VGamingNews
HomepageVGamingNews's Reviews
While the controls might feel a little unwieldy for Switch players using Joy Cons, players using a pro controller (or playing on a console with more player-friendly peripherals!) will have a whale of a time blasting their way towards the tower to regain their memories. The risk-reward mechanics make every decision really count, and with a host of memorable bosses, awesome randomly generated encounters and boat loads of unlockables, it’s a title that you’ll be hooked on for hours on end despite some slight teething problems.
Superliminal is quite simply a masterpiece. Pillow Castle Games have taken an interesting premise and ridden it to a place that no developer has gone before, resulting in an impeccable game. The perspective-based mechanics are just incredible, and there’s a level of innovation in the puzzle design that deserves recognition alongside some of the greatest games of all time – truly, Superliminal is to visual trickery what Portal 2 is to physics. I cannot recommend this game enough.
Lumote: The Mastermote Chronicles is a charming and thoughtful puzzler. The protagonist is adorably loveable and while the premise is simple, it is well executed. Some of the puzzles did leave me questioning if I broke the game or was doing it correctly though. The quirks to the game’s design, such as being unable to backtrack, were annoying but not much of a distraction, and what really sells the game is the visuals and sound design. The plinky-plonk soundtrack coupled with the vibrant visuals pull you into a world I wanted to live in.
I cannot overstate how much I’m looking forward to playing the next three seasons to complete The Witch Queen Expansion. It started off with a bang and the story brings changes to Destiny 2 that were needed. There are a couple of negatives to The Witch Queen, particularly with the smaller map, which is severely limited compared to other areas. I’d have also liked to have seen the Hive Guardians utilised more often, as they only seem to be trotted out sporadically, but these are just minor points on a well-put-together expansion. If the remainder of the year continues in this vein, it’ll be hard for me to leave The Witch Queen alone long enough to play other games. Even as it stands, The Witch Queen Expansion is a thoroughly recommended addition to Destiny 2.
Overall, then, Arise remains an interesting platform experience. The gameplay is fun, the time manipulation is a well-used and well-developed mechanic, the visuals and sound are solid, yet the narrative goes to some strange, tone-deaf places and the overall message is, at best, mixed. Joyful at the beginning, borderline offensive in places in the middle, and thoroughly bleak by the ending.
Skabma - Snowfall tells a beautiful story of the Sami people. While the story weaves through realistic situations of survival, it’s coupled with magical and mystical folklore that has not been told in such a way before. The visuals are brilliantly represented and having the game told in the Sami language was refreshing. There are some issues with the camera and the lack of clarity on some missions did leave me scratching my head, but the message that Red Stage set out to tell works brilliantly and is an experience I’d want to play again, despite the pitfalls.
A charming experience from start to finish, Onde is an odyssey through the abstract mysteries of the world that’s described with evocative imagery and thought-provoking music. The score and visuals beautifully align to tell a story without a single word being uttered, and it’s a credit to the developers at how immersive the experience is. The artistic nature of the game and its limited gameplay mechanics will not appeal to everyone, but that’s okay. I may not know art, but I know what I like, and I certainly liked Onde.
The snappy and fluid controls of Destiny 2 are the standout features and work like a dream. It elevates the game to a point where the action is never overwhelming enough to make you want to throw your controller down the nearest black hole. Even if you prefer playing solo, there are hours upon hours of content for you to enjoy. The game treads a line that keeps the game challenging yet accessible, so players of any skill can join in, and while Destiny 2 can feel like a Halo knock off at times, Bungie certainly delivers a AAA experience at a price that’s hard to complain about.
What Lies in the Multiverse is a playful and meandering adventure through time and space that manages to offer a real sense of drama alongside its simple puzzle-platformer mechanics. Shifting between universes to plot your route through each level is fun (if not a little easy), but there’s plenty of interesting tweaks to the gameplay to keep you interested throughout. The enjoyable story, while a little scattershot in tone, is carried by a quirky cast of characters that help make What Lies in the Multiverse an entertaining way to wile away an afternoon or two.
It’s been a long time since I played an RPG that I enjoyed as much as The Cruel King and the Great Hero. The mix of charming storybook visuals, memorable characters and sweet plotline is simply wonderful. In combination with a rapid-fire combat system and some quirky (if never groundbreaking) mechanics, and a host of interesting enemies, this was an experience that pulled me along from start to finish and I had me smiling all the way - I’d recommend it in a heartbeat.
