Cubed3's Reviews
Narrative-driven adventure game done right, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow goes from suspenseful to downright ghastly, with the in-between being filled with excellent writing, awesome presentation, and flawless atmosphere. Lovecraft meets Edgar Alan Poe, meets Pagan folk horror, in a point-and-click that won't challenge your puzzle-solving skills, but it will masterfully play with your mind, and force you follow to the main heroine's journey towards her inevitable demise. The actual game requires five or so hours. The experience will stay with you far longer.
Many of the few souls that played this attempt at a western JRPG back in the day will speak about a flawless, but unknown gem. That's nostalgia speaking, however. Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator is undoubtedly deeply flawed. It's not buggy or anything, just an unbalanced, repetitive, somewhat empty, and most of all, 50+ hour-long experience that's aggravatingly slow, and which doesn't ever realise its massive potential. In a weird way, this also has a very strong atmosphere, an intriguing world, and is strangely immersive. Thankfully it's dirt cheap nowadays, so if interested you can check it out with just a handful of coins.
Magic, animal-themed idol girls. Three visual novel "fetishes" combine into one, with the result being a mildly funny slice-of-life experience that gets boring really fast. Animal Trail * Girlish Square is just too generic a read to recommend to anyone but genre super-fans.
Samurai Warriors 5 is a game of reductions. In its move to reboot the series it seemingly has gone back to providing as much content as the first entry. A cynic may say they'll likely slowly start to reintroduce these established features like they're new innovations. Innovation… It's insane that while Omega Force continues to do just that. To innovate. To deliver. But only with titles it produced for other people's franchises. When it comes to its own franchises, frankly, the developer is going backwards. Following the disappointment of what Dynasty Warriors became, Samurai Warriors has now joined the club as a shadow of its former self.
A bizarre adventure through and through, Made in Abyss is an excellent adaptation of a very popular and interesting anime! The gameplay loop, story and design make this a great little adventure game with plenty of unique challenges and gameplay elements. For fans of the anime this is a no-brainer, absolutely buy it and enjoy! For non-fans, if this genre appeals, then this game is one to watch. It's absolutely worth the time it takes to learn how to play it correctly, even if the goal is just to see what gruesome event takes place next!
Although inconsistent in game quality, if you are looking for the ultimate TMNT package, it's here. Excellent games with a host of enhancements to improve the experience as well as a well thought out, well researched slice of pizza in it's extras section. Online only adds to the brilliance allowing that arcade experience from the comfort of your own sewer. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection has all the T.U.R.T.L.E Power that is ever needed. Cowabunga!
Train Valley: Console Edition is going to appeal exactly to its target audience. If you like a tough puzzler and love the railroad as much, it's perfect. The historical element was also something that appealed, it's an interesting choice that sets it apart from others on the market. Add to this the touch screen controls allowing quick and fluid choices to be made, this one is certainly on the right track.
The pick up and play nature of the Nintendo Switch makes a perfect home for the entertaining nature and short levels within My Brother Ate My Pudding!. The whimsical nature of the puzzles will be endearing to some, while others will dislike the rather simplistic game play, but it provides well over an hour of fun. There are no bonus items or levels for replaying the game on completion, but given how much of a smile the varied antics of the family and inventiveness of the hiding places provide, it will be played more than once when a smile is needed.
A great little 3D platformer that does it's best to give players a solid and exciting experience featuring a much more refined and redesigned Kao core experience and story. Kao the Kangaroo should impress with its solid controls and strong visual design - if players can accept the drops in visual quality on Switch then this is a hearty recommendation to all players of such titles.
As usual, Picross S7 shows the amount of dedication and quality work developer Jupiter put into its Picross S titles. The new touch control function is much appreciated, but this could generally do with a few more features to spice it up a little. However, for anyone enjoying a relaxing day of puzzles, this title comes highly recommended.
