James Mielke

Nintendo Life

James Mielke·May 14, 2022

Critic70/100

Agreement—

While it might seem like our gripes outnumber the improvements in Xeno Reborn, this is still a weird, unique, and overall enjoyable entry point into the Metal Max world. Squad-based, single-player tank-centric games (set in a post apocalyptic world) are few and far between, to put it mildly, so this is still worth your time. And to their credit, instead of simply moving on to a sequel (which they're doing as well in Metal Max: Wild West), Cattle Call and 24Frame took the time to improve on the foundation laid by Metal Max Xeno, to ambitious if flawed results in Xeno Reborn. You can't fault the teams for the effort made, and whether they were totally successful or not, the whole of Metal Max Xeno Reborn is still greater than the sum of its parts.

Nintendo Life

James Mielke·Apr 1, 2022

Critic50/100

Agreement—

Touken Ranbu Warriors is a game best suited for players with little experience with the Dynasty Warriors series in general. If this is meant to appeal primarily to fans of the free-to-play games – with far lower expectations when it comes to action games – as a great big slice of Touken Danshi fan service, this will be a great addition to their collection. For players less versed in the world of Touken Ranbu, this is a much harder sell, offering a rote, repetitive game loop that does little to slake your thirst for a more meaningful, evolving game experience. This criticism could arguably apply to all of the Warriors games, but where the bigger license-based games add to the formula, Touken Ranbu Warriors feels like a distillation. In a lot of ways and for certain audiences this is perfectly fine. By this point in time, the Dynasty Warriors machine is a well-oiled, refined and polite product; the video game equivalent of a Honda Civic. But even with a well-loved product as reliable as that, there comes a point when it's just time to get with the times.

Nintendo Life

James Mielke·Jan 19, 2022

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Megaton Musashi already has a lot going for it, but there's certainly a lot of room for improvement. The relatively disposable narrative is merely a lightweight obstacle in the way of the real fun found here: battling an unfortunately repetitive palette of enemies and then tinkering with your rogue, the latter of which is the game's primary attraction. To be fair, it is a disproportionately excellent attraction, which makes the rest of the game's issues secondary. With monthly updates coming from Level-5 adding both missions and parts, this is definitely a worthwhile, if flawed, import with style to spare. We'd welcome an official, localised release in the West despite the game's issues; after all, Switch needs all the ammo it can get as it moves into its fifth year.