Egglia: Rebirth is a fun, if repetitive, turn-based JRPG that wears it’s mobile origins with pride. With some pretty graphics, catchy soundtrack and simple mechanics, it’s easy to lose an enjoyable hour or so here and there between more substantial games. Had the dungeons had less of a cookie cutter feel and shown some gameplay (rather than just aesthetic) differences, it could have been a great little game, but the repetition turns things stale long before you’re finished. That said, I’d still recommend this to players who are fans of a mobile RPG and looking to transition to console with something familiar, or to younger fans who are dipping their toes into RPGs for the first time.
Overall, I would say that Pokémon Legends Arceus is a really enjoyable game; one with a lot of flaws, but they’re flaws that can be ignored or are mitigated by the fact that you spend the vast majority of your time not interacting with those parts of the game. If you stick to exploring, catching and battling you are going to have a fantastic time, unless you have a fetish for reading long drawn-out walls of text about some random person’s ramblings. Bearing in mind that you read this review, you must have some liking for it, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all.
I desperately wanted to like The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna; from the opening of the game my senses were firing from the visual treat on my eyes, and when the narrator started telling the story, I could feel the beginnings of an exciting tale. But it wasn’t long before the sheen from such a powerful first impression began to fade. The story tries to be cohesive, but it quickly descends into a dark tale revolving ostracisation and finally slides into something so far-fetched it completely ruins the experience.
The Letter is a scary, if somewhat predictable affair riffing heavily from Japanese horror films such as Ringu and The Grudge. The plot starts off strong but by the end game, when you’ve heard the same lines of dialogue seven times, I ended up wishing death upon all of the characters as I skipped through the same dinner party, although the final conclusion wasn’t one I was expecting. Once the main story has concluded there is still a large amount of game left to explore and branching story options to discover, which does add more context to the whole experience and gives the game a tonne of replayability - it’s just a shame that the visuals and scripting hold it back from being a truly great experience.
The Company Man is a short lived rage against the machine that is funnier than it is fun, if that makes any sense. I did absolutely enjoy my time with the game, and Forust’s beautiful cartoon styling that has made an accurate mockery out of big corporations is incredibly well thought out. But while hacking through familiar lackeys and poking fun at business tropes is uproariously enjoyable, beneath a veneer of well crafted jokes is only some pretty easy platforming and combat, and when coupled with a run time that’s shorter than some appraisal meetings, the gameplay ultimately keeps the overall experience from breaking the glass ceiling.
Martha is Dead isn’t a horror game in the sense that ghosts will try to jump scare you around every corner, but the atmosphere LKA have created certainly made me think that might happen, and after realising that Giulia isn’t as a reliable narrator that you think, the game twists and turns in a way I simply didn’t expect. The visuals are stunning and are a great showcase for the new generation of consoles, and when they are paired with an authentic soundtrack, it really felt as if I was in Italy in the 40s. There are moments in this beautifully dark video game that forced me to change the direction of my playthrough and I am already excited to go back and explore the additional routes, especially once those bugs have been flattened out.
You might call me old before my time, but for me Word Forward is an engaging puzzle game that really tests mental capacity. Despite how tough it gets, I enjoyed what can only be described as an oddly specific form of torture (particularly once I clicked the music off). By implementing a chess-level of strategy, it elevates the title to one that stands out in the overcrowded casual-puzzle game space. Word Forward makes no bones about being difficult; even with the power ups it will be a struggle to complete all of the challenges, that is unless you either take a serious amount of time carefully planning each move, or are a seasoned enigmatologist. Either way, I’d say it’s worth it to try.
Overall Headland on the Switch sits at a slightly odd place. It’s a budget game but at too high a price, with very basic graphics but some pleasantly surprising depth to the combat and character build options. It’s certainly kid friendly, and good training wheels for someone looking to move onto challenging fare, but hard to recommend on this platform when it’s available elsewhere at far better value for money.
A wonderfully simple game with just enough complexity to make it incredibly addictive, SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash is a nostalgic blast from the past that’s as fun to play today as it was 20 years ago. The playful art style and masterful pixel art really bring your favourite characters to life, and completionists will get a tonne of playtime out of the ‘collect them all’ aspect of the game. With some slightly better sound, a few modern quality of life improvements, and some online features, this game
If Impious Pumpkins was a mobile game that you could poke at for 5 minutes while you're waiting for a bus then it would be a nice little distraction. At the time of writing however, it's a Steam only release and I can't recommend it as anything more than an excuse to turn off your brain for a few hours.