Polygon's Reviews
Mario Golf: Super Rush is the best Mario sports game in over a decade
The haunting twists of Scarlet Nexus make it a surprise gem
In missions, players have two options upon clearing set areas, which are to increase the rarity of loot that will drop, or to rest at camp, which will create a checkpoint for the player and restore any used healing items. On the Legendary and Ascended difficulty - the final two tiers of difficulty the game offers - I would spend most of these instances resting at camp to refill my resources, because enemies at this level, be they goblins or frenzied psionic cultists, would simply evaporate my health with a single strike. That was also a normal occurrence if my character's power level did not meet the suggested requirement of the selected difficulty.
It's Mo's grandmother who urges Mo to go to a place she has always feared. The place, it turns out, is not anywhere near as repulsive as the intricate musculature of the underground caves, or the harsh reality of the island being killed by fungus. Instead, it's beautiful; the full scope of Minute of Islands' colors are on full display, with intricate, marvelous mushrooms growing out of what was once flesh and spore. But this is also a place Mo can only enter without the comfort of her Omni Switch. Her fear, it seems, is not tied to the monstrous, but instead, to vulnerability.
Children are like sponges, eager to learn and soak up new knowledge to apply to the decades ahead of them. If you’re an adult who’s curious about how games work, Game Builder Garage is a fun, informative experience most of the time — but it’s one you may prefer to experience in short bursts, lest the slow-moving lessons force you to snap your Switch in two.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart earns its PS5 exclusivity
The game's story never captures an ever-shifting gang war landscape of assassinations, ambushes, and back-stabbings. Instead, it leans into the worst aspects of Warhammer storytelling, throwing too many proper nouns at the player while also being too grim-dark for a setting that pretty much coined that term. You could skip most of the dialogue sections and the story could still be told with its visuals; in fact, that might even be more effective. Even though a lot of the levels look similar, there is still a history and sense of massive scale and character in each area you jump, shoot, and sprint through.
PowerWash Simulator fits nicely into my gaming lineup as the ultimate low-energy game. When my brain is tired, or I’m not in the mood to compete or struggle in any way, I grab a power washer. It’s become a fantastic wind-down game before bed. I may never be a homeowner, but I can capture the most relaxing bits of home care with none of the hassle, and that’s pretty nice.
Another change any RPG fan is sure to fall in love with is the suspend save feature, especially if you're in the group that plans to purchase the game on the Nintendo Switch. This new addition allows players to save anywhere in the game without needing to find a save point. This makes the trial-and-error parts of the game an almost non-issue, and for Switch fans, it makes the game much easier to play on the go.
Charging up a shot is still essential, as that makes it faster, and therefore harder to catch or dodge. A lot of successful Knockout City plays, for me, came down to knowing how long to charge up a shot. At certain close ranges, additional power is unnecessary. But there I was, in close-quarters range, laying on my right trigger out of ... instinct? blind faith that a stronger attack is better? ... while my unarmed opponent caught a lucky rebound and immediately bullseyed me. Other times, I fired way too early from a longer range, which often ended in my shot getting deflected in midair by someone else's throw.
I know this is starting to sound like a piece more dedicated to visual novels than Famicom Detective Club itself, but I promise you it's not. The games' history and their context is just so important. Visual novels aren't new, and they aren't unpopular, but still they end up being categorized as a niche genre for specific people, or as "smaller" or "easier" games. That's wrong, and Famicom Detective Club demonstrates that. These two games take mechanics from visual novels and adventure games of the past to create an immersive, diverse experience.
Disco Elysium is not the sort of game that you play to master, but it is the kind of game that, if you truly internalize its thoughts, will make your real life easier to live in. It will keep you company as you wait without power for a glorious future that will never come — and even if it did, would end up being stupid.
Resident Evil Village is the perfect cocktail of horror and action
Housemarque’s PS5 exclusive elevates the time loop genre
New Pokémon Snap is the portable safari we’ve been waiting for
So I return to the caveats. If you’re a fan of the series, and you can respect the audacity of these decade-old ideas, Nier Replicant is the best appetizer yet for whatever main course Square Enix will inevitably serve in the future. But for newcomers or casual fans, the caveat stands: Nier Replicant is worth the time, but only if you have plenty of time to spend.
I’m still often confused about what’s going on, and why, but it’s impressive how the bones of Pac-Man fit so neatly into a battle royale experience, with so much thought put into the use of intel and basic strategy that the skill ceiling is currently hard to fathom. Then there’s the fact that you can have the whole game loaded and be in a full match in just a minute or two. The result is both confounding and empowering. When I win, it’s of course due to my skill, and when I lose?
That's a huge letdown, because the encounters feel tuned for co-op rather than solo play. Playing alone, I could feel the absence of other players; although enemies are tougher when playing with friends, having another person to divert a boss' attention feels more natural than having you and a boss circle a pillar as you whittle down its health, or slowly working your way through the unrelenting hail of bullets that some of the later encounters subject you to. You also get to revive your friends in multiplayer (you even get one self-revive), which makes some of the tougher fights a little easier.
Brynn's tale is told mostly in flashback, for obvious reasons, and as I watched it play out, I could make some limited decisions by putting the cursor on one of the eyeball icons on the screen and blinking to make my selection. Once the interactive portion of a moment is over, a metronome begins to tick back and forth at the bottom of the screen, even if characters are still talking. You can stay in that moment as long as you'd like ... as long you can keep yourself from blinking. Blink, and you're removed from the memory and sent someplace else.
Anyone that's played New Horizons will be familiar with the sorts of errands necessary to complete the spirits' tasks. Much of the time, the spirits have lost things that the player needs to find around the island. There's a lot of fishing, harvesting resources, and collecting items. These tasks can be finished within a half an hour or so most of the time, especially if I just have to do something like find a recipe book that's been stashed in a pile of leaves, but sometimes a task can require me to log in across multiple days. Say, for instance, I need to bring salt to the spirit baker on the island. That can only be purchased through Cozy Grove's shopkeeper, and I'll have to wait if it's not there on the day I need it.