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  1. Sonic the Hedgehog returns to side-scrolling platforming with Sonic Superstars, a game clearly inspired by his classic 2D adventures with a more modern visual aesthetic. But while a lot of the pieces seem to be in place to make this game feel like a classic Sonic title, they don't quite come together in a totally satisfying whole. The story, at least, absolutely feels like an old-school Sonic game. Dr. Eggman is once again up to his shenanigans and is kidnapping various critters with the aid of Fang the Hunter and a new character named Trip. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy band together to stop him, all through dialogue-free cutscenes. It's simple but charming, and honestly less is probably more when it comes to the writing in Sonic games. Right off the bat you're thrown into a classic side-scrolling Sonic stage. Familiar hazards, obstacles and mechanics return, including the heavy sense of momentum that made Sonic stand out from Super Mario or other 90s platformers. Granted it's been a while since I played those Genesis games, but the physics in Sonic Superstars truly feel straight out of that era. Combine that sense of movement with the robotic enemies, loop-de-loops, and ample other hazards and you've got a solid foundation for a Sonic adventure. This game also ups the ante with a pretty great variety of level designs. Some feel a bit over-designed with too many ideas packed in, sure, but it's still nice to have numerous types of hazards thrown at you to keep each stage unique. However, there are plenty of other details that weigh down the experience. For one, the camera feels too tight on Sonic, which makes it hard to anticipate upcoming hazards. The classic games might have had a bit of this feeling as well but it's particularly claustrophobic here and leads to tons of cheap hits. Sonic Superstars also brings back the classic special stages from previous Sonic titles, but they are overused here. Obviously they are still optional (though collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds leads to some bonuses), but having so many special stage sequences in a single level makes it feel like it drags on. The levels already feel a bit too long here, and extending them further drains some of Sonic's familiar energy. The biggest issue in Sonic Superstars though is the absolute slog of fighting bosses. Boss fights are always a tricky proposition for Sonic anyway—how do you make a stationary fight feel engaging and rewarding for a character all about speed? In this game though, so many of the boss fights drag on tediously because you have such a small window to attack the boss before it goes into another sequence of attacks, most of which usually leave the boss completely invulnerable. Although there's some decent variety to the boss designs and their attacks, each fight ends up being a long, slow, repetitive battle that completely lacks the core charm of Sonic games. Sonic Superstars features a few new features that are also of mixed quality. First there are the Emerald Powers, special abilities that you unlock by collecting Chaos Emeralds. Each one grants a unique effect, such as launching a volley of attacks across the screen or allowing you to see hidden platforms. Although a nice idea, in practice these powers are underwhelming. Some are situational and therefore quite limited in use, while others just don't suit the usual Sonic platforming formula very well. The concept of adding some new tools for Sonic sounds good, but the execution was underwhelming. There are also a handful of extra modes in Sonic Superstars, including co-op multiplayer, time attack, battle mode, and online battle mode. The lack of split-screen hurts the co-op experience, but taken as a more wacky mode it definitely adds some chaos to the platforming. Time attack is pretty standard but battle mode is awfully underwhelming. You compete in a variety of short challenges—against other players or CPU opponents—but these mini-games just feel like half-baked concepts that lack strategy or depth. Even as a bonus feature, battle mode is pretty weak. The game's presentation has its ups and downs as well. The overall visual aesthetic is solidly Sonic, including some more imaginative stage backgrounds that are a lot of fun to see. The performance on the Switch is okay, barring some choppy loading screens and rocky online multiplayer. The soundtrack though, surprisingly, is pretty inconsistent. There are definitely some good tunes here, but just as many don't hit the level of catchy charm that the Genesis game soundtracks are known for. Sonic Superstars nails the fundamentals of side-scrolling Sonic, but still has a ways to go in mastering the fine-tuned level design that makes speeding around so fun or in adding modern features/powers that feel worthwhile. Most importantly, the absolute drag that is every boss fight in the game completely arrests the momentum of the Blue Blur's speedy but deep gameplay. Sonic Superstars will need quite a bit of polishing to actually reach superstar quality. Rating: 6 out of 10 Rings
  2. Considering the cult classic status of the Jet Set Radio games, it was about time another developer made a spiritual sequel in the stylish skating/graffiti-tagging subgenre. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes clear inspiration from JSR, down to the colorful and futuristic setting, but while it obviously relies upon what those games did before it, it still offers a fresh, funky experience, marred by some inconsistent performance on the Switch. The game opens with our nameless protagonist already being held in a police station, presumably for graffiting. One jailbreak later though you're escaping the station with a new ally, and from there the story takes a wild turn. Narrative really isn't Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's strong suit though. The plot manages to be too complicated while the writing is too flat, which leaves you with some confusing yet bland cutscenes. The setting, however, is a blast to live in. The neon-drenched streets of New Amsterdam is quite a playground to explore, and concepts like "cyberhead b-boys" just add a fun layer of sci-fi depth to the whole environment. Ultimately, your goal in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is to take control of the city's underground graffiti scene by spreading your tags and challenging other graffiti crews. With skates, skateboards, and bikes, you're able to explore, tag hard to reach walls, and build your score and reputation by pulling off stylish tricks. This core gameplay loop is lifted from Jet Set Radio, but it proves just as fun and compelling today as it did on the Dreamcast. Just like games like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater titles, it's a blast to nail a slick chain of tricks and prove your skills to the city's crews. The tagging system is nicely streamlined as well. You can gradually unlock new art pieces by progressing through the game or exploring, and rather than equipping a limited number or meticulously selecting each one to use you can spray different tags by moving your control stick in a different direction. It's fast, fluid, and offers a ton of variety, which is nice since there's a lot of great art in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. The tricks and movement system feels similarly streamlined, though the effect is a little less engaging. You don't have to learn complex moves here, you just press A, Y, or X to execute a trick, so on the one hand it's super easy to just pick up and dive right in, but on the other hand it does make the concept of doing tricks repetitive. The environment design also has its ups and downs. Overall there's a solid variety to the scenery which helps ensure the simple act of movement is always fun—as long as you're doing something stylish, at least. Skating across the ground is pretty slow, so you usually want to be grinding on rails or wall-riding, which also tends to lead to fresh tagging spots. The downside is that a couple of the levels have some wide open areas, which make for bland movement, and navigating the world as a whole is pretty tedious, i.e. the in-game map and moving from one area to the next is a little confusing and takes some long loading screens. Finally there's a combat system in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, which feels completely unnecessary. As you tag more of an area your wanted level will rise, causing the cops to chase you with ever more elaborate tools. There are also some boss fights to tackle. Fighting is way too loose and slippery though, as if the controls and camera movements are 100% not made for it. In fact, the camera is pretty messy even while you're just skating around, but it feels even worse during combat. The game also does a poor job of explaining that using your spray paint is the most important part of fighting. All that said, combat isn't actually hard since you'll regenerate health pretty quickly, so it's just this tedious annoyance that pops up occasionally. It's the same with the wanted system—the cops can't actually stop you very effectively, so they're just an obnoxious presence that buzzes around you. The game would have been better served eliminating this combat system entirely or at least making it matter more. I'll also note that, across the relatively short length of the game's story, I ran into semi-frequent crashes, especially during loading screens. Thankfully it never resulted in much loss of progress, but the game's shaky performance—and long load times—definitely put a damper on the experience. Without a doubt, the main appeal of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the presentation. The soundtrack is positively packed with jam after jam, all perfectly capturing the futuristic, techno vibe and flow of the setting and gameplay. It doesn't get much better than just grooving along to the music while you leap from grind rail to grind rail, tagging walls along the way. The visual style is another obvious lift from Jet Set Radio, but the colorful vibes work so well for the game that it's hard to complain. That said, the animation can leave something to be desired at times, notably during cutscenes when everyone stares at each other with blank expressions. The graffiti art itself though looks awesome and it's always fun to unlock a new one to use. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is skating on the shoulders of giants, but if it brings back the stylish groove of this extremely specific and niche subgenre, maybe that's not so bad. That said, this game also has its fair share of rough, unpolished edges that, although they don't spoil the vibes, definitely could have been refined to make the camera flow better, make combat either more engaging or removed entirely, and make the game run smoother. Rating: 7 out of 10 Tags
  3. After a long dormant period, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown brings the franchise back with a return to its side-scrolling roots with plenty of modern upgrades. This new action-platformer blends precise combat with the sweeping acrobatics that the series is known for, all in a sprawling Metroidvania package. The result is perhaps overly ambitious but still an engaging time. If you've never played a Prince of Persia game, good news, you don't need any backstory to jump into The Lost Crown, which tells an entirely new story. You play as Sargon, one of the seven Immortals, a group of legendary warriors who fight on behalf of the Persian royal family. When Prince Ghassan is kidnapped though, you set out to rescue him by journeying to the mountain of Qaf where an ancient city is beset by a strange magical curse. The Lost Crown does a great job with worldbuilding, and although the optional lore is a bit daunting in length it's still nice to have as an option. However, the game struggles to keep the main narrative and characters interesting. Even with only a handful of primary characters it feels like almost none of them get enough screen time to establish depth, and some of the plot points and twists are plain confusing. Sargon himself is a decent protagonist but lacks the charm or nuance to make his character journey fully engaging. Tightening up the story a bit and establishing characters/motives more clearly would have given the dramatic cutscenes a lot more impact. Acrobatic platforming and parry-focused combat are the two pillars of The Lost Crown. Like most Metroidvanias though, you start off pretty weak, and the first couple of hours can be a bit of a slog. It's not necessarily bad, but jumping on ledges and swinging on poles doesn't feel like anything that hasn't been done before in side-scrolling platformers. However, once you've got a few traversal abilities under your belt, the game's acrobatics really start to shine. The controls are nice and smooth so you really get the feeling of deftly maneuvering through obstacles. You'll also encounter plenty of unique challenges that test your platforming skills, many of which are optional but are still worth attempting just for the fun of perfectly navigating the game's movement mechanics. Flying through the environment with double jumps, dashes and the other unique abilities that you unlock is a blast, it just takes a bit of time to get there. In fact, pacing as a whole might be The Lost Crown's biggest weakness. Aside from the long buildup, the game overstays its welcome with a long and rather repetitive second half. It doesn't help that the map is sprawling. On one hand, it's nice to have so much to see in the game, but on the other hand it means backtracking can be time-consuming and many rooms end up feeling big just for the sake of being big, i.e. there's nothing special about them, it just takes time to move through them. There are a lot of fun ideas in The Lost Crown but too much extraneous content weighs down the experience. The combat, meanwhile, takes a page from recent action games by emphasizing parrying (and dodging unparryable attacks). For a game with such fluid movement, I actually didn't love that the combat felt more slow and measured. Sure you can dive at enemies with all-out attacks, but they can so easily punish you for being over-eager that it feels like the game wants you to pull back at least a little and time your parries intelligently. Stopping to fight enemies when you've just been flying through the air arrests the momentum of the game. Additionally, fighting more than one enemy can be obnoxiously tedious since they can juggle you so easily. All that said, the combat is still pretty solid and gets a chance to shine during boss fights since those are generally a single large foe, and trading parries and strikes against one powerful enemy feels a lot more natural here. Additionally, the combat system is actually the best opportunity for replay value in The Lost Crown. The fundamental attacks don't change too much, but you can equip different amulets to boost your skills or grant slightly different abilities. You can also equip up to two Athra Surges, which are super-powered attacks that charge up as you attack and parry. None of these fundamentally change the way you fight but they add some nice variety to the combat system. As for graphics and audio, The Lost Crown clearly has some decent polish, yet for some reason holds back in areas. The visuals are solid and run smoothly, but like a lot of multiplatform games on the Switch there are some muddy details that probably don't pop up on other systems, and some of the cutscenes still feel stiff. Overall it's a solid visual design though, with a couple of standout moments such as the stylish shipwreck you'll explore late in the game. The music sounds good as well though the soundtrack has a hard time standing out—this isn't the kind of game where any tune is going to get stuck in your head after playing. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a smart blend of old and new for the series and a fun revival of the franchise. It doesn't have quite the fresh feeling that the original game presumably had in the 80s or the Sands of Time games had in the 00s, but it does have some sharp platforming sequences and engaging boss fights, once you get through a somewhat slow beginning of the game. Rating: 8 out of 10 Time Crystals
