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While Friday the 13th will always hold a special place inside my heart, I think it’s time to stop mourning and move on, because Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a complete success. It’s a varied and surprisingly deep character roster, each character with their own niche to fill and progression paths to follow, coupled with excellent map design and variety, position Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a title that will absolutely become my new asymmetrical go-to. While I do have some concerns around balance, and the huge grinds that the progression systems represent may not be for me, those are relatively minor blemishes on what is an otherwise fantastic package at launch. It’s authentic, bloody, and terrifying – quite frankly, it’s everything that I wanted the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be. Now, if you don’t mind me, I’m just about ready to get back to spilling some guts.
Quake II is the new King of remasters. Proving that with a fresh coat of paint, some of the 90s’ best games can still hold up brilliantly today, Quake II is the best shooter I’ve played in years. Its visceral action is far more satisfying than the vast majority of shooters that release today, and modern improvements have helped sand away some of the rougher edges of its era. Whether you spent hours enjoying this one 25 years ago or you’ve never touched it before, you should absolutely make sure to check out the year’s best bargain.
Venba is ultimately over quite soon, but I’d rather have a beautiful but small experience that will stay with me than one that lingers too long and wears out its welcome. There are a few parts of its story that could perhaps have been explored with more depth, but its story comes together to span a generation in the blink of an eye and leave players feeling satisfied with the experience. This is a game well worth experiencing, which even the busiest players should be able to fit into a free evening.
It feels like at some point in development Nao Games decided that Ninja or Die needed more. More to do, more complexity, more than the simple gameplay which makes up its core. That’s a shame because the core of Ninja or Die is its biggest strength, at least when it works. It just needs to work more consistently. There’s definite potential in its core, and I’d be curious to check out an update or follow-up to see if that core could be refined, but the game as it exists today is hard to recommend as more than a curiosity.
A nice look and decent pacing aren’t enough for me to recommend a game to pretty much anyone, though. I came in really wanting to like Lifeless Moon, but pretty much everything I enjoyed about it I could see in the screenshots and trailer. There are too many good puzzle games out there nowadays to spend time on one which has so little going for it.
At the end of the day, though, that’s not the vision the developers had for Adore and that’s fine, as what they have produced is a damn fine spin on the monster taming genre all the same. Look past the repetition, and you’ll find that early simplicity was a complete red herring, as the complexities of team synergy, hidden passives, and the real-time combat suck you in. The core of what’s here is excellent, and while the narrow scope of the moment-to-moment gameplay loops may feel a little limiting, they allow the excellent core combat and surprising depth to shine through. If, like me, you were a little tired of the genre rehashing the same formula for what feels like forever, then Adore, while not without its flaws, will likely feel like a total breath of fresh air.
Slime Girl Smoothies is an engaging, sometimes sexy puzzle excursion from eastasiasoft. While I was initially perplexed to discover it’s not a match-3, I grew to enjoy the puzzle mechanics. It features an eclectic group of rather horny slime girls to interact with, and a few modes to keep things fresh. Despite all that, it’s held back by some translation issues, long load times and some confusing UI issues. But if you can look past that, it’s a solid puzzle experience for mature gamers.
Remnant 2 captures that sense of wonder and mystery that drives the feeling of exploration; the kind that awards players who sink their teeth into the world around them. It feels like I’m always spotting something new, even after resetting the worlds, and I cannot emphasize enough what a great gameplay loop it provides. Sure, not every boss is fun, and there’s plenty I straight-up hate, and yet I keep on coming back for more. There are so many builds you can mess with, so many weird and wild guns, and a very solid blend of RPG elements and roguelite elements. The gunplay feels great, and while the difficulty can be challenging, you’re given more than enough tools to conquer these randomized worlds. With so much to explore, Remnant 2 will have you rooted in your seat for many hours to come.
I really want to emphasize that no matter what score I give, respect should be given to any developer striking it out solo, with Alex being no exception. The visuals are damn good-looking for an indie effort, and the core gameplay is shockingly solid for being a blend of FTL and XCOM. I see so much room for a game like this to grow and develop, and I’d even go as far as to say I’d gladly go another round if there were a few fixes for the lack of checkpoints, laggy ship transitions, and a bit more depth added to the gameplay. Sadly, Space Cats Tactics in its current form doesn’t stray much farther from general tactics roots, and the characters, while cute for the first few minutes, don’t evolve much more from there, either. If you can work around that and some rather irksome bugs and glitches, I really do encourage giving this a run for being something rather unique in its field, if not to give some support to a solo dev that really has passion put in his project.
I honestly had a great time playing Mr. Run and Jump. There’s a variety of fun mechanics, solid platforming, and distinct challenge. That said, the challenge may be too much for some folks, and I even considered throwing my controller aside in frustration several times. If you can push through the difficulty, there’s a ton of replay value and a surprisingly humorous adventure to enjoy—a great effort from Atari, Graphite Lab, and Heavy Horse Games.
