Kakuchopurei
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Truth be told, GBVS Rising's fighting mechanics can get overwhelming, and it still comes off a bit short when compared to this year's 2D fighting crown jewel Street Fighter 6. Still, you have to give credit where credit's due: instead of leaving this 2D game to die, Arc System Works and co. breathed new life to an already-solid 2D fighting game and reworked it for a new audience. Welcome back, Granblue Fantasy Versus. We've missed you and your half-anime-half-traditional-fighting-game-like ways.
Trust me when I say that Pizza Tower fills in that 2D platforming niche that can be enjoyed by casual fans and hardcore connoisseurs who long for Nintendo to make a new non-minigame Wario title that isn’t simplified garbage. With developer Tour De Pizza around keeping the dream alive, we don’t need it. Pizza Tower is a superior substitute that takes what its developers learn from past Wario Land platformers and makes it fresh again.
You will fail many times and you will also succeed many times. How it happens, well, it's all different. You will never lose the same way. The roguelite element is a delight. Even in failure, you learn something that will help you in the next playthrough. [...] Against The Storm is wonderfully done, with each playthrough feeling fresh. Even though I am terrified of the Queen's wrath, and the storm, come what may, I will run it back over again.
If all you want is mindless mecha fun where you can drop into a mission and destroy waves of enemies without a second thought, Custom Mech Wars is the game for you. If you're really looking for a meaty mecha game with lots of worthwhile content, please for the love of all things mecha, just get Armored Core 6 Fires Of Rubicon instead.
Void Stranger is unapproachable at first glance, even after an hour or so of playing it. [...] But if you stick with it long enough, 20 to 30 hours give or take, Void Stranger will deliver an immaculate experience unlike anything on tap this year. You need to play by its rules and also bend/break them in the process. The going is tough, but the tough gets going. Void Stranger will make you as hardy as they come.
An Avatar game was a strange choice to become a game from the beginning, and adding the Far Cry formula to it has resulted in a game that's not good but not too bad either; it's just mediocre. Hopefully, Massive Entertainment's next game, Star Wars Outlaws, looks to have higher prospects of being a better game and not just another uninspired game based on a famous IP. Avatar Frontiers Of Pandora is truly only for fans who just want more from James Cameron's Avatar, but not those looking for a great open-world game to sink their teeth into.
While it's not the most innovative or invigorating search action game around, Tevi does deserve praise for its combo-centric combat and bullet hell orbital shoot-em-up mechanics. Tevi scores the goals where it counts: the "action" part of the "search action" genre it wears along with its bunny ears and Maple Story-like coating.
While Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is not meant for new players wanting to get into the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, you can still enjoy it as a brawler while just ploughing through the story. However, you won't get the narrative satisfaction this side story has planned. That aspect will reward longtime players who started the series back in the aughts when Sega had a budget to hire Michael Madsen and Mark Hamill for the first English entry of the series in the PlayStation 2 era.
Every aspect of Steamworld Build feels meticulously designed. The goals are clearly emphasized so you don't get lost. Even dragging and dropping units is satisfying, and arranging paths or placing mining equipment functions perfectly well. The interaction between the above-ground and below-ground elements feels well-paced and thoughtfully designed. The familiar art style of the series shines through in every little detail, with its bright and eye-catching colours that make every aspect of the game absolutely loveable.
Super Mario RPG is a well-put-together remaster that balances the old and new, though focusing more on the old. That isn't exactly a bad thing given how influential and charming the 1996 original was, and still is. New players who want to get their feet wet in the Japanese role-playing game genre and have a Nintendo Switch handy must make this title a must-buy.
Dredge is a great mix of moody atmospheric horror storytelling mixed in with fishing and sailing. The DLC that just came out, The Pale Reach, adds a ton more to an already-packed 10-hour base game, adding 11 new fishes/crabs to catch, a new ice-floe-filled landscape, and new dangers. So really, now's a good time as any to go fish.
While gameplay is certainly king and the meat of the game, the narrative of Worldless can be a mixed bag. The narrative component of the game can be somewhat inconsistent. The story takes a relatively long time to develop, and it lacks the seamless flow that some players may desire. Moreover, certain aspects of the story can be lost in translation, particularly the absence of audio dialogue and relying solely on text-based interactions. Nevertheless, if you're seeking to try something new that pushes your reflexes and traverses cosmic realms of wonder, this game is just right up your alley.
Persona 5 Tactica is a fun spinoff game but perhaps it's time for Atlus to finally retire anything related to Joker and the Phantom Thieves. The teat has been milked dry. Only dust is coming out now.
While enjoyable on its own, I believe fans of the Yohane anime and Love Live series will find more to love and cherish here. The characters in the game aren’t fleshed out in context to the game and solely reliant on their personalities and charisma in the 13-episode show, and the character VOs can get grating over time. Still, as a standalone Metroidvania title, you could do worse. I cherished my 5 hours or so going through the entire game, and managed to fight some challenging bosses using the game’s Dark Magic and Companion Summon system, which adds creativity and utility to your playstyle.
Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire is a fun roguelike deckbuilding game that you can enjoy in quick bite sessions or longer plays. The game's mechanics are easy to pick up which is nice for new players to the genre, and this lets you progress smoothly while challenging you hard. The variety of cards adds excitement to strategic and challenging battles, so that helps with the replay value exponentially.
Overall, Modern Warfare III seems to follow the narrative tone of Modern Warfare 2019 more closely than it does that of Modern Warfare II. Regarding gameplay, I'd hesitate to make a similar claim as the gameplay in this instalment stands out in its uniqueness compared to past versions. Despite this, I found the story quite enjoyable and eagerly anticipate its continuation.
[...] Cuisineer is a casual and relaxing take on the action-savvy roguelite genre mixed in with some breezy-if-simplistic-and-slow management gameplay. Even if you feel like you have to manage your expectations a tad, you'll do fine in Battlebrew Productions' latest, especially with the isometric attack-savvy bits where you let a cat girl go hog wild with a flame-powered spatula and grenade egg timers against fire elemental yaks and sentient potatoes tossing projectiles.
If you're itching for more potential Dohalim x Kisara ship material and a jaunt into Tales of Arise' combat all over again in a "new" setting, you can't go wrong with this decent-sized expansion that at least learned some lessons from overblown and too-long-for-their-own-good Tales Of sequels. In fact, if you want a solid Tales Of Arise experience, get the base game and expansion for a fun JRPG time. Otherwise, it's not required viewing unless the price goes down.
Ebenezer and The Invisible World shows promise as a Metroidvania game, offering fans and players a chance to revisit a classic story, much like the recent Lies of P. However, it ultimately disappoints in several areas, resulting in a lacklustre and frustrating Christmas gaming experience.
Coupled with an inviting HD-2D look that combines pixel art and 3D graphics that really invites you to play/replay it for copious amounts of time, this Star Ocean remake is worth diving into. If you crave 90s JRPG action with a lot of unlockables and power-up options, optional party members with backstories to uncover, and fast-paced combat, Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a no-brainer that will get you into its scifi hooks.