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I really wanted to like this game more than I do. It looks very pretty and there's a large range of weird and wonderful weapons to collect, but sadly that's about all it has going for it. The story is dull, the combat is bland, and it just feels really repetitive. Overall, it's not a very challenging game and is unlikely to hold your attention for long.
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove feels like the sequel the creators of the original game always wanted to make. It's a follow-up to the original concept, which ended up lost in the weeds for every previous sequel attempt. It's a roguelike sort of game, but one that wants you to laugh and have fun instead of constantly dread what's around each corner. That remains distinct, even after all these years. This isn't the most elaborate or intense game in its space, but it's the happiest to be there.
That said, for the budget price, there could be room on your digital shelf for Blast Zone! Tournament. At its core, you can get mostly the same experience out of it. I don't know the reasons why you wouldn't just spring for the real thing, but I don't judge. So long as you are willing to get over the strange music and art choices, and can work around how they can adversely affect your play, you can absolutely get something from BZT.
The King's Bird has a lot of potential in both the challenging and the serene, but its tolerances for mistakes get just a little bit too tight. It wants to be two games. On the one side, there's an almost Journey-like indie with beautiful gameplay, audio, and visuals that calm the mind and soothe the soul. On the other, Serenity Forge wanted to create tough challenges that would feel like a triumph to overcome. While I was completely on board with the marriage of ideas at first, the two began to clash somewhere along the way as the trials no longer supported the gameplay. What Serenity Forge managed to do with the visuals and sound is on another level, but the loose gameplay mechanics never quite fit into how precise the challenges are designed to be. I wanted more of what The King's Bird was, and less of what it became.
Trials Rising is pure, unadulterated, arcade fun at its finest. The mechanics are simple, and indeed anyone can play. But mastering the techniques to get ever faster times can take countless hours. The extreme levels will really test players' resolve, but the payoff of finally finishing the Everest level, for instance, is worth the obstacle-filled journey. There's so much content packed into Trials Rising, it's hard to believe the game is launching at $24.99.
In a week where I had two puzzle-platformers land in my lap, Degrees of Separations comes out on the bottom. The entire time I was playing it, all I wanted to do was switch back to The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince. Especially once I hit the third world in Degrees of Separation, where puzzle solving was no longer a fun challenge, but a grueling test of my patience. I wanted to love it; the art, the soundtrack, and the story were what had my heart set on enjoying while playing this one. I hate to say it, but I'm not sure if I'll ever attempt to put all the stars back in the sky.
ChromaGun VR feels like the form the game should have launched in from the start. The campaign is only a handful of hours, which is about the same amount of time most people can handle VR in its current state. The Aim Controller works quite well in this (mostly) non-violent puzzle shooter, even if lefties have to adapt to the control scheme. Still, an undo function could've saved players from some frustration when they either misfire or accidentally use the wrong color. ChromaGun VR is a funny, occasionally challenging first-person puzzler, and one that is enhanced in VR.
Those minor problems aside, Steins;Gate Elite is definitely the best way to get into this property. It has all the charm of the anime, all the narrative excellence of the original, and a refinement that hasn't existed in either up until this point. For new fans or veterans alike, Steins;Gate Elite is well worth the pick-up, and should represent a potential starting point for future visual novels looking to make a similar impact.
The visual novel side of the game is definitely the strongest part, and it’s a shame that the RPG sections aren’t quite as engrossing.
DiRT Rally 2.0 features some positively exhilarating racing. While there aren't a ton of different modes to choose from this time around, there are plenty of courses to make up for it. The lack of real-time multiplayer may dissuade some from purchasing it, as they can't directly compete with friends, but the asynchronous challenge events provide plenty of real-world competition on a daily and weekly basis. As usual, Codemasters knows rally racing like no one else.
Metro Exodus is an entertaining post-apocalyptic shooter that isn't afraid to take chances with the series' formula. There are still occasional jump scares, resources are scarce, and often times humans are your worst enemy. The addition of large, open levels really freed up 4A Games to make a world all the more detailed and believable. A few technical issues hold the game back a bit, but they are by no means a deal breaker. Fans of the Metro series shouldn't hesitate to pick up Metro Exodus at launch, and fans of survival horror should also find plenty to like here.
Far Cry New Dawn is definitely another Far Cry game, though the changes it makes to keep everything feeling fresh are intriguing. a very light RPG touch makes much of the typically repetitive content feel new with a difficulty curve that will challenge how people play. While it can be played independently, Far Cry 5 and New Dawn together create an interesting story package featuring some great twists, turns, and betrayals of the player (even if those pesky convenient macguffins keep coming into play). Coming less than a year after 5, New Dawn does retain some of the sins of its predecessor, but it still managed to make enough new inroads to keep me hooked until the end.
I was really hopeful in the lead up to Jump Force, because I love most of these characters, and the set dressing for the concept is often very cool. The visual style was even something I thought I was getting used to as the character reveals rolled in. But once the game was in my hands, reality struck me like a Detroit Smash and what I had before me was a mess. Jump Force is ugly, janky, confusing, and far too simple. It does what other games have already done before, but with far less confidence or success. It tries to hide its misgivings behind cool special moves and motion blur, but fails at that too. It's a total swing and miss, but hopefully just a bump in the road for Shonen Jump games in the long run.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince definitely lives in a story gamer's wheelhouse, but there's plenty here to satisfy those who may not care about a story in games. But I bet you will care about this one by the time you reach the end.
When looking back at my time with the game, I don't feel horror at its revelations. I feel disappointment in light of what it could have been concealing, and simply wasn't.
Apex Legends is an expertly-crafted battle royale shooter, which is no surprise when you consider the development team behind it. It feels like the culmination of lessons learned from other games in the genre, almost as if battle royale has finally grown up. Combining the hero shooting concept of Overwatch and others before it with battle royale seems obvious, in hindsight. What isn't so obvious is that injecting Titanfall-inspired gunplay makes the package much more compelling. We are only a week into the life of Apex Legends, but the outlook is looking pretty great from where we're standing.
This is strictly for the absolute hardcore fans who have been dying to know what happens next with Cardia and her beloved. There's a strong emphasis upon the word “fans,” mind you. Filthy casuals need not apply.
Song of Memories is just such a bizarre game. It tries really hard to be different with it's sudden and drastic tonal shifts in storyline, but it's not a game that is going to be held up as one of the greats of its genre. Its sluggish early pacing, forgettable characters, and dull rhythm mini-game means that this can only really be recommended to the most die-hard of fans.
That is the quintessential fun of Hyper Jam and it allowed me to look past a few of its annoyances. Slowly ticking toward the end of the game as the 1,500 point marker draws closer and tactically choosing which power-ups and battle strategies would yield greater chances at victory became an addicting affair. The joy of winning a closely contested match by knocking an opponent out of the arena or timing a perfect block that would send their own projectile back at them is the reason that competitive games were created.
In the end, Monster Energy Supercross 2 will intrigue veterans of the series with its deeper career mode, rhythm gameplay, and authentic AMA Motocross Championship presentation. Meanwhile, casual racing fans can hop in and have a lot of fun with the easy to learn controls and compound mode, however bugs and long load times will frustrate everyone.