Death Road To Canada is a nice modern throwback to The Oregon Trail with a morbid twist. It can get challenging and the action/exploring gameplay is fun and intense. It's a great co-op game for sure, if you're prepared for unfair RNG and repeating it until you've actually won. Still, the replay value is there and there's plenty of fun moments and unlockables.
InnerSpace started off with me not knowing what to expect, but continued to get better and better. It's not perfect. It feels clunky when you keep crashing into walls when you don't want to. Flying around feels satisfying, though. It's beautiful to look at and relaxing to play while maintaining a fun factor. It's a unique game that is well executed and we need more of these.
Storm Boy is charming, cute, touching and very accessible. It's designed with a younger audience in mind, but can be experienced at any age. Some tales are for everyone. Being very pickup & play, both parents and children can experience an easygoing journey together in this faithful retelling of a classic story of a boy and his pet bird; but mainly his friend.
The Fall is the first game of a trilogy where the subject of artificial intelligence - what it means and its consequences - are a heavy focus of. Over The Moon excels in this department. For a point & click genre with shooting, they've done the job quite well providing a believable atmosphere and notable plot surprises. It's a pretty short game, but it is sweet. It's worth seeking out its playtime for those interested getting into this series. If you enjoy The Fall, you'll want its sequel as well.
It seems Touhou Project games are a dime a dozen if you've ever heard of the series, but they're all about having fun with characters and using them in different ways. Gensokyo Defenders is a little rough around the edges, but the mechanics in place make for some fun gameplay. It keeps things interesting by adding new characters to join your party who play differently from each other, new map ideas, introduction to new traps and an upgrade system that requires skill points to be spent and applied in any way you see fit. It's a tower defense that feels like more than the usual tower defense and it certainly scratches an itch or two.
Mulaka is an ambitious title coming straight from Mexico. Lienzo managed to bring the long living Sierra Tarahumara culture into the forefront and created a solid game around it. All of the elements come together in a complete package that is fun to play. The only downside to it all is that some of those elements aren't fully realized. Still, I stand by calling this game Okami-lite. The painterly textures on humans and enemies, an ancient myth of demigods and saving the world, the Zelda-esque gameplay. For those seeking the tidbits of the Tarahumaran culture, it's a slight education; at the very least, an awareness worth the venture.
Lumo definitely caters to specific crowd and may not be for everyone, but it's easy enough for anyone to be able to play. It creates isometric gameplay which is forgotten in this day & age. Lumo offers a pick-up and play experience and has collectibles worth seeking for those who enjoy going after them.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a title that easily grabs peoples attention. The art style invites one to seek it out and uncover what it's all about. The game succeeds in delivering on its visual presentation. Furthermore, it's nice that a touching story is able to pair perfectly with it. The game's length and puzzle-platforming might be its biggest detractor from being an overall amazing experience as those are just *okay*.
Yomawari: The Long Night Collection includes two titles, Yomawari: Night Alone & Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. It may contain cute, chibi characters whom you play as, but the creepiness factor sinks almost immediately. If the idea of exploring a town at night with monsters lurking in the shadows intrigues you, it's definitely worth checking out. The towns and locations are fun to go through just in general. Add a survival element with your flashlight, some tense moments, atmospheric sound design and collectables to the mix. Japanese culture and setting may also be a good reason to experience this horror adventure.
Players familiar with titles such as Odin Sphere or Valkyrie Profile will probably be curious about this one. Fallen Legion: Rise To Glory offers faster real-time action with tactical choices needing to be made. There's some depth to the battle system which at first glance may look a bit hack & slash, although it's anything but. Proper execution of your actions matter. The art and sound holds its own. The game is fun to play. The story is so-so. The game needed more time to be balanced, but fans of action-rpg's that offer a unique system not commonly found will certainly enjoy bursts of this. Each version can take 5-10 hours depending on the player's style, so a total of 20 hours can be found.
