Digitally Downloaded
HomepageDigitally Downloaded's Reviews
The reality is that at this point Dragon Quest XI is an older release, and Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition is itself not really that new. I have no idea what percentage of prospective Dragon Quest fans have somehow avoided playing this yet, but I imagine it's a now a very small number. With that being said, that "8-bit" mode really is a breath of fresh air to the original 3D game, so if you don't own a Switch and haven't had the opportunity to play this game that way yet, then it's actually worth the upgrade and replay even if you own the original.
Root Double lets itself down in the way it indulges nonsense like scientific explanations and science fiction when really it wants to be a taut psychological thriller about a group of people caught in a truly desperate situation. Thankfully, when it focuses on what it's best at it's a near-on perfect example of the genre. It can be both bewildering and exhausting, but one thing Root Double will never let you forget is that it is also compelling.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate was excellent on PlayStation Vita, and it remains excellent on Nintendo Switch. There are a lot of roguelikes available on this console at this point, but there's something about the classical elegance and adherence to genre tradition that makes Shiren the Wanderer appealing. It's a little like how some people still love the sound and experience of vinyl records, really. You're not going to be blown away by innovation with this game, but you may well find yourself in love with its sincerity and near-perfect refinement.
Anyhow, I digress again. LoveKami, for better or worse, is the kind of game that, for all its merits, is going to keep driving you back to its most overt elements; those giant cup sizes, and the costumes designed specifically to highlight them. That will put some people off immediately and irrecoverably. Others will come to the game entirely because that's what's on offer. In the case of both groups, there's an enjoyable reflection on a very Japanese way of thinking in the game that is going to be overlooked for interest in the fan service... but then I imagine that my efforts here of trying to intellectualise this game has been one giant exercise in futility.
There is no doubt that Project Highrise is a more dry experience. Its minimalistic kitsch is a stark contrast to Mad Tower Tycoon's bombastic colours and bright energy, and I'm certainly aware that there are a lot of people that would prefer the higher energy approach. Assuming, that is, that the game is patched to the point that it becomes playable.
That aside, Planet Coaster is indeed the best theme park creator we've ever had. In Australia, there aren't many theme parks left at all (can you believe that Sydney - a major global city - only has one theme park, and it's a tiny space that can be walked across in a few minutes), but there was a big one when I was growing up, and this game takes me back to looking forward to going to that theme park every so often. There are some UI issues, and one or two clunky moments within the management side of the game, but nothing that detracts from the sheer creative joy of playing around with those coasters and creating the park of your dreams. I can almost smell the churros.
I haven't been as conflicted about a rhythm game as I have Melody of Memory. On the one hand, the rhythm game action itself is wonderful and the music, across 140 tracks, is sublime. On the other hand, being forced to play through a truncated and baffling summary of the Kingdom Hearts narrative just to unlock those tracks has done little to enamour me to the series, and there are far, far too many little additions that distract from what the game does best (i.e. the rhythm action). The grand sum of it is that Melody of Memory is much more a game for existing fans of Kingdom Hearts than it needed to be, and once again Square Enix has struggled to fully capitalise on the rich opportunity that the Disney license provides them.
I wanted Replica to say a lot more than it did. We're living in a time where governments are becoming more aggressive in snooping into people's lives and for the first time since McCarthy, being branded as a "communist" is shifting from being someone who the right-wing impotently laugh at to someone who could be in some real danger. Replica does the right things in many ways, name-dropping real-world events and giving it enough context that the game is clearly anti-fascist in tone. Unfortunately, it lacks the intelligence and emotional resonance to be the interactive Orwellian experience that it wants to be.
QV is another puzzle-shaped feather in the eShop’s cap. Its brainteasers successfully balance accessibility with sophistication. Its vibrant art style and subdued soundtrack evoke pensiveness. However, it’s the small cast of characters and playful comedy that truly solidify it as exceptional. I wish the developers doubled down on these low-key moments since they breathe new life and context into the underlying puzzle game. Even so, QV is an adventure I won’t soon forget.
With an average run length of about a half-hour, Azurebreak Heroes is simple fun at a low cost, with an engaging gameplay loop and some creative options for character development. You’ll get great bang for your buck here, especially if you’re looking for something to scratch that ARPG itch after finishing Hades. For all the game’s imperfections, there’s still a lot to like – the challenge is just right and it’s a delight to push ever further into the world of Heldia.
There’s not much else that can be said about Pure Pool (also we’ve reviewed it previously, so check that out). VooFoo Studios has successfully made a game that remains relevant and feels current over half a decade after it first released it, and for “sports games”, that’s a rare achievement indeed. You’re not going to find better ball porn anywhere, and so, even though this is a port of a six-year-old game with very little added to it, it’s great that it’s now portable and on the Switch.
