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Switchback VR begins as everything I wanted from a follow-up to Rush of Blood. By the end of the first track, I was sold and ready to sign off on it for anyone interested. Then it slowly took one step back for every two steps forward. Atmosphere is creepy and tense, but it isn’t all that scary. Environment is so fantastic and awe inspiring, but that screen door effect. Graphics and character modeling are outstanding, but those fire effects. Switchback VR is a fantastic game, and you should grab it in case you own a PSVR2, but there is always small “but” hindering it from becoming perfect.
Void Terrarium 2 is a fun experience. Much like the Mystery Dungeon games, its gameplay loop is an ideal pick for portable play, be it Switch or Steam Deck, but I still had a good time with it on the PS4. Each run can be quite quick and give you new things to collect and craft in the hub, giving it a surprisingly arcadey, “pick up and play” vibe. It’s a great game if you like dungeon crawlers in general, for it offers a lot of variety to the original formula. It’s a natural progression from other games in the genre, and a great progression from the first game for fans that checked that one out.
The developers proved they listened to their fans by including more travel banter and all-new companion sidequests, giving them believable reasons as to why they would be traveling with each other. All the new features enhanced an already great concept, making Octopath Traveler II a true masterpiece of a RPG.
It wasn’t always clear what should be done, it wasn’t always easy, but it did always manage to be unerringly true to itself. Like skydiving or another extreme activity, I would cautiously tell the right people to give it a try and find so much that, honestly, is like nothing else. Are you the right people? You may just need to buy a train ticket and find out.
The Wreck is definitely not a game for everyone. Admittedly, it’s pretty tough to get through, for a variety of reasons. It has a somewhat slow start, which might turn some people off. It also covers several mature topics and themes, such as grief, death, self-harm, and toxic relationships. However, for those who love a compelling narrative, The Wreck has that in spades.
Mile High Taxi has its flaws, namely in the lack of challenge (unless you play in Sequential Mode) and the occasional visual glitch, but color me impressed: this is one of the best, if not the best Crazy Taxi clone I might have ever played. It makes up for its flaws with its unique setting, excellent performance, and the fact that, at the end of the day, it plays and feels like a Sega arcade from 1999. It is a clone, no doubt about it, but with enough qualities of its own.
All this said, I couldn’t help but be pulled from my enjoyment. As fantastic as a puzzle experience it is, as many flowers as I see it deserves, I was often left wondering, “Isn’t VR past this?” Like the VR Experience games before it, hasn’t seven years worth of progress been enough to move on from Escape Room puzzle games, or Food Simulators? These are great for introductory games to virtual reality, but The Last Clockwinder isn’t presented as an introductory experience, it’s presented as a premiere experience.
2MD VR Football Unleashed All-Star is not meant to replace Madden. However, it is so confident in the experience it is, they put it right there in the title. You aren’t going to spend two hours in the game, playing through an entire season, nor are you meant to. But two minutes? Two minutes to become a legend? Two minutes to become a football all-star? Yeah. I’ll take that. You aren’t going to stop from being in the zone, staying loose on your toes, using your hand to wave your WR open, pump faking, nothing that is actually a move inside the game, and that’s ok.
The UI is still terrible, but playable. And the AI is again absolutely braindead, but we all know the real game is in the mutiplayer anyway. And Cyanide has already posted a comprehensive roadmap, which should fill in a few missing gaps as well. Still as fun as it is, Blood Bowl 3 is a warning of what some developers and publishers are willing to try to make a quick buck. It may be fixed and fun now, but we can’t forget when it wasn’t.
I can’t help but constantly feel like this game, or its predecessor, could have just been part of a cheaper upgrade DLC pack, or something akin to what Konami did with PES before its demise a couple of years ago. There’s just no reason for Monster Energy Supercross 6 to be a full-fledged game. If you really want a supercross game and don’t own a single one so far, then sure, Monster Energy Supercross 6 is an excellent choice. But if you already own any of its predecessors, just stick to them.
