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Card Shark is a one-of-a-kind experience, one that has the potential to completely immerse you in the life of a card cheat in ways you'd never expect. Nerial has gaming's equivalent of a pair of aces in Card Shark, and I wouldn't even mind if they'd cheated to get this winning hand. I mean, as they say, cheaters always prosper.
When the last sips of tea are finished, Lord Winklebottom Investigates proves to be a more than enjoyable entry into the modern point-and-click adventure library. Taking key lessons — both good and bad — from the legends of the genre, Winklebottom's got all the pieces to endear itself to fans of the genre. If you've been burned by point and clicks in the past, there's nothing new that Winklebottom does to pull you in. But if a posh giraffe in a suit does something for you, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. We hope to see Lord Winklebottom back sooner rather than later and look forward to seeing what else this universe might provide in the years to come.
All in all, Symphony of War is a mechanically sound turn-based tactical RPG that hearkens back to the best games in its genre. Dancing Dragon is clearly a team full of passionate folks who have bright futures ahead of them. It shines through in every layer of this experience, with its chapters of lore, a serious approach to war, a light approach to characters, and an intricately detailed visual style and gameplay system.
Even with Barlow's previous games in mind, I've never played anything like IMMORTALITY and might never again. It's a 10-15 hour experience that speaks to people who love stories, and to those who love creating and consuming art. It's a love letter to the oral tradition, to cave drawings, plays, films, dance, music, and games. It blends so many mediums, it contains so many different forms of art, and it examines it all through these displaced films — and through its characters, it reveals in the end that at the root of humanity are stories and storytellers. And we can't wait to see what else these storytellers do because it sure does feel good to just feel human in this chaotic time. It's for that reason, and a million others that could add to our pages and pages of notes we took during our playthrough, that VGG is giving IMMORTALITY the highest honor we can bestow.
I cannot recommend this game in its current state and do not want to let it slide that this game released in a very buggy and incomplete condition, but I want to believe in developers. I've seen many games surprise with their growth years after launch and I want to believe that Bleeding Tapes is capable of doing just that. I want to believe that the team believes in Neon Blight, and so I'll leave my thoughts here and hope the team takes something away from this feedback. Bleeding Tapes, there is a lot of work ahead of you, but your output since launch shows you're more than ready to face that challenge.
Coin Crew Games delivered something special with Escape Academy. A true-to-its-roots escape room experience (and in our opinion, one of the most successful attempts to recreate this digitally). A compelling world. Puzzles that are just difficult enough that you are constantly surprising yourself with your own brain's ability. It's all quality. While their focus has primarily been on the arcade space, we hope this establishes Coin Crew's foothold in the at-home gaming world. As long as their next few games don't feature pipe puzzles. Please.
Tribute Games, working with a property so near and dear to a whole generation's sentimental hearts, somehow managed to honor TMNT's roots both in gaming and in general while providing an experience worthy of a pedestal right alongside its many inspirations, if not above them. This cover band has become so much more — and I look forward to the day when we look back and see Tribute Games' greatest hits laid out in front of us.
Moonglow Bay is a frustrating one, mainly because we wanted to love it so much more. It tries a lot of new things with varied success, focuses on a few core gameplay systems that we wish were a little more engaging, all while telling a story about loss and community that's a cut above in its genre. It's just a shame that a few major glitches and pacing issues really hold it back from reaching its full potential. With Bunnyhug still hard at work with fixes, we just hope it gets closer to that apex we wanted to see it reach. Bunnyhug has a lot to offer, that much is clear. And if you can see your way through the storm to witness the beautiful dawn that waits for you at the end of the game, Moonglow Bay is well worth a visit. Just be warned: The water might be a little choppy in the meantime.
In nearly every way, this game is absurd. And it delights in its own absurdity. It only attempts to get weirder and weirder as it goes, and I love it for that. Strange Scaffold made a game that revels in late-stage capitalism (like...the latest stage possible) and THEY ADDED KINECT SUPPORT TO IT. Let your freak flag fly, Strange Scaffold.
My view on Sifu is so complicated. Sloclap clearly has a lot of talent and their team has made something special on the pure gameplay side of things, although some decisions have been a bit misguided. Even with the best intentions, the impact is clear. We need to be more thoughtful with the stories that we tell and I hope that Sloclap takes this moment to listen rather than push away. Utilizing imagery of a culture carelessly is a bad look through and through, particularly in a time when members of the AAPI community are facing unprecedented harassment and violence. Ultimately, it's your decision to buy this game or not. I loved a lot about Sifu, in learning and growing through its death mechanics; in its musical and visual artistry; and in its deeply satisfying combat systems. But we can't ignore the conversation surrounding the game and its impact on the communities it claims to represent.
