Digital Chumps
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A Hat in Time is more interested in looking around than staring backward. This is a challenging exercise for a 3D platformer, and yet A Hat in Time keeps its perspective balanced between careful devotion and sensible progression. Being responsive to your environment, as it turns out, makes it easier to see where you should be going.
MXGP Pro is functional enough to fulfill the cravings for players who want this kind of game, yet it serves as another example that developer Milestone needs to give more time and care to its franchises.
HumaNature Studios' Toe Jam & Earl: Back in the Groove has brought back and breathed life into the old gameplay design of the original game. It feels like a Toe Jam & Earl game, which I can appreciate immensely. While not groundbreaking with visuals, it still brings some real fun to a series that lost its way a long time ago.
VA-11 Hall-A is a unique experience that borrows some design elements from games in the past, such as Carmen Sandiego, that features solving problems through natural dialogue with ambiguous clues. The additional narrative to it is captivating at times, though some dialogue can get way too long in the tooth. The additional money-making motivation and customization options help to sell the experience a little further beyond its initial design.
At the end of the day, whether you're taking a nostalgia trip back in time to revisit this classic or if you find yourself in Historia for the first time, it's definitely worth playing.
Imaginary Friends Games did a fantastic job with creating a wholesome experience for young and old audiences with Shindig. It's a unique adventure driven by fun (and flawed) characters, well-written and performed dialogue, and packaged with a fair amount of passion. It might be a short experience, but it's one that you'll enjoy.
This kind of game is a welcome change to the farming/life RPG genre. If you are a player that enjoys fishing in games, then this is the game for you because it’s all fishing, all the time. Moonglow Bay is overall a fun, relaxing game, but it struggles with controls, game-breaking bugs, and glitches that can ruin the game.
Ultimately, there's no denying the impressive history of Street Fighter. It's a series that has continued to evolve, and this special release is a great and deserved tribute to the 2D titles from the first twenty-plus years.
Really, no matter how you look at it, Sonic Mania is a huge success and Sonic Mania Plus is a celebration of that success thanks to smart physical edition design and items and valuable new in-game content.
I have been, and continue to enjoy S:A enough that it's hard to find much fault with it. That said, for some genre veterans looking for a stout challenge, the default difficult setting is likely much too easy. Additionally, some quest and puzzle design could be considered a bit repetetive, but for me, these concerns were greatly overshadowed by the positives of the experience.
NBA Live 19 does a lot of innovating for it's career mode, “The One”, yet drops the ball when it comes to it's other modes. The inclusion of the WNBA is amazing, and really earns the applause it deserves. If there was at least one other new, deep and fun game mode, NBA Live 19 would be right up there with it's competitors. Instead, this year is yet another small step towards something great.
ZeniMax has outdone themselves once again with Blackwood. Ever since I started reviewing additions to The Elder Scrolls Online (which was back when Murkmire came out), I've been impressed time and again. While I was not as impressed with the majority of this chapter, I was pleasantly surprised in the end. Blackwood is a great introduction to this year's Gates of Oblivion event. I can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds.
Overall, the gameplay of Lost Sphear is solid in execution, sans the difficulty that comes with it. The gameplay will require strategy out of you, and maybe you're better than me in the department, but for the most part it is a good game. The manual positioning alone separates this RPG from more traditional of its type, such as a Romancing SaGa 2, but the difficulty does keep you grounded when it comes to being consistently entertained.
Unsteady motion requires forgiveness. Exacting movement demands precision. Giga Wrecker Alt's puzzle-platforming wants to have it both ways and gets trapped between frustration and satisfaction. For all of its inventive mechanics and generous agency, Giga Wrecker Alt could have benefited from more clarity and cohesion.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions is a game for fans of the 2003 title. The upgrade in controls, visuals and the addition of Bowser's Minions will certainly make this a worthy purchase. For newbies of the title, the controls are probably going to get in the way of entertainment, which is not what you want when you're trying to sell it to new/young gamers.
There were a lot of strong points in this game, and they outweigh the bad. Mantine surfing, the Ultra Recon Squad, heck, even the new/updated trials! The game took Sun and Moon, which may be story-heavy, but empty in its postgame, and made it into something that can really be called "Ultra". It's certainly several steps up from Sun and Moon.
Rustler is a game that does a little of both but doesn’t commit to either idea enough to make an interesting experience. This indecision to commit hampers the game’s enjoyability and leaves players with a confused understanding of what the game wants to be. This compounded by a lack of black representation while directly referencing black culture everywhere, makes this game difficult to recommend.
Iron Man and Tony Stark are conduits of chaos. Virtual reality is a medium that demands comfort and sophistication. Iron Man VR attempts control of both worlds, combining Iron Man's breakneck speed and giddying repulsors with the crafted elegance of a maturing medium. The product is a confident and convincing presentation of Iron Man, albeit one that feels limited by its budget and hardware.
While it holds up some similarities to NHL 20, there is enough to go into the rink, lace up your skates, and hit the ice.
Sure, we'd love to have been treated to a deeper or lengthier adventure in Mega Man 11—not to mention a more memorable soundtrack—but its successes are proof that modernized applications of the classic blueprint can still yield irresistible results.