Jed Whitaker's Reviews
If you're tired of shooting guns and swinging swords Yonder offers laid back palate cleansing cuteness in this open-world adventure.
I just wish I loved the rest of the game as much as I love the concept and art style. The music is repetitive and worse than what you'd hear on an elevator, and the randomness of the difficulty just isn't fun, at all. You could even say it's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
De Mambo isn't the next big fighting game, nor did it deliver on all its promised content from its Kickstarter as it had been stated there would be a Zelda II-like campaign mode which isn't here, instead replaced by the short stage-based solo mode. That being said, I like De Mambo alright. It's a fun distraction to casually play with friends -- be they competitive or casual -- and will perhaps help hold us all over till a proper Smash Bros. releases on the Switch; much like how the developers waited for a 3DS version. This is one fun little dance.
I'm a big fan of the art style, animation, and cute yet creepy nature of Bulb Boy that reminds me of cartoons from my childhood. Like for real, this is probably the closest thing we will ever get to a proper Courage the Cowardly Dog game, so if you have nostalgia for that show, pick this up. The two-hour length and lack of replayability will probably be a turnoff for some, but if you're like me, you're desperate for content to play on your Nintendo Switch and for $9 you could do much, much worse. Trust me on that one.
For a title that is supposed to be $20, it would be hard to recommend That's You. At the low, low price of 'free' if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you might as well pick it up. If you miss your chance now, I'd say watch for it to go on sale in the sub $10 range, because while fun, it's one of those games you only want to play once in a while for one round when all your friends are available.
If you've got a hankering for a game with a stamina meter, sword swinging, and pot smashing, there is at least one other better title on the Nintendo Switch that I can think of, but Oceanhorn is an alright little throwback to retro Zelda titles that could help you bide your time between Nintendo's slow trickle of AAA games this year. Now, when do I get to play the sequel?
This just feels like an all around sloppy port that was quickly pushed out to try to score some cash off of Friday the 13th's bungled release. The console version doesn't even include all the download content released for PC, including the Halloween DLC with Michael Myers. The mouse-like controls in the menus, coupled with the fact that most all the actions are mapped to the triggers and shoulder buttons, makes it feel like whoever ported this doesn't play consoles to begin with (thankfully you can remap the controls). The bugs and ugly graphics might be excusable if the game were fun to play, but to me, it just isn't due to a lack of balance and the need to work with your team in an era where no one talks to strangers in online games anymore.
Monolith might sound like a million other indie games on Steam, but I just found that is a perfect goulash of cute, fun, challenging, and addictive. I've been doing run after run with no hesitation, back to back, over and over; and I'm still not tired of it.
The story threatens to be interesting, but is laughably bad, as is the dialogue in the game (such as the lady who constantly talks about being "punished"). I'll give it this, it has a pretty cool version of Moonlight Sonata as part of its soundtrack. At least Phantom Dust dared to try something different, which is more than can be said for most AAA games these days.
Astro Duel Deluxe is easily the least impressive game visually on the console, does little to nothing to show off your fancy new tech, and it isn't all that fun for more than half an hour at a time. I will say it has a decent soundtrack -- not "$15 for short bursts of gameplay" decent -- but pretty good.
Maybe I was expecting too much from Perception, but it doesn't deliver on any of its promises.
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is the must-play game for fans of the show that own a VR headset.
As you can see, for $15 you get not only a great game that deserves to sit alongside the Sonic the Hedgehog games as an equal, but a plethora of content and playtime. Spark the Electric Jester takes mechanics from two of my favorite series growing up and combines them into one fantastic game that deserves the recognition I'm giving it. It might be uglier than Freedom Planet, but otherwise, it is an all around better game.
I'm glad LocoRoco is back, even if it isn't as perfect as I remember it being when it first released 11 years ago. This remaster adds tilt controls, 4K/HD graphics, rumble, and surround sound, all for a reasonable price. If you've never played LocoRoco and you love cute games, now is the time. Those looking for a challenging game that will last them till the next big AAA release will want to look elsewhere.
STRAFE wants to be a shooter from the 1990s, but has worse mechanics than any of the games it hoped to imitate.
Full motion video games are making a comeback and you could do worse than the crime thriller Late Shift.
TumbleSeed is a game that I don't think I'll ever completely finish, but it's damn impressive for those that dare to stomach its difficulty. If you're the kind of person looking for a mostly skill based game that is brutally challenging, yet very entertaining, then TumbleSeed is for you. More casual players will want to save their money and sanity for games a bit more accessible to them. Honestly, the biggest mistake here is that the developers haven't offered multiple difficulties, which will surely limit the potential player base.
Little Nightmares is a one of a kind horror game that you need to play.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap not only introduces us to Wonder Girl, but adds beautifully reimagined hand drawn graphics, and the ability to seamlessly swap to the original game.
Flinthook is a fine video game that sunk its hooks into me with easy to pick up and play gameplay, a catchy soundtrack, and cute characters. It's easily a recommendable rogue-lite for any fans of the genre or platformers in general. Just don't expect the game to anchor you to your seat unless you're the kind of person that needs to uncover every piece of treasure possible. Even if you aren't, Flinthook is a dandy game, in space.