  4. Remakes and re-releases are common on any video game system, but the Switch in particular has become the home of a surprising number and a surprising variety. The latest is Mario vs. Donkey Kong, originally a 2004 GBA title that was a spiritual successor to the 1994 GB title Donkey Kong. With bite-sized puzzle platforming and shiny new visuals, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a fun blast from the past but may not wow modern players. The story begins with Donkey Kong lounging at home when he sees an ad for new Mini Mario toys. Suddenly obsessed, DK invades the toy factory to steal as many minis as he can, so Mario sets out to stop him and knock some sense into the ape. That's all you need to know—outside of a few short cutscenes this isn't exactly a story-driven game. Short platforming puzzles is the name of the game here. Each of the main levels is divided into two halves: first you grab a key to unlock a door, then you rescue the Mini Mario that DK stole. Mario has the sort of heavy, stilted movement reminiscent of the original Donkey Kong game, so you need to be precise with how you move. Mario's standard jump is pretty modest here, though you can also do a handstand double/triple jump for more distance. Operating colored switches is a huge part of the game as well—sometimes you need to plan ahead to make sure everything lines up perfectly to give you a path forward. Each world ends with a level where Mario guides the Mini Marios to the exit, kind of like Lemmings, and then there's a boss fight with DK to finish the world. The core puzzle design does a decent job of keeping things varied despite relatively few mechanics. In contrast to something like the recent Super Mario Wonder, which introduces so many different ideas, Mario vs. Donkey Kong keeps things pretty simple and relies upon just a handful of concepts rearranged in engaging ways. That said, this game isn't exactly the most challenging puzzle experience around. The puzzles in the main levels are rarely challenging, or the solution is simple enough that there's no punishment for failing and retrying a few times. Even collecting the optional present boxes in each level is a pretty easy task. At almost every turn, Mario vs. Donkey Kong plays things safe and doesn't try to push the boundaries of the system, genre, or player. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but any experienced players might be left wanting more from the puzzle design. The good news is that you do eventually unlock more challenging levels. What seems like the end of the game is really only half of the story, and an entire new set of worlds gets unlocked. You can also replay levels in time attack mode and, depending on how many gold medals you've collected, you can unlock extra challenging levels. These final extra stages actually do turn up the difficulty quite a bit and will be much more satisfying for an experienced Mario player, it's just a shame that there are only 16 of them. Funnily enough, there are some extra features in Mario vs. Donkey Kong that actually make things easier. Casual mode is even more forgiving than the standard classic mode and adds checkpoints and hit points. Co-op mode lets another player join the fun as a Toad, which does allow you to approach levels in a different way, which is a nice touch. These bonus modes and bonus challenges add up to make Mario vs. Donkey Kong a decent length, if you're willing to explore everything the game has to offer. The graphics and audio have also received an obvious overhaul from the game's pixely GBA roots. The new look looks great—sure there's still a nearly 20 year old sense of art direction lying underneath it all, meaning backgrounds and some stage elements look quite simple and straightforward, but that shiny Super Mario polish gives everything an appropriate toy-like vibe. The overhauled music is in the same boat: it's great to hear the jazzy soundtrack fully orchestrated, but many of the tunes remain a bit simple and not particularly memorable. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is an unexpected but charming revival that faithfully recreates the GBA original for modern audiences. Even with some bonus challenges though, it's hard to shake the feeling that this is a straightforward puzzle-platformer that avoids risky, complex challenges and instead satisfies itself with simple bite-sized levels. If that's what you're looking for though, or if you want to introduce a novice player to an easygoing puzzle-platformer, it's easy to pick up Mario vs. Donkey Kong for a short time. Rating: 7 out of 10 Mini Marios
  5. The SteamWorld series continues to explore new genres with the latest title, SteamWorld Build. Part city-builder management sim and part mining game, Build takes a page from the franchise's roots while still providing a unique new experience. Ultimately though, this wide reaching gameplay system might spread itself too thin. You play as a settler and his daughter in search of new territory to lay down roots. You're accompanied by a strange spherical core computer that urges you on, who encourages you to unearth the remains of a lost empire and collect the parts necessary to build a massive rocketship. Fans of the SteamWorld franchise will recognize some familiar elements here and can identify where this game falls in the overall timeline. As a standalone game though, the story is pretty lackluster. There's nothing wrong with it so much as it feels like filler that only serves to pull you away from monitoring your town and mine. It doesn't help that the very few characters you meet are completely one note and lack the usual SteamWorld charm. Build's gameplay revolves around two halves, the surface and the mine. On the surface, you'll build homes for workers, plants for processing materials, and service buildings to fulfill your workers' needs. In the mine, you'll gather resources that allow you to build up your town further, which unlocks more facilities which allow you to delve further into the mine. It's a simple, tidy little gameplay loop that proves to be quite addictive. There's always something that needs your attention in the mine and always something new to unlock/build, so it can be hard to pull yourself away from the game. And of course, it's extremely satisfying when all of your little robot workers and miners are operating efficiently and you get to sit back and watch your money/resources increase. Although building the city is an integral part of the game, the mine is where the real depth is in terms of real-time strategy gameplay. You'll need to construct living quarters for your miners and gradually expand them as you dig further and further into the game. This process requires a bit more focus from you since mining out an area can make it unstable, requiring you to build support beams. You may need to build bridges to reach across gaps, and later build guard robots to battle dangerous creatures. You can also construct defensive weapons like a tower defense game. All of these details snowball until you're managing a ton of little details, which is again quite satisfying when it all runs smoothly. The actual game, of course, throws plenty of complications at you, since you're always trying to expand your town but expanding requires more resources, leading to Build's central gameplay loop. Nothing ever feels too complicated though, you just need some time to understand how the mechanics of the game work. Unfortunately, as extensive as the game's tutorial system is, it mostly just gets overwhelming when there are so many tutorial pop-ups. The funny thing is that the mechanics aren't terribly complicated, they're just not always explained super well (in short, when you unlock a new building, build it). That might be Build's biggest issue: the UI and the controls make everything a bit more complex than it needs to be, which makes the experience not quite as smooth as you'd want it. Granted, these kinds of sim games can be tricky with a controller since they don't offer quite the same level of precise movement as a mouse, but the controls and interface still feel clunky and cluttered. Surprisingly, Build is a relatively short game, at least if you're only doing a single playthrough. Finishing the story should only take around ten hours or less, but you can also keep replaying the game on different maps. Each one has a slightly different appearance and completing one grants you a special bonus that you can carry over into other maps/playthrough. However, though the mine layouts can be randomly generated, fundamentally it's the same gameplay over and over, which does get pretty repetitive. It's not like there are significantly different strategies to employ in Build, it more or less proceeds in the same way each time. It's surprising that each map doesn't have a more distinctive twist or feature to set them apart, like unique hazards or events. Still, if you play through the game on each map you can add a lot more time to the game, even if each playthrough doesn't feel significantly different. Build also has a little bit of trouble running on the Switch. I ran into some repeated glitches and crashes, none of which cost much in-game time since there's an autosave system, but it was still disappointing to see. The presentation aims for some of that familiar SteamWorld charm, but the nature of the game means it all feels a bit basic. When you're just looking at the whole city or a zoomed out view of the mines, you don't get that much of the fun, playful details you'd expect from a SteamWorld game. Some of it's still there though, if you zoom in to really look, but overall the visual design won't wow you much. It also feels like the different buildings should have had even more distinct designs to make it easy to see what each one is at a glance, but oh well. The soundtrack is pretty light with no memorable or catchy tunes, and the voice acting, though a surprising treat for a game like this, sounds a bit basic as well. SteamWorld Build is another bold step for a franchise that has always explored new territory. Managing a growing town and a mine makes for a satisfying gameplay loop without overwhelming the player too much. With a new developer at the helm though the charm and polish aren't quite at the level you'd expect. Smoother UI/controls and a bit more depth to make new playthroughs feel unique would have gone a long way to building up a more engaging experience. Rating: 7 out of 10 Buildings
  6. If there's one thing the Harry Potter universe has going for it, it's charm. The hidden world of magic in these stories is awash with colorful, eccentric and enchanting details, some of which don't make a lot of sense upon closer inspection, sure, but the feeling of being part of the community of witches, wizards and magical creatures easily excites one's imagination. So can Hogwarts Legacy, an open-world action-RPG, capture that same magic for video game fans? The story takes place in the late 1800s. You play as a customizable character who is starting their academic career at Hogwarts as a fifth-year student. You're capable of seeing a strange, unknown type of ancient magic and, as you follow its trail to Hogwarts, you uncover a powerful secret that is now under threat by dangerous forces. Along the way, you'll also need to attend classes and learn more about the world of magic. Like a lot of open-world games, there's an awkward balancing act between the main plot and the side content, and the writing here isn't doing a lot to alleviate things. Too many NPCs, whether they're teachers, students or antagonists, are simply flat and unremarkable, which leads a lot of side quests and even main quests to feel like nothing more than objectives to check off on your task list. Your player character is also pretty bland, and you're typically only given a couple of options as far as how you talk or respond to conversations, very few of which matter at all. There's too much of a disconnect between the villains' actions and your own to make the stakes feel weighty. Strangely enough, there are also some pretty dark moments in the story, but they tend to pop up unexpectedly and don't really blend with the tone of the rest of the game. A bit more role playing and more choices that matter in this action-RPG could have helped liven things up a bit. Hogwarts Legacy isn't trying to reinvent the wheel of open-world adventure games. Despite the magical setting appearance, this is very much a typical action-RPG experience with tons of collectibles, side tasks, and little symbols on your map to clear out. Somewhat surprisingly, the schooling/learning magic side of the game is extremely simplified, with just a few classes to attend (which is not to say I wanted to deal with wizarding homework, but a bit more than a few cutscenes would've been nice). Regardless, there's a good variety of things to do, from actual side quests to things like simple puzzle challenges which reward you with upgrades to your abilities. The game also smartly drip feeds these features to you, making it easy to gradually immerse yourself in the wizarding world. And in the end, that's really the highlight of Hogwarts Legacy. Growing ingredients to use in potions, clearing out monster dens, collecting magical creatures—oddly enough, rescuing them from poachers only so that you'll keep them in your enclosure instead—these are all decent if typical ways to spend time in an open-world action-RPG, but putting that Harry Potter twist on things does liven it up. Indeed, the best part of the game might just be wandering around Hogwarts Castle, taking in the talking