LadiesGamers.com's Reviews
One of the biggest features of Quest Hunter which deserves a lot of praise is that you can play online and cross-platform with PC, Xbox, and Switch players. This is a huge deal and definitely under-praised. For this review my wife was able to play on the Switch in handheld mode while my friend from America and myself were playing on PC. We were able to set up a private game with a password, save, and enjoy the game together. Not only was it simple to set up but the game ran well across all systems. I loved searching for treasures and then stopping now and then to do a little dance with the various in-game emotes. This game will easily hold a special memory for me because of these small quirky moments. Quest Hunter is a fun little dungeon crawler. I enjoyed it alone, but playing with friends across other platforms really brought this game to life. Hunting for treasure with friends never felt so good. Now where did I leave my shovel?
West of Dead reminds me of Dark Souls a little bit in that it made me feel like I was leveling up my own ability to play the game, rather than just leveling up a stat and then all of a sudden being able to stomp. I haven’t really played many roguelike games, but if this is what they can be like, then sign me up. I loved the fact that every level was procedurally generated and thus different every time I entered it. This is especially good because you will (likely) die a lot, and when you die you have to go back to the beginning. You get to keep any upgrades you’ve unlocked, like the health potion, but any guns, buffs, and items you had must be re-collected throughout the levels. The point: after dying a lot, it’s nice to start back at the beginning and basically be playing a whole new game again. I would highly recommend this game to anyone, even if you’re not a fan of the genre. I honestly wouldn’t have counted myself among the fans of the genre and probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to pick this one up. BUT, I would have missed out on a truly amazing game that is worth a purchase and worth a play. So no matter who you are, consider giving this one a go. It comes out on the Switch on August 5th, don’t let it pass you by. Raw Fury knows what they’re doing when they publish a game, after all.
I’m slightly disappointed in The Great Perhaps. The game expands no further on Kosmos’ feelings that lead to his declaration at the start of the game of not wanting to live. I think it’s a missed opportunity. The non-responsive controls when switching off the lantern can quickly turn into a very frustrating experience, while watching Kosmos die through no fault of your own. The story, while interesting, comes to an abrupt halt at the end of the 3 hours or so it takes to complete the game. I guess that leaving the story on a cliffhanger at the end leaves the door open for a Great Perhaps 2. We shall have to wait and see on that one.
There are glimmers of fun here. I do not wish to ignore those. Driving down the open road, delivering your cargo in the night-time rain can be a relaxing experience. However, these moments are so few that they simply do not warrant the price being asked of by this title. The real problem here is that the game is clearly unfinished. Were the publishers asking a lower price of the title then many of the problems above could be overlooked. Currently though the price remains worryingly high and therefore not something I can recommend.
It is clear that Radical Fish Games is a devoted and talented developer who wants to make an excellent game. I think that if you love long sci-fi or fantasy RPGs, you’ll absolutely love this. If you want a game guaranteed to give you your money’s worth, CrossCode will satisfy. But you should be warned: this game is very grindy, the story beats are spaced hours apart, and the dungeons are as aggravating as they are punishing. This game is insanely popular, but as I get older, I don’t have the mental willpower to push myself through a 50+ hour grindfest laced with aggravating puzzle-platforming. If you are young, or young at heart, you’ll find a lot to like about this game, but if you’re a busy adult who doesn’t like long, difficult games, CrossCode asks a lot of your time and patience.
My friends give me a hard time since I find fairly mundane tasks to be relaxing. I was well suited to this title as this game is filled with the repetitive job of survival. You harvest items, cut down trees, build shelter. A storm comes through and blows your shelter down. You build it again. You run out of a needed resource, and can’t figure out how to progress, so you reset and try again. Fail better next time. How much play and enjoyment you get out of this game depends on how appealing that sort of strategy of survival scenario sounds to you. Personally, once I got around the slightly frustrating learning curve, I’ve found this game to be excellent to play while listening to podcasts, or a TV show you’re only half watching. I suspect for most people it will be one to only grab on sale, as your mileage may vary on how interesting you find it.
