Connor Nichols's Reviews
Definitely the best game to date I’ve played from Rideon, and one that I feel does have a lot of good merits to it: with all that said, you may want to wait for a sale on this one, due to the simple gameplay loop, yet if you’re a fan of these kinds of games and don’t mind the repetitiveness and steep price, then you’ll find a satisfying mix of RPG action and town management here.
TENS was a puzzler that surprised me with just how fun it was! Taking the number-counting action of Sudoku and adding the chains/combos from other versus puzzlers, leads to a pretty addictive gameplay loop, satisfying when you’re playing alone, or against an opponent! With several unlockables such as new characters or dice designs, along with the decently sized story mode, TENS offers quite a bit of replay value for a high quality puzzler.
With the insane amount of replay value from Extreme, and the lengthy content from Arkanoid Vs, you can’t go wrong with Forever, and even as the PS4’s only SKU of the collection, I feel it’s still worth a pickup, though if you’re wanting the retro games, regardless of the lack of local score saving for those, you can still buy Invincible Collection on the Switch via Strictly Limited.
Alwa’s Legacy feels like a proper step up from the original title, still maintaining that excellent metroidvania level design and encouraging players who can think outside the box to sequence break and play at their own pace. While I do feel the chaptered format of this game is a bit odd, and how the game can seem a bit too familiar to the original at points, this is still a must-have Metroidvania, and feels like a true refinement of everything that made Awakening so spectacular.
Considering how my only complaint with this relates to the quirks of the original arcade game’s emulation, (the lack of local hi-scores, irritating stuttering when changing options, etc), I’d say that Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is an excellent retro revival that’s absolutely worth checking out, even if the price point does make it rather tough to recommend for a digital purchase. Luckily, a physical PS4 version is out now, and if you’re willing to spend the $40, you will get a quality arcade throwback out of it worth your time.
One Word by Powgi is yet another crossword game from Lightwood, and while the one word per board focus may seem great for pick up and play, unfortunately I couldn’t say they felt that different from your typical crossword puzzle, especially when the boards vary wildly in size and thus, the difficulty of the puzzles is all over the place. It’s fine for crossword fans wanting every possible puzzle imaginable, but otherwise, you’re better off just getting one of the more content-packed collections from lightwood instead.
While I really wanted to like 1993 more than I did, I can’t help but feel some aspects of the game didn’t age that well, or weren’t polished up as much as they should have been. The graphics are outstanding, and while the sound is lackluster, it still fits the Amiga vibe very well. But the stages are just so inconsistent in how fun they are to play, that I can’t help but feel there should have been more spice to this experience.
Umihara Bazooka is an incredibly fun multiplayer game, one that I couldn’t help but have mountains of laughs produced while my friend was over! The multiplayer focused modes are sparse in number, but they’re very solid and get the job done exceptionally well, and I really wish that the online community was more active so that I could recommend the online too, since if it’s even half as fun as the local experience, multiplayer fans are in for an exceptional party brawler with a fun mechanic.
Trails of Cold Steel III was a very fun RPG, containing all the good parts from II which I loved, with better pacing thanks to the Turbo Mode, and a story that sets up the next entry rather well. The story’s the main draw for returning fans, and newcomers are better off starting from Cold Steel I, but if you can only join in on this entry due to the Switch exclusivity, then you will still be able to get tons of fun from this game. Just be absolute sure to beat this before starting Cold Steel IV, as that’s definitely not a game to make your first under any circumstance, recaps be dammed. Thankfully, Cold Steel III is well worth a full playthrough, even if it’ll take you quite a bit to do so.
Deleveled is a paint by numbers, minimalist platformer, entering a swamped genre with not much on offer. The controls are fine, the puzzles are pretty tricky, and the concept is fine, but there really isn’t that much to write home about with Deleveled.
