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I can't say The Swords of Ditto is a flawless experience. But I can say that the combat, progression, aesthetic, and couch co-op combine to create something wholly unique and engaging, to the point where I will gladly continue to play long after review, with the hope that future patches may resolve my complaints. The love and attention to detail that went into its conception is apparent and permeates to the player. There's a lot going on here; a burst of emotion and detail pour out of the experience. Yet somehow, the game remains simple and elegant. The road ahead may be filled with death and sadness, but the kazoos and cartoons keep rolling, making every play session of The Swords of Ditto a real treat.
This doesn't mean that all is lost for lone adventurers, however. With a debt being owed to Castle Crashers and Adventure Time in terms of both humor and visual style, The Adventure Pals has enough going on to keep you interested during the slightly more repetitive sections of play. Had it packed more of a challenge – even if it was optional – The Adventure Pals would be running close to the front of the indie platforming pack. Though the final product doesn't quite get there, it's still plenty enjoyable, especially in co-op.
PlayStation 4 owners certainly got the best deal out of the ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ collection, as the Future Blessings title is tacked on, price-wise, as DLC. Vita owners, I am so sorry that each costs $39.99, and you don't have access to this collection. The combined duo is certainly the best way to go, even for die-hard otome fans. As sweet as the romances are, there simply isn't enough in Future Blessings to warrant an additional purchase. Fortunately, PS4 players have ~Bouquet of Rainbows~ to see all of these romances through to the end, and despite the glaring typos, jumps in logic, and overly simple gameplay, it's worth it to press X to get to the various conclusions.
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is another hilarious creation by Justin Roiland and Owlchemy Labs. It brings the world, characters, and humor of Rick and Morty to life in a way that you simply can't experience outside of VR. It's relatively short length is easy enough to complete in a single VR sitting, but aside from Easter eggs for hardcore fans and difficult challenges for completionists (good luck with the battery), there aren't a lot of reasons to jump back in to play it again once Rick and Morty vanish through that portal for the last time. Virtual Rick-ality is for those who love Justin Roiland's style of humor. Others might find some moderately intriguing puzzles and fun object interactions, but the humor and licensed content are the central constructs that really justify the purchase.
It's not the dated graphics. It's not the inexplicably long loading screens. It's not even the fact the hammy voice acting, or the fact that the game has a pretty steep price point considering what it has to offer. The main thing that stands out in Beast Quest is the lost potential of what it could have been: a rich, engaging RPG about a young knight finding his feet in a magical world. It wouldn't have reinvented the wheel, but it could have at least tried to give us something more to work with than the bare bones of a game from the 2000s.
God of War is an epic reboot of an epic franchise. The evolution of Kratos could have gone horribly wrong. Instead, Santa Monica Studio has given the franchise the treatment it deserves. This new narrative tone has heart, and serves to make Kratos much more relatable in his new role as protector, while remaining as brutal as past installments. Reworked and improved combat options make for an enjoyable and customizable experience, and phenomenal audiovisual performance ensures that each trip to the mythical lands before the Vikings is a wonderfully grisly experience. God of War is a must-buy experience well worth the wait.
Super Daryl Deluxe could be something really special if it was better curated, but there's simply too much fluff for it to be at its best. Developers need to remember that sometimes less is more, and that it's better to leave players wanting more rather than wanting to bounce before the credits roll. There are some great ideas here, and some really funny writing, but the good moments are all surrounded by a bunch of middling ones.
It's frustrating that Gal*Gun 2 is obsessed with sex as a plot point, mechanic, and motivator, in spite of everything else it has going for it.
Once you get used to the gameplay loop after the first few missions, different types of Jackals and Titans that sport progressively tougher armor begin to be introduced, but it turns into a bit of a chore after a while. Extinction is just too simple of a game to justify its price tag and didn't hold my interest for the entirety of the campaign or its side activities—which include time trials, your everyday horde mode, and basic multiplayer functionality. It just seems like a project that is too big, yet too small, for the developers at Iron Galaxy, and the times when it does all click together are few and far in between.
