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Nintendo is on a bit of an odd streak lately. Donkey Kong and Mario wowed us on the Wii U, while Yoshi on the 3DS was a disappointment. Strong franchises are making more appearances than ever as the company seeks to stay strong in the wake of the struggling home console, so it's a fear that the once-foregone high quality of any Nintendo-bred title might dip. 'Yoshi's New Island' seemed to add weight to those fears, but Kirby's latest foray would seem to swallow them right back up.
Though these are not the first 'Star Wars Pinball' tables from Zen Studios, they may be the last. That's a shame as these tables feature some of the studio's best work and are recommend for both casual 'Star Wars' fans and those though that sometimes get the urge to play pinball. These tables play great on the Vita, as even the weaker entry 'Masters of the Force' has some fun design elements, and on the PS4, 'Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within' reaches its zenith.
I come away from 'Child of Light' more disappointed than unsatisfied. There is immense potential in Ubisoft's Framework development engine and the team behind it, and I hope they take this game as a lesson on the path to greater, more focused design. First, the gameplay is everything. The turn-based, timeline stuff is highly entertaining and, more importantly, different. Second, beautiful art doesn't make a well-constructed world. It helps, sure, but Aurora's adventure was back-dropped by a collection of still life portraits, not a living, breathing world. As a video game, you're missing the point if the player doesn't feel a part of a bigger universe. Third, poetry is for the poets.
If you've given the franchise a serious try in the past and hated it, the gobs of content in 'Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition' likely won't sway you, and the levels are even sadder looking on the PS4 than they were on the PS3. If you were to ever demo the game though, you'd likely get pulled in, suddenly wanting to chain a light strike into a charge attack into a Mosou attack in a Rage state so that you can Rampage while at Attack x 2 so as to demolish, say, Cao Cao's entire personal retinue of officers and soldiers. This is button-mashing with just enough depth to attempt a Zen state and possibly the deepest PS4 title to date. Suddenly, anticipation for that 'Legend of Zelda' 'Hyrule Warriors' game is through the roof.
Movie tie-in video games have almost always been hit or miss. Some have been worth the effort, while most become regrettable purchases. Even fewer live up to or exceed the movies they are based on. 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' falls somewhere in the middle. Although it's a visual let down when considering the console it was played on, the overall gameplay was consistently fun and enjoyable and it mostly accomplished what it set out to do – make the gamer feel like Spider-Man. If you can look past the freshman attempt at telling a good story, and have the patience for repeated loading screens, you may enjoy what the game has to offer.
'Stick it to the Man!' was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise for me. I was somewhat familiar with the game when it was first released but knew very little about what it had to offer. It's always a treat finding an indie game that unexpectedly provides a better overall experience than some of the AAA franchises the video game industry has to offer. 'Stick it to the Man!' is just such a game. While not the most challenging game available, it will entertain you in ways other game developers should take note of.
It's hard to judge this game without taking strong notice of its position on the eShop. Were it free, I'd probably be much more receptive to the idea (like everything else on the planet), as in some ways it's a demo application with in-app purchases for the full titles. That's fine, but it still costs $15, and the only way to judge its content is to judge the way these titles are actually remixed and thrown together. The content itself is decades old.
As 'Super Time Force' slowly crawled towards its eventually release, I remember seeing a couple of different mechanical iterations during public showings. At one point, saving a team member was more integral to success, and at another you could only rewind a certain amount of time. For many developers, indie or otherwise, one solid idea seems enough as the foundation for an entire game, but that game eventually suffers for the lack of follow through. Capybara Games made no such mistake, toiling over the finer details, delaying as they needed, to ensure 'Super Time Force' fulfilled tenets of surprising depth and ludicrous fun in a small but dense package.
I don't need to be a passive viewer of any more zombie stories, especially in 'The Walking Dead' universe. The proof is in this episode's finale, which I conveniently forgot to mention until now. It's a brilliant scene, something I won't spoil, but it's brilliant because I was a part of it. Everything else uncomfortably unnerved me, I was watching a TV show with a dialogue wheel. I never touched the story, and so the story rarely touched me. That's the cost of promising a video game and delivering a script.
'Expedition,' with just three maps and nothing else for the game, is fulfilling only for those with bare expectations. However, two of the three maps are now among the best the game has to offer, which means that 'Titanfall' as whole is indeed improved. Between finding routes amongst the crowded forest of 'Swampland' and navigating the complex maze of 'War Games,' the already excellent gameplay takes turns exploring new, fun, and interesting directions, which is the best you can ask from new maps.
The fantasy RPG is more than a little crowded, and breaking into that genre is likely to be a difficult task. With the help of Focus Home Interactive, the marketing campaign behind 'Bound by Flame' raised more than a few eyebrows, including my own. Everything about the game had me interested and I was more than a little excited to occupy my time with this new adventure in between some of the bigger AAA titles still to release. Not without its shortcomings, 'Bound by Flame' is still an ambitious title for developer Spiders. It sets an interesting, albeit familiar, tone, and delivers an enjoyable and addictive combat system. Unfortunately, this being a grand adventure, the developers should have realized the importance a well-acted character can have on the final product. Had the game been voiced by more qualified actors 'Bound by Flame' could have become a major sleeper title for 2014. Instead, these poor performances have left an unfavorable impression. It's worth visiting for the combat mechanics, but staying for the duration may be a difficult task.
