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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.
Despite King of Fighters XV's quality-of-life shortcomings, there's no arguing that it's still a good fighting game. It's just as fast and entertaining as previous entries in the franchise and brings the series into a new era with vastly improved netcode, but it puts up so many barriers of entry that it's hard to recommend to newcomers to the genre or franchise.
Forbidden West isn't a game that will surprise you or make you rethink the possibilities of what games can do, but it's proof that games can still be really fun even if they don't try anything new, and that's something we don't often see from big budget corporate games like this one.
I really like OlliOlli World, but I dislike both how I played it and what it becomes. It’s whimsical and relaxed, propelled by vibes and an incredibly addicting gameplay loop, until it isn’t.
Still, Pokémon Legends: Arceus turns over a new leaf for the Pokémon franchise. Not only does it prove that a new game doesn't need a hundred or so new Pokémon and a shiny new region to feel fresh, but it also shows that Game Freak and The Pokémon Company are actually willing to experiment within core Pokémon games. It defies fan skepticism to deliver a truly rare thing: an ambitious Pokémon game that realizes so many players' dreams of bringing everyone's favorite pocket-sized monsters to life in an open world.
But it didn't and despite my efforts, Sifu constantly met me with a passing disinterest in its subjects and a reckless deployment of imagery it didn't seem to entirely understand, all the while passing itself off as admiration. Its weak writing and poor characterization strips the game's characters and settings of tension and texture and the lens of the game's creators seems to forget the people and culture at the heart of the movies they love to invoke. I don't think I can square that away and I'm not sure anyone should have to.
Anybody familiar with Dying Light's design can see how bad an idea this is from miles off, and obviously part of the team did because this is the exact moment that the game introduces fast travel. But it doesn't matter. It was in Breath of the Wild. And that's one of the best games ever made.
Or just chill out on the couch managing your party member's furniture at the Dragon Princess with the Switch docked on your TV, then slap the joy cons on and watch a terrible Netflix docu-series while you hang out with your epic anime friends, fight monsters, and pay rent to a horrible moe landlord. It's either that or doomscroll on Twitter, and this is a more productive use of your time. I promise.
Nobody is ambitious but not too in over its head, funny to boot and grounded in an idea that understands the joy of defining conventions. It may miss a bit of the formula that's made its influences as strong as they were, but it's got style and confidence and those are swings I'm glad connected. Most of all, it reminds me of the fun I used to have playing pretend, and even though I've stopped, games like this one help keep that sense of adventure alive.
This game doesn't give a blanket pardon or condone the actions of any state, instead inviting players to ask by what means and to what end the rules of a state and society are created. The Forgotten City implicitly and explicitly goes to bat for the value of education, and it provides a good time while it does it. We all like to think we know something of the world that came before us; seldom is it that a videogame spun out of an adventure in another fantasy game provides an opportunity to truly learn something.
I felt like begging the game to try something, anything new, no matter how badly it was implemented, just to break up the monotony. But Chorus rarely takes any swings, so in theory it lacks any "misses," with few glitches or moments where one element butts up against the rest. That might mean that people won't hate it, but it also means it's a game that people won't really love, either.
Higher profile, bigger budget indies games are here to stay. This is a perfect example of what the format could offer and a showcase of how a short game with a moderate budget can outdo its far larger contemporaries. If you've been playing Halo or Call of Duty and feel burnt out on what games are now, The Gunk is a perfect palette cleanser and an effective gateway to even better games.
Pocket Dungeon understands puzzle spinoffs in the same way that the original Shovel Knight and all of its DLC understands classic platformers from the NES. While its title is fittingly suggestive of just how small the whole game is, I have a feeling I'll be coming back for months until I move on to my next roguelike obsession.