Final Fantasy X remains a genre-defining legend while Final Fantasy X-2 still dances through its saccharine and exploitative expectations. Neither feel especially ravaged by time. As either an academic interest in turn-of-the-century gaming or a hopeful re-acquaintance with a bygone phenomenon, the collection makes it easy to invest another lifetime across Spira.
Kiwami 2 finds Yakuza deliberately and desperately recycling and remixing pieces of its past. While it remains a mesmerizing intersection of violence, eccentricity, and drama, its impulse to reprise Yakuza's rich history can wear out even the most ardent enthusiast. In a vacuum, Kiwami 2 is a beacon of its namesake's power and an imposing remodel of Yakuza 2. As the Kazuma Kiryu ninth adventure, Kiwami 2 may have reached Yakuza's breaking point.
Jettomero: Hero of the Universe offsets despair with panicky optimism and traps the ensuing fallout inside of a dizzy planet-obliterating robot. It's an alien venue for exploring the range and control of depression, but also one that expresses comfort and warmth along its journey. Resolution, through either perception or reality, casts Jettomero as a sympathetic hero negotiating inescapable desolation.
In a medium consumed by flash and artificiality, Moss presents a mature and genuine alternative.
Devil May Cry's appearance on Switch should be regarded as an essential installment of modern gaming history. Its genesis in Resident Evil, unconscious evolution of the beat 'em up genre, and conception of stylish-action showcase the fierce innovation demonstrated by the PlayStation 2 in 2001. In 2019, the primordial Devil May Cry may be more frustrating than fun, but what it lacks in comfort it corrects with prestige.
Resident Evil 5 is a product of its time. It is also a product of Resident Evil 4's time. The generation-defining strength of the latter pushed against the contemporary ideas of the former, creating a surplus of vaguely Resident Evil content masquerading around in 2009's milieu of cooperative action games. Depending on your expectations, Resident Evil 5 either remains a blissfully cooperative version of Resident Evil 4 or a harbinger of the monstrosity that became Resident Evil 6.
End of Zoe is a Resident Evil 7 gaiden that replaces guns with fists, herbs with bugs, and grenades with javelins. Becoming a bog frolicking ex-boxer uncle who fights monsters with his bare hands is precisely how I wanted to end 2017. End of Zoe is temporal, unhinged, and, either by intention or accident (it doesn't matter), often hilarious.
Through its characters, its designer, and its player, Gorogoa keeps an outsider's perspective in a present state of mind. Straightforward action—shifting panels and considering different points of view—doesn't preclude logical twists or emotional complexity. In only a couple hours, Gorogoa creates a window into a daydream and a companion to despair.
Gang Beasts' madcap brawling creates a dynamic alliance between conflict and chaos. It also enables human responses like surprise, merriment, revenge, and screaming. Driving a wobbly creature to comically murder another flailing mess, as it turns out, is a pleasant and repeatable practice. If only three of your friends could always come along for the ride.
Okami, now on its seventh platform, remains unaffected by the ravages of time. The convergence of Japanese folklore and a Sumi-e aesthetic over the blueprint of The Legend of Zelda created a benign opus that, eleven years later, remains unchallenged and unequaled by any scale of competition. Okami, even with its pronounced vulnerabilities, is a singular creation and merits constant preservation. [OpenCritic note: Eric Layman separately reviewed the PC (9), PS4 (9), and Switch (8) versions. Their scores have been averaged.]
Resident Evil 2 survives the horror of summiting a twenty-one year old apex. Time-worn mechanics, either left abandoned or considered obsolete, are accountably refashioned through an agile interface and a relentless commitment to creating tension. Resident Evil 2's pervasive sense of dread, the handshake between past and present, remains delightfully, gruesomely in place.
Doom VFR leverages extant resources to construct an intimate sensation of murdering hell demons in virtual reality. Dealing with Satan entails a short list of sacrifices which Doom VFR obliges through its compressed experience, inadequate control options, and risk averse experimentation. Safe and sensible, however, are sufficient labels for Doom VFR's pledge of menacing intensity.
Fire Emblem Warriors is the scheduled consequence of Hyrule Warriors; a sword-friendly Nintendo treasure paired with Omega Force's quantitatively indisputable knack for mowing down thousands of bad guys in the pursuit of an even worse guy. Somehow, in spite of the presumed absence of inspiration, Fire Emblem Warriors remains engaging. It will always be fun to destroy perpetuating hoards with only a modest commitment from your mind.
Megaton Rainfall checks the immense power of a god with the civil responsibility of an altruist. It's a strong pairing, and one that only fails through the volatile application of its singularity. Playing god can be exhausting when you're only capable of indistinct destruction.
The delicate and skilled operation of a high performance vehicle projects Gran Turismo Sport's utopian vision. Its factitious structure and inattentive principles remind the player that it operates in an unstable reality. Gran Turismo Sport lives in a world of sportsmanship and prestige and doesn't much care if would-be residents find its narrow paradise aloof and inhospitable.
Virtual Rick-ality celebrates the existential comedy and breathless sociopathy of Rick and Morty. Like Job Simulator, it excels at creating natural space and filling it eccentric objectives and impulsive mischief. As a Rick and Morty product and a true second-generation VR title, Virtual Rick-ality is a comfortable calamity.
A Hat in Time is more interested in looking around than staring backward. This is a challenging exercise for a 3D platformer, and yet A Hat in Time keeps its perspective balanced between careful devotion and sensible progression. Being responsive to your environment, as it turns out, makes it easier to see where you should be going.
A Hat in Time is more interested in looking around than staring backward. This is a challenging exercise for a 3D platformer, and yet A Hat in Time keeps its perspective balanced between careful devotion and sensible progression. Being responsive to your environment, as it turns out, makes it easier to see where you should be going.
Unsteady motion requires forgiveness. Exacting movement demands precision. Giga Wrecker Alt's puzzle-platforming wants to have it both ways and gets trapped between frustration and satisfaction. For all of its inventive mechanics and generous agency, Giga Wrecker Alt could have benefited from more clarity and cohesion.
Iron Man and Tony Stark are conduits of chaos. Virtual reality is a medium that demands comfort and sophistication. Iron Man VR attempts control of both worlds, combining Iron Man's breakneck speed and giddying repulsors with the crafted elegance of a maturing medium. The product is a confident and convincing presentation of Iron Man, albeit one that feels limited by its budget and hardware.