City of Brass stands out for a roguelike. It's one of the first-person roguelikes with an underused visual theme that recognizable and feels more realistic than arcadey. The snap of the whip feels great and the opportunity it presents will vary from run to run. The different items, enemy variety and amount of traps will surely test you. It feels good and there's not much more to it than that. It's a roguelike meant for repeated plays until you unlock get it down with all the things to see and unlock. The gameplay might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it has its audience. For something that feels more weighted and isn't a shooter, City of Brass has you covered; not in sand.
Fans of shoot-'em-ups will find a fun game here. The polished controls and action that keeps going with little breaks is a good pick-up & play experience. The arcade gameplay mechanics and slight elements of a plane simulator offers a better take than the usual standard. It's only hindrance is the lack of variety from mission-to-mission, mode-to-mode.
Penny-Punching Princess has a lot of charm. The pixel art of the characters look good. The music is good. The gameplay is addicting. Anyone looking for mindless fun will get something out of this. Anyone who wants a little more than that and enjoys the visual flare of earning experience points on the fly (in this case coins flying out of enemies) will surely get a kick (and punch) out of it. The bribing element of gameplay is uniquely implemented, but it could be improved. The entire charade of capitalism is a bonus. Certainly a beat-'em-up with style.
Anyone who's looking for a narrative driven experience dealing with character development or just like point & click games in general should give this a look. Luckily, it does both fairly well. What's been said about The Fall Part 2: Unbound leading up to its release is the heavily coined term "Metroidvania" being applied to it. Sure, there are bits of that to be found, and bits they are. It's more like sprinkled on top for a bit of flavor. Despite a few issues relating to bugs and controls, if you're seeking sci-fi, narrative and point & click puzzle solving... it's a solid package.
Nine Parchments doesn't go out of its way to add anything new to the genre. It could actually do more by being less linear and freshen up enemy encounters. What it does do good, makes it fun, however. Dungeon crawling with friends makes for a great time especially when everyone has to work together and play off each other's strengths. Nine Parchments certainly meets the players expectations more than half the way, just not the full nine yards.
Old Man's Journey is without a doubt quite the charming game with emotional undertones and stunning artwork. The memories alone are worth seeing. This is the type of game that anyone can play and relate to even if some the events shown aren't any that one has gone through personally. It's about 2 hours, but depending on how you view that, it's the price of movie ticket, but you also get to keep the game in your library. It's a good one to play with family and friends just about anywhere and the art alone is worth to keep. I would love to see another type of this game expanded on in the future.
Rise & Shine not only has great artwork, but it also feels great to play as well. The shooting is solid and feels polished. Its pace is a little more deliberate thanks to the gun & bullet modifiers that require a slight bit of thinking. Levels never felt stale because the way mechanics were incorporated always kept things sort of fresh and because of that it strongly adheres to replayability; which you might be doing since the experience is a short one.
All-in-all, this is an enjoyable game. The way vehicles handle feel great and despite the lack of variety in courses, they are detailed and beautiful. There's many modes to choose from and playing with others with a similar skill level will be fun. It offers a single player career mode with 150-ish events and you can play it in multiple ways. I'd say it's a bang for your buck. The gameplay is really good, but the surrounding parts aren't up to par. It could just use a few more boosts in the balance department.
https://youtu.be/1y23ER6bY74 Langrisser I & II is an important collection to have and be reminded of the finesse that tactical rpg's can have. It's nowhere near as popular as some games already mentioned in this review, but in ways outclassed them for when it released during its time. If you're looking straight up goodness and want plenty of hours to sink your teeth into a meaty strategy rpg experience, Langrisser I & II has been remastered and deserves the attention. It's not going to be seen as groundbreaking in 2020, but it holds up in 2020 and certainly helped pave the way to where we are today.
I didn't know how interested I was in Creature in the Well until I've first seen it. I didn't know how much I wanted it until I first played it. Creature in the Well is a mashup of some stellar genres and it serves up a fresh dish of well-balanced gameplay. There's more skill needed here than a simple hack & slash, but the challenge is enough that it feels satisfying at any level. Though some puzzles are rather simple, others challenge you in all the right ways and reward you for it. It's a unique game that remained fun for its entirety and one that begs for more content and/or a sequel. Another indie highlight for the books.