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Despite my issues with Joggernauts, I still had fun with it. It’s a short game for $14.99, but it can keep you entertained for 2-5 hours. I managed to beat the game with 55% of everything unlocked, but sadly have little desire to spend hours trying to find those Glowtonium trophies. Still, it’s a colorful and enjoyable experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed the character of C.O.A.C.H. The domineering little robot was the cherry on top of a brightly colored sundae. That said, I don’t think Joggernauts is for everyone, and would only really recommend it to hardcore fans of the genre. For everybody else, there’s probably more frustration than satisfaction to be found here. But I still applaud this effort from Space Mace and Graffiti Games, and look forward to the next game they come up with.
If you haven’t played this game and read this review anyway, I still highly recommend playing this game if any aspect of this sounds compelling to you. I didn’t go over every little thing in the game, and it’s worth going through yourself. It only takes a few hours to play, and despite the somewhat steep price tag of $30, it’s well worth it. Judging it on the mechanics alone, it might seem underwhelming. But the way it ties all of its mechanics into the narrative and theme is fantastic, and the final sequence just knocks it out of the park, and had me in tears. Despite the odd direction in voice acting and the really lackluster visuals, its sincerity is what makes it compelling. It’s easily one of the more memorable games I’ve played this year, and it’s one I’m gonna be thinking about for awhile.
Despite my small issues with Death Mark, overall I was pretty pleased with it. Though it is a little pricey at $49.99, I feel it was a well-rounded and frightening adventure. You’ll get caught up with the plot and unraveling the mystery at the heart of the game, which will only fully reveal itself with the good ending. I spent about 10 hours beating the main game, and upon doing so with the good ending, you’ll unlock the final DLC chapter. For consoles, this DLC is absolutely free, which is even more added value. If you’re a fan of horror and want more scares on your Nintendo Switch, you really can’t go wrong with Death Mark. It satisfied this fan of Creeping Terror and was different enough to keep me interested. It’s good to know Aksys Games is still a great purveyor of quality horror.
Though I only spent 7 hours with Timespinner, there are features to keep players coming back for more. One is that there are 4 different endings in the game. Towards the climax you can make a choice, and depending on it, you will unlock different paths towards the final battle. The catch is that doing so locks you out of the other choices in the same save file, which provides good incentive to try out the New Game+. Another reason to keep playing is that there’s a super dungeon called the Temporal Gyre. It’s totally optional to tackle, but after beating the game once, I am very tempted to play again. If you truly want to challenge yourself, there’s also the unlockable Nightmare Mode, which is sure to make those less difficult boss fights much more of a struggle. This is one of those Metroidvanias that does many things right, and it inspired me enough that I’ll keep on playing til I get 100%. I really want to get all those achievements as well, since after beating it I only had about half of them. Overall, I was quite pleased with Timespinner. It’s hard to go wrong for $19.99, especially if you’re a fan of the genre. It wasn’t perfect, but it satisfied this longtime Metroidvania fan. I find myself eagerly looking forward to what else Lunar Ray Games has up their sleeves with future projects.
Transistor, from start to finish, is immersive, charming, emotional, imaginative, the list goes on. This is a true gem, not to be missed. The one real regret is that it had to end eventually. I knew this, but so badly did I want it to last just a little longer. Just one more encounter. One more conversation. One more touching moment. Just one more, just a little longer. As an experience, it would be impossible to forget. Emotionally, few games have left such a lingering impact. It has so much to share and will make your imagination run satisfyingly wild. It pains me to judge this game professionally, giving it a 4.5 (closer to 4.8) instead of the 5 that I so wish to give it. I genuinely want to forget its few tiny flaws; this is how much I love this game. It may not be flawless, but that doesn’t take away from its sheer magnificence. Transistor is an absolute masterpiece.
Save me Mr Tako! often improves on its inspirations as well. It plays like Kirby, but offers a longer quest and an admirably meatier challenge. It has the kid-rescuing angle of Moonwalker but without being clumsy and awkward. The story and character dialog feel balanced between the simple localizations of the Game Boy era and the recent trend of quippy writing in modern retro indies. For me, Save me Mr Tako! is a case of tough love. There’s so much to admire, but it can often be cruel to get through. If you’re down for a retro tough love letter, dive right in where it’s wetter and see if things are better.
