It’s the house that was built for the actual racing that is the problem. Beneath the vibrant colors and retro sensibilities, it’s disappointingly unpolished and monotone. Getting through the championship took me short of 6 hours, but it feels like it would be better off being half that with better attention to detail. As it stands, Victory Heat Rally isn’t the bumpiest ride I’ve been on, but it would benefit from a tune-up.
Despite its brevity, Parking Garage Rally Circuit packs a huge punch. It’s not just its perfectly emulated retro aesthetic or its near-flawless execution of its central concept, either. It’s just so damned happy to be here. You can feel the passion behind it, and that energy is felt in all its facets. It knows what it is, and it’s laser-focused on presenting it in the most finely-tuned way possible. I cannot fathom any game topping it in the niche of racing games contained entirely within parking garages. I’m not really sure what the best way to wrap up this review is, so let’s try this: Parking Garage Rally Circuit is miles more fun than parallel parking.
I Am Your Beast is weak in some areas, but not significantly so. A large portion of it is just fine, but what’s good is really good. It manages a combat system that is fast and chaotic while still remaining intuitive, which is an impressive feat. Part of me wonders if something like this could be applied across a wider, longer game without diluting it. As it is, I Am Your Beast applies it perfectly, making it a short-lived but impactful experience.
However, as far as NES games go, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is as solid as they come. I said this earlier, but if this came out during the NES’ lifespan, it probably would be well-remembered. Maybe not as well as one of the system’s absolute classics, but at least in the same niche as Little Nemo: Dream Master. Released today, it’s another very curious case of a new licensed game getting released on an old console. That’s already very exciting for me, so the fact that it’s also a well-tuned game is just gravy.
Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
Clickolding really needed to nail its narrative to be a successful experiment, and it really doesn’t. It’s much too unfocused and far too superficial, never really drilling far into its subject matter. There were a lot of directions that could have been taken, and none of them were. That doesn’t mean that Clickolding doesn’t have value, but it’s not something that needs to be experienced. You could get the same pleasure from just watching.
It feels like it would fit better as an additional mode to some sort of NES Remix compilation. And that’s ignoring the fact that NES Remix 2 already had a mode based on the Nintendo World Championships. Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a celebration of the classic console; it’s just one that lacks excitement and is too exclusive for its own good.
It would be extremely difficult not to be charmed by the graphics and animation in Luigi’s Mansion 2, as the passion behind them is practically tangible. Even the central focus of puzzle solving and ghost-catching are fun on their own. However, I cannot possibly overstate how much of the joy gets sucked out by its strict adherence to a completely linear chapter progression. It’s like a hospital painted in vibrant colors. It does a lot to brighten things up, but you can only do so much to counterbalance the sterility.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami delivers on its philosophy too well. It’s an easygoing detective game, sure, but its design feels similarly laid-back. It doesn’t feel like it reaches to excel very often. It doesn’t excite, it doesn’t provoke thought, and it doesn’t linger on the tongue. And there’s something to be said about a game like that. Not everything needs to be a revelation. Sometimes, you just need something that you can file away after you quack the case.
The fact that Paper Mario did diverge after The Thousand-Year Door makes this remaster even more effective. It’s been absent for 20 years, and the new territory that has been covered since then hasn’t resulted in the discovery of the same magic. It’s a new opportunity to see the series’ apogee. It’s a reminder that while the JRPG-lite approach has its limitations, with the right voice, it can really sing.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
I also must commend Nightdive Studios for having the guts to remaster a game that can’t even claim a cult following. PO’ed isn’t notoriously bad, but it would probably be better if it was. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it come up in conversation. I might never have played it had it not been for Nightdive, and for that, I’m grateful in a very strange way. Even if a game is obscure or outright bad, I always love seeing them get dusted off and restored to working order. I just never want to play it again.
If you’ve ever had thoughts of throwing your phone away or abandoning the internet to its robotic rulers, Mullet MadJack taps into that frustration. The neon nostalgia of a better era is fertile ground for a game that feels like beating a microwave to death with a crowbar.
Crow Country doesn’t exactly rewrite the playbook for survival horror. It leans pretty heavily on those that came before it. However, what it builds on top of the foundation is extraordinarily impressive. This is easily one of the best horror games I’ve played, and it doesn’t even seem like it’s trying that hard. It maybe lacks some of the more psychological themes that have made others stick firmly in my memory, but the playfulness and confidence of Crow Country more than make up for that. It’s definitely worth a visit.
But regardless of what caused the project to get derailed, it still means that Phantom Fury is a disappointing result. It’s a mash of ‘00s FPS cliches without reprieve. I spent most of its runtime wishing it was over. Or, at least, wishing it was what it promised to be. Its overall blandness has done the impossible and made me appreciate Duke Nukem Forever just a little bit more.
Life Eater feels like an experiment that neither fizzled nor exploded. All the parts are there, but they don’t fit together quite right. Something is missing, and before that something was located, it was released into the wild as-is. Because it can’t find its effectiveness, the central concept that should be so compelling and disturbing is just kind of fluffy. If an apathetic detachment from ritual sacrifice was what Life Eater was aiming for, then it nailed it. Unfortunately.
What I mainly took away from Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is that its creators had a lot of fun crafting it. There’s a lot of love poured into it, and it shows in all the small ways it goes the unnecessary extra mile. It’s surprisingly polished, even if there is the odd frustrating moment of fighting with the physics. It just feels like a complete, uncompromised package that succeeds in what it sets out to do.
Death Noodle Delivery is sympathetic, but it has no answers for you. It may remind you that you’re not alone in your struggles, but rarely have I found that sentiment to be helpful. Instead, we can only be like Jimmy and hope that by continuing to put one foot in front of the other, we’ll eventually get somewhere better. At least there are noodles to comfort us in the meantime.
The Making of Karateka feels like it was told by someone who really loves video games, whereas Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story feels more like it was told by someone who loves Jeff Minter. It’s more interested in showing the man and less about telling his story. Instead, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story just feels like an organized box of stuff. It’s a pretty great box of stuff, but it should have been more than that.
There’s a lot here that feels great, but it’s the inconsistency that lets it down. All those great moments are padded by a framework that doesn’t do them enough justice. Too much emphasis on scrounging, an unfocused narrative, and a generally poor feeling of momentum and progression. I’m still certain that there are some who will be able to overlook the game’s flaws and latch onto its unique charm. However, I think just as many people are going to bounce right off it. Either way, it isn’t a comfortable ride.