Cubed3's Reviews
The Outer Worlds soars on the strength of its characterisation not only of the main crew but its supporting cast.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is elevated thanks to its cast and writers. This could have gone so wrong in so many ways but it ended up being one of the better movie tie-in games made in the seventh console generation.
Playing Dusk Diver isn't a bad experience. Just an unfulfilling one. There are some things to like here. Walking around the colourful Ximending district of Taipei, interacting with the small cast of main characters, and then watching them battle monsters is kind of cool. Kind of cool. At its core, Dusk Diver is a simplistic, repetitive, and uninspiring, musou-style brawler.
If Mega Man Legacy Collection is already clocked and taking up space on your Switch's SD card, this delightful homage will certainly provide some cheap thrills.
i]Dead by Daylight[/i] has the groundwork for a great game but stumbles in its execution. It could be so much more with just a little more polish. Hopefully, it will inspire better products of this variety, because the concept contains a bundle of promise. Horror fans will find a lot to love - as long as they keep their expectations low. Nevertheless, for all its sins it is still quite addictive and undeniably fun, at least in the right conditions. It's easy to see how it has amassed a fanbase and warranted a port to the Switch.
That A Knight's Quest is being sold on the eShop at all is ludicrous. Combat, enemy design, the camera, the save system, and the script were all in desperate need of more time. Sky9 releasing the title as is, is simply downright embarrassing. Beyond the lack of polish and the frequent bugs, this is a title that ignores 20 years of conventional game design philosophy, and massacres itself in the process. Few have managed to mangle the basics of 3D combat so badly. Play anything else. A Knight's Quest is one of the worst games of 2019.
Code Vein is going to be divisive. Out of the box, it's not a very good game. The balance in difficulty is a mess, with certain classes and abilities feeling hugely overpowered; the partners making even the most challenging encounter easy, until the difficulty spikes massively towards the conclusion. It's in that conclusion that Code Vein shines at its best. For the players willing to invest the time to get there, and good enough to learn how to master the considerably complex system, there is a superb experience waiting. It's just a shame it takes so long to get there.
With Mary Skelter 2, Compile Heart has shown that they can deliver a phenomenal DRPG. Every aspect of this entry has been refined to a near-flawless level.
Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is a child-friendly, happy-go-lucky, time-travelling adventure that's enjoyable... for about an hour or so. Simply put, there are far better JRPGs out there - many of them equally carefree and friendly towards young gamers and newbies, and even more so.
At best, this is just a very gimmicky adventure game.
Ichidant-R was, in many ways, a precursor to the party and mini-game collection titles of today, but tailored for the arcades. To finally be able to play it in English is a treat for any SEGA fan, especially in multiplayer.
Despite its cartoony graphics, this game is a surprisingly solid city builder. There is enough here that fans of the various genres this takes from will find it enjoyable as they craft their ever-growing city and automation empire. Programming the robots is oddly satisfying as is watching them roll around and taking care of the smaller tasks. A couple of small bugs and some pacing issues prevent it from being truly great, but those remotely interested in the genre will definitely have a lot of fun with this one.
A Hat in Time is a delightful 3D platformer, with tight controls, some of the best humour seen in the genre to date and compelling scenarios driving the collectathon aspect of the game.
It takes a special kind of talent to make a really boring action platformer. AeternoBlade II can almost be the cure for insomnia if it weren't for its embarrassing voice acted cutscenes. Outside of a few striking vistas, there is so little of value to enjoy here. There are so many better similar kinds of titles out there like Blasphemous or Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and that is not even counting 2D action games from before 2019. With so little going for AeternoBlade II, there is no reason to ever play it.
Vambrace: Cold Soul is not bad, but it quickly becomes a mindless, repetitive, grinding slog of the same battles that require very little strategy, not to mention the lack of any sort of enemy variety.
Trails of Cold Steel III is an important title for both Falcom and NIS. For Falcom, it's the penultimate entry in a story arc half a decade in the making - and an incredibly engrossing one, at that. For NIS, it's a step in the right direction after Ys VIII, and proof that The Legend of Heroes' localization is still in good hands moving forward. This is a continuity-heavy RPG with 13 years of video game history, and seven titles building up to it, but the combat and world are strong enough where even newcomers can enjoy the ride. Trails of Cold Steel III is the Erebonia arc at its best.
For lack of a better term, Golazo! is a pretty run-of-the-mill arcade football sim. It does well to channel a '90s aesthetic and it is sure to create some memorable moments despite the hiccups in its design. The controls are simple enough to pick up and play and the gameplay solid enough to warrant whipping it out for a night of arcade fun with friends, but it certainly isn't going to hold most players' interest when it comes to playing solo against the CPU.
Baffling leaderboard support, lack of remapping, and wonky "Timeless" mode aside, the Vasara Collection is sure to find a home with any fan of arcade classics. The Vasara series, though short-lived, offers a unique blend of STG action and close-quarters mayhem. They certainly aren't a walk in the park. It'll take weeks of constant practice to clear them without continuing. The scoring systems are compelling, and there's a plenty of enjoyment in slashing everything in sight. Give this collection a shot sometime.
Despite it being an expansion pack, Iceborne is pretty much another game built upon the many layers of Monster Hunter: World.
This is one of those kinds of scenarios where the designers set out to make exactly what they aimed for, and achieved it... but only because they were only going for a very simple premise. Cybarian aims low, and succeeds at what it needs to, which was not very much. There is no room for expression for the extremely controlled nature of the gameplay, with the exception of how many times a player might miss an input or get slapped. While it may not be a horrible game, Cybarian is merely mediocre and too strict to have any lasting appeal.