Connor Nichols's Reviews
At the end of the day, Moto Roader MC is clearly a game meant to be played with friends, and while Switch is the only version that will allow for local 5 player racing, there’s sadly not that much to do solo, even though the mechanics are a lot of fun to mess around with.
While it may not be as event or anime-focused as the other two YGO games, this is definitely a very well polished duel simulator I plan on playing off and on for many months to come, and even if I find myself sucking at ranked matches, taking notes from those battles and seeing myself slowly improve with card types I used to think were too complex to ever understand was the best aspect of the experience by far, and cross-save makes it the best kind of game to literally play on anything, so for the cost of nothing, all versions are equally worth a go, especially with the Solo Mode being a fine introduction.
At the end of the day, the game is just a purely solid Metroidvania: outside of the titular mechanic, it won’t do much to reinvent the wheel, just stick to solid traditions, but either way, you’ll have plenty of fun whichever mode you choose to play the game, and honestly? I ultimately found this to be far more engaging than Unepic, which is a lot harder for old me to come back to. And that says quite a lot about this game’s quality, if it can outdo the nostalgic game made to be a nostalgic throwback to begin with: double nostalgia!
Still, if you enjoyed the original, especially from a multiplayer standpoint, then this is an absolute must-have, since the online multiplayer is stellar and the new mechanics do just enough to add extra layers of fun to an already great sports title.
Nevertheless, Speed Limit was a pretty charming experience that definitely left an impression on me, and even if things don’t feel quite balanced in some ways, I can at least give this a solid recommendation to those willing to take up the challenge, even if just to see the cool ways in which the game shifts genre.
Unfortunately, Moero Chronicle doesn’t exactly have much merit to it outside of the eye candy, with the dungeon crawling feeling very, very shoehorned in and everything but the suggestive parts seeming like the afterthought here, and I could only stand around two hours before I realized that there wasn’t much of a enjoyable game here.
Unfortunately, the constant slowdown from loading dungeon floors is enough of a pace breaker to drive me absolutely insane, and I'm not gonna lie when I also point out that this sort of game has been done many of time before. Still, you have a solid foundation, a fun gameplay loop, and a great pick up and play experience, so if you can get this on sale and really do not mind the agonizing floor loading, you may have a good amount of fun going on runs with this!
Honestly, the amount of attention to detail and hidden touches is enough to make me recommend this game to platformer fans, but I reckon you may wanna go for the physical edition with extra goodies or wait for a digital sale if you want to check this out. Otherwise, this is a whimsical adventure that you’ll have a fun weekend with.
Potata is a middle of the road puzzle platformer. Yes, it provides puzzling entertainment, and the solutions can be clever enough to make you crack a smile, but when the game is bogged down by a lot of genericness and frustrating moments, along with just how dull the experience is as a whole, I honestly can’t really recommend this at the usual MSRP: it controls fine enough to get you some entertainment if you pick it up on sale, but for the $12 MSRP, this is a puzzler that just doesn’t have the full magic.
While I wish this package could have done even more cool stuff such as throw in old trailers and prototypes, what we have here is excellently presented by the folks at D4 Enterprise (Wii U Virtual Console TG16 + Project EGG emulators), and I’m super excited that Edia is actually doing something with the Telenet properties, and something fun at that. Here’s hoping we see the Valis series come back with a new game, in as great of a way as Blaster Master Zero!
Stay Cool definitely deserves props for looking distinct in a series that overdoes the same art style to no end, but otherwise, I can’t say this River City Ransom story is a must-own by any means, outside of local co-op shenanigans or for the sake of completing the series on your Switch. It’s a shame, since some aspects of this game I really do dig, from how the game looks, the spirit attacks, the multiple playable characters, but when the core loop is just so repetitive and confusing, this time travel story is just a weird paradox that is best left unsolved, and I feel that they could very well use this promising game engine for a game that’s far, far better executed.
It’s brilliant how crazy you can make this Pocket Dungeon, and it gives me a proud joy to say that this puzzler was easily the biggest sleeper hit of the year: despite being tough to explain, it just has a flow that is silky smooth!
Clockwork Aquario is an incredibly colorful, fun arcade gem restored and finally released after so many years, leading to a great platformer that feels like the perfect sister game to Monster Lair. This port job is pretty decent, though the lack of some expected features from other Ratalaika Games releases is rather disappointing, especially considering the completely asinine lack of button remapping.
The Ambassador didn’t really click with me much at all. While it did have some cool time manipulation mechanics and controlled pretty well for a twin-stick shooter, it didn’t offer much of anything substantial that managed to engage me, and ultimately it just wore out rather quickly.
When those bugs end up being the best way to prepare for the aforementioned battle tower and make up for the lack of QOL features, that’s even more silly, and sadly, does ultimately lead to these remakes not feeling nearly as Shining as they could have been, despite the amount of love and polish in other areas of the game that’ll definitely make these my preferred method of replaying Sinnoh for years to come. Still, I couldn’t help but also wish these just got the extra polish they desperately needed.
Gynoug is a fairly average horizontal shooter, even if it’s nowhere near the same exciting level of action that Gleylancer provided. Still, the QOL options here are very welcome, and just like with that game I feel that this port easily makes for the ultimate way to play Gynoug, one that yet again, is far cheaper than buying a real cartridge of it or the US Wings of Wor.
With how these devs did such a great job with Gleylancer, I can only conclude that this porting disaster had to have stemmed from being rushed out somehow: whether to try and time it with the physical releases, or just for the heck of it, it is incredibly disappointing that such a promising game, so close to being accessible in a cheap and affordable fashion, was thrown out in such a state of disarray. Like with Cotton 100%, a patch for EN translation is on the way, but I also hope they fix the damn game first: something that should have been checked more carefully from the get go.
Alas, the same is true here, for the online is entirely barren now, and with so much of the focus dumped into multiplayer modes that are practically worthless, (And not even that fun with the local friends I did manage to bring over) I just can’t understand what Treasure Stack was going for. With several more local modes, and just a bit more tweaking, this could easily be an addictive, fun modern take on the Wario’s Woods formula, but as it stands now, this just ends up being a forgettable puzzler that pales compared to the inspiration.
Cotton 100% is a very good port of a pretty niche game, but it does have some stuff to iron out. The original game is here fully intact and still just as fun as ever, but the buggy visual options, the weird lack of any toggle for the epileptic, and the current lack of a translation make this port feel a bit rushed.
Still, with a solid combat system, fun upgrade and crafting mechanics, and a great sense of speed, this is still a decent platformer I can recommend for fans of ninja action games, especially those who love fast-paced ones and wouldn’t mind skipping over the optional objectives. Don’t expect it to be the most polished thing ever, but if you just enjoy fast-paced platformers, then this may be one worth considering, even if the price may seem a bit steep.