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Overall there’s a lot to like about The Callisto Protocol. It’s a tight and well paced 10 hour experience and looks and runs great on the PS5 and It’s art direction and sound design help portray some really unsettling and horrific moments. It’s held back by some frustrating scare choices, repetitive combat and boss encounters and it’s push towards focussing on action in it’s later half. If the team at Striking Distance decide to flesh out the world they’ve established with a sequel, I’d love to see where they could take these characters and build out the setting next while having the benefit of having this first game to look back on.
The Devil In Me is another solid entry and a fitting season finale to The Dark Pictures Anthology. It’s focus on real world inspirations helps it feel more twisted and scary and it’s supported well by a small but diverse cast of characters. It does take a little while to get going and does contain a few technical bugs, but once you hit the peak of the drama, the game offers a near non-stop horror experience to the end. Due to the nature of it’s design you can jump back in and replay it to experience different choices and outcomes in the wait for season 2 to kick off, hopefully next year.
Overall, Sonic Frontiers is a great return to form for 3D Sonic adventures. It features a slightly more mature story, an easy to grasp core gameplay loop and multiple islands filled with fun and replayable stages that really make you feel like the blue blur himself. While certainly not a perfect game, it’s the type of game Sonic fans have been waiting many years to get to enjoy and there’s plenty of fun to be had.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is a solid remaster of the original game, packed with brand new features and characters and is a real love letter to fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The overall art style is very reminiscent of Hirohiko Araki’s original manga and has plenty of nods to the original manga and anime thrown in that fans of the series will really appreciate.
Although it originally launched during an era when we were flooded with 3D character platformers, Klonoa does feel unique enough to stand up against many of the household names we think of when thinking about the genre, it just seems it didn’t catch on enough at the time to grow as big as Crash, Spyro or Ratchet & Clank for example. Hopefully with the release of this collection it can continue to resonate with existing fans, find some new ones and who knows it could eventually spawn a brand new entry, reviving the series with the first original new game in over 20 years. If you’re a fan of character based platformers, I’d recommend checking out the Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie Series on your platform of choice.
Ghostwire Tokyo is a brave new direction for the team at Tango Gameworks. It still retains that unsettling spooky vibe at it’s core but the team have shown that they can make environments that look stunningly beautiful at the same time. The game’s setting and combat system won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but after the first few hours the game really grows into something that I really enjoyed exploring and is fuelled primarily by it’s sense of mystery and supernatural weirdness.
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles is a pretty great first video game entry for the Demon Slayer series. While it’s exploration and roster is a little thin, it’s presentation of the story and it’s flashy, engaging combat had me addicted to both it’s main adventure and online modes. I’m interested to see how the game expands and is balanced over time with new fighters continuing to be added in post release updates, but most of all I’m interested to see what features and tweaks can be implemented in a sequel.
The thing that makes or breaks a live looter shooter is it’s ongoing support. I’m excited to see where Outrider’s endgame may go and what tweaks may be made to improve the game in the year’s to come. Outriders was a surprisingly solid looter-shooter and I haven’t been as addicted to a game of this type since the original Destiny launched back in 2014. Whether you play completely solo or with a group of friends, there’s a lot to keep you engaged and coming back to Outriders even though it does have some hurdles to overcome.
It’s no secret I’m a big fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, and I loved reliving the key events and iconic music tracks here in Melody of Memory. It’s a game that will be best enjoyed by people already familiar with the core story of the series and want a new way to enjoy something in the Kingdom Hearts universe. And does provide a slight glimpse into where the series may be headed next, although it’s surely to be many years before we get our hands on whatever that may be.
I love horror stories, and I love anthologies so I’m not surprised I’m a big fan of the Dark Pictures Anthology. Little Hope is another solid entry that at it’s core is all about player choice. SuperMassive seem to have big plans for the future of the series, which they’ve been public about, and even with the small tease of the next entry coming in 2021, I’m certainly excited to see how the series continues to grow and where the Curator will take us next.
I’ve loved the resurgence of FMV games in recent years. It’s really refreshing to play a quality game with engaging story that can be enjoyed and completed in just a few hours. If you like ‘choose your own adventure’ style stories and tales full of twists and turns, I highly recommend you check out Death Come True. For the price of going to the movies, you can enjoy Kazutaka Kodaka’s over and over from your own home. Death Comes True certainly has me excited to see what will come next from TooKyo Games, as we know they have a number of projects in the works.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a fresh way to experience the fantastic and lengthy tale of Dragon Ball Z. Providing you the opportunity to traverse many of the key environments from the show, experience new points of view and has a shared focus when it comes to its lead playable characters. It’s not without some flaws but if you’re looking for a new way to experience the story and the idea of a Dragon Ball game with customisable RPG mechanics has you interested, then there’s a lot for you to like here with Kakarot.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is the second breath of life this underappreciated game needed. It shows that mashup titles can work effectively if implemented with care and has a great story with a fantastic depiction of Tokyo. It’s new additional content does feel like a bit of an afterthought but if you haven’t previously played through the game then there is no better way to enjoy it than right here on the Switch.
Borderlands 3 is a love letter to fans of the Borderlands franchise. They were very loud for a long time about wanting more, and Gearbox have given them just that, serving up another enjoyable game that will have players adventuring through it’s world, or worlds now for years to come and running into old characters from prior games.
If you’re a fan or either LEGO games or the Jurassic Park franchise you’re going to have a really fun time with LEGO Jurassic World. The game captures the feeling of the Jurassic Park films and by including the storylines of 4 films, it offers a lot of gameplay value in one package. The game runs really well on the Nintendo Switch in both docked and handheld modes so you’ll have the option of chasing down raptors while on the go if you choose. With the amount of collectibles to find and over 120 characters to unlock and play as, LEGO Jurassic World will certainly keep you entertained for a long time.
Although it was overlooked by many at the time, and unfortunately looked down on as ‘the game that came after Final Fantasy 7’, Final Fantasy 8 offers a mature and gripping story filled with characters you’ll grow to love. Now that it’s available on all current platforms and looking better than ever, there’s never been a better time to jump in and give it a shot if you’ve ever been interested in playing it.
Erica takes us back to an era where FMV was a thing but uses it to provide an engaging and captivating experience, not just to deal with hardware limitations. It’s asking price of $13 AUD is very reasonable considering it can be played multiple times, presenting very different outcomes each playthrough all for less than the cost of a single movie ticket. It’s a game I’m sure I’ll be diving back into but mostly I’m looking forward to seeing what Flavourworks can do with the Touch Video tech next.
Kill La Kill:IF is a great first entry into the world of video games for the Kill La Kill franchise. It offers a unique roster of characters that each feel different to play and have captured the signature Trigger art style of the source material. Though the main story is on the short side so if you’re a player that just wants to play purely for the new story, then you may be best off waiting for a sale.
Senran Kagura: Peach Ball is a really solid pinball game with a Senran Kagura coat of paint. The fanservice on offer certainly won’t be for everyone but if you can deal with that, you’ve got yourself a fun pinball game with highly interactive tables, bright lights and Vegas style visual stimulation. My only negative is that many areas of the game left me wanting more and could have been fleshed out in deeper ways. But this foundation has also left me pretty excited for future add-ons or a sequel game.
Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle expands the scope of the original game introducing new ways to traverse the battlefield and take down Titans. It also faithfully adapts the storyline of the third season of the anime. Players that play through these games just for the story missions alone may be left a bit disappointed but for those that enjoyed the gameplay loop of AOT2 and get a kick out of levelling up your character and unlocking new gear, you’re in for more of a good thing.