Justin Oneil's Reviews
Squish is an easy to pick-up and play party game with some nice visuals and tunes but it doesn’t have enough meat on its gooey bones for me to fully recommend it. There is nothing here for solo players to enjoy and it is near impossible to find anyone online to play with either. It can be fun to play it locally with other players but with only a few different modes that mostly play the same and nothing to unlock you’ll likely move on from this one pretty quickly.
If you’re a fan of turn-based RPGs, XCOM, and games where you have to make tough choices then The Hand of Merlin will likely be for you. All of the systems at play here can be a bit much to wrap your head around at first but the more you stick with it the more you’ll enjoy it. It isn’t a very pretty game and control wise it is probably best experienced on PC but it is still perfectly playable on console.
Sonic Origins contains the best Sonic games ever made but a lack of features, games, and new music holds it back from greatness. If Origins would’ve had more Sonic games in it along with things like save states and a rewind option than it would be a better package. The new music in Sonic 3 is also a letdown when compared to the original tracks. There is still a lot here to love though like the new animated cutscenes, the challenge system, and the new aspect ratio for these games. While Sonic Origins is a fine way to celebrate the series, the blue blur deserves a little bit better after everything he has been through over recent years.
Zorro the Chronicles is a solid family-friendly action-adventure game but one that is mainly aimed at younger players. If you got a young gamer who enjoys the types of titles that Outright Games puts out then they will most likely enjoy this one too. Anyone older will likely find the gameplay to be too simple and repetitive to get much enjoyment out of it.
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is a flashy and fun anime arena fighter. The story mode is done so well that both veterans of the series and newcomers can jump right in and enjoy it equally. The visuals and voice acting are also top notch and extremely faithful to the source material. I’ll also be jumping back into it later this year when various characters from the Entertainment District Arc get added to it such as the flashy Uzui. If you don’t typically enjoy these arena fighters than this one won’t do anything to change your mind but for those who do or are just pure Demon Slayer fans you are in for a treat.
Destroy All Humans! Clone Carnage seemed like a good idea on paper but the execution just didn’t go well at all. The game is struggling to find an online audience and it doesn’t have much meat on its bones either to keep people around. I really think this should’ve either been released as a free-to-play game or bundled with the new game coming out soon (although it is free if you pre-order it). I loved the first remake and am looking forward to the remake of the second game but Clone Carnage simply isn’t worth your time while we wait for Reprobed to get here.
TEN – Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds is a brutal 2D platformer that has no qualms about punishing you over and over again. It will require you to make precise movements and memorize room layouts in order to conquer all that it has to offer. That admittedly isn’t much as the game is fairly short but considering it’s only a few dollars you should get plenty enough out of it for that.
Square Keeper is an enjoyable enough dungeon crawler with a card twist but needs a bit more going for it to really stand out. There isn’t much variety in the cards or enemies and you’ll quickly see all that this one has to offer.
Wonder Boy Collection is another nice collection of classic games from ININ Games but one that has some downsides. Not only is it missing important entries like Monster Boy III but the physical version releasing later has more to offer than the digital version. If you don’t care about that though you still are getting four pretty good entries here and with some nice quality of life additions like save states and rewind there has never been a better time to experience these titles.
Super Perils of Baking is a fun and family-friendly 2D platformer that can provide hours of enjoyment. It doesn’t do anything new really but it borrows ideas from many platformer greats to create a fun experience of its own. Even if you played the original game back in 2018, I recommend playing this one too as the team did a great job improving the look and adding enough new content to sink your teeth into.
Rage Among the Stars is a solid 2D pixel-art platformer that offers plenty of challenge but one that won’t last you but a brief time. It won’t cost you very much to buy it though so if you have a few dollars to spend on helping this little alien overcome some tough challenges while earning some easy trophies along the way then give it a go.
For a game made by one man, Remote Life is a very impressive shmup that any fan of the genre should check out. The twin-stick controls make it feel quite a bit different from other shmups and using all the different weapons on offer is a blast. The high-octane gameplay is also matched by some of the most impressive 3D visuals I’ve seen in a shoot ‘em up. While it has some issues in level design, Remote Life is still absolutely worth your time.
Pretty Girls: Speed is another casual anime girl card game that can be fun for a brief period of time but that’s all. There isn’t much to the gameplay but clicking a few buttons to place cards and doing that over and over gets quite repetitive. Fans of the card game Speed or trophy hunters will likely be the only ones that this appeals to.
TOKOYO: The Tower of Perpetuity is a challenging 2D roguelike platformer that has some neat ideas going for it. The tower layout changing daily for everyone in the world is cool and ensures that you’ll always have a new challenge to look forward to. It can get repetitive playing the same tower over and over during a day though so best to just dip in and out of this one if you want to get the most enjoyment out of it.
Blow & Fly is an OK physics puzzle game that will give you some brief fun but not much else after that. For a few dollars you’ll get to help this fish leap through some tricky levels and into toilets at the end of them while earning some easy trophies along the way.
If you call yourself a fan of bullet hell shoot ‘em ups then you owe it to yourself to play Rolling Gunner + Over Power. While there isn’t much here for extra modes what is here is an absolute action-packed treat. It’s got challenging gameplay, great art and sound design, and the Over Power DLC makes the game feel completely different to play from the base game. When people talk about what are some of the best shoot ‘em ups, Rolling Gunner deserves to be among them.
Mini Motorways is a puzzle game with a simple premise but one that I’ve grown quite addicted to. It doesn’t have a ton of content to play through but each time I attempted to build out the roads in one of these cities and failed, I was tempted to jump back in and try a different strategy. It’s the perfect type of game to just jump into when you have a few minutes here and there.
Cotton Fantasy is a great new entry in this classic shoot ‘em up franchise that should please any fan of the genre. It’s colorful, fun, and offers up a range of different playstyles thanks to the varied playable characters. My biggest gripes against it are that it just doesn’t have much for extra modes or gameplay features which could be a tough pill to swallow for those who see the current asking price. Whether you play it now or sometime in the future though, Cotton Fantasy is a great time and I hope we see further new entries in the franchise moving forward.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a fun and intriguing third-person investigation game but one that is also a tad disappointing in certain areas. The visuals leave a lot to be desired, the voice acting from a lot of the characters is poor, and some patches need to come along to fix some of the more annoying bugs. Outside of those things I really enjoyed how different each of the three Vampires felt and the number of ways situations could play out depending on information you found or how your skills are leveled. If you’re looking for a new game to play that has a lot of player choice then you’ll likely enjoy your time with Swansong.
RESEARCH and DESTROY is a quirky and fun turn-based strategy game but one that needs a bit more work fleshing out its ideas to be great. I really liked the cartoon horror vibe of it and planning out my moves but it just grew a bit too repetitive for me over time and having respawning enemies was a poor choice in my opinion. It’s perfectly playable solo but if you can this is one of those games best experienced in co-op.