Starlink: Battle for Atlas is a good game that's robbed of greatness by a lack of ambition and terrible toys-to-life implementation. Everything it gets right – the clever mix-and-match shipbuilding, the combat, the controls, the imaginative alien worlds, the decent space opera storyline – can't escape the vortex of tedium that comes with pedestrian mission design, planets that are mechanically the same, and the crushing knowledge that people who buy just the Starter Pack are getting an unquestionably inferior experience.
My opinion of The World Ends With You: Final Remix is one of indifference. All the consideration that went into making the original a compound piece of craftsmanship, inseparable from the device on which you played it, is absent.
When I played the game during the first Switch beta test, I said Tencent Games wasn't screwing around. It still isn't. This is the absolute premier way to play the game. Arena of Valor may have been born on mobile, but on Switch is where it feels at home.
In addition to the main mystery, Jake Hunter: Ghost of the Dusk includes four other mini-mysteries that were originally cell-phone games in Japan and a genuinely amusing case file featuring chibi versions of Jake and Yulia. It's a well-rounded package, but I don't think anything here is compelling enough to make this a must buy for people still holding onto their 3DS.
Wandersong is the most emotionally satisfying game I've played in 2018. It's a rollercoaster ride through the spectrum of feelings, all wrapped up in a lovingly crafted construction paper world. I didn't even know this game existed a month ago. Now, it's one I'll never forget.
It took three years for Yo-kai Watch Blasters to make it out of Japan, and I'm not quite sure it was worth the wait. The game looks fantastic and has an excellent localization, but the lackluster and repetitive combat hold it back from being anything more than run-of-the-mill. It's a serviceable spin-off, but with this series struggling as much as it does, it needs to deliver more than serviceable. Especially when it's on a piece of hardware that is on its way out.
Senran Kagura Reflexions is really nothing more than a proof of concept. Honey∞Parade Games set out to make a game where you touch Asuka all over until she's been satisfied and in that respect, it succeeds. Just a damn shame the developer couldn't turn all that touching into something worth playing.
Little Dragons Café is the type of game I walk away from feeling more hopeful in the world. Each chapter ends on such an earnest note that it raises my spirits. Sure, it doesn't have the deepest mechanics, and it's not the most polished title I'll play this year. But it has a soul and a kind heart that uplifts the basic gameplay to a place that makes Little Dragons Café an easy recommendation to anyone looking for a soupcon of positivity in their life.
Code of Princess EX really doesn't take itself seriously, but you should. Though not all of the 50+ characters are worth maxing out, the eight heroes of the campaign and the unlockable bosses are an absolute joy to play, learn, and master. With so many modes and so many quests, this is yet another quality Switch title ready to suck up dozens of hours of your life.
I have a lot of questions for this game, like why is Poseimon one of the last tracks I unlock when it's so dull and why does Dino Juice have a Jurassic Park design motif with a Danny Elfman inspired music track? Or why did I race the same track two different times in a single cup? But I don't want to think about what the answers to those would be because I really don't want to think about All-Star Fruit Racing anymore. If this were on mobile I'd have deleted it after my first trip to Avocado Roller. As it's a PS4 game, I was holding to hope there'd be something, anything, I could grasp on to here that would signify it as a quality kart racer for the platform. There isn't.
It's a beautiful game, but that beauty can't hide the fact Pocket Rumble still needs a bit of work. When playing with friends locally the game is an absolute blast. That's when it's at its best. It's all the other modes that weigh the package down. I'm not too keen to return to any of the single-player options until the AI is fixed nor do I wish to endure the spammy assaults of the same three or four characters I face online. With some fine-tuning, Pocket Rumble can get to where it needs to be, but Cardboard Robot Games should probably hurry because the Switch isn't short on quality fighters and the field will only grow more crowded as we continue the march towards the end of the year.
Mario Tennis Aces has a chance at being a great game down the road. Right now, it's simply good. The gameplay is as addictive as ever and the Adventure Mode is a great way to educate people on the ins and outs of Mario Tennis. It's just missing features that, while small, make a world of difference when it comes to the longevity of the game. I want to play Aces for the rest of the Switch lifecycle, but right now it's not giving me much of a reason to keep booting it up.
I can't fathom a situation where fans of the franchise will be disappointed with Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers. The music is fantastic, the world well-realized, Dillion has never looked better, and the shift away from predominantly touch controls is a wise decision. This is a solid adventure through and through, and it gives me slight hope we'll see other forgotten eShop gems get another chance to shine in the future.
Riddle Corpses EX doesn't go beyond its initial premise and I'll admit I'm more than tired of zombies and demons as the go-to cookie-cutter enemies. With a bit more personality or perhaps some original ideas, it'd be a no-brainer to recommend. As is, it's simply a fun and challenging twin-stick shooter that's perfect in short bursts. Quite frankly, that's good enough.
With the various quality of life improvements, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux is simply a more playable version of an already great game. I really enjoyed it the first time around nine years ago, and replaying it today reminds of why it was the ideal game to introduce me to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.
Nothing in Gal*Gun 2 tries to go beyond what the series has done before.
The story and characters of The Alliance Alive will stay with me far longer than anything else in the game. Yoshitaka Murayama has proven '90s-style storytelling is still as enrapturing today as it was two decades ago. His work just needs to be paired up with a better game. I respect all of the new gameplay ideas present here, but without fine-tuning, they bring down what should be one of the last great 3DS games.
Save your outrage and your money for something far more deserving.
With more ideas, more obstacles, more varied goals, or just the ability to pet the dogs without screwing up one of my solutions-in-progress, I could easily see this as best in show. Instead, Puzzle Puppers wouldn't even place.
When I first previewed Monster Energy Supercross many months ago, I thought it was a fun racing game with a lot of potential. I still think it's fun, but this first run at the license from Milestone doesn't come anywhere close to meeting its real potential.