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I’m glad that Bomberman isn’t dead yet, I truly am. I just wish the game that brought it back to Nintendo consoles wasn’t this one. While Super Bomberman R isn’t utterly horrible, it is such a mixed bag that at best it just feels average. That’s not great, especially when you consider it costs $49.99 and only gave me around three hours of gameplay. While it’s true you can replay Story mode levels and the multiplayer isn’t bad, there’s just not a lot to recommend the game. If you’re an old fan of Bomberman like myself, then I recommend you pick Super Bomberman R up on sale. For everyone else, it’s probably best to wait for the next game in the series and hope Konami gets things right the second time around.
It occurs to me after playing the game that although each version of the game was different, they each dealt with the concepts of love and loss. While Shovel Knight focused on his hunt to save Shield Knight and Plague of Shadows dealt with Plague Knight’s secret feelings for a certain someone, Specter of Torment’s story is not about romantic passion, but camaraderie. However, even then, there is a romance in the campaign between the skeleton Red and his lady love, Scarlet. More than anything though, Specter of Torment is a game about duty and the price of holding on to our humanity. I truly enjoyed my time with it, and spent a little more than 4 hours beating the game, with 85% item completion. The Nintendo Switch is truly fortunate to have Specter of Torment as an exclusive, and for those of you waiting, rest easy knowing it will be truly worth the wait. Specter Knight’s tale is a dark and epic one, and it makes me all the more excited for the next DLC Yacht Club Games has up their voluminous sleeves.
I played 4 hours for first playthrough with Blue Falcon, then tried New Game+ with Amber Fox. After trying out the various modes, I spent a total of 6 hours with the game. Frankly, I can see why William enjoyed Stardust Galaxy Warriors so much. Stellar Climax took an already great experience and made it tighter, more challenging and polished, even though the latter part of the game does start to become a bit bullet hell. It’s a fun little shmup that I would recommend to any fan of the genre, both old and new. There’s enough variety to keep things interesting and to allow those unschooled to have a chance. For $13.99, it’s a great bargain. After playing it, I look forward to seeing what else Dreamloop Games has up their sleeves!
Simply put, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ is the best possible version of the game. In my time, I unlocked 26% of the 339 achievements, and I can easily see myself playing off and on for a long while to come. Afterbirth+ has managed to perfectly distill that insane Binding experience into a well-designed, challenging roguelike. With tons of new features and new incentives to keep playing, I think the game is well worth the bundle price of $35.97 (which gets you Rebirth, Afterbirth and Afterbirth+). It more than satisfied my lofty expectations, and allowed me to see the game with fresh eyes again. While I can’t see another DLC in The Binding of Isaac’s future, I think Afterbirth+ will help it go out on a very high note. At least until they release it for the Nintendo Switch, and force me to get that sexy physical edition…
That said, I really enjoyed my time with Polara. I was even shocked to learn it had originally released on iOS and Android a few years back as a mobile game with touch controls. Luckily, it seems very well suited to the 3DS family, and I hope to see more great games from Hope This Works Games Inc and Circle Entertainment in the near future. Polara isn’t perfect, but I got 5 hours of fun out of it, and that’s not including all the time I’ll be spending collecting letters and going for a Flawless score on every stage. I highly recommend Polara for any 3DS fan looking for a fun action game. You’ll more than get your money’s worth.
Which brings me to my biggest complaint – the lack of variety. Unlike Rogue Legacy, there is only one class in Bard’s Gold, and that’s the titular Bard. This wasn’t actually that bad, since I grew to enjoy the simplistic yet hardcore gameplay. What was more frustrating was realizing that the 4th World was the last one. I felt the game was starting to hit its stride towards the end, and even thought I would unlock more worlds after the boss. Unfortunately, all you get by beating the game is the Contract of Reaper, which randomizes traps more yet gives you more money. That’s it. No real incentive to keep playing, other than unlocking and maximizing all the upgrades. Which is too bad, because despite all the things holding it back, Bard’s Gold is not half bad. The problem is that for anyone except serious fans of roguelikes, it’s not going to hold any real appeal. It’s definitely a bargain to get 3-5 hours of gameplay at $8.99, but I find it hard to recommend to anyone outside that small crowd. That said, I did actually end up enjoying my time with Bard’s Gold, and hope to see a more robust game next time from Pixel Lantern. If they can build upon what they have here and add a lot more content, their next game might be a legendary quest instead of a small diversion.
