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There’s slightly more fun on the cards when playing in co-op mode with a friend, as some of the game’s downsides can be easily counteracted with brute force by duos. If you’re a super-fan of Kevin Smith’s work, you can bump the score by a couple of points. However, as just another game floating in a sea of alternative investments, Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl – Arcade Edition can easily be avoided.
There’s still a lot to appreciate about Of Bird and Cage, such as the music, the tone, the desire to do something like what we almost saw. Hopefully, this isn’t the last from the developers as I respect the drive, but slow down, pull it back, work with the good ideas, and don’t let the music go flat again.
f you want a better time, make a paper airplane out of your money and see how far down the street it can travel after you’ve thrown it out of the window.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart has one foot in a past dimension and one foot in a future dimension and, thankfully, it spends more time in the latter dimension over the former.
Simply porting over these old games points out their age and doesn’t properly highlight the quality of the first two entries. And while Ninja Gaiden Sigma and its sequel are still worth going through once again, even the best swords can get a little rusty if not properly maintained.
Merge Games did the best it could while still staying true to the original, which ultimately provides the advertised nostalgia trip and a pretty gorgeous facelift as well. It’s just a bummer that the whole appeal of the package, being an update to Miracle World, is also what holds it back from being a great game in 2021.
Unfortunately, Mighty Goose never manages to hit the high points that separate the best run-and-gun shooters from the games simply inspired by them. While competent and without any glaring issues, the action ultimately pales in comparison to Gunstar Heroes, Sunset Riders, and Metal Slug 3, which are all over 20 years old. With nothing all that novel to offer the genre besides some admittedly hilarious honk-filled, goose-based humor, it will just leave you wanting to play one of the classics instead.
Thanks to a familiar cast of characters, a great tutorial, and just enough depth to keep even more experienced MOBA players entertained, Pokémon Unite is a great blend of MOBA action that is accessible to new players and fun for veterans that don’t want to spend an hour on a match.
Despite its scope, Last Stop is a wholly captivating tale. Its grounded and fantastical halves work in harmony to create a narrative that has enough humanity to draw players in while also having a supernatural mystery at its center to keep players on the hook. It may not be the most interactive game in its genre, but it’s certainly one of the most charming, intriguing, and British.
Fans of the Alien franchise have dealt with a heck of a lot worse, but they’ve also had better over the years. Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a solid entry that’ll provide many cooperative multiplayer thrills but one that doesn’t quite reach the highs of the film it is influenced by or the best of the genre.
As its title implies, The Artful Escape is, indeed, an artful escape from the reality of most games. The vibrant visuals and larger-than-life story with its share of personal elements coalesce with its innate, performance-driven musicality to create an electric experience. However, it comes at the cost of its gameplay, which is boring at worst and merely passable at best. Such an imbalance undersells its message a bit as its mechanics can’t match its narrative ambitions, but those narrative ambitions are tuned well enough to drown out its mechanical flat notes.
With an impactful story, fleshed-out characters, and some of the best writing the series has seen so far, Life Is Strange: True Colors is a triumphant success. The main story’s twist leaves something to be desired, as it’s a bit predictable and by-the-numbers, but it is bolstered by the other parts of the carefully woven narrative package. All of these strengths show that the franchise is clearly in good hands with Deck Nine, as the studio is pushing the series into a great new direction.
If you’re just a fan of the films and want a casual fighting game to remind you how cool Mr. T looked as a boxer, then the forgettable boxing bouts might be worth some of the nostalgia-fueled laughs.
WarioWare: Get It Together! is nearly impossible to play without smiling. The series’ signature style, sense of humor, and brief-yet-satisfying gameplay loops are just as present as ever and made better by the game’s expanded roster of familiar faces; the latter of which is a real treat for long-time fans. WarioWare has never been afraid to be bold, take risks, and shake things up, and the Nintendo Switch iteration is the purest expression of that.
Deathloop isn’t as liberating as some of Arkane’s other games and suffers a bit because of it. Only being able to take two powers into missions that initially lead players by the nose is puzzlingly restrictive, as is the underdeveloped stealth. But Deathloop is still a compelling enough shooter with a solid story hook that creatively combines its new ideas and inspirations into one unique experience, resulting in an imperfect loop, but one well worth living through a few times.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a more than passable first attempt for a studio that has newly transitioned to video games. It’s a visually stunning world that is occasionally calming to poke around in. However, it’s still very evident that it is from a team that’s new to the medium, given all of its gameplay inadequacies and narrative missteps. There are glimmers of a truly great experience in here, but it’s hard to see underneath the spots of rot at the core. And unlike the little Rot wisps in the game, it’s not cute as it robs the game of its potential.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a decent arcade racer with some great nostalgia that wears off after a few races. Unlocking a themed car, such as the Party Wagon from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, gives temporary relief from the monotonous gameplay, but much like any form of nostalgia, the short-lived fun of reminiscing eventually turns into sadness if there’s no substance backing it up.
Whether you’re a die-hard veteran or someone looking to give the series a shot for the first time, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania serves its purpose as a content-rich, if familiar, package filled with its share of high points. There are some diminishing returns as some levels have been recycled for 20 years and the lack of online multiplayer limits the appeal of the great selection of party games, but the core formula of rolling around and collecting trinkets still serves this updated compilation of a compilation quite well.
Far Cry 6 is ultimately a safe sequel that doesn’t aim to redefine what Far Cry is. However, it is still the well-tuned entry that does improve upon the formula in key areas, mainly the upgrade paths, gunplay, and cutscenes. It disappointingly doesn’t take that formula into a new direction or modernize it and can feel antiquated as a result, but it can still be mindlessly addictive even amongst its familiarity. Its narrative may posit revolution as the only possible answer, but its overall presentation posits that a solid evolution can still be quite effective.
Unfortunately, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is simply punching well above its class. While younger kids might get a kick out of its cast of characters (although they’ll likely be wondering who in the world Powdered Toast Man is), there are far better family titles and platform fighters than this. Most of these shows were full of life and this game fails to capture almost any of that charm through its unrewarding gameplay and cheap presentation. While F is for friends that do stuff together, those that play Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl won’t find much F.U.N. here.