It's easy to be down on Echo Generation, even though it does a lot of things well: it never feels like it fully respects your time. It's got an interesting story and it's set in an interesting world, but you'll be spending a lot of time sidetracking into minute, extraneous details that make those bigger picture things difficult to see.
If you're playing Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei for the action, you're missing the point. This is a otome romance novel through and through -- and what's more, it's a good enough otome that even if the setting doesn't sound all that romantic, it still achieves its goal.
The Pinball Wizard is one of those games that are based on really interesting ideas, but that are more interesting as a concept than as a game.
Everything in One True Hero has been done before -- and much, much better -- and you'd be wise to play one of the games it's from borrowing instead.
That's the one area where Temtem unfortunately forgot to copy from Pokémon: they forgot to make it fun. They may have copied the Nintendo behemoth in lots of ways, and the game may provide an interesting glimpse into how Pokémon might look with a more populated world, but anyone hoping this would displace (or even come close to) the venerable series will find themselves sorely disappointed.
It's a good thing that Nintendo announced that Professor Layton is coming back later this year. If I had to endure many more puzzle games like Treehouse Riddle, that are inspired by the venerable professor but nowhere near as good, I think I'd be ready to give up on the genre.
Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 2 is still a pretty decent collection. It complements Volume 1 nicely, and shows that for a little-loved handheld with a small library, the Neo Geo Pocket Color had a pretty impressive collection of games.
The worst part about Clive 'N' Wrench is that there's no way it could be recommended, at least not in its current state. As I wrote way back at the start of this review, it's a one-man passion project, and you hate to criticize something that someone has spent more than a decade working on. But the simple fact is that it's just not very good, and it's certainly not something you need to spend your time or money on right now.
The Legend of Gwen is just an all-around bad, bad game.
So '90s, you can almost hear the sound of the dial-up modem.
The opening and final thirds are mostly fine. If you can tough out the middle bit, the game might just be worth it. But that's still a huge ask, and that part of the game is awful enough that I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to give Unwording a chance.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is a confusing mess of a game that makes no effort to explain anything, ever. And seeing as the confusing bits relate to basic things like "Where am I going?" and "What am I supposed to do?", I feel like no amount of Zeno Clash would?ve made those things any more apparent.
But if you're a fan of Lemmings -- or even just a fan of heartfelt stories with nice visuals -- there's still plenty here you should be able to enjoy. Tin Hearts isn't going to make you rethink your opinion of the genre, but if you're already a fan, you'll have fun with this.
if you're after a game that's either a) not like anything else out there, or b) an utterly bizarre look into a culture that isn't often represented in games (or c) a bizarre cross between Bully and Yakuza), then Troublemaker might be up your alley. If not, though, the whole thing will just feel like a crazy fever dream.
You're going to want to give Dokapon Kingdom: Connect a pass, unless you feel like devoting dozens of hours to a board game that's not really very interesting.
If you just want to be creeped out first and worry about story second, then Remorse: The List might just be worth adding to your to-play list.
It’s not often that a game’s composer tells you most of what you need to know about a game, but in the case of Nightmare Reaper, it does. See, the music here was created by Andrew Hulshult, who has previously worked on games like Doom Eternal, Quake Champions, Dusk, and Prodeus. If you’re looking for a list of games to which Nightmare Reaper could be compared, that’s a pretty good place to start.
Soccer Story could’ve been a lot of fun, as other games like Golf Story and Sports Story (both from an entirely different developer, I’ll note) have demonstrated. Instead, it just leaves a lot to be desired.
The bottom line is that both Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light are good games, regardless of whether you’re playing solo or (locally) with a friend. They were a breath of fresh air for the series when they first released a decade ago, and The Lara Croft Collection is a great opportunity to discover them, whether it’s anew or for the first time.
That’s the best way to describe Nocturnal: it’s a neat game. It won’t take too much of your time, and it’s similar enough to other metroidvanias that you’ll probably only want to play it if you’re already a fan of the genre, but if you like the genre and want something that has enough spark of inspiration to carry it through a few hours, it’s definitely worth investigating.