Color me impressed, Justice League: Cosmic Chaos was actually quite fun. Is it too simplistic? Yes. Is its combat beyond shallow? Yup. Did I dislike the fact I only have three playable superheroes at my disposable? For sure. With all that being said, it was pretty hard not to fall for such a cheerful presentation, with some high quality voice acting, and an open world that was just fun to full around as a cocky and pun-loving Superman.
Ib is a slow burn of disquiet and high strangeness that gets you with a scare and keeps you with the story. It’s a fantastic marriage of art and gameplay, and it’s worth a trip to see the crafting of something truly unique. Beware; the art may not show what you want to see.
If you love Digimon and want to play some great Digimon games, don’t worry: between Cyber Sleuth and Survive, you have more than enough content to satiate your needs on the Switch. Digimon World: Next Order is nowhere near as good, fun, engaging or memorable as these other titles. Sure, it might be a love letter to a PS1 classic (?), but there’s a reason as to why not a single other Digimon World besides that first game had Tamagotchi-based gameplay, it just wasn’t fun.
Peak Blinders: The King’s Ransom gave me a few brief moments that made me smile with happiness, being within that world and its characters. Although, much of that is only because of the things that are ripped right from the show. Unfortunately, it’s every where else that it fails. The boring general gameplay and the one note gunplay wasn’t fun, and it left me with a sour taste, even during the ceremony joining the Peaky Blinders and getting my hat.
For many far of the franchise Fatal Frame Mask of the Lunar Eclipse has been an incredibly long time coming with the first time it’s launched officially outside of Japan. Providing one of the series’ most compelling stories; ambitiously weaving the adventures of four protagonists. Unfortunately, some gameplay issues hold it back from being a true classic. With Fatal Frame finally back in the spotlight there is hope for more.
This is a straightforward recreation of a simple, but addictive Atari game very few people have even heard of. That’s probably why Caverns of Mars: Recharged feels oddly fresh. It feels like the kind of indie roguelike any small team would develop as its first title. It’s also a game that manages to overcome some of its flaws, namely an average presentation and questionable collision detection, by simply being way too addictive, the perfect kind of game to own on a portable.
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo is an absorbing romp that leaves you dumbfounded. You could say there’s not nearly enough banter, and indeed a character or two that are forgettable, but those that get attention surely shine. If you’re someone that thinks reading in video games is lame, the Visual Novel genre isn’t for you. I won’t sugarcoat it; that’s the bread of butter and why these titles enamour me and so many.
Once you get used to the controls in the Story mode, skip towards the game’s sandbox mode. With little to no stakes or objectives, Hotel Renovator quickly becomes a relaxing game to be enjoyed while listening to music or a podcast, as the game itself barely has any music to begin with. That’s the bizarre magic behind games like this one and House Flipper. They are beyond flawed, buggy, messy, not very intuitive, but there’s an inexplicably relaxing gameplay loop in the middle of all this mess.
Personally, I might revisit Pronty at some point in the future, but it simply won’t bubble to the front of 2023 as the forerunner for what game I would want to play. It’s classy, it’s structurally sound, but I feel like I’ve been down this road several times and it doesn’t have anything that sticks out as a “one more time” moment. Perhaps others will enjoy their voyage under the sea, but I had to surface, pronto.
Return to Dream Land Deluxe has a lot baked in, but I would have rather that Magolor’s quest launch as a separate game, and then had Dream Land Deluxe be a forty dollar standalone with the option to DLC Magolor in if it meant that much to people. We’ve seen what Kirby can be, and yes, the next “new” Kirby game probably will be. But this is what we’ve gotten this year, and I have to call it like it is. It’s cute, it’s fun, and it makes my family happy. It’s just slightly overvaluing its own worth to make it a solid purchase at the time, and that, like Kirby, sucks.