Chalgyr's Game Room
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Unfortunately Bounty Battle is a series of missed opportunities almost destined to be a candidate for our site's yearly awards – but not one of the good ones. Horribly unresponsive controls, shallow move sets and game modes and a clunky presentation all squander the goodwill that comes from bringing together so many awesome indie characters from across numerous other video games.
Everything about Deer Hunter: Reloaded feels like a mockery of hunting and gamers that happen to enjoy hunting. From the horrific animations to pointless single-track mobility to the fact that you can simply game the system by fast traveling between areas to refresh their animals. Though it may be something of a port of the mobile Deer Hunter, what we have on Xbox One is a mess of bad animations, unrealistic bullet physics, and a near-identical acquisition yet horrific attempt at Rebellion's signature X-Ray slow motion Kill Cam is laughably bad. If you truly despise someone, Deer Hunter: Reloaded would be the perfect gift to give them.
Crystal Rift if not a complete bust. Some of the puzzles are interesting, they found an interesting atmosphere and it is a genre I would love to see gain more representation in general - but especially in virtual reality. Psytec Games Ltd has some decent ideas here, but in the end the execution just lacks polish. Normally a game like this would get some marks for 'old school nostalgia', but once you strip off the VR gimmic, you see Crystal Rift for what it really is: a very basic, uninspiring RPG.
To be honest, I racked my brain to TRY and find something positive to say about this game. I can’t begin to imagine how much work goes into creating and executing a video game, and I don’t WANT to shit all over someone’s art. However, I also just can’t bring myself to promote something that is so irresponsible. What Happened had the potential to be an important commentary on mental illness, personal struggle, and hopelessness. Instead, it was a hopeless mess.
Despite being "horror-themed", I was honestly laughing way more than anything during the game. The fish-head villain isn't particularly scary, just kinda dumb looking, the characters and their motivations are either shallow or unexplained, the interface was occasionally extremely aggravating, and some of the puzzles can be extremely unintuitive, given a certain mindset. Honestly, I've seen better "escape" style games for free on my phone, and even the paid ones are better and cheaper. I really can't recommend this game unless you're in dire need of an escape game that isn't for your phone.
Summary Ultimately this feels like something you would find off of Newgrounds a few years ago, just a little longer than normal. As a game, it certainly functions, although not particularly well or with much depth. Did I have fun? Surprisingly yes. I've played worse. I've played a lot worse. Unfortunately, that doesn't particularly allow me to call this "good". It functions as a game, and it accomplished the main reason for existing, but it doesn't swing too much in any other direction, whether good or bad.
If you’re using your switch as a mobile or handheld device, I can definitely see picking up Into the Dead 2 as a quick game while you’re on public transit, or perhaps between classes, but it definitely isn’t something I would pick up as a “console” title. Considering it’s also free to play, although at reduced content, on mobile, you may want to reconsider the platform that you’re looking to play this on.
Honestly? As excited as I was to get my hands on Fimbul as Norse mythology is a great one, and pretty hot right now between the Thor movies, The Iron Druid novels and the newest God of War, Fimbul, the winter before Ragnarok, will not be making its way to the halls of Valhalla. It really should have gone through much more testing and refinement because it has the elements to be a great title, but the execution and the approach taken is just not there.
The boss battles help to alleviate the repetition and there are some secret ones that can be unlocked if you meet particular criteria that serve as the primary reason to replay levels. Admittedly, some of these were pretty cool and gave me a nice sense of satisfaction when they occurred, but at the end of the day Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan is little more than a visually stylized button masher with little of the heart that has made the Turtles so enduring over the years. I love most of the titles that PlatinumGames produces, but TMNT is a rare miss for the developer.
Ultimately, XEL currently has way too many issues for me to seriously consider suggesting it, which is a shame considering the promise it shows. While updates are being made, at the moment it can be an absolute struggle to get through, and even when it isn’t, the little things start wearing on you pretty fast. I highly suggest to wait at least a month for some fixes to the issues before you consider picking up XEL. I really hope the issues get resolved and the developers continue making games, because I’d really like to see more refined titles from them.
