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Greak: Memories of Azur is one of the most beautiful games I’ve played this year but the rest of it doesn’t match the visual quality. Having to control three characters at once leads to a lot of frustrating moments even though at other times It seems to work well. If you’re a fan of Metroidvania games I do recommend checking it out at some point if only to see this gorgeous world.
Cotton Reboot! revives the 90s cute ‘em up with a nice lick of HD paint but the steep price for the short amount of content can be hard to recommend. The new visual style can also make things hard to see when on-screen action gets busy which ends up leading to some cheap deaths. If you catch this one on sale though and enjoy shoot ‘em ups, being able to play the original version and the new HD one is worth it for fans of this genre.
Within the Blade is a solid stealth-action platformer with challenging gameplay that might bring back memories of Ninja Gaiden. It’s got a good amount of content to play through and plenty of challenge for those who like that in their games. The downsides are that the challenge may turn some away, the controls have a learning curve, the visuals get a little repetitive, and some of the systems like the crafting don’t feel thought out enough. I still enjoyed my time with it though and for the affordable price I recommend it to those who enjoy the genre.
Papa’s Quiz aims to be a quirky and fun trivia game, but fails to set the right tone. While it has some good ideas like player customisation and letting up to 8 people join in, the slow pace and frankly awful voice acting only succeeded in making it feel awkward.
Beat Souls is a Japanese rhythm game that sadly fails in the most important aspects of the genre: it’s lacking rhythm, isn’t all that fun, has a poor tracklist and the visual overkill makes you cry rainbow-coloured tears (but not in a good way)
Omno is a gorgeous and serene journey that succeeded in the rarest of achievements: it managed to make me feel relaxed. Completing each area in the game left me with a sense of accomplishment and the wholesome interactions with the world and its inhabitants will linger for some time to come. Wholly recommended!
The Forgotten City has successfully broken free from just being a Skyrim mod and came out as one of the sleeper hits of 2021. The time loop story is so interesting and full of interesting topics and characters that I just couldn’t stop thinking about while playing. It’s got some rough edges but fans of great storytelling and solving mysteries will not want to miss this one.
Blightbound has flashes of fun within it but could’ve used more time in early access before launching in full. When I got to play with two actual other people online, I quite enjoyed taking down the enemies and bosses in these dungeons, at least for a time. The game has a great look to it but so much more can be done to improve it. It needs better bot AI, better loot that encourages you to want to keep playing, more compelling dungeons, and better optimization. For right now I would be hesitant to recommend it to those looking for a good dungeon crawler as there are many other better options available out there.
Night Book is an interactive occult thriller with a very interesting set-up (interpreter gets tricked into reading ancient curse) but the mediocre acting manages to break the immersion too often.
Metaloid: Origin draws a lot of inspiration from Mega Man but misses the mark on matching that franchise in a few areas. My biggest issue with it is that the visuals mess with the gameplay a bit and lead to you taking damage or dying which feels unfair. What it does get right though is that it generally plays well and gives you three unique characters to play as which leads to you having a reason to replay it. If you’re looking for a cheap Mega Man knock off there is fun to be had here, just don’t expect an easy Platinum this time.
Lost at Sea is a narrative adventure about coming to terms with your life and has a meaningful story to tell, but it fails to deliver anything new to the genre. The shadows chasing you actively hinder the enjoyment of what could have been a nice experience.
Hentai vs. Evil is pretty tame for an M-rated game (especially on PlayStation) but it has some solid third-person shooting gameplay. Everything here works well enough the problem is that there just isn’t much to it. With only a few levels and a few weapon types to use it quickly runs out of steam. It isn’t a pricey game though so if you want an easy Platinum or just want to blast some demons as a girl in a sexy outfit then feel free to check it out.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! starts a bit slow but quickly establishes itself after that as a must-play visual novel. Everything starts all cute and fun but when the dark side of these girls starts coming out, you’ll want to keep playing until the end to see what happens. The game touches on a lot of dark subject matter and it is very much a pure visual novel experience so if you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy those things then this won’t be the game for you. For those who do enjoy this genre you’ll get a multi-hour long experience that will stay with you long after the conclusion.
Rebellion and Just Add Water took awhile to deliver Sniper Elite VR to us but the wait was well worth it. The franchise has successfully made the leap into virtual reality and makes you feel like you are a deadly sniper more than ever. The campaign is a decent length and things like scoring and online leaderboards encourage you to replay missions. Further, all of the control options on PlayStation VR work well although the Aim controller followed by the Move controllers are the way to go in my opinion. If you want to shoot some nazis in the testicles in VR then you can do no wrong by picking up Sniper Elite VR.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World remasters a classic game for a new generation to experience and it’s a great one to check out. The visuals and soundtrack are wonderful and Asha and her companion Pepelogoo are very charming. It can come across as a little simple if you’re well experienced with platformers and some of the puzzle design is outdated and annoying. Despite those things I recommend it to fans of side-scrolling platformers as I think you’ll have a good time with it.
Watch Dogs Legion Bloodline is a fantastic story expansion that delivers thrills, laughs and a fresh way to experience the futuristic London setting, which remains the true star of the show. This one shouldn’t be missed, especially for fans of the series who’ve been hungering for a reunion with some old friends.
Destroy All Humans on the Nintendo Switch isn’t the best remake of an older game that we’ve seen but it’s still a solid one. As someone who spent a lot of time with Crypto-137 back in the day I was happy to jump back into his boots and terrorize humanity once again. Some parts of the game like the mission design and the audio do show their age but improvements to controls and graphics make for a better experience over the original version. The Switch version doesn’t do this remake justice though and if terrorizing humanity on the go isn’t that important to you then I’d recommend playing it on any other platform.
Scarlet Nexus is the first Brain Punk game I’ve played and after how much I enjoyed it I’m eagerly hoping for more. The combat is the real highlight here for me as the sheer number of things you can do to tear up the Others is impressive. The story, while tropey at times, is still enjoyable with plenty of likeable characters, big plot points, and two different sides that make playing through it twice essential. If you’re a fan of anime games or action-RPGs in general I highly recommend Scarlet Nexus be next on your to-play list.
FF7R Episode Intermission is a perfect content drop to tide people over for the long wait until part 2 will release. It shows us some of the events from the main game from a different perspective, let’s us play with a completely new combat style, has plenty of side content to keep busy with and even teases some major things for the sequel. I’ve really only got one complaint and that’s that I wish it lasted longer and had a bit more story content.
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is a great package that any fan of action games will enjoy. Ryu Hayabusa still stands as one of the most memorable and bad ass video game protagonists even all these years later. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is the best one in this package in my opinion but all three are worth experiencing. Mastering the combat and Ryu’s moveset is so rewarding and you’ll easily get hours and hours of enjoyment out of this. Hopefully this collection will bring in plenty of new fans so that Team Ninja will give Ryu Hayabusa some new work soon.