James Cunningham
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.
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.
Super Motherload is just about long enough for what it is, wrapping up before getting tedious while still providing plenty of gem and mineral harvesting action. There's no real reason for it to be on PS4 versus any other system, of course, but that doesn't prevent it from being a fun bit of digging with an excellent soundtrack.
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.
Don't Starve is a fantastic, huge, deadly ball of entertainingly gothic survival. It requires a self-motivated player to get the most from it, but once you start to learn its systems, each game lasts a bit longer than the previous one, and the ability to experience more of the world reveals more secrets and avenues of exploration.
It's hard to wholeheartedly recommend Fract OSC, because while technically it does everything well, something in it doesn't quite gel in the way one would hope. It's a beautiful game with a unique art style, a nicely intricate world to explore, and some good puzzles to solve, but somehow it also ends up being a bit aimless and sterile.
Life Goes On could use a last pass in a aspects of its controls, but the puzzle design is what makes the game work so well. Spiked conveyor belts carry bodies to pressure switches, but only if you can figure out how to turn off the flamethrowers to avoid incineration.
What Monochroma gets right, however, is tone and gameplay. The puzzle platforming is fun to solve once you get the feel for character movement, there's a lot of variety in puzzle design, and some very clever level layout ties everything together.
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.
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.
[I]f all you need is an excellent golfing engine to use on a functionally-infinite number of courses then The Golf Club is unbeatable.
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.
Race the Sun was a load of good arcade-style fun on PC and the PS4 version is a near-perfect port. The heart of the game made it intact and, while it's a shame to be missing the player creations, the daily challenge is always worth returning to.
The problem with reviving such an excellent series is that comparing it to past games is both completely fair and also a bad idea. It's easy to look at all the things Geometry Wars 3 leaves behind while neglecting that it's a still a fun, challenging shooter.
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.
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.
That's not as negative as it might sound, though, because huge AAA games with massive production and marketing budgets have come out and been completely forgotten in the seven years since Super Stardust first landed on the PS3, but the advantage of a great arcade game is that it's timeless. It's just as much fun today to blast through massive fields of rocks and dodge-y, twisty, explodey enemy waves as it was in the early days of the PS3, and if the rumored (but incredibly likely) Morpheus compatibility works out then it will be great in VR, too.
We Are Doomed was a great twin-stick shooter last year and it's only gotten better with the year's worth of upgrades. The enemy types and challenges are carefully tuned to allow massive destruction, but still require good planning and split-second decisions as the safe areas gradually disappear.
Titan Souls is a quietly beautiful little epic. The contrast of the boss fights with the peaceful exploration works to create a world of contrasts, broken but not dead.
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.