portraits, moving suits of armor, and little details like Peeves the Poltergeist sliding down a banister. All of the mechanics of the gameplay are somewhat simple—understandable if the target audience is relatively young—but when you throw in wands and spells and hippogriffs, checking off tasks on a to-do list has a bit more charm than normal. That said, there are also some gameplay tropes that get awfully tiresome here. The entire loot system feels like merely an excuse to populate the world with bland treasure chests. Sure, increasing your offense and defense with equipment is useful, but like a lot of loot-heavy games you're picking up a ton of junk along the way, and even with shopkeepers scattered about the world map there needs to be a faster way to deal with unwanted items. Level scaling is also a bit annoying since it means combat rarely feels different, and that leads into the surprisingly bland nature of the battle system. At first, it seems great that the game gives you a reason to use a variety of spells. For one thing, there's a color-coding system to enemy shields, so for example you need to use a red spell to break red shields. For another, hitting an enemy with a spell makes them more susceptible to your basic attacks, and eventually you'll upgrade your spells to make them slightly more powerful. However, combat gets repetitive extremely quickly in Hogwarts Legacy. Despite having a decent variety of spells to learn, too many of them are functionally similar, and oftentimes it feels like you're doing the same thing in every battle. Dodging and blocking are fairly simple on their own as well, though it's easy to get overwhelmed since there aren't a lot of options for dealing with big groups of enemies (and the lock-on aiming system can be a pain by jumping between targets). For a combat system as open-ended as a magic/Harry Potter based one, fighting enemies is far too rote. Additionally, for some reason the controls also trip over themselves a bit since attacking, blocking, and dodging are all sort of tied to the same buttons (depending on whether or not you hold R2 down to cast spells). I can understand why it's set the way it is, to allow for relatively fast and fluid controls mid-battle, but swapping spells is awkward in the heat of the moment. Not surprisingly, Hogwarts Legacy's performance takes a hit on the Switch. The graphics are just obviously less than what they should be. Grainy textures, slow loading scenery, pop-in—it's all quite unavoidable on the Switch, unfortunately. The load times are the most consistent issue, since even opening the map takes a few seconds, but these are the trade offs for playing on the Switch. If it's any consolation, as mentioned the spirit of the Harry Potter universe does come through nicely anyway even if the graphics aren't the nicest around. Wandering through the halls of Hogwarts is a fun experience no matter what. The sound design also isn't half bad. The score does a good job of evoking the mischievous magic of the setting, and hearing even small snippets or references to the iconic John Williams score is enough to make me feel like a kid again. The voice acting is less consistent in quality, but it gets the job done. Hogwarts Legacy is a decent adventure in the wizarding world, though it's not quite at the top of its class. The core gameplay features aren't terribly inspired, but adding the Harry Potter coat of paint to everything does make the experience feel more magical. If anything, it's a shame that the game doesn't lean harder into the Harry Potter details to make the game world feel more alive and changeable, like having a running House Cup score or a Quidditch tournament. As it is, Hogwarts Legacy is a fun but relatively safe adventure for Harry Potter fans. Rating: 7 out of 10 Spells
  7. Not being able to speak the local language can be quite the puzzle, especially when you've only just awoken from a mysterious stone sarcophagus. Chants of Sennaar is a beautifully stylized adventure that reimagines the Tower of Babel as a puzzle game, one where you need to gradually learn languages one glyph at a time in order to ascend. This seemingly simple premise leads to a completely addictive and engaging experience. The game begins by throwing you straight into the confusion with zero context, but it soon becomes clear that there are various groups of people divided by their language barriers. Since the entire premise of the game is learning each group's unique language, Chants of Sennaar relies upon atmospheric storytelling, pantomime, and symbols to explain the plot. This also means you'll be left scratching your head for much of the adventure as you'll only slowly understand what's going on around you, but if you embrace that state of confusion it's a blast to live in this bizarrely sterile, ominous world. Even the end of the game has its share of questions, but it's clear that something caused all of the division in the tower, and learning more about the tower bit by bit makes for a satisfying mystery. The core puzzle structure is beautifully simple. Every time you encounter a new glyph, whether it's written down or spoken by an NPC, it gets added to your journal. Gradually, you'll get the chance to match each glyph with a definition, granting you a better understanding of the world you're in. You'll rely on context clues and environmental clues to translate each glyph. Seeing a glyph once usually isn't enough to understand what it means, but see it a couple more times and you should be able to grasp its definition, or at least have a couple of guesses. Matching glyphs with their definitions also happens in small groups and the game confirms when you have all definitions in the group correct, which gives you the wiggle room to occasionally make guesses while still requiring you to learn the majority of the glyphs. It's a shockingly satisfying puzzle system that is also weirdly addictive. Incremental progress is always engaging in any video game context, but when it's directly tied to learning more about the game's world and better understanding its setting there's something magical about the experience. It's like struggling with a math problem then finally getting it all to click in your mind; there's a genuine sense of accomplishment here. Chants of Sennaar is also relatively short at around seven or eight hours to finish, but that length actually feels perfect for the game. There's still plenty of variety to how you learn each glyph language and how you need to apply it to environmental puzzles, and the experience of discovering each new language never gets stale. You'll also encounter a few different languages, each with their own quirks, which is a lot of fun to uncover. Maybe it just speaks to my nerdy interest in language and etymology, but seeing how different groups structure similar glyphs in their own ways is fascinating. Most importantly, despite the relative complexity of this puzzle design, Chants of Sennaar never feels tediously difficult. You can temporarily label each glyph as you encounter them, which is a huge help since oftentimes you need to see the glyph in its context to accurately remember what it means. Typing in a guess for future reference is super handy and can lead to some funny revelations once you understand what the glyph actually means. The one area where the game's lack of instruction or direction does get a bit tough is exploration. The environments aren't massive but they're big enough that you can get a bit lost while exploring since there's no map. Even a rudimentary map system would have been nice. The stark colors and simple shapes of Chants of Sennaar paint a vivid picture. The scenery and architecture is simultaneously grand and towering but also quite barren, which poses another enticing mystery as you gradually piece together what is really going on. It's a beautiful visual style that also suits the gameplay nicely by making any glyphs in the environment easy to spot. Each section of the tower also has its own color scheme and variations in architecture, which is another smart touch for making the groups of people feel united yet distinct. The game's soundtrack has some gorgeous tunes that perfectly suit the mysterious, foreign setting, though oftentimes there's too much of a light touch to the music and I would've liked to have the sounds take more of a center stage. Chants of Sennaar is an enchanting puzzle game that masterfully draws you into the confusing yet satisfying challenge of learning strictly via context clues. The result is wonderfully immersive, delightfully unique and highly addictive. The gorgeous art style and soundtrack are the cherries on top of this must-try puzzle experience. Rating: 9 out of 10 Glyphs
  8. Among the many surprising remakes/revivals that Nintendo has pulled out across the Switch's lifetime, Another Code: Recollection has to be one of the most unexpected. These two games never reached further than cult classic status—in fact the second game was never localized in the US—and yet here we are with a dual-pack release that gives players the chance to experience the entire point-and-click adventure saga. It's not hard to see why these thoughtful, slow-paced mystery stories are beloved by a small fan base, nor is it hard to see why they never expanded beyond that. Recollection combines both Another Code games into one continuous story. The first part, called Two Memories, comes from the 2005 Nintendo DS title (known as Trace Memory in the US). You play as Ashley Mizuki Robbins, a teenage girl who, just days before her 14th birthday, receives a message from her father who disappeared 11 years ago, shortly after the death of her mother. He entrusts her with a strange device and invites her to the mysterious Blood Edward Island. Ashley arrives with her aunt, but the aunt quickly disappears in the seemingly deserted island mansion, so Ashley sets off to investigate. She then encounters a young ghost by the name of D who can't remember anything about his life, so the pair team up to unravel the island's secrets and better understand both of their murky memories. It's a pretty solid premise for a young adult mystery story. Ashley is an immediately likeable protagonist who easily falls into the investigator role with believable confusion, doubt, and pathos. There's such an air of tragedy surrounding this mystery adventure that it's good to have a fairly grounded and charming main character. That said, the writing in Two Memories also leaves a lot to be desired. It's hard to shake off the feeling that this is a game squarely aimed at a young audience. The few side characters you meet are fairly flat, including D, and while the overarching mystery is engaging, it also unfolds in an oddly bland manner. Some elements are predictable, sure, but the bigger issue is the strange way Ashley's and D's storylines fail to intertwine in a satisfying way. You'll still be engaged while playing but may finish and look back questioning where the narrative cohesion was. It doesn't help that the gameplay is a little uninspired as well. There are some decent puzzles along the way but the majority of them are solvable with clues from within a single room, so you're very rarely challenged to think critically. And in comparison to the DS original, this Switch version lacks some of the DS-centric puzzles that added unique ideas and flourishes (instead Recollection adds a couple of motion-controlled puzzles which are a bit more clunky than engaging). It's an understandable change but the result is a puzzle-adventure that isn't terribly puzzling. To be fair though, looking at the game through the lens of a "young adult mystery adventure" title, Two Memories may be at just the right level of difficulty and complexity. If you do get stuck, there's a convenient built-in hint/navigation system that can easily keep you on the right track, which is a nice addition for Recollection. Two Memories is otherwise a fairly short game, around five or six hours, so getting stuck for too long would certainly be a drag. The visuals have obviously received a big upgrade from the DS original, and the game does look nice. It's not the most elaborate visual design and in fact many background textures are distractingly flat, but the simplicity has a charm of its own and the bright, almost washed-out color palette adds to the ethereal vibe of the adventure which makes for an oddly cozy feeling despite the mystery storyline. The soundtrack is suitably moody and atmospheric, and the game now features extensive voice acting for all major cutscenes. The quality of the voice work is disappointingly inconsistent, but it's a nice feature regardless. Completing Two Memories takes you directly into A Journey into Lost Memories, the 2009 Wii sequel that is set two years after the events of the first game. Ashley returns as our protagonist, a bit older, wiser, and angstier as a teen, but just as charming as she was before. This time, Ashley is exploring the campgrounds of Lake Juliet, where a nearby memory research lab has ties to Ashley's late mother. In sharp contrast to the first game, you get to meet a whole variety of side characters in this adventure which really helps the world and storyline feel more alive and rich, especially when Ashley's investigations lead her to helping others. Funnily enough, one of the people she helps is once again a younger boy named Matthew (not a ghost this time), who tags along as a sidekick for much of the adventure. A Journey into Lost Memories is a nice continuation of the themes and ideas started in Two Memories. It's a smart broadening of the world, giving a bigger and more impactful storyline with more serious consequences. That said, the plot here weirdly runs into the exact same oddities as the first game. Matthew's story is a bit more tied to Ashley's, but in many ways it still feels like a completely separate thread and almost unnecessary to the plot. The same could be said of many of the side characters in fact, though their presence does add some nice worldbuilding. The game's third act and climax in particular is weirdly rushed and under-developed—the core mystery really needed more time to build organically. Still, as a slightly older but still squarely young adult mystery adventure, A Journey into Lost Memories has its charms. The gameplay, however, does feel like it has taken a step back from the previous game. As mentioned, I thought the puzzles in Two Memories were okay but overall somewhat lackluster, and in A Journey into Lost Memories the puzzles have gotten even more simple. There's really not much challenge to sink your puzzle-solving teeth into, which makes the experience feel a lot more like a visual novel. There's also a slightly annoying amount of meandering in the adventure, i.e. moments where you go to one location after another just talking to people instead of gathering clues, items, or engaging with the gameplay really at all. This game has serious cozy vibes, but perhaps too cozy when it makes the gameplay a bit dull. The art style is obviously the same, but the wider variety of environments is a nice change of pace. The voice acting is overall better in this half of Recollection as well for some reason, maybe just due to the story this time offering a better range of emotion for the characters. Regardless, the presentation stays cohesive while still feeling a bit more mature. A mystery story isn't normally what you'd think of as "cozy," but that's exactly what Another Code: Recollection is. These are slow, easygoing puzzle-adventure games that do a good job of balancing some heavy topics with a light, comfy atmosphere. Because of that, they're kind of perfect for a young adult crowd. Playing them as an adult, however, may leave you pining for a more elaborate, engaging narrative and more challenging puzzle designs, but if you're looking for a cozy story-heavy experience, Another Code: Recollection uniquely fits the bill. Rating: 7 out of 10 Memories
