Includes PushSquare
Last reviewed: Mina the Hollower · 6 days ago
Luna Abyss is a AA shooter that holds its own against some of the elite of the genre. Its enticing and ominous sci-fi world is a delight to look at artistically, even if its muddy graphics let it down on closer inspection. Its story is fine, but a slick sense of progression keeps its action and platforming interesting from start to finish.
Planet Zoo is, ironically, a relatively toothless park building game. It doesn't have the delicious chaos of the Jurassic World Evolution games or the thrills of building your own rollercoaster and then hoping it'll stay on the tracks in Planet Coaster. But it's a pleasant and charming game. There's an airy joy in creating a peaceful home for animals to live in, and the earnest conservationist slant of Planet Zoo is hard to fault.
Scribblenauts Showdown is an agreeable party game that applies the playful vocabulary-stretching gameplay well enough to entertain you and some friends for a while. Unfortunately, the numerous minigames are all pretty shallow, the Showdown mode can grow tiresome, and the appeal of the Sandbox levels only lasts for so long. This will certainly make for an amusing evening with family and friends, but it's not likely to be a title you'll come back to more than a couple of times.
Way of the Passive Fist starts out strong with an interesting concept, but that interest soon wears off thanks to poor execution. Once you've played the first chapter you've pretty much played all 10 as there is never any variation on offer. Combine this with the fundamental flaws of basing the gameplay purely around blocking and dodging and you have a recipe for a promising and unique but ultimately disappointing game.
Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms offers a very satisfying conclusion to the Hakuoki tale. Boasting a fascinating narrative filled with bloody battles and political intrigue that's topped off with plenty of alluring characters and romances that feel deep and meaningful, this is an easy game to recommend to those who love a good story.
VRFC is not a good representation of football, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Like the table-top variety, it doesn't need to be accurate to be entertaining, and once you embrace the insanity there's fun to be had. VRFC is flawed and disconnected, but also spontaneous, amusing, challenging, and fun. At this budget price, we can think of worse ways to spend a weekend.
Containing an impressive adaptation of the Isle of Man's Snaefell Mountain Course, TT Isle of Man Racing: Ride on the Edge will be attractive to motorcycle nuts looking for a new experience. But its high asking price, repetitive career mode, and lack of any online community means that everyone else can simply pass this by.
With the online being a bit of a bust and the single player modes failing to really showcase the game's strengths, it's difficult to recommend Slice, Dice & Rice. Against a human opponent, the title's interesting and entertaining on a fundamental level, but as an overall fighting game package, it's found lacking.
This is a Farewell for Life Is Strange fans, but Deck Nine once again does an outstanding job of telling a heart-wrenching tale within what is, effectively, someone else's story. DONTNOD may be the creators of this wonderful slice of life series, but the American developer's done an impressive job of furthering the fiction with Before the Storm – and this episode ties a big fat bow around Max and Chloe's yarn for good. Now, what's next?
Blasters of the Universe is an absolute blast to play with silky smooth motion control and headset tracking that allows for precise shots to be pulled off with ease. The 80s cartoon style visuals, combined with the trance music, create a charmingly frantic environment for a bullet hell shooter to be set. Although its runtime is short lived, the quality of its gameplay makes Blasters of the Universe a very worthwhile venture.
Bravo Team's tactical combat is a good fit for virtual reality, and it's exciting peeking out of cover in order to take pot shots.
It might not be too innovative, but Frantics provides an enjoyable party experience that Sony's PlayLink service has been lacking. It certainly isn't a killer app, but the fun variety of minigames and its (mostly) responsive controls show how much of a good time PlayLink can provide when it's properly used.
Fear Effect Sedna represented an opportunity to bring a well-remembered series – albeit not always for the right reasons – back to life. As is the case with many games arriving via Kickstarter, though, the ambition of the project fails to translate into the final product.
Ultimately, Mulaka succeeds in the story it wishes to tell, but it falls short in two of its primary gameplay tenets: action and adventure. Controls are fiddly, environments a little sparse, and combat inadequate. It excels in using the video game format to widen knowledge of a culture that admittedly many around the world will know very little about, but as a game to interact with, its deficiencies outshine its ideas and make it somewhat forgettable.
Suicide Guy is not the disaster we feared it would be, and in places it's actually rather funny. The title's randomness stops its campaign from getting stale, and there are actually some cunning puzzles here that are fun to solve. Despite all of that, though, it's quite a disposable game that's fun while it lasts but will be quickly forgotten.
Jettomero looks and sounds great, and entertains for a few hours, but it's a little too shallow for us to wholeheartedly recommend. Stomping around as a big, clumsy robot is fun, however, and we enjoy the game's relaxed atmosphere. The lack of content, some control issues, and performance problems hold back Jettomero from meeting its potential, and the result is an experience that's quite throwaway, despite its charms.
If you've a hankering for a fun Japanese RPG, then The Longest Five Minutes is a decent option. Battles can be a little lopsided, but with an intriguing story and a unique structure, these are five minutes worth experiencing for fans of the genre.