Of Supergiant's two games, 'Transistor' is second-best. I'll always commend a studio for opting to be different, and in some ways it pays off for Supergiant, while in others it doesn't. The combat system is compelling at first, but generally not balanced enough to compel me to keep going in a second playthrough. The story is at first mysterious but eventually underwhelming, despite a strong emotional core in its two lead characters, and the city of Cloudbank shines brightly in just one way, and so feels dull after about an hour.
While Telltale delivers a generally accomplished graphic adventure in the strictest sense of the term, 'Back to the Future: The Game' is a title that ultimately, fails to live up to its pedigree. It's very consistent in what it does; yet it's overwhelming lack of ambition and general tendency to skate by on good feelings shortchanges its core demographic. In all reality, someone less familiar with 'Back to the Future' may find more pure value out of the title; fans will definitely want to give it a crack though with the warning that nostalgia only goes so far.
Considering that the majority of this review is spent going over the many marginal changes that accumulate to a massively entertaining whole, the bottom line is that 'Mario Kart 8' is 'Mario Kart,' just better, so the worst thing about 'Mario Kart 8' is it doesn't strive to reinvent much of anything. But then that's how the series has been ever since odd dog 'Double Dash' did its own thing.
When announced, the idea of playing as the Sheriff in the prequel Fabletown wasn't exactly a homerun. Boiling the tapestry of characters and locales down to a single character's point of view was no sure success, but when playing 'In Sheep's Clothing' the payoff is apparent. Bigby, gruff and reformed, isn't the most righteous of characters, but stepping into his place and trying to redress all of the sick and twisted acts that have accumulated over four episodes, has meant becoming an integral part an engaging narrative, and brings to my mind the exploits of William Munny in 'Unforgiven.' As for the conclusion of 'In Sheep's Clothing,' it somehow makes the wait for the finale interminable and yet the cliffhanger seems like one worthy of great anticipation.
In the end, I ended up having a blast revisiting the franchise that originally got me interested in the first person shooter genre of games. While the gameplay has a few bumps, 'Wolfenstein: The New Order' is a fresh spin on the game, especially the focus on the Nazi's technological advancement rather than obscure references to the occult. It's significantly better than Activision's attempt to revitalize the series during 2009. If you are a fan of the original games or simply are looking for a solid shooter to jump into, you certainly can't go wrong with 'Wolfenstein: The New Order.'
Driven by its story, fans of Quantic Dreams' 'Beyond: Two Souls' and 'Heavy Rain' are certain to find 'Murdered: Soul Suspect' appealing. The setting, characters, and not- altogether-foreseeable-plot twist, truly set this game apart. As much as I enjoyed the experience, it's difficult for me to recommend it as a full priced retail game. Clocking in between 6-7 hours (even after locating about 75% of the collectibles), the game was just beginning to ramp up when the credits start to roll. With a lower than average replay value, and no multiplayer option, paying full price for 'Soul Suspect' may be a difficult decision to make. Still, playing the game now, waiting for a price drop, or adding it to your rental queue, 'Murdered: Soul Suspect' is a noble effort by Airtight Games and one that I enjoyed from start to finish.
Not a grand slam or even a homerun, 'Watch Dogs' is very much akin to Ubisoft's other flagship series, 'Assassin's Creed,' in this respect, the initial entry is engaging (and frankly, 'Watch Dogs' is far more gripping than the original 'Assassin's Creed' could ever hope to be), but at times feels like a really high-quality tech demo. There's a load of promise from the Disrupt engine and the game license itself. The story of Aiden Pearce is money well spent, even if the buildup doesn't get nearly the payoff one would expect. The little added bonuses feel tad bit gimmicky, but up until recently, Ubisoft never tried to heavily promote them as selling points. What a future 'Watch Dogs' game needs to work on are its driving physics and its graphics; there isn't a reason why the next game should begin to match expectations of the E3 demo; what gamers have been offered here maybe lacking in sheer 'wow' factor, but had that demo never been as stunning as it was, I'd argue the end product might have been received more favorably.
I continue to be impressed with the ongoing creative efforts of Ubisoft Montpellier, and 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' is yet another reason to be excited. They've taken what many consider to be the most tragic war in history and turned it into a game that has a story filled with heart and emotion. 'Valiant Hearts' is as close to an interactive history lesson as you can come, and were I a high school history teacher, I would find a way to work the game into my classroom lecture. Fans of history – tragic or otherwise – and wonderful storytelling will find plenty of reason to see 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' through to the end.
I'll always play a 'Worms' game, as will many other fans, but 'Worms Battlegrounds' has found new and exciting ways to test that resolve. Graphically underwhelming, lazily constructed single-player, menus and online components and a general lack of enthusiastic will on behalf of the team create a haphazard experience, lows and highs often tumultuous in their transition. It might be ugly, but so is wormy warfare. I'm often happy to take the risk, but the real sin is sometimes I'll simply opt for another game, even when teleport guns and water-fuelled jetpacks could light my child mind's fancy. That's not the 'Worms' of old.