  9. The first Moving Out was a wacky party game that turned the mundane task of moving furniture into a wild multiplayer romp, so how do you build on that formula? Make things even wackier, of course! Moving Out 2 slightly refines the gameplay but is mostly more content for couch co-op hijinks, which is just fine if you've got a few friends over for some laughs. You once again play as a Furniture Arrangement and Removal Technician, and that acronym is more or less the level of humor at play here. Business is booming, but after a portal mishap your client base will expand to alternate realms, including a high fantasy world, a futuristic city in the clouds, and a land of candy. Narrative design is absolutely not the focus of Moving Out 2, but the game's love of puns and dad jokes is still endearing. It's probably not the kind of humor or writing that will stick with you after playing, but starting and ending each level with a handful of wordplay jokes is still fun. The core gameplay mechanics remain the same in Moving Out 2: this is a wacky physics-based action/puzzle game. You need to grab all of the required furniture and toss it (oftentimes literally) into the moving van, and you'll need to do it fast to earn stars (stars are required for unlocking new regions, so playing smart is a must). The physics in this game feel a bit less chaotic though, which is nice. You'll still end up crashing into just about everything around you, but squeezing through doorways is way less of a hassle and you have better—though still not perfect—control over how you and the furniture move. Which is good, because Moving Out 2 ups the ante with even crazier hazards and mechanics. For one thing, there are now some levels that require you to move the furniture into a building, i.e. taking it out of the van and placing each item in its appropriate room. The less outrageous physics makes this much more manageable, though it can still be challenging to get an item into the right spot quickly. There are also just wackier hazards in your way in this game though, from portals and moving platforms to robots you can control to smash through obstacles in your way. Overall, Moving Out 2 feels like a smart, solid sequel: it builds upon the original concept and slightly refines it. The formula still feels a bit repetitive if you try to blast through multiple levels at once, but this is meant as a casual, couch co-op party game, so perhaps the best way to play is with some friends in a weekly gaming session. In addition to couch co-op, Moving Out 2 adds a multiplayer mode. However, you're limited to playing with friends. That's probably for the best since there are so much opportunity for griefing in this game, and you'll need fellow movers you can trust to get the job done. The full game is also playable solo, but the goofy spirit of the Moving Out titles really lends itself to a chaotic multiplayer session. Like the first game, each level also has a handful of secret bonus objectives that are only revealed after you've completed the level once. And like the first game this seems like a needlessly annoying way of padding out the game's length a bit to encourage you to replay levels (bonus objectives also award stars, so you'll want to tackle at least a few in order to unlock every region in the game). Some objectives are already mutually exclusive anyway—such as one for breaking every window and one for breaking no windows—so it's just pointless padding to keep them secret until the end of the level. The visual design hasn't changed in Moving Out 2. It's still bright, colorful, and cartoony. The highlight of the graphics is once again the crazy cast of characters you can play as, from humans to animals to sentient sunny side up eggs. You can't see much of the characters' details while playing, but it's still fun to gradually unlock new character options. The soundtrack isn't half bad either, though it ends up being a little forgettable. Moving Out 2 is another wacky, frantic, and engaging co-op experience. The cartoonish physics and chaotic hazards hit just the right note to turn a simple task into a Herculean one while still being goofy and charming. If you enjoyed the first you'll surely enjoy the new challenges that await in this sequel. Rating: 7 out of 10 Boxes
  10. Some games ease you into their unusual premise, and some throw you straight into the deep end to let you swim in the absurdity. Smile for Me is 100% the latter, a uniquely offbeat point-and-click adventure that may have you shaking your head in confusion at times but will also surely leave you smiling. You play as a florist who is checked-in (possibly forcibly?) to Dr. Habit's treatment facility, The Habitat. Here all of the patients have lost their smiles for one reason or another, and the enigmatic Dr. Habit is supposedly treating them. His advice via cutscenes and motivational posters seems more harmful than helpful though, so it might be up to you to help brighten everyone's day. Smile for Me is packed with quirky characters and bizarre conversations, which is sure to keep you on your toes and engaged. The game is totally quirky and surreal while at the same time sticking to the tried and true point-and-click formula of collecting items in order to find the right recipient. The result is a game that keeps relatively mundane tasks interesting, since you always know you'll run into a strange, charming bit of writing along the way. The game's whole interface delights in being odd and unusual as well. Instead of simply clicking yes or no in a conversation, you need to nod or shake your head to communicate, which means moving the control stick or using the gyro controls (or the simplest solution, pressing a button). It's a small but funny way of keeping you engaged, and while the motion controls can also make the camera feel a little loose, it's a nice touch for an added layer of immersion. The puzzles in Smile for Me cover a pretty wide range. The majority are fairly simple—character X needs object Y, so go find it in another room or from another character—but by the end of the game there will be some headscratchers to keep you running around The Habitat. The game does have a semi-helpful hint system. By bringing an object to the fortune teller, you'll get a little hint about its use. Obviously though this is only usable if you already have an item. If you're stuck trying to find something, you'll be a bit out of luck, and a couple of the late-game solutions get a bit annoying. Overall though, the game manages to keep things challenging without being overwhelming. And although there's a soft time limit—each in-game day only lasts for so long and you need to go back to your room to sleep—there isn't much of a penalty for taking your time, plus The Habitat is small enough that running back to your room isn't usually a problem. The game is also fairly short, assuming you don't get completely stuck on a puzzle. Around four hours should see you through the whole game, and there's really only one small bit of content that is optional, which is tied to possible alternate endings. Still, Smile for Me actually feels like a perfect length. Each in-game day stays engaging and interesting thanks to the relatively small size of the environment, and the process of helping the other residents never gets stale or repetitive. The graphics are striking, surreal, and colorful. The bizarre story is only heightened by the equally odd character and environment designs, yet somehow Smile for Me still manages to feel cohesive, like there's a method to its madness. The strange visual design just further emphasizes that there's something odd here and encourages you to get to the bottom of things. The music isn't nearly as oddball but still feels right at home in this surreal setting. It's smooth and jazzy with something suspicious lurking under the surface, just like the game as a whole. Smile for Me is an incredibly unique video game experience which, granted, might not draw in everyone. If you give it a chance though, you'll find that beneath the eccentric, surreal appearance is…well more eccentric and surreal gameplay, but presented in a compelling, engaging way that you can't help but smile at. Rating: 7 out of 10 Smiles
  11. What's a fate worse than death? Working in a corporate office in the afterlife, apparently. Running through the afterlife in a roguelike game might sound familiar, and while Have a Nice Death doesn't try to reinvent the genre, it's still a good time reaping souls and battling giant crabs. You play as the Grim Reaper himself who, after feeling overworked, creates a variety of assistants and servants to help automate the booming business of collecting and cataloging souls. When those servants get a little too trigger happy about reaping though, you'll need to smack some sense into them to prevent the afterlife from becoming completely flooded. Have a Nice Death has a delightfully silly sense of humor, and lampooning the afterlife as a tedious corporate office offers plenty of opportunity for fun NPC conversations. The cute but macabre character designs play into this aesthetic as well. Although the overarching plot is only okay, the oddball characters you meet and their interoffice encounters add a ton of charm to the game's story. Have a Nice Death is a pretty cut and dry roguelike (or roguelite), with a number of upgrades that you can unlock by simply attempting runs over and over. You start off with just your basic scythe, you can equip up to two additional weapons or spells, and you can collect a variety of skill upgrades, represented by three skill trees which, of course, only last for the length of your current run. Like most games in the genre, the hack-and-slash gameplay is easy to pick up but difficult to master with tons of opportunity for experimentation. You might find a particularly useful combo of slow but powerful weapons, or prefer to use long range spells and evade as much as possible. You're pretty nimble for being a skeletal force of nature, and weaving together attacks and dodges makes for snappy, satisfying gameplay. Like most roguelikes though, Have a Nice Death can also be quite unforgiving and challenging. Normal enemies are relatively simple since any combo of attacks can stun them, but things get trickier when you're surrounded by foes. Then the mini-bosses and bosses really ratchet things up a notch with some extremely powerful attacks, many of which offer only small windows for escape. Even for a game in the genre, Have a Nice Death has some obnoxiously difficult moments due to bosses' combos that can drain your health shockingly quickly. It would have been good to see a little more balance between normal enemies who are pushovers and bosses that can kill in just a few hits. The game also runs into the tricky scenario where unlocking more equipment sometimes just means making it more difficult for yourself. You can spend currency you collect to permanently unlock new weapons, spells, and temporary buffs, but sometimes that just means adding more chaff to the mix if it's a weapon you don't particularly like. With enough experience, every weapon or spell is presumably viable, but early on there are definitely some that are easier to pick up than others, and unlocking more options might ultimately hurt your chances of completing a run. On the bright side though, each run is fairly quick. A full run will probably be around an hour or less on the in-game clock, which is only a bit longer when you take into account menu time and loading screens. However, that is one area that Have a Nice Death struggles: the loading screens are just noticeably too long, especially at the end of a region where you go through multiple ones back to back. The game at least treats you to a hilarious bit of office building elevator music during these screens, but it's still a bit annoying to sit through them. The game's art style strikes a charming balance between cute and macabre. The characters and animation are quite cartoony and zany, but then you'll remember that you're talking to a guy in the afterlife with a knife through his head. It all feels quite Tim Burton-y, which I mean as a compliment. The soundtrack is pretty decent as well. Obviously you'll hear these tunes over and over as you attempt run after run, but they're still catchy without being overbearing. Have a Nice Death is a slick, satisfying roguelike that only puts slight variations on the typical genre formula, and may even rely a bit too much on random chance for each run. That's okay though, since the snappy gameplay is still a blast to play and the dark comedic setting makes for a fun environment to explore. Players looking for a grim and charming roguelike should enjoy the challenge of sorting out the afterlife. Rating: 7 out of 10 Deaths
