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Puzzle Bobble Everybubble is basically more of the tried and true formula that has been going on for the past thirty years. Despite that somewhat dismissive statement, don’t call that criticism. The franchise has tried to reinvent itself in the recent past with a 3D iteration, and it didn’t work very well. Returning back to its more successful format, with just a few additions here and there to pretty much justify its existence as a brand new, commercially-available product, was the right choice.
Pulling No Punches is a very hard sell unless you fall into its specific target audience: fed-up Brazilians who had to deal with a stupidly stressful couple of years during the pandemic. If you fall into this niche demographic, this is the catharsis you’ve been waiting for. If not, you can still have fun with its good controls and decent art style, but the in-game jokes and overall premise will mean nothing to you.
Gekisou! Benza Race: Toilet Shooting Star is a truly baffling waste of time I would have clearly ignored if it was kept as a Japanese eShop exclusive, as it should have been. It wasn’t the case, however, as some mad mind decided to release it in the West with absolutely no translation or localization efforts. What we ended up getting as a result was a near criminal waste of thirteen dollars, where you can’t have fun with its premise, nor can you understand what the hell is happening onscreen. Fittingly enough, a game about toilets deserves to be thrown into one.
Star Trek: Resurgence absolutely shines when it shines. In many ways, it is the Star Trek game I always wanted; an outstanding Star Trek story, walking the halls of a starship with its crew, enjoying new races, and exploring the outskirts of space. But because of everything that doesn’t fall into those categories, it feels this voyage was ten years too late.
Whatever gripes I may have faced during my dozens, perhaps hundreds of hours with Tears of the Kingdom, don’t make it any less engrossing and amazing. It’s not perfect, it’s not my favorite Zelda game of all time, it’s not even the best game we’ve played and reviewed in 2023. But does that really matter? At the end of the day, it’s an improvement over Breath of the Wild, a really impossible task that Eiji Aonuma managed to achieve.
Afterlife VR falls nicely into the B-tier Horror niche and does a decent job for doing only that, but is too afraid of being anything more. Unknown protagonist goes to unknown location with an unknown connection to an uninteresting story with an unsurprising twist ending. In the end, I have seen Afterlife VR 100 times, basically when my 6 year old watches a random spooky game playthrough on YouTube.
Humanity is the kind of experimental breath of fresh air we rarely see being released nowadays. Evoking the spirit of the more bizarre and experimental games from the Dreamcast era, it features a bonkers premise and a pointless plot, but also excellent controls, a really intuitive gameplay loop, and of course, as to be expected from a game published by Enhance, trippy visuals and great music.
Destiny 2 Lightfall was an important expansion for Bungie to get right. Just as faith was being rebuilt with the phenomenal Witch Queen expansion, it’s a shame they couldn’t keep the momentum going. Lightfall feels like a huge step backwards. There is some fun to be had and the changes that have been made to the core formula but it’s not enough and I feel my time with Destiny is about to come to its end unless we see some massive improvements in the coming year.
I’m not going to say that Pretty Girls 2048 Strike is terrible because, honestly, it isn’t. Especially when compared to some other atrocious games released by the same publisher in recent times. Sadly, it’s just very unnecessary. By the time the game becomes somewhat challenging and interesting, you’ll be wondering why the hell weren’t you just playing 2048 on your phone, for free, while doing something else at the same time.
Lunark was a game that intrigued me at first, given the style and the teams behind its development. Unfortunately, at every turn, it did nothing but let me down with its overly forced story, and nothing to keep any interest in it in terms of presentation and gameplay. The longer I spent in this world, the less invested I was in its story. These beats were few and far between, with nothing like notes or diaries left around to fill out the story and world. There was nothing in the gameplay to keep me invested as well. All in all, it was unfortunately just a bland game that thought it was more interesting than what it actually ended up being.
Herodes is way more interesting than it seems at first glance. Sure, its difficulty curve borders on the unfair at first, and its in-game economy basically means you are forced to replay some levels in order to afford its borderline mandatory upgrades, but once you’re finally upgraded to a desirable degree, everything clicks. Each level features a unique gimmick or objective, the presentation is decent enough, and the controls are pretty good.
Horizon Call of the Mountain is absolutely a must-own, whether you are a carryover fan from Zero Dawn and Forbidden West or not. It is a good Horizon title that introduces you to characters and a story you hope to see more of, mixed inside a fantastic experience that showcases PSVR2 like no other title on the market. Just jump in knowing this is experience first and a game second, albeit a very close second, and not PlayStation’s answer to Half-Life: Alyx.
Fans of Fairy Fencer F should get in on this title and get in now. Drink deep of this lore and excellent scripting before it becomes bloated with extra noise, and enjoy it as such. If you’re scared by the change in approach, don’t be: a good IP can wear any hat as long as it fits. Refrain Chord wears the helmet of SRPG well, and players will honestly feel so much better being able to enjoy this new storyline without also wondering when their console/PC is about to crash.
Propagation: Paradise Hotel creates not only a fantastic VR title, but also a great horror game in its own right. It takes the old-school Resident Evil formula and adds an extra layer of immersion. Propagation: Paradise Hotel is genuinely scary and engaging, but its short runtime, occasional jankiness and incomplete story are holding it back from being a truly great game.
Overall, Modus Games had the recipe for potential greatness and it looked good in the pictures, but it didn’t taste as good as it looked. Hindered by lack of options and accessibility, too much focus on the fighting game presentation, and not enough on rhythm which is the main aspect of the game, their attempt to marry the two genres ended up missing on both. There are other rhythm games that attempts to incorporate a different genre (like JRPG) such as Theatrhythm and does so expertly, sadly, this did not.
Even if some of its levels felt poorly designed, I ended up enjoying Panic Porcupine quite a lot. From its silly premise (never thought I’d give a crap about this game’s plot, but here we are), sublime presentation, and somewhat fair initial difficulty curve, the game did a great job at mixing the gameplay styles from both Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Meat Boy in a cohesive and enjoyable way. There’s little else that needs to be said about it: if you’re into either franchises, Panic Porcupine is a no-brainer.
What a massive disappointment. Sure, the fact this overly ambitious game was a single developer effort is something worth commending, for the scope is quite surprising, but this ended up being its main issue as well. Molly Medusa shouldn’t have been this ambitious, or at least it should have spent more time in the oven before being sent out to the public. It’s chock full of terrible gameplay decisions, poor puzzles, and nauseating camera controls.
Whether you have only touched upon the Playstation 4 and later titles or dabbled in mobile game hijinks; if you’ve owned every Nintendo title since inception and still have four Gameboy Advance adapters for your Gamecube; if there’s even a shred of you that remembers brute forcing through the original with a party of four Fighters, then I have to let you know: this game is for you.
Dead Island 2, regardless of bouncing between developers, has risen like a phoenix. The punchy combat and campy dialogue coalesce to give birth to an addictive and joyous romp. The humor tickles my fancy, giving me a warm feeling in the tum tum.
Final Fantasy was the game that literally saved Squaresoft. It transformed a no name company into one of the biggest Publishers in the industry. And the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster shows why, with it’s simple yet elegant plot and gameplay. Crystals, Warriors of Light, Airships, Bahamut, it all began here. Playing through the game was a bit like falling in love with the genre all over again.