Jason Italic


52 games reviewed
71.2% of games recommended
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Essential - Velocity 2X
Oct 9, 2018

The actual story is pretty solid: After the events of the first game, one Lt. Kai Tana finds herself on the far side of a wormhole with vicious injuries. Her ship's repair systems attempt to keep her alive, integrating mechanical components into the very core of her being, and Kai eventually awakens to find herself with new abilities, and the would-be prisoner of an alien empire... This leads to the major twist of the gameplay. While the classic shmup gameplay is still here in spades, with the usual Velocity twists, 2x introduces a new element into the mix; sidescrolling platformer sections. At various points in stages, Kai can, and often must, exit her ship to go into a base and hunt down controls or resources.

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Essential - Splatoon 2
Jul 27, 2017

It's everything that made the first Splatoon good, but now there's more of it, there's new modes, and need I remind you, it's portable. A top-notch entry in what's fast becoming a beloved franchise.

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Essential - Yakuza Kiwami
Aug 20, 2017

Careful research, great character writing, and a stunning feeling of being true-to-life carried the original game far, and Yakuza Kiwami marries those qualities to more refined gameplay and slick HD graphics.

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Essential - Windjammers
Jan 20, 2019

Right here, right now, Windjammers is an excellent port of an absolutely amazing game. And while all the platforms are good, I think the Switch might be the single best platform for it. Between the easily learned mechanics, their smooth compatibility with a single Joycon, and the speed of a match, this is one of those games that is perfect for those magical moments where you just set the system down and start playing with someone.

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Essential - SteamWorld Dig 2
Sep 29, 2017

Steamworld Dig 2 is a top-notch game that so succeeds at what it set out to do, that calling it merely "retro-inspired" almost feels like an insult. It's a fantastic 2D title, and belongs in anyone's collection.

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May 29, 2018

Easily the best version of the game, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition comes so packed with content that it boggles the mind. It's a game well worth revisiting, and an amazing value if it's your first time visiting this take on the land of Hyrule. Don't let it slip you by.

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Dec 16, 2018

Super Smash Bros, as a series, has been...Not necessarily one of a kind, but of a rare breed, in how hard it's stuck in with only a few actual entries. If we consider the two forms of the previous entry to be a single game, this is only the fifth game in the series' almost 20 year history. In five games, we've gone from 12 characters to over 75. From Ness being the most obscure character in the roster, to god damn Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles being playable. His game only even came out in the US because of a fan campaign! And in that span, the series has managed to have five unique identities. The original N64 entry, and to a far greater extent Melee, are still played regularly and competitively to this day. It's the only series to my knowledge, to have actually held two separate main-stage slots for the EVO fighting game tournament for multiple years.

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Essential - Guacamelee! 2
Sep 15, 2018

The game actually puts more of a central focus on combat than a lot of Metroidvanias, too, with new areas often making you stop for a Lucha battle your first time through. These little combat challenges test various skills, from basic brawling to dealing with aerial foes to turning environmental hazards to your advantage. But where things get interesting, in my mind, is when you compare this to the first game. Because, see, I really liked the first Guacamelee. I thought it was a solid little game, but its single biggest problem was that it was slight and brief, over before I was done with it and kind of too easy for most of the experience. None of that is true in the sequel. Oh no. It starts off nice and low and lets you get used to things, but even early on, you've got these little optional challenge rooms to collect heart or mask pieces(for health and stamina, respectively) that give a real solid chunk of platforming to chew on. And the very last dungeon stands out as just plain brutal at times.

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Essential - Wargroove
Feb 22, 2019

So, Wargroove. It's a fantasy themed strategy RPG, built around commanding armies and claiming territory in a style more like RTSes than, say, Final Fantasy Tactics. It's a grid-based game with unit manufacturing, income, and objectives. Mechanically, how it works is pretty simple; You've got basically three kinds of buildings. Your stronghold, which if destroyed you lose the game; Unit-producing buildings; And villages, which produce money. At the start of a given match, you have a tiny little set of basics, just enough to start getting your first buildings locked down. Unlike the RTS comparison, here the buildings are all fixed, and you take a unit to them and capture them for your own use.

