TJ Denzer's Reviews
GigaBash has a lot of fun elements to it. The monsters are quite varied and well-designed, in terms of both original creatures and obvious nods to classics. I also really enjoyed the battlegrounds, music, and stories (as short as the latter was). And that last note ultimately sums up my experience. In both gameplay modes and story, it doesn’t take a lot of time to see everything GigaBash has going on. Even so, if you can wrangle some buddies together either locally or online, GigaBash would make a solid addition to a party game night.
All in all, it’s a game I could lose hours on in the blink of an eye, just like it was the first day of the rest of my life. A, for excellence.
Between a compelling story, beautiful music, and deep combat system, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an awesome adventure for longtime fans and newcomers alike.
Frozenheim is quite a test of strategic resource management and combat tactics as you raise your settlement, make it self-sufficient, and defend it from outside forces. I really enjoyed the ability to diversify through clan types and the maps are just plain beautiful at all ends. Some resources are far more unwieldy than others, and players will likely find frustration learning how to keep the things they constantly need in check. However, for everything on offer, Frozenheim is a solid arrangement of primitive economics and warfare and should scratch an itch for anyone looking to enjoy a solid strategy experience, either solo or with friendly opponents.
Eyes in the Dark doesn’t exactly reinvent roguelites or twin stick shooters so much as it simply takes good parts of those things and ties it up neatly in a darkly humored style, both charming and creepy. The black and white art style, quirky soundtrack, and unique light-vs-dark elements are quite enjoyable. RNG can and will cut your runs short, and I think its permanent upgrade system is a bit too stingy to keep things moving along, but it’s still quite an amusing roguelite romp that will keep you cutting through the darkness on your way to discovering the mysteries of the Bloom family.
Between the well-adapted cast of characters, stages, and music from Dungeon Fighter Online, this is both a love letter to DFO fans, as well as a quality and accessible fighting game to boot. It will be interesting to see how much longevity this game has in it, though. Where some characters have risen to the top in past fighting games with enough exploration and discovery, DNF Duel feels a little too easy to crack. It’s the most unbalanced of any Arc System Works fighter I’ve played in recent memory, and that makes me concerned for its community health. That said, it’s still a fun fighting game to play with good offline modes to boot. If you want a good-looking fighter that doesn’t take too much practice to access and feel good about, or if you just love Dungeon Fighter Online and want to play a game that adapts it well, DNF Duel might be the brawler you’re looking for.
I really feel like anyone who has been through Three Houses would be doing themselves a disservice to skip Three Hopes. The story diverges enough to make each house a new adventure all its own and each of the paths has a vastly different array of battles to fight. Additionally, aspects of strategy, classes, skills, and camaraderie between characters have also made their way over and are implemented well here. I wish characters fought a bit more uniquely and that the game performed a bit better in docked mode, but outside of these complaints, Three Hopes feels like another solid example of what Omega Force can do when Nintendo entrusts its IP to the Musou dev.
I never thought we’d see love for Darkstalkers again outside of something like another Vs. Capcom game. Not only am I happy to have been wrong, but I’m glad it came in such generally high quality as Capcom has given us here in the Capcom Fighting Collection. More than that, having Red Earth, Cyberbots, and Super Puzzle Fighter alongside options like training modes, one-button specials, and other quality-of-life features is just excellent. I lament the lack of crossplay, and some might not be fond of the arcade-hard mentality of some of these games. Still, Capcom Fighting Collection is a delicious buffet of classic fighting goodness that plays quite well across the board.
Simply put, this might just be the ultimate intersection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom and beat ’em up arcade style
Spacelines from the Far Out was an unexpected delight. The premise itself is just bananas, but the execution is also excellent as you figure out what will get you from A to B with as few holes in your spacecraft as possible. The cartoonish visuals, music, and gameplay were excellent even if the game could be stressful, but overcoming its challenge to arrive at Gambulon V is glorious. I wish there was more variety in upgrades and ships, and that targeting when performing activities in cramped spots wasn’t so nitpicky. However, whether you’re alone or playing with friends, Spacelines from the Far Out feels like a zany approach to customer service and roguelike elements that should make for quite a few sessions of challenges and fun.
Some dizzying tricks and cheap, sudden encounters aside, Card Shark feels like a genuine and charming mystery interwoven into a very interesting series of mechanics mimicking the fascinating sleight of hand behind card tricks. Don’t get me wrong, the concepts won’t exactly give you the dexterity you need to do these tricks yourselves, but the proper utilization of them throughout the game was a fun aside to a story that’s really about digging into the backroom secrets of 18th century aristocracy. With fun animation, narrative, and music to sell that venture, Card Shark comes out with a purse that’s far more full than it is light.
