While just falling short of being towards the top of my favourite JRPG's, Bravely Default does a lot right. Its job systems and battle system are great fun and the sleep mode sailing game always gives you something fun to return to. The characters and voice acting, in parts, leave a bit to be desired and some of the environments are a bit fuzzy. On the whole you get a lot of game for your money, its an enjoyable, challenging experience and worth your time.
While sometimes skirting a bit close to the line between inspiration and clone, Rogue Heroes has a lot to love. If you have a few friends to take dungeon crawling with you, you will laugh together, you will loot together, and you will have to work as a team to succeed. My boys and I got a lot of enjoyment from playing Rogue Heroes, and I think most other players will do too.
Is it just me or are there not enough arcade shoot-em-ups these days? Back in the day, I used to adore these games. I needed nothing more to occupy my small child-like mind other than shooting baddies, collecting power-ups and dodging a screen full of projectiles. I miss them dearly.
Ratalaika are back with another easy platinum for the PlayStation 4, welcome to the Loot Hero DX PlayStation 4 review. I gave up buying these games for easy platinums a while ago but I am happy to review one now and again for the laughs. Sometimes they can be good but, in my humble opinion, they are mostly cash-ins for people wishing to bolster their imaginary trophy cabinet. I was once one of those people, now I can take a step back and view them from the outside.
There is a small slice of the gaming genre spectrum that I really find fascinating. It’s that miniature sector of games that are amazingly enjoyable but at the same time incredibly frustrating. I don’t know what it is about them, whether it’s the massive boost of joy I get when passing a deeply technical segment or the amount of love the developer has poured upon it to make it so challenging, there is something amazing about them. I’m thinking Dark Souls, I am thinking Celeste and I am certainly thinking about Super Meat Boy.
It’s not very often a video game captures the imagination of everyone in my household. We are a massive board gaming family so that may have helped somewhat, giving the themes of this interesting little Nintendo Switch title. Dicey Dungeons, as the title suggests combines two of the greatest things in gaming; dice and yes you guessed it, dungeons. It feels like someone has definitely been peeking at my Christmas list. With a lot of dice and random dungeons, count me in!
Star Renegades! Got your attention? Good. Just the title sounds great doesn’t it? Do you like multi-dimensional storylines, grand space battles, pixel-art and turn-based tactical combat? Well, today may be your lucky day, Star Renegades on the Nintendo Switch is all of these things with a couple of unique tricks up its old-school, rogue-lite sleeves.
Cubers: Arena is a strange game indeed. I had not heard anything about it before the review code was thrust into my lap. I could have guessed by the fact it had the word Arena in the title, that it was an Arena based game; little did I know what I was letting myself in for.
Ever wanted to build, manage and run your own dinosaur laden park? Well, now is the time. I had heard many good things about Jurassic World Evolution but for some weird reason, I’ve never got round to playing it. Since then it has had a vast amount of DLC, different editions and now, a portable Nintendo Switch version. This suits me down to the ground, I can now breed T-Rex while on the loo or build new dinosaur-related attractions while out and about. Show me the dinos!
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is fun, with its many activities and a rewarding gameplay loop. There is nothing better than rocking up to a monastery with your raucous crew and robbing them blind.
It seems like forever since we had a big Nintendo Switch exclusive and while Pikmin 3 Deluxe may not be a true exclusive, this port certainly has enough bells and whistles to entice players back in. Not only that, I am sure a lot of Switch players, due to not owning a WiiU, will be playing it for the first time, you lucky buggers. Pikmin is a very popular franchise and I will be splitting this review up into two halves, half talking about the game itself and half discussing its improvements from the WiiU version.
While it may get a bit repetitive over time, Ninja Legends is a lot of fun. It's fast, it's fluid and when you pull off amazing feats of ninja-like badassness, it feels superb. Just play it in short bursts and you will not go wrong.
While it may have small performance issues and a stripped back graphical style some people may not enjoy, I adored Cloudpunk. I simply could not stop playing it, I was heavily immersed in Rania's story and was taken back by how invested I got in this dank, dark world. I am even thinking about playing it no and hopping back in to mop up the remaining trophies. Right that's it, I'm off to Nivalis.
Do you remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were a kid? Probably not, most people reading this are a lot younger than me and were probably on Snapchat or something instead. They were books that at the end of certain points in the story, you chose what to do and turned to the appropriate page to see what happened. There are parts of Crown Trick that are like that but the only difference is that Crown Trick repeatedly kills you and I cant then turn back to the other page to rectify my mistake as I could in the books I once adored.
Another Ratalaika game, another short romp to a platinum trophy. I have played many Ratalaika games over the years and at one point bought loads of them for easy to grab platinum trophies. I have since stopped that but don’t mind reviewing one now and again. Their quality is very variable, let’s see where Prehistoric Dude on the PS4 sits in the Ratalaika quality spectrum, shall we? So, Prehistoric Dude, which is a very uninspired title by the way, is about, well, a Prehistoric Dude. What has the world come to when you can’t even have a meal eating your favourite food in peace? Your massive piece of ham has been stolen and that is basically the plot here. Your job is to track down the large dinosaur-shaped fiend who stole your dinner from you. Good luck with that one!
I initially loved the survival and building aspects of The Walking Dead Onslaught. Unfortunately it wore thin quite quick. I would have liked more depth and more variety but what we have is fun, immersive, zombie bashing good time. I just recommend playing in short bursts otherwise it will get repetitive very quickly.
Well, praise the gods, it’s finally here! I have managed to play more hours of Hades over the last few days than I care to admit and I have relished every second. Supergiant Games are one of my favourite developers. Ever since I played Transistor I have been completely captivated by their games. They ooze charm, they drip with quality and everything about them is so impeccably done.
Budget Cuts looks great, plays amazingly, is well designed and a lot of fun. Barring too much time spent in load screens, I loved every second of it. It gives you the various tools you need to succeed but leaves you free to explore and work your way through the game how you wish. If you have a PSVR headset then give it a go, its a brilliant game.
Never has a game title been more fitting. Struggling is, well, a bit of a struggle. Imagine the abstract movement and control system of Octodad paired with some platforming feats that require a modicum of precision. It’s a recipe for frustration and turmoil. There were a few things though, when I looked past the struggle, that I quite liked.
There was a point in my life I would gobble up all these small Ratalaika games; they usually have easy platinums you could complete in under an hour with very little effort whatsoever. They are of variable quality, usually very simple and mostly bought by budding trophy hunters. I do not buy them anymore but thought I would jump on this review because it included the word ‘golf’. I like golf, in video game form anyway.