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Ghost on the Shore is a short, beautiful experience. Accompanied by nothing more than the voice of Josh in your head, you’ll travel across three islands, piecing together what happened along the way. Every answer you give to Josh’s questions will affect your relationship with him, ultimately affecting the outcome of the whole game. I found myself surprisingly emotional more than once during my experience. Ghost on the Shore is more than just a ghost story; it’s a look into what remains of us after death, both real and metaphysical.
LEGO Builder’s Journey is an experience I can’t help but recommend, both to fans of puzzle games and anyone who enjoys a slower, more thoughtful experience. Going into LEGO Builder’s Journey, I couldn’t help but wonder where the “Journey” element would come in. Having played it, however, I think it’s clear that the intent was to bring the player on a journey of emotion, something I can safely say was achieved. It may not resonate with everyone in the way in which it resonated with me, but I think that’s the beauty of it, as this is a game that is likely to mean many different things, to many different people. And, even if you’re a hardened soul who refuses to be moved by plastic bricks, it’s not a half-bad puzzle game to boot.
Kraken Academy!! surprised me with its zany humor and delightful time-looping mechanics. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment I spent on campus, making friends with classmates by bringing a goat to a horse race, going in QTE dates, and summoning poop demons (don’t ask). If you enjoy seriously creative — and seriously crazy — games that take outlandish writing to the next level, Kraken Academy!! is now accepting students.
Having previously gobbled up the great Ghost of Tsushima, I was eager to find another love letter to Kurosawa in Trek to Yomi. On an aesthetic level, my expectations were completely blown out of the water — the famed filmmaker has been honored like never before. When it comes to gameplay, I’m completely satisfied, my desire for another Way of the Samurai fulfilled, but I can see someone who skipped this era of gaming less enthused. If samurai games of yesteryear were your thing, Trek to Yomi is absolutely worth side-scroll slicing your way through the belly of the underworld for.
If you’re a fan of puzzle platformers and enjoy the retro aesthetic, you absolutely need to pick this game up.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is another triumph by Frogwares, who continues to do justice to the world’s most famous detective. If you didn’t pick up this series of sleuthy stories back in 2016, consider this your sign to get it on the Switch in 2022. If you’re ready to really walk a mile in Sherlock’s shoes as you hit Victorian London’s streets for clues, fist fights, and, you know, vibes, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter can totally come with you on handheld mode.
As a whole, Anuchard is a fun game. It’s quirky, it’s perfectly pixely, and it combines city building and dungeon crawling surprisingly well. Unfortunately, the game gets bogged down by repetition, repetition, repetition. Even when puzzle solving elements build off the fundamentals, it just isn’t enough of a change to the mechanics to keep it from eventually starting to feel like a slog. While undoubtedly a solid game, Anuchard is unfortunately just a little too mired in the past.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from B.I.O.T.A. Though it diverged from the Metroidvania genre in some significant ways, I really enjoyed this challenging throwback to games of the past. It marries a compelling and dark sci-fi plot with challenging platforming, fun boss fights, and a vast colony to explore. It’s not a perfect game, and I was definitely frustrated by the many instant death traps, but it’s still a game that retro fans should check out. And that goes double if the game ever makes its way to game consoles.
When I was first asked what mark I’d give Death Stranding out of five, I said I would give it a question mark. It’s certainly not conventionally “fun”, at least not for the first several hours. It depends on how much the player is willing to embrace Kojima’s artistic vision and absorb themselves in it. Death Stranding simultaneously tedious and exciting, profound and inane, terrifying and laughable. Like the spectral beings that inhabit this post-apocalyptic America, it’s often shapeless and hard to comprehend. One thing is for sure though: it’s like no game you’ve ever played before. In a world full of pandering pablum and endlessly milked franchises, it’s extraordinary for a big-budget game to be so daringly different. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut doesn’t just re-invent the wheel, it re-invents the whole cart, and that’s why the definitive edition of Hideo Kojima’s opus is well worth playing.
Despite my gripes with pacing and some insane difficulty spikes when it comes to platforming, Blast Brigade is a true gem and a fantastic addition to the genre. The stellar presentation is a delightful send-up to 80’s action and Saturday morning cartoons, creating a Metroidvania that truly manages to feel unique despite being part of perhaps one of the most saturated genres in gaming. If like me, you’re a fan of tight gunplay, rewarding exploration, and things stuffed with 80’s charm, then you’ll likely consider Blast Brigade to be twenty hours of your time well spent.
Kombinera is a smart but vicious little puzzler. It doesn’t pull any punches. Fans of puzzle platformers should absolutely check it out but be warned: you’re bound to learn new some new colorful language before all is said and done. Despite its accessibility, it’s not for the faint of heart (or those with high blood pressure).