The first episode of The Expanse: A Telltale Series captures what’s great about both The Expanse and Telltale games. That’s the sort of synergy behind the studios’ best games of old, and it leaves me excited that their return could end up as one of their stronger efforts. Despite some concerns about the more action-oriented gameplay late in this episode, I’m certainly excited to see where things go next.
As far as rail shooters go, Operation Wolf: First Mission VR is fun but forgettable. Developer VIRTUALLYZ Gaming undoubtedly deserves credit for capturing the feel and flow of the classic shooter series, but tedious boss battles, occasionally cumbersome controls, and an overall lack of polish keep it from ever reaching its full potential. If you’re a die-hard veteran of the series looking to scratch your itchy trigger finger, you’ll probably find a few hours’ worth of enjoyment here, but new recruits will likely want to wait for a sale before enlisting.
Despite these minor grievances, if Double Dragon IV left a bitter taste in your mouth and you’ve been waiting for the franchise to return to its former glory, it’s time to celebrate because the Lee boys are back and fighting fit. With its furious fisticuffs and a wealth of smart evolutions to the series’ established formula, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a must-play for fans of the beat-’em-up genre.
I really enjoy the story, look, and feel of Arcadian Atlas. While its core gameplay isn’t breaking any new ground, and its UI is poorly designed, it could be a solid choice for those who are nostalgic for the 32-bit era of strategy RPGs. I quickly learned to work around most of my issues with it to the point where they were more minor annoyances than significant issues. Until its significant performance issues are ironed out though, it’s hard to recommend for even the biggest fans of the genre. The game underneath has its strengths, but it’s certainly not good enough to be worth putting up with them.
I have similar sentiments when looking at Sword and Fairy Inn 2 as a whole – inoffensive yet uninspired and, unfortunately, boring. From the sloppy localization to the almost complete lack of direct player input that players have come to expect in things such as farming and cooking, it feels a little soulless. There is some satisfaction to be found in watching your tiny business grow into something more substantial, but the fact that you never really do anything to facilitate that growth beyond clicking through menus makes it all feel a touch impersonal. What’s more, is that the Switch is a console already drowning in quality cozy games that already let you live out the virtual life of your dreams, and on that basis alone, Sword and Fairy Inn 2 is a difficult product to recommend.
From the very beginning until reaching the postgame, I never had anything less than a blast with Pikmin 4. While we may have waited a long time for the latest installment in this wonderful series, the wait was worth it. With several cool new types of Pikmin, an excellent new canine companion, and more variety than ever, this is easily the best installment in the series. It won’t necessarily change the minds of anyone who has bounced off past games in the series, but if you’ve remotely enjoyed any of the games or are new to Pikmin you should absolutely give Pikmin 4 a try.
While it is on the short side, what Viewfinder does is remind us that there are still universes of awesome new mechanics and concepts for gaming to explore. The ability to drop a 2D photo’s physical contents into any 3D space at any time and have it work flawlessly is something you have to experience yourself to understand. With gently ambient music, soothingly warm visuals, and a brief but thoroughly worthwhile story, you’ll be effortlessly absorbed into its magical world. Viewfinder has such a unique, well-executed premise, it takes the whole puzzle genre into the darkroom and develops it into something wonderfully new.
And that’s perhaps the keyword I’d use to describe the package as a whole – fun. Evil Wizard, while not doing anything to reinvent the genre, is just a fun, damn time. Once the writing finds its feet after a shaky opening hour, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to be had, and the combat, while not especially deep, is polished and engaging. In a year where we are absolutely drowning in big-budget affairs that allow us to live out our heroic fantasies in spectacular fashion, it was a joy to take a slight detour and spend a few hours in the company of vitriolic little Wizard who hates the world and everyone around him.
Sometimes games hold up, and this is one of them. Though I absolutely loved the original, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Definitive Edition brings a classic game to exhilarating modern life. Not only does it feature complex and nuanced strategic gameplay, but has an engaging story and tons of replay value. My only small complaint is I wanted to spend even more time in this world, and would have loved some sort of endless rogue mode. But that said, even if you never heard of the original, all strategy fans still owe it to themselves to check out this amazing adventure.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a lot of games quite like Invector: Rhythm Galaxy, and this is the kind of dopamine injection I feel the genre was in need of for a while. The feel of sweeping across alien landscapes with some sick tunes in the backdrop while handling fast and furious rhythm action all flows so well together… once you get the hang of doing it. If you’ve dived into ship-based rhythm romps like Audiosurf and Amplitude, you’ll be happy to know that Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is right up that same alley, and is absolutely just as much of a blast to play, doing exactly what these types of music/rhythm games do best.