Russell Archey


171 games reviewed
82.6 average score
85 median score
80.1% of games recommended
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7 / 10.0 - Shadow Puppeteer
Feb 24, 2016

Shadow Puppeteer is an enjoyable game—if you can get past a few frustrations. The platforming is tedious at times, with you controlling both the boy and his shadow, though figuring out how to get through each area isn't all that difficult. Sadly, the game is somewhat short, only taking a few hours to get through. But if you're playing with someone, it can make for a fun afternoon.

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Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm looks and feels like a Legend of Zelda game, which is good. But comparing it to the Zelda series might lead to disappointment whereas, on its own, it's mostly enjoyable. If you're looking for a Zelda-like experience, Oceanhorn 2 should help fulfill that void for a while, as long as you give it some time to do so.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Torchlight III
Oct 22, 2020

Torchlight III is an enjoyable game but is also a bit more simplified than the previous entry in the series. While the Relic system brings some new ways to customize your character, the lack of a regular flowing of skill trees and spending stat points makes it seem like you can't quite customize your character as much as you'd like with stats being tied into your gear. The new fort system is nice but I really only found myself using it to stash gear I wanted to keep and to swap out pets. Overall while I did enjoy my time with Torchlight III, it felt like a downgrade from Torchlight II and fans of the series might want to wait a bit before picking this one up.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Braveland Trilogy
Mar 11, 2019

Braveland Trilogy is a fairly solid set of games, simplistic as they may be.  You can adjust the difficulty during the game so you can make it as easy or as difficult as you wish at any time.  While it would have been nice if the games were at least a bit more complex, keep in mind that these are ports of mobile games so the simplicity makes sense here.  Even still, if you want a complex strategy game, you might want to look elsewhere but if you're okay with simple, Braveland Trilogy is worth checking out.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Antigraviator
Jun 14, 2018

Antigraviator can be pretty challenging for those not familiar with anti-gravity racing games such as F-Zero.  There aren't a lot of upgrades for your vehicle and requiring credits to attempt later leagues can be a bit detrimental as you might have to replay the first league multiple times just to grind credits.  The traps are also not really my cup of tea and I could do without those personally.  Beyond that though, Antigraviator is a solid game, but it's not for everyone.

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Apr 23, 2018

If you like these kinds of games it's still worth checking out.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Namco Museum
Aug 25, 2017

Namco Museum is a nice way to bring so classic arcade titles to the Switch, but they're mostly not anything we haven't seen on past platforms.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Quarantine
Jun 29, 2017

Quarantine leaves a bit to be desired with only six scenarios and three difficulties as well as its lack of multiplayer, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game.  It's definitely challenging on the higher difficulties as the viruses start out a little stronger.  However, if you're looking for a good challenge, Quarantine can definitely give it to you, plus the custom scenarios on the Steam Workshop will help keep things fresh…or at least as fresh as they can be with the same gameplay.

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Rynn’s Adventure: Trouble in the Enchanted Forest can be fun if you can get past the game’s short comings.  For a platformer with some Mega Man-esque elements, the controls can feel weird at first and the attacking takes some getting used to.  If you can get past that, the game can be pretty fun as long as you’re not one to get frustrated too easily by precision platforming.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Tomodachi Life
Jun 7, 2014

Tomodachi Life isn't for everyone, but it's still a fun game that can also be enjoyed in short bursts when pressed for time.  While the main goal of the game is to basically keep your residents happy, it's a slight disappointment that you can't control their actions directly.  I feel bad for a Mii who was shot down after asking for a relationship as I can't do a whole lot for them, but there's still enough to do in the game to keep things interesting.

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Dec 17, 2015

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is a fun game, but it still has its frustrating moments.  The tutorials seem to drag on forever, the leveling system is kind of imbalanced, and the difficulty can go from normal to frustrating depending on who you encounter where.  However, if you can get past those shortcomings you'll find a pretty fun game and a fairly solid entry into the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series.

