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At £7.19, Metropolis: Lux Obscura is affordable enough to land a quick fix should you desperately need one, although in comparison to the average mobile match-three puzzler it stands highly overpriced.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is yet another solid port by the people over at Panic Button and it really is excellent what they are doing. It allows Nintendo gamers to experience these types of games which have, in truth, been missing for such a long time.
Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition is a different experience to many of the offerings that the Nintendo eShop has to offer.
Donkey Kong is a true landmark in video game history and to some, that reason alone may be enough to check out this arcade classic. Sure the game is starting to show its age but with competitive leaderboards and a number of options and versions to try out, this is easily the best way to experience Donkey Kong.
Once you’re in a groove, you can spend hours chasing the perfect playthrough, combining items and spells and tackling the dungeons. Handily, the game keeps track of how many runs you’ve attempted, which, when you reach triple digits, is a lovely metric for how addictive the game can be.
Your quest to help Dusty bring peace to the mind again is memorable, even if the adventure is an uneven one. It’s a journey that’s ridden with cringeworthy puns, but made all the more worthwhile thanks to the way that Dusty and Piper bounce off one another and take comfort in the silliness of it all.
Shift Quantum makes clever use of its Shifting mechanic, truly testing your ability to analyse and break down each puzzle within its dark, dystopian world. Some may find the difficulty a little off-putting but for those hungry for the challenge, a one hundred-plus puzzle campaign and user-created content should more than satisfy those needs.
All in all, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is a great 2D fighter that has plenty of depth with easy to learn mechanics. Believe it or not, the simple five button input system is intuitive enough when using a single Joy-Con for some quick on the go rivalry.
As a vehicle for story, The Final Station is a tremendous effort which keeps you wondering as you piece together the snippets of story and while the combat and exploration suffices, it doesn’t live up to the narrative the developers deliver.
Take a moment to step back and appreciate Battle Chasers: Nightwar as a whole, and, looking beyond the game’s clear inspirations, it strikes out with enough of its own identity to deliver a stirring and memorable adventure.
Drawful 2 is a safe but fun sequel that adds in just enough new features for even those that have played the original. Gather a group of friends and Drawful 2 is an absolute blast and thanks to the addition of user-created content there’s no end to the drawing antics you’ll get up to.
Mario Tennis Aces may well feature the best mechanics the series has seen to date, its new Zone manoeuvres and Trick Shots adding an exciting, madcap layer of depth to the sport. While Adventure isn’t the big single player hook I’d have hoped and some options feel a little too stripped down, it’s the game’s multiplayer that will keep this title a firm favourite for months to come. Golf next please Camelot!
I have to say, I enjoyed Death Road To Canada much more than I ever thought I would, which is bad on my part. It isn’t meant to be played as some epic journey that you play for hours at a time and that’s not a bad thing. Every run in the game is different, meaning that it doesn’t get as tedious or tiresome as other games that require you to start over from scratch when you die.
The puzzle game soon adds the idea of Ming fighting a boss, even though up to now the enemies have been largely passive – touching them kills Ming, but that’s all. Now you have to move nodes around the areas, while keeping an eye on the boss movement, often dying in order to have a little extra time to move the nodes to a new place on the next go around. It’s baggage the game really doesn’t need and the inclusion of something that relies on precision movement with a clumsy transport system designed primarily for puzzles, is a massive hole in an otherwise clever premise.
Just Shapes and Beats is gaming filtered into its purest form. While E3 may have treated us to immense cinematics, bigger worlds and even bigger promises, it’s great to be reminded that not every video game needs to be this. Sometimes it’s enough to just be able to sit down, pick up a controller and play.
Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated is little more than a title you’d buy on sale for a couple of pounds, play for five minutes and forget it exists.
West of Loathing is a game you pick up for ten minutes and put down four hours later because you were lost in finding the right item or avenging the deaths of a family. Aside from a few tiny flaws here and these, this is a must own game for everyone and one that begs to be played over and again.
Iro Hero is a decent enough shooter that doesn’t want you to see how good it could be. The lack of continues or any aid in progression will leave newcomers to the genre feeling cold enough to probably put them off altogether.
To put it mildly, It’s Spring Again is a complete waste of time. It doesn’t do anything new or different to teach children any better than what a good walk in the park or a picture book can provide.
ICEY is a great, if short, game that you will most certainly remember once you have put it to rest. Its clever and interesting take on both the genre and gaming, in general, keeps the surprises coming long after you have finished it.