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Duck Paradox is a unique gem, featuring an adorable charm and highly replayable loop that feels like an old-school platformer more than a modern roguelike. Steep bullet hell difficulty aside, it deserves more content to keep players saving the day with an ever-growing waddling of ducks alongside of Dr. Paraducks!
Sonic X Shadow Generations makes Sonic look better than ever before thanks to its graphical makeover and additional playable campaign featuring the one, and only, Shadow the Hedgehog. With the spotlight on Shadow, players can now play as him in all of his glory while being treated to cinematic sequences that, quite frankly, look cool as hell.
Unknown 9: Awakening from developer Reflector Entertainment and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment is a game more about what could have been rather than what turned out to be. With a better story that builds out the world, its characters, and more interesting enemies, the game would have been more of what it intended. It had the makings of a good fantasy/sci-fi action adventure but just didn’t make it there.
New World: Aeternum from developer Amazon Games Orange County is a wonderfully rich MMORPG experience with a solid hack-and-slash backbone driven by a good story, a bevy of main and side quests, and a fun leveling and upgrade system. While it may not satisfy the most hardcore MMORPG fans, it should entertain a more general RPG audience needing a fun fix.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero from developer Spike Chunsoft and publisher Bandai Namco is a wonderful fighting experience. It has all the bells and whistles, including a massive number of characters from the series and different ways you can customize and shape them. The imbalanced fighting might be tough for some players to overcome to enjoy the experience.
Neva follows Nomada Studios' ethos laid out by Gris, telling an equally captivating, thematic tale with a remarkable art style that, while short, will certainly linger on the mind long after credits roll.
Until Dawn from developer Ballistic Moon is still a fun horror game to experience. It has a solid horror story, some great actors to bring that story to life, and enough gameplay that works properly within that horror story scheme. The technical issues and price point of the game are the only two issues holding up a fun experience.
While not all the games featured in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster are gold, what you do get is some love and care shown to some classic titles, a completely retooled UI and soundtrack, and all while leaving the core gameplay untouched.
Phoenix Springs is an interesting take on the point-and-click adventure genre, transforming more into a visual, text-based journey relying on more than enough guesswork to piece together its often nebulous solutions.
Throne and Liberty from developer NCSOFT and publisher Amazon Games is starting on the right note. The game offers a bevy of content, a fun and complicated backend, and enough motivation to keep exploring and grinding its lands. It does need better direction and connection with quests, as well as balanced PvP. As it stands, the start is good, and the future looks like it could be better.
Atari 50 – The Wider World of Atari from developer Digital Eclipse adds to the overall Atari 50 historical package but doesn’t bring the strongest line-up of history or games seen in the original release.
At the end of the day, Rita's Rewind wins me over on the nostalgia bomb of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers content. It's the complete audio-visual package of 90s aesthetic with a welcome evolution of the MMPR gameplay loop. Some of this gameplay loop may be frustrating and unforgiving, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun.
'NHL 25' is a good game. Don't get me wrong. The work and progress that the team has put into this year's release shows itself,,, However, I just don't know if this is enough of a step or leap forward to justify it for the average NHL fan or game player.
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred from Blizzard is a worthy expansion that adds more than it subtracts. It continues a great story with compelling characters, introduces a new class, returns mercenaries, and provides additional content, making it more than just a simple DLC release.
Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns adds a good amount of kontent for MK1. Price concerns aside, the additions of Sektor, Cyrax, and Noob Saibot should be seen as a blessing for MK fans. It remains to be seen about the future of MK1's story and the rest of the Guest Fighters coming soon, but this is a good step in the right direction for a larger-form kontent in year 2 of MK1.
Final Fantasy XVI from Square Enix is a marvelous experience that brings strong characters, a passionate and fiery revenge-driven story, and simplistic action that is just as easy to pick up and go. It’s one of the best Final Fantasy games in the series, and certainly a solid option for PC gamers.
God of War: Ragnarök from Santa Monica Studio and Sony Interactive Entertainment is a beast on the PC. It brings the same big adventure while sporting some of the most gorgeous graphics the game has shown to date.
This is all to say that the overall direction of Keylocker as a JRPG is top notch. It contains beautiful pixel art, excellent soundtrack, thorough worldbuilding, and difficult gameplay. It's only held back by a lack of optimization of its Switch port.
Marvel versus Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a superb release from Capcom. It has all the 90s Marvel/Capcom arcade classics, a decent Punisher game, and some goodies that were only featured in Japan (mainly Norimaro). The collection will please any gamer who enjoys classic fighters. The younger crowd may not love it, as fighting games have become more complicated and competitive, something not as prevalent in these, but it’s a great way to revisit some classics for those who enjoy doing so.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Demon’s Mirror. Whether you’re a hardcore deck-builder fan, or just a casual gamer looking for a fun experience, this game will not disappoint. The combat mechanics are immensely diverse and one could easily sink hours upon hours replaying runs. The game also comes with masterful art direction that is just clean and beautiful all around. Demon’s Mirror is a bit short, but it never overextends itself, which ultimately leaves the player wanting more. Be-Rad Entertainment has done a great job with this game and has certainly set itself up to expand upon it.