While there are some nagging issues, Soul Calibur VI represents a huge step in the right direction. It does not make me more of a fan of this series than I am of their other 3D fighting game, but I had a lot more fun than I expected. One disadvantage to having so much fun with the game is that I now want to go back and play through The Witcher 3 again as soon as possible (for the seventh time through). That is only a problem because of how many other great games there are to play right now, and Soul Calibur VI is definitely one of those great games. Not only is the $59.99 full price justified, but I can’t blame anyone for spending an additional $29.99 for the Season Pass. That is a bit steep, but 2B fans are going to be chomping at the bit to get their hands on her as a fighter. Meanwhile in the fighting game community, we are again flooded with a glut of riches for new quality games. Plan on seeing a very large presence for Soul Calibur VI at the next Evo. With this game, the series is at it’s best place in a very long time, possibly ever.
When all was said and done, my total playtime came in at just over 15 hours. I thoroughly enjoyed all 15 of them. The artwork was excellent, the voice acting was stellar, and the music (while a bit generic at times) fit the atmosphere very well. Combining those elements with an interesting and engaging story, I feel that this visual novel is definitely worth playing (even if you’re like me and generally aren’t interested in playing visual novels). You can grab your own copy either physically or digitally on the PSN store for $39.99 USD. To give you an idea of how much I appreciated this game, I felt compelled after playing it to purchase a physical copy. I also went ahead and snagged a physical copy of Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. For those who don’t own a PS Vita or a PS TV, there is a PC port of Black Butterfly releasing in November and I would not be surprised if Ashen Hawk saw a port shortly thereafter. I would highly suggest that you check this one out.
In the end result, while I didn’t love everything about The Midnight Sanctuary, I do feel it’s a story worth experiencing. There’s a lot of poorly designed elements, but they are outweighed by the good. For $9.99, you get a 3 hour adventure that’s perfect for playing while you’re trying to unwind. There are plenty of quirky and interesting characters, and a subtly unnerving plot here. Despite wishing the ending was less abrupt, I do feel the main story gets resolved. I just wish there was more story to draw us further into the strange village of Daiusu. If you enjoy VNs or just want to support a strange story this Halloween season, you might enjoy The Midnight Sanctuary.
Similar to Visual Novels and the Disgaea games, there are several Bad Endings on the way to the real story end. Thankfully in this game the Bad Endings won’t require you to start all over again or reload a previous save. They will just show you what could have happened, and take you back in time slightly to change those events. There is a story reason for this, but it is a massive spoiler so I won’t touch on it. Also like the recent Disgaea entries, there is the normal story ending and the True Ending. The normal ending took me around 60 hours, but the True Ending took around another 60 hours both due to the size of the new maps and because you really need to do a lot of Soul Transferring if you are going to beat the True Last Boss on anything but Easy difficulty. There is also a New Game+ that you can start any time after the normal story end, in case you would just rather go back through the game instead of grinding out those extra levels you will need. But all the best weapons and armor in the game is in the Post Game dungeons. So really you are getting a lot of value out of the game, even for a dungeon crawler that is $59.99. These games are typically on portable systems and typically are slightly discounted from full AAA game pricing. However this game does justify its price, even if the story isn’t to my taste. What I really would like to see is as similar jump made in a sequel to this game that they made in the Disgaea series. There were a lot of good ideas they added into the genre with this game, and I would like to see it expounded upon even further.
Rigid Force Alpha is a fun little game, but it can also be frustrating. It includes controller support, and I played using my Xbox One controller. If you’re up for it, you could spend a lot of time in this game, as it has some truly crazy challenges beyond the main campaign. There are 40 achievements across all three game modes, and some of them will probably have you tearing your hair out! For example, one involves beating the campaign on hard mode without taking any hits! You could spend 10 hours or longer just beating the game for the first time, and far more on everything else. I’ve spent upwards of 10 hours shooting down baddies so far. Rigid Force Alpha is available on Steam for $19.99, and you can also get the soundtrack. Are you an ace pilot good enough to survive this mission and stop the escaped creatures from spreading?
ETHEREAL is a very competent, well designed puzzle game. The way it introduces things makes playing it pretty intuitive, even though it kinda looked like nonsense just looking at the trailers. There’s really not many things to criticize about it, but there weren’t exactly many high points either. If you’re craving for a puzzle game that won’t take up too much of your time, this is certainly a worthy game to look into. Beating it only took me maybe 4 hours. There’s no price listed on Steam as of writing this, but I’d say it’d be worth picking up between $10 and $15.
