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It’s a competently and even entertainingly made game, but a dismally cynical work of art, and it never manages to shake the impression that the only reason that it looks the way it does is that the marketing team thought that it would be a good way to “stand out” and shift units.
Supermassive Games has brought the Dark Pictures Anthology back with style and panache. Directive 8020 suffers from being a little too generic in concept and letting itself down with gameplay elements that are at odds with the cinematic quality, but the game does work as popcorn horror and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Saros is a good game, and I need to be clear about that. The sheer speed and kinetic energy of the combat, the visual design, and the moreish nature of the roguelike loop come together to make something that is, by any objective measure, well-made and something that consumers clearly like to play. But on the other side of the coin, I really can’t stand Saros because I look at it and all I see is the cynical Sony studio formula slapped over the top of what was, a half-decade ago, a pretty fine game. In fact, I think I’ll dust Returnal off for a replay.
It has been a very long time since a game has been that compelling that I’ve lost track of time so much that I see the morning sun come through my window. I’m getting too old to manage that. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era did that to me.
So we’ve got a game that has zero respect for aesthetic traditions, gameplay that is no more than a shallow grind, and a game about Japanese demons that somehow fails to be interesting to a guy that has a library shelf filled with books about yokai, yurei, oni and the rest. What an intolerable disgrace this is to video games as an art form.
Still, it’s beautifully produced and absolutely in line with the way that Jansson’s Moomin works ran. They’ve always left me wanting more, and I can’t wait until the next Moomin game comes my way.
Under Par: Golf Architect is charming and very welcoming, and that first golf course you create will be a truly fun process. After that, though, you’ll realise that Under Par has nothing else to offer and is such a disappointing missed opportunity. It’s all the more strange that the developers would do this because the same team previously created Hundred Days, a vineyard business simulation, and that one was genuinely interesting and engaging, and had proper tycoon simulation challenges built into it.
Of course, Minos’ fans – and the game deserves to have a lot of them – will tell you the plot isn’t important. What is important is its creative sandbox and gleefully gory approach to what is essentially a tower defence game. And on that I would agree with them. Minos is really difficult to put down once you start finding yourself daydreaming about new ways to combine your trap arsenal together.
I wish I could share screenshots of just how silly the relationship between Dee Dee and “me” really got. Unfortunately, though perhaps wisely, Nintendo’s made it very hard to get screenshots off the Switch 2 for sharing with Tomodachi Life. Nintendo knew exactly what direction many people’s little communities of Miis were going to go. Nintendo knows us all too well.
Pragmata is Capcom at its best. As good as this company can be with its established franchises, it’s when it tries to do something different that we get the real gold. As far as “big budget” games go, Pragmata is the most different and thought-provoking game I’ve played since Death Stranding, and I love it almost as much as Kojima’s masterpiece. If only Capcom did this more often. Like they used to.
It might not be the “level up” on Scrabble, I imagine the developers went into the project aiming to make, but they certainly have come up with something that is perfect to pair up with a coffee on a Sunday morning. And I do love my Sunday morning coffee games.
Many people assume that the only point of otome is the romance, and the appeal is minimal beyond your interest in male fan service. Anyone who has played otome games realises that this is not the case, and Homura: The Crimson Warriors is a particularly strong example of this. It’s both “girl and reverse harem of pretty men” AND quality historical fiction, and that’s a combination that’s hard to put down.
A great effort, overall. Don’t let this one disappear in the swill of shovelware on the Switch’s online store.
Spiders remains the best of the B-tier European RPG developers, and that’s a compliment. Belonging outside of the big-budget blockbuster developers affords a creative freedom that Spiders has never been hesitant to embrace.
This review might sound flat on the game, but that’s only because the “DLC” that’s been added to the Switch 2 upgrade is difficult to be quite so enthusiastic about. Still, if this is your first time with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it’s adding more to an already brilliant package, and if you already have the game, the “DLC” is only $20, which is more than reasonable as an excuse to dust it off for another whirl.
All in all, Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War sits nicely next to the EDF series as a parody of militarism in video games. EDF does it by embracing B-grade aesthetics and bonkers attitude, where Starship Troopers instead builds on the film to deliver something sharp and more pointed. It’s sad that this game is just so intensely relevant right now, but that is the world we live in. As a satire, Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War isn’t particularly funny, because it’s increasingly our reality.
I also don’t think that it’ll be something people are recommending and writing essays on a decade from now. It’s a bright, charming game made for easy consumption right now, and sometimes that’s all you need.
The “remaster” is good because the game itself is, but given some of the work we’ve seen in remakes and remasters in recent years, this one is far too pedestrian for its own good. I can’t help but wonder just how incredible Tales of Bersaria could have been if it was given a full-on remake to bring it to parity with the most recent new game in the series (Tales of Arise). That could have been something truly special.
A cast of characters with a brilliantly written and believable set of dynamics between them, a clever mystery, told well and surprising enough to keep its hooks into you, and truly gorgeous art and presentation. Aksys picked a good one to localise, and the game deserves more attention than it’s getting.
Where Animal Crossing does eventually become a series of routines that you get stuck into until eventually it becomes dull, Pokopia resists falling into the same box by simply giving you so many objectives for when you don’t feel like simply inhabiting the world. Which is just as well, because we’re all going to need a lot of this kind of calming escapism over the next few years.