Far Cry 6 gives you exactly what you want and expect from the franchise. It doesn't do much to reinvent the wheel or shake up the formula, and that's okay.
Steel Assault is a great time if you have an hour or so to kill and want something that wears its retro influences on its sleeve. It’s stunning to look at and has some of the tightest controls of a 2D platformer on the market right now It’s one I’d recommend for anyone that still has a taste for the classics or for anyone that wants to try something new when ignoring their already overwhelming backlog.
Boyfriend Dungeon is a brief but incredibly well-crafted hybrid of dungeon crawling combat and a visual novel dating sim. It may drop the ball in its main story arc, but the characters and the relationships that can be made with each of them more than makes up for it.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is the type of Star Wars game I wish we were getting more of these days. Its tight gunplay and tactical commands still hold up remarkably well and its story has big Clone Wars energy. It may be short and lacking in extras but it still manages to be a great experience after 16 long years lost in The World Between Worlds.
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse has more highs than lows, but those lows can get close to feeling like a slog. It’s a blast to play, even though you’ll have seen most of what it has to offer before the halfway mark. Luckily the game’s roughly eight-hour runtime makes it, so it never becomes tedious or boring, but it does get painfully close to that territory. Ultimately, your mileage is going to vary. Stubbs the Zombie surely has its flaws, but I enjoyed myself through the adventure enough to say that bringing this cult classic back from the dead was a good call.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne offers a great visual novel experience if you pretend that it isn't also trying to be a strategy game.
Override 2: Super Mech League can be a lot of fun at its best as a mech brawler, but is ultimately pretty light on content and depth as far as its characters and combat.
A video game based on Animal Farm is a crazy idea on paper, but it mostly manages to stick the landing with its weighty political themes still intact.
Ghostrunner will challenge you, but before long you'll be a bonafide cyborg ninja and feel cool as hell in the process.
Fight Crab doesn’t do much outside of its very shallow premise. It delivers on exactly what it promises and not much else. If you can acclimate yourself to the purposefully messy controls, there is some fun to be found within its short playtime. It is in no way going to be the next big fighter or take the tournament scene by storm, but it doesn’t need to nor is it trying to. It’s silly enough to be a brief distraction and sometimes that’s all a game needs to be.
Carrion takes the formula of many of the great 2D adventures that came before it and repackages it with grisly body horror and the twist of being a monster on the loose. It doesn’t change up the formula too drastically with its basic genre mechanics, but it still manages to do everything that it does do near-perfectly in a short amount of time.
Ultimately, I had a lot of fun during my time with Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise after I was able to shut my brain off and simply go along for the janky skateboard ride through Le Carré. I found it to be charming and maybe I’m just a mark for garbage games, but I can see this having the same life as it’s predecessor if people decide to give it a shot and embrace this insane mystery.
Bleeding Edge doesn’t really do much right. In a game where the melee combat is supposed to be its bread and butter, Bleeding Edge’s is clunky and unsatisfying. With only two game modes at the time of this review, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for variety between each match and you’ll quickly find yourself in a cycle of rinsing and repeating until you’re left wanting more and not being offered anything else.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is how you make a follow-up to an already fantastic game. Moon Studios took what they learned from Ori and the Blind Forest and expanded on and improved the formula in every way. Everything from combat, platforming, exploration, story, and world-building are fine-tuned to make an experience that shouldn’t be missed if you own an Xbox One or PC.
This is another very impressive entry in Capcom’s Legacy Collection and if you’re either looking for a walk down a saber-slashing memory lane or trying to blast rogue robots for the first time, then you won’t be disappointed by this retro-style platformer.
Devil May Cry 3 is a must-play if you’re already a fan of Capcom’s combo-based action series or if you’re new to the genre. The handheld and Joy-Con controls may not be ideal for prolonged periods of play or players with difficulty mashing buttons, but you’ll still be treated to one of the best and most stylish action games currently available on the Switch.
The game does leave you wanting more but ultimately promises more of Kid and their soul-searching adventure through video games in the future. If you’re looking for a quick jog down memory lane filled with nostalgia and a strong emotional core, then 198X will not disappoint.