This game whips; go play it.
Little Noah is a blast, thanks to its depth, variety, and dangerously wholesome vibes.
These are excellent games that deserved and still deserve better. But it’s great to have them and play them again without dragging out a PS2.
In terms of scale and structure, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is the most impressive Nintendo/Musou crossover yet. And possibly one of the most successful Musou collabs in general in terms of replicating the vibe.
Metal Max Xeno Reborn is a totally fine game with awesome tank tinkering and a cool dog that straps a machine gun to its back and draws power from its bodily fluids. But if you’ve played the original Metal Max Xeno, you might be more confused than hyped. It’s more of the cool tank stuff, but a dramatic shift in style and tone that just makes the weird low budget JRPG feel like a weird low budget JRPG in a different way.
Underwhelming content offerings and bizarrely imbalanced CPU players make single player a no-go. And without the variance or roster of its peers, multiplayer can’t carry all that weight.
If you want an easy way to play the first few Sonic games on your TV and have a good experience, Sonic Origins is exactly that, with some cool extras to sweeten the deal.
The Sickos need love every now and then. Capcom Fighting Collection is a weird, wonderful compilation that never would’ve existed ten years ago. And at the very least for the broader fighter audience, Red Earth is cool as hell and arguably worth the price of admission by itself.
Shredder’s Revenge feels like it was made by people just like me, for whom Turtles in Time was a formative experience. It’s like a tidal wave of nostalgia crashing into technological advancements, new ideas, evolved talent, reverence and a dash of ironic self-deprecation.
This one’s a cute, little side-scrolling JRPG that’s mostly here to introduce the world and have a good time. And yeah, that tracks.
If you’re jonesing for some super niche JRPG grinding time, we definitely recommend Volume 2 if you can only get one. Makai Kingdom is a goofy romp that’s different enough from Disgaea to stand out, and Z.H.P. is just utterly unhinged in the best ways.
It’s a fascinating game that has a little more of a brain compared to its peers, but it is admittedly missing a wow factor or compelling hook to really drive the experience home
The writing team at Square Enix fed the 1987 Famicom classic Final Fantasy through a wood chipper running on a neural network forced to watch Army of Darkness more times than I did in high school. This game’s scenario popped out and it’s wild, awesome and hilarious.
If being screamed at by giant crows appeals to you, then boy howdy here’s a videogame for you specifically.
So while some of the older game vibe hurts it some, there’s also a lot to this game that simply isn’t in other ArcSys or anime fighters. That helps this game retain its identity and stand as a must-play for Persona fans. Once rollback kicks in, there’s a good argument to be made for keeping Ultimax going for years to come.
Atelier Sophie 2 resulted from Gust dropping the first game in an alchemy pot and boosting its quality and traits. It’s an interesting dedication to a years-old Atelier, revisiting systems even if they seem “dated” compared to the Ryza games, but altering them to still bring some flavor and iteration to the table.
So that’s Monark, a game that really doesn’t do much for me. But at the same time it’s a fascinating game that wants to do things a little differently. You won’t play another JRPG operating like Monark anytime soon. Monark doesn’t hit the mark but it shows us there are folks in the industry taking these swings, even in historied spaces like JRPGs. And there’s a demo, so I sincerely reccommend giving that a whirl and seeing what you think.
This is definitely the best KOF has ever been in 3D, and as a newcomer to actually learning how to play well, I’ve had a blast.
With a high barrier to entry and not much of a story to tell, Sifu is going to have a limited audience. That audience will love it, but a lot of curious onlookers will be turned away at the door.
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash is definitely one of the most celebrated cult classics in the NGPC library, and starting the year off with it feels like a smart move.