At the end of the day, though, I can say I enjoyed my short time with Takeshi and Hiroshi. It has some gameplay issues, and while the luck element of the barebones combat does make the experience drag at points, the novelty of the idea in the combat, as well as the impressive visuals in the story components are appreciated.
In short, Ice Age Scrat's Nutty Adventure takes basic ideas from other 3D platformers and tries to show how impressive they are, when in reality they are just things you've seen before. If you are a big Ice Age fan, then this is a harmless experience that doesn't add to what the movies offer and rather imitates what came before it. For my money, I say let this one hibernate for the winter.
The premise is about restoring color to the world and bringing back music, but the music doesn't match the levels, and is missing sound effects. Newt's story is weirdly paced, and has a lot of unnecessary details that don't add anything to it. In short, unnecessary details trip up Newt One from being something interesting.
I think that at the end of the day, there is a good game here, but it’s running poorly and could be better experienced somewhere else.
The Mystery of Woolley Mountain doesn't do a very good job at this particular type of game, but it's ultimately up to the player to determine if this title is for them.
It's not groundbreaking and it's fairly short. But it has a lot of potential, and I hope it continues to be supported. The online works well, despite being a bit basic, but the editor is pretty robust if you can get past the learning curve.
Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story just doesn't have the substance to keep players coming back. If you're searching for a shooter with a hook of quick feel-good entertainment, you may want to look elsewhere.
And that's Sky Force Anniversary. Unfortunately, it's just “less” of what came before it. It shares so much with Sky Force Reloaded that I didn't mind going back into it. In some ways, it was fine to come back to and relive, albeit as a much shorter experience. But why pay the same price when there is a game identical to it in gameplay with more content?
The base game is fun. It's easy and approachable for newcomers. But it doesn't go all that far in any particular aspect.
Really, it is the same GameCube game with a sprinkling of flourishes here and there for the 3DS.
The story isn't super deep, but it's not trying to be. This is a fun take on a villain doing what old-school villains have always done, and the thought process around that. If you're into simpler platformers that don't eat up a lot of time, and want some charming characters, Nefarious might just be for you.
But, those challenges are all in the later half of the journey, so getting to them will be a chore. I think all of the concepts here, warrant a sequel, that I would gladly come back to. A few tweaks here and there, would assist in the overall experience, but all in all I recommend checking into The Penrose for a few puzzling nights.
Squids Odyssey has a lot of great content available to play from the get-go, and it's a really fun summer title to keep coming back to in the midst of all the other heavy hitters.
Drawful 2 is still just as fun as the first, and more fun with the ability to create personalized prompts in games. But if you're looking to get more bang for your buck stick to the first title, because Drawful 2 doesn't seem to live up to changing much in the way of a sequel. It provides more of the same fun, and it's hard to fault it for that because the base game is a wild time at parties.
It's clear that a lot shown in Figment is not what the focus of the experience, it's the puzzles, which don't always stick the landing. A handful of exceptions crop up, but not nearly as many as I would have liked. Check out Figment if you're interested in taking on a puzzle adventure indie, with some cute visual touches, and can handle a little puzzle fatigue.
And the puzzles aren't bad. It does hiccup with a few control issues and puzzle-design mishaps, but I still think it's worth playing through if you're interested. Just be sure to have a small light on nearby.
While the introductory RC Car is a quick 10-minute build, the other four (Motorbike, Piano, Fishing Rod, and House) are much more involved.
After roughly two hours, a second chase sequence with a large yellow animal begins, and the player has two minutes and 30 seconds to complete the boss fight, or the game will crash and delete the entire save. This happened to me, and was frustrating, and it took me about an hour to return to where I was, having known how to solve the previous puzzles. SONKA has also put out a walkthrough online, detailing bypassing the glitch.
All in all, it's really what you expect it to be. Most adults probably will pass up on this title, but if you want to share the Switch with a toddler and give them an educational toy on a rainy day, It's Spring Again delivers.
All in all, Opus: Rocket of Whispers offers a long game that has a lot of mindless fetch quests, but it has an interesting story that might reel some folks in. If you're looking for a calming, easy game to pass the time, give it a shot. Otherwise, maybe let this one go.