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It avoids feeling like a simple educational game while also hitting emotional highs that underscore humanity's impact on animal populations. A story that becomes overly simplistic in its back half and some frustrating stealth sections aren't enough to stop the game from being an engaging survival experience, or to dilute its brutally honest message about the challenges that await us as we hurtle towards warming without adequate regulations. Endling's greatest skill is in making us empathize with the animals we live among, and in making it clear that though they bear the effects of climate change before we do, our fates are ultimately entwined.
B-12's memories are a kind of collectible you'll have to search for, and a few optional side-quests require scrounging up assorted bric-a-brac, but Stray doesn't make you wander about examining every nook and cranny for something you may or may not actually need. That's a good thing for a videogame, but if you were hoping to really just play as a cat doing cat-like things, "pointlessly searching for stuff you don't need" would be exactly what you wanted. The cat game might be less about the cat and more about the existential crises facing mankind and the artificial intelligences that will be left behind, but at least there's a dedicated meow button.
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is aptly named for a variety of reasons, each more on-the-nose than the last. Yes, the player is tasked with gathering ingredients for a special treat at the end, but more importantly, it lays out a smorgasbord of delightfully diverse boss fights that all (mostly) prove the quality that MDHR delivered in Cuphead five years ago was no fluke. Most importantly, each and every inch of this DLC is rich with stunning visuals that add layers upon layers of eye candy onto Cuphead’s already sumptuous art. Miss Chalice is icing on this layered, dense, satisfying cake, giving players a whole new way to approach the beloved boss-rush game. Bon appétit!
Rather than the triumphant return of a fan-favorite franchise, Battle League claims its slow season spot in Nintendo's calendar as just another sports game. If Mario Strikers saw a new release every year, there'd be a problem, but it's been well over a decade since the last entry in the series. Yes, it's more of the same, but when "the same" is so fun-and so hard to put down after just one match-more of the same is more than welcome, even if the game isn't as creative or ambitious as one might hope.
I want to invest in a good TMNT show again, and I even tried to navigate the absolute nightmare that is the now Amazon-run Comixology app to get in on the latest comic series based on my favorite turtles. I've come away from this experience with a rekindled love for my half-shelled heroes and I never want to give them up again. Cowabunga forever, my dudes.
As I've written before, I'm on the autism spectrum, which for me means that I can be overly sensitive to lights and sounds that neurotypical people tend to be able to tolerate. A lot of games like DOOM and Call of Duty fall into this camp, overloading my senses to the point where my eyes start to water and my ears recoil in fear. The Last Clockwinder is an excellent example of the opposite of that, offering a gentle, kind tour through a broken-down clock in a giant tree.
We may not have been enjoying it the way Supermassive intended, but that made the experience that much better. I'm thankful that summer camp is over, but I will hold a piece of Hackett's Quarry in my heart for at least a week. It's the slogan of the camp, after all: "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger.
A lack of a compelling story hurt the time I spent with the game's cast, even though I adore the game's art and how much every scene leaves me wanting more. More time with the mechanics and a greater emphasis on the place and people of 1700s France could've helped Card Shark a great deal in my eyes, but I still admire it for what it is. I just think that much like the game's countless tricks, the best possible execution of its ideas needed a bit more confidence.
Overall, I think Streets of New Capenna hits the sweet spot for what a Magic set can be. It is weirdly experimental on the creative side and tries to afford a huge amount of possible play experiences due to some new mechanical design on the game side.
Just like every other kid that spent the early 2000s watching Ruroni Kenshin, Samurai Champloo, and Gundam, I think samurai are very cool. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized they, like knights, they were probably mostly bad on a person-to-person and institutional basis as executors of a feudal order. Nonetheless, their fictional depictions, especially in the films made between the 1930s and 1970s in conversation with the cowboy westerns and swashbuckler films being made at the same time, led to captivating art whose influences extend through today, and Trek to Yomi is an admirable attempt to bring that to gaming audiences. Hopefully it gets more of us to engage with the source material.
The Wii games felt so revolutionary because they did something deeply innovative with the medium. Switch Sports effectively does the opposite. It's still incredibly fun, especially if you're feeling nostalgic for the halcyon days of motion controls, but in trading content out for accuracy and immersion, it feels empty-even compared to games from 16 years ago.
The story does hint at further DLC to come — you can unlock something called “The Triplicate area” that answers a few questions left from the game’s cryptic ending while setting up more buglore. But, if this DLC is anything to go by, that adventure too might not be as filling as we’d like.
I feel like I may have underrated Tiny Tina's Wonderlands at the time of review-I keep coming back to play in its vibrant and creative world. While this game doesn't take place on a board, each miniature map has edges like parchment that you walk through to get to the map screen where you select your next destination. I really hope Weird West succeeds because I'd like to play more games like it. Whether or not it gets any further fine-tuning, Weird West is a successful execution of a subtly ambitious project, and a very good first outing for WolfEye.
Skywalker Saga is no different, and its unabashed enjoyment of Star Wars is infectious. Even as an un-lapsed fan, I felt my admiration and passion for this rich world surge the same way visiting Galaxy's Edge or a good episode of Clone Wars would. A simple beat-'em-up with a few puzzles and John Williams' masterful music doing a lot of the heavy lifting would be fine. Instead, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga doesn't just go above and beyond to remind you why you should love Star Wars, but is a testament to how much the people who made it love Star Wars.
It might be more fun to play than to listen to, but it's far from intolerable. In fact, a good time should be had by all party members. The combination of ranged and melee weapons with magic, special skills, and companions like a tiny dragon make for frenetic and exciting gameplay in a colorful, surprisingly engaging world.
It manages to straddle the line between valuing and carefully adapting the Kirby that was, while completely revamping what you thought Kirby could even be. Maybe it won't sell you on the franchise if you aren't already buying, but if any of the available titles were going to change your mind on that score, it's this one, and well worth finding out if it will do the trick for you. After all, who doesn't want to feel joy?.
In this conflicted vessel lie many frustrating parts. However, it's the first big budget game in recent memory whose heart rages in spite of that frustration, and I can't give it enough credit for that.
Shouldice and crew looked back to the past and pulled from the present to craft an endlessly engaging puzzle-box that's chock full of secrets, many of which I still haven't found. I can already hear the siren call of discovery pulling me back, and it sounds a lot like ambient techno. Are you curious enough to heed it?
Its complex narrative and interpersonal relationships build a lived-in world that makes the player care about their decisions and feel the impacts therein. Poor performances from its one-dimensional heroes are sure to turn some off from what's otherwise an incredible narrative that twists politics and dramatic irony in ways few other games have. Though it might lean closer to a visual novel than a tactics game at times, the two occasionally disparate elements combine to create a game that goes beyond its individual parts.
But more than anything, I want to hear the stories that friends tell me of the first time they got wrecked. Not so that I can tell them "Welcome to Elden Ring, motherfucker." But so that I can remind them, "Don't give up, skeleton.