Toziuha Night: Dracula's Revenge tried to be almost identical to its inspiration, and as a result it feels like playing Castlevania all over again, rather than a brand new game, and the fact that it has the same, archaic, super-stiff controls will annoy those who don't have the patience to go back to the distant '80s. Having said that, if willing to endure the high difficulty on offer, an if ok with something that's relatively simple, you'll discover one of the finest indie-crafted 2D action-platformers of the year.
Splatoon 3 is a delight. For long-time fans, you know what you're getting. It's more of the (admittedly excellent) same, albeit with tighter mechanics, some welcome balances and a brilliantly overhauled campaign experience. The changes here do not miss, but it could be argued that's because this entry ultimately plays it safe. If you enjoyed the first 2 Splatoon titles, you will love this. If you've never played Splatoon before, you will be absolutely charmed by what's on offer. If you were looking for something wholly different from what's come before… you may be left wanting. Nevertheless, Splatoon 3 is a very, very good shooter whose novelty makes it easy to recommend.
Poker Club is good for anyone interested in a very realistic looking poker sim with a big emphasis on tournament play. What you see is what you get, but it is much slower and more flashy than one might expect. The customisation options are impressive, but the beauty only goes skin deep.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is, well, fine. It will provide a good few hours of harmless fun and raise more than a few smiles in the nostalgia sector of the cortex as Reptar beats on April O'Neil. Underneath that initial sheen however is nothing of real interest. Thankfully, support seems to be very much active and maybe the initial issues will be focused on to provide a more well-rounded, in-depth experience. For now, though, the shadow of its inspiration looms heavy and ensures that this will not be challenging for any place in the top tier of party'esque fighters for some time.
If gameplay is all that is of importance, Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition remains one of the finest examples outside of a Lucasarts' title, bringing together a great story and interesting mechanics. If you want the whole package however, it may be best to look elsewhere for a definitive version. The Nintendo Switch of course does have that major advantage of gaming on the go and on a smaller screen, it may just look that little bit more appealing.
SYNTHETIK: Ultimate is a wonderful roguelike that's been utterly ruined by its Switch port. What should be one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch is instead emblematic of everything wrong with the eShop. Frame rate dips, technical hiccups, and game breaking glitches tear down all the goodwill this game establishes. When there's no such thing as quality assurance, amazing games release in unplayable states. SYNTHETIK: Ultimate should be played, just not on Nintendo Switch.
Cleaning up a large house, painting the walls, and fixing the plumping is dull work for most people. For some bizarre reason, in House Flipper all that is fun. Being a sim title it's not for everyone of course, but those who enjoy the idea of buying, renovating, and reselling houses will actually get addicted with playing this, especially since its title that's incredibly easy to pick up and play. Sadly, it suffers a lot in terms of replay value. By the time you hit 10 hours or so, you've practically done everything twice, and all that's left is to simply experiment with new colours of paint, or different sets of furniture.
Absolutely, absurdly, ungodly, good. An honest to Gods masterpiece, the likes of which are rarely seen anymore. As fun on the first run as on the fiftieth. What makes a Roguelike special is one that can keep the player engaged long term and there are so many little elements that will keep its audience coming back again and again. It's hard to find a flaw. To find a way this could be better. Supergiant have set their bar high here, delivering a game that will be used as an example in numerous areas for years to come. Following on from Transistor, and Bastion, it's exciting to see what they'll do next.
An unfortunately thin experience Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, is a fun romp while it lasts, but it lacks any draw to return to it after completion. The multiplayer options are limited, but the online mode is solid and functional. For anyone who loved the remaster in the past, this will feel exactly as it did back then, but missing local play. A decent driving game with some weird changes.
Sanity of Morris is going to be remembered as one of those kinds of ironic and unintentionally funny video games. While it is not quite Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, the lack of quality control and effort suggests the developers leaned heavily on their concept. The idea of a grounded stealth/horror experience, with adventure-style puzzle-solving is an easy sell to a lot of people. The only problem is that Sanity of Morris does not even try.