  12. As a fan of strategy and puzzle games, Howl may have been tailor-made for me. Add in the beautifully unique "living ink" art style and you've got a game that I couldn't pass up. But while Howl does scratch a satisfying puzzle itch, it also left me wanting a bit more. In the world of Howl, people who hear the howl of a cursed wolf are turned into one themselves. You play as the Prophet, a deaf woman immune to the howl who uses her wits and her bow to fight the beasts and rescue innocent villagers while searching for a cure to the werewolf plague. The story is presented like a fable, narrating each new leg of the journey that the Prophet undertakes. It's a clever way to portray the story, though sometimes it might work against itself. There were plenty of times I found myself not taking in the narrative at all since I was just focused on the gameplay and ignoring the brief voice overs at the start of each stage. Howl challenges players with a satisfying blend of planning and prediction. On each turn, you can plan up to three actions (later upgradeable to six actions). You can map out where you move or attack with an arrow, push, or use unlockable ability, then press X to let the turn play out. The catch is, the wolves and beasts will also move, but you don't get to see exactly what they'll do. There's an indicator that shows they will act, but you need to predict where in order to avoid them or intercept them with one of your attacks (on easy mode, you'll also be able to see exactly where they move). If you get hit your turn will immediately end, and you only have two hit points, so can only afford one mistake. With these limitations, you'll need to make it to the goal alive, while slaying beasts and rescuing any innocent bystanders before they're turned into werewolves. It's a bit tricky to grasp at first, and admittedly Howl doesn't do a great job of explaining its mechanics sometimes, but having relatively few tools at your disposal makes for a super satisfying challenge. There's no better feeling than when everything lines up just right and you breeze through a level, slaying each beast along the way. Your unlockable abilities also add another thoughtful dimension to the gameplay. You can only use them on specific rounds (then they go on cooldown for one turn), which means you have to be careful when using them. Howl essentially distills turn-based strategy games down to a quick puzzle game, which is sure to satisfy fans of the genre. That said, the game also gets mildly repetitive, even across its brisk five hour length. By the end of the adventure, the levels are still engaging and challenging, but there aren't quite enough new ideas thrown your way, even with new monsters to fight. There's another odd wrinkle about Howl that isn't necessarily a negative, but it is strange: you have a goal for reaching the exit in a certain number of turns as well as a goal for defeating every monster in a level. The catch is, you frequently can't do both in a single attempt. Oftentimes, reaching the goal quickly means bypassing enemies, and defeating them all usually requires a slower, careful approach since you don't want to get hit yourself. The good news is that Howl doesn't require you to do both in one attempt. You can play through a level once to do it fast, then do it again to kill everything, and you'll get full credit. On one hand, it's nice to have that flexibility, since completing these goals earns you currency for upgrades, but it also means you'll oftentimes play a level multiple times to do everything, which adds to the game's repetitive feeling. Plus it's just surprising that there isn't some kind of "perfect run" award for killing everything in a set number of turns, like I would expect to see in a game like this. Ultimately though, players might enjoy having more accessible goals laid out by the game rather than relying on a single ideal strategy for each level. Howl's "living ink" visual style is a blend of hand-drawn 2D art with a watercolor/parchment design, which makes for an incredibly striking look. Ultimately it's fairly simple—there's not a ton of variety in the beasts or environments—but even if the game isn't throwing a lot of new designs at you it still looks beautiful in motion. The soundtrack is subtle, but it suits the game. For a strategy/puzzle-focused game like this you don't need a lot of music distracting you, and what tunes Howl does feature complement the visuals nicely. Howl is a smart blend of strategy and puzzle design for a fresh and engaging experience. It's a bit too repetitive for its brief length, and the game's concept probably could have sustained a longer game, but players will still enjoy the challenge of predicting and avoiding attacks while finding openings to hit back. Puzzle fans interested in a brisk game will surely enjoy Howl's siren call. Rating: 7 out of 10 Howls
  13. One part cozy fishing game, one part restaurant management sim, one part underwater adventure story—Dave the Diver may look like a simple game on the surface, but once you dive in you'll find a wealth of gameplay to enjoy. The blend of genres is almost at risk of tipping this boat over, but ultimately it stays steady for a uniquely engaging experience. You play as Dave, a scuba diver who, at the behest of his business partner Cobra, explores a strange, magical portion of the sea known as the Blue Hole, where fish from all over the world can be found. This turns out to be the perfect opportunity to open the ultimate sushi restaurant, so Dave spends his days diving and catching fish and his nights helping to run the restaurant. That's just where the story starts though, and you'll quickly discover there is something else lurking beneath the waves. It's a fun, light story that works perfectly for the gameplay format. The writing is absolutely charming, filled with humor that pokes fun at tropes, other games, and Dave himself. There's nothing too dramatic, but it suits the vacation vibes of the game perfectly. The core gameplay loop of Dave the Diver is split into two parts: each day, you can dive into the water twice (during the morning and afternoon) in order to catch fish, load up your inventory, then return to your boat. At night, you'll help run the sushi restaurant by setting the menu based on what fish you've caught, then by serving the food to hungry customers (thankfully, you don't have to prepare the sushi as well). The game is built upon this relatively simple but extremely addictive gameplay loop. Catching bigger or rarer fish allows you to serve better dishes, which earns you more money, which can be used to upgrade your diving equipment or eventually upgrade the restaurant with a staff and other food sources. This progression is carried out at your own pace, but the game does a fantastic job of keeping the loop simple, engaging, and rewarding. There's also plenty more depth to the game than it might initially appear. At first you're armed with just a harpoon gun, but you'll gradually unlock more weapons and other means of catching fish. Your prey will also get bigger and more complicated as you run into fish that bite back—including massive sharks—so those upgrades become critical. You don't have a health bar per se, but while underwater you're limited by your oxygen tank. If it runs out it's game over, and getting hit will deplete it quite quickly. Despite all that, the act of swimming through the ocean on the hunt for specific fish to buoy your restaurant is a wonderful balance of calm zen and thoughtful challenge. Since you can only carry so much, oftentimes you need to think ahead about what fish you really need to grab. The environment of the Blue Hole is also semi-randomly generated, so you always have to do a bit of exploring, and that process really allows you to take your time and just enjoy the colorful underwater world. Just this main gameplay loop would be engaging enough as is, but the developers have absolutely packed the game with sub-objectives and side content to ensure you can make any dive worthwhile. The fish you catch are rated on a one to three scale, so you might try to catch the best quality (generally by catching them with a net or other non-deadly means). You can take photos underwater at specific areas. The items you collect underwater can be used to upgrade your weapons. There are optional side objectives like catching 10 of a specific type of jellyfish. Dave the Diver even provides a handful of mini-games. On top of all of that, you'll occasionally run into special challenges, like puzzles, chase sequences, and other alternate gameplay modes. The variety in this game is pretty incredible, and might even be excessive at times since some of the features aren't as well fleshed out or satisfying to play. Combat, for example, is actually pretty tedious in this game. The main quest boss fights aren't too bad, but the optional ones are particularly frustrating due to the inherent clumsiness of underwater controls. The limited movement feels fine when you're just catching fish, but not so much when you're trying to dodge a massive beast. The most egregious fights are optional, thankfully, but overall Dave the Diver's combat features are far less rewarding than the other parts of the game. At a glance, you might assume this is a relatively short or mid-length game, but reaching the end of the main story is actually pretty involved. You'll end up spending quite a lot of time exploring the depths in Dave the Diver. However, the game never really feels long. Even when you've got a pile of little tasks to take care of, the game manages to avoid ever feeling tedious. Instead, you'll likely be excited to dive in day after day to gather more fish and generate cash for the restaurant. You can also keep playing long after the main story is done, and creating the ultimate sushi joint is an engaging and addictive enough task that you may feel compelled to do just that. In terms of graphics, Dave the Diver does more with less. The vibrant underwater landscapes might not have been half as charming if not for the retro pixel art aesthetic, which has a lovely balance of rough, jagged design and colorful detail. Nowhere is this more true than the short animated scenes that play out anytime you upgrade a sushi dish or craft a new weapon. And kudos to the developers for making so many different types of fish all generally recognizable even with pixel graphics. You might not remember the names of each one while you're playing, but they all look distinct, which is helpful when you're on the hunt for a specific one. The music fits the game nicely as well. For the most part, it's a pretty chill, zen soundtrack, which is perfect when you're just exploring the sea, collecting everything you can get your hands on. I don't know what it is about fishing games in 2023, but Dave the Diver is another splash hit for the genre. This game is teeming with things to do, from going on a relaxed dive for fish sightseeing to keeping the sushi restaurant afloat. It's the kind of game that perfectly captures the "one more round" mentality to keep you hooked, and you'll surely enjoy every minute of it. With so much content, some aspects end up feeling a little shallow, but the overall experience is deep, rewarding, and always engaging. Rating: 9 out of 10 Starfish
  14. Persona 5 is a game that just won't quit, having spawned an enhanced re-release, a rhythm game, a Musou game, and now a tactical RPG. The good news though is that this cast of characters is so charming that they can easily be dropped into any new setting and continue to thrive, which is definitely the case with Persona 5 Tactica. This game is clearly made for Persona 5 fans interested in dabbling in strategy gameplay, so while the tactical elements could have been better fleshed out, hanging out with the Phantom Thieves again is a blast. The game takes place after the events of Persona 5, and although new players might be able to jump into Tactica without any extra context, it would definitely be better to have already met these characters in their original game. After all of their adventures though the group finds itself pulled into another reality called a Kingdom, where they meet an oppressive overlord subjugating the people. They team up with a new playable character named Erina, a rebel fighter, and the crew must battle their way out of the Kingdom and figure out what brought them here in the first place. The whole storyline feels right at home in Persona 5—in fact, if the game were a bit shorter, it practically could have been a side story or DLC, at least story-wise, since it's still about changing hearts and standing up to oppressors. Ultimately though, the plot survives on the strength of the characters, including the new ones, all of whom are still a ton of fun to interact with. The gameplay is turn-based tactics with a cover system, similar to XCOM or Mario + Rabbids. With a team of just three characters, you'll want to move from cover to cover to take out enemies without exposing yourself to counterattacks too much. Curiously, standing near any kind of cover grants you a defensive boost—even if the wall is behind you and the enemy is in front of you, you still gain the benefit. The catch, however, is that hitting an enemy that doesn't have cover (or an enemy hitting you outside of cover) will grant a "One More" bonus attack, giving the attacker a full extra move/action. So the key here is setting up and chaining together One More attacks to take out enemies efficiently. You can knock enemies out of cover with a melee attack, but the more efficient move tends to be using your Personas' magic attacks to push/pull enemies or inflict status ailments that render them vulnerable. Hitting a vulnerable target will down them, allowing you to perform an All-Out attack by surrounding the enemy, which will deal damage to anything within the triangle of your three characters' positions. In practice, the tactical gameplay flows quite well, nice and smoothly. The default difficulty level is actually pretty easy for seasoned strategy players, but since this whole game is really meant for Persona 5 fans it makes sense that they would keep things relatively simple. Plus, chaining together One More and All-Out attacks is immensely satisfying, even if you're rarely required to think too hard about your actions beyond ensuring your characters always have some degree of cover. Each character also has slightly different abilities—Ryuji's shotgun can hit multiple enemies, for example, and each spell element will inflict a different status ailment—so you can mix things up a bit depending upon who you use, but the game never gets very difficult, so you don't need to concoct very specific strategies. Naturally, Tactica weaves in some elements of the Persona series as well. You're able to collect, fuse, and equip different Personas to gain access to additional spells/passive abilities, plus equipping a Persona grants a stat boost. In this game, everyone has a main Persona (including the main character with Arsene) but everyone can also equip a sub-Persona for those benefits. You'll of course want to fuse Personas together to make stronger ones and constantly rotate out the Personas you're using to ensure your characters are as strong as possible. Although Tactica doesn't worry about elemental resistances or weaknesses, it's still satisfying to spend time carefully fusing together Personas and crafting your ideal team. While Tactica does a good job of introducing Persona players to the basics of strategy gameplay, it never quite fleshes things out to the kind of fully brain-tickling experience that players familiar with the genre might have preferred. There's very little variety in the main objective of each stage, or even the bonus sub-objectives. There's not much enemy variety, and again things like elemental weaknesses never come into play—unless you do anything obviously silly it's pretty hard to lose a character mid-battle, and even if you do you can swap in one of your reserves for free. The map design also gets pretty repetitive. The real shame is that there are a handful of times that Tactica does get clever, like in an optional mission where you have to get a character all the way across the map in a single turn, which requires you to thoughtfully map out One More attack opportunities to chain together movements. The bulk of the game, however, plays things pretty safe and simple, and although there's nothing wrong with the gameplay, it rarely gets a chance to truly shine. Tactica isn't nearly as long as the main Persona 5 game and can be finished pretty comfortably in around 25 hours, including optional content. There is a New Game Plus mode though which is probably necessary if you want to try to fill out the entire Persona compendium, and the multiple difficulty levels can add some replay value. There's also paid DLC if you want a little more action. Ultimately though, Tactica has a solid length for maintaining momentum while still giving you plenty of opportunities to fuse Personas and experiment a bit. Although it's not the same style as the main game, the presentation of Tactica is still pretty sharp. The characters have a more cutesy, Chibi-like style, but their distinctive characteristics and personalities still shine through. The menus are also wonderfully stylized with that distinctive dynamic look. The only downside here is that the game has some loading times that are just a bit too long. The music is just as jazzy, catchy and energetic as anything in Persona 5, and with a pretty decent variety no less. Persona 5 Tactica is an excellent introduction to strategy games for fans of the Phantom Thieves. The blend of turn-based tactics and Persona elements may not be quite as deep as it could have been, but the resulting gameplay is still engaging, even if it's clearly meant for new players in the genre and rarely throws anything truly tricky at you. Still, Persona 5 fans should love having another adventure with the familiar crew. Rating: 8 out of 10 Personas
