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While not perfect, Andro Dunos 2 is an excellent revival of Visco’s 16-bit shooter series that deserves your attention. With its killer retro-inspired presentation, driving music, and plenty of exhilarating boss battles to test your mettle, it’s a game that’s easy to recommend to anyone who has a passing interest in shoot-’em-ups. If nothing else, it makes me excited to see what else publisher PixelHeart has in the works for Visco’s other IP. If the upcoming Ganryu 2 is anywhere near as good, nostalgic Neo Geo fans should be in for a treat.
Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is still a tremendous adventure. It makes the transition from 2D to 3D effortlessly, and offers an expansive adventure full of replay value. While I was frustrated by some curious omissions, this is still one of the best Kirby games in quite a while and easily the best one yet on Nintendo Switch. A must-own for fans of the pink puffball.
Developer Thinking Stars have come out swinging with Anno: Mutationem, a lot of it works, and some of it not so much. The game feels like the first act of an anime series, or the first part of a bigger story. There is a tease that there could be more to come, but we’ll have to wait and see. As it stands now, Anno: Mutationem is a little rough around the edges, but despite its flaws, I kept going back to it and was endlessly impressed by its scope, ambition, and excellent combat.
Weird West sometimes gets its wagon wheels stuck on the sand with its exciting but underdeveloped ideas. Nonetheless, it’s still well worth a fair few silver dollars for being an ambitiously open-ended Action-RPG with a truly unique story and ambiance. So saddle up, partner. We’ve got some outlaws and zombies to hunt!
I have nothing but praise for Wobbledogs. It’s ridiculous yet captivating, its enduring adorability carrying players through the occasional wait times between prayers to the RNG gods (spindly Wobbledog why are you so hard to get??!). If you loved Spore and Viva Pinata and want the perfect blend between the pair, it’d be a doggone shame if you passed up Wobbledogs.
Lost Ark is literally great enough to re-ignite my passion for MMORPGs after 15 years. That’s not a joke, and it’s not something that I’m just saying for the sake of this review. Because of that, I don’t know that I should be reviewing this game so much as I should be thanking it. I’m incredibly happy to have finally found an MMO that I can look forward to playing every day, and, if you’re willing to take my word at all, I think you’ll find that you’ll end up the same way once you sit down with this game for yourself.
Expedition Zero does a solid enough job of creating atmosphere and making the player nervous, but playing it just isn’t fun. The seed of a solid idea is here in the game’s various printers, but they don’t do enough to help overcome the slow and awkward movement. Horror fans may find a few hours of scares, but anyone else should steer well clear of this expedition.
I never considered stopping this ride until I’d saved Uncle Marcus. The core mystery here is fascinating and had its hooks in me until the end, while the entertaining cast made me want to go back and see every alternate ending. Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? doesn’t reinvent much, but its a well-executed FMV title that should satisfy anyone who’s a fan of the genre.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a resounding success and is easily the most fun I’ve had with the series since the release of Borderlands 2. In some respects, I actually think there is a case to be made that this is the best playing game that Gearbox has made, so positive are the changes made to the narrative delivery, class system, and the introduction of the overworld. If you’re a fan of Borderlands, Wonderlands is an extremely easy sell. But, even if you’re a lapsed fan feeling the burn after so many years of Borderlands products, there is so much that is fresh on display that I think you owe yourself a visit to the Wonderlands.
It feels a little funny to review .hack//G.U. Last Recode for the Switch. Diehard .hack// fans like myself just needed to be told when and where to buy it with no questions asked, and those who have never dipped their toes into the title (or franchise as a whole) have three current platforms to choose from with a basic understanding of what one can reasonably expect from any of them. To that end, I’d like to close the review on this note: .hack//G.U. Last Recode is worth the money no matter which platform you buy it on, but if you want to support some of the most creative and dedicated developers out there, pick up .hack//G.U. Last Recode on the Switch — don’t let Cyberconnect2’s blood, sweat, and tears go to waste.
