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Constance is a game about confronting your inner darkness. Its hand-drawn cartoony art style won me over initially. Its challenging platforming puzzles and boss fights that required me to fully utilize the plethora of techniques I’d learned throughout the journey kept me engaged and always felt satisfying to complete. This fluid and extremely rewarding gameplay loop alone solidifies Constance as a must-play platformer. The heartfelt story at the core of it all is a welcome added bonus.
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Marvel’s Deadpool VR doesn’t hit the immersive highs as Batman: Arkham Shadows did last year, but it’s still a fun superhero romp from Oculus Studios. The developers at Twisted Pixel make great use of the Deadpool IP, and there’s no shortage of havoc to wreak if you’re just looking for an action-heavy VR experience.
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Veteran fans don’t have a lot to show up for unless they’ve already been jonesing for a replay, but anyone who’s become a Tales fan in the years since have a new, easy way to play a game worth catching up on, and that’s worth celebrating.
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On top of that, it's a hilarious superhero romp with satisfying storylines and characters that I am practically begging to see again. If this is the standard of quality that we can expect from AdHoc Studio, the interactive narrative genre is in good hands.
Regardless of the platform, Ryza’s three-part adventure was a big deal the first time around for real reasons, and the DX version only serves as a reinforcement.
I have to confess that I'm more of a Tetris fanatic and haven't typically had an affinity for the Lumines series, but I will say that Arise is an absolute triumph. The visuals are some of Enhance's best, utilizing the best of both Unity and its own proprietary Synaesthesia Engine. It's wildly fun and unexpectedly challenging in places, but above all, it's a relaxing pleasure. Just sit back and let the beat drop.
I wish the soundtrack had cooked a little hotter, but it’s hard to ask for much more than that out of a sequel that is otherwise improved this much. I don’t know if Nintendo will treat this Age of Imprisonment as canon, but if it’s the final ribbon on the Breath of Wild era, it’s a dang good one.
With classic games and a heartfelt documentary, Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection continues to show that there's nobody better at this type of compilation than Digital Eclipse. Whether you're an old-school fighter or want to teach your kids what MK looked like in the old days, this is the best way to do it.
The end result of this package is strangely funny; two sides of a coin I never would have expected. It’s the worst time I’ve ever had with Dragon Quest 1, and the best time I’ve ever had with Dragon Quest 2.
Despite a few qualms here and there, The Other Worlds 2 provides another solid sci-fi RPG experience from Obsidian Entertainment. It probably won’t win over folks who are tired of its corporate comedy act, but those who enjoyed the first will find that most of what they liked is improved in the second.
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I have a handful of gripes about PowerWash Simulator 2, but they hardly bring down the experience. It feels like a love letter to all of the fans and the things they’ve asked for over the years, and we end up getting a really neat collection of structures to clean up beside it. If the first PowerWash Simulator was any indicator, we can likely look forward to loads of post-launch content as well.
Katamari is inherently a chaotic game, despite its adorable, silly visuals and legendarily chill music tracks such as Lonely Rolling Star (the GOAT, in my humble opinion). There’s a lot going on, only so much time to engage with it all, and that’s a big part of the series’ classic appeal. It’s a score-challenging arcade game at heart, with the original game’s scope mostly about trying to make the biggest Katamari within the time limit.
Including all previous content plus new ways to play, Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted emerges as the best version of an already near-perfect game.
Jurassic World Evolution 3 is the series nearly at its full potential. The previous games established an excellent foundation, and the addition of juvenile dinosaurs and improvements to customization have taken things to another level. Any Jurassic fan that’s fantasized about managing their own park will find that dream realized in Jurassic World Evolution 3.
The grand spectacle of Ninja Gaiden 4 felt like the developers saying they wanted a proper ending for what we’ve seen out of the 3D Ninja Gaiden series, and I feel like they nailed it.
If you're in the kind of mood to think about the nature of the universe, Keeper is the story to check out. It's hard to imagine a living lighthouse is capable of bringing out emotion in people, but that's what makes this game a Keeper.