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There's a big difference between being inspired by something and flat out copying it. Curse of the Moon copies Dracula's Curse and does a good job of it. So much so, that if you're a fan of Dracula's Curse, you might not even need to play Curse of the Moon. Compare that to Shovel Knight, which combined the best parts of series like Mega Man, Mario, and Ducktails, to be an excellent game in its own right which I recommend to everyone. Personally, I prefer the Shovel Knight approach to retro-inspired games, although Curse of the Moon is a great way to revisit a classic without requiring so much skill and patience to see it through to completion.
The Ultimate Edition subtitle is fitting because it’s hard to see where the N formula goes from here. With over 4,000 levels in N++, not including community created ones and those you create yourself in the level editor, there’s not much need for another sequel or special edition. That makes N++ an easy recommendation, especially on the Switch where it is perfect for short pick up and play sessions. Yes, as much as it pains me to say it, N++ is “perfect for the Switch.”
Golf Story has so much charm that I feel guilty for being bored. Likewise, I feel a touch guilty for writing this critical review. However, while the dialogue was witty enough to keep me going until completion, it wasn't enough to drag Golf Story out of mediocrity.
Captain Spirit ends on a rather obvious cliffhanger, however there’s more than enough here to have me eagerly anticipating Life is Strange 2. I’m convinced the death of Chris’ mom isn’t quite as clear-cut as it first appears and I’m looking forward to helping Chris uncover the truth. It’s always tricky to score a free game, but I enjoyed the 90 minutes I spent with Captain Spirit and recommend you give it a go.
House Flipper isn’t ready to be placed on the market. For a game that is all about customizing a property, you have far too few options to chose from and there’s a complete lack of cohesion between furniture and colors. House Flipper is appealing enough to tempt in buyers for an open viewing, but a closer inspection reveals the obvious shortcomings. As a buyer, you should either negotiate hard for a discount on the selling price or wait until the quality of the game meets the buyer’s asking price.
Yoku’s Island Express is a beautiful combination of pinball and metroidvania. It doesn’t require you to be particularly skilled at either and lacks the challenge often associated with both of those genres. However, I thoroughly enjoyed bouncing Yoku and his dungball around Mokumana Island and the collectibles are rewarding enough to have me working towards 100% completion.
Subsurface Circular is a visual novel about talking to strangers on a train. Basically, a British person’s worst nightmare. It ends up being a relaxing and thought-provoking experience where you talk to androids and solve a mystery without ever moving from your seat. At ninety minutes long, Subsurface Circular doesn’t overstay its welcome and if anything I wanted the experience to last a little longer.
Vietnam could make a great setting for a Far Cry game but it has to be handled with more care than this. I appreciate that at $12 this is not supposed to be a full Far Cry experience, however I still expect more than a glorified two-hour fan-mod. The next two pieces of DLC will have to offer big improvements to make Far Cry 5‘s season pass worth the money.
Detroit’s storytelling is lackluster and formulaic. The script has less emotion in it than androids before they become deviants and, in fact, I have to wonder whether an android wrote it. Perhaps it’s some in-joke on Cage’s part. As consumers and critics, we would never praise this level of storytelling in movies, TV shows, or books, yet for some reason, this nonsense is acclaimed just because there is a basic level of interactivity involved. If we want the quality of storytelling in games to improve, we need to demand more than this soulless and predictable nonsense.
God of War is a technical achievement and a damn good game. It occasionally prioritizes visual flare and storytelling over compelling gameplay, but that just means it’s a different type of game from its predecessors. Whether it’s better or worse will depend on what you’re after. I enjoyed the story, the writing, and the characters. While I was disappointed with the combat at times, it still had incredible moments that made me feel like an actual god of war for the first time since this series began.
My overwhelming thought after completing Ni No Kuni II was of what could have been. The combat system is excellent, but Level-5 didn’t have the confidence to make it challenging. The story is endearing at times, however it seems like the money ran out when it came to doing full voice work for all the cutscenes. There’s a great game under here somewhere, but perhaps not a $60 one. I’d have preferred a twenty-five-hour game without the tedious stuff and perhaps a $40 price point. Far too much of the extra content feels like filler. In trying to include a bit of everything, Revenant Kingdom ultimately mastered nothing.
Far Cry 5‘s setting is beautiful to behold, however it’s home to a shallow story, bland protagonist, and repetitive set of missions. You can have plenty of fun sniping helicopters out of the air, but the game never lets you slow down. It constantly cries out for attention as if it knows that once you stop playing you might never return. There was a long gap between Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 5, but judging by the final product, there needed to be a longer one. Ubisoft needs to channel some of the creativity that successfully reinvented Assassins’ Creed; we need more than another by-the-numbers Far Cry game.
Rogue could have been an essential game in the franchise, if only for the story and the rare chance to see inside the world of the Templars. Instead, we barely get any story development except for cameos and knowing references to other games. The missions are tedious and the lack of interesting locations is a step back from previous entries. Rogue might have scraped a three out of five if I’d reviewed it back in 2014, but in 2018 it doesn’t even deserve that.
Despite how bad it is, you can have some fun with Hidden Agenda. If you play it with friends over a few drinks, you’ll probably have a laugh in the same way you do when watching bad horror films. That’s the best I can say for Hidden Agenda. It’s a narrative game with a dull and poorly written narrative. It’s a choose your own adventure game with boring and uninformed choices. It’s a “play with friends experience” that is likely to leave you with fewer friends at the end of it. Hidden Agenda manages to scrap a two out of five because, despite itself, I did laugh out loud a few times.
Okami is a relaxing game. The lack of challenge isn’t ideal but it lets you focus on what is beautiful about the world and the characters while enjoying the high-fantasy Japanese story. I loved drawing images to fight and change the world around me and was constantly learning new techniques. Okami could have done with some editing to trim the length and a steeper difficulty curve to keep you interested throughout. However, even with its issues, Okami is an absolute joy to play and a steal for $20.
The Devil May Cry franchise deserves better than another low-effort HD collection. Dante’s Awakening is still a great game that you should play if you haven’t already. However, the second game is terrible and the first game is a little rough due to the awkward camera. The lack of any extra content celebrating this great series is disappointing and makes this collection hard to definitively recommend for new and existing fans alike.
Iconoclasts took me about fourteen to fifteen hours to complete. Around ten hours was fun. However, it’s the other five hours I’ll remember like the frustration of trying to figure out what obscure mechanic I needed to use to progress or the time spent wandering around aimlessly with no direction. Iconoclasts tries its hand at action, puzzles, and Metroidvania and doesn’t commit to any of them. The end result is mediocre.
Hellblade doesn’t have huge flaws, but it fails to excel in too many areas to be an essential purchase. I’d still highly recommend Hellblade for the simple fact that it made me think and feel things that no other game has. There are plenty of games out there with more scintillating combat or intellectually taxing puzzles, but not many that can put you in the head of a Pict warrior suffering from psychosis. That alone makes it worth a purchase.
Yakuza 0 is good enough that I regret not having played the other games. I plan to work my way through Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, however I fear I may never play Yakuzas three to five. Still, Yakuza 0 has room for improvement which leaves me hoping that the best is yet to come. I’ll be there for the next steps in Kiryu’s and Majima’s journeys, even if I don’t know their entire life stories. Not yet, anyway.
I’m not sure I’ll ever truly finish Celeste. I still have a couple of B-Sides to complete and the C-Sides are likely beyond my skill level. Assist mode is there if I need it, but I’m not ready to admit defeat yet. Neither am I ready for Celeste to be over. I’ll be dipping back into this masterpiece for many months to come.