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Review Toast Time: Smash Up! - A Tasty Brawler That Needs Just A Little More Time In The Oven
A bit underdone
In the modern age of gaming, one must wonder if there’s still a place for the ‘okay’ games in a marketplace that becomes ever more crowded with quality content. The rise of indie game development and the production values of AAA game development have resulted in a world where players have neither the time nor the money to play...
Review Abzu - A Gorgeous And Thought-Provoking Journey That All Switch Owners Should Embark On
Breathtaking
Journey changed the game when it released back in 2012, bringing a distinctly serene experience to PlayStation owners that championed the experience of play, rather than the goal of conquering challenges. Journey generated all sorts of acclaim for its atmosphere and pace, so it comes as no surprise that Matt Nava – Journey’s art...
Review Nidhogg 2 - Crazy Couch-Play Combat Slightly Sullied By Poor Solo And Online Features
Absurdity at its finest
Fighting games have historically had a high barrier to entry, with new players having to face hours of getting their butt kicked before finally getting the muscle memory required to master the complex controls and inputs. Nidhogg – if it can even be considered a fighting game – changed that when it launched in 2014, with...
Review Brawlhalla - A Free-To-Play Smash Bros. Rival That Just Might Surprise You
Put 'em up
It’s rather surprising when you get right down to it that more games haven’t aimed to mimic Super Smash Bros. in how it approaches the fighting genre. Traditionally, fighting games are deeply enjoyable once you get to grips with them, but truly engaging when the game requires dozens (if not hundreds) of hours of studying frames,...
Review World of Final Fantasy Maxima - A Gentle Introduction To The Legendary RPG Series
Pretty honking good
Final Fantasy is a name that’s become synonymous with the JRPG genre; over the decades there have been dozens of mainline releases and spinoffs that iterate on the tried-and-true formula in unique ways. The latest entry in the numbered franchise—Final Fantasy XV—was a bit of a departure for the series, marking the first...
Girl power
Cellar Door Games put itself on the map with the release of Rogue Legacy, a critically lauded roguelike sidescroller that in some ways set a trend still being followed by indies today, but the studio later went on to release a new game, Full Metal Furies, to much less fanfare. There were plenty of factors that resulted in the studio's...
Review Rogue Legacy - Generations Of Challenge Packaged Up In An Irresistible Roguelike
A legacy to look up to
Though the Castlevania series has had a rather inconsistent and confusing run over the years, the one thing tying it all together is the famed Belmont clan, with a member of the family showing up in just about every game released in the series so far. That age-old battle between the forces of good and evil has spawned all...
Review Nickelodeon Kart Racers - A Poor Man's Mario Kart That Squanders Its Potential
"I'm ugly and I'm proud"
Over the years, Nickelodeon has amassed quite a varied and deep stable of entertaining cartoon franchises, with characters like Spongebob Squarepants and Aang becoming cultural icons that are recognized the world over. It stands to reason, then, that the company could produce a solid kart racer in the vein of Mario Kart;...
Review Dragalia Lost - A Deep And Rewarding Smartphone RPG That Might Just Surprise You
Sure to wyrm its way into your heart
There was once a time where consumers and Nintendo alike claimed that the company would never move into the mobile gaming space, but as times have changed, the Big N has decided that perhaps a few games wouldn’t hurt. It’s rather fascinating to see how Nintendo’s strategy in the mobile space has altered...
Review Transistor - A Towering Achievement That Comes Highly Recommended On Switch
Process this
Supergiant Games made its name when it released Bastion in 2011, producing an unforgettable RPG with a strong art direction and compelling story that would go on to become an indie classic in later years. It was a tall order, then, for the studio to follow that act with something that could raise the quality bar again; it’s tough...
Review Valkyria Chronicles - SEGA's Strategy Classic Still Shines Ten Years Later
Democracy is non-negotiable
For many Nintendo fans, last month’s Valkyria Chronicles 4 was their first experience with the franchise, and it no doubt was a pleasant one at that. Valkyria Chronicles 4 acted as a lovely return to form for SEGA's strategy series, but this was largely due to how the game essentially went back to the gameplay template...
Review Super Hyperactive Ninja - Even A Massive Cup Of Joe Can't Save This Middling Effort
Far too bitter
Back in its heyday, Super Mario Maker was notorious for the proliferation of ‘Kaizo’ stages in its community; these were hyper-difficult platforming gauntlets that required dozens if not hundreds of tries and usually had only one successful route to completion, eliminating any margin for error. Games such as Super Meat Boy and...