Although no Shantae game is really known for its deep plot, I felt that the plot in Half-Genie Hero was a bit haphazard compared to Pirate’s Curse, at least until the twist at the end of the game. I can’t explain why without going into spoilers, but I just felt it would have helped players to have a bit more backstory to push things forward. That said, I definitely enjoyed my time with Shantae Half-Genie Hero. I managed to beat the game in five and a half hours with 84% completion (though I did manage to get the good ending). There is some replay value for completionists, and there are also art pieces to unlock, Hero-Mode and even playing through the game as Risky Boots herself! Half-Genie Hero mostly made good on all of my vast expectations, though I do hope that the next game in the series is more like Pirate’s Curse. That said, if you’re a fan of Shantae, you can’t go wrong with Half-Genie Hero for $19.99, and I’m very happy to have finally been able to play this gorgeous HD game on my Wii U. Until next time, Tinkerbackers! And keep up the good work, WayForward!
Overall, I enjoyed my time with The Shivah: Kosher Edition, but can only recommend it to big adventure game fans. There’s just not a lot of content there, and even for $4.99, it was disappointingly short. Though the Steam achievements do add some replay value, I just wish there was a bigger story. That said, it is a bargain, so if you like quick and cheap adventure games, give The Shivah a shot.
Mostly, I was very happy with Ice Cream Headaches. It plays well, is easy to pick up and took me about 8 hours combined to beat everything. My only real complaints were the lack of integration of the Favour system and one other issue – the DLC doesn’t introduce new achievements. Now normally, I could care less about achievements, but I love the quirky and strange tricks that the developers thought up in a game like this. It would have added just that much more polish and replay value. However, overall I felt the Ice Cream Headaches DLC was strong and enjoyable, and I would heartily recommend it to any fans of the series. Now I’ll just not so patiently await the next DLC, whenever that decides to come out…
I was very pleased with my time with Pirate Pop Plus. It takes a simple arcade game premise and fleshes it out with style, substance and lots of replay value. There is just enough nuance to the gameplay to keep things interesting, and with all the unlockable content, you’ll be coming back again and again for more bubble popping fun. This game has done what I thought impossible and captivated me just like the classic games of my past. For $4.99, you’d be foolish not to pick it up, especially considering it will also be releasing on Wii U and Steam. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have more coins to gather and more stuff to unlock!
Overall, I was very pleased with RunGunJumpGun. At $7.99 it’s an utter steal on Steam, though I would recommend you buy the Special Atomik Edition for the incredible soundtrack. It’s not a game for everyone, but if you like hardcore platformers with lots of soul, then I’d recommend it wholeheartedly. ThirtyThree have proven themselves a developer to keep on my radar, and I’m very excited to see what else they can come up with in the future. For now, you’ll have to excuse me, as I need to go and try to find more Atomiks to get 100% completion!
Overall, I was very pleased during my time with Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. For $14.99, you get two great campaigns that play very differently and serve to complement each other nicely. It manages to recapture the magic of the first game while improving on what the first one did poorly. My only real complaint was that sometimes the boss dialogue prevented me from seeing an incoming attack, but you can turn that off if it troubles you. If you are at all a fan of well animated 2D action games, looking for your Mega Man fix, or just a great new game for your 3DS, I highly recommend Azure Striker Gunvolt 2. I would definitely pick it up the launch week, since it will be a Nindies sale for the first week it comes out. I am glad I was afforded the opportunity to review it, and can’t wait to see the next game that Inti Creates puts out in this series!
While I did enjoy my time with Super Mutant Alien Assault, I was a little surprised at how short the game was. Granted, you can and should put in more hours if you want replay value, but not every gamer will care about that. Some are just here for the main mission, and if that’s all that interests you, I can’t highly recommend Super Mutant Alien Assault for the asking price of $9.99. However, if you like hardcore retro games and want to unlock all the achievements and other goodies, then this game may just be for you. If nothing else, I look forward to the next title that Surprise Attack Games manages to cook up. Perhaps they’ll take what they learned from this game and use it to make a truly epic Metroidvania in a similar vein!
In summary, I spent a good 6 or so hours playing Downwell, and am happy I did so. While it’s frustrating to not have beaten the boss yet, I do recognize roguelikes aren’t known for holding player’s hands. But if I can beat Mega Satan on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth twice, I will beat this horror at least once. I would definitely recommend Downwell highly to any fan of retro, or even any Steam user looking for a lot of bang for very little buck. Moppin has truly made a classic experience in Downwell, and I look forward to their next descent into madness!
