TheGamer's Reviews
The idea of trying to execute a medieval GTA-style heist while fending off other players is so good that I want it to work. This is just missing some kind of secret ingredient to make everything come together. Maybe after some time and the addition of DLC, this could be a worthwhile game to play with friends. Hopefully, that happens sooner rather than later, as right now Hood: Outlaws and Legends feels more like a missed opportunity than a bullseye.
The sheer amount of references in Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl made me want to rewatch all of Kevin Smith’s catalog of films, probably while replaying Mall Brawl to find any I missed (I know what you’re thinking, and yes - Dogma is in Mall Brawl). A serviceable beat ‘em up makes it a fine enough game for fans of the genre. Mostly, it’s a game for fans of Jay and Silent Bob as a way to pass the time until Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch makes its way into our loving hands.
Its attachment to the past can hold it back from greatness, especially in regards to its dedication to bombastic set-pieces and a hesitation to explore its own ideas. Village is drenched in excellence throughout, but the occasional fumble stops it from reaching the heights of both its predecessor and the seminal masterpiece it is so desperate to imitate. There’s also not nearly enough big lady - she needs her own game.
At its core, Returnal is one of the most satisfying third-person shooters I’ve played - it’s Hades via Vanquish. It forces you to meet it at its tempo and doesn’t relent. It makes Doom Eternal seem like Baby’s First Shooter. It’s gorgeous, frenetic, and endlessly replayable. I just wish success wasn’t so tied to luck, which only exacerbates any frustrations you have when repeatedly trekking through areas you’ve already beaten. Even after the credits rolled, I felt satisfied, but that satisfaction was also mixed with relief - the ordeal was finally over and the chiropractor's elbow has been removed from the small of my back.
New Pokemon Snap has issues when it comes to tedium between courses, arbitrary solutions, and boring, barely functional extra mechanics, but the courses and Pokemon are legitimately incredible. The Photodex is a marvel, multiplayer creates healthy competition for replayability , and just being able to inhabit Lental is a spectacle in and of itself. I’m not sure I’d recommend it to someone who can’t tell Bagon from Beldum, but if you’re a born and bred Pokemon fan, New Pokemon Snap could be your sleeper hit of the year.
When I wrapped up my experience with Nier Replicant, I realized it was the most satisfied I’d ever felt after working so hard for a particular ending. Yoko Taro asking me to relive the same experiences again and again wasn’t a repetitive journey, but a more meaningful reflection on a cycle of hate, pain, and trauma. Nier Replicant is Yoko Taro’s best work, brought up to modern standards, and finally delivered in the presentation its tale always deserved.
I’m not necessarily a fan of all of the design choices - it’s often both too open ended and too restrictive - but I understand them all, and I wish it was less of an exception to the rule. I can’t fault its narrative, or even its design, despite my disagreements. If someone told me they consider it a perfect game, I wouldn’t have anything besides personal preference to come back at them. But with the fiddly game design likely to block off even more players than the already niche themes, I can’t help but wish a game so focused on socialism could have been more welcoming to the masses.
Silicon Dreams is a tremendous detective game. The way you grill these androids for information is highly engaging. I was surprised many times by the responses I got from my interrogations and the narrative continued to get more and more compelling as I went on. If the idea of delving into the minds of androids to see what makes them tick sounds like a fun time, then you should experience the dystopian nightmare that is Silicon Dreams.
Oddworld: Soulstorm is clearly a labour of love, and I can see that in everything it does. The ambition that bleeds into its story, characters, and gameplay are all evident, but the execution is just sorely lacking everywhere it matters. Perhaps my perspective on past games is warped by nostalgia, but this isn’t the road I imagined Abe and company going down. It’s in the right direction, but they’ve veered off course and landed themselves in a ditch.
Outriders would have been a much better game had the campaign been half as long and the end game had twice as much content. I had fun exploring the dozen or so environments throughout the story mode, but the game doesn’t start firing on all cylinders until the gear you get becomes meaningful. The disposable nature of gear during the campaign/leveling process makes the game feel a lot more shallow than it actually is, and getting players to that end-game grind sooner would likely have exposed a lot more players to the best that Outriders has to offer.
The music is as diverse, and I often found myself just sitting back, taking it all in, because the second I picked up the controller, the magic clashed with how stiff the character was. That toppled with awkward controls that often stutter or outright don't work, and Wonderworld fails in the most important part of any platformer - movement.
If you love building games, creating elaborate strings of traps, playing the bad guy, and generally living your best island life scamming tourists, Evil Genius 2 is for you.
Ultimately, the decision as to whether or not you should snag the next-gen version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 boils down to one thing: do you want to spend the additional $10? If you purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game for PS4, you’ve already paid that $10, so you’re already entitled to the PS5 version. Unfortunately, if you bought the physical disc version of the game, you’ll have to shell out the full price of the game if you decide to upgrade. Is it worth it? Sure. But it’s already a 5-star game. The technical enhancements aren’t going to immensely increase the overall fun factor and experience of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. And, really, that should be all that matters.
It Takes Two is, without a doubt, the best co-op game you can play right now. It’s much more ambitious and bigger budget than A Way Out, which was still brilliant in its own way. Josef Fares and the team at Hazelight take things to the next level here, and I can only imagine what they’ll do when they’re inevitably given a triple-A budget. Grab a friend by the hand and pull them through an adventure unlike any other as soon as you can - you won’t regret it.
You might actually like Rise better than World, as it brings back some of the strategic variety while building on more recent quality-of-life updates. It's a shame that the Switch holds the game back in small ways, but this is a contender for best in the series. If post-launch support is as good as it was for World, this game could easily rise above the rest.
The tagline for the game’s developer, Roomah Gaming, reads “We produce art.” Memories of East Coast is a short, yet wonderful experience that definitely delivers on that statement.
I would highly recommend checking this out if you're looking for an original indie experience. I tend to criticize games when they make me run around in circles, but I'm more than willing to make an exception for Loop Hero.
This is a game in between a rock and a hard place, and while it will definitely find its audience, it won’t make it onto any list of essential RPGs as its predecessor did.
Had the gameplay been tuned up a bit more I could see myself recommending this, but unfortunately, Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is one game that feels like it came back from the dead a little too soon.
Ultimately, Super Mario 3D World, in this package, is the best that game has ever been, with the increased speed and ease of multiplayer access making it far more enticing than ever before. Bowser’s Fury, meanwhile, is essentially the Super Mario Odyssey DLC that never was. It feels like Odyssey’s level and game design sensibilities, but placed in the Super Mario 3D World game engine, with all of the power-ups and quirks that game has to make something truly unique. Putting both of these games in one package is the best decision that Nintendo has made in a long while, as Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is one of the best Mario offerings available on Nintendo Switch, which is lofty praise given the existence of Super Mario Maker 2. Now it just needs the option to play again, but as Luigi.