Unboxed's Reviews
When you play A Short Hike to its fullest you receive a wholesome experience. This is a positive game with positive characters and positive metaphors that I will admit are a bit on the nose.
While there are certainly some difficulty curves, the creators behind Skully were far from dropping the ball…..or skull in this case. I actually got fairly invested in the story, especially the third act twist even though I did see it coming from a mile away.
In the 90’s the term “DOOM Clone” was given to First Person Shooters following the runaway success of iD’s Demon Slaying Magnum Opus. It wasn’t always used negatively though as this era saw many great titles including Heretic, Blood and of course Duke Nukem 3D. Hellbound however is a DOOM Clone in the sense they actually tried to clone the game but something was contaminated in the test tube.
The truth is, Fall Guys feels like that quick little game you boot up between other bigger games, its the little snack break in-between titles or the one you play with something else in the background. Much like Tetris 99, it’s best to play Fall Guys in small bursts throughout the day rather than a marathon session.
Accompanying the game is an absolutely stellar soundtrack that captures the atmosphere of a giant research facility perfectly, reminiscing of similar tensions in movies such as Alien. The cries and whimpering of terrified scientists cowering in a corner before making a satisfying leap from the shadows and throwing them around like an absolute ragdoll.
The world is absolutely stunning, especially the new enemy designs and the completionist in me loves finding all the Toads and holes to fill. But on the other hand, the game is plagued with niggling issues including the complexity of the ring battle system potentially driving new players away.
Even with all the issues with performance and objectives that are more mystery than the game’s actual case, I still thoroughly enjoyed Deadly Premonition 2 and could barely put it down. The characters, York’s continuous Movie References, even the combat works a treat with no need for melee whatsoever. But, like the original, this game is gonna be just as polarizing, you can either look past the decade-old graphics or not, you can see Morgan as endearing or insane. But one thing you can’t call Deadly Premonition, is boring.
Overall, I found A Summer With The Shiba Inu a flawed game. Not worth the $10 asking price, maybe a $7 at the most. There were many times where I thought “this can be better, that can be better”, while getting vibes from other VNs I’ve played and enjoyed, both indie and AAA, and thinking about how this game could improve by learning from such titles.
I had a lot of fun playing through Shantae’s latest journey. But I knew I was going to enjoy this, because I did 4 years before. Again, this is what terrifies me, Shantae is coming back again and again with the same basic concept, and I know this girl, I know this STUDIO has so much more potential.
While we have all been drooling over FF7’s shiny new remake, you should give a moment to appreciate Trials as well. A title that just last year was still only available in Japan has now, not only finally gotten localized but a full-blown Remake as well.
From the very beginning with the opening cinematic, it’s clear the small crew over at MegaPixel Studios are certainly Panzer fans like myself, putting a lot of time and effort into making this as familiar as possible, the recreated opening cinematic runs in sync with the original version on Saturn, just with far much more detail.
After DOOM 16 became such a big hit, winning awards from all publications, there were obvious expectations to top themselves with the sequel, more weapons, more glory kills, ballsier enemies, essentially making the whole game Bigger, and Better. Well…..they got the Bigger part down.