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In some ways, No Straight Roads felt like the second coming of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It had all the right ingredients to be the perfect blend of rhythm and action into one phenomenal package. And while it does plenty right, it’s a little too off-key where it counts. Some fine-tuning on the combat would certainly help sync the boss battles with the aesthetics and exploration aspects, as that mechanic carries way too much weight to ignore. Still, I can’t lie — I’ve absolutely fallen in love with No Straight Roads for what it does offer, which is an explosively intense experience that will punch your teeth right out of your face.
Connection Haunted is the rare example of a game that’s painfully shallow while being too cryptic for its good. It’s a weird amalgamation of two disparate genres that neither captivates nor confounds. In the end, the game just left me frustrated over the time I’d wasted fumbling in the dark, expecting a narrative payoff that would never come.
What initially sold me on INMOST was the notion that it was inspired by the considerably more light-hearted To The Moon; while I wasn’t expecting such a tragic tale about pain and suffering, the developers definitively recaptured what made their muse great. Realistic depth of characters, discussion of topics oft-overlooked yet extremely relatable, and a compelling narrative made for a captivating journey that will stick with me for a long time.
Marvel’s Avengers turns a childhood dream into a reality by letting us fight as our favorite Marvel superheroes. Like candy, the game is an incredibly fun treat best consumed over time and in small doses.
In spite of its problems, there’s a good game buried beneath Ary and the Secret of Seasons‘ many technical bumps and bruises. Wielding the weather to solve its many clever brain-teasers can be as exhilarating as a thunderstorm in July. But these flashes of excitement are almost always bookended by moments of frustration thanks to the game’s shoddy optimization.
Though rough around the edges and lacking in content, Griefhelm can be great fun in moderation. Whether you’re hacking your friends’ heads off with a claymore in multiplayer or sending enemy swordsmen into the stratosphere with a gigantic war hammer, the game certainly has its moments. However, courageous knights and PC-bound sellswords looking for an epic adventure will likely find themselves wanting a bit more than what this game has to offer.
Spiritfarer has the body of a seafaring exploration game, the mind of a management sim, and the soul of an emotional journey depicting love, loss, and grief. With gorgeous visuals and a soundtrack to match, Spiritfarer is pleasing to the senses while providing a core loop that’s easy to get lost in.
Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Familia Myth Infinite Combate has a lot of problems, but it’s nowhere near being the worst game that I’ve ever played. If you’re looking for a content-rich dungeon-crawler, then you’ll probably want to pass on this one. There are better dungeon-crawlers out there. However, if you consider yourself to be a fan of the series and really want to experience it in a new and unique way, then picking this up still might be worth your time.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker – Definitive Edition is a classic fantasy RPG of truly epic scope hobbled only by niggling technical issues on this console release. As much fun as I was having romping across the land slaying monsters, righting wrongs, and making pleasant conversation with the well-written characters, I couldn’t help but feel I wasn’t enjoying the experience on the ideal platform or on a stable build. Still, if you’re a stalwart devotee of swords and sorcery, and these trying times have left you without access to a decent gaming PC, then Pathfinder: Kingmaker is well worth a choice plot in the barony of your PS4 games library.
Iron Harvest 1920+ is a gorgeous-looking RTS that harkens back to the classics while bringing its own unique brand of destruction. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and the slower style of gameplay definitely won’t appeal to everybody, though real-time strategy fans looking for their next fix should seriously look into trying it out, especially if they happen to have some buddies they can rope into playing against them, or with them if you prefer.
I know that I’m probably shouting into the void, here, but I’m going to say this anyway; please learn from your mistakes in this game, Compile Heart. Death end re;Quest 2 shows that you’re truly capable of making a great horror game, but also that you aren’t there just yet. There were plenty of problems, but there were plenty of things to love about this title, too. I’ve seen the EX Ending (yes, I liked this game that much), and I know that you guys are teasing the possibility of a Death end re;Quest 3. I want that to happen, I want to love it, and I want to give it a stellar review. All I ask is that you took note of what worked and what didn’t, and continue to grow this series to be as great as it can potentially be. I know you can do it!
As opposed to the cynical anti-player nonsense smothering the last two games, there’s a real heart beating in this installment that I can’t ignore: I adore this cast, I like exploring this world, and I enjoy the tale they left behind. But my contempt lies more within my response to 2007’s Super Paper Mario: wherein a genuinely well-meaning iteration is, once again, suffocated by a gameplay system that does it no favors.
Windbound strikes me as a victim of overachieving — it wants to do so much that it ends up tripping over its own feet. Is it a survival game? Yes. Is it an exploration game? Also yes. Is it a crafting game? Yes again. Is it a story-driven game? Yep. Does it do any of those things perfectly? No. You need to explore to move onto the next area, but you’re tethered in place because the survival mechanics are a little too overbearing. Topped off with a more nuanced story told through a repetitive loop, Windbound’s balance is less a scale and more a see-saw, swinging from one side to the other with the player clinging on for dear life. It’s still a solid experience and one that I would recommend, but carefully, and only to fans of the survival genre. If you’re looking for another Breath of the Wild or Wind Waker, breeze past this title.
If you took one look at the visuals and thought it might be your game, I have some intel for you: it is. Run — don’t walk — to the nearest virtual gaming platform to pick up your copy of Over The Alps today.
Frostpunk: On The Edge may be a little short and the morality choices unbothered by consequences, but the message of hope rang loud and clear from the developers. A fantastic expansion that players can one-shot within a single sitting if they play their cards right, Frostpunk: On The Edge offers an uplifting conclusion to the groundbreaking society survival simulator.
Kandagawa Jet Girls might seem like it’s just a fanservice game. But that’s only part of it. Whether you love or hate games with an overflow of questionable outfits and provocative poses (not sure why you’d be playing it if you hated it, though), it shouldn’t be the only thing that you focus on with this game. Like with its sister series, Senran Kagura, there’s a legitimate game in here with some really fun and addictive gameplay. If you’re a diehard Marvelous and/or Takaki fan, you’re probably going to get the game regardless of what I say (which you should). But I also encourage people might be a little gunshy around this kind of thing to dive in as well. After all, life isn’t any fun if you don’t let loose from time to time.
Road to Guangdong is a brilliant narrative about the importance of communicating with one’s family wrapped up in a road trip simulator.
All in all, Samurai Shodown! 2 is a great little port of an admittedly overlooked part of gaming history. Though the Neo Geo Pocket/Pocket Color lost its steam due to corporate shenanigans, it has a good library and is very fun to play. Seeing these games being modernized and re-released is charming to see, and I’m hoping SNK brings even more titles out in the near future. Though the controls really won’t translate 100% with the lack of the Pocket’s wonderful clicky-stick, Samurai Shodown! 2 and other SNK Pocket Fighting Games are a blast to play, especially for the low cost of entry.
Though the Neo Geo Pocket lacks the overall power of the base Neo Geo MVS and AES Hardware, it was a pretty potent little handheld that had a solid library, and seeing these games ported to the Nintendo Switch to open up access to people that never got to experience it for a very low cost of entry is awesome. The lack of a micro-switch joystick might make things feel a little alien to you if you’re used to playing on real hardware. However, if you’re just delving into the Neo Geo Pocket library on the Switch, that shouldn’t be an issue, and with some practice, more seasoned players can get used to it as well
The way I see it, Nexomon is kind of like the fast-food version of monster-collecting games. It’s cheap, easily accessible, and is certainly worthy of being enjoyed by some. However, when you compare it to its more original and carefully crafted counterparts, it’s easy to see just how ersatz its formula actually is.