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Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club takes a bit of getting into; I wouldn’t fault anyone for bouncing off it after a quick go, believing it to be shallow or unintuitive. You can level the exact same accusations at Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun — but just like that game, Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club rewards continued engagement and a concerted attempt to understand its mechanics. Mastery of what the game offers won’t come quickly, but it’s rewarding when it does — and in the meantime, the multiplayer mode is great fun, too.
Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun is tough, and compared to many modern beat ’em ups it will likely feel more than a little clunky. But take the time to get to know it and there are some satisfying fighting mechanics here — plus it’s always fun to see the genesis of what would go on to become a well-established genre, as well as the beginning of a series beloved the world over.
It’s an ultimately realistic way of looking at things — and while at first glance it might appear hopeless, eventually the true message reveals itself with clarity. Violence and killing are not the answer, because no-one is in that truly infallible position where they can reliably act as judge, jury and executioner. No-one is truly good or truly evil — and thus any attempt to rid the world of one or the other through violence is ultimately, inevitably doomed to failure.
Pretty Girls Rivers is a good time, and if you fancy another nice casual puzzler featuring pretty anime-style girls on your Switch, it’s a good addition to the lineup as a whole. Don’t expect it to last you too long — but like I say, if you do want to squeeze some additional (and surprisingly enjoyable) longevity out of it, be sure to tackle the perfect score challenge. I’ll be waiting for you atop the leaderboards!
Yamafuda! is just the thing for when you’re after a non-demanding but cute and engaging game — such as, say, when you’ve spent the last five days coughing and spluttering your way through being ill. It’s by no means going to replace the big hitters of the roguelike deckbuilder genre for anyone — but you’ll find it’s a welcome inclusion in your library when you’re just in the right mood for it.
Z-Warp is, overall, a really great game, and further proof that eastasiasoft has a good eye for modern indie shoot ’em ups that can comfortably stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some classics of the genre. It’s a strong, well put together game with some thoroughly lovely presentation, and accessible but challenging and distinctive mechanics. Definitely highly recommended.
There are quite a few possibilities that Fingun in its current form sadly doesn’t pursue — and that’s where my initial hesitance came from. But settle in, enjoy Fingun on its own terms by focusing on what it does do well rather than the things it doesn’t do, and there’s a good time to be had here. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s charming, it’s sexy — and it certainly makes me want to see more from Pixelteriyaki in the future.
The ending is arguably a little unsatisfying — it honestly feels quite like they had one ending which had a nice sense of closure, then tacked a bit on the end afterwards — but, on the whole, The Closing Shift is another excellent immersive horror game from Chilla’s Art. I’d probably go so far as to say with the solid “coffee-making” gameplay in this one, it’s one of the more immersive games from the developer’s complete collection, and the sense of atmosphere and tension throughout is absolutely magnificent.
Tandem is a thoroughly lovely game, then, and one that fans of creative puzzle adventures should absolutely have on their “to-play” list.
The first Valis is still well worth playing, make no mistake, if only from a historical perspective. But it’s a lot easier to genuinely enjoy pretty much everything about Valis III.
So yeah. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. I don’t know if anyone was actually expecting it to be good — but it turns out it is. Really good, in fact. Now I’m off to go play a bit more of it.
Valis is a good game. Yuko is an iconic character in her own right — albeit one with more of a cult following than mainstream success — and it’s always fascinating to see where a long-running series like this started off.
The characters are loveable, the mechanics are solid, the visual design is distinctive and immediately recognisable, the music is inordinately catchy and, most of all, the game comes across as having been designed with real, genuine love and affection for both the player and each and every one of its characters. There are no “generic enemies” in Gal*Gun Double Peace; every single character has their own name, personality and sense of identity, and gradually getting to know them all is a real pleasure.
At heart, Wife Quest isn’t doing anything especially new or remarkable — but what it does provide is a really solidly implemented Wonder Boy-style platformer. For those in the mood for that sort of thing, it’s definitely a worthy investment — particularly if you have a thing for angry flat-chested heroines and/or monster girls. Because this game has both of those things in absolute abundance.
It’s more accessible than the hardcore racing sims available on PC, but offers more depth, complexity and realism than your average arcade racer. And, more than anything, it serves as a potent reminder that when Sony lets its Japanese teams actually make games, they most certainly come up with the goods. It’s just a shame that doesn’t seem to happen all that often these days…
Demonizer really is a wonderful game. It looks great, sounds lovely and plays wonderfully with some simple to understand but tricky to master mechanics. Its emphasis on conflict between humanoid-sized opponents makes for a pleasingly different feel to many other shoot ’em ups out there, and the feeling of gathering allies to fight alongside you as you progress is consistently enjoyable and satisfying. Plus the range of difficulty levels makes it as accessible or challenging as you want it to be.
I’d say give this one a miss for now, then — and here’s hoping that any other developers hoping to successfully make the jump from free-to-play mobile game to paid standalone game learn from the lessons that this title has to teach!
To say too much more about Potato Flowers in Full Bloom would be to spoil the joy of discovery that you’ll constantly feel while exploring its labyrinths, so we’ll leave it at that. Suffice to say for now, though, that if you’re a fan of the dungeon crawler genre and want to try a game that does things quite markedly differently from the norm, Potato Flowers in Full Bloom should absolutely be in your collection. It really is a remarkable game — and I worry that as a digital-only title released not long after some of the biggest games of the year, it will be completely overlooked. And that would be absolutely criminal.
It takes a while to reach that true ending — my playtime was just shy of 3 hours by the time I’d seen pretty much every possible conclusion and event in the game, including the optional ones — but when it’s all over you won’t be sorry you spent that time helping out Lily. She really is a good girl.
This idiosyncrasy aside — it’s something you’ll just have to adjust to — Gley Lancer is a fantastic shoot ’em up, and Ratalaika Games have done an exemplary job with this port. Not only is it a fantastic, authentic-feeling way to enjoy a Mega Drive classic, but it’s also a thoroughly accessible means to do so, with its optional modernisations feeling fresh and well-implemented, but remaining optional for those who prefer to enjoy it how they knew it back in the day.