Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin yields a unique blend of farming simulation and action-platforming that manages to be a filling meal without providing much valuable nutrients. For the most part, the two gameplay styles work off each other in harmony, but each have individual faults injecting tedium into the experience. Thankfully, the art style, story, and characters are all rich enough to carry the game through any dry spell.
Astro’s Playroom serves as a stellar introduction to the PlayStation 5, working both as a persuasive proof of concept of the DualSense controller as well as an engaging 3D platformer. The fact that it’s also the most endearing celebration of Sony’s history in gaming to date just projects it into the upper echelon of meaningful launch titles.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a delightful debut for the arts and crafts world of the Mushroom Kingdom on Switch by having the sharpest execution of the series’ endearing presentation and writing to date. However, developer Intelligent Systems continues to enable Paper Mario’s decade long identity crisis by failing to commit to RPG systems in addition to the inclusion of a half-baked battle system that feels irrelevant to the overall experience.
Fury Unleashed is endlessly replayable and enormously satisfying with its appetising composition of big guns, big challenge, and even bigger rewards.
There was an opportunity here to take this classic story and use it as the backbone for an engrossing game worthy of the material. Sadly, the developer only went halfway with this, resulting in an adaptation about split personalities having its own crippling identity crisis.
Square Enix deserve another standing ovation for resurrecting this classic in the manner they have done so. Let's just hope we don't have decades of waiting before we get to play Part 2.
Silent World may not be as broken as its English, but I think I'd rather take an advanced grammar lesson than limp my way through this uninspired, tensionless game again.
Subversion and innovation marry together beautifully in this sometimes sombre, often clever, take on one of gaming's oldest genres. Even if the Hero could only live another five days, the memory of Hero Must Die. Again will remain with me for some time.
For me, I can't help but feel like Deponia Doomsday needed to reset time just once more to undo some of its irritating writing and design so that the good qualities could shine through even brighter.
I doubt any Great Power could save this game from being the soulless wasteland that it is.
Even if I'm less than impressed with some of the game's technical shortcomings and overbalancing, Gang Beasts still delivered some of the funniest moments I've had in gaming, and that joy will stay with me for some time.
I'm definitely going to keep Must Dash Amigos installed on my Switch, but I can't see myself taking it out unless I have a group of friends looking to come over and enjoy some crazy, tequila-induced races with me.
Although it is barebones in some departments, the meat of Domiverse is so tasty and satisfying that I'm likely to keep coming back for more.