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I think that Trails into Reverie will delight long-time fans. Despite being the shortest title in the series so far, Reverie offers up a whole new world of possibilities for combat. Some of the set-dressing could definitely stand to be improved, however, not to mention the pacing, which does let the side down a little bit. The game is quite unavoidably bloated, and I think could have massively benefitted from shaving off a few surplus characters, but it nonetheless remains a solid addition to the Trails series. While I don’t think this title will see much success in onboarding many new players, I hope Trails into Reverie will keep its hardcore fans well fed for a long time.
In closing, both games could not be any more different to one another really, and it will depend on what you are looking for to determine which will be more worthwhile to experience for yourself. But for my money, Charade Maniacs strikes me as a game that has potential but feels distractingly and disappointingly unfinished with the two routes I have currently experienced, while Jack Jeanne’s overall polish outshines it as well as its depth being apparent from just a single playthrough.
In closing, both games could not be any more different to one another really, and it will depend on what you are looking for to determine which will be more worthwhile to experience for yourself. But for my money, Charade Maniacs strikes me as a game that has potential but feels distractingly and disappointingly unfinished with the two routes I have currently experienced, while Jack Jeanne’s overall polish outshines it as well as its depth being apparent from just a single playthrough.
This is how big-budget games should be. They should feel like they’ve had time, effort and money thrown behind them, but they should never feel like the “business” side of things is more important than the “creative” side of things. So many modern triple-A games get that completely wrong, and Final Fantasy XVI puts those titles to shame. It’s an absolutely magnificent video game, and one I hope is looked back on as a major milestone in the series.
This release is a slap in the face to Sonic enthusiasts, game collectors in general and those concerned with video game preservation, and I sincerely hope that Sega — and the gaming community — learns from this.
This minor issue aside, I feel pretty confident in saying that Pretty Girls 2048 Strike is one of the strongest entries in the Pretty Girls series to date. 2048/Threes is a solid base for a puzzle game, and Pretty Girls 2048 Strike goes the extra mile in implementing some additional mechanics atop that base to create something that has its own distinctive feel. Like the other Pretty Girls games, the production values are solid and the game plays well — so it’s a great addition to your lineup of casual games.
There are plenty of interesting and unexpected twists and turns along the way — and plenty of references and homages to established detective fiction (including Sherlock Holmes, the Pinkerton Detective Agency and Cordelia Gray) from a variety of authors. This all makes for a thoroughly compelling game that any fans of mystery stories will have a great time with — so as long as you’re on board with the visual novel-centric nature of how the narrative is delivered, this is definitely a game worth adding to your collection.
So if you’re in the mood for something that looks and feels a bit like an RPG but isn’t really, and which you can easily beat in the space of a few days at most, The Longest 5 Minutes is an eminently worthwhile use of your limited time on this Earth. Just don’t expect to come out of the experience with dry eyes; the latter moments in particular go pretty hard on the emotions!
Ginga Force really is an excellent game. With well-designed stages, an enjoyable plot with decent voice acting, fantastic music by Yousuke Yasui and plenty of gameplay variety and longevity throughout, it’s one of the best value shoot ’em ups out there, and a great complement to the other excellent titles by Qute. Highly recommended.
On the whole, then, World Tour is a very good way to enjoy Street Fighter 6, particularly if you’re someone who typically plays solo. There are aspects which could be better — the non-Metro City locations you visit as part of your “tour” feel rather underbaked, for one, since most of them are just a very small “room” you can visit rather than a full open-world environment like Metro City — but in the grand scheme of things, World Tour is a brilliant example of how to build a compelling single-player mode into a fighting game.
Tears of the Kingdom delivers on the promise made in that opening screen in 1985, giving you a huge world of almost endless possibilities to explore.
Games like this give me hope for an industry that is becoming more homogeneous and, honestly, boring.
On the whole, I feel like Resident Evil 5, although an indisputably controversial entry in the series, perhaps isn’t as “bad” as some people like to make out. As with anything else, the game is best appreciated on its own terms without allowing other people to colour your judgement — so I’d encourage anyone who is at least curious about it to try it for themselves and make their own mind up.
Ridge Racer’s drift-heavy, arcade-style handling is as wonderful as ever, bearing little to no resemblance to actual driving but being all the more enjoyable as a result. And it’s an absolute delight to be able to return to this wonderful game on the big screen without having to faff around with the dodgy image quality from the PSP’s AV cables.
Humanity is an absolutely brilliant game that any fans of Mizuguchi or Nakamura’s work should jump right on. It’s the perfect antidote to the bombast of triple-A, a wonderfully contemplative experience if you allow it to be — and simply a well-designed puzzle game with some really interesting mechanics to engage with.
To put it bluntly, I found Lover Pretend a meandering bore. Considering the many difficulties behind the scenes and the way it changed hands in terms of writers numerous times, it’s perhaps not a surprise that the story turned out as poor as it did, and equally no surprise that the title as a whole is not exactly a resounding success.
Taken on those terms, Resident Evil Revelations fits right in, making it a highly enjoyable installment in the series — and one that shouldn’t be missed out on.
TrackMania is a superb game with potentially limitless longevity, and its release on console — along with the fact that the console versions support both cross-play and importing of your progress from the PC version — means that a whole new audience will be able to enjoy this fantastic racing experience.
ust ten hours in and I am in love with Tears of the Kingdom’s grand experiment. It is chaotic and silly and easily the most fun I’ve had with a game in years. While the graphics and the story are both near copies of Breath of the Wild, it makes up for it by trusting its players to entertain themselves. It is the best implementation of the sandbox game design philosophy I have ever seen, leaving me constantly itching to find out what is over the next hill.
On the whole, Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys BreakUp! is a solid addition to the Otoko Cross series, particularly if you enjoy block-breakers. It is a shame that it doesn’t do more to distinguish itself from Pretty Girls Breakers Plus, on which it is very obviously based, but taken entirely on its own merits, it’s a good game that is an eminently worthwhile addition to your casual game collection.