USgamer's Reviews
Lifeless Planet is an interesting mash-up of genres, blending a walking simulator and platform-puzzling with a mysterious and quite gripping premise. Its slow pace mightn't be for everyone, but if you enjoy action adventures, are partial to tricky third-person platforming, and like classic sci-fi yarns, it's worth checking out.
The single-player aspect of Tricky Towers is challenging, but can get rather frustrating due to its random elements. However, as a multiplayer game, Tricky Towers works really well. Its tower-building gameplay is incredibly easy to pick up and play, and it delivers fierce and fun competition that offers plenty of ways for players to mess with one another. Definitely recommended as a party game, or if you have friends and family to play with.
This may be an entry in a highly specialized and generally unfriendly genre, but you'll be hard-pressed to find a better example of the type. Heartless, demanding, infuriating, yet seemingly boundless in the depth of its content and mechanics, the latest Shiren the Wanderer adventure wraps taxing game design in just-one-more replay appeal. Think of it as the Wolverine of console roguelikes: It's the best there is at what it does, and what it does isn't very nice.
Keeping with the tradition of Monster Hunter sequels, Generations doesn't rock the boat. Instead, it doubles down on the core formula, while tweaking several existing features to make them much friendlier. Overall, it's an experience designed for Monster Hunter veterans—but one that also extends a helping hand to newcomers.
Adventures of Mana kind of feels like watching a colorized version of It's a Wonderful Life — an entertaining work either way, but not actually improved by its "improvements."
Insomniac Games' Song of the Deep is an excellent metroidvania whose underwater setting gives the genre a nice twist. Its map is impressively large, and it packs many inventive puzzles that are fun to solve. It looks and sounds brilliant too. The boss battles are a little on the weak side however, but they don't take the shine off what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable and very sweet exploration game.
Despite some combat balancing issues and some occasionally too-linear design, 7th Dragon III offers a top-class portable role-playing experience. Thankfully, you don't need to be familiar with the unlocalized earlier games in the series to grasp the story, and its wealth of customization options make for a fairly breezy RPG experience... at least until you get to those brutal True Dragon fights, anyway.
Full Mojo Rampage is challenging, but entertaining. It might have some stiff competition in the form of similar games like Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, and Crypt of the Necrodancer, but its voodoo theme, four-player co-op, and twin stick chops help give it its own identity. Ultimately, it's a fun game that might occasionally be frustrating, but it looks good, sounds great, and plays well.
This port of the popular PC prison-building game has been nicely executed to deliver a deep and compelling experience on consoles. Its complex menus and mechanics present a fairly steep learning curve, even with the game's effective tutorials, but once you get over it, Prison Architect is a challenging, entertaining, and surprisingly addictive game that offers plenty of potential for long-term play.
Grand Kingdom has a lot of really great ideas: its map setup, its use of obstacles to force you to think tactically, and its online integration are all great. But once you get past the game's second layer, it starts to plateau, which is disappointing. Whether it's more unique enemies, multi-layed class synergy, or more consequential online wars, Grand Kingdom feels like it's missing that little something extra. With that, I really hope there's a sequel. I'd hate to see all these great ideas go to waste.
While Star Ocean started as an innovative series full of fun, bold ideas, its current form amounts to the most middle-of-the-road RPG experience you could possibly have. It's not particularly awful, but in a reality full of RPGs, so many better options exist.
Combine a highly compelling visual narrative with superb puzzles and brilliant platforming, and you have Inside, one of the most intriguing, addictive, and beautiful-looking games of this generation. Its only downside is that it's quite short, but while it lasts, it's absolutely glorious.
Pac-Man 256 takes the original coin-op's gameplay and gives it a clever new twist to create an endless muncher that's hugely fun to play. On the surface it looks simple, but its gameplay has surprising depth that makes it fiendishly addictive - and highly challenging to master.
While Rhythm Heaven veterans might find themselves wishing for more new content, Megamix still manages to work its gleeful charms in the series' heartwarmingly absurdist fashion. And if you've never tried the series before, Megamix amounts to the most refined and approachable entry to date.
With a game that shrouds so many truths in mystery, it's definitely hard to lose interest in the plot—especially if you've been a fan of the series since 999 and never thought this final installment would even be a possibility.
Mighty No. 9 contains the seeds of a good platforming franchise, but for now they're exactly that: Seeds. In its current state, Keiji Inafune's intended successor to the Mega Man series lacks creativity, joy, and character – not to mention several weeks' worth of polish.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE has a little bit of Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei for flavor, but honestly the title stands out as its own thing. Fans of Shin Megami Tensei spinoff Persona will find a lot to love: great characters, a heavy dose of Japanese entertainment, and a solid battle system. And if you're a Wii U owner, this is a great RPG to close out the system's lifespan.
Deadlight: Director's Cut looks fantastic and has a very intriguing storyline. Its platforming puzzles are also generally really enjoyable to solve. However, a few annoying gameplay flaws, occasionally awkward controls, and very short running time really take the edge off the experience, and ultimately the game falls short of its considerable potential.
Fenix Furia is a hardcore micro-platformer that somehow manages to be incredibly challenging, yet still enjoyable to play. Some of its levels will have you cursing out loud due to their high level of difficulty, but when you beat them, you'll whoop with joy. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you want to test your reflexes and coordination to their limits, Fenix Furia is a game that does just that.
While Catalyst keeps up the great first-person parkour action of the first game, the awkward smashing of its parts into the ubiquitous, open-world model hasn't done Mirror's Edge any favors. The overall aesthetic and sense of momentum still have their charms, but it's disappointing to see EA Dice take such a safe, predictable approach with what once felt like a boldly unique property.