VGChartz's Reviews
A solid action-platformer with likable characters, irreverent writing, rewarding backtracking gameplay, and lovely art and music. With greater mechanical depth, a mapping system, and more to do and explore, it could be even better.
A few missing console ports notwithstanding, Gradius Origins is a fantastic collection with a preposterous amount of bonus content. By preserving and enhancing six classic shooters and keeping the IP alive with its own Salamander III, M2 has demonstrated how much it reveres and understands the franchise.
The four games included feel more complete than ever, thanks to helpful manuals, eye-opening gadgets, multiple control and display options, several regional variants, remixed "easy" modes, and the ability to save and upload play data at your convenience. And while some of the original warts remain — Operation Wolf is imbalanced, Operation Thunderbolt is too hectic, and Night Strikers is insufficiently complex — they're less problematic than before.
Through its multi-layered combat tempo and sharp design, Wildgate soars among the best extraction shooters.
If you anticipate another twisting, branching murder mystery from the brilliant mind of Kotaro Uchikoshi, you're going to end up disappointed. If, however, you expect a less consequential, more comedic side story that places beloved characters in new, deadly escape room situations, you'll emerge after 15 hours quite happy with your experience.
This is the killer app on Switch 2, thanks to snappy controls, imaginative art direction, a mysterious "journey to the center of the earth" premise, rousing music, rewarding exploration, and the intelligent, thoughtful deployment of voxel technology, which provides players exhilarating navigational and problem-solving freedom.
By interrogating and reincorporating some of its previous tricks without addressing the fundamental issues, this sequel's more likely to extinguish interest rather than revive it.
With a simple scoring system, Strange Scaffold turns a polished action template into an improvisational ballet of spent rounds, thrown knives, and exploding barrels at a breakneck pace.
The base game is clunky, shallow, short, and repetitive, and the additional bells and whistles, while nice, don't do anything to elevate the core experience from 1991. If you're a Game Gear fanatic who doesn't want to pay $200 for a hard copy, you might want to consider picking this up, if only to help complete your collection. But remember: just because something is rare doesn't mean it's any good.
Limited launch content aside, Sloclap's mechanical deviations from the status quo successfully distill the beautiful game's essence.
Visually appealing, well paced, full of content, and well balanced in terms of challenge level, it’s a good long-term RPG for those who are ready to invest the time (and a bit of money) in it. Still, a relative lack of effort and freedom in terms of character development places it behind notable competitors in this field like Honkai: Star Rail.
As the descent continues and outside negative pressure multiplies, Siren's Rest's initial intrigue quickly begins to crack and then subsequently crumples like a soda can.
There's a fair bit of tedious backtracking and the detective segments don't require that much actual sleuthing, but those flaws are overshadowed by great art direction, exceptional combat, an addictive demon fusion system, and lots of rewarding, engaging content.
Despite the lack of ancillary features, Volume 3 is the best installment of the Irem Collection so far. Not only are the games here rarer than in earlier volumes, but they're better. Indeed, there isn't a bad one in the bunch; all of the titles range from good to great. If you're a diehard shoot-'em-up fan on a budget who wants to invest only in a single volume, make it this one.
Lumpy pacing and some odd puzzles aside, Daedalic's adventure can compel anyone to venture down this rabbit hole.
By retaining the core components of the franchise — farming, fighting, and flirting — and infusing them with addictive town planning and people management aspects, deeper tactical and strategic combat options, and more meaningful romance pathways, Marvelous has pushed the franchise forward in a bold new direction.
Judged on its own mechanics, systems, and merits, it's a brilliant racing game, a GotY contender, and one of the finest entries in the entire Mario Kart canon, not to mention another in a long line of exceptional launch titles from Nintendo.
Survival Kids on Switch 2 is a middling game — not because it doesn't follow the template of the Game Boy original exactly, but because it fails to leverage its rules and mechanics in interesting, engaging, and dangerous ways. As it stands now, it's fine for younger and less experienced players, but not ideal for those seeking something more involved, challenging, and long-lasting.
If Fast Fusion featured online multiplayer, better image quality, and 6 or 7 more race tracks, it would enter the game-of-the-year conversation. Even without those things, it's yet another gem from Shin'en Multimedia. The Munich-based studio has once again punched above its weight, delivering a blisteringly fast, mechanically nimble futuristic racer with outstanding track design and excellent music.
Provocative and entertaining, American Arcadia's high-concept premise, inventive storytelling, and creative gameplay scenarios place it alongside its closest inspirations.