  15. Ever since it was first announced, Mineko's Night Market has been turning heads for being an adorably cozy sim game bursting with charm and, more importantly, cats you can pet. Collecting materials, crafting items, and chatting with local villagers just hits differently when paired with a cute and cuddly art style and a silly sense of humor. However, the final product isn't quite up to scratch thanks to some repetitive gameplay loops and stuttering purr-formance on the Switch. You play as Mineko, a young girl who has just moved to a new island with her father. The island is cozy but is feeling a bit decrepit these days, so to inject some life into the village Mineko participates in the weekly Night Market, where she can sell any of the items she's crafted or collected, hopefully to help revive the island's community. That sounds like a heavy task for a young girl, but the writing keeps things light and goofy with a lot of comedic dialogue, especially surrounding Mineko's friend Bobo, who is obsessed with finding the mythical giant cat named Nikko, supposedly hidden somewhere on the island. The kids aren't the only ones interested in Nikko though, leading to some scraps with shadowy agent figures who are caging cats and conducting their own investigation. The whole plot has the feel of an 80s kids movie, in a good way. Precocious kids battling bumbling adults always makes for a fun time, plus the writing is focused on fun, silly humor which makes for an easy-going, goofy adventure. Like most sim games, the core gameplay loop is all about collecting resources, crafting/selling items to earn money, then buying more equipment in order to collect more resources. Mineko can craft various items to sell at the night market, thereby expanding the influence of the market and attracting more booths and more opportunities for you to buy items yourself. There's a nice zen quality collecting items day after day in anticipation of the weekly market, though the game does start off pretty slow. At first, there are only a couple of things to collect/areas to explore, plus you're severely limited by your stamina meter (which you can recover by eating up to three times per day). It's not uncommon for sim games like this, but the first in-game week or so really feels like you're just spinning your wheels until something happens. Even when you do start to unlock more options, the cost of new equipment can be pretty high, again meaning you have to take a slow and steady approach to progression. I'll also say that I played on the 1.0.6.0 patch, which made some progression elements easier/less expensive than the original launch version of the game, and it still felt like it took a long time to unlock new things. It doesn't help that Mineko's Night Market doesn't run super well on the Switch. I only had one instance of the game freezing up, but the frequent loading screens are noticeably long and, more obnoxiously, would constantly stutter, so even the cozy background music would stop and start while the game struggled to load the next area. The game's framerate is overall a bit choppy as well, though the sloppy load screen is easily the most annoying flaw since it comes up so often. The crafting side of the game is pretty satisfying at least. Every item you create requires a little minigame, and the more complex the item the more complex the minigame. It's extra satisfying to craft a "perfect" item, especially since they'll sell for more money. Sure it can be a bit annoying at times that there are very few ways to collect resources or ingredients outside of just grinding away at chopping wood, breaking stones, or fishing, but that's the core of a sim game anyway. Mineko's Night Market might feel a bit slow paced even by the genre's standards, but once you're up to speed on how the game works it can be relaxing to collect, craft, and sell over and over. The core of this game is cozy, casual progression. However, the game also has a variety of little annoying quirks that add up quite a bit. The UI doesn't feel well adapted to a controller at times—navigating your inventory is clunky and definitely feels made for a mouse and keyboard. Too often the game makes you do things one at a time. When selling items outside of the night market, for example, you can either sell an item one at a time or all at once, with no option to select an amount. Maybe you want to just sell some excess wood for a little extra money, but now it becomes a hassle. You can't queue up multiple crafts either, and need to enter the menu every time you craft an object. The game's pause menu/journal also isn't very detailed. Every villager will have a variety of quests for you to tackle, but your journal doesn't track all of these side quests easily. Occasionally, Mineko will face off with the shadowy agents and need to sneak around, freeing caged cats. It's a cute mechanic at first but isn't super fleshed out and gets a bit tiresome in the game's finale. Ultimately, there's nothing that ruins the experience, but there are enough flaws that you might want to paws and consider waiting for hopefully further patches to iron out some kinks. The presentation is undoubtedly the highlight of Mineko's Night Market, and likely what drew in most players to begin with. The stylized visual and character design, warm colors, and scratchy pencil/paint aesthetic makes the game look like a gorgeous picture book come to life. The village and night market obviously get the bulk of this visual design love, but even the forests and caves you explore for resources have their charms. The whole visual design is utterly charming and perfect for the chill, cozy vibes of the gameplay. The soundtrack is super cute as well and feels like the perfect comfortable, homey accompaniment to the artwork. Mineko's Night Market is a lovely example of a cozy life sim that doesn't rely on the usual farming formula. Collecting resources and crafting items to sell makes for a tidy gameplay loop, though it takes some time to get off the ground at first and then becomes a bit of a waste once you have sufficient funds for all of the upgrades. The experience isn't without its flaws, most of which aren't major on their own but do add up, however the meow-velous artwork and music help lift up the experience. It may be worth waiting for news of another patch to fix up some of the game's troubles running on the Switch, though. Rating: 7 out of 10 Cats
  16. Back in 1996, something magical happened. Square, at the time the definitive RPG developer for creating the likes of Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana on the SNES, partnered with Nintendo to turn everyone's favorite mustachioed plumber into an RPG hero. For my child self, it was a mashup I had no idea I wanted, but ended up absolutely loving. Familiar Super Mario characters and enemies were translated into an entirely different kind of Mushroom Kingdom, and the result was a quirky, engaging, and all-around delightful RPG. 27 years later, new players will find all of that unique charm perfectly preserved with a shiny new modern presentation to complete the package. The story begins with Princess Peach once again kidnapped by Bowser. Naturally, Mario rushes off to save the day, but upon confronting King Koopa, a giant sword crashes into Bowser's Castle, flinging Mario away. Now Mario must get to the bottom of this new threat and rescue Peach again. The overarching story is decent enough, but it's the little character interactions that make Super Mario RPG so charming. The writing has a zaniness to it that perfectly dates it as a mid 90s game, and I mean that in the best way possible. It's cartoonish but it suits the new larger-than-life characters as they spit out silly slang in a fun way. The writing never takes itself too seriously and it's all the better for it. In terms of gameplay, the timing-based combat was a fresh idea back in 1996, and while it has become a standard for all of the Mario RPGs, it's still a nice, rewarding way to make turn-based battles a little more engaging. The original game was always an excellent RPG for beginners: it has the standard hallmarks of RPG design with just enough depth to keep things interesting without overwhelming novice players with stats, effects, or character-build options. Instead, it's a streamlined yet wonderfully addictive RPG experience. This Switch remake preserves that core gameplay structure perfectly but adds a few new features that actually make the game even easier. Perfectly timing your hits now deals slight splash damage to other enemies on screen. It also feels easier to perfectly block enemy attacks, though that might just be more gaming experience on my part. Timing your hits or blocks will also charge your Triple Attack Gauge which, once it hits 100%, can be used as a powerful special ability to hurt enemies or boost your team, depending on which characters are active in your party. Once you have more than three characters, you can also swap characters mid-battle, even if they've been knocked out or afflicted with a status ailment. Some of these features you can sort of choose to avoid, but overall Super Mario RPG is extremely forgiving on the player even on the normal difficulty mode (there's also an easy mode). If it introduces new players to the wonderful world of RPGs, all the better, but veteran players might wish for a bit more challenge to dig into. There is, however, new post-game content that is definitely made for the toughest players. Select bosses are back for a rematch, and these fights are no joke. The flipside is that some of them almost require a specific strategy since they can be so punishing, and being funneled into a singular tactic doesn't make for the most interesting fight, but for the most part the post-game battles add a nice bit of challenge to fully test your Super Mario RPG skills. The only other addition that makes combat a little harder is the special enemy variant, which looks the same as any other enemy but is a little beefier than normal. It's nice to have some tougher encounters now and then, but even these new enemy varieties won't test your skills too much. One thing that was a ton of fun to rediscover with Super Mario RPG is how varied the game actually is. It's constantly throwing unique little scenarios, challenges, and mini-games at you beyond the usual explore, fight monsters, fight boss RPG formula. Stumbling into interesting game mechanics virtually every time you explore a new region helps keep the game flowing beautifully, almost to a fault since the game is on the short side for an RPG. Even with the new post-game content I finished the game in around 15 hours, which seemed to pass in a flash. Still, 15 excellent hours is arguably a better bargain than a 50-hour RPG that overstays its welcome. For anyone that played the original on the SNES, the revamped graphics and rearranged soundtrack will 100% blow you away. This remake lovingly preserves the spirit of the original's art style, down to Mario's squat proportions and the somewhat bulbous appearance of a lot of enemies. The SNES game's visual style was so distinct that even this highly detailed remake can't quite capture the oddly tactile feel of the original, but the end result on the Switch is still a gorgeous game that is further enhanced by some fancy animated cutscenes. The new soundtrack is simply stunning and manages to further polish an already fabulous selection of video game tunes. Plus, you can swap between the new and original soundtrack in the pause menu in case you want to compare. Super Mario RPG is an SNES classic for a good reason. The original game was weird, funny, charming, and delightfully engaging, especially if you were only beginning to dip your toes into RPGs, and this remake has done a phenomenal job of preserving that experience. The core gameplay has aged wonderfully, and although veteran players might have preferred a hard mode, the new additions add a touch more depth to the combat and ensure any level of player can make it through the adventure. Super Mario RPG on the Switch is an utter delight that can't be missed by new or returning players. Rating: 9 out of 10 Stars