I am enjoying my time in Mineral Town. The game is charming, the characters feel real and who can resist those round cute chickens and cows? No doubt this game will bring many happy memories to gamers who started their gaming life playing this game on their GBA. If, like me, you have never played it before, you can expect a good farming sim on the Switch. It doesn’t have the building aspect of later Story of Seasons games and if you are a Stardew Valley fan, you may find it too light hearted. But Friends of Mineral Town is a good Story of Seasons entry with heaps of nostalgia to boot.
It is this moment of realisation that led me to my current opinion of Pokémon Café Mix. Forcing an adult player into the position detailed above is one thing. But when the game is rated as E for everyone the design choice begins to feel rather unethical. Even after restarting the game and forcing Munchlax into café servitude I found my enjoyment of the game had evaporated. Whilst you may find that the initial stages of the game fill you with joy and happiness. Much like that double espresso shot, the dizzying highs will soon be followed by the inevitable crash. My advice; grab a copy of Tetris and sip some water instead.
Despite some noticeable performance issues, utterly frustrating controls at times, and sometimes ridiculously hard sections, I actually found Biped an enjoyable game. I wouldn’t recommend it for a young audience though; it’s too demoralising, as just holding a direction for a fraction of a second too long or sometimes even the game itself flinging you too far off a ramp can mean death. It’s cute, quirky, and I love the idea, but it needs some tweaks and polishing before I’d go back and try for the optional challenges.
The Forgotten Land is an enjoyable game, though there isn’t anything new as such in the gameplay that we haven’t seen before. However, that does not make it a bad game by any means, sometimes staying with a tried and tested formula is a good way to go. I liked the variety of different games, such as the card game that I wasn’t expecting to play in a match 3/strategy game, and I think it was a great idea to include them to break up the play a little and stop the dreaded repetitive feeling setting in that can happen in other games of this genre.
I couldn’t help dream about what this game could be. With the fun gameplay, the jet packs and swimming in water I pinned for a full blow 3D platformer with a bigger story and massive worlds to explore. Unfortunately game development is very expensive and the development team here clearly put a lot of passion into this project with limited resources. One hopes this game is a stepping stone to bigger projects down the road. Staring otters still – of course. The Otterman Empire will not be everyone’s cup of tea/coffee. If you’re able to look past some rough textures and gameplay hiccups there’s something quite special here to enjoy alone or with some friends. It has one major accolade to its name – its easily the best otter game available on Switch!
From the sweeping visual appeal, to the emotive and often soothing audio. The story will guide you through the ups and downs of a creature experiencing a world they cannot fully understand. Something I imagine many of us might be feeling at this moment in time. As such I can heartily recommend The Wanderer, not as a game, but as an experience. One to savour and enjoy with a warm cup of tea and a flickering candle at one’s side. Mary Shelley would be proud.
The length of this visual novel is pretty satisfying. I made it from the beginning to one of the endings within an evening. While that’s pretty short, the many endings give the game plenty of replay potential. In a visual novel with sparse mechanics, the story element of the game is key. However, the confusing world-building, unexpectedly dark tone and timeline jumping will keep me from picking the game up again.
Watching online playthroughs made me realize that other players were equivalently struggling. Admittedly, this made me feel a little less bad about my own failings. Seeing those players reinforced the two cores issues I have with Radio Squid. Coins as currency and lives combined with unforgiving gameplay that harshly penalizes the player for failing and lacking swiftier reflexes don’t form an experience worth investing in. All in all, I don’t think Radio Squid is truly an adorable lost cephalopod. There’s evident potential for fun here. Albeit with some significant tweaks to how the game plays and is overall constructed. If Radio Squid altered the item drop rate, made Upgrades available more often, and didn’t punish the player ludicrously severely for dying, this game could be something special.