There's a lot to like about the approach that's been taken with Regalia. The developers have taken a good story premise and weaved it into a game involving world building, classic text adventures, dungeon crawling, crafting, and social bond-building, as well as all the other fripperies you'd expect to find outside of the field of battle. The problem is that none of those strands are as fully formed as they'd need to be to be able to call the game a real success in any one area.
While these things keep the game from being perfect, however, they don't stop it from being great. Owlboy is a must-play platformer for fans of the genre and of gaming's history in general. It's also a truly wonderful revelation on the PS4, feeling right at home on the console in a way that made me briefly forget at times that the game was a port. Come for the charming art or the offer of some quick hits of nostalgia, but stay for the sublime storytelling and fluid gameplay.
Crisis on the Planet of the Apes shows VR players what it means to be an ape, not only putting them in the role of the fur covered creatures, but also requiring that they move and act like one too. By the end, I felt sufficiently ape-like. Crisis accomplished its goal of immersing me in the role, even if some of the more brilliant ape interactions were one-off moments rather than regularly used mechanics. Sadly, this brilliant immersion is hampered by dull environments, enemy encounters that become boring, and a fairly weak story that requires the films in order to mean much. Even then, the duration of the hour-long experience can be summed up simply by saying “ape escape.” Crisis on the Planet of the Apes creates some interesting new ideas for virtual reality, but it ends up tripping over its own big monkey feet along the way.
Masters of Anima is for those who love to multitask. Ordering various groups of guardians to attack multiple groups of enemies while also moving around, dodging attacks and performing combos can make for a very hectic game. But for those who live for the thrill of a job well done amidst a bunch of chaos, Masters of Anima was made for them. The rest of us will have to suffer through some agonizing deaths on a painful path to better skills before this game really opens up. Appearances can be deceiving, and Master of Anima is certainly a prime example of this phrase.
Infernium attempts to pay homage to older games, and mostly leaves the player alone to discover the world on their own. Problem is, many of the connections between levels only make sense to the developer, and while the game's scares may cause a good jump or two, they are easy to see coming after the first few times. Permadeath is a mechanic few games use these days, but when dying in a game is this agonizing involving multiple loading screens, the player may almost welcome obtaining a game over since it's the last time they'll see that purgatory.
Island Time VR is a delightful escape to a remote tropical island, but this isn't LOST. The secrets of this tiny plot of land can be figured out all too quickly, and there's not enough of an element of random chance to retain interest in repeated playthroughs.
Minit is pure fun from beginning to end, and it's too short for its own good.
Bridge Constructor Stunts is a mobile game that's been ported to just about every platform under the sun. Its 2018 PS4 release is little more than a big screen version of the freemium game that came out on iOS back in 2015. There's an element of fun here, but it's hardly the type of game people bought their PS4s to play. If you've got an inkling of interest in the Bridge Constructor series, might I recommend trying the series for free on mobile, or even the far superior Bridge Constructor Portal? Bridge Constructor Stunts for PS4 just ends up landing on its head.
It's really too bad that MLB The Show 18 launched in its current state. Nearly everything about the game, from how it handles difficulty to making sure every part of baseball feels dynamic, is handled brilliantly and is the result of years of hard work coming together. That amount of polish makes it all the more jarring that Sony has failed to get the online working right after so many iterations of this yearly series. It very well might be the best baseball game ever made, but it has to come with a huge asterisk at the moment.
I started The Raven Remastered with a bit of a soured opinion. Here was this game I had never heard of getting a remaster, it looks like an original Pixar attempt at making human features, and the dialogue is cheesier than the Power Rangers reruns my sons enjoy. I'm so glad I didn't rely upon first impressions, because like Constable Zellner, the game is deeper than it looks and has a story that will keep players guessing. I couldn't ask for much more in a great whodunnit.
The best similitude I can make regarding the remastered version of Titan Quest is that of a game that attempts to sneak into an era that has long passed it by. While a minimal amount of enjoyment can be had listening to the wayfarers and tradesmen across the many worlds that the hero visits, there are too many problems that stem from the game's now ancient design. While titles like Shadow of the Colossus can confidently hold their own in a decade that they were not intended for, it may be a bittersweet sign of the swift progression in the industry that most titles are just not good enough anymore.