical creativity provided by its signature mutation hook, RAD never elevates itself among other rogue-lites on the market.
Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark is a rock-solid successor to games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre.
Tiresome combat scenarios, tedious backtracking, and a lack of transparency with consumables, accessories, and moves undermine its potential, but strong momentary gameplay and extraordinary production values help buoy the experience.
Oblique storytelling combines with comic book art, atmospheric music, engaging "pinbrawler" mechanics, and rewarding dungeon crawling gameplay to create one of the more memorable indie games of 2019.
A worthy successor to the computer RPGs of the late 90s and early 00s, and a fine example of an electronic Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
The opportunities for creative puzzle-solving few and far between, but it's fine for low-stakes couch co-op action.
Difficulty spikes and repetitive mission design prevent it from joining the ranks of From Software's modern-day masterpieces, but altogether it's a competent mech action game.
A nice one-stop shop for the most important adventures of the franchise.
This is a game worth trying—just not on Switch.
Streets of Rogue combines the experimental elements of Deus Ex with random world generation and permadeath to create a winning top-down rogue-lite.
Hyperlight Ultimate is a fun little non-shooter.
Super Mutant Alien Assault might be the Citizen Kane of Super Crate Box clones, but in the larger scope of video games it's more of a summer popcorn flick—diverting, good-looking, but ultimately lacking the depth to become a classic.
If you adore Contra, you will absolutely love this game.
Once again, ACE has taken two incompatible genres and merged them into a solid product.
A competent, corny role-playing game with a lively battle system, dozens of recruitable characters, some narrative woes, and too many game-ending crashes.
The Contra collection finishes Konami's 50th birthday bash in style.
By combining the legal proceedings of Ace Attorney with the visceral combat and open-world hijinks of Yakuza, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has turned in a new, but familiar property.
Gato Roboto is everything you'd expect from a Metroidvania and, importantly, everything you'd want.
It's not as refined or as well-paced as some of the stalwarts of the genre, and its story mode is a let-down, but it's still a clever puzzle-fighting hybrid with many different modes.
Taken as a whole this second part of Konami's year-long birthday celebration is a worthwhile trip to the past.