Who wants to be a millionaire although fun in short bursts it just doesn't seem to be worth the price of the game at $29.99 for a physical copy of the game. There just isn't enough there and some things are done so badly like the voiceover and having to skip over most of the game due to the lines the characters say being so dumb. It's more fun just to play along while watching the real show on TV. We will have to wait and see if the one vs 99 online modes will be any good but my guess is most games won't even reach 100 players. One of the only things they got right was music. It's all from the tv show and plays at the right times as it should.
So overall, I would have a hard time recommending The Skylia Prophecy to anyone who's not seriously up for a major and almost hardcore challenge. The core mechanics are stiff, certain ways forward can take you to your grave in literally one shot if you're not lucky when doing what you need to, and the ways forward are often blocked off due to a lack of mana giving you no other option than reloading and doing it over again as there's no way back. It's really unfortunate because I had high hopes for this retro Castlevania inspired title.
So, how does Taxi Chaos stack up? Well, it's definitely not going to make you go praise it out on the streets. It was certainly fun for a period of time, that period being about an hour, after which it loses its novelty. I never really played Crazy Taxi as kid, but Taxi Chaos doesn't really instill in me a desire to play Crazy Taxi. Taxi Chaos isn't very chaotic, but there are taxis. There is a bit of personality in the interactions your chosen cabbie has with the passengers, but these get reused so quick you'll know them by heart after about twenty minutes. There isn't nearly enough draw for the game to really warrant much attention. Yeah, I might have had fun with it for about 15 to 20 minutes, but it isn't something I would suggest for anyone looking to really invest themselves in.
So unfortunately, there is a lot here that can't be overlooked. Even with version 1.02 having fixed some issues that were much more prominent in version 1.00, between some of the design decisions and just the sheer amount of crashes that I've had post launch date on two separate XB1 units... I really wanted to love Tears of Avia being a huge SRPG fan, but unfortunately between the issues and just the overall drop after the introduction, I unfortunately couldn't.
Overall, while I'm actually quite a big fan of the series in general, there is hardly any way I can really justify suggesting this game to anyone given the lack of polish, content, and effective gameplay given the price. Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in the Dungeon? Familia Myth Infinite Combate is a huge disappointment, and unless it drops to five or ten bucks on sale, I wouldn't consider it.
VR Ping Pong Pro has a solid enough presentation and gets more right than wrong in just about every area but the one that matters the most - the actual gameplay, which misses the mark worse than one of my real life volley attempts. That unfortunately holds back what could have been a good game from reaching its full potential.
Hoo boy, where to begin with School Girl/Zombie Hunter. I suppose I should start off by mentioning that it’s like some weird cross between Resident Evil and Onechanbara, as weird as that may sound. While I have no doubt the developers set out to do…something, it feels as if they stuck their hands in too many pies, while not really committing to any of them. It has all the bases to be: a fan service game, story driven, an action game, or a comedic parody, yet I found it to never really settle on any of the options it had going for it. Oddly enough, the game isn’t really “bad” per se, more of a weird genre limbo type deal.
I have long been a fan of the brawling action genre, and Samurai Riot does a nice job of channeling some of the old school nostalgia with some pleasant enough art. However, this throwback to the buddy beat-'em-up genre really never does anything to distinguish itself from other games in the genre, making it a relatively fun if pretty average title in the end.
Elex is a fascinating attempt to blend the likes of an open world RPG with the ideas that so brilliantly make the Soul’s series combat what it is. Shot down from the sky by one of his own, Jax sets out for revenge with nothing more than a bent pipe in the post meteor struck world of Magalan.
Double Dragon IV clings to its retro inspirations just a little too tightly. Fans of the old 8-bit titles will likely enjoy their romp here for what it is, but Arc System Works could have taken some more chances and delivered a brawler that had more to offer. Instead we get a fighting game that is simply average, despite my deep nostalgia for the series.