Aaron Potter
Ultra Despair Girls' loop of exploring dungeon-like areas, mowing down waves of Monokuma bots, and switching between the ranged combat of Komaru and melee barrages of Genocide Jack… means you've got a third person shooter unlike any other.
The few interesting ideas Zombeer has with regards to art-style, setting and voice talent, are all squandered due to an overall lack of presentation and polish.
Jump into Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception expecting a traditional Japanese visual novel experience, and you'll no doubt be a little disappointed… but look past its intermittent battle sections and there's a fulfilling character-driven tale just waiting to be uncovered.
Last Stitch Goodnight carves out its own unique place in the metroidvania genre, largely thanks to its whimsical take on presentation, puzzle-solving, and narrative.
There is a great adventure game here just begging to be broken out, however for now as Syberia 3 stands, Kate Walker's story is one best left washed ashore.
What Flinthook might lack in lore, story, and cohesion, it more than makes up for with its boatload of personality and style, all of which find themselves backed up by some of the smoothest 2D platforming gameplay around.
A Rose in the Twilight is best described on the surface as being an undeniably bleak, somewhat charming, but consistently creative 2D puzzle platforming experience.
Blue Collar Astronaut is an experience that is simply devoid of any merit or creativity, and I very much doubt any player will find it at all fair or enjoyable.
What it may lack in narrative development, Styx: Shards of Darkness more than makes up for in its near-faultless gameplay that stands out as a prime example of stealth design done right.
If you give Sublevel Zero Redux the time it deserves, you won’t be able to help falling in love with its approach to upgrades and consistent unrelenting challenge.
Despite its few narrative drawbacks, Uncanny Valley remains a genuinely creepy and interesting indie horror experience, and one that should be applauded for its unique consequence system.
Whereas particular genre elements and features make a point of setting it in the past, 2064: Read Only Memories‘ outlook and perspective firmly place it as one of the best point and click adventure games of late.
For all of Aqua Moto Racing Utopia’s light sense of fun and nostalgic reminiscence of past games like Wave Race 64 and Jet Moto, the act of taking to the waves is unfortunately tarnished by some frustratingly aggressive AI and a general lack of polish.
Whereas particular genre elements and features make a point of setting it in the past, 2064: Read Only Memories‘ outlook and perspective firmly place it as one of the best point and click adventure games of late.
Rolling Bob, though by no means groundbreaking, is perhaps best described as harmless side-scrolling fun. It may not excel in the visual department and may suffer from some technical issues early on, but when knee-deep in one of the game’s fun puzzle-platformer levels it’s hard not to find yourself tense and gripped.
Killing Floor 2 is an in-depth shooting gore-fest of an experience whose addictive gunplay won’t fail to keep you coming back for more!
Even with fairly decent driving gameplay and a somewhat unique career progression system, Moto Racer 4 simply doesn’t do enough to wow veteran racing game fans or woo in newcomers who might be tempted to put pedal to the metal.
Despite a couple of niggles, Xenoraid is an excellent example of how a modern top down spaceship shooter should be done, purposefully going out of its way to do something a little bit different.
Even with an overblown story mode that sees the action take a back seat, Blazblue: Central Fiction is a solid entry in the eccentric franchise and a remarkably decent fighting game.
If you enjoy score-chasing, levelling and some seriously hard enemy waves towards the latter halves of your games, Castle Invasion: Throne Out is a neat little package.