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A Rose in the Twilight does a lot of things well. It crafts a story and a world that makes me care deeply about its central character, it’s visually spectacular when it’s not killing you with its hard-to-distinguish artwork, and it touches on moods and feelings that most other games don’t even attempt to venture into. For as much creativity as there is to be found throughout those aspects, there isn’t nearly enough in the actual gameplay. If the first half played more like the second half, it would have been an outstanding experience in spite of its short length.
As much as I love PaRappa and his quest to find love with Sunny Funny, the experience was significantly marred with the visible lag and the lack of calibration options. For a remastered rhythm game, this is practically a must-have given calibration difficulties with modern televisions. I still enjoyed my time with the updated, clean-looking PaRappa, but I might just go back to playing the PSP version if I got the funky flow...
Annoyances aside, MLB The Show 17 continues to iterate without the technical baggage a few games back. Beyond the attempts to monetize players through microtransactions (which mainly work as boosts), I didn't really have any major issues with any given aspect of the game. We're only a few more days out until the 2017 season, and I'm counting on using The Show as my companion for it.
Mario Sports Superstars is like a coworker everybody hates because they do just enough work to not get fired. It’s not a good game, not by a long shot, but it does just enough right that I can’t in good conscience call it outright bad. What I can call it is a lazy experience, one developed solely for the purpose of selling what are basically Mario-branded Topps cards. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to pour myself another drink.
All of this -- the unique pieces that make up Night in the Woods -- goes back to why it's so damn hard to define the game. There isn't an adequate term for titles that blend clunky platforming with choose-you-own-adventure friendship simulators. Nor is there a word to describe games that feature knife-fighting minigames and Guitar Hero-inspired band practices. But, again, maybe that's a big part of Night in the Woods' appeal. It's a confident outsider, and one that takes pleasure is celebrating the weird ways that everything comes together in life.
But for those who just want to see what that cute girl with horns is doing like I did, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a brief, but highly enjoyable time. It can be over before it overstays its welcome and cracks start to show, but even then those flaws aren't enough to belittle the experience.
Next Order isn't without flaws, but it's exactly the kind of game the Digimon World series needed after a regional hiatus. While the unconventional combat and grind-heavy skill training aren't likely to deter fans of the franchise, newcomers might find some of the game's quirks unwelcoming. As such, Digimon World: Next Order likely won't appeal to everyone, but the game is something longtime fans of the series will have no problem dumping hours upon hours into.
Toukiden 2 is a great leap towards a much needed evolution, it dares to add new things and challenge tradition. Hunting games usually get an enhanced edition that adds all kinds of stuff and I eagerly await what Omega Force will bring on next time around. In the mean time, I’m gonna play more of this game for few more dozen hours.
When the Kickstarter for Thimbleweed Park was launched, the stated goal was to create a game that plays like a lost LucasArts adventure title. In my opinion the developers succeeded brilliantly, creating a game that feels like a forgotten relic of LucasArts' heyday, but with enough touches to make it a little more relevant to a modern audience. It's fair to say no one makes them like this anymore, particularly since Telltale discovered a more lucrative formula based on popular franchises and keeping track of player actions. It was a rare pleasure to get to play a game like this again. I had a blast exploring Thimbleweed Park, and if you've ever enjoyed telling Bernard Bernoulli or Guybrush Threepwood what to do, you will too.
If you didn't dig Persona 4, this is your gateway back into the Velvet Room. Persona 5 manages to differentiate itself not only from the rest of the market, but its own franchise in a lot of standout ways. It still has the rigid backbone of a JRPG, but the organs, skin, and soul are teeming with more personality than most of us could even dream up.
As someone who absolutely loved every member of the bro-trip party, I was hoping for a little bit more from the first major round of Final Fantasy XV DLC. The game has already received a ton of fantastic free updates, but so far the "Episode" format seems to be something all of us should enjoy in the Game of the Year edition, and not piecemeal.
I feel so badly for this game in a way. It seems so close to being something special and wonderful, but is just undermined at every turn by baffling design choices, poor controls, and frustration. Maybe some of these issues will be addressed in a future patch and Rain World will become the game it feels like it should have been. Someone else will have to let me know. As far as I'm concerned, my days of being a slugcat are officially behind me and I won't be looking back.
Isn't that why we gravitate towards stories like these? We look for something we can empathize with; we like it when the relatable is juxtaposed against the fantastic. That concept is the basis of good sci-fi/fantasy/horror storytelling, and A New Frontier understands that more than most video games. I'm invested in the story of the Garcia family. I'm excited to see how their drama plays out amidst the backdrop of the zombie apocalypse. If Above the Law is any indication, the next two episodes are going to be something special.
If The Ringed City really is the end of Souls, it manages to hang its head high with the rest of the series. From Demon's to Dark III we have more than enough macabre settings to pore over in the years to come. They aren't all created equal, and some of them aren't even created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, but I'll remember each and every one of them for as long as I live. It's been a wild ride.
If it isn't clear, Hollow Knight is not only what I'd say is the best game so far this year, it also very well may be the best metroidvania title out there right now, and it is easily one of my favorite games of all-time.
Kona is a wonderful and lovingly crafted accomplishment. It's charming, magical, and smart enough to instill real motivation in its players and layer its cast in realist ways. Kona might be the first of four planned games, but it also happens to be a great standalone adventure that'll have you reaching for the thermostat in no time.
As a console game, I can't recommend it, but if you're the type of person who plays your Nintendo Switch on the go, it at least is something you can pick up and play for a bit without much thought. Has-Been Heroes would benefit greatly with touchscreen controls on a mobile device, as the gameplay seems tailor made for it, but alas it doesn't support the Switch's touch capabilities and isn't available on phones. But hey, at least it features HD Rumble, which is easily the most over-hyped and overrated feature of the Switch, so there is that.
Maybe the $10 price tag is a bit much for a now five year old game (especially one that has been on sale), but if you like pondering your own enjoyment of gaming and want to do it both on the go and at home, this version offers the opportunity.
It is cute, short, simple, and a nice nostalgic trip back down memory lane, even if these are new yet forgettable memories. I appreciate how much the developer was able to capture the N64 look and feel, and also the Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope cameo (he has one of the only voiced lines in the game; he didn't work on the soundtrack). I think with some time, money, and a bigger team I could see Siactro making an honest to goodness great modern N64 game, but as it stands this feels a little too simple and shallow for my tastes.
Mass Effect: Andromeda spends a lot of time not really feeling like a Mass Effect game. If anything, it feels like a spin-off -- the sort of thing created by another studio that's unsure about what direction to take it. Like in the game itself, there are problems with the atmosphere. But Andromeda is very clear that it doesn't aim to be like the other Mass Effects. New beginnings, not funerals -- for better and for worse.