Has Digimon World: Next Order made me a Digimon fan? No. I’ve got a love/hate relationship with Digimon World: Next Order. I love the strategy involved in Digivolution, the auto-battling suits my gaming style, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the vast map. However, I found the unpredictability of death slightly distressing, the relentless cycle of caring for and retraining my Digimon frustrating and the unbalanced questing disappointing.
The concept of Animal Shelter Simulator is really great. I like the idea of running my own animal shelter, and the game gives some great educational insights into animal care and management. However, the awkward use of the controls and the game’s instability left me feeling too frustrated to find it truly enjoyable. I hope the developers can spend more time improving Animal Shelter Simulator, as there is a really good game hiding in the current offering.
Alchemic Cutie is a game of highs and lows. The concept is great, and I adore the pixelated format. Wimba Island is full of mystery, and I’m keen to find out more. Unfortunately, the faded or night time colouring when it’s raining and the complexity of the jelly colour palette make it hard to give our top rating. The developers have clearly invested a huge amount of time and passion in the game, and I hope they continue to do so. Ideally, I would rate this as “I Like it a Lot”. However, the poor performance on the Nintendo Switch version renders it impossible to recommend at the time of review.
If you like the pressure of timed levels and find fun in mashing buttons, then Agriculture might be the farming game for you. The concept and graphics are great, and the strategy in some of the levels is appealing. However, for me, there needs to be a few quality-of-life updates for it to be a truly enjoyable game.
Although I enjoyed the different course locations and the concept of unicorns rather than karts or motorbikes, Wildshade: Unicorn Champions doesn’t bring anything new to the racing genre. If more could be made of the breeding option, allowing the characteristics of the horse or unicorn to have some bearing on performance, it would make Wildshade: Unicorn Champions a more exciting and memorable racing game. As it is, it seems off the pace and, for me, fell at the first hurdle.
Some games take you on an emotional roller-coaster. For us, PlateUp! was more of an emotional freefall. First impressions were great, it was challenging, but doable, and even failing had an element of fun to it. However the constant new options meant that practised recipes and restaurant layouts meant nothing, each attempt was totally new and this started to frustrate. However, the lack of explanation of how appliances, upgrades, speed-runs and franchises work took away the enjoyment. One of my co-oped friends would rate it as ‘I don’t like it’, bitterly disappointed to have wasted so much time. The other would rate it as ‘I like it’ but would not play it again. I know PlateUp! has a loyal following, but for us, it was undercooked