  17. 2019's Blasphemous was a stylish action-adventure game that blended Metroidvania gameplay with some Soulslike influence, resulting in a compelling experience that could also be extremely punishing at times. Blasphemous 2 brings players back to the twisted, macabre world, but manages to avoid the pitfalls that made the previous game frustrating. You once again play as The Penitent One, a masked warrior who battles his way through the world of Cvstodia to stop the reawakening of The Miracle. Like the first game, the grotesque, dark Catholic iconography is stunning, but still presented in a jumbled, confusing way. Maybe you just need to play these games back to back to fully grasp the story and lore, but right out of the gate Blasphemous 2 throws so much terminology at you that it's hard to keep any of it straight. It doesn't help that the game is frankly overwritten, with awkward flowery language that needlessly complicates the story. Still, even if you don't always understand who the characters are, the game has an undeniable atmosphere and gravitas that is always compelling. Blasphemous 2 follows the same Metroidvania formula as the first game, but adds some fun new features. First and foremost, you can choose what weapon you start with: a standard broadsword, a heavy mace-like censer, and a quick, light rapier and dagger. You don't have to worry too much about this first choice since you eventually unlock all three weapons, but it can color your first hour or so of the game. More importantly, having three weapons, each with unique properties and special abilities that can be upgraded, adds a nice degree of depth to the combat without overwhelming you with options. You can swap between all three weapons at any time, so there's a lot of freedom in how you approach battles. Maybe it's specifically because of that freedom, but combat as a whole feels more accessible in this game. You don't need to master tricky maneuvers or parrying mechanics here. Instead it's pretty easy to dodge enemy attacks and hit back when you have an opening. This also means that basic enemies can be a bit boring at times since dodging is so important, leading to frequent repetitive cycles of dodge-slash-dodge, but bosses still offer plenty of challenges and will likely require plenty of retries. Thankfully Blasphemous 2 is also pretty generous with save points, so there's not too much retreading needed if you die. However, in Soulslike fashion, you do lose a little something when you die: your max Fervor (or mana) will be reduced until you can recover it. Additionally, you'll accumulate Guilt when you die, which increases the EXP and currency you earn from killing enemies but reduces your defense, creating a risk/reward system. The game doesn't do a great job of explaining this mechanic or showing it clearly on screen as you play, but Guilt can be extremely important to monitor, especially if you're re-attempting a boss over and over. And just as a concept, it's a neat way of giving the player some control over the difficulty of the gameplay, albeit in a somewhat confusingly complicated way. Blasphemous 2 also has a nice degree of customization options to give yourself various buffs. You can equip rosary beads for some basic bonuses—physical defense, elemental defense, earn more EXP, etc.—and you can equip figurines for things like damage bonuses. Equipping multiple figurines of the same type can also grant a bonus effect. The boosts to your abilities aren't always 100% clear but in a game like this any little bit extra helps. Naturally, you'll acquire most of these upgrades by exploring the extensive, interconnected map of Cvstodia. The platforming and exploration side of the game is nicely polished in Blasphemous 2. Gone are the cheap deaths of instant-kill spikes or pits, and the fairly generous save points and warp points mean you're never too isolated, though it takes some time to unlock such warp benefits. The first section of the game is also fairly open and gives you three targets you can tackle in any order—once again the game gives you a bit of freedom without overwhelming you with choices, which is nice. The movement upgrades like double jumping are relatively standard for a Metroidvania but they're used well in a variety of platforming challenges that help give the exploration side of the game some depth. The wide variety of side quest items you'll find while exploring also makes filling out the map incredibly compelling. Granted, you probably won't know what to do with most of the items you find at first, and again the game is happy to leave you confused on this account, but it's still nice to know that the knicknacks you've acquired will have some use at some point, if you can ever figure out what that is. Blasphemous 2 also isn't a terribly long game, and even filling out the map completely should only last 15 hours or so, which feels like just about the perfect length for keeping the sprawling world engaging from start to finish. The pixel art style is back and it's just as gorgeous as the first game. The religious iconography, twisted into a bleak, grotesque world, makes for a beautifully engaging setting, complete with eerie characters and stylish environments. The developers struck a perfect balance of creepy and compelling. The soundtrack also suits the setting well, adding to the ominous religious atmosphere nicely. Blasphemous 2 has somewhat softened the edges of its predecessor, largely for the better. There's still a blend of Soulslike influence and core 2D platforming, but overall the experience leans more toward Metroidvania gameplay—meaning an emphasis on exploration—rather than punishing the player with intricately difficult combat or platformer obstacles. The result is a more balanced experience that still has plenty of bite and challenge, all wrapped up in a beautifully dark, grotesque package. Rating: 8 out of 10 Blasphemies
  18. Back in 2011, just before the launch of the Nintendo 3DS, the DS got one of its best puzzle/mystery games. Directed by Shu Takumi, creator of the Ace Attorney games, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective puts players in the incorporeal shoes of the recently deceased and offers one not-so-simple goal: find out who you are, and why you died. What unfolds is a clever, charming, and completely engrossing detective adventure. As the story begins, you've already died, and now inhabit the world as a spirit. Ghosts tend to lose the memory of their lives after death though, so you're left in the dark regarding who you are or how you got here. The catch? At dawn your spirit will disappear forever, so you only have one night to solve the mystery of your own past. Another helpful ghost guides you through your newfound "Trick" powers though: by possessing objects, you can interact with the world and move about. By connecting with the spirits of other recently deceased people, you can turn the clock back four minutes before their death in the hope of changing their fate. Like the Ace Attorney games, there is a fantastic supporting cast of characters to enjoy here, including a chipper young detective, an excitable little dog, and a novelist frantically writing into the night. There's so much personality and charm in every interaction that the quirky dialogue is always delightful and engaging. More importantly, Ghost Trick tells a fantastic detective story with just the right balance of twists and turns that keep you guessing in a wonderful way. Mystery story fans simply can't miss this one. The puzzle gameplay has a simple elegance to it: you can only possess and interact with so many objects on screen, but activating the right ones at the right time makes for satisfying challenges. Sometimes you'll need to line up several Tricks to reach the desired outcome, like an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine. Sometimes your timing is critical, even to the last second before disaster strikes. Oftentimes, even making mistakes will yield helpful clues. There's no built-in hint system here, but the level of difficulty feels nicely balanced even without it. Since you can always rewind the clock again anyway, there's very little penalty for failure, and since there are only so many objects to possess it's pretty easy to work out some trial-and-error if you truly don't have any idea of how to move forward. Ultimately, the puzzles provide just the right amount of thoughtful interaction to spice up the core detective story that unfolds as you progress. The one thing that truly set Ghost Trick apart when it launched on the DS though? The animation. The game had incredibly smooth animation, even on the DS's relatively simple hardware and pixel-y graphics, and the developers clearly had a ton of fun incorporating detailed movement into every scene they could, whether it was from a lanky detective dancing down the stairs or a panicky public official having a heart attack. It was super impressive to see what the developers could do on the DS. All of that lovely animation is back for this Switch version, and while it is perhaps a little less novel on this kind of hardware, the visual spectacle is still phenomenal. The smooth and crisp animation is a huge part of the game's overwhelming charm and personality, and it looks fantastic in HD. The soundtrack is no slouch either, with just the right catchy background tunes that wriggle into your brain while you're focused on solving puzzles. The adventure should last you around 12 hours, maybe a little more if you get stuck often, but either way the story moves at a brisk, satisfying pace. The downside of story-centric puzzle games like this is that there's not a ton of inherent replay value—unless, like me, you wait ten years to experience the story all over again—but still, the quality of that first playthrough is well worth the cost of entry. This remake also adds some small bonuses and unlockables. For one, there's a jukebox to listen to both the original music and the remastered soundtrack, which is pretty fun. You'll also unlock illustrations while playing, which let you revisit characters and locations. More importantly, completing the game unlocks concept art, which is always cool to see and helps put you in the mindset of how the developers crafted these lovely animations all those years ago. Finally there is an achievement system which is really only there for completionists, and there are sliding tile puzzles that unlock additional illustrations. The tile puzzles are an odd addition and a bit tedious to complete just to see more illustrations, but they're there if you want them. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was a DS cult classic for good reason. It told a fantastically engaging detective story with some of the best animation available on the DS, and the puzzle gameplay was clever and inventive without ever feeling tiresome. It's wonderful that the game has gotten a second life on modern systems. Although the additions, aside from the visual upgrade, are relatively simple, the core experience is so highly polished that anyone who is even remotely a fan of mystery stories should love Ghost Trick. Rating: 9 out of 10 Tricks
  19. WarioWare's frantic microgame formula is back for round 2 on the Switch, but this time the key to the action is motion controls. WarioWare: Move It! will have players shaking, shimmying and squatting to complete hundreds of microgames, either solo or with a group in local co-op. As you might expect, the action is incredibly silly, hectic, and even a bit of a good workout if you're playing for a good stretch of time. Although I'd argue WarioWare games hardly need a story to justify any of their crazy microgames, in this one Wario and all of his usual buddies are off on an island vacation. On the island, Form Stones (aka Joy-Cons) are key to mysterious rituals guarded by native spirits, and naturally Wario gets mixed up in the action when he starts hunting for ancient treasure. It's a simple but fun setup for the fast-paced action to come. As the game's title suggests, motion controls are the main feature here. You'll need to hold your Joy-Cons in a variety of poses to complete each microgame. In one, you may need to hold your arms out in a T pose and rotate them like clock hands. In another, you might put your hands on your hips and jump up and down. Another form, the Ba-KAW, imitates a chicken by putting one hand on your nose and the other on your rear. Most of these forms you can get away with by staying sitting down, sure, but the whole point of the game is to move around a bit, so standing (with ample room around you) is really the way the game is meant to be enjoyed. And it sure is a lot of goofy fun to be flailing around wildly to complete each microgame. Like all WarioWare games you only have a few seconds to understand each microgame and complete it, so adding motion control just makes things even crazier. Even in the story mode, most stages feature multiple Forms, so you need to be ready to adapt quickly to whatever the game throws at you. As always, the microgames are wildly inventive and weird—one has you catching fish between your legs by squeezing them together—and the chaos is perfect for playing with some friends. That said, motion controls can be a little iffy at the best of times, and putting them into a game where you need to react and move as quickly as possible does lead to some obnoxious or frustrating microgames. Some of the Forms were also just a little odd to me—even when imitating the pose on screen they didn't quite register correctly 100% of the time. Some microgames also require you to press a button on the Joy-Cons, and good luck understanding which to press in mere seconds, especially when you're holding the Joy-Cons in some unusual way. But in the end, WarioWare is such a low-stakes experience that it's hard to get too frustrated by some wonky control inputs. Plus, when you're playing story mode, you can earn a second chance instead of getting a game over by striking a pose, as indicated on screen, so the game is at least forgiving in that regard. The single-player content is fun but the multiplayer side of the game feels like more of the main experience, or at least you should be playing the story mode with friends, passing around the Joy-Cons between levels. There are a few multiplayer modes available here, including a Mario Party-like board game—which manages to be even more chaotic than usual Mario Party, so definitely don't get too hung up on winning in this mode—classic marathon or PVP modes, and a 2v2 mode which requires you to fool the other team. It's a solid selection of game modes and of course the microgames keep things utterly wacky at all times. You'll also unlock a few other bonus modes after finishing the story, some of which are single-player and others co-op. Overall, Move It! definitely caters to group play, so be aware if you're only playing solo you're only getting a handful of modes to enjoy. There are also a surprising lack of unlockables, aside from the microgames themselves of course. I would have expected to have collectibles to uncover, even if just for fun or completionist's sake. In classic WarioWare form, the game's presentation ranges from fun, bubbly cartoon designs to the utterly bizarre, and fans probably wouldn't have it any other way. The core cast of characters and locations look good, and the wide variety of art styles in microgames adds another layer of craziness to the experience. The music is fine, though never really the focus when you're trying to concentrate on each new microgame's challenge. Kevin Afghani has also taken over the role of Wario from Charles Martinet, and again he's clearly drawing from Martinet to keep the same spirit of the character alive, which works well. WarioWare: Move It! is another fun, goofy, chaotic entry in the series, and the added wrinkle of motion controls makes things especially wild. The motions might not feel 100% smooth all of the time, but there's enough wiggle room that it still works overall. Although the single-player content is a little bit light compared to the multiplayer side of the game, if you get a group of friends together, WarioWare: Move It! can be a blast. Rating: 7 out of 10 Microgames
