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Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing is a fun little title that takes advantage of virtual reality’s ability to break physical boundaries to provide an engaging flight simulation. The animation and acting help bring these quirky characters to life in an immersive episode that has a rather predictable story but still sticks the landing thanks to wearing its heart on its sleeve. If you’re into VR, this is a great title to grab.
At the end of the day, your enjoyment of these games will come down to how well you like platforming, and if you’re a Disgaea fan. Fans will find a lot to love at the $19.99 asking price for each title. While these adventures do clock in a bit on the short side at around 8 hours each, you will need multiple playthroughs to unlock all the hidden goodies in each. NIS has also included all the DLC for each title as well, which is a fantastic bonus. While these games certainly are not for everyone, but they will cater to the audience that loves these types of games in grand fashion.
Having just finished playing Outbreak: The New Nightmare a couple days ago, it’s almost impressive how forgettable it was; I had to keep going back to the game to remember what I saw and experienced, even after going through every Campaign and Experiments mission, each of which lasted anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Sadly, this has the look and feel of an incomplete Steam game, and I had to triple check the price for this because I couldn’t believe that it really is $13 on PS4. Given the short amount of time between most releases in the Outbreak series, I can only recommend that the developer spend much, much more time on each entry. That way, maybe the next one will play better and the visuals might not only look better, but consist of way fewer reused assets that didn’t look so good in the first place. I realize this will fall on deaf ears since Outbreak: Lost Hope, the fourth game in the series, will likely be out on PS4 by the time this review goes up. Maybe (or should I say, hopefully) the later releases are better, because this is priced way above what it’s actually worth.
Colt Canyon does many, many things right. The core gameplay is addictive. The visuals and presentation are wonderful, in spite of brown being the dominant color much of the time. I wasn’t bored for a second. However, I also feel no need to go back to it again, even with the slew of unlockables. Fans of rogue-likes and semi-top-down shooters will likely have no regrets shelling (heh) out $14.99 for this. Perhaps I’m jaded from playing the unpatched version at first, but after riding off into the sunset once, I’m content to drop the six-shooter, rifle, shotgun, bow, knife, and whatever other weapons I found in this game and move on.
In the roughly 15 hours I spent with No Straight Roads, I got to experience a fun ride with a lot of things to say about the music industry, fan entitlement, the ways artists deal with both the positive and negative aspects of fame and creativity, and the messiness of trying to fix a broken system. In their quest to overthrow NSR and bring back rock, Mayday and Zuke also trod on those who genuinely enjoyed the EDM they were hearing, and were on their way to instating rock as the law of the land. Would that make them better than NSR, or just as bad? How much room do we allow for differing voices? When does one voice become so overwhelmingly strong – either through popularity, force, or a combination – that it silences others? And how do artists deal with balancing their personal creative wants with appeasing those who love their creations? When do the fans dictate the creativity rather than the artist? NSR has something to say about each of these – some more coherently than others – and even if I don’t agree with its conclusions in all cases, it sure made a for a fun argument along the way.
Star Renegades does very well when it comes to making fun of tropes from various sci-fi media, making it feel goofy and fun rather than rude and condescending. To answer the question at the beginning of the review – this game is fun, if you can get over the numerous issues it has. I spent 20 hours before writing this review, beating the game, and I haven’t finished unlocking everything. I will mention that playtime may vary, as tactical RPGs aren’t my strong suit. At 25 dollars, this game is worth it if you like rogue-likes and tactical RPGs. Additionally, a road map with future content updates will be released very soon, by Massive Damage, thus adding more to the games value.
Spiritfarer is a fun little game, and it will keep you busy for quite a while. I’ve been playing for over 30 hours, and that’s not 100% completion of everything in the game. It tells a touching tale about death, but does so while not being sappy. The game also features a number of Steam achievements. Overall, it’s still a pretty good game, though. Spiritfarer is available on Steam (and other platforms) for $29.99. Can you help all of the lost souls pass on and reach the end of your own story?
All in all I have to say I had a good time with Nexomon: Extinction. The colorful world and amazing creatures really sucked me into the game. I loved exploring the world and found the lore to be quite interesting as well. I think this one does drag on a bit longer than it should at the end, but I can say that players will certainly get their money’s worth at the $19.99 price tag. I spent about 40 hours with this bad boy and I only caught around 120 of the over 300 Nexomon found in the game. If you like other games in this genre, picking this one up is a no brainer. Fans of older style Pokémon games should be all over this one. If you’re new to these types of game at this price point I still think this is a good one to jump in on.
If you enjoy meta-fiction the way I do, I think you’ll enjoy your time with The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature. Clocking in at around two hours, the game is brisk but does offer replay value. The game touches on several concepts near and dear to my heart, including the idea that fiction exists beyond its creator, as well as what constitutes immortality. It’s a somber look at depression, but also finds the beauty in a flawed existence. There’s very little gameplay to be had, but like a good book or film, the questions The Wanderer poses about life, love, complicity, and free will stick with me.
MO:Astray is one of the best games I’ve played in the past 5 years. I mentioned this earlier, but this game truly feels like a passion project by developers that truly care about game design, as well as making the player feel the weight of the situation Mo has to go through. Personally, I’ll be recommending this game to everyone who loves story driven platformers – Archpray Inc. knows how to deliver.