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Mar 10, 2016

Mega Man Legacy Collection on the 3DS is a great collection of games and extras, but players who already have the Virtual Console games might be hard pressed to spend $30 on 54 challenges that have little replayability without any online functionality and leaderboards.

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7.4 / 10.0 - Harold
Mar 19, 2015

Harold is one of those games where if you don't like steep difficulty curves, you'll likely want to stay away from it.  If you can get past that though, Harold does provide a pretty good challenge even in the early going and really tests your reflexes as the races get harder and you have to multitask even more obstacles.

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8 / 10.0 - Gravity Oddity
Sep 26, 2023

Gravity Oddity is a roguelike game that plays differently than other games in its genre.  Instead of improving yourself every time you die, you actually improve yourself with every completed run, unlocking new game modes and mods.  While each run isn't necessarily that long once you know what you're doing, getting the hang of the controls and mechanics can be a real challenge, especially when a lot is happening on screen.  Once you can master that though, you'll find a game with a lot of customization, challenge, and replayability that's good to play in small bursts of time.  Strap on your gravity boots, save your roommate, and pay your rent.

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8 / 10.0 - Nocturnal
Jun 23, 2023

Nocturnal may seem short on length but is enjoyable throughout and doesn't seem to overstay its welcome.  The "light your sword on fire" mechanic to reveal puzzle clues and help defeat enemies shrouded in the mist is unique and helps the game flow smoothly.  While it can be a bit annoying to miss some lore collectibles or extra ashes to help you get to that next perk upgrade since you can't backtrack after certain points, it does make for an interesting risk vs. reward scenario: do you want to just press ahead or take the chance against the mist and learn more about the game's lore?

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8 / 10.0 - BLACKTAIL
Dec 28, 2022

Blacktail is a great game with some minor flaws here and there, but nothing that really takes away from the experience. The morality mechanics do a great job at shaping your abilities and what you're able to do and the storytelling is pretty well done. If you're not great at survival games you might struggle a bit with the game's resource management, especially since your bow and arrows are your only physical weapons. Overall though, as long as you remember that survival is priority one and firing arrows at everything in sight is priority zero, you should still have an enjoyable time with Blacktail.

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8 / 10.0 - Knights & Guns
Sep 5, 2022

Knights and Guns takes arcade-style shooters like Buster Brothers and adds a few things to make it unique. I can understand some people getting bored by the repetitiveness of the game and if you're looking for something that majorly shakes up the genre, you likely won't find it here. What you will find is a simple always-firing-upward shooter that lets you shoot monsters with several types of weapons, a campaign where you can take multiple paths to get to your final destination, and the ability to bring a friend along for the ride. For ten dollars, I'd say that's a pretty solid deal.

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8 / 10.0 - Tunche
Nov 22, 2021

Tunche can be an enjoyable game, but it may take some time to get there.  Early on the enemies can be damage sponges and you don't have a lot of attack options available, making combat somewhat difficult and quite repetitive.  As you level up each character and unlock new abilities and options for the cores you find, the game itself begins to open up and become more enjoyable.  Tunche looks and sounds great and after some time, the gameplay itself will become pretty good.  You just have to be patient a bit for it to get there.

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Nov 5, 2021

Tandem: A Tale of Shadows is a fun and clever puzzle game, but the story falls quite a bit flat with a pretty dark ending. The puzzles themselves are enjoyable with needing to switch between Emma's and Fenton's perspectives a nice mechanic. The story though is just there and while puzzle games don't need stories to be enjoyable, if you're going to have one at least flesh things out a bit. If you don't mind a story that covers just the bare essentials needed to have a story, Tandem's puzzles are pretty enjoyable and I'd recommend checking the game out at some point.

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8 / 10.0 - Broken Blades
Oct 7, 2021

Broken Blades frustrated me in the early goings but did get better as the game went on. However, the biggest barrier for people newer to dungeon crawlers is that the game can be overly difficult, especially since you lose most of your progress upon death, only maintaining major upgrades. Dungeon crawling veterans looking for a challenge might want to give Broken Blades a shot, but even for only two dollars the game can be very difficult and frustrating for newcomers.

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