A huge positive about the game is it only takes up 7.1 GB digitally on your Switch or micro SD card. This is pretty incredible for a game of this size and magnitude. There are so many games coming to the Switch that are clocking in over 40 GB. It’s welcoming to see developers take into account file sizes. Trails of Cold Steel III is an adventure well worth taking if you’re a fan of RPGs or just anime in general. It’s bursting with content and when I was actually playing the game I was not disappointed. For me the story became a bit much in places. Far too many dialogue sections interrupted the fun game play. This may suit some but I prefer to play a video game more than watch or read it. Despite this it’s hard to ignore that Trial of Cold Steel III is a great RPG and well worth going back to school to experience.
Railway Empire is a deep, engrossing simulation strategy game. Once you get the hang of the controls and the finer points of running a mega railway empire, you’ll spend many hours playing with trains. For train enthusiasts this is the game you need and for those of us that are looking for their next strategy simulation hit then look no further than Railway Empire! That only leaves me with one thing to say before I rush off to carry on building my vast rail empire across the UK and transport some much needed meat to those hungry folk in Kilkenny, my score is Two Thumbs Up.
This bring us to both collections’ biggest issue. Darius as a series must be programmed with some kind of rare metal because they always seem to command a very high price for entry. I noted this back in the day when I reviewed Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours for the Vita. This issue will be the main reason people will avoid a purchase, especially with current circumstances in the world. The other notable issue is that these collections are not complete collections of the Darius series. This is nothing new with retro collections in general, but the oddest omission is that of the first Darius game on the Console Collection. The reason it’s a bit fishy is that this game was released on the Mega Drive Mini which was also developed by M2 and yet is strangely missing from this collection. There are also a variety of other titles and ports missing that enthusiasts of the series may be disappointed not to have. Both the Arcade Collection and Console Collection are brilliant. M2 has once again outdone themselves and proved they’re the best at retro gaming on modern systems. It’s a shame the price is so darn high though, especially since I really couldn’t see owning only one of these collections. If you do take the plunge you have a brilliant collection of one of the best schmup series from ye old days.
Urban Flow has 100 levels in the core campaign but there’s always the incentive to replay levels to gain the 3 star rating. Getting more stars rewards you by unlocking a variety of things like new cars and buildings. As well as this, there are additional modes like endless mode to keep you busy even longer. This game is easy to dip in and out of even if you just need a really quick gaming fix. Who would have thought a game about controlling traffic lights could be so much fun. Well, Urban Flow proves simple ideas can still make incredibly good games. A good time alone but this game really came alive when I played with my wife and will now hold a special place in gaming memories for the two of us. I really enjoyed playing this one, as James mentions the music was great and it was easy to get to grips with. It added in some extra twists to keep you on your toes and to keep the levels interesting without becoming tedious. It also got your brain moving a lot more than you might think it would. I also would have loved it if you actually were the pigeons that got hold of the controller but then one can dream! Melissa
Ultracore feels like a Mega Drive rom just released onto Switch. To some this will be fine. Its a complete Mega Drive game that never got it’s time in the spotlight back in the day. Besides adjusted controls and soundtrack the game offers no quality of life improvements. No options to adjust the graphics, no save states, no gameplay modifiers. Whilst it’s absolutely nice to play it on Switch, this game package is really stuck in the past. Whilst I have my grievances I’m a retro guy and as an old Mega Drive game I did like this title. It’s just a shame more attention wasn’t given to this port. Retro lovers should absolutely look into adding this to their library, but I don’t think there is enough here to convince newcomers. For me, this took me back to the nineties playing my Mega Drive instead of the Switch. Nostalgic time travel at its best.
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters is a wonderful survival horror game full of spooky demonic things, Lovecraftian-esque tentacle spooks, Korean legend stuff, and lovely artwork and sound. I haven’t played The Coma: Recut (the first game) but I read some brief reviews, and it seems like controls were the main sticky issue with that one. I honestly felt like the controls in Vicious Sisters were really good, nicely responsive and smooth. I noticed a character on the first game’s cover art that also appears in 2, so I’m sure if you’ve played the first game there will be lots of fun character and story things carrying over into the second game. Even without playing the first game, I would definitely recommend the second. It makes me want to play more mind games with myself and get back into the genre.