Author Profile
- Username
- Specialstreamcannon
- First Article
- News/Features
- 1
- Reviews
- 51
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.7
- Article Comments
- 1,528
- Total Articles
- 52
- @Trentlcannon
Mini Review The Battle Of Polytopia - A Gentle Introduction To Turn-Based City Builders
A simplified quest for world domination
We all have big dreams of world domination, but not everyone wants the full Civilization experience. Sometimes, we just want to take over the planet without having to try too hard! For those times, there is The Battle of Polytopia, a scaled-back version of the usual 4X gameplay that we’ve all grown to know...
Review Chaos;Child - A Stand Out 'Science Adventure' VN That's Compelling And Gruesome
Find the truth behind a whole new set of grizzly murders
The Science Adventure series of visual novels usually don’t share much in common aside from a shared universe and an unusual naming convention, but Chaos;Child is the most direct sequel the series has seen so far. Set six years after the events of Chaos;Head Noah, this game offers a similar...
Review Chaos;Head Noah - A Great Localisation Of The First 'Science Adventure' VN
Dive into the delusions of the ultimate otaku
There are two ways that life goes for visual novel protagonists. Either they wake up in a world where all their classmates are beautiful anime girls who want to jump their bones, or they find themselves in a twisted supernatural murder mystery. Unfortunately for Takumi Nishijou, the protagonist of...
Review Railgrade - An Entertaining Management Sim That Runs Out Of Steam
All aboard the capitalism train!
There is something deeply appealing about playing with trains. They go exactly where you tell them to, yet can still behave in unexpected ways to keep things interesting. Railgrade from developer Minakata Dynamics is a great railway management sim game with some fun quirks. While it doesn’t go as deep into its...
Review Let's Build A Zoo - A Creative, Cartoonish Tycoon Sim With A Sinister Twist
Create new and exciting affronts to the natural order
We’ve all walked around a zoo and wondered just how hard it could be to run one. After all, you just need to get the animals in one place and keep them from escaping, right? However, if the plethora of zoo management sims on the market is anything to go by, there is a lot more to it. While many...
Review Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris - One For Forgiving SAO Fans Only
This link takes a long time to get started
Anime fans around the world will be familiar with Sword Art Online. The light novels and the sprawling media empire that they spawned follow the exploits of Kirito as he stumbles from being trapped in one online video game to another. Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is the latest game to follow...
Review The DioField Chronicle - A Solid Tactical RPG That Falls Short Of Its Ambitions
It was I, DioField!
Published by Square Enix and developed with assistance from Lancarse, The DioField Chronicle looks and feels like most tactical RPGs out on the Switch in many ways, but with everything just slightly tweaked. The characters are all undeniably stylised, but never quite as much as Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The politics are front...
Review Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 - Another Pair Of Lesser-Known RPG Gems
Another two RPG classics to dive into, dood!
The Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volumes 1 and Volume 2 each brought a different pair of games to Switch. The third volume brings a PlayStation classic to modern consoles as well as the Western debut of an obscure but well-loved game in the NIS stable. Die-hard tactical RPG fans might have heard of La...
Review Digimon Survive - This Champion Visual Novel Proves The Wait Has Been Worth It
DigiDestined for greatness
The long wait for Digimon Survive is finally over, with players at last able to dive into this unusual entry in the series. Fans expecting the usual fare from a Digimon game might be understandably disappointed, but for those with an appetite for visual novels and tactical RPG combat, there is plenty to get your teeth sunk...
Review Coromon - A Charming Pokémon-Style Quest To Catch All Of 'Em
That's the line, right?
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Coromon is the greatest love letter ever written. It makes no secret that it has been inspired by classic Pokémon titles, particularly those from the Game Boy Advance era. It stops just short of being a direct imitation of those games but was clearly created to cater to fans...
Review XEL - Promising Zelda-Style Sci-Fi Adventuring That Falls Short On Switch
Taking the Zelda formula into space
Zelda games have laid out a comfortable roadmap for developers to follow when making action-adventure games, and there's no shortage of Zelda-likes to enjoy on Switch and elsewhere. Tiny Roar evidently took heavy notes from Nintendo’s storied franchise when putting together XEL, which takes cues from both...
Review Rabbids: Party Of Legends - A Polished Party Game Journeys To The West
A party of mythological proportions
The Rabbids have come a long way since their first appearance in the Rayman series back in 2006. Since then, they’ve featured in numerous party games, all starring the titular little bundles of chaos. Rabbids: Party of Legends, previously a China-exclusive release, now comes to the West to help tide fans over...