Answering the question from the beginning of the review, this game had me frustrated rather than cheerful, even for only $4.99. It feels like a boring slog through multiple levels doing the same thing over and over again, which is a shame because there’s a lot of untapped potential here! If Many Faces didn’t punish you for using powerups, I think this would be a great easy title to run through a few times when you’re bored.
I wanted to like my time with Double Kick Heroes more than I did. It’s got a great soundtrack, memorable aesthetic, and a fun concept in a rhythm shooter. Playing the game tended to be more frustrating and physically uncomfortable for me than fun, however, even taking advantage of the numerous options available. For metal fans, this game is a must-play, if only for the ear worms, and I would suggest rhythm fans check it out if they want a challenging, albeit frustrating, title. That being said, I think I’d rather just listen to the soundtrack.
I enjoyed my time playing Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris, especially after all the recent updates. The game has a decent story, very fun combat, a well-implemented soundtrack, beautiful environments and great looking characters. However, it is still affected by technical issues, an absurdly long first chapter, a questionable use of character creation, the omission of characters such as Yuuki and the CUBE shop system which shouldn’t be there in the first place. It took me about 121 hours to beat the main story while doing side missions and Bond Events as well. Once you beat the story, you can tackle Raid Dungeons, try to test your mettle against high level foes, try to get high rarity weapons or even try to unlock all the event CGs. So there’s still some things to do even after beating the game. Would I recommend paying $60 for this game? I would only recommend doing that if you’re a hardcore Sword Art Online fan like me. If you’re not, I recommend waiting for a sale or waiting for the technical issues in the base game to be mostly fixed. If you do decide to take the dive, know there’s an immense amount of content waiting for you.
I don’t think I can recommend this adaptation of Fairy Tail. For people that aren’t fans of Fairy Tail, there’s not much here other than a mostly competent RPG. For people that are fans, there’s just heavily truncated and compromised versions of the things they like. There’s some fun character interactions in the side quests, but I don’t think it justifies a $60 price tag. It’s a fairly lengthy game at around 40 hours, but most of this time is spent just being disappointed. If you’re a real diehard fan, and you just have to play this, then I’d at least recommend waiting for the price to drop.
I have to say Death end re;Quest 2 is one of my favorite releases of the year. It takes everything the first game had to offer and refines it into a more streamlined package. It took me around 20 hours to get the True Ending. There are two other endings here as well, but the requirements here are much more obvious than the way the first game handled the endings. I think folks should definitely play the first game before jumping into this one. I loved all the characters here, the combat is still a ton of fun and soundtrack is one of the best out there. The PC version does have a few bugs that need taken care of, but if you have even a passing interest in this series I think you should take the plunge. If you’re a fan of horror with a little bit a fanservice thrown in, you’ll be glad you did!
I have mixed emotions with Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break. There are nagging technical issues and the game design incorporates a game genre I despise, but I can’t deny how much fun I had with most of it. I got about six hours of entertainment out of the single player campaign alone, close to an hour of which was me begrudgingly playing the modes more focused on tower defense. $30 might be a bit much if you’re like me and aren’t as into the tower defense aspects of the game. If it goes on sale though, go right ahead and be prepared to rock and/or roll.
While I think I liked Samurai Shodown 2 a bit less than the other two Neo Geo Pocket fighters I’ve looked at, I like there is a wide range of characters with two different styles and collecting the cards adds a good amount of replay value here. I don’t think it controls quite as well as the other title, and the fight against Gandara is just plain annoying. It’s very difficult until you unlock a few cards to get an advantage. There is a rewind feature thankfully and you will be using it a lot here, I assure you. This one will set you back $7.99 as well. While I don’t think this is a bad game, I would have to recommend the other two titles over this one, since it just doesn’t have the polish of those. If you are a hardcore Samurai Shodown fan, you will still find a lot to love here.
Radical Rabbit Stew is a fun little romp through a zany, retro-themed world. Whacking rabbits around with your super spoon is a fun main mechanic, complimented by a number of others along the way. You may find yourself scratching your head a few times at some of the puzzles, but it’s definitely a good game. Perhaps its biggest flaw is that it is on the short side, but it makes up for this with a built-in level editor, allowing players to create and share their own levels! For the Steam version being reviewed here, this is done via Steam Workshop. The editor lets you select items from various wheels, similar to what Nintendo did in Mario Maker 2. Steam says I’ve spent between 6 and 7 hours in the main adventure, and that includes collecting all of the blue coins, which nets you an extra secret after the credits roll. Radical Rabbit Stew is available on the Steam Store for $15.99. You can also find it on several other platforms. Can you whack your way through all the rabbit queen’s minions and defeat her to rescue the legendary space chefs?
Generally speaking, all of this works nicely…well sort of. While the puzzles are fine, and there’s a good variety of them, there are some technical troubles. I played the game on the Nintendo Switch, and it had a rough time running the game at certain points. I remember having horrible amounts of framerate drops, especially towards the end. It’s sad, but this is a really big problem with the game. I’ve heard that it’s better on PC, but as it sits right now I did have a good time with Quench. It’s currently $19.99 on the Switch store, and I had about 5 hours worth of gameplay on it. I recommend this game if you love puzzle games, but just be wary that it has some technical issues that hold it back, at least on this console.
Carrion is a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while. And though I am more than a bit disappointed I got stuck, I’m still eager to play through again sometime soon. It’s an absolute steal at $19.99. Warts and all, this is a fascinating and wholly unique game. I’m glad as always that Devolver Digital takes chances on titles like this, and can’t wait to see what’s next from Phobia Game Studio.