Some games are only going to appeal to a very specific audience. That’s great, I’m all for niche games, and SuperPower 3 should have been one of those titles. With the number of issues, it has, though, including systems that simply don’t seem to work, performance problems, and a complete lack of direction, it’s hard to see even the players who it should be for getting much enjoyment out of it.
There’s still room for a big snowboarding game in today’s video game landscape, but Shredders isn’t able to fill it. While it looks nice when you’re not moving, issues with performance, controls, mission design, voice acting, story, nearly every aspect of this game is flawed. So value your time and wait for the next title in the genre.
A nice look and decent pacing aren’t enough for me to recommend a game to pretty much anyone, though. I came in really wanting to like Lifeless Moon, but pretty much everything I enjoyed about it I could see in the screenshots and trailer. There are too many good puzzle games out there nowadays to spend time on one which has so little going for it.
I can usually find something to enjoy in most any SHMUP, but outside of a killer soundtrack, there wasn’t much that redeemed Twin Cobra for me. The basics all more or less work, it isn’t broken, and there are certainly worse games out there, but there’s nothing it does particularly well, and the slow speed of your ship gets old very quickly, as do the bland looking levels. There are a couple of gems in this set of Toaplan shooters Bitwave Games are releasing today, but Twin Cobra simply isn’t one of them.
At times the story of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo can be interesting, but it never fully comes together. Succeeding neither as an homage to a great director’s work or on its own terms, it might be better served if it didn’t have the expectations its name provides, but that wouldn’t make it a great game. There are simply better adventure games more worth your time available this year.
KungFu Kickball has some strong ideas. They don’t really work, though, and the game never quite manages to live up to its namesake. There’s just so little here, and so much of what is here doesn’t quite feel right. I wish I’d been able to have more fun with it, but as is, I would have a hard time recommending it even if you’re in the target audience.
There’s room on the market for mindless action, especially when it can be played with friends. I’m glad a game like Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is on Game Pass because that’s the perfect way to get a group of friends playing together. I just wish that once they gathered, they had something better to play. Unfortunately, despite some parts of the game looking and sounding nice, there’s little else to recommend it. With awful AI, weightless combat, an unengaging story, and loot that feels inessential, the entire game is a slog. The biggest fans of Dungeons & Dragons may find a bit of fun with friends, but they deserve better than this.
There are interesting concepts at play here and I definitely understand why the team behind Interrogation were inspired to create it. It looks great with a black and white, noir-like visual style which really lands. From gameplay to messaging, though, Interrogation fails on almost every other level. Some of the more insane scenes that show up are something to behold but not for any sort of good reason. Don't be deceived into thinking Interrogation is worth your time.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft takes a franchise that was flawed even in the 90s and does nothing interesting to update it. The new graphics are nice when they aren’t ruining the atmosphere of certain areas, but the modern controls somehow make these games a worse experience. There are plenty of great adventures out there starring Lara Croft. Her last trilogy was excellent, and even the 360-era titles, starting with Tomb Raider Legend, largely hold up. These original releases, though, have simply been eclipsed by far too many games at this point and are only really worth returning to if your nostalgia demands one more trip into these tombs.
Ten years ago, I’d have been eager to play a game like Hauma – A Detective Noir Story. With few new options to explore a genre I loved, I was eager for anything that even had a scrap of quality, and while its story and characters aren’t particularly strong and its gameplay has issues, a great art style, and solid voice acting keep things relatively enjoyable. There’s nothing truly wrong with any major aspect of Hauma. The issue is that most aspects of the game don’t do much that’s all that right either. Genre fans will find a game that is perfectly playable but which most will forget as soon as they’re done with it. Hauma – A Detective Noir Story is a prime example of why not every mystery needs to be solved.
