Worth Playing
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Flying Red Barrel: The Diary of a Little Aviator is solid. The back-to-basics shooting feels good, as do the difficulty and the changes, like a limited continue pool. One really needs to put in some effort to see this through to the end. Its age means that it lags behind its contemporaries in terms of graphical options and online hooks, but for genre fans, those elements matter very little when the gameplay is still going strong.
As mentioned at the beginning of the review, your appreciation of Star Wars: Episode I: Racer appearing on the Switch will heavily depend on the rose tint of your glasses. On the one hand, the presentation is especially rough, and the lack of difficulty for most of the campaign makes the task of unlocking everything a chore — at least until the final few races become competitive. On the other hand, the sense of speed in races is still present, and the track design isn't bad when you consider how fast things are going. While those who have played the game before might get a kick out of being able to play it again on a modern, portable machine, others may be fine leaving this one alone.
Despite my qualms about the closing hours of Death Stranding, I truly enjoyed about 30 hours of it. There are plenty of moments where tone-setting music sets in and the vastness of the landscapes smothers you with solitude and despair. Collecting materials and contributing them to an online structure was engaging and even downright addictive. Moreover, the foundations of the plot intrigued me so much. I think that's what pains me so much about Death Stranding: I can see its potential, but the game went too far in too many disparate directions.
As a sum of its parts, Crysis on the Switch is another "miracle" port that turned out less magical than others of its kind. It's a less extreme example of the dissonance between being able to run a game and whether it should have been ported in the first place. It's not as pared back as The Outer Worlds was, but it also doesn't offer a lot of content, and its shortcomings in different areas are enough to hamper the experience. If you cannot play Crysis on any other platform, this may be as good as it's going to get, but if you don't care about portable play, the Switch version isn't as good of a proposition as it should have been.
Sadly, reaching the end of Dogurai feels less like the rewarding success of a job well done and more like getting home from a long day at work.
It may sound like I'm negative about Demon's Rise: War for the Deep, but it's great for people who want a combat-focused tactical RPG with different character classes. For anyone else, the minimal plot, simplistic gameplay, and low-quality visuals will probably turn them off before they can get deep enough to see where the strategy element shines. It's very much a game made by fans and for fans, and anyone else will probably be better off looking at the recent XCOM 2 release or even Mario + Rabbids for their tactical action.
Carrion is a fun one-and-done game and not much more than that. The concept of playing as the monster in the vents is a cool one, and Carrion executes the fantasy fairly masterfully. Unfortunately, it runs out of tricks before too long and is only saved from tedium by the short game length. It's worth a playthrough if you like the concept, but don't expect anything genre-defining. There's a lot of potential in the concept, and perhaps a Carrion 2 will give us something with more meat on its … amorphous horrifying frame.
The concept for Cannibal Cuisine is fine: a grotesque spin on the Overcooked formula with some quality of life changes. However, there are enough issues here to sap away any enjoyment from the concept, especially if this is your first exposure to this type of party game. Unless you're a veteran of these games and want to deal with the artificial challenge, it'd be best to leave this one alone and opt for the more polished titles in the genre.
In a medium that so desperately craves additional content, Phantom: Covert Ops isn't a bad purchase for VR owners who are hungry for more games, but it's by no means a banner release for 2020. With games like Boneworks, Half-Life: Alyx, and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners this year, the bar for VR games has risen exponentially. There's an exhilarating VR experience struggling to break the surface of this title. Phantom is holding itself back from breaking loose and taking the excitement to the next level. Hopefully nDreams has enough success with this game to carry its vision into a sequel.
If you have thick skin and an unquenched desire to solve stealth puzzles in the Wild West, Desperados III is the best real-time tactical stealth game that I have played in a long, long time.
Othercide is a flawed but generally fun strategy-RPG. It has some balance issues and an annoying UI, but beyond that, it does everything that it sets out to do. It's not as difficult or punishing as an XCOM title might have been, but it may be a good replacement for those who like the strategy game style without the punishment of losing so much when you die. Be prepared to do that a lot, since death is in many ways the only way to advance in the game. Overall, I had fun with Othercide, but it's the kind of game where my opinion will likely improve after a couple of patches.
If you can put all of that aside or appreciate Destroy All Humans! in a state that is undoubtedly close to how it played back in the day, there is a lot of fun to be in the PS4 remake.
Paper Mario: The Origami King might not be the sequel to The Thousand Year Door that some people are hoping for, but it's a darn fun game. It's witty, charming, fun to play, and has a soundtrack that can't be beat. Its low difficulty and the combat sometimes overstaying its welcome can drag down the experience a little. It's still a delightful experience for fans of Mario's adventures.
Overall, Dex is an excellent take on a cyberpunk Deus Ex game, and it managed to accomplish that with a smaller development budget.
Gorn has aged reasonably well. Sure, there are bigger and prettier games available, but few of them match the almost cathartic and brutal fun that Gorn so innately delivers. It works well enough in PSVR to warrant a purchase if you're OK with its limitations. The controls are frustrating and more limited on PSVR than elsewhere, and visuals are clearly a step down, but the core experience is still intact. If that fits the bill for you, it can be a blast, so ready your fist and blade and enter the arena. Just don't lose a limb.
If you're a fan of first-person shooters on the Switch and have an affinity for the classics, you should have Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour.
Moving Out is a joyous experience. The chaos is ever-present, but the chill approach ensures that everyone is having a good time instead of gradually wanting to tear each other apart. The number of levels is just right, and the presentation is appealing. It serves as a perfect complement to other co-op titles and belongs in the library of anyone who enjoys the genre.
Pixel Ripped 1995 is a short but sweet experience that tugs on your nostalgia heartstrings in all the right ways. While it is very short and the quality of included stages varies, it is a distinct experience that's very much in line with its predecessor, Pixel Ripped 1989. If you were fond of the previous entry, getting the sequel is a no-brainer, since it mixes up the formula in a variety of ways while retaining its strengths. Its shortcomings don't detract from the otherwise wonderful experience that Pixel Ripped 1995 manages to create with surprisingly little effort.
If you liked Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, then you will like Curse of the Moon 2. It's more of the same, but in the best way: more levels, more characters, a cleaner interface, and lots of balance tweaks to make everyone play a bit better. You should check out Curse of the Moon first, since it's an excellent game on its own, but if you have a hankering for '80s Castlevania action, then Curse of the Moon 2 will give you everything you need.
In the end, Dogurai makes for a nice enough retro throwback that can act as a snack between meatier titles. The game isn't too difficult, but it is simple to understand, and it apes the mechanics of older games well enough to earn that challenge. The length of the game is buoyed by the presence of two endings and a new character, while the aesthetic fits perfectly for those who want to treat the Switch as a portable rather than a home console. At $5, Dogurai is certainly worth it for those who want to scratch that retro action platforming itch.