Cubed3's Reviews
Just Dance 2017 is the most comprehensive entry in the series to date, and paired with the Unlimited selection service, it will become a centrepiece for any party. The songs and routines are varied, and the additional modes complement the experience well. There may not be enough to warrant a new purchase for those of you who own Just Dance 2016, but for newcomers Just Dance 2017 is the complete collection.
Sports Bar VR is probably going to be remembered as VR shovelware in the future, but despite that, it seems like there was some effort to make it fun by allowing emergent mischief. When alcoholics die, Sports Bar VR is their purgatory: a bar with empty bottles and cans that can't ever be opened, a bunch of games that nobody will play seriously, and creepy stock automatons that never leave. The mini-games just needed to be more fleshed out and polished, and the core package needs a much lower price.
An amazing ending to what has been a successful reimagining of an old classic. This chapter is so heartfelt and simultaneously heart wrenching; it is unlikely to be forgotten by those who played the whole season. This episode is great to play through, with its interesting puzzles, neat environmental touches and original King's Quest references and humour. It has some odd moments, but ultimately it is an amazing and fitting send-off for the series. It is thoroughly recommended to have some tissues ready for those harder hitting moments.
All in all, Inventory Manager: Future Technologies is just a lot of interesting ideas that don't amount to much. Perhaps as an idle or social game, it would work much better. As a so called "full" title, it just leaves a lot to be desired, almost like it's all the side dishes and none of the entree. It's easy to see there's clearly a game here waiting to bust out and scream "Play me", but this is merely the voice mail to that scream. It's almost like a large demo, and if fleshed out further, and the edges sanded clean, there might be more to recommend here. For now, it's just an idle numbers game, and it's not much fun to experience.
Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit! is what happens when scantily-clad ninjas face off to see who's the greatest chef. Whenever the lecherous judge yells, "Delicious!" clothes spontaneously combust. That's pretty much the extent of it. Not everyone is going to be thrilled by such a concept, and some might be entirely put off by it. On the other hand, this product has a je ne sais quoi that's oddly admirable. Even when faced with all of this flesh, players are liable to find themselves laughing more than anything else. Everything is just so blatant and extreme that it becomes commonplace, so one can't help but roll with the punches. Maybe it's just easier to defend a premise when it results in quite a good game.
It's easy to see why those who have a nostalgic link to Day of the Tentacle might enjoy this remaster a lot. It's full of character, the new visuals are like playing an interactive cartoon, and the voice-acting is pretty great. Unfortunately, the puzzles and characterisations might fail to gel with a modern audience despite the visual and audio representation. Far from a bad game, but it will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea.
Mad Father is a delightful surprise. It's rare to see a horror adventure that takes full advantage of its limited framework. The puzzles are easy, but they're also creative. They're appropriately themed, and they don't attempt to pass off leaving the player in the dark as some sign of depth. The sprite work is nicely detailed, and everything about the house exudes a high level of polish. The story is very dark and well-told, and gamers will probably experience a wide range of emotions. There are also plenty of genuinely scary and disturbing moments. All in all, this game is highly recommended.
Princess Maker 2 Refine is still capable of evoking feelings of caring, the ability to watch her grow from a child to an adult is engaging, the multitude of potential outcomes adds in a lot of replayability, and other such things means that it's a notch above basic shovelware. However, 'notch above shovelware' isn't quite the same as 'good,' but it is worth a recommendation to those whom can stand the games many, many flaws as the reward is certainly half-decent.
Gurumin 3D comes at a low price at $14.99, which is very fair for this title. Fans will get their money's worth for sure, and while it may not be Falcom's best, it is still more interesting than other eShop titles available. This is a silly story with goofy characters that had some effort to flesh out their lives to make people care about them and the world. While it may not take much to hit bedrock with this shallow game, it does have heart, which is more than what most games have.
Filled with the series familiar and fun mechanics, The LEGO Movie Videogame is enjoyable for series fans, but ultimately doesn't live up to the fantastic games that have come before it, and once again goes to show that TT does its best work when left to craft original stories instead of adapting existing properties.
