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Heart & Slash is a hardcore game built on top of a niche genre, but I think a lot of people will appreciate it. Even then, those same folks won't dig the frame rate and camera issues, but the juice is still worth the squeeze.
It's just a shame there isn't way more game here. If this truly is the start of a franchise, I'd potentially be up for more titles, but I can't deny how much this sparse pilot entry leaves me wanting.
"Sameness" defines 256. It's Pac-Man, with its classic gameplay intact, twisted to the side with an endless runner tint instead of a level-based progression system. It's good, but could have done much more and built on the killer advancements that were made in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. Maybe that's expecting too much, because for five smackeroos, you could do a whole lot worse.
This is filler, pure and simple. This is contractual obligation padding out a Season Pass. It isn't terrible, it isn't offensive, but it isn't much fun either. The greatest value of this DLC won't come from actually playing it, but in watching some YouTube physics wizard design the perfect Brahmin slaughter house, or a machine that automatically launches bowling balls at a captive Raider. This is DLC designed to manufacture ten-second .webm files. If you're not absolutely crazy about the settlement building aspect of the game (or trying to build an online empire of clickable content), this is a hard pass.
Zero Time Dilemma is nothing short of a flawed masterpiece.
If you don’t like visual novels or more intimate stories, will you like VA-11 HALL-A? I think so, yeah. I honestly believe there is a game in every genre for everyone, so you should give it a shot. VA-11 HALL-A is a damn fine video game, and that’s the bottom line.
Almost like a diet Persona of sorts, Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE doesn't feel like Atlus took any half-measures, but by that same token, it doesn't do anything spectacular either or expand upon its previous work. While folks probably won't be rushing out to buy a Wii U for it anytime soon, the famed publisher has once again proved that it is at the top of the food chain when it comes to JRPGs.
Truly, the best thing to come out of Trials of the Blood Dragon is that we get a continuation of the Blood Dragon story and a setup for a possible proper sequel. Other than that, it's a forgettable jumble of things that don't live up to either the Trials or the Blood Dragon names. It's kind of ironic that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is one of the best-executed novel gimmicks in recent memory, because taking that idea and tweaking it to a new extreme has made Trials of the Blood Dragon one of the worst.
I can't say that I'm exactly disappointed with the end result. It still has a lot of baggage to unload (the 3DS and Vita ports aren't even dated yet), but most Mega Man fans will find solace in the fact that it didn't end up being a disaster. Other than the art style, of course.
I'm not a fan of One Piece: Burning Blood and it's not because of the unfamiliar source material. The combat here just isn't that fun, and no amount of colorful anime action will change that.
Forced Showdown is a game that left very little impact on me. I played it, it was a game, and I understood every part of it. The parts come together nicely, but aren't mechanically deep at all. Combat is simple, even with the card system at play, the structure is extremely repetitive, and everything else just falls in line around that. It has been getting very frequent updates, which is great, but unfortunately the base game needs more than just patches to really stand out.
If you're a fan of Nier and looking to get your fix until the proper sequel is out, it is easy to recommend Anima. RPGs rarely hold my attention but I happily sank my time into this one no problem. There's enough quality content here that it feels like the developer or publisher is selling itself short by setting the price so low, as I would have easily been satisfied with this at double the price. It's even more impressive knowing the game was developed by three people. Just know going in that toward the end, you're going to be frustrated with some boss fights, pending the developers don't tweak them in a future update.
Dangerous Golf fancies itself silly and fun, as telegraphed by its lime-green menus, rollicking, record-scratch score, and "punk rock" appropriation of a haughty, classist sport. But the destruction doesn't have much of a satisfying crunch, exacerbated by the floaty ball controls when you're in peak destruction mode. The load times and egregious re-purposing of assets and areas kill any desire I have to get high scores on holes. And it doesn't even lean into its anachronistic, extreme-sport silliness thanks to its sterile Unreal 4 tech demo aesthetic and character-less "world tour." It's fun for a bit and then exhausts itself completely.
Mech Land Assault falls completely flat. The mechs are great, but they also make missions and liberating towns way too easy (the same way the jetpack made flying way too easy and thereby less interesting). There are only two missions, both of which are completely bland. Oh, and also you're forced to liberate the entire DLC island because if there is one thing that people were clamoring for, it was more town liberations.
Right now, Xrd proper is teetering around $30 or less -- a little more if you buy all the DLC. It's debatable whether or not Revelator is worth another full 60 bones on PS4 if you only lightly touched the original, but between this and Street Fighter V, I'm set for a long while. Plus, I'm sure all the "no Jam, no buy" fans don't mind the $60 price of admission.
But it's been quite the journey, as Mirror's Edge Catalyst is one of the toughest reviews I've tackled in some time. It was so hard to acclimate to the changes and suffocating AAA mentality after the original was near perfect, but I think once people get over that initial shock, they'll come to adore it in spite of that.
Marrakesh has a little bit less lackadaisical exploration, a little less margin for error thanks to the population density and state of military high alert. Even fewer exaggerated costumes, far as I could find. But you can still brain a fool with a wrench from 20 yards.
Edge of Nowhere could have easily been on other non-VR platforms and be passable as a budget title at around $20, but instead, here it is as an Oculus Rift exclusive costing double that thanks to what I'd call the 'VR tax,' which in this case is for a mostly worse experience. While there is an interesting story to be found, barely anything else here stands out as being original. It all feels very safe. Not a terrible game, not a great game, and from my point of view, not worth $40.
If Dungeons 2 was just a competent dungeon builder held back by a few technical bugs and some bad interface design, it might be something worth checking out. As a dungeon builder horrifically Frankensteined to one of the lamest RTS experiences I've played in years, its an unfortunate monstrosity that should be safely avoided.
If you're looking for a puzzle game that will make you both laugh and jump, I can easily recommend Please, Don't Touch Anything, even if you've played the original. For $15, you get hours of gameplay in a polished experience, which is a steal compared to most of the other expensive titles on the Oculus Store.