Century: Age of Ashes has built a fantastic groundwork that, even months down the line, is worth investing time into. If Playwing could find a way to patch up holes in the new user experience, add a few new maps and modes by the end of Year 1, and pump up the player base, this would be one of the easiest recommendations I could make. As it stands though, it's a very tentative thumbs up from VGG. You might need to invest way more time than you might be interested in to get to the best of it, and that might be a hard sell, but I promise you there's something great waiting for you inside this rough and scaly surface.
On the whole, the Jack Axe juggling act of dodging one-hit-kill obstacles, dispatching enemies, and nailing teleporting axe throws teeters on the edge of too hard. But Keybol keeps it just attainable enough to keep you going, pushing you forward despite the pain points. A few control issues make for a more frustrating experience that departs from the "if you fail it's your fault" experience of games like Celeste and Super Meat Boy. But if you and your axe can hack your way through it, there's a fun platformer waiting for you underneath. Non-masochists need not apply.
Whether you’re jumping into the game for a few hours of a campground romp, or you’re craving a new ambient game that you can return to when you want to turn your brain off, Haven Park fits the bill.
The Good Life isn't for everyone in the same way that Swery65 himself isn't for a lot of people. But I encourage you to ask if it's for you and go find out. When you give a game like this a chance, you just might sink into the oddities and fall in love with a world of animorphing British folk who ask absurd tasks of you. Undoubtedly, you'll find yourself upset with more than a few decisions made by Swery and his team at White Owls. But amidst the hodgepodge, you also might find something golden that fits you like a glove.
All together, Nuclear Blaze is a perfect tiny package, but I had so much fun that I only craved more in the end. The developer has mentioned he'd like to make more levels — my own dream is for a tile-based level editor to be released so the community can keep the game alive eternally. Even if it never saw one drip of extra content though, Nuclear Blaze isn't just blowing smoke. These few hours of firefighting bring extremely enjoyable, bite-sized action. As I've said time and time again, I'd rather have a year's worth of these tiny experiences than some 120-hour blockbuster, so I hope Nuclear Blaze is a sign of changing tides in the indie space.
The Jackbox experience is all about having fun with pals, making each other laugh, and experiencing something that no other game can offer. Jackbox Party Pack 8 delivers that again and again and again. In my case, this Pack has already seen as much playtime as the last two combined and it's only been a month since launch. If you've skipped out on Jackbox in recent years, do yourself a favor and add this one to your game night rotation.
In an industry that operates so heavily under tradition and expectations, games like Inscryption come along and shake you awake, reminding you where games can go and what they can be.
Maple Powered Games has something here that I can just feel waiting to be mined out of this block of coal. If there's anything that's clear after my time with it, it's that Monster Harvest needed an Early Access period. In its current state, it's hard to recommend Monster Harvest. Fans of its genre inspirations will find little to enjoy in the game's interpretations of either gameplay style. Those looking for some winning combination of the two will walk away empty-handed. But I want to believe they can figure it out.
Ambition sells a fairly unique package for the dating sim genre. Attending parties, gathering gossip, and finding time to woo your chosen love interest truly becomes a delicate dance. Living in 2020s America as someone who wouldn't go to parties even sans pandemic, I wasn't sure how engaged I'd be with the narrative and the experience. But thanks to the game's beautiful artistic recreations of major French locales and a beautiful soundtrack of orchestral classical music, I was truly transported to revolutionary France, free to live out my bi dreams: wooing beautiful French people and starting a revolution in the streets. A story that allows a woman to wield her influence and sexuality to not only control her personal narrative but also the narrative of an entire nation is worthy of celebration, especially when it innovates on a formula that can feel a bit same-y. Ambition is a perfect experience for both fans of the genre and those who might be sick of the more traditional dating sim/visual novel experience.
Overall, Astria Ascending is a perfectly good JRPG that is familiar and traditional in a way that is both refreshing and frustrating. What it does differently from others in its class (fun and unique temple puzzles, amazing quality art assets) are enough to help it rise from the ashes of its storytelling faults. Major difficulty spikes and repetitive encounters hold it back from greatness and may make this a skip for some, but the adventure will speak to many fans of classic JRPGs.