Rise doesn’t feel like it needs a huge expansion to open it up. One may come in the future to expand the game even further, which would be awesome, but it’s already great as it is.
The lack of difficulty settings makes that a harder proposition, but I don’t want to dismiss the game outright simply because I didn’t have fun with the gameplay, when the core of the game is about celebrating a culture I’m not familiar with.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is as fun to play as it is beautiful to look at. I rarely have no critiques of a game, but this one is as good as I could imagine, aside from the aforementioned story beats that could have been a little more affecting. Moon Studios has proven themselves to be a talent worth watching for whatever they may do next.
In order to sell me on a new version of Cave Story in 2017, I needed to see a significant amount of new content—new weapons, new areas, new playable characters, new choices. Without any of those things, Cave Story+ is a short, simple, fun experience that doesn’t quite live up to the standard set by similar games in the time since Cave Story originally released.
Although it won’t last hundreds of hours like Spelunky or Binding of Isaac, and while it doesn’t have the amazing gameplay loop of Rogue Legacy that made me want to keep playing that game forever, Flinthook captures enough of the genre to satisfy that itch for a couple dozen hours.
With more work on the story and writing, Cosmic Star Heroine could have been an incredible game. At the very least, it contributes a fantastic new battle system to the world of old-school RPGs.