IGN's Reviews
Slithering up simple structures in Snake Pass is one of the most mechanically satisfying video game ideas I’ve ever experience, and it effectively creates a sensation that feels the way maneuvering like a snake might. The camera and checkpoint systems aren’t great, but the concept still managed to hook me for the five hours it took wrap up the campaign. And in the end, I wanted to go back and replay stages to round up all the collectibles I missed.
If you’ve already played the original LEGO City Undercover on Wii U, then there is little reason to pick up this re-release. However, if you were one of the many who missed it the first time around then LEGO City Undercover remains a hilarious riff on police procedurals, built upon a GTA-for-juniors open world blueprint, and stuffed with enjoyable side missions and collectibles to hunt down. The addition of split-screen play, cursory in its execution as it may be, only makes the game more appealing to players who would prefer to experience LEGO City Undercover with a friend riding shotgun. And what's a good police story without a partner in crime-fighting?
If you’ve already played the original LEGO City Undercover on Wii U, then there is little reason to pick up this re-release. However, if you were one of the many who missed it the first time around then LEGO City Undercover remains a hilarious riff on police procedurals, built upon a GTA-for-juniors open world blueprint, and stuffed with enjoyable side missions and collectibles to hunt down. The addition of split-screen play, cursory in its execution as it may be, only makes the game more appealing to players who would prefer to experience LEGO City Undercover with a friend riding shotgun. And what's a good police story without a partner in crime-fighting?
Yooka-Laylee contains all the pieces needed for a fun, enjoyable throwback to the 3D collectathons of the 64-bit era. The characters are charming and funny, your set of abilities is vast and entertaining, and four out of five of the worlds are fun playgrounds to explore. While it lacks the heart and polish of some of its incredible predecessors, it’s a good reminder that this genre, once thought to be dead, still has some life left in it.
Overall, MLB The Show 17 builds on last year's version, which many cited as the best in the series, by adding some key features and improvements. Most notable are increased hit variety, MLB Network integration, and the RTTS documentary. All of these additions make the game feel more like real baseball. This authenticity makes games more fun to play, as it's easier than ever to become invested in every pitch.
You certainly get your $20’s worth out of Thimbleweed Park. The voice cast doesn’t elevate the script in the way they always did in the LucasArts “talky” days, but an enjoyable, self-referential story and hundreds of puzzles to solve make it worthy of a place on your shelf next to Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island.
Persona 5 is a massive, gorgeous JRPG with well over 100 hours of gameplay for completionists. With more to do than ever and the series' strongest story to date, it stands out as an extraordinary, memorable experience and easily one of the deepest JRPGs of the last decade. Its sprawling dungeon design and stylish, fully realized world are an absolute joy to explore, and even after three playthroughs and the Platinum trophy, I find myself itching to go back to try different dialogue options with Confidants or revisit particularly fun puzzles. This is a new gold standard for Japanese RPGs and by far the best entry in the series yet.
Despite a lackluster ending to "Above the Law," A New Frontier's third episode kept me invested in Javi's story, if not the plot as a whole. I'm a bit more wary heading into the latter half of the season after the jarring number of character entrances and exits in this episode, but if the strong character work continues, I'm more than willing to roll through the bumps of this mid-season episode. Telltale has found a sharp lens in Javi through which to analyze the ideas of family as bonds we're forced into and choose to make ourselves. And he's a lens, even in the season's weakest moments, I still find myself wanting to help survive.
Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City has found a way to revisit the past without a cheap reliance on nostalgia, wrapping up the story of Dark Souls in a way that will be satisfying for fans who enjoy digging into the rich lore the series has been building for the last few years. But you don’t need an encyclopedic knowledge of the Souls series to appreciate the satisfying twists and turns of this short, but exciting adventure, with its abundance of haunting, secret-filled locales and terrifying boss fights.
Rain World is a maddening thing, because of quite how special it could have been. Beautiful environments, incredible animations and enticingly hazy mechanics are fantastic, but the sheer cruelty of how it's pieced out to the player transcends challenge and becomes an unwanted trial.
There are some good ideas in Has Been Heroes, such as the way it uses multi-lane battlefields to make us use strategies that involve switching between the strengths of three different heroes to achieve victory. It's a recipe for fun that manages to last for a while. Eventually, though, the heavy emphasis on the luck of level generation, the frustrations of enemy repetition, the poor tutorial, and the tendency to overrun you with tough enemies spoil the whole. Hard games are great, but there are limits.
Mass Effect: Andromeda only occasionally recaptures the series' brilliance, but delivers a vast and fun action-RPG.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends may not be the most visually appealing CCG, but what it lacks in looks it makes up for in modes, mechanics and card design. This is well worth checking out for fans of The Elder Scrolls or digital card games in general. And like all great CCGs, the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ adds more of what we loved about the original and keeps the formula fresh. It's a tough game, but one that balances challenge with a refreshing feeling of the unexpected. The unpredictable items and varied enemies make it one of the most wacky and replayable games I've ever experienced.
FlatOut 4: Total Insanity is better than I'd feared but not as good as I'd hoped. Kylotonn has dredged this near-forgotten racing rebel from the very bottom of the barrel and fashioned it into a basic but fun, stunt-filled speedster, but I found myself regularly frustrated with its repetitive career mode, its stingy economy and nebulous unlockables, its superficial demolition derby events, and its uneven difficulty. A respectable franchise rescue mission but one that still needs some fine tuning and some extra grunt.
LEGO Worlds is commendable for its environmental diversity and the power of its creative tools to build anything you can dream of or manipulate every castle, hillside, and forest in sight. Unfortunately, fiddly menus, a pretty terrible combat system, and at times clunky and unfriendly construction controls weigh down on the wonder of finding and creating. Despite all this, I still find myself drawn back into it to discover what more the designers have hidden in the world-generation code, as coming across a massive ruined castle or an active volcano for the first time is always a treat - and an inspiration for what I want to build next.
I found myself thinking about my daily farming routine in Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns even when I wasn't playing it. Since there's never any feeling of the grim spectre of Father Time looming large and there are enough random events to shake up the daily routine, doing my virtual chores in these charming and beautiful towns and unlocking a steady stream of rewards is relaxing, despite some annoyances with unnecessary travel and unskippable animations. And since the only requirement of Trio of Towns is to prove that farm life is a noble life, the pressure to succeed is never daunting.
Styx: Shards of Darkness greatly resembles the earlier Styx: Master of Shadows from 2014, but Cyanide improved the gameplay this time around with the inclusion of craftable weapons, the lack of a lock-on in combat, and expanded abilities. It presents an interesting world to explore but wastes its potential by recycling environments from early missions late in the game. Co-op mode is fun, too, but only selectively as some stealth-only missions seem far more manageable on one's own.
While it’s a shame that its dungeon dwelling enemies are far too easily exploited, Blaster Master Zero is ultimately an enjoyable reimagining of a largely overlooked 8-bit classic thanks to the rewarding exploration-focussed structure of its side-scrolling overworld. There are enough secret rooms and power-ups to seek out (including an additional ending), that I was compelled to scour every last inch over the course of my eight-hour completion time. It’s a good reboot; just not a Masterful one.
This huge, wide-open shooter constantly shows its flaws in its mission variety and vehicle physics, but its strong, sandbox-style gameplay and seamless co-op kept me coming back for more madness. If you must repeat experiences over and over, you could far worse than helicopter chases, assassination missions, or drug busts gone wildly wrong.