Cubed3's Reviews
If you can overlook the repetition and poor optimisation in favour of mowing down countless soldiers in increasingly spectacular fashion, you'll find one of the more entertaining history lessons in recent times.
The Long Journey Home is a painful war of attrition. It feels at odds with itself: it wants to incorporate randomization to encourage replayability, yet that randomization makes the critical resource-management components even more frustrating. It could have seriously benefitted from some restraint on the part of the developers; if fewer systems were left up to pure chance, this could have been an expansive, exciting new exploration game. Instead, it's an overpriced curiosity that buries some great ideas under a planet-sized mound of bad decisions.
Dungeon Defenders II is the epitome of… nice. It doesn't do anything wrong in particular, but it sure isn't anything exciting, either. It's a somewhat pleasant combination of pure action and tower defence, but it's a combination that not many will choose over the chance to play something less repetitive, less grindy, and more complete.
Death Squared is a cocktail of two things that, theoretically, could never become a successful mix. Having said that, and although combining couch gaming and puzzles is a concept that doesn't work as well as intended, SMG Studio handles its unique idea quite alright. As a result, those who'll look past its few flaws will surely have a blast here.
The idea of implementing roguelike elements and endless game design in old-school survival horror has potential, but Vaccine fails to capitalise on it. Aspects where the developers could have improved on were perks that could allow a 180-degree turn, a map system, or even a combo system where it can be possible to earn back extra time like Resident Evil's The Mercenaries mode. With much more variety in level design and more enemies, Vaccine could have been an interesting guilty pleasure. In its current state, this seems more like pre-alpha build with many of the features not yet implemented.
Micro Machines World Series certainly has the capacity to entertain in short bursts, and particularly shines when played locally with a few mates, but its occasional performance issues, low budget sheen, and general lack of content ensures that it will be served more as a warm-up dish during a sociable gaming session, rather than the main course.
I and Me looks like a beautifully hand-drawn game that controls quite well. Its fluid movement makes navigating the stages easy, with no mechanical drawbacks. However, the promise of a deep and meaningful story is hurt by the hard-to-read cursive font used to present all the narration, thus losing all the appeal of what is supposed to feel like a haunting tale. Beyond that, though, the stages are pretty easy to figure out and complete, though playing around with the four main mechanics introduced with each new season is fun in itself, and allowing for experimentation strengthens them. The hints that the game offers up actually overstep their mark, and instead they solve the puzzle entirely; however, they hardly need to be used, as I and Me rarely lifts the difficulty metre at all.
Ultimately, for those that enjoy the core shooter element, Radiantflux: Hyperfractal probably delivers value for money. However, it also feels incomplete - a mess of random things jumbled together. While the randomness itself provides some entertainment, it's hard to feel satisfied with the game when it's over. A little more development effort could have gone a long way here.
Kirby's Blowout Blast on Nintendo 3DS eShop isn't going to be lighting anyone's world on fire, but it's a bite-sized little beauty for Kirby fans. Its short stages and score-based focus deliver a highly inviting title with extra replayability that completely captures the heart of Kirby adventures. While the cost is fair, it's sadly far too short and a full version of this would have been very welcomed.
Thanks to a mix of the accessibility of the 3DS and the small level lengths, Runbow Pocket manages to be a fun way to kill a few hours without feeling derivative of its Wii U and Steam counterparts. Unlockables don't hold much weight in the grand scheme of things, but they occur frequently enough to ensure that just about every success is a rewarding one. Stages are designed to be completed in under a minute, incentivising quick, satisfying bursts of gameplay over longer and more traditional platforming. The lack of elaborate set pieces and sophisticated design does hold back the overall experience, but the great use of colour at the core of each stage makes for a vibrant world worth jumping in and out of, even for just a few minutes at time.
As with similar titles in the puzzle-platformer genre, Black The Fall lacks replay value. Still, this is a fantastic game and an exemplary showcase for what the medium is capable of. All of its elements are designed so that they don't conflict with one another. The visuals are stylish, but never at the expense of playability or comprehension. It relies on the background to tell its story, and superbly crafts the surrounding area with puzzles. No matter what happens, the player is always able to follow exactly what's going on. This is all accomplished without a single written word, and it's absolutely brilliant.
While De Mambo might not be the most friendly platformer or accessible party fighter, its frantic play-style and unsettling atmosphere make it one of the most unique titles available for the Nintendo Switch.
Essentially, Back to Bed is a game about figuring out how to redirect a hapless moving creature to safety over weird landscapes. If you want to play a game, then, about figuring out how to redirect a hapless moving creature to safety over weird landscapes, then it's hard not to recommend… Lemmings. It's not that Back to Bed does much wrong, it just doesn't quite do enough right to sustain interest.
There are some titles that have high replay value despite their simplicity, but Flip Wars is not one of them, as this is nothing but a simple mini-game turned full game. In other words, while this is definitely cheaper, better save that pizza money for Splatoon 2… or pizza.
If it was not for the music and the superior graphics, Half-Genie Hero would be viewed even less favourably for the simple fact it is not fun. Much of the goofy charm of the series has long been extinguished, and the main character is grating at this point. The platforming, despite having previous in the series that was great, is shockingly bad. Pretty graphics cannot hide the fact that after one too many trips to the bottom of the endless towers they climb, this game is simply not good, especially when the company, and the genre as a whole, offers so many better options.
While the difficulty might put off newcomers who never played Slime-san, Fabraz has gone above and beyond to make Blackbird's Kraken one of the most accessible and polished pieces of DLC this year. Being free for owners of the original and available for purchase otherwise, Slime-san's kraken intestine adventure maintains a strong precedent for affordable, quality DLC not too dissimilar to Yacht Club Games' recent practices. With 25 brand-new stages, at least 100 unique platforming scenarios, and a host of unlockables to discover, Blackbird's Kraken is gushing with hours of new content.
SteamWorld Heist is a decent length when factoring in the wide range of difficulty settings, and the fact you will be playing some missions a few times. Essentially, this is a well-made squad-based strategy that gives a choice: go in guns blazing…. or go in gun blazing. While the game is heavy on the tactics, it's never heavy on subtlety. It's nice it wastes little time, but it also suffers from a lack of diversity because of it. It's thus probably better for those looking for a game to play on/off rather than binge over.
Outside of the campaign and options for a single race, there just isn't much here. The eight tracks get old quick, and the online portion is dead - each time this was attempted, there were never any lobbies running. Free updates that include new tracks may extend the life value, and R8 Games has shown commitment to supporting the game since the weeks following its release, but there needs to be more to entice people to stick with it. As it stands, Formula Fusion is an anti-grav racer that looks and somewhat feels like Wipeout, but doesn't have the content and appeal of it.
With Nintendo having little experience with DLC, there was always a question as to if the developer could do it right, and it seems unquestionable that the team knocked this one out of the park, adding some new content, giving a completely new game mode, and also including cosmetic little bonuses for series fans out there. The next DLC has only been hinted at so far, but it has been shown to be based around the fan-favourite four champions, and if it's even half as good as this then fans are in for a treat.
There should be no reason to miss out on Steins;Gate 0 for anyone who played the first title. It might not have quite the same impact as Steins;Gate, but it succeeds in telling a fascinating story, delving into intriguing and poignant subjects of our time, and excellently developing the characters involved. Whilst it does go on a bit longer than it probably should do, many fans will find this to be a positive, as it's a universe impossible to let go of.