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As much fun as it is to share with loved ones, Death Squared is considerably more difficult than Snipperclips, which didn't even have a failure state. Even though it has a "party mode," it's not a game I'd advise pairing with alcohol, since fine motor control is one of the first things to go when you're hammered. If you're persistent and willing to work together though, Death Squared is a good time, and definitely worth picking up on the Switch.
I just wish I loved the rest of the game as much as I love the concept and art style. The music is repetitive and worse than what you'd hear on an elevator, and the randomness of the difficulty just isn't fun, at all. You could even say it's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
De Mambo isn't the next big fighting game, nor did it deliver on all its promised content from its Kickstarter as it had been stated there would be a Zelda II-like campaign mode which isn't here, instead replaced by the short stage-based solo mode. That being said, I like De Mambo alright. It's a fun distraction to casually play with friends -- be they competitive or casual -- and will perhaps help hold us all over till a proper Smash Bros. releases on the Switch; much like how the developers waited for a 3DS version. This is one fun little dance.
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, despite my misgivings, is a triumph that still holds up all these years later. Modern conveniences like upping the tempo of combat are far more valuable than the new coat of paint, and despite a slow-going narrative it's a blast to just roam the open countryside, mess around with Gambits, and go on hunts. Slowly but surely XII has wormed its way into my heart -- it only took 11 years.
I'm a big fan of the art style, animation, and cute yet creepy nature of Bulb Boy that reminds me of cartoons from my childhood. Like for real, this is probably the closest thing we will ever get to a proper Courage the Cowardly Dog game, so if you have nostalgia for that show, pick this up. The two-hour length and lack of replayability will probably be a turnoff for some, but if you're like me, you're desperate for content to play on your Nintendo Switch and for $9 you could do much, much worse. Trust me on that one.
For a title that is supposed to be $20, it would be hard to recommend That's You. At the low, low price of 'free' if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you might as well pick it up. If you miss your chance now, I'd say watch for it to go on sale in the sub $10 range, because while fun, it's one of those games you only want to play once in a while for one round when all your friends are available.
Blowout Blast is another game I'll stuff in the "Kirby" folder on my 3DS, occasionally going back to it when I have a few moments to spare.
Infinite Warfare has had an uneven Season Pass but it's far from a disaster. While its first pack is easily the strongest, even the average maps in Continuum and Absolution are worth occasionally cycling through. Just err on the side of zombies and you won't regret picking it up -- otherwise, Game of the Year it is.
If you read up on the planets for fun, enjoy movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or Moon, or find the idea of hauling cargo from system to system and maybe getting in the odd fight along the way appealing, there is very little else out there like Elite Dangerous. I'm highly recommending it despite the tedium in its game play and the long periods of time you will spend just looking at stars/reading stuff on a screen. It is a beautiful, one of a kind experience that I cherish, one of my favourite games in the last few years, and the PlayStation 4 release is no exception.
There's something genuinely charming and interesting to Micro Machines World Series, but whatever that is quickly drowns in repetitive tedium. Bolting Overwatch's sensibilities onto a game like this is a novel idea but Codemasters never leans far enough in any one direction. As a result, this feels like a shell of a few different possibilities -- none of them ever making good on their individual promise.
Trials is a hodgepodge of stuff that should have been patched in and stuff worthy of extra development time, but since there's still another chapter that promises a new narrative and a dungeon -- the Season Pass might be worth the full price yet. Until then just ask yourself how much you play Breath of the Wild, read some trusted opinions, and go from there.
If you've got a hankering for a game with a stamina meter, sword swinging, and pot smashing, there is at least one other better title on the Nintendo Switch that I can think of, but Oceanhorn is an alright little throwback to retro Zelda titles that could help you bide your time between Nintendo's slow trickle of AAA games this year. Now, when do I get to play the sequel?
It's a shame what happened to Crash Although Naughty Dog moved on to bigger things, I wouldn't necessarily call all of them better. The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy serves as a time capsule of sorts before the series was ran into the ground, and my only major regret is that I wish it had CTR as the cherry on top.
The combat here is good, really good, and for some, that may be all they need. For you, that may be enough to convince you to plop down your $40 for this game. For me, the fun in Tokyo Xanadu is buried beneath so much unskippable, unpauseable, and unmemorable story I can't in good conscience give it my full support.
If you're new to the dungeon or it's been a long time since you ventured into its depths, do yourself a favor and get your sea legs ready before wading into the bloody pools of The Crimson Court. If you're an experienced delver looking for a new challenge, then by all means, step into the moonlight and find out what the night has in store for you.
Really though, if you're playing this, you're doing so for the satisfying shooting and VR immersion (and because you probably sorely need something new for your PlayStation VR). It is what it is. If you've got the setup needed to make the most of this game, you could do a whole lot worse.
But that level of sensibility doesn't come front and center enough. Valkyria Revolution is constantly at odds with itself. It tries to be an action game, but at the behest of fans, more strategic elements were shoved in. You'll go into an action-packed warzone full of enemies to slice up, then you'll be rewarded with a seemingly endless amount of cutscenes lacking sound and fury and signifying nothing. Sega shifted its direction many times during its development due to feedback, and I'm not convinced it was the right move. Maybe if they had just stuck to their guns and made it a full action romp it would have turned out better.
Hover ends up as a game that's a blast to maneuver around and explore but becomes at odds with its own design. There are a lot of peculiar decisions that make everything much more frustrating than it needs to be. Hover is something I desperately wanted to fall in love with, and although I'm happy to have been acquainted with it, we'll be headed our separate ways moving forward.
By the time Final Fantasy XV is fully finished, most of its mysteries and interludes will have been explained. It's up to you if you want to discover them individually or all at once with the eventual Game of the Year edition (which might come a full year after XV's November 2016 release, given that Episode Ignis isn't dropping until December). For me the main story juice has been worth the squeeze, but the DLC has not.
It's bittersweet to get the culmination of good role design in a pricey DLC. I'm the kind of person who maxed out every single character in two weeks of Diablo III's launch, then moved into Inferno and Hardcore runs -- also known as the target audience for a character drop. Every time I boot up D3, whether it's for a new season or a new group of friends, I have the option to level up a new Necromancer, and that's going to be invaluable down the line for me. But for everyone else who only dabbles in dungeon crawling, wait for a sale.