Digimon Survive is one of the best visual novels to come out so far this year, with plenty of heart and tension to carry you through to the final act. Fans looking for an engaging story with well-written and presented characters that deal with life-and-death situations will enjoy the ride, while players focused on the combat will probably find that the game comes up short. Despite its sluggish, padded start, Digimon Survive is well worth the long wait.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the strangest thing you'll play from Nintendo, bringing with it laughs and creativity in abundance. But even with improvements over the 3DS game, it follows a familiar structure that isn't always enthralling or hilarious.Tomodachi fans will certainly be living the dream with this new entry, but I'm not desperate to keep coming back to my island. A little more variety would've been welcome, but the customisation, and the thought of my cat being best friends with DMC's Dante, will have me peep in every so often for a little pick-me-up.
The Deer God is beautiful. Sadly, that beauty is only skin deep. Poor design choices take away from fantastic visuals that really have to be seen. With the right level of polish, this could have been one of our favourite indie games on Wii U.Instead, clumsy quest design, repetitive environments and poor performance ensure The Deer God will be remembered as little more than eye candy.
On one level Tachyon Project is quite a cruel game, making old writers with slowing reflexes question their gaming abilities. More importantly, though, it's enjoyable and represents the work of a development team committed to producing a quality download title. From solid mechanics and smart gameplay to online leaderboards and neat touches like stat tracking, it immediately sets its stall as a game worth investing in.Though there are a few flaws and the difficulty level makes it a game for those with fast thumbs, Tachyon Project is well worth consideration on Wii U. For fast-paced twin-stick shooting action there aren't many better options on the eShop.
There's no denying the fact that this budget-priced Wii U eShop title would be much better suited to mobile platforms, perhaps even as a free-to-play app; the classic challenge of bettering your score by blasting wave after wave of reptiles is Reptilian Rebellion's single allure. So, unless you're desperately seeking a game experience inspired by retro arcade gaming with a modern touch, this might be best left to conspiracy theorists.
Blockara is a fun concept, but it's dragged down by its presentation. Unlikable characters, poor voice acting and music and art that don't do it any favours are all negative points, but aren't enough to completely obfuscate the fun that can be had here. Blockara won't be fondly remembered, but if you have a friend that's good at puzzle games and you can put up with the rest of it, there's some enjoyment to be found.
If you like match-3 puzzles the Queen's Garden is a good addition to your Wii U library; there is a lot of gameplay to be had for the price. However, if you are looking for the customization and social side of a gardening simulation game this will disappoint, as the 'garden' element leaves a lot to be desired.
Epic Dumpster Bear is the epic adventure of a dumpster-diving bear as he attempts to battle against the evil corporation, and proof that you should never judge a book by its cover. The title sounds ridiculous, because the premise for the game is ridiculous, and everything looks ridiculous… but that's the charm. This fairly robust platformer does have some balancing issues but is hiding under a hilarious layer of ridiculousness and provides a surprising amount of challenge and fun. Plus, while you wait for levels to load, you get interesting little tidbits about bears. "Don't camp on the shore of a spawning stream".
A lot of the enjoyment is still left up to the player and their expectations, with little inherent substance to grab and keep direct hold of your attention for long. It's a difficult experience to pin a score on for this reason, but despite the improvements, we're still left wanting something more from any future installments.
Super Robo Mouse doesn't deliver the goods. There are other challenging, twitchy action titles on the Wii U eShop that provide a stronger presentation and are more fun to play. Save yourself a broken window and lost controller and spend your money on something else.
If Chasing Dead was a more polished product with all its issues ironed out, you might find a decent sci-fi zombie romp underneath all the mess. Perhaps the developer will go back and patch out all the issues one day, but as it stands Chasing Dead is best left on the shelves of the Nintendo eShop. Not recommended.
Olympia Rising is a good platformer, but in such a saturated genre it needs to impress more than in does. The characters, story and visuals contribute to the positives, but more care needed to be taken with controls and hit points to make the game less frustrating. There is much to be enjoyed if you are able to look past the negatives, and if that's the case with you it is a worthy addition to your library.
A grim example of a sequel that doesn't do enough to improve on the flaws of the original, Witch & Hero 2 mirrors far more than it should without bringing anything truly exciting to the table. Controlling two characters at once is an interesting challenge at first, but the game feels so creatively bankrupt that it becomes difficult to remain focused in anything other than small doses. If it really seems like something you'd enjoy then we could perhaps recommend it as a very simple time waster at a low price, but even in that category there are better options to be found on the eShop.
Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus is a somewhat satisfying puzzle platforming adventure game. Its puzzles are sometimes smart and the use of music to figure those puzzles out is interesting. The gorgeous retro-inspired pixel art gives the game life, and hints at a wonderful fantasy world that's light on story but big on adventuring. What it's not is a great action game. It falls short of being more highly rated due to a combat system that interrupts the flow of gameplay, and lots of backtracking from dungeon to dungeon can make the game feel slow and tedious in spots. There are also issues with glitches to be mindful of which can truly hinder the enjoyment of the game.Overall this is still worth consideration despite its flaws, even if they deprive this one of its full potential.
Sometimes you want to go on a journey to vast, fantasy worlds, sometimes you want to fight your way through hordes of terrifying enemies and sometimes you want to just sit down with some friends and laugh for hours. Chompy Chomp Chomp Party can only offer you one of these – the latter of course – but it does a great job of it. The addition of one or two more modes would have helped to make this game even better – eventually you will start to feel like you've had enough and move on to doing something else – but there's a lot of fun that can be had in the modes that already exist.Grab some friends, grab some controllers and give this colourful, chompy craziness a try.
The Beggar's Ride is a cool little game to play if you just fancy a few hours of escapism. The shortcomings lay in the execution of some of its puzzles, within the slow pace of the protagonist and its basic platforming aspect. Despite these niggles, it is a solid and clever game with colourful graphics, a charming story and pleasantly challenging game play which will appeal to both experienced and casual gamers. The coins are a good option for anyone looking to play longer, and the narration is a smart touch. Definitely one to enjoy on a rainy afternoon.
We'd almost want to recommend Dreamals on the concept of three adorable, bickering animals alone, but unfortunately the waking world didn't quite live up to expectation. Once the initial burst of cutesy charm wears off it's still a decently satisfying puzzler with a steady difficulty curve that starts off tough and slowly implements new mechanics as you progress. There isn't enough within the story or characters to keep the player interested beyond that however, so make sure you're up for a challenge and want a simple little distraction before diving in.
