James Cunningham's Reviews
Making it a bit easier on the gaming budget, Flower is also cross-buy, so if you've already got it on PS3 or Vita, then the PS4 version is free. There's no gameplay updates, no level tweaks or new areas, but it runs at a better framerate and the 1080p is noticeably sharper than the original if you put them side-by-side.
It's hard to understate how incredible having the whole world available feels and the amount of possibility it opens up.
Race to get better. Race for self-improvement. Race to understand how knocking a few hundredths of a second off a best time can feel like victory.
Axiom Verge was already one of the best Metroid-style games in years and it lands on the Switch like it belongs there.
Rogue Legacy is just about as close to perfect as a randomized action platformer could hope to be. The constantly changing challenge, and character to face it with, make every game feel different.
The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition is a fantastic package of two great first-person puzzlers. It's basically identical to the PC version, so if you've got those already there's not much need to double-dip, but otherwise it's a must-own.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a phenomenal dungeon crawler. It's loaded with personality, great music, fun characters and deep action that only appears simplistic on the surface.
Zenzizenzic is a massive dose of twin-stick action, demanding a learning period to master its systems, but rewarding players with a finely tuned machine of destruction for their effort. The various weapons and tools fit together perfectly, but the game never becomes a pushover even with the knowledge of how to use all that power, or even anything less than major challenge on the higher difficulty levels.
Downwell is a fantastic arcade game from the '80s transplanted into a modern-day computer. The pixely art style and minimal color palette reinforce its influences but the animation and number of different moving parts on screen at once are nothing 80s hardware would have been able to keep up with. The interlocking gameplay elements are far smarter than they look at first glance, teaching you how to play and get better while also not being shy about killing you dead.
The sheer volume of content is fantastic, making it as easy to replay a mode over and over again for practice as it is to bounce from one game type to another for the shooter version of Short Attention Span Theater. Mushihimesama is a phenomenal arcade game and an indispensable addition to any shooter fan's library.
It would be easy to blow off Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair as just another HD remake, but that wouldn't give it credit for how much better it plays now that it's got appropriate processing muscle behind its enemy-packed levels. Simply put, Earth Defense Force has never looked or played as good as this, and while the framerate still drops a bit when the action gets particularly intense, it's never anything but playable.
Starward Rogue is easily the best arcade roguelike since Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and while it doesn't stray too far from its inspiration's influence, it makes up for this by executing its formula incredibly well.
Score Rush Extended is a fantastic remake of what had already been an excellent shooter.
RunGunJumpGun is simple arcade action taken to its extremes.
By the end of Thumper, the speed is insane, the music wild and oppressive, and the feeling of just barely holding on to a beast that wants to send you flying so it can gnaw your bones is disturbingly strong.
DoDonPachi Resurrection is a monster of an arcade shooter.
SuperHot VR is one of the best games VR has seen yet.
Polybius looks like a frenetic shooter that constantly has the player in a state of heightened tension, but the truly amazing thing about it is that it's almost the complete opposite in actual play.
Tormentor X Punisher is loud, mean, occasionally unfair, intentionally ugly and thoroughly awesome.
Nex Machina is an utterly fantastic arcade twin-stick shooter that doesn't so much revolutionize the genre as get almost every aspect just right.