The Atari Flashback Classics collection is, hands down, the most ambitious collection of games I’ve ever seen. It consists of a library so vast with different styles that anyone can go into it and find a game they enjoy. It may be missing one of the biggest developers and game which was ever made (Namco/Pacman), but the weight of the legacy of the other games makes this collection a must-have for retro game lovers!
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 was a delight to work my way through and a joy to play. I like playing these older games sometimes because if I do get stuck, I can easily find a guide online, though the puzzles in this game are not hard most of the time. This is a game that you will be able to play at any time and it will hold up due to the art style presented within it. I loved being absorbed by the whimsical story and fantastical locations, it’s a very relaxing game with a lot of eye candy and tonnes of pop-culture references ranging from films to games.
I really enjoyed my time with Marble it Up!, bringing back fond memories of games such as Super Monkey Ball and Marble Madness. However, the game only took me an evening to beat all the levels which come as part of the game (at least once). The beauty of having the time-based medal rating system is that I know that I will want to keep coming back until I have all the Diamond medals. I hope that Bad habit productions continue to support the game as well as all of the talented creators out there who have put together enough downloadable courses to last a very long time!
The Jackbox Party Pack 5 never fails to entertain when it comes time to gather up friends for a fun evening of video games. From the tried-and-tested return of You Don’t Know Jack, to the new and wacky party games, every iteration in the franchise is a joy to put on when you have a few mates around and fancy a great time. There are plenty of moments where you’ll be caught off guard with how silly it can be and how stupid it makes you behave. Definitely a must-have for anyone that likes party style games!
Zarvot is a great combination of addictive gameplay, beautiful visuals and frantic action – it’s so much fun! Bar a few issues I had with the visual quality of the menus, everything looks gorgeous and so realistic – well, as realistic as a cuboid world could be! It’s a relaxing and playful game to wind down with after a hard days work, yet also a very challenging and competitive game within its Arcade and Multiplayer modes. From the surprisingly great story to the fun multiplayer, this is a game which you’ll want to come back to again and again.
In Death is a game that is definitely worth adding to your collection of PlayStation VR titles. Despite the Roguelike gameplay, you will find that with each death, you are ready to jump right back in immediately to try and better your last run. The great visuals and sound effects are aesthetically pleasing, and the only small details that people may not like are easily forgivable by the overall experience the game has to offer.
After you decide your character, you will go thru a short intro, and before you know it, you will be in Fyrestone, and that is when the game opens up to you. My suggestion is to try and not do only story missions.
No matter who you play as Strategy is the name of the game and you have to be somewhat quick about everything. It’s important to remember that while you are gathering resources to build your Civilization up, your enemies may have started at a magnificent spot lush with resources and maybe getting ready to invade surrounding areas. I remember having the ability to speed up or slow down the game in earlier versions of the game, if that feature is in AOE3, I could not find it.
The choices that you make can have an effect on how you look to your teammates, upper management, and to your fans. Before long you will be drafted to the NHL where you start seeing the big bucks come your way. Money in NHL21 is used to buy temporary amenities for your character which boost your stats or give you ability points. Ability points are used to boost stats such as Top Speed and Endurance permanently.
The cheeky name Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time couldn’t be more aptly named based on the story of the game. The game takes place after the events of Crash Bandicoot: Warped. Series villains Neo Cortex and Nefarious Tropy have discovered how to create rifts in time and space. It is not long before Crash and his sister Coco find out and go out on an adventure to stop the duo before they destroy the history of the world!
I was surprised by the depth of the story given to these other characters. In one of these adventures you are tasked with helping a usurper with taking over the throne from a power-hungry king that you find out belongs to an even larger group of bad guys in the Assassins Creed franchise,
As most fans of musuo style games can agree, there is one glaring issue with Age of Calamity, and that is the issues with framerate. Look, it is understandable that a game with an active battlefield can run into problems. When I found myself fighting against smaller groups of enemies, I would not have any issues whatsoever.
Shadows 2: Perfidia was an interesting game to play because there was a lot of good things which I really enjoyed, yet there was a number of negative aspects as well. You can clearly see that the developers wanted to make an interesting and scary game, which I feel was accomplished perfectly as they managed to make me jump a few times even though I’m almost immune to jump scares at this point! The graphics do feel a bit dated, although the small screen of the Switch does help to hide this a little, and although the enemies terrify you as you’re being chased, they do look rather funny if you see a still image of them.
I would say that Paper Mario: The Origami King is a nice return to form that the last couple of Paper Mario games seemed to have lost. The game shows a lot of charm between it’s lush and beautiful landscapes as well as the fun child-like humour. I personally feel like it still doesn’t quite hit the same strides that games like Bowser Inside Story hit, but this is a great start.
Sphinx and The Cursed Mummy is a fun puzzle platformer which works really well on the Nintendo Switch. As far as the remaster is concerned, THQ Nordic did a great job with taking a game that is 16 years old and bringing it back to life for a new generation. The game is not necessarily for everyone though as fans of the original game will be delighted by the visual upgrades the game received, but I don’t see any other big draw to purchase the game if you never played it before.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Toast Time: Smash Up! It is a nice call-back to the simpler times in gaming. Honestly, I could see myself playing this game back when I was 10 with my original Game Boy. It is a wacky time when you’re able to get 4 friends together to play! The single player was addictive enough that players will be able to ignore the difficulty being off at times. All in all, though, playing this game made me that much more excited for breakfast tomorrow morning!
I feel as if Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends is the best possible choice of the massive library of games to come to the Nintendo Switch. Having most of the DLC at your fingertips offers players an insanely large amount of game to play. Though I do believe that most people will probably play only so much of the game, folks with a tight budget will appreciate the amount of content Koei Tecmo has put into this game. It can get repetitive if you play it in long game sessions, but at least you are always working on levelling or acquiring new items. Plus you can’t beat portable Lu Bu!!
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong is a fun and intuitive take on the construction genre, with both creation and Trials-like gameplay. In terms of the core mechanics, it’s not revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination. There are multiple types of construction type games out there to choose from. However, the thing to remember is that the game keeps it simple and gives the player the freedom to solve the puzzles as they see fit. This is great as it means that everyone of all ages and skill levels can jump in and enjoy the game without any issues or difficulty spikes.
After all these years of not playing any of the SAMURAI SHODOWN games, it was really neat to finally get my hands on one. At first, I was playing the game all wrong and didn’t really enjoy playing it. However, after realising the error of my ways, I re-approached the game and had a much better experience. I love that they took the game in a different direction with the cel-shaded graphics and I truly feel like it will do a service to the game’s longevity down the line. I personally didn’t get too much out of the story of the game, but that’s fine for me considering I don’t go to fighting games for epic stories.
When you take a step back and realize that this game is 10 years old, you can appreciate so much about it, however, the problems that this 10-year-old game have are glaringly obvious! In multiple parts of the game where there would be some type of event that would happen, I would find that my guy would be running around as my partners would just stand there doing nothing, or even better running into a wall! They were also not always the most helpful at reviving each other when one would fall. I am not sure how much I can complain though as there are times when you may be alongside 2-3 comrades as well as the ghosts wreaking havoc in the room, that is a LOT for the AI to comprehend all at once.