There’s still a lot of good basketball in NBA 2K24 but it mostly feels buried in modes the developers are trying hard to keep new players from discovering. The series’ formerly rock-solid gameplay foundation feels like it’s slowly slipping away as well. Minor improvements around the edges don’t offset this slippage and the series’ continued descent into being nearly unplayable without spending a fortune on microtransactions. If you’re a series veteran who is willing to spend the vast amounts of money needed to compete online, you already know you’re buying this. The same is true of long-time series veterans who know where to find the best parts of the game even when they’re hidden away. With all its issues, though, it’s hard to recommend NBA 2K24 to anyone else.
There are times Hammerwatch II can be a lot of fun. Exploring massive dungeons and taking down hordes of enemies is usually a good time, and Hammerwatch II captures that, at least if you pick one of the right classes. I can see a group of friends with a well-balanced party having an excellent time with it, and that’s really who these games are for, first and foremost. Ultimately though, Hammerwatch II makes too many poor design choices for me to recommend it to most players. There’s a good game in here somewhere, but it’s buried under too many flaws.
Slap Fight has some interesting ideas with its ship, which gets bigger as you grow stronger, and it’s more complex than average for the time power-up system, which gives you an extra layer to manage. It also has a great look, which stands out from other games in the genre. I just wish that the actual gameplay felt better. With a rather slow pace and a soundtrack that did little to engage me, Slap Fight’s interesting ideas never fully come together into a satisfying package.
It feels like at some point in development Nao Games decided that Ninja or Die needed more. More to do, more complexity, more than the simple gameplay which makes up its core. That’s a shame because the core of Ninja or Die is its biggest strength, at least when it works. It just needs to work more consistently. There’s definite potential in its core, and I’d be curious to check out an update or follow-up to see if that core could be refined, but the game as it exists today is hard to recommend as more than a curiosity.
I really enjoy the story, look, and feel of Arcadian Atlas. While its core gameplay isn’t breaking any new ground, and its UI is poorly designed, it could be a solid choice for those who are nostalgic for the 32-bit era of strategy RPGs. I quickly learned to work around most of my issues with it to the point where they were more minor annoyances than significant issues. Until its significant performance issues are ironed out though, it’s hard to recommend for even the biggest fans of the genre. The game underneath has its strengths, but it’s certainly not good enough to be worth putting up with them.
There are beautiful moments in After Us worth seeing, but they’re buried in poorly directed levels featuring merely adequate gameplay. There’s not enough to consistently grab onto here to really hook most players. After Us has a lot in common with Piccolo Studios’ last narrative platformer but ultimately doesn’t offer the charm or consistently moving story that made that game so memorable.
I wish I could say otherwise, but at least for me there simply wasn’t. There’s little about Zero Wing that stands out in its genre and the few things Toaplan tried to do a bit differently largely either aren’t useful or actively hinder the experience. Zero Wing is certainly playable, but there are far better options for SHMUP players to explore.
Breakers Collection is bare bones because there’s not a lot to the Breakers games. They’re mostly fine-fighting games with some balance issues, which stood out on the Neo Geo in the 90s but struggle to do so in 2023 on modern platforms. The new content helps but isn’t enough to make a collection which is barely a collection appealing. I’m glad to see them get a home release because I’m for keeping all games accessible, but they’re not titles I expect to return to regularly, and I expect most fighting game fans will feel the same.
Those who have a sense of nostalgia for old-school, turn-based strategy games will likely be able to find some fun with The Dragoness. Despite a lack of personality, bland combat, and a sense of repetition that sets in quickly, something at the core of the game simply works. There are so many other options available to players that offer more, though, that it’s hard to recommend this one to all but the most dedicated devotees of the genre.
Restless Soul looks great and can be genuinely funny, at least in small doses. Its various parts aren’t badly designed, they just don’t fit together well, and its insistence on never letting up on the humor prevents any chance of it connecting with players on anything but a surface level. If this style of humor is up your alley, you could have a fun, if forgettable, weekend with it, but everyone else should stay away.