Rogue Stormers does an interesting genre mixing of platforming, run-and-gun, and RPG elements. On paper this seems like it could be pretty cool, however, it's all very slow given the genre, and there is not much really going on beyond crawling forward a little at a time and killing trash mobs running forward. There are perks, equipment, and other RPG trappings, but they are just filler that do not get around the main problem that this simply isn't that fun. Its style and ideas are interesting, but each level feels the same, and the very root of the entire system is not interesting enough to really encourage any desire to play for any length of time.
Now That's What I Call Sing 2 is very good at doing what it set out to do. It's a very fun and engaging karaoke experience but there comes a point where it needs more options. The accuracy of the game for sensing the voices is fantastic and there is potential for DLC songs that cover the older Now That's What I Call Music CDs. The variety of modes, challenges and the visual and audio quality of the videos is enough to make the game thoroughly recommendable as a party experience - just be wary that the music won't be to everyone's tastes.
In the end, Europa Universalis IV: Rights of Man simply doesn't deliver the stunning shock that would make one cry out that it is a must-buy. That, however, makes it in no way a weak expansion either. In fact, this is more where expansions of this kind should be; which is to say a good thing which will be missed out on even though it does not shake the foundations of the core game's foundations.
On reflection, F1 2016 is a game that has enhanced itself significantly with this instalment. It accentuates the smaller details of the sport, but also makes a series of more wholesale changes, which makes the game seem more purposeful. The availability of proper lap analysis and telemetry data brings a proper purpose to practice sessions. It finally turns a too often pointless mode into the proactive, useable tool that it should be for improving driver performance. While it's not the perfect outing, it's a more serious and functional affair that will appeal to the purists two-fold. Codemasters has certainly learnt from DiRT Rally, which didn't deter less serious racing fans, but introduced the details to players in the right way. Although it is not quite perfect overall, it's an encouraging step in the right direction and still easily the most authentic F1 racing game ever made.
Root Letter was on the radar of every visual novel fan out there when it was announced to be getting a release in the West, but it does not live up to the hype. The story starts strong and then peters out into a mess and the writing is simply awful, the fun characters being the only real saving grace. The gameplay mechanics feel like shallow approximations of better titles, and, ultimately, this quickly becomes a considerable let-down.
Mordheim: City of the Damned is a tough game to get into at first. It is a daunting experience from the moment the game is turned on and the tutorials are attempted, but the mechanics are better off learned during the heat of battle. Trial and error will eventually get the ball rolling in terms of finally being able to win missions, but it does take a lot of losing early on to finally get into the swing of things. With not much of a story to keep newcomers interested, and its poorly laid out user interface, it is the rinse and repeat process of building a team of fighters and levelling them up across campaigns that is the real selling point. This is not a pick-up-and-play title, and it requires many hours of dedication before it starts to become a fun experience. Again, though, persistence is the key to cracking this beast of a game, and though it does deliver on its sense of accomplishment, it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get there.
The trouble with Valley is that it has to employ various design decisions in order for both the story and game to function. It wants to have adventurous aspects, but it also wants threats that players must combat. Being able to run fast and jump incredibly far is an awesome and satisfying experience, but it never grows to be anything more than that. The boss encounter towards the end is remarkable, yet also completely out of place. It's emblematic of a game that lacks a cohesive vision. A video game that involves superhuman exoskeleton suits, the ability to manipulate life, and takes place in and around a forgotten WW2 weapons research facility isn't something that can be neatly wrapped up in a five-hour long adventure. The music and graphics are quite excellent, though.
Quality always beats quantity… almost always, because Ashes of Ariandel is surprisingly short for the price tag that it currently comes with. Its desolate, frozen world is majestic, the challenge is high, the bosses are pretty neat, but it's only a small taste, when it could very well be a full meal. Hopefully, Dark Souls III's next (and final) DLC will be way more satisfying than this one.
Jackal Assault is a free standalone dogfight level that uses VR, and it is pretty fun while it lasts, which, sadly, is not very long. It may leave some feeling unsatisfied, but that might be because action games with fast paced space combat are not strongly represented on consoles. Jackal Assault gets the absolute core basics down and it is sad to see it end.
RPG turned-based combat, base management, a zombie apocalypse, survival horror premise, plus the typical randomisation that rogue-lites tend to offer. Sounds like a dream? Unfortunately, while Dead Age definitely shows promise, and is somewhat fun for a playthrough or two, it soon gets insanely repetitive, way too easy for the sub-genre it belongs to, and a bit too predictable for it to remain enjoyable in the long run.