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Calling Pro Basketball Manager 2022 “basically Football Manager, but with basketball” is not criticism. It’s possibly the best compliment a game like this can get. If you love the sport, love its intricacies, but don’t exactly like playing it, Umix Studios has the game for you.
If there was one thing I wasn’t expecting from Marsupilami: Hoobadventure, it was for it to become of one of my favorite platformers of the year. It’s not just competent, it’s actually surprisingly well-crafted. Well designed levels, great controls, pretty graphics, and a cute sense of humor results in an adorable title that, while far from reinventing the wheel, will easily please Rayman and Donkey Kong Country enthusiasts.
DEEEER Simulator is by no means a well put together game. It lacks polish, optimization, and animations. Its content is random, short, and its levels aren’t huge. However, there is something charming and fun about it. Its over-the-top and outrageous ideas, designs, and activities give you plenty of “WTF” moments. These moments of stupid fun are here, even if they don’t last all that long.
If you are a huge fan of games that never seem to end – Animal Crossing springs to mind – Grow: Song of the Evertree is a exceedingly charming title that brings you on board, whole hog, and gives you endless reasons to stick around. If, like me, you want a game to give you play in bite sized pieces, the servings get too meaty very fast, and you’ll quickly fill up on Grow without having room for more. It’s an excellent experience, but it’s simply too much: I have to take a step back and imagine that Alaria flourishes without me.
I don’t exactly know who BloodRayne: ReVamped is for, or who was clamoring for a revival of this particular game in this particular state, but oddly enough, I like that it exists. Don’t get me wrong, this is beyond dated, unreliable as hell, and as shallow as a puddle, but there’s some fun to be had with this game due to its odd, “mid-budget game from the 2000s” janky charm.
The mere existence of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition might be a joke to some, but the bigger joke would be saying this isn’t still one hell of an immersive RPG. Sure, the addition of mods doesn’t exactly make this version an absolute must-have and its pricing and pre-release marketing campaigns haven’t helped it at all, but it’s still Skyrim. It’s still a great game, with a handful of quality of life improvements.
While I don’t think there’s anything here that’ll dethrone a current favorite, it’s still fun, and that’s more than I can say for some. It ain’t Ikaruga, but it’s a solid game for seven bucks, and definitely worth your time.
Let’s put it this way: given the franchise’s atrocious track record in the gaming world, the fact that Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R is not only not bad, but actually a pretty good (and even occasionally challenging) action-packed racer is a cause for celebration.
Save for some small changes to each of the individual game modes, it’s obvious that most the effort in Vanguard went into multiplayer, which makes sense. Zombies has been brushed almost entirely to the wayside, and while the campaign is fairly lengthy and has a story that actually makes sense, not involving brainwashing, it’s a big win for Call of Duty this year. The hope now is that the season updates, new maps, and hopefully some new Zombies content, can help to fully flesh the game out effectively.
I truly cannot recommend A Short Hike enough. The trailer is both misleading and yet also tells you exactly what you can expect. The experience you have and what you’ll get out of it is up to you. If you skimp on the side stuff and only focus on getting to the top of the mountain, then you’ll probably feel disappointed, especially since you can do so in under an hour. If you take your time fully exploring the island and helping the locals, then you’ll discovery a surprisingly rich and rewarding experience. A Short Hike is a journey you won’t soon forget.
Despite my lack of experience with base building strategy games, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with The Riftbreaker. The way it smartly balances out its story progression and combat made it more accessible to a player like me, while still offering plenty of challenge later on. While I do wish the act of balancing so many home bases and resources was easier, overall the blend of genre’s gave me shots of hectic fun with my growing pains of learning the best tricks. This will be a game I will continue to go back to.
I won’t try to beat around the bush or hide the fact that, yes, Knights of the Old Republic has aged a lot ever since it first came out a whopping eighteen years ago. Its visuals and confusing control scheme weren’t good back then, and they certainly aren’t good now. But there’s just something about this game that makes you want to overcome its issues. It is one hell of an amazing RPG that engrosses you in its rich and detailed world, full of amazing characters and storylines.
Next Star Rebels is an ugly but necessary forced marriage between two warring factions in order to preserve the whole. If you only had a rocket building game without the context as to the how or why items are introduced, you’d get a visually impressive but somewhat pointless game. Kerbal Space Program is more for the hardcore creators, and Next Space Rebels is for those of us with no great bearing on physics or angles, but are willing to learn through trial and error.
I will admit that were some truly frustrating times when I needed to do something that wasn’t explained well, but for the most part, that wasn’t an issue for too long. What kept me going was just how enthralling the cases and characters were. It’s been a while since I’ve been this engrossed by a detective series and its world, but Frogwares took notes from their other games and righted a lot of wrongs. It might not be a perfect game, but Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is a great time in a rich world.
I am not going to pretend I didn’t have a lot of fun with this remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy. At the end of the day, they’re still the PS2 classics, and I have loved them for the past two decades. I also won’t deny that, yes, there ARE some good quality of life improvements in each of the games, such as an improvement aiming system, camera controls, checkpoints, and much more. But man, these visuals, this framerate, these glitches, all of those are unacceptable.
I really enjoyed my time with A Boy and His Blob. I definitely understand now why this adorable little game won the hearts of so many. It might not being the most challenging game on the market, but it’s still a lot of fun. The levels are all very brief, which makes it an ideal game for the Switch. It’s the perfect game to pick up and play on-the-go.
Mario Golf: Super Rush isn’t a bad game, but it simply isn’t that great, either. It’s not golf enough to pull serious sports enthusiasts to the bedside, but it’s not Mario enough for casual players to keep the game going once you’ve played all the courses a couple of times.
While the gameplay in Blue Reflection: Second Light is a treat, the story is why it’s worth your time. I was left guessing up to the bitter end and blindsided by twists – to the point of audible obscenities. It’s so damn intriguing and had me extending my bedtime. I had to see how scenarios would unfold. Sure, the humour is an acquired taste, but even in those instances, the characters are bloody endearing. I couldn’t help but smile like an absolute dork.
Venus: Improbable Dream sits in a very odd position in the visual novel world, and I’m not sure if it’s for better or worse. It doesn’t nearly have the teeth of something like Steins;Gate or The Way We All Go, but it also isn’t as saccharine as Strawberry Vinegar, instead floating somewhere in between. Kakeru and Haruka are a cute pairing without too much insinuation, and Kakeru himself is a fine protagonist, but just fine. He doesn’t have enough humor in his self-loathing, and he has too much awareness in his talent to make his modesty seem genuine. He isn’t unlikable, but he also isn’t the best dude to have to follow around.
Just like the Marvel Cinematic Universe iteration of the franchise, no one expected anything from this game, from this group of miscast nobodies. This isn’t the Avengers, they aren’t perfect, but that is kinda their thing. All this time, I wanted more Guardians of the Galaxy in me. Who would have thought? Sometimes, I guess it is the B-Sides that make or break an album.