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Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shiny Pearl are both great remakes of the Nintendo DS classics. With fun little additions like decorating your ball capsules with stickers given to you from just about everyone, the ability to buy new clothes so our avatar does not look the same from start to finish, and other solid cosmetic additions, this is definitely the superior version and ILCA did a fantastic job hovering over that line of respect to the originals while also giving it their own spin.
Overall, Airborne Kingdom tries to add some tight resource elements into the city management genre, and while it works in the early game, the late game gets bogged down by needing to constantly hunt down resources while trying to remain afloat. While the story is rudimentary at best, the art style and music are outstanding.
Hindsight 20/20 – Wrath of Raakshasa is honestly a strange one. On the one hand, there is a great story here with some relatively dynamic decisions to make that will alter the course of things to come. The ability to decide what weapon to use in a given moment is an awesome mechanic that really puts your enemies’ fate in your hands. On the other hand, though, the overall combat and dungeon system is a bit repetitive and drags the experience despite the well-told story.
Lone McLonegan is a fun and incredibly entertaining point-and-click adventure. It may not be the longest nor does it have a lot of replay value, but the characters are wonderful and the story is really well told despite its absurdity. Some of the puzzles could have been better designed, but overall, the experience is a worthwhile one.
For those who love a good management title, I do recommend Grow: Song of the Evertree. For those looking for an Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley replacement, I cannot say that this is an equal option, but it is still a lot of fun. For the price, this is a great experience, but it does still need some refining. If you don’t mind a resource management title that is a bit rough on the edges, then Grow: Song of the Evertree is a perfect fit for you.
If you are looking for a solid action experience with a real challenge, The Legend of Tianding is a great option. But if you are looking for an engaging story with a strong narrative and fantastic characters, The Legend of Tianding is perfect. If you are looking for both? Well, all I can say is you need to buy this game right now! It is one of the best action titles I have played in 2021, and if you know me, that is saying a lot.
Induction is quite the abstract and challenging experience, and casual puzzle gamers may be turned off by the lack of instruction and high difficulty in the later portions of the game. However, for those looking for something unique and more along the lines of a sci-fi puzzler (Because of the time traveling), this is a wonderful addition to your library and something that will keep you thinking even when you are not playing the game.
Don’t Touch This Button is not a good game. It clearly borrows its ideas from significantly greater titles, but the execution is poor. It lacks substance and personality, and the “jokes” (If that’s even what you want to call them) are not funny in the slightest and add nothing to the gameplay outside of making the puzzles more annoying.
This is a pretty hefty title as well when it comes to content, as there are plenty of worlds to discover, numerous places to go, and lots of cards and dust to collect throughout the journey. There are some bizarre design decisions, and the disappointing map in the 3D world makes traveling much harder than it should be. However, everything does work, the story is engaging, and there is a lot to chew on here, but this is one of those titles that is simply not going to please everyone, especially in every way. I do recommend Anodyne 2: Return to Dust within reason, as I do believe it is a good game overall, but this may be an easier pill to swallow when the price is discounted.
Fatal Frame: The Maiden of Black Water is a weird choice for a remaster. A lot of it has not aged well, specifically its story and characters, and it also remains to be a middling-at-best example of the series. With subtle but important connections to the other games in the Fatal Frame series, it’s strange Koei Tecmo decided to remaster this one. Hopefully this leads to either a new Fatal Frame or more re-releases of the other stronger titles in the series, like Fatal Frame 2: Broken Butterfly.
If you have never played the game before, though, I cannot recommend it enough, so please purchase Afterbith+ and see what all the hype is about. Who knows? Maybe you will fall in love with it immediately and then go ahead and purchase Repentance to have it all. Either way, The Binding of Isaac: Repentance is a phenomenal package, and it is finally time to show Mom how you really feel about her, consequences and all.
At the end of the day, though, R-Type Final 2 is a game for a particular crowd, and they will most likely love it. For others, this is something to avoid unless you are a masochist and want to see how long you can play before you pull your hair out.
Bouncy Bullets 2 is a strange one for me, because it comes off as lesser than its predecessor in just about every way. There are less levels, less colors, and seemingly less things to do. It is not a bad game, as the shooting feels good and is pretty solid, but it is hard to neglect the difficult platforming, especially with the slippery mechanics and some times harder levels are just throwing more stuff at you instead of creating a more challenging set up.
While the game does revolve around a dead child, it’s pretty lighthearted and fun. There is a joke maintaining that a character stop talking because they want a PEGI-12 rating (Which is what they have in the UK, but it appears it’s a 17+ game in other countries), there are some other questionable jokes and themes included, and overall it really feels like the developers are making this more for the older PaC Adventure fans than trying to convince a new generation to solve problems by jamming two weird things together to see how it goes.
If you are looking for a proper golf title, this is absolutely not the game for you. However, if you are a gamer and simply enjoy an abstract challenge that borrows from some pretty heavy hitters, this is an excellent video game with a golf skin. This is not Tiger Woods or PGA, but it is a golf video game, one with branching paths, secret holes, collectibles, and more! It is not a little journey, either, as A Little Golf Journey will take up lots of your time in a wonderfully relaxing and fun way.
If you are wanting to take a trip down memory lane or experience Cotton’s first 3D adventure for the first time, then this is a decent ride. But for the price and the not very impressive experience, I find Panorama Cotton very difficult to recommend. If you are a Cotton fan, then adding this to your collection is a must, but that doesn’t mean it is a good game.
If you are a shoot ’em up enthusiast, then Cotton 100% is definitely a game worth playing, but if you are entry level and want to experience some old school Cotton gameplay, I think Cotton Reboot! is the much better option for you as it caters more to a wider audience. Don’t get me wrong, Cotton is still super-cute here, but the nostalgia glasses may come off faster than you think.
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is a really nice puzzle game with some fun ideas that looks and sounds incredible. It fails to keep things interesting as you continue on, but that does not take away from the challenge of the spacial puzzles presented. Building snowmen is great, and seeing their cute faces as a reward is nice, but I would have loved to see a bit more mix up in the gameplay.
Cosmic Express is a wonderful puzzle experience that takes you to infinity and beyond. It is missing a feature that I think would make it so much better and the standard controls can be a bit finicky, but overall this is an excellent game with tons and tons of mind-boggling puzzle gameplay.
Residual is not a bad game, and if you like resource collecting survival games, this one is fine. It just lacks any sort of exceptional or original aspect that would have me recommend it over anything similar.