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon doesn’t feel like it adds anything new to the side-scrolling roguelike genre; for some, that’s just fine. Not everything needs to be high-octane-melt-your-brain gameplay, right? GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon instead feels like playing a beautifully painted Japanese wall scroll come to life, its colors slowly meandering across the screen as they melt into one graceful bloodpit at the bottom. If you prefer form over function or are just curious about this Eastern franchise finally coming West, GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon is ready to slash up a good time.
For me, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pack has been a wonderful reminder of how much I love this game. That on its own makes it well worth the price of admission, especially when it promises to keep giving me reasons to come back for most of the next two years. Hopefully, I’ll see you on the track.
Dark Deity is a flawed—but enjoyable—take on the classic Fire Emblem formula. I wish some of its elements weren’t so obtuse and vague, but I still found it impossible to put down. There’s room for a sequel, so hopefully, it won’t be too long before we get a chance to revisit Terrazael.
For the most part, Marvelous sowed some pretty good SEEDs (hah, get it?). Obviously, I’m not completely satisfied with everything—the relationship mechanics are essentially a gamble, now, and we’re straight-up chugga-chugga-choo-chooin’ through certain loading zones, but there’s a reason that I played 130 hours of this game. At the end of the day, Rune Factory 5 is a fresh and enjoyable new entry to the series, and I really think that fans will come to love it just as much as they have every other title.
While its difficulty spikes could use a bit more balancing, it does nothing to diminish my love for Tunic. This is a masterfully designed game that challenges you to take elements of classics that have become familiar and apply them in all-new ways. Its triumphant in-game manual gave me more moments of stunning realization than every other game I’ve played in 2022. If you’re a fan of any of the titles that stand as major influences to Tunic, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.
There’s still room for a big snowboarding game in today’s video game landscape, but Shredders isn’t able to fill it. While it looks nice when you’re not moving, issues with performance, controls, mission design, voice acting, story, nearly every aspect of this game is flawed. So value your time and wait for the next title in the genre.
Ghostwire: Tokyo ends up being a satisfying experience. With a wonderful world to explore, excellent combat that gets quite deep over time, and an interesting story, there’s a lot to recommend about it. Somehow it also ends up feeling a bit incomplete, though. There was room here for more gameplay variety and to really explore more with some of these characters, and doing so might have turned a good game into a great one. As is, the ending feels like it comes a bit out of nowhere, leaving me to wonder if the team’s original vision was a bit larger. Still, if you’re looking for a creepy game where you strike fear into the creatures that go bump in the night, check out Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Prose & Codes receives only one complaint from me — 350 puzzles spanning 7 literary genres simply isn’t enough content for such a charming and relaxing game. Call me selfish, but I simply couldn’t get enough of Prose & Codes’ challenges and could easily see myself playing this off and on again for the rest of my life. You don’t need a cipher to decode my stance on this lovely literature game: Prose & Codes unequivocally belongs in every bookworm’s library.
Triangle Strategy does almost everything well. It looks great, sounds good, plays great, features an excellent story, and offers enough variance in its multiple paths to provide significant replay value. There’s no one element it gets wrong. Its biggest issue comes in how it puts these various elements together. If you’re okay with long story sequences with the combat taking a bit of a back seat, you’ll love Triangle Strategy. Despite the balance of these various elements feeling a bit off, each element is so well executed that this is still a must-play for fans of the genre.
All in all, would I recommend this dip into the ocean blue? Absolutely, but only if you consider what you’re getting into. There’s no denying this game is eye-candy of the sweetest caliber, with rarely any part of the vine-strangled world lacking vividly colored details. That said, you have to go in knowing that this is a perfect example of peaceful gaming, with no death or combat in sight. Exploration is the name of the game here, and it’s best to go into Submerged: Hidden Depths with low tension, an open mind, and a good pair of headphones. Admittedly, it’s on the short side, but if you’re eager to uncover the secret of these decaying cities, you’ll find the perfect game to scratch that urban exploration itch.