Soundfall does quite a few things right. Its loot and shoot design set to a lot of good music is commendable. The tracks included in the game are of a wide variety and even if you get through the entire game, the ability to play levels to your own favorite music is pretty great (on PC). The problem is… Soundfall’s gear and enemies just aren’t all that compelling. The music and rhythmic gameplay are good enough to carry a lot of this game, but I can’t help but wish it had a more rewarding variety of gear to look forward to and enemies that didn’t quickly end up feeling like repetitive drones. Even so, if you can get down with a good rhythm action game alone or with friends, Soundfall might be worth it whether you play to its soundtrack or bring your own.
The idea of going back to a sort of Version 1.0 experience of Cities is actually enticing to me. Fast Travel Games has already promised that Cities: VR is set to grow over time with content updates and more. As it is, it’s still a great jumping off point for the VR adaptation. I once again lost myself in its urban management often as long as my headset would allow me to play. The planning and reacting to various events around your town is still fun to handle and the VR controls are good for it. All-in-all, Cities: VR might be a little limited to those who want everything the PC version has come to offer in terms of features and visuals, but still, it might be one of the most relaxing VR titles around right now and feels like it’s bound to only get better from here.
Salt and Sacrifice does a lot of cool things on top of the Soulsborne 2D action-platforming system created for the first game. The focus on hunting mages is a cool twist and getting their components and making new gear was the stuff that’s made Monster Hunter a blast for decades. Even then, there’s plenty to explore in each biome between the mage hunts. I’m not fond of collecting berries for my healing flask and I feel it can get unfair when mages team up on me. However, getting stronger and coming back with enough might that not even multiple mages could stop me made Salt and Sacrifice’s 2D Soulsborne exploration and mage fights an intoxicating quest to wield the very power I was hunting.
The original Rogue Legacy was an incredible step forward for rogue-lite games. It helped to establish a lot of cool elements that games after it would mimic in many ways. I wouldn’t say Rogue Legacy 2 reinvents the wheel here. Instead, it polishes that wheel to a sheen, gives it fresh treads, some fancy spinners, and makes it an all-around better version of the wheel we knew and loved. If you loved the first Rogue Legacy, then Rogue Legacy 2 is very likely to capture your heart as well. If you’re jumping into this series for the first time at Rogue Legacy 2, you’re in for one of the most fleshed out, fun, and varied rogue-lite action-platformers that the genre has to offer.
Throughout my time with Cosmonious High, I was regularly delighted by the colorful visuals, fun cast, interesting classes, and overall variety of activities in the game. Not only is this a solidly expanded adventure from the delightful experiences Owlchemy Labs has shown us in the past, but I think it’s the first time I’d ever specifically recommend a VR game to younger players. VR can be such a niche hobby, but Cosmonious High has all the charm and cheek of a good Nickelodeon kids show. Nothing is ever too complicated and you’re never tied down to a single task if you’d rather go explore something else. Put this altogether and Cosmonious High is a stellar VR adventure that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone.
Weird West very much lives up to its name. In each character’s journey, a wide tapestry of dark and spooky adventures play out across the Wild West. Monsters of both the human and occult variety are bound by the decisions you make, and those choices carry on to make each adventure in this take on the dusty unsettled frontier more interesting. I wish that the game didn’t push me to micromanage my inventory so much and that some critical quirks didn’t hamper the experience, but put those issues aside and it’s a deeply interesting narrative with more than its fair share of riveting shootouts and adventure.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is, first and foremost, beautiful. Its realistic city elements blended with the ethereal and supernatural create a cornucopia of amazing visuals and sound. Even when the hardware struggles to keep up sometimes, it’s never so much so that the game loses that sense of mystery and awe. Just as well, a big part of that is Tango Gameworks’ creative adaptation of Japanese mythology and lore. Their takes on monsters, demons, ghost stories, and various legends come to life in a massive variety of fascinating ways, whether it’s the situations you encounter, the ways you fight against them, or the elements that aid you.
Phantom Breaker: Omnia is a really interesting anime fighting game with an eclectic cast of characters, even if some of those characters’ art styles look strange and out of place. An interesting and easy-to-understand fighting system also means being able to specialize any given character with the game’s three systems and further boosting playstyle variety. Some might be taken aback by the simplicity of inputs, but there’s still plenty of strategy and mastery of characters to be had.
Chocobo GP is a really great flavor for the kart-racing genre. Not only is it a fine collection of Final Fantasy franchise memories in one place, but it uses them nicely as well.