Like before, the RPG Maker Player app does make buying the full game for play purposes feel a little redundant, and the region locking is incredibly stupid, but I can gladly say that even newcomers will find fun reasons to tinker around and just goof off, and this game did the series justice on Switch. I really can’t believe the tutorial is unaccessible after the first attempt, though, since that is a mind boggling design flaw that will no doubt frustrate newcomers, but if you somehow can get past all that and are willing to become creative, this is a enjoyable tool to take up learning if it interests you and you have no access to a PC.
Herzog Zwei was a great conclusion to the Sega Ages line, cramming as much references and bonus stuff as I could have possibly wanted in such a release, and truly feeling like a proper sendoff. As one of my first RTS games, this was a really fun introduction to the genre, and the helper and tutorial modes do a great job of making this a customizable experience for newcomers and veterans alike!
I may have been quite late in getting to covering YIIK, but in the end, was this worth the wait and time for me, as an RPG fan and a fan of 90s games and visuals? Honestly, I did come out really enjoying the art style for its cool quirky looks, and some of the music is legitimately awesome, but on the other hand, you have a horrid battle system and some voices that sound as if they were recorded from a tin can. It’s a weird mess all around, and even now, I don’t recommend you check this out. Just buy the soundtrack if you have to get anything out of this game.
Hakuoki Edo Blossoms was one of the two PS Vita long-haulers I had always planned to cover, but never got around to before shelving my PSTV. Thankfully, I’m back in the fray and was able to check this adventure out on its intended hardware, and it’s fairly enjoyable, following up on Kyoto Winds rather well. The fact you can pick your route immediately is a huge plus, and I enjoyed learning glossary terms as much as I did years ago in Kyoto, but otherwise Edo Blossoms is a fairly typical visual novel that you’d probably be best to play after the original. The MSRP for this game has lowered on the PSN, and for the $10 price point, I absolutely think it’s worth a buy to continue the story, though if you’re a physical hunter, this one’s more rare than the original, so be wary.
Liege Dragon is a rather boring adventure, and it didn’t do that well even as a remake. The game’s mechanics feel even more simplistic when combined with the rather unpleasant presentation, and when the old version from 2011 looks way prettier and more fitting of the simplicity, that’s a pretty sad sight to see for a remade game like this, and I feel that some sort of option or tribute to the game’s original look would have been a pretty neat feature to see.
Serious Scramblers was really fun in spots and gave a good glimpse into how this experience could be refined into an addictive time waster. Unfortunately, the slow lack of variety along with the lack of a vertical mode in a game screaming for it makes Serious Scramblers something that I can only really recommend if you’re into short and cheap experiences, rather than as an addictive arcade-like time chaser.
La-Mulana 2 is an excellent sequel to the original masterpiece. The combat is still just as satisfying as before, the puzzles aren’t nearly as cryptic but are still fun to solve, and the adventure is a fun one overall! My only real gripe is that it does have a slow start, unlike the first game, since it tries to ease the player in before opening up to the same sort of glorious open-ended exploration that made the first game magnificent, yet it’s still a great adventure with lots of different ways to replay it.
Tamiku easily nailed all the sweet spots I look for in a scorechaser: addictive gameplay loops, simple controls, trial and error, it’s all here, and Tamiku does a godly job with it all, to the point I honestly believe this could be made into a NES homebrew game due to just how authentic it feels! The only real gripes I have with Tamiku are a few: one being that I do wish the game would have an endless, randomized mode that would shuffle the order of stages around, and the other being that the lack of online leaderboards is a real shame, especially due to how this game’s practically screaming for them.
In conclusion, Warlock’s Tower is a simple, yet brilliant logic game with fun puzzles to enjoy during the 100 stage journey. It’s a simple concept that sticks to simplicity while not feeling repetitive nor hastily thrown together, the stages where you swap between characters are a ton of fun as well, and overall Warlock’s Tower is a Game Boy Puzzler tribute done justice, something that I was very pleased to see for a game I didn’t have much expectations for.
Golf Zero is a pretty fun and creative physics platformer, with a good amount of challenge and fun levels to play through! But the experience overall is rather short, and outside of doing all the gold medal or speedrun challenges, the game just doesn’t evolve into a replayable experience.