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The Caligula Effect 2 might still have the excellent combat system that made its predecessor worth any JRPG fan’s time, but unlike that game, it doesn’t feature an engaging story with memorable characters, nor is it well-paced as it used to be. Sadly, it is as generic as a dystopian JRPG starring Japanese teenagers (a subgenre that is way bigger than one would initially believe) can be.
The Crysis Remastered Trilogy is finally here on pretty much all modern systems. These flawed but wonderful tactical shooters have never hit their fully potential in terms of popularity and polish, but have always been enjoyable on so many levels. It’s even better now, all thanks to some pretty good remastering work coming from Crytek. The trilogy is well worth playing today despite its flaws, and I hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Nanosuit.
Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed my time with Xuan-Yuan Sword 7. Being able to play a game set in ancient China was a breath of fresh air. There’s so much rich lore and mythology surrounding that culture, which has been largely underrepresented in the West.
Metroid Dread is, well, another 2D Metroid, and that is worth celebrating if you’re a fan of the franchise. It will not, by any means, convert newcomers into die-hard fans of the series, given how it assumes you’ve played its predecessors right from the get-go, but it offers a crap ton of fanservice and excellent level design for those who know what to expect from a Metroid game. If only it didn’t have so many obnoxious stealth horror sections that did nothing but halt my overall enjoyment with it, this could have challenged Super Metroid as to which entry in the series is the greatest of all time.
I didn’t know what to expect from UNSIGHTED, but all I know is that I was pleasantly surprised by the results. It’s a game that features a really fun and fast-paced combat system, with some excellent world design, all tied together by a really unique time mechanic. This might be a game that will fly under everyone’s radar, but I would highly recommend UNSIGHTED to anyone looking for a good challenge or a fun world to explore.
It suffers from poor visuals and an even more unstable framerate than the one that plagued the original PS4 and Xbox One releases of the game. You will want to get Darksiders III on the Switch only if you’re a die-hard fan of the franchise or if you’re into grabbing these novelty Switch ports of games that supposedly should not be able to run on such inferior hardware.
Flynn: Son of Crimson has been one of the few games in recent times I couldn’t put down once I got started. It was a perfect mix between great visuals, retro-styled gameplay, a challenging but never unfair level of difficulty, and an excellent progression system encouraging you to revisit past levels. This is a game I really want for people to find out about, as it would be criminal for a gem like this one to be overlooked by players out there.
Rogue Lords takes some of the most entertaining elements from Slay the Spire and adds its own macabre twist in order to create something that is equally derivative and unique. This is not a roguelike that will please everyone, since its difficulty curve is off the charts, but there’s a lot to like in here, from the horror themes and surprisingly captivating story to the sense of accomplishment when you manage to finish a run with a souped up squad.
I really wanted to like Tails of Iron more than I did. Everything about its presentation, from its graphics to its phenomenal storytelling, hooked me. It had everything to be one of my favorite indies of the year. But the gameplay just HAD to resort to annoying cheap tropes found in less successful Soulslikes, throwing you into waves of small rooms where you have to deal with hordes of enemies that can one-shot you just by blinking.
It seems to be at odds with itself as to what kind of game it wants to be. There are calm moments of catharsis and reflection, but this is undercut by enemy encounters and poor flying mechanics. Even the brief sections where you are allowed to walk around are frustrating because Mei moves like she’s wading through honey. There’s an interesting concept in here, but it’s lost under the shortcomings of the rest of the gameplay. There’s simply nothing memorable about JETT: The Far Shore.
The weird thing about Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is that, despite being janky, low-budget, and lacking in content, it’s a lot of fun. It all boils down to its ludicrous concept and the fact that at the end of the day, it’s functional. It’s a power trip for anyone who grew up watching cartoons in the late 90s to early 2000s. Its online multiplayer also works surprisingly well, even better than Smash, to be honest.
All of the twists you can see coming from a mile away. The deduction system is atrocious and offers nothing aside from an aggravating experience. On top of that, there’s absolutely no challenge, which makes playing it feel almost worthless, especially since you know how the story will end long before it actually does. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you’re looking for a Hercule Poirot game, you should play Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders instead. At least that game has fun puzzles and an actual level of challenge.
Even for a children’s racing game, Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers is lacking in subtance and charm. It can and will be enjoyed by them, especially if they like the source material, but between the shallow amount of content and underwhelming performance, you’re better off just skipping a few learning curve steps and letting them play Mario Kart on the easiest settings instead.
eFootball 2022 might be one of the most disastrous launches I have ever seen. I’ve seen magazine demo discs with more content than this “game”. There’s no reason to play it at the moment: its online matchmaking simply doesn’t work, its offline content is more sparse than an Atari 2600 game, and its gameplay is simply not as fluid as the one featured in its last-gen predecessors.
Street Outlaws 2: Winner Takes All is the wrong kind of licensed shovelware. It’s the one that, no matter how much effort had been put in its design and mechanics, nothing decent would have ever come out of it because its source of inspiration was already bland and insipid to begin with. It’s a stupidly expensive (and poorly made) game centered around ten second races.
Actraiser Renaissance is an odd beast. It’s not exactly visually pleasing, and it takes an eternity before it becomes actually interesting, but if you endure its first couple of hours, you’ll be greeted with the reason why the half dozen people who played the original back in the 90’s love it to death to this very day.
Death’s Gambit: Afterlife is a massive improvement over a game that while pretty good for its time, had its fair share of flaws. Not only does it improve upon the original title’s shortcomings, but it also doubles its overall size with new areas to explore and new mechanics to abuse.
Fracked isn’t a bad game; it actually brought forth one of my favorite cover shooting mechanics I’ve used in a VR game. The mechanics are fine, the initial weapons work, and the enemies can be tough; but beyond the first hour, I was ready for it to introduce something new. We have supernatural interdimensional themes, but no crazy weapons to use or over-the-top enemies to take on. We have this gorgeous art style, but it doesn’t do anything bold with it. There are great ideas here, it just never advances itself and ends up becoming stale.
You really shouldn’t dismiss A Juggler’s Tale as just another Limbo or Inside clone. I might even consider it as good, if not better, than its main sources of inspiration. Not only does it feature gameplay elements that take advantage of its unique setting, but it also has a really engaging story that captivates you right away thanks to some superb voice acting.
Eastward is a spectacular adventure well worth the wait. Hell, my complaints are all subjective, so they, to most, won’t even apply. That’s a testament to how mechanically sound it is. I enjoyed every second of it.