Bastion is one of the strongest first efforts I’ve seen from an indie studio, easily standing out even amongst triple-A titles. While not perfect, this game has so many bright spots that it will definitely become an instant classic to whomever plays it. If you can tolerate the simplistic combat and linear gameplay, Bastion is definitely one to recommend for any fan looking for an intriguing story, noteworthy characters, and some of the best aesthetics and style around.
It’s safe to say Juggler Games hit their mark with My Memory of Us. I was thoroughly entertained throughout and even as a jaded adult who doesn’t like children, I was completely invested in what happened to the kids and the people around them every step of the way. It’s a bit short, taking less than five hours to finish, but even so I’d still pay the $18 asking price for it. What it may lack in replay value it makes up for in a charming, imaginative world and the struggle of two friends trying to stay together as outside forces seem destined to keep them apart.
It’s disheartening to see a game with a solid concept that badly needed more work before being released. With how exploitable the AI is, I wound up needing less than nine hours to finish Story Mode, four of those coming after discovering the “V” strategy. Even if the bugs were fixed, Ganbare! Super Strikers has some glaring problems in its game mechanics which lead to lopsided teams and unbalanced matches. The limited customization and lackluster Story Mode are the missed penalty shot that seals it for me. I do hope the developer keeps updating and adding onto what’s here as I did enjoy the core gameplay. However, for $10 I can’t in good faith recommend this in its current state.
All in all, I rather enjoyed Mega Man 11, and feel it was worth the long wait. But I have a proviso. I love pretty much everything about this game, but I think it proves Capcom has no more excuses to wait more than two years before the next one. They still know how to make a great Mega Man game, and they can plainly see there is still plenty of demand for them. For $29.99, fans can’t really go wrong with this. It isn’t perfect, and I feel the Double Gear system was a bit half-assed, but it does so many other things right that it’s hard to complain. If you’ve been waiting for a new Mega Man game, or just want a great platformer, you can’t go wrong. Nice to see Mighty No. 9 did one thing right.
This is some of the basic gameplay elements of Disgaea 1 Complete. This may seem a bit overwhelming to newcomers, but if you do the tutorials, you will be slaying your foes and making insane equipment in no time flat. If you enjoyed the original, I think this is well worth the upgrade for the new graphics and the fact that it includes all of the bonus content from the PSP version of the game. Etna mode is just freaking great! The fact that it is portable is just icing on an already delicious cake. It took me around 53 hours to complete the main story, but there are probably another 100 more if I want to do everything, making it well worth the $49.99 price tag. If you’ve been looking for a place to jump into the series, there’s no better place to start than here. It sets an example of how great strategy games could be. While it may not have all the bells and whistles of the newer entries, it’s still pure gold!
Overall, The Lion’s Song is a wonderful game that I highly recommend to anyone who might be interested in it. The stories are fun and all connect in the last chapter of the game, and I had a wonderful time playing it. Right now you can pick up the season pass for about $10, which isn’t bad for the 5 hours of gameplay that I got out of it. I think you’ll have a really good time with it, and I’m excited to check out what this developer has in store for the future!
Wandersong is a pleasant game for the most part, but knows to get serious when the situation calls for it. It makes good use of its fairly simple core mechanic of singing, with a nice variety of puzzles to solve as you progress. I like the various ways it uses music, as a way to communicate, for concerts, and as a tool to solve puzzles, as you meet and help the diverse cast of characters throughout the world. It’s available on both Switch and PC; I played the PC version for this review and the Switch version at PAX. I personally prefer mouse and keyboard, since I find the mouse easier for singing than the right stick, but both styles seem fine. The adventure is about 10 hours long, and is enjoyable throughout for $20 USD. Although completing the game unlocks a scene select function to go back and replay scenes, there’s not much to do beyond that. Even so, it’s a cute game with fun characters and well-designed puzzles, and I think fans of adventure games will find a lot to love with Wandersong.
Your mileage with Treadnauts will vary wildly, depending on how much you make use of multiplayer and how determined you are to unlock everything. From my experience, maxing out at level 30 took a little over 11 hours. While it requires a fair amount of time to complete, the single player Target Test mode loses its luster after the first couple dozen stages and devolves into a chore. If this is the kind of game you plan to regularly spring on unsuspecting friends or break out at get-togethers, the $10 price tag might just be worth it. Otherwise, waiting for a price drop, or a patch for some of the performance issues, is likely the way to go.