In the end result, I think that Mighty No. 9 got a bad rap. Granted, there was a lot of money invested in the project, and, as backers, we should feel we got our money’s worth. But I also feel the anxiety and negativity that plagued the end of the campaign and the release of the game heavily biased all the early reviews that came out. After playing the game myself and beating it, I found Mighty No. 9 to be an enjoyable, if flawed, experience. However, for $19.99 for the Steam version or $29.99 for the physical version, I feel fans get their money’s worth. The main campaign is fun, but when you factor in the Ray DLC, the other playable characters, the boss rush and other features, there’s a lot to enjoy for a while to come. If nothing else, I hope I have given fans of the project some hope that their money wasn’t wasted. As much as I love and adore the Mega Man series, it has its issues and problems, as well, which is something I feel we all conveniently forget whenever we condemn Mighty No. 9 for not being perfect.
In the end result, Project G isn’t the next big Shmup, but neither is it a failed Darius clone. It’s a quaint little game that tries some interesting new things while also having some serious design flaws that need to be addressed. I didn’t hate my 4 hours spent playing Project G, but I also wasn’t enamored of its many problems. It is an okay game that could have been great with a bit more QA and a lot more polish. As it is now, I find it hard to recommend Project G that heartily when it’s priced at $9.99. If Nebula Interactive finds the time to fix the many issues with the game, then I would recommend giving it a chance. Until then, perhaps Shmup fans will enjoy buying it on a Steam sale.
In the end result, I was incredibly pleased with Mutant Mudds Super Challenge. It’s bigger than the original (sans the addition of free Ghost Levels update), introduces great boss fights, and is enough of a challenge to satisfy this old school gamer. There’s also some hidden goodies to find to add to replay value, as well as trying to beat the game with less deaths. One minor quibble I have is that the game is so linear, and once you beat the final world, you won’t unlock any bonus worlds. But considering there are 20 regular stages, 20 secret stages and 5 boss fights, you can’t really complain about length. My biggest complaint is that I just want MORE Mutant Mudds goodness right this second, but I guess I can patiently wait for the sequel hinted at upon beating the game. For $9.99 this is a steal, especially when you consider it’s cross buy and allows for a further loyalty bonus discount. It’s not for everybody, but fans of the series will be very pleased. This game has actually eclipsed the original Mutant Mudds for me. And for anybody who is curious, my final death tally was 279. Maybe you’ll do better once you get your mitts on Mutant Mudds Super Challenge!
Ultimately, I was very pleased with my time in Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright. It provided a rousing, emotional 45 hour adventure full of combat, heartache and memorable characters. It mostly improved upon all the features found in Awakening, as well as introducing a few cool new mechanics of its own. Its only real missteps were the confusion regarding new items, and the unresolved plot points found at the end. Ultimately I feel this game was more than worth the $39.99 price tag, even though part of me wishes they just released one experience with multiple paths instead. I wouldn’t say that Fire Emblem Fates was better than Awakening, but it was just as good. I heartily recommend it to any fan of the series that enjoyed Awakening.
My playthrough with The Delusions of Von Sottendorff was a mixed one. I enjoyed the premise, was captivated by the promise of secrets to come, but ultimately disappointed by the revelation at the end of the game. The gameplay is a mixed bag, mostly because of laggy platforming and occasionally wonky camera, but the music is a standout high point. For $12.99 I spent a grand total of 9 hours with the game, and despite my complaints, found the whole experience endearingly weird. While The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and his Square Mind is definitely not for everyone, I’d recommend it for 3DS puzzle fans or those who love super niche indie games. Overall, I was happy with my time, and look forward to future games from Delirium Studios.
Overall, I was very pleased with Guild of Dungeoneering. It was one of those addictive yet simple games that keeps me coming back for more. It was a great game to play in my free time, and one that I found myself spending more and more time than I intended with. Play sessions could range from a half hour to several hours straight, which is a testament to how fun it all was. Though the difficulty of the game was oftentimes frustrating, nothing in it was so tough that I couldn’t get through it with a bit (or a lot) of trial and error. Furthermore, the game ramps up gradually, so by the time it gets harder, you’re better equipped to deal with it. If this game taught me anything, it’s that I really should have spent more time playing tabletop games in my childhood. Guild of Dungeoneering was approachable to a noob like me and quickly drew me in. I recommend it for any fan of simple yet challenging games, and feel it’s more than reasonable for $14.99, or $22.99 for the deluxe edition. Give it a shot, you won’t regret it!