The A.V. Club's Reviews
The completed Broken Age could well be an excellent game, and I'll be back when it's finished to review it in its entirety. But the better the game turns out to be, the more of a disservice it is to play the first act now. To play it now is to be a part of a process. To play it later is to, well, play it.
Jokes fly at the player like angry hornets from the hive, hinging on intimate knowledge of games like Warcraft II or Quake, and the references swarm and sting. There are more than enough punchlines, but there's too little setup.
This game feels like something that would interest the two New Zealanders who watch Grown Ups 2 every week and talk about it on their podcast, Worst Idea Of All Time. Because unabashed masochism is the only discernible justification for putting any time into Godzilla.
[F]or now, it's clear that Nintendo has succeeded in crafting a new, idiosyncratic take on the modern shooter. The bright colors, peppy music, and short bursts of action make it fun and easy to keep coming back. It's the sort of no-brainer we should have been playing for a long time now, and just like getting those hard and soft taco shells in the same box, it's sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Kirby And The Rainbow Curse itself doesn't feel old at all, despite closely following in the footsteps of its decade-old progenitor. If anything, it feels like it belongs here right now. It's not taking us anywhere we haven't already been, or showing us a bold new future, and that's okay.
[I]t's a confirmation of what Smash Bros. has been all along: a raucous, reverent celebration of Nintendo games and the people who play them. And the best part is everyone's invited.
The most promising surprise, though, is how Nintendo transformed a popular genre that had become all too steeped in darkness and hand-wringing seriousness into a family-friendly affair without losing any of its edge.
Maybe a better name would be Sonic The Spine Mammal.
While Hyrule Warriors could've gotten away with a simple "you got your chocolate in my peanut butter / you got peanut butter on my chocolate" mash-up and wiped their hands all the way to the bank, the end product is more of a love letter to its audience than either series could have attempted on its own. This may not count as a proper Zelda game, but it is still a valiant step forward for both Zelda and Nintendo in its efforts to explore new territory with the nearly 30-year-old series.
Super Mario 3D World isn't some perfect fix for the aging game maker, but it is Nintendo's tomorrow.
Sunset Overdrive can't escape the fact that it's a harmless product of the machine it pretends to rage against. After all, it's hard to keep defiantly flipping the bird at authority and the conformity of comfortable adulthood when you're the middle-aged guy calling the shots and your milieu has become interchangeable from the culture at large it claims to be subverting. Squint hard enough and all that angry fist pumping looks an awful lot like an eager thumbs up for the status quo.
That goofiness belies what is ultimately a showcase for Capybara's serious game design chops.
[I]nstead of expending energy on the bells and whistles, Titanfall saves it all for the moment-to-moment thrills, like slamming your titan's eject button at the last second and shooting down an enemy pilot while you rocket hundreds of feet into the air.
This is Not A Hero in a moment: a dark parody where every problem can be solved with bullets, and even Aunt Ruby is eager to get in on the action. Get to it, you sexy murder machines. Re-election time is just around the corner, and we've still got to deal with that scrotobiker gang BunnyLord keeps talking about.
That's the ultimate result of NecroDancer's genre experimentation: an invitation. An invitation to strap on your dancin' shoes, let the beat seep into the hole where your heart used to be, and follow the siren sound deeper and deeper into the dark.
The humor keeps Gravity Ghost from taking itself too seriously, making the sadness a bit easier to swallow and ensuring the warmer moments don't come off too treacly.
If the new additions in The Pre-Sequel! don't ultimately matter, then this is essentially an add-on to Borderlands 2, spread out over desolation. "The Blue Danube" never actually plays, but if it did, it would no longer signify marvel, only déjà vu, the nagging feeling that you've done this before, and it was better the first time.
When it's understandable, Hack 'N' Slash can be as satisfying as clearly seeing the Matrix for the first time. But for those of us without the requisite coursework, clarity feels a long way away.
While it's not the strongest Walking Dead chapter we've seen—the episode's final choice, in particular, is somewhat baffling—it's prudent to withhold final judgment until the rest of the game is in.
Mario Kart 8 may look different from its pixelated forebears of the '80s and '90s, but it's infused with the same magical spirit and exacting craftsmanship. It's the kind of game that's bound to inspire nostalgia someday.