Coming away from any title in the Yakuza universe, to remark glowingly about its story and all the many characters and spots of exposition that entails, has become somewhat of a given.
For as long as the Metroid series has existed in both 2D and 3D planes, it has long been held that Retro Studios are the only team outside of Nintendo to have approached Metroid with such admirable care and passion for the series, while at the same time understanding how best to build on the foundation.
Even occasional bugs and minor inconsistencies on challenge do little to sully a terrific first try for straka.
In fact it's that humble acknowledging of what it's demanding of the player - let alone all the fine details to keep track of - that Card Shark successfully side-steps as a result.
In 2019, Asobo surprised us all with a game that found a way to utilize AAA tropes in the pursuit of a compelling narrative.
A feature-rich (at times astonishingly so) package of content - major, minor and entirely optional alike - Nihon Falcom have proven once again with Trails into Reverie why they remain one of the best and most renowned RPG developers still going.
Combining a gorgeous art style, intriguing setting and a surprisingly old-school yet welcome nod to platforming of the past, Jusant is a terrific adventure full of accomplished set-pieces and smart design throughout.
A game that's celebratory not just of the characters and the world it's focused on, but too the fanbase that's helped build it up to this point. Even a terrible voice casting choice and handful of other small nitpicks aren't enough to hamper too much of the experience. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth bets big -- in both gameplay and narrative alike -- and unsurprisingly, has won big once again.
While many will feel it's one or two chapters short of a truly fleshed-out and fully-realized vision, Children of the Sun's short but lavish flair for the hyper-violent is one of both visual and audible delight throughout. With what might be one of the most interesting and quick-to-convince takes on shooter mechanics in many a year, developer Rene Rother's knack for the look and feel of such an onslaught allows both art-style and gameplay alike to boldly glisten. As divisive the in-game graphics and general presentation might wind up being. But it's in no small part thanks to composer Aidan Baker's treatment of sound on top that only emboldens Rother's vision more so as one of both depth and replayability. An easy-to-understand pitch that comes with just as easy a recommendation, Children of the Sun is a blistering but brilliant take on shooting as a puzzle to be solved.
Though it may not provide anywhere near the kind of substantial additions to convince veterans to invest for a second time, there's no mistaking the care and passion Retro Studios and company have put into making DK's most recent outing one of his best.
Despite its shortcomings in the multiplayer — easily forgotten and waved off as an unnecessary add-on — and the rare instances of a mechanically loose screw, DOOM is undeniably one of the best looking and sounding shooters there has been for some time.
Reality itself may be a lot less pixellated here, but Poncho's well-planned orchestration of sound, aesthetic and more importantly art direction resonate remarkably well. For a game so mechanically simple, it's one of the better experiences out there — four-letter swear words and all.
Surprisingly, however, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam dishes up an interesting take on the Mario RPG formula without wandering too far from its roots. Some may scorn the lack of drastic change in the gameplay and while it's fair to conclude it is more of the same in most parts, Paper Jam is — at its heart — a solid RPG with plentiful personality. It may not be the RPG we had sought at the beginning, but it's one that marries together most (though not all) of what makes this Mario spin-off so immediately engrossing.
Even with unfortunate performance hiccups, it’s safe to say Ravegan have created one of the more interesting and cleverly addictive shoot ’em ups in recent years.
Had it not been for its plagued release on PC — not to mention the niggling texture work that pops up from time to time — Dishonored 2 just might have been in strong contention for best game this year.
Whether you’re in it for the gameplay or find yourself drawn in by the looming mystery that steadily simmers over in due course, The Turing Test (minus the occasionally hard-to-decipher audio) is a smartly-structured and delicately-arranged puzzle game that knows its boundaries and leaves it to the player to fill in the missing gaps.
People can argue the merit and worth of roguelikes until the sun goes down, but while they’re not the most assorted or varied of role-playing experiences, what makes Brut@l work is the very procedural nature of its design.
There’s few complex systems in place to either discover or manage and while that may feel like a misstep, Do My Best live up to their namesake when by setting the scene and giving even the most basic of pixel graphics feel like something far more grandiose and important in the wider scheme of things.
Even with its safe confinement to a generally unchanged art-style and environmental aesthetic, HoPiKo remains enjoyably engaging and challenging from beginning to tantalizing end.
If you’re willing to look past the graphics and animation in certain pockets, the self-contained loop that is Sniper Elite 4‘s gameplay offers some of the more surprisingly striking moments of well-implemented level design and genuine curiosity you can have in a shooter.