James Cunningham


217 games reviewed
78.0 average score
80 median score
69.3% of games recommended
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Unscored - Abyss Odyssey
Jul 15, 2014

The important thing is that what's available now is really good, utilizing a fighting engine that rewards creativity in using its moves and set in a dungeon loaded with replayability. The art nouveau style is more apparent in the 2D character portraits than the polygonal graphics but still give the game a unique tone, like playing a Grateful Dead album cover.

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Aug 28, 2014

Lichdom: Battlemage is a big, complicated, awesome beast of an FPS.  When you've got a system down and are tearing through enemies you feel like magic incarnate, wielding the secrets of the universe to eviscerate all in your path.

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2 / 5.0 - Randall
Jun 8, 2017

Randall should be better than this. It's got all the elements in place to be good but they just don't work right.

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2 / 5.0 - Lovely Planet
Aug 9, 2014

Lovely Planet looks great on paper.  Flat-shaded polygons, whimsical level structure, dozens and dozens of challenging little levels and a fun sountrack should have made for a great round of enjoyably strange FPS action.

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2 / 5.0 - Zombeer
Feb 2, 2015

Fortunately, it falls apart in a semi-entertaining fashion; not in a "so bad it's good" way but rather a "can't look away" way.  For all the well-deserved kicking I've given Zombeer, I also pushed through to finish the game not because I was obligated to for the review, but because I was morbidly curious as to where it was going.

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3 / 5.0 - Ray's the Dead
Nov 4, 2020

Ray's the Dead is a hard game to either recommend or trash, balanced neatly between being a charming and much-smarter-than-it-looks zombie-fest and a buggy mess punctuated by painfully blatant '80s nostalgia.

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3 / 5.0 - Skelattack
Jun 3, 2020

Skelattack doesn't know what it wants to be but despite this I did end up getting just a little more enjoyment than aggravation out of it.

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3 / 5.0 - Sonar Beat
Jan 26, 2019

Sonar Beat is a clever rhythm game with a pleasant soundtrack and a good visual style.

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3 / 5.0 - Crimson Keep
Dec 5, 2018

Despite its issues I kept on plugging away at Crimson Keep, not just to review it, but because it feels like if I can just figure out how to work around its shortcomings there's a great dungeon crawl waiting to be found.

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3 / 5.0 - Tenta Shooter
Dec 15, 2017

Tenta Shooter is a perfectly decent bullet-hell arcade game with a simple mechanic that provides nice flexibility in both score-chasing and surviving the levels.

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Sep 2, 2017

An Oath to the Stars is a fairly basic bullet-hell shooter, colorful and packed with swarms of firepower, but it never really takes off.

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3 / 5.0 - SmuggleCraft
May 26, 2017

Despite all its issues I honestly enjoyed SmuggleCraft.  The tracks are a bit lonely, the challenge level is fairly low even when a mission says Death Trap and the menus desperately need another round of polish, but the courses are beautiful and fun to fly through in their detailed, low-poly way.

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Dec 15, 2016

Drive!Drive!Drive! has the heart of a great arcade racer, but isn’t quite there yet.

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3 / 5.0 - DOGOS
Sep 10, 2016

DOGOS is close to being a fantastic free-roaming shooter and only held back by a few small issues and a giant glaring one.

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Jul 25, 2016

Time Machine VR is the kind of game you tend to see at the start of a new technology.

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3 / 5.0 - Grow Home
Feb 18, 2015

The sad thing about the controls is that everything else in Grow Home is so well done.  Exploring the world, gliding around on a leaf, climbing to the bottom of an island, and growing shoots to new areas are a lovable traits.

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Nov 13, 2013

Deadfall Adventures isn't actually a terrible game. The dialogue is dumb, AI companions have an unnerving tendency to teleport behind you, it's far glitchier than it should be, but somehow it's also not unlikeable.

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3.5 / 5.0 - Bore Blasters
Mar 11, 2024

Bore Blasters may have one rough edge in terms of its time limit, but the rest of the game is a solid blaster through a large series of fully-destructible levels backed by a pounding soundtrack. Each biome has its own hazards, like growing blocks that can regenerate right in your path, or lava blocks shooting fireballs, and all the firepower in the world isn't going to be a substitute for paying attention to the level hazards. Even a failed Bore Blasters run is a lot of fun packed with satisfyingly-explosive moments, but there would be a lot more them if there was time to amble to the end rather than sprint.

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Mar 5, 2024

Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game has a lot of tidying up to do to become what it should be, but there's a wonderfully-rewarding game in there once you've learned its quirks.

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Oct 19, 2023

Oddly enough, though, that's kind of the charm.

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