Destructoid
HomepageNinjala definitely has the look of something I should be in love with. It's bright and colorful, and the world-building happening here is genuinely fun. What's not fun are the poorly implemented mechanics that can ruin the fast and fluid combat. There is a solid template for something great here, and if GungHo can iron out all its wrinkles, it might have a genuine blockbuster on its hands.
Inti Creates could've done "more of the same" and called it a day, but the new characters lend Curse of the Moon 2 a ton of flexibility, the co-op support is commendable, and the subtle refinements can be found far and wide if you go back to play the original game after spending a weekend with the sequel.
Despite its age, simplicity, and lack of embellishments, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town proves the Bokujō Monogatari franchise has been on the money since the very beginning. Its content may feel a little sparse compared to its successors and competitors, but I can see myself returning to these lands long after the next harvest moon.
It's a weird game to review because so many people are going to expect drastically different things. How many games force you to shave and send your clothes up for dry cleaning? How many times can you say that you hexed an old widow so that you could go bowling in the past...oh say decade or so? Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is another trip. You've been warned.
Right now, however, it has not reached that point of player exploitation where I'd recommend deleting it off your phone entirely. Pokémon Café Mix is currently in that sweet spot where it's mostly harmless with only a few bits of frustration. The puzzle formula is entertaining enough to bring me back two or three times a day to try and get past those roadblocks, but really, I'm firing the app up far more often than that just to get a look at those delectable Pokémon dishes.
For every few moments in Iron Man VR that gave me an absolute rush, there were several that felt comfortably sterile. That's not the best ratio, but I'd definitely play more and I hope that Camouflaj gets their hands on Iron Man again: if only to see how they can top themselves and mend their mistakes.
Like many recent indie games, The Almost Gone isn't afraid to tackle difficult subject matter. And like a lot of its fellow developers, Happy Volcano opts not to get too far into the weeds of the topics it covers. Certainly, there will be players who take the narrative to heart more passionately than I did, but I do find it a curious enough of an experience to recommend to mobile gamers looking for something more melancholy than the newest match-3 puzzler.
But it's not enough. Borderlands 3: Bounty of Blood just tries to do so many things that it ends up becoming a cacophony of concepts. It's still Borderlands 3 though; which is always a plus.
If you're thinking of playing Among Trees and you know you need extrinsic motivators to hold your interest, you'll want to wait until the Early Access schedule is further along. If you're down for a laid-back forest hiking game and you enjoy charting your own course just for the heck of it, give it a chance.
With a remake, all of this, along with the often questionable level design, could have been corrected. But with SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated aiming to be as faithful to the original as possible, these issues only serve as a reminder of how much better the industry has become at making 3D platformers.