Sokobos may have the premise of a potential Greek tragedy, but this game is anything but tragic. A fantastic, fresh take on the Sokoban formula, Sokobos provides players with plenty of brain-teasing adventures that’ll keep them occupied for the length of an entire odyssey or two. If you’re looking for a puzzle game that will really make you sit and think without giving a god-tier headache, Sokobos only costs a few drachmas for dozens of hours of delightfully difficult gameplay.
Ultimately, despite my gripes, Ayo the Clown is a 2D platformer that I think does enough right to warrant checking out. With clever progression, tricky (albeit frustrating at times) level design and a delightful world with well-thought-out boss fights, there’s plenty to like for genre enthusiasts who can overlook the areas where Ayo the Clown stumbles. What developers Cloud M1 have created is a really solid foundation that could pave the way for a truly great sequel with a few lessons learned from Ayo’s first outing.
Lila’s Sky Ark was more creative than it was memorable. While you can beat the game in less than a dozen hours, you’ll probably spend more just trying to fulfill the final mission. And while I did enjoy wandering around this weird world, ultimately some bad combat decisions and a lack of balance hurt my immersion. If you’re a big fan of action adventure and like games just for the sake of weirdness, I’d still give this a shot. For everybody else, this probably isn’t your game.
Cat Cafe Manager is one of those games you don’t know you need until you start playing it. It’s cozy, heartfelt, charming, and silly in the best of ways. And so soothing that you’ll find yourself still playing even after you’ve completed all the in-game objectives. Which is why it pains me to give this game the score that I did. Because, as thoroughly enjoyable as everything I’ve described above is, the game has some serious issues that need addressing. Scrolling to read additional information frequently didn’t work; if you accrue enough skills, they escape their assigned boxes, spreading out across the screen and getting in the way when you try to view them; even with litter boxes, at the same time every day all of my cats would spontaneously void their bladders wherever they were in my cafe; finally, there were days I would set my advertising for a specific customer type and wouldn’t get customers for days. Perhaps worst of all, there were a couple times when the game wouldn’t let me do anything at all – time would continue to pass, and customers would appear, but I couldn’t prepare food, interact with anything, or even access the menu. Still, if you don’t encounter these bugs, or, better yet, they get fixed, I think there’s something really special in Cat Cafe Manager. It’s relaxing, lighthearted, sweet, and just overall comforting. Whether you’re a cat lover or not, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
Defend the Rook is a great example of what happens when you have a really solid foundation but ultimately don’t end up doing much with it. While I enjoyed my time with the game I couldn’t help but feel as though I was playing some kind of extended demo. Yeah, it was fun, but it got same-y really quickly. And that is definitely not good when it comes to roguelikes. Would I recommend Defend the Rook? I’m not sure, honestly. I guess I wouldn’t steer you away from it if you wanted to buy it, but, unless they start adding content (which they should because what they have is fun!), I don’t know that I’ll be chomping at the bit to suggest it to people that I talk to.
The Cruel King and the Great Hero is my current contender for GOTY 2022; although it’s only April, I just don’t see this changing. With its wonderfully whimsical aesthetics, glorious soundtrack, blossoming world-building and character development, and delightful turn-based combat combining action and slight brainteasers, it cannot be overstated how phenomenal The Cruel King and the Great Hero truly is. It’s probably the only game I’ve ever consciously desired to give a standing ovation, tears welling up in my eyes as the credits rolled. The sum of a thousand tiny details done correctly, The Cruel King and the Great Hero achieves greatness through the lens of a bold and brave young girl, following her heart and her dreams, with her supportive dragon dad by her side.
While many of your actions are said to have an impact on the game, in practice, that impact is fairly minimal. It all comes together in an ending that also feels far too convenient, not seriously reckoning with much of the themes the Road 96 brings up. In the end, it feels like Road 96 doesn’t have nearly as much to say about these topics as it thinks it does. It sticks the landing when it comes to its individual characters, but much less so regarding the overarching plot. Still, those character stories are engaging, the mini-games you’re thrown into are consistently fun, and Road 96 looks and sounds great. It all makes for a trip that’s worth taking, as long as you know what to expect.
Wife Quest‘s cutesy aesthetic and straightforward mechanics belie a competent yet surprisingly difficult platformer. You’ll need to approach this adventure with patience and dexterity (and an appreciation for a bit of ham and lewdness certainly wouldn’t hurt, either). If you’re up to the occasionally unforgiving challenge this platformer offers and don’t mind some fanservice here and there, then this is a quest well worth undertaking.
MLB The Show 22 continues to offer a solid baseball game that is a lot of fun to play. San Diego Studio has the basics down, and while they iterate on them each year, they don’t break what’s working. When so much around the core gameplay has grown stagnant, though, and players are being pushed to spend so much ongoing money to have the best experience, it becomes a lot harder to recommend to all but the die-hards.