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I found South of Midnight to be a very enjoyable game that has a lot of value to it. Hazel is a strong protagonist, and the folklore monsters and their backstories take center stage as truly masterful storytelling. Boss fights and traversal keep things fun outside of cutscenes, but the fights with haints were tiring, at best.
Haste: Broken Worlds is a game that thrives on its gameplay feel, even if there isn’t much outside of its main missions that might catch you. Zoe and the rest of the cast might not have caught my imagination from a story standpoint, but knowing I can return to this game at any time to get new procedurally generated levels is the highest selling point for this game. Listening to the music as you speed through courses with tons of obstacles thrown at you is a high octane rush that I wish I could get more of in video games.
Capcom went above and beyond to make most of the Monster Hunter Wilds experience as enjoyable as possible. I went into the game wanting it to be a slight increase from Monster Hunter World and was surprised by the revamped weapons, environmental depth, and enjoyable cast of characters. Gone are the days of wishing the handler would get eaten by a Ratholos. Monster Hunter Wilds may have a few issues with online play and menu navigation but they are more than outweighed by the addictive combat and customization.
Everhood 2 is an indie game that I can see a very niche group of people enjoying heavily. The music for the most part was really good, and I enjoyed the battling for what it was. Walking around these worlds being completely lost was not enjoyable to me. I would be interested to see how many ways this game branches off for players to have unique runs. I don’t think I have it in me to try another run through a campaign, but if it’s heavily tailored towards giving everyone a unique experience, that is definitely commendable.
I am afraid to say that Don’t Nod simply dropped the ball with half of the first chapter of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Luckily, they caught themselves, sparing the other half from being a complete disaster. Much of the game was great and had me re-experiencing my youth in ways I had forgotten. The story of four girls wanting to reimagine the world they are in and escape together was compelling and the way it was presented through the eyes of an awkward teen with a love for movies and the best technology on the planet for capturing the paranormal made it all the better. While playing in the past was strong, the present story kept taking me out of the experience as it slowed everything to a halt and filled in the empty space with near-meaningless conversation of older women who just wouldn’t get to the point.
Luck Be a Landlord may be entirely luck based, but it forces you to think carefully about the bets you make on it. The simple nature of it makes it something you can play for just a few minutes or get engrossed in for quite a bit longer. Learning the symbols and how they interact together is very rewarding when you get it to work properly and I appreciate learning when it is best to keep a symbol and when you should get rid of it or skip it all together.
Worlds of Aria is a fun experience to be had either solo or with a group. The number of choices and whimsical fantasy world are both compelling reasons to stick through the campaign to reach your heroic end. While the gameplay can be rather repetitive, it is very easy to understand and accessible to anyone, making it decent in my book. The true downfall of Worlds of Aria isn’t letting the Duke get the Staff of Wisdom, which kickstarts the campaign, but rather the clunky and periodically bugged UI that ruins the gameplay on Switch.
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a fairly decent horror experience that does stay true to the media it is based on. The sound aspects of the game, while annoyingly loud at times, did keep me on my toes and increase the pressure I felt during the campaign. Unfortunately, the repetitive level design and lack of strong characters made the game feel rather boring by the end of it.
Super Mario Party Jamboree is a very fun time and a blast to play with friends, family, or strangers online. The series had a rough run for a while, but the Switch has proven there is a lot of value left in these board games and minigames. The jamboree buddy system feels a little too strong for the benefits it gives you, but it doesn’t nearly take away the enjoyment you will have playing a chaotic game where the wildest things can happen on any turn. Super Mario Party Jamboree is just about the most complete package in the series.
Predator: Hunting Grounds is a repetitive asymmetrical PvP title that will quickly bore you if you are used to the title or have no absolute love for 80s nostalgia. No matter what side you are playing on, the game becomes incredibly predictable to the point where neither side has much fun. While that was okay for the original release of the title, more effort should have been made to add variety to the game outside of skins.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 does a great job of reminding you how to have fun and just enjoy a game without the need to throw in a lot of unnecessary theatrics. The gory mess brought me back to my childhood and reminded me what gaming is about and I think that says a lot about what modern gaming has become. Scenic beauty and unadulterated violence are all I needed to enjoy this game despite my lack of knowledge of the franchise as a whole.
Squirrel with a Gun is a blast and harkens back to the days of old sandbox games that can keep you busy for hours thanks to its stupidity and silly gags. With that being said, there aren’t enough nuts in the game to keep me entertained outside of a few hours. While the gunplay is fun and puzzles are interactive, there is a lot missing from the game that could give players a reason to come back.
Crossy Road Castle is a fun time on console, especially with friends. The cooperative grind to get through as many rooms as possible will keep you coming back for more, but that’s about all this game offers. Overall, the content well here is very shallow, but the water it does have tastes very good.
Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a title that I came away from my first playthrough very frustrated. I found it far too easy to take damage, and while I love the HD art style, there were many times the levels just didn’t feel good to get through. Switching to the 8-bit style to find missing tokens was a little better because the janky gameplay matched the old graphic style. It’s not something that typically felt great, but it was more manageable.
Overall, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD would be a great buy for someone who never played the original. If you did play the 3DS version, I’m not sure there’s much else to bring you back other than chasing some nostalgia. $60 is a bit much for a 3DS remaster, but it looks and runs well both in docked and handheld mode, and Luigi is animated brilliantly. Don’t go in expecting a genre-defining experience, and you might get a lot of value hunting ghosts through these halls. Its 3DS background might hold it back from being the best of the series, but being just behind Luigi’s Mansion 3 isn’t something to scoff at.