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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.
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.
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.
SkateBIRD is a hard sell, because this is not a very cheap title and it is not very fun. This is a rather failed attempt at being a unique title within the skateboarding genre of video games, as it fails in its controls, camera, and its extreme requirements to unlock things. It does do some things right, though, and I do have to commend it for being a funny experience despite its flaws. The music is great, the birds look amazing, and most of the parks are well designed, and this could be a worthy pickup at a discounted price. However, these poor birds have had their wings clipped, and they will not be flying off the shelf any time soon.
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.
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.
It is a shame, because there is a lot of potential here. However, at the end of the day, Aeon Must Die! was kind of doomed from the start. This is a title that just cannot escape its demons, and there is enough problems here to prove that this was not a fully finished idea before putting everything together. I cannot recommend Aeon Must Die!, and it is even hard to do so even with a good deal. You will be getting a beefy game if you do buy it, but you will get bored with it rather quickly and making it to the end is a real drag.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It may not be the most memorable shoot ’em up out there, but Gleylancer is still worth your time, especially if you are a fan of the genre. The fact that Ratalaika Games has brought this one back and are only selling it for $5.99 is amazing. For the price, this is a steal, and it is definitely a game to add to your collection, despite its blemishes.
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.
Dojoran is a good, little platformer that offers quite the package for such a bite-sized price. It does decent in all regards, has a great soundtrack, and takes a reasonable amount of time to clear. There are some extra challenges on the table as well, like reaching the end with the bug and a large coin, but this does not offer anything and is purely there for bragging rights.
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.
Embr really is a solid game with some minor issues. The interesting use of fire spreading as a time limit is really cool and gives more desperation to the situation, and the overall look and feel of the game is silly and fun. There is a lot to do here, actually, and it is made even larger by the inclusion of multiplayer. So even though the controls and camera can be a bit squirrelly, the overall presentation is grand, and you will be having loads of fun putting out fires, saving clients, recovering valuables, and taking out the baddies. This is a game that is packed with challenge, intrigue, comedy, and puzzles all in one. Embr may be a bit of a hard sell when compared to the plethora of titles on the Switch, but this is a fire that is worth putting out.
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.
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.