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Essential - SNK Gals' Fighter
May 12, 2020

So now we gotta talk the bananas part. Bananas in a good way. Gal Fighters originally did 2P via link cable. You both had to have a Neo Geo Pocket Color, and a copy of Gal Fighters on you, plus the cable. Yeah that's not happening. And in the modern day, it's made the game tragically difficult to enjoy properly. So how does the Switch port handle things?

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Oct 12, 2020

It's clean and crisp and plays like a dream. I can't remember a single time where I actually saw a framerate drop, or a resolution fall, or any of the usual performance thieving tricks...And while I'm not the most sensitive to these things, I can usually at least see it if I'm looking for it. Does it get there by seemingly pushing the Switch to its absolute limits? Sure. Does it sometimes leave things a bit at the ragged edge, just barely keeping from having to drop performance somehow? Sure thing. Does it matter? No! The only reason not to play this game is if you want to start with the first one. Which I can't speak to the Switch port of that one, but if it's even half as well done as this one, it's gonna be a plenty good experience.

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Oct 27, 2020

So where's that leave the whole package? That's the tricky part. As a set of games, these are great, right? If it's your first time playing these, or just your first time in like 20 years, you're gonna have a great time. The emulation is solid, I never had anything truly go wrong, and the stylization means these games hold up way better than a lot of their contemporaries. Sunshine's water effects still look absolutely gorgeous to this day, for instance, and even 64 has a bold, stylish charm that holds together.

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May 7, 2018

The mechanics are simple but solid. While the game ostensibly operates like a hack-and-slash, the actual beats of combat and of Thora's axe make it feel like anything but. This is a heavy weapon, one she has to shift back to a solid starting place after she swings it, or take a moment to lift it overhead to slam down. Rolling can get you quickly out of harm's way, but Thora needs a moment after just to reorient herself and get back on her feet. This is a human woman struggling to face challenges set by gods, and it feels like it.

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Recommended - Slime-san
Aug 2, 2017

A solid, straightforward throwback to a very specific point in time, Slime-San is a game that makes no mistakes in executing what it is. And what it is, is pretty damn fun.

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Aug 13, 2017

Graceful Explosion Machine knows what it wants to be, and delivers on that experience with flying, bright, bountiful colors. A top-notch title in the genre and worth every penny.

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Recommended - Dragon Sinker
Feb 27, 2018

It's a game that feels right at home on the Switch, and is well suited to ducking in and out, putting 20 minutes in to do a little grinding or wrap up a sidequest, or just get to the next point in the plot. Its writing is a bit archetypal but sells itself well, and the characters have just enough meat on the bones for me to really want to see them come together and win.

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Recommended - The Tenth Line
Jun 26, 2017

This love-letter to JRPGs of the 90s carries some rough edges. But those mostly serve to give the game more character, and keep it more interesting than the polished balls of nothingness that so often came out back then.

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Recommended - Gundam Versus
Oct 6, 2017

Of course, no game is without its problems, and much as I really like Gundam Versus, it has a few. For a series whose home entries used to have quite a fair bit of single-player content, the relative lack in this entry has an extra sting to it. And the localization is a bit...Limited, for something with a retail release. A lot of incidental dialogue has no subtitles, so it's just a steady stream of stuff you have no hope of understanding unless you know Japanese. There's also the issue that the game is online-multiplayer-only, limiting options for things like LAN play or, even better, split-screen.

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Recommended - Pressure Overdrive
Jul 30, 2017

It's a straightforward game that executes well on a straightforward premise. It doesn't ask too much of you, and is well worth what it's asking.

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Recommended - Phantom Trigger
Aug 18, 2017

An experience boiled down to its raw essentials, and then refined to the best those essentials have to offer, Phantom Trigger sits as an interesting and worthwhile experience.

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