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An instant mood-booster with a lot of love to give, Sayonara Wild Hearts is absolutely anyone’s game. Music fans, retro gaming fans, gamers young and old, casual and hardcore, or those simply looking for something new will find at least one level that blows their mind, walking away from the experience impressed and uplifted.
I know it sounds like I’ve been hard on What Happened, but that’s because I feel like it had so much potential. With its outstanding artistic direction, creepy atmosphere, and unique premise, I had high hopes for the game. And while it occasionally managed to pull me into its world of drug-fueled hysteria and desperation, its repetitive gameplay and painful writing had me eager to reach the finale. My playthrough of the game took me just over five hours, but I feel like the story could have reached its conclusion in half that time without taking anything away from the game’s experience.
Maid of Sker is overall a stand-up immersive horror experience that I would recommend to anyone looking for that sort of thing.
If you’ve yet to experience Crypto’s origins story, there’s no better time than the present to embark on this anal-probing, body-snatching quest for revenge.
In terms of gameplay, I’m left wanting a little more (those in-between portions weren’t my favorite), but the stories and emotional connections conveyed are bar-none the strongest I’ve read all year.
I could have forgiven We should talk.’s narrative if it weren’t for the length. I could have forgiven We should talk.’s length if it weren’t for the narrative. The game could be short. The game could push a specific philosophy in relationships. But it couldn’t be both and still get high marks unless you absolutely already 100% agree with the developer’s stance on relationships.
CARRION‘s greatest triumph isn’t the beautiful aesthetics or the extremely fun gameplay, however — despite it having both — but the game’s ability to make players own the identity of an amorphous creature discovering itself while finding a way out and feeding on the unfortunate. If that’s not immersion taken to the coolest extreme, I’m not sure what is. CARRION is a must-play; grab it before it grabs you.
Megadimension Neptunia VII is a wonderful game, but, as it stands, the Switch version is far from being ideal. If this is your only avenue to Gameindustri and you really want to get into the series, the game’s still playable. However, if you have the luxury of picking and choosing, then I’d pick this one up on PC or PS4. Or, better yet, just get VIIR.
Make no mistake; Sisters Royale isn’t a bad shooter. The TBS system is a really cool feature that adds a welcome layer of risk versus reward to the frantic action. However, those hoping for a spiritual successor to the excellent Castle Shikigami series will likely be disappointed thanks to the game’s gimmicky stage designs, lackluster enemies, and a story that’s borderline painful to suffer through for all but the most shameless weebs out there.
It hurts to rate Beyond a Steel Sky like this; I don’t want the bugs to hold back what is truly an incredible and unique game. The world-building is genuinely amazing and the hacker tool is such a clever mechanic I’m itching to try out more. But the storyline is paced a little too slowly considering the urgency of the situation, and a bug preventing progression unless the player had the foresight to save early on is hard to look past.
There’s so much fun to be had with the Rock of Ages series, and Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break showed that really clever mechanics can be taken a step further, pushing already ridiculous limits. Although the difficulty barrier to entry is a little steep if this is your first foray into the franchise, Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is still fantastically fun and will keep you glued to your screen for months to come.
If you’re a fan of classic arcade shoot-’em-ups, Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade is easily worth the price of admission. However, it’s worth noting that Darius and its two revisions are all but unplayable in handheld mode for those of us with mere mortal eyes, which means those with a Switch Lite likely won’t be able to enjoy a substantial chunk of this compilation.
All-in-all, Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia is a really great beginning to what seems to be a very interesting story. By focusing on a lengthy but very much enticing setup, Forgotten Trace, has the ability to quickly and skillfully draw its players into Kazuya’s world, and provides plenty of material that I assume will allow the story to continue to become even more exciting than it already is.
With its flawless emulation and wealth of content, Darius Cozmic Collection Console is a robust offering and an excellent introduction to Taito’s long-running shoot ’em up series. However, I’m not sure it does quite enough to justify the $60 asking price when you consider you’re more or less getting nine slightly different variations of four decades-old games. Still, if money is no object and you feel the need to blast intergalactic fish to bits, this collection will surely scratch that itch.
Creepy Tale hearkens back to a time when scary meant something else entirely and modern indie game design was still coming into its own. The story flows wonderfully and is easy enough to follow; it’s only hampered by odd puzzle design and choices.
Honestly, I can’t recommend Seek Not a Lighthouse, which saddens me. Part of me thinks my hopes were too high for the title, but even reading the description again and realizing there was no connection between it and the game itself, I remind myself that, no, sometimes a game is just… not great. Not every dusty corner of Steam is going to yield a gem, and that’s okay — it happens. It’s pretty criminal Seek Not a Lighthouse has such a cool name and feel but doesn’t live up to what the eyes receive; here’s to hoping the next title the developer releases gets better.
I really, really like void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium. It’s got a great plot, fun Mystery Dungeon gameplay, and delightful customization features. But it’s just too short for me to give it a higher rating than the one which I’ve given it. I don’t care if it’s following the tradition of its predecessors; you can’t pace a DRPG in the same way that you can a platformer. I still think that this game is great, and I think that a lot of other people will, too. But is $60 worth a game that only takes around 20 hours to beat and might leave you with more questions than answers at its end? I’m not so sure.
A Short Hike stayed in my backlog for far too long, but the truth is, there wasn’t a better time than now to play it. With quarantine canceling many summer vacations, those of us trapped in urban jungles have likely been longing for the beauty of the wild outdoors. Even in its low-poly form, A Short Hike delivers on the experience, healing players in a way that only the feel of nature can.
If you’re a fan of “those weird Japanese games” and want to get your hands on something truly wild, it would be considerate of you to at least consider KUUKIYOMI: Consider It.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a nod to the classics. It doesn’t come packed with many of the highly useful mechanics and features that many of the newer SoS games do. But does that mean that it isn’t fun? Absolutely not. While Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral town probably isn’t something that I’d recommend to every series fan out there, its undeniable charm and simple-yet addictive gameplay should still be enough to attract its fair share of players.