Attack of the Fanboy
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Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is a gleefully successful experiment for Nintendo and Velan Studios...though some minor elements hold it back from exceeding expectations.
Amnesia: Rebirth won't dramatically shift the modern horror landscape like its predecessor did ten years ago, yet it's an excellent addition to the genre nonetheless. It's an excellent marriage SOMA's narrative sensibilities with The Dark Descent's more terrifying pacing, capable of standing out in the now crowded market. It won't replace SOMA as my all-time favorite horror game, but it's up there.
Aquanox: Deep Descent works well enough to justify its existence. Performance is fine, gameplay is fine, story is fine, length and price are fine - Aquanox is just fine. It won't wow a lot of people, but the people it does impress will be enamored by it. And, you know what, sometimes that's all you want out of a video game.
Noita is a true standout title in the roguelike genre, featuring endlessly deep gameplay that plays off of its engaging pixel art style.
If you are new to the Torchlight franchise then Torchlight III is an excellent jumping on point. At $30 it's a great binge game to play with friends while we all wait on the next-gen onslaught that's just around the corner. But, if you're a hardcore ARPG fan looking for something deeper then you may be better served elsewhere, namely by Torchlight II.
Despite its often less-than-subtle nods to Nintendo's Breath of the Wild, Genshin Impact does enough differently to stand apart. Throw in punchier combat, a more traditional story packed with interesting characters, and an outstanding score and Genshin Impact easily sits among the upper echelon of games released this year. Hopefully miHoYo relaxes the stamina system and gacha rates soon, because Teyvat is a world absolutely worth revisting. They're just making it difficult for anyone but gacha fans to find the motivation to hold on.
Super Mario Bros. 35 is a flawed game in some ways while offering something new and unique and a whole lot of fun in others.
As the title infers, Mafia: Definitive Edition is indeed the definitive version of the classic game, this time with completely redone visuals and updated gameplay that makes the game feel like it could have released today as a brand new game and few would have known the difference.
Crash Bandicoot may have had a rough patch for a number of years before his triumphant return in the N. Sane Trilogy, but Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time proves that he is still one of the titans of the platformer genre with his most content rich and well designed adventure to date.
Spellbreak is a good battle-royale with great combat. It's graphics and world-design won't "wow" anyone, but the ability to dish out devastating magical destruction in chaotic duals is unlike anything else currently on the market.
Saints and Sinners showed there was huge potential for this series in VR, which is why it's such a shame that The Walking Dead: Onslaught is a massive disappointment.
Kirby Fighters 2 is very much Super Smash Bros. for kids and/or hardcore Kirby fans. It's a similar experience just made worse by the simplistic and slow fighting and the limited variety of overall gameplay content.
When combat is firing on all cylinders, and the Legion System isn't crashing your PC, Serious Sam 4 is a decent slice of old-school shooter goodness. Yet, in sticking to its guns, Serious Sam 4 ends up being an aggressively mediocre experience.
The collection as a whole might not bring much to the table beyond the games it transfers to a newer console in better shape than before, but when the games are this good that is enough.
Kingdoms of Amalur is still a solid game even to this day. It's just too bad that as a remaster, the game is quite frankly disappointing.
Only time will tell if Hades joins the pantheon of roguelike greats alongside The Binding of Isaac and Dead Cells, but it makes an incredibly strong impression. Hades succeeds as both a narrative-driven adventure and an addicting roguelike, and that's a pretty tough combination to pull off.
While looking perhaps a bit too ambitious on the surface with two distinctly different gameplay elements, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a captivating sci-fi adventure set across multiple periods of time. There is no question that the game will have people very confused during the first few hours, but the split story really starts to come together and is well worth playing through to unravel the ongoing mysteries found throughout.
Spelunky 2 enhances and expands on what worked in the first game without "fixing" anything that wasn't broken. In that way it's the perfect sequel for fans who have been playing this game for over a decade. Newcomers might be scared away by the difficulty and seemingly impenetrable secrets, but the effort to get through this is well rewarded.
Marvel's Avengers is not particularly great at any one thing. Instead, it's just okay at a lot of things, and that's all it really needs to be.
The Outer Worlds: Peril On Gorgon is story DLC done right. It builds and expands on the existing world while providing a fun, meaty new narrative for fans to dig into. It doesn't address all of the issues players had with The Outer Worlds at launch, but that doesn't stop Peril On Gorgon from being a worthy addition to Obsidian's spacefaring RPG.