But that's it. That's the extent of my issues with this game, and for me, the positives far, far outweigh the negatives. If you didn't like Paper Mario: Sticker Star because it wasn't like the first two games in the series, I don't think you'll be satisfied here. For everyone else willing to give it a chance, Paper Mario: Color Splash is a charming journey that will delight your senses, your funny bone, and the part of your brain that houses your nostalgic feelings towards Nintendo.
It's a shame I almost missed out on Gotta Protectors because I absolutely fell in love with it. I love its simplicity, I love its music, and I love how well it accomplishes what it set out to do. This feels like a long-lost early NES title, right down to having to blow into a cartridge to start it up. With the map editor, I hope this becomes the type of game fans continue to support for years to come.
As the last game Two Tribes will ever make, the few remaining employees there can hold their heads high with what they created. It's not the best game in its catalog, and the difficulty will be a turn-off for many, but Rive leaves its mark as one of the more challenging games of this generation. Gluttons for punishment will have no trouble eating it up, but others should satiate their appetite elsewhere.
MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death isn't a bad game, it's half-assed. There are a couple of interesting ideas here that, applied to a competent dungeon crawler, could have made for something great. Instead, it's just passable. But I still had fun.
Even with those two bits absent from this entry, it's tough to knock Picross 3D Round 2 without getting nitpicky. This game doesn't really do anything wrong. Sure, it could be a bit more difficult, but the hours I spent with it were filled with fun and interesting puzzles in a stress-free setting that was just what I needed to take the edge off after a long day at work. This game is comfort food, and it's a dish I won't mind having every single day.
The battles hooked me right from the start, and only improved as I gained the ability to upgrade my Guardian.
Let's be real: unless Nintendo and DeNA take this series to mobile, this is probably the last Style Savvy game we're going to get. If Style Savvy: Fashion Forward is the franchise's last hurrah, it certainly doesn't go out on a low note as it has the best fashion and is filled to the brim with stuff to do. But readjusting to a real time clock means changing the way I enjoy this series, and without the addictive draw of a short day and night cycle, I don't see this game taking dozens of hours of my time as past entries have done.
Though I wouldn't consider it the best entry in the series, I absolutely enjoyed my time with Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate. It's a beautiful, challenging quest with a pleasing soundtrack I wouldn't mind having in my iTunes. With all the love I have for it in mind, I don’t know if I can recommend the game to anyone who isn’t already familiar with the series. Even if you’ve played the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spin-offs, this is another beast entirely. It’s a game you can play for 20 hours and feel like you didn’t make any progress at all. That’s a type of punishment some gamers just can’t handle. For me, it’s a type of punishment I can’t get enough of.
Grand Kingdom is unlike any other tactical-RPG on the market that I know of. For $40, you're getting an adventure that can last you weeks if not months, though you may tire of it before you see everything it has to offer.
But I guess that’s the rub of doing a review. If I stopped after my first playthrough, I wouldn’t be recommending it. With two under my belt, I recognize I could have had a great time with Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force had I just done the opposite of what all the characters told me to do. It’s quite the Jekyll and Hyde situation, one I can easily recommend to Compile Heart fans, but only endorse for non-fans on the stipulation they don’t listen to Tiara and Eryn.
I didn't think I would have this much fun with a casual rail shooter that uses touch controls, but Gal*Gun: Double Peace kept me engaged and entertained with its uncompromisingly Japanese high school antics.
The Battle Cats POP! is a game that's as fun as it is weird. When it's not putting you in time out with the energy meter, it can be addictive as hell. Too much of its free-to-play roots are still present, but even with those elements it's still a worthwhile time killer.
Zero Time Dilemma is nothing short of a flawed masterpiece.
I'm not a fan of One Piece: Burning Blood and it's not because of the unfamiliar source material. The combat here just isn't that fun, and no amount of colorful anime action will change that.
In the buffet of 3DS RPGs, Langrisser Re:Incarnation Tensei is the day old, slimy tilapia Golden Corral employees forgot to take out. Other than the fact the game didn't crash on me, there isn't an iota of quality to be found. I knew I was going to have a rough go at it when I booted up the game and realized the developer switched the traditional roles of the "A" and "B" buttons for no goddamn reason. But that was only the tip of the poor execution iceberg that is Langrisser Re:Incarnation Tensei; a game I have no qualms calling the worst RPG I've ever played.
It would be easy for me not to recommend MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies. The game is smothered by a poor camera, an excess of short load screens, a forgettable campaign, simplistic missions, portions of undubbed dialog and an overall lack of polish. But even with all that, I still managed to have a bit of fun pulverizing the bad guys with a little help from some scantily clad girls online. Is it $40 fun? Hell no, but you should keep it in mind if ever it goes on sale and you've had your run of other, more superior hack-and-slashers.
I never want to stop playing Pocket Card Jockey. This game hit me the same way Tetris hit millions around the world back in the 80s. In fact, I want this game to be the next Tetris. I want Pocket Card Jockey on every Nintendo system. I want it on the Wii U. I want it on the NX. I want it on the iPhone, Kindle Fire, Apple TV, Windows and TI-89 graphing calculator. I want it everywhere, just hook it to my veins. I'll admit it: I'm addicted to this game, and if you try to make me go to rehab I'll say neigh, neigh, neigh.
But this review isn't about what other people might think, it's about what I think. To me, what matters most is if I had fun or not, and I had a lot of fun with Ray Gigant.
Even with the slow grind, I have no reservations saying Stranger of Sword City is a damn fine dungeon crawler. It's challenging, it's beautiful to look at, and it kept me on my toes throughout the adventure as I walked the fine line between playing it smart and playing it dangerously. If this game can make a believer out of me, imagine what die-hard dungeon crawler fans will think of it.
Trillion: God of Destruction isn't a game, it's a job; and not a very good one. This isn't something that should be played at home but instead in a cubical, on a desk surrounded by unsigned TPS reports while Becky from accounting reminds you to sign Bill's birthday card before he goes home for the day. And while the company you work for may be interesting, the work you do is so mind-numbingly banal you can't help but wonder if your skills could be put to better use somewhere else.