Review Mark Of The Ninja: Remastered - A Stellar Stealth Hit That's Better Than Ever
Hello darkness, my old friend
In 2012, Klei Entertainment (which would later go on to produce Don’t Starve) debuted Mark of the Ninja on the Xbox Live Arcade, introducing a bold 2D take on the stealth genre. Boasting gorgeous hand-drawn visuals and tight, open-ended gameplay, this new platformer quickly developed a reputation for its quality,...
Review Tricky Towers - A Tetris-Like Puzzler Best Suited To Multiplayer Madness
Feel the magic
Nintendo has always been known for dominating the portable gaming space, but much of its early success can no doubt be chalked up to the viral popularity of Tetris, which came as a pack-in game. The block puzzler has since become an institution of gaming, with a version available on just about every electronic device with a screen and...
Review The World Ends With You: Final Remix - A Stylish Reimagining Of The DS Cult Classic
That power is yet unknown
Nintendo certainly transformed the gaming landscape when it launched the Nintendo DS line of systems, offering up a distinct two-screen experience that had seldom been attempted before in hardware. Though there were plenty of first-party releases through the years that did a great job of showing off the dual-screen concept,...
Review Chasm - A Procedurally-Generated Metroidvania That Pleases Rather Than Dazzles
If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you
Procedural generation is something that can be tough to balance when developing a game; too much reliance on it can make for a game that feels insincere, like it was artificially churned out by an algorithm, while too little can often extend the development time considerably to reach a...
Review Mega Man 11 - A Glorious Return To Form For One Of Gaming's Greatest Heroes
Return of the king
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Mega Man in action. 2010’s retro revival Mega Man 10 was the last time the Blue Bomber received a new release, with Capcom being seemingly hesitant to give the character a spotlight after the very public departure of Keiji Inafune, the iconic designer of the robotic hero. Since the...
Review Alwa's Awakening - An Authentic Throwback To Gaming's 8-Bit Past In More Ways Than One
Short, but sweet
There’s a fine line being walked nowadays with the proliferation of indie games modeled after the 8 or 16-bit releases of the good ol’ days. On one hand, it allows for retro games to rise above the limits of their time so that their full potential can be realized through weaving in modern game design where needed, such as in...
Review TowerFall - This Couch Co-Op Classic Is Perfectly Suited To Nintendo Switch
Towering over the competition
Back in 2012, the gaming world was taken by storm by the announcement of the OUYA, a crowdfunded attempt at creating a major console platform geared specifically towards indies. Though we could easily write a thesis on all the reasons why the OUYA ended up being an enormous failure, the hardware did have some saving...
Review Velocity 2X - A Finely-Tuned Arcade Extravaganza That Will Seriously Test Your Talents
Faster than greased lightning
In 1975, a Hungarian psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (try pronouncing that one out loud) coined the term 'flow', referring to a state of mind in which one becomes so enchanted or focused on something that all sense of space and time outside of that focus point essentially seems to disappear. The state of flow...
Review Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition HD - An Inferior Clone Of An Already Divisive Game
Not quite fit for a king
It took Square Enix twelve years to finally finish development on Final Fantasy XV, and while the end result was a good game by many measures, it also felt needlessly bloated and meandering in many ways. There’s a saying going around now that Final Fantasy XV went from being the game that would never come out, to being the...
Review Undertale - A Postmodern RPG Classic That Every Fan Of The Genre Should Play
"Aren't you happy?"
RPGs have been around for nearly as long as the modern gaming industry has, and though genre standards are constantly being raised through the generations, there tends to be a homogenous sameness that many RPGs inevitably fall victim into. Octopath Traveler, for example, is a fantastic game, but it’s about as firmly traditional...
Review Bastion - A Captivating Indie Gem That Hasn't Been Dulled By The Passage Of Time
You've done good, Kid
The debate over whether or not video games should be considered an artform will likely never reach a firm conclusion, but that doesn’t stop developers from trying to show how a game can be something more meaningful and touching than mere disposable entertainment. Enter Bastion, the debut release from Supergiant Games, which...
Review Valkyria Chronicles 4 - A Sublime Strategy Experience On Switch
At ease, soldier
Suffice to say, the release history of Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles series has been uneven, both in terms of quality and availability. After the original game — which is due to arrive on Switch later this year —successfully kicked the series off on home consoles, the sequel only saw a release on PSP, while the third game (also...