Review AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative - Another Very Fine Murder Mystery
An AI in your Eyeball
It is hard to beat a good murder mystery. The classic battle of wits between the detective and killer makes for perfect tension and AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative takes advantage of this established formula to give players a fun mystery with plenty of twists and turns, keeping them engaged through the closing...
Review Lost Ruins - A Survival-Focused Metroidvania With Fantastic Pixel Art
Pixel punishment
In anime, there is a popular genre called isekai, which means “another world” and is characterised by the protagonist travelling from their normal, boring world into one filled with magic and monsters. Normally, it is a light-hearted affair, with the main character settling into their new life and eventually managing to save...
Review Seven Pirates H - A Rich Bounty Of Fan Service, But Lacks Depth
A bountiful sea of fan service awaits you
Pirates are always a sure way to make a game exciting. Who doesn’t love the idea of sailing the seas, plundering and pillaging along the way with a trusty crew at their side? There is just one thing that can make the pirate’s life even more appealing, and that is, of course, copious fan service. That’s...
Review Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 2 - A Colourful, Characterful, LOL-Worthy Pair
Take a walk on the funny side in the RPG classics
In the long history of video games, it is impossible to catch everything at the time of launch. That is why re-releases and remasters can be so useful; introducing a whole new generation to games that might not have the same cultural penetration as the bigger releases in a genre but still deserve to...
Mini Review Waifu Impact - Single-Player 'Fortnite With Fan Service', Minus The Fun
Sometimes fan service just isn't enough
When something becomes popular enough, it is bound to attract imitators. Sometimes those imitators will smash as many different genres together to try to capitalise on multiple other games' popularity. In the case of Waifu Impact, the developers took the principles that have made Fortnite a bewildering success...
Review Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars - Satisfying Fan Service That's A Bit Bare
Hyperdimension Kagura
In the world of fan service games, two franchises stand at the top of the pile: Hyperdimension Neptunia, which features a group of anthropomorphised game consoles fighting in a literal and hilarious console war, and Senran Kagura, which pits ninjas with assets as impressive as their fighting arts against each other in nearly...
Review Wife Quest - A Bawdy Metroidvania That's Well Worth A Look
Sorry monster girls, but that boy is ours
The world is a dangerous place. One minute you’re out in your fields, farming to provide food for yourself and your wife, and the next you’re being accosted by a gang of monster girls who are dead set on stealing you away for themselves. That’s the fate of poor Fernando, who gets himself snatched away...
Review Maglam Lord - Great Characters And Writing, But Grindy, Repetitive Combat
Raising a little hell in search of love
It is a long tradition in JRPGs to have the main character attempt to kill the gods that rule over them, but very rarely does this happen in the opening moments of the game. This is the case for Maglam Lord, which has now landed in the West. In Maglam Lord, players take control of a demon lord with the...
Review Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX - All Monsters Go To Heaven In Tecmo's Cult Classic
Breeding virtual monsters to fight for fun and profit
Name the first classic game series that centres around collecting, training, and battling monsters against other trainers around the continent that comes into your head. No, we’re not talking about Pokémon — instead we’re looking at Monster Rancher, a series which started in 1997 on the...
Review Blue Reflection: Second Light - A Stunning-Looking Anime Adventure
Back-to-school days have never been this weird
There are few joys in life greater than a good mystery, but a mystery surrounding cute anime girls? That is even better. Blue Reflection: Second Light is the sequel to 2017’s Blue Reflection from developer Gust and publisher Koei Tecmo. This game sees a fresh cast of characters thrust into a new...
Review Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot + A New Power Awakens Set - An Iconic Story Retold Well
A pleasant trip down Memory Lane
There are few characters in the world of anime more iconic than Goku, the Saiyan sent to Earth as a baby who eventually becomes one of the most powerful beings in the universe. His story has been told across almost every medium imaginable since his manga debut in 1984, including anime, video games, and the terrible...
Review Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1 - Cult Classic Tactics RPGs, But Undeniably Dated
Brave Souls and the Phantom Nomad Eaters
We live in a golden age of remasters and remakes when it comes to video games. It seems like every week there are more classic games that are getting new life on a current gen console. This might seem like a crass attempt to squeeze a few more pennies out of gamers (and in many cases it is), but it is also...
