Don't be fooled by the nice-looking world, fun characters, or interesting story. Skully is a clever game with fun puzzles, and some of the most blisteringly difficult 3D platforming I've encountered in years. Be ready to challenge yourself as difficulty spikes put you in a blender and spit you back out. Skully is fun, satisfying and well-made, but not for the faint of heart.
Pistol Whip is a triumph of game design. Rather than trying to wedge a bunch of mechanics onto a platform that doesn't welcome them, Pistol Whip instead focuses on what makes VR fun – color, sound, and motion. This is a game that connects players with the developers' intentions through its simple interface, leaving the player sweaty, inspired, and triumphant. Masterpieces come in all forms – and Pistol Whip qualifies.
Taking Superhot's amazing and addictive gameplay and expanding it in several directions, Superhot: Mind Control Delete feels exactly right.
Interesting story beats can't overcome the fact that Maid of Sker looks and plays like a frustrating game from an earlier era.
With a strict adherence to the style and performance of the original game, Destroy All Humans! brings all the fun of 2005 (and the frustrations) of the original. This is a game that was fun 15 years ago, and that fun still holds up, only now it has a shiny new coat of paint. Though some cultural references are a bit wince-worthy and there are some ridiculous difficulty spikes, in general Destroy All Humans! is a rollicking good time.
Rocket Arena is a stripped-down online multiplayer 3v3 shooter. While there are only a few game modes at launch, they are fun – and EA says there are more on the way. A nice variety of characters keeps the action fresh, and the friendly atmosphere keeps the proceedings fairly cheerful. A great starter shooter for younger kids, but skilled players will also enjoy Rocket Arena quite a bit.
Orcs Must Die! 3 contains a ton of the tower defense/shooting hybrid gameplay that fans love – all delivered in a very polished package. The new war-sized levels deliver a massive jolt of fun, and there is plenty of content here to keeps players busy for quite a while. Though progression feels a little unbalanced in single player, perseverance or grinding will eventually overcome obstacles.
Who knew that playing SpongeBob SquarePants: The Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated would deliver such a solid dose of nostalgia? But deliver it does. Having played both versions of the game in the past week, I can attest that this is a rock-solid remake of fun but somewhat flawed game. You take the bad with the good on this one, but for the most part Bikini Bottom holds up surprisingly well.
Iron Man VR succeeds wildly in its mission to put players into Tony Stark's iconic suit of armor. Flying and doing battle is amazing, and even more amazing is the way that players are immersed in Tony Stark's narcissistic psyche. With story-telling without peer in the VR space, and amazing battle sequences, Iron Man VR verges on being the perfect VR game. Only the ridiculous load times are preventing this from being the greatest of all time.
Crayta is a remarkable game-creation game/tool, with just enough fun structure built around it to keep the proceedings light and fun. Crayta is built to appeal to builders of all skill levels, providing simple controller-based construction for newcomers, while allowing skilled users to dig right down into code. While a few starter games are provided by Unit 2, they aren't really the point. Time will tell what the community builds out of Crayta, but the tools are certainly there for this platform to spawn some amazing things.
With two distinct but well-integrated strategy modes, Brigandine offers a huge amount of gameplay that feels both old school and fresh at the same time. A fantastic tutorial eases new players into the game with little friction, and the seeming complexity becomes quickly manageable. While the graphics are nothing to write home about, the care taken in each story thread is evident, and the tactical gameplay offers a ton of replay value. Brigandine is an utterly unique offering on Switch, and should appeal to RPG fans and strategy buffs alike.
Wave Break puts a lot of barriers up to keep players from enjoying it. The disconnect between the visuals and the difficulty will likely be jarring for many players. But sticking with this game yields some great rewards, and the feeling of accomplishment you get is absolutely worth the struggle to succeed.
Beyond Blue is an educational game that delivers its lessons in a very relaxing manner. Players spend most of the game swimming around and looking at fish, and that's totally fine. Though it doesn't nail the story, that's not really the point – the documentary footage is informative and interesting. Beyond Blue is well worth the time for those curious about the depths of the sea, and the subtle ecological lessons it teaches are valuable enough to overlook its shortcomings.
XCOM 2 is, at five years old, a stone cold classic.
Maneater is a solid first entry in a new open world RPG franchise. Repetitive missions and some fairly severe framerate issues hold the game back a bit, but overall Maneater is a good bit of summertime gaming fluff. You can't beat the feeling of chomping people at the beach, and Maneater provides just what gamers are looking for – fun carnage with just enough structure to keep players motivated.
Hotel R'n'R allows players to engage in an ultimate fantasy – being a rock star and smashing up a hotel room. With solid controls and a fun game loop, Hotel R'n'R will call players back again and again for one more round – even if the progression feels a bit slow. This is a solid game with a wicked sense of humor. If you suspect that you will like Hotel R'n'R even a little, I'm here to tell you that you will love it. Rock on.
The Inner Friend is a game with interesting ambitions that doesn't quite gel together into a cohesive whole. While elements of the game (music and creature design) are quite stellar, other areas (puzzles, controls) suffer enough to hold the game back from what it could have been. The Inner Friend is still worth a look as an interesting experiment, just go in forewarned about the parts that don't work so well.
GORN is a bloody good time, arriving right at the moment when we need it most. Some strategy is hidden beneath all of the gore and carnage, though you might find yourself just dipping into GORN to bash some heads for a few minutes. While there are some technical limitations brought on by the PlayStation Camera, GORN works pretty well on the PSVR. As both a workout and a psychological enema, GORN succeeds wildly.
Pixel Ripped 1995 pulls off a remarkable magic trick, slamming players back in time to the gaming days of the mid-90s. With brain-twisting challenges and a solid dose of nostalgic delight, Pixel Ripped 1995 is an amazing romp through the games of yesteryear, combined with amazing modern mechanics. Highly recommended.
Get Packed is a wild multiplayer title, challenging players to pack a moving van while wrestling with some seriously destructive physics. Even in single player, the game is a good time, but in multiplayer Get Packed comes to life. Fans of games that cause them to yell at their friends should have a great time here, as this is a polished example of the genre.