Serious Sam remains the perfect foil to all the self-serious and often toxic shooters that we see today. All three games (and the two DLC expansions) that are contained in this collection are pure, unmitigated fun, and there's not a single (admittedly high-quality) rendition of Ronald Reagan across any of them. Not coincidentally, while I've already deleted that CoD off my hard drive, the Serious Sam Collection will stay on my Switch for quite some time to come. In short bursts - particularly on the commute after a hard day's work - there's nothing more cathartic.
The narrative that it weaves are great. The presentation is impeccable, and each and every one of the characters are fun to play with.
This game is a kinetic novel – it has no choices or branching paths, and instead is more about telling a story through its visuals and sound, in addition to written text. At the moment, Jiangshi x Daoshi is divided up into a prologue and two full-length volumes. I think of these as something like an “arc” – the game even divides them into chapters about the same length as a chapter in a manga. Just like with the “Big Three” heroes’ quests to become Hokage, King of the Pirates, and whatever Bleach's Ichigo’s character arc was, there’s an overarching theme narrative in Jiangshi x Daoshi’s volumes which run beneath the surface level antics. That being said, it’s a satisfying ride no matter how long the reader stays for.
Five Dates basically has what I want from a game at this exact moment in time. There's no violence, no screaming, no heavy machinery, no building, no wandering around trying to find things. Instead, the focus is on creating relationships, whether or not they turn into friendship or dating or a lifelong love. The gameplay is easy to follow since it's all just making choices, and if you struggle with that you can even pause the choices so the game doesn't carry on without your input. are a few things that I'd love to change if I could, but otherwise, I'm quite impressed at the feat of conceptualising, writing, shooting, producing, and developing a video game in eight months.
But it's still a captivating story. Crimson Spires has a web of mysteries that's fascinating to unravel, with a complicated cast that brings drama and humanity to every scene. The love interests are sexy, charming, tragic, and intimidating—traits that all come together to make those romantic moments all the more enticing.
Demon's Souls kicked off what has become an exhausting caricature in the games industry. From "git gud" to comparing every halfway difficult game to the Souls series, Demon's Souls is ultimately responsible for that. It wasn't the most commercially successful game in itself, but word of mouth earned it a cult status and was directly responsible for the very mainstream Dark Souls. And now people can re-discover the dark majesty of that series foundation. It's a game that deserves to be elevated beyond the jokes and seen as a genuine piece of video game art. I would be very interested if those who have come to the Souls series later will find the deliberately unpolished elements of this remake to be as appealing, but given that FromSoftware will almost certainly never touch the King's Field series again, for me, personally, this is as good as it's ever going to get. As a PlayStation 5 launch title, it's a fascinating example of something that is both deliberately old and a brilliant use of the console's very new hardware, and brought together, Demon's Souls is reason enough to own the console, all into itself.
I've never played a game more thoroughly unpleasant than Black Ops Cold War, but since this is the video game industry, the only thing I'm meant to be talking about is how much fun it is to press those buttons. So, let's finish the review and do that (since I know this conclusion is all most people are going to read anyway). Yes, it is fun to press buttons. You can even press buttons in multiplayer, and after however many Call of Duty titles now, the half dozen development teams that worked on this thing know how to make multiplayer button pressing fun. There are standard multiplayer modes, and classics like Zombies are back because people like those modes. It's all very accessible since this series is as mainstream as they come and Activision would hate for people to find it overwhelming. In short, if you want to play Black Ops Cold War as a completely passive sponge, then you'll have a lot of fun pressing those buttons. This score, below, is for you. For anyone else who is even mildly interested in thinking about the games they play, I can't put into words clearly enough how unacceptable I find this game to be.
I don't want to take anything away from Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Platformers are one of the genres I am least inclined towards, and were it not part of a (fairly limited) launch range on the PlayStation 5, I might not have been inclined to play Sackboy at all. I am glad that I did, though, because for pure whimsy and quality level design it's a real challenge to Nintendo at its best in this genre, and that's no mean feat. Just don't go in expecting the same qualities that made the LittleBigPlanet series itself so beloved.
So if you like the characters, you like the songs, and you’ve for whatever reason always wanted to play Puzzle Bobble while occasionally hitting buttons to the rhythm of a Touhou track, then this game is for you. For designers, this is an interesting exercise in how to cram together two sets of clashing game mechanics and achieve a harmonic and synergistic result. I’m still so surprised that Rhythm Game and VS. Puzzler came together in such a deep and intuitive way. But when I’m done asking “what” this game is and I start asking “why” this game is, I only see it as an expensive curiosity, reimagining of Taito’s classic (and better) puzzle game which is available as a Neo Geo Archives title for 12 dollars on the Switch shop.