  20. This Way Madness Lies feels like it was created by randomly selecting three elements and mashing them together: magical girls (a la Sailor Moon) battle eldritch monsters inside of Shakespeare plays. The craziest thing might just be the fact that this combo works. It's an utterly bizarre RPG that is also utterly charming, largely thanks to the fact that it in no way takes itself too seriously. You play as a group of students in the Stratford-Upon-Avon Drama Society who perform Shakespeare by day and battle monsters by night. Not just any monsters—the girls enter alternate worlds of Shakespearean plays, where beasts are wreaking havoc. The developers at Zeboyd Games clearly had a ton of fun with the concept and are happy to break the fourth wall at times for a winking joke. During the Shakespearean dialogue, you can swap to a more modernized version instead, which is not just modern but also filled with slang and humor, which is a great touch. You'll surely appreciate all of the many, many Shakespeare references more if you're already a Bard buff, but even if you're not it's an enjoyable romp. Although our heroes gradually uncover a more nefarious threat at the heart of all of the monster attacks, the story is never taken too seriously. That suits the game perfectly though; this is a light, breezy RPG that doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. The gameplay is extremely similar to Zeboyd Games' last title, Cosmic Star Heroine. This is turn-based RPG action, but rather than just mashing A to execute normal attacks or occasionally casting spells, each character has a list of abilities. Each ability can only be used once before it needs to be recharged by resting (aka defending for a round). This encourages you to be much more thoughtful with how you attack in every battle and offers tons of customization. Each girl has a wide variety of abilities, and although each character falls into roughly archetypal RPG classes—one character has a lot of elemental attacks, one has a ton of healing, etc.—you can play around a lot with various strategies and combos, perfect for players that like to experiment. Early on you're required to use certain parties of characters, but in the latter portion of the game you can choose who to use, which is when you're really free to customize your battle strategy. Thankfully the entire team levels up at the same time, so there's no danger of one character falling behind if you don't use her for a while. Each girl also learns Traits, which are passive buffs that increase stats as well as grant special effects, such as increased healing power. Each character can only equip three at a time but you'll gradually unlock a lot, so you're encouraged to swap frequently. The downside here is that you're probably always going to use the newest Traits since they grant bigger stat boosts, which feels limiting. It'd be nice if the special effects and the stat boosts were separate, though the game might be too easy at that point. And frankly, the game is already somewhat easy on the Normal difficulty level. You recover all health between battles, and if you're even a little strategic about fighting monsters efficiently you should have no problem in any battle. The good news is that you can turn up the difficulty at any time to suit your challenge level. The exploration side of this RPG, meanwhile, is also a bit bare-boned. There's a bit of adventuring needed in these plays/dungeons—turning switches, fighting special monsters to unlock the path forward, etc.—but it's kept to a minimum for the most part. It's still an enjoyable adventure, but it would've been nice to see more depth to the environments. Like Zeboyd's previous games, the artwork here is all 2D sprites, and with several games under their belts now their 2D style is pretty nicely polished. There's a simple charm to the real-world environments, but the magical settings of the plays and of course the monster sprites have a colorful, engaging personality. The music is solid as well, and also does a good job of mashing up various influences into a unique new sound. When I called the game light and breezy I'm not exaggerating: This Way Madness Lies is a sub-10 hour RPG, which is pretty quick for the genre. It doesn't feel too short though. You'll end up leveling up and earning new attacks and Traits seemingly every other battle, but there are still plenty of opportunities to use them and experiment. The game is lacking in side quest content, but replaying on a higher difficulty with different attack strategies could be worthwhile. This Way Madness Lies is a completely unexpected but entirely charming RPG. The combination of influences ends up working together quite nicely, and the underlying Zeboyd RPG formula keeps every battle engaging with plenty of opportunities for customization. Put aside your fears of reading Shakespeare in class: anyone looking for a relatively quick, casual and funny RPG ought to give this a try. Rating: 8 out of 10 Plays
  21. For whatever reason, this has been a big year for bringing GameCube games to the Switch. I'm not complaining though—revisting these titles is a blast, and with Pikmin 1+2 added to the system, players can now enjoy the entire mainline Pikmin series on the Switch. And while the edges are noticeably rougher than the new Pikmin 4 from earlier this year, both of the GameCube Pikmin games are still a joy to play. Pikmin 1 obviously feels a bit dated and more basic since it was the first—you only had three types of Pikmin to use!—but the strict 30 day time limit still makes it a unique and challenging entry in the franchise. The story begins with Captain Olimar crash landing on a mysterious planet. The rough landing has left his ship in pieces—30 to be precise—and he'll need to recover at the very least the essential parts to escape the planet before his life support system runs out. Thankfully he discovers the tiny Pikmin creatures to help him explore, battle monsters, and recover all of the parts of his ship. Nighttime on the planet is too dangerous to explore, so Olimar and the Pikmin will need to get as much done as possible during daylight hours. After Pikmin 4, it's easy to forget how unforgiving the original Pikmin game was. The average player is going to need to get very comfortable with losing Pikmin, because the harsh environment and ravenous monsters make it extremely easy for them to die. To be honest, it's a little refreshing to go back to a game where Pikmin death feels like it has stakes, and maintaining a constant supply of backup Pikmin is a real necessity. The challenges you face are relatively simple compared to later games, but it also makes every encounter with a creature feel intense and dangerous, especially for the larger boss monsters. And hanging over your head throughout the whole adventure is the 30 day time limit, which adds pressure but isn't actually super demanding. Maintaining an average of one ship part per day is a pretty fair challenge, but just knowing that there is a limit adds a fun sense of urgency beyond simply finishing the game quickly. It's also cool to have multiple endings possible depending on if you collect all 30 ship parts, just the essential parts, or fail to collect enough parts at all. I won't spoil it, but that bad ending is rather bleak. There are of course elements that scream "this is a 22 year old game." The Pikmin's pathfinding is pretty poor, and stragglers will frequently get caught on ledges or corners. In fact, Pikmin are pretty dopey in general here, and rescuing them from drowning themselves or blowing themselves up on bomb rocks is a bit of a hassle. Perhaps most importantly, while the game has received a bump up in resolution, it still looks pretty rough—do not expect the same level of ground-up rebuilding that was seen in Metroid Prime Remastered. A bit more of a visual upgrade would've been great to see. Still, Pikmin 1 remains a fabulous experience that strikes a wonderful balance of simple mechanics and challenging strategy gameplay. Pikmin 2 picks up the story directly after the first game. Olimar returns home only to find that his company has gone bankrupt and is now in deep debt. However, if he returns to the mysterious Pikmin planet to collect treasures, he'll be able to reverse the company's fortunes. This time his co-worker Louie accompanies him, which allows you to split up actions between the two leaders, ostensibly allowing you to do twice as much each day. The other major addition is the cave system, where time stops and you'll need to navigate each floor, collecting treasure and battling creatures along the way. The focus on caves in Pikmin 2 changes the focus of the strategy gameplay from managing your time to managing your Pikmin. There's no time limit underground, but you also can't easily restock your Pikmin, meaning each death is even more costly than usual. There are few things worse than getting to the bottom of a cave only to find you don't have enough Pikmin left to even carry the treasure. So while it may seem like Pikmin 2 takes it easy on the player by removing the strict 30 day time limit, there are still some excellent challenges to sink your teeth into. Cave floors are also semi-randomly generated—the floor layout and placement of treasures/monsters are random—which means you have to be able to adapt to anything the game throws at you. That kind of fluidity gives Pikmin 2 even more replay value than its predecessor. There are also some fun additions and welcome refinements in Pikmin 2. The pathfinding system is much more efficient here, leading to far fewer stragglers. There's a lot more variety to the monsters and hazards, which keeps you on your toes. Plus there are two new types of Pikmin, adding even more opportunities for tricky challenges (and opportunities for you to run back to your ship because you didn't bring the right Pikmin for the job). There's also a ton more writing in this game thanks to the descriptions of each treasure and the extensive bestiary, which is a welcome expansion of the franchise's sense of humor and personality. The first game thrived in an isolated, slightly eerie atmosphere, but adding more depth to the story in Pikmin 2 was definitely the right call. The visual design is also a bit more elaborate, though like Pikmin 1 it would've been nice to see a more significant visual overhaul for this Switch version. Pikmin 1+2 remains as joyous as the original games were on the GameCube. It would've been great to see a more thorough remastering with redone visuals and bonus content, but the core experience is still a ton of fun and the stricter challenges of Pikmin 1's unforgiving world and Pikmin 2's tricky, randomized caves offer a nice contrast to Pikmin 4's lighter, easier approach to Pikmin wrangling. Whether you're coming back for a return trip 20 years later or playing these for the first time, Pikmin 1+2 are well worth plucking on the Switch. Rating: 8 out of 10 Pikmin
  22. It's hard to believe that it's already been about 17 years since the release of New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, which at the time was hailed as a return of 2D Mario platforming, and that the last NSMB game was released 11 years ago. Mario is so ubiquitous in the world of gaming that it's easy to forget that mainline games can be released rather sporadically, but that's all the more reason to stop and take notice when a new title is released and promises wonder and fun in every level. And I'm happy to say Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just as delightful and imaginative as its title suggests. Let's address the Elephant Mario in the room: Charles Martinet is no longer the voice of Mario, Luigi, or any other character in the franchise. The news sounded like it could be a shift for the series, but if you aren't paying close attention you might not notice the voice actor change in Wonder (it helps that, as usual, Mario & co. don't say much). The new voice, Kevin Afghani, clearly models his performance on Martinet's and does a great job of keeping Mario's spirit of fun and whimsy alive through the brief voice lines. There's another large bit of voice work featured in Wonder thanks to the talking flowers scattered through each stage that comment on what's happening or offer encouragement. It seemed like a strange feature when the game was first released, but once you're deep into the action of the game their presence isn't all that noteworthy. They'll occasionally add some fun quips, but just as often you'll probably just kind of forget that they're there. Thankfully though you can turn the voices off if you don't like them. Story-wise, Wonder is pretty classic Mario: Bowser is up to no good and it's up to our favorite mustachioed heroes to stop him. However, this game also includes Princesses Peach and Daisy as playable characters (a first for Daisy, in a mainline Mario platformer), as well as Blue and Yellow Toads, Toadette, and a bunch of Yoshis and Nabbit, who act as an Easy Mode and don't take damage from enemies. So in the end, Wonder splits the difference nicely between a classic Bowser bad-guy story and adding a bit of a fresh twist with more playable characters. That's really the core of what Wonder is all about: classic sensibilities but presented in a fresh, fun way. The 2D platformer gameplay here feels like it could be pulled out of any title in Mario's history, and features the hallmark tight controls, fluid movement, and beautifully balanced difficulty and progression that is perfectly designed to ease players into the experience. Stomping Goombas and reaching flag poles is as simple and satisfying as ever, whether it's in a grassy plain, desert, or snowy mountainside. For new players, there's really no bad place to start in the Mario series, and that remains true with Wonder's gradual approach to adding in new challenges only after you've mastered the previous basics. On the other hand, Wonder is more than happy to throw some wild, wacky scenarios at the player as well. Not in terms of difficulty or challenges, but just in terms of unique, flashy moments that help break up the core platforming action. All of the main levels feature a Wonder Flower, which transforms the stage in some bizarre way. It might cause a herd of enemies to rampage across the screen so you have to run ahead of them, or cause the warp pipes on screen to wiggle around like inchworms, or it might transform your character in some way. You never know what's coming next with a Wonder Flower, and the developers clearly had a lot of fun dreaming up wild new effects. There's a ton of variety to the Wonder effects and they'll keep you on your toes in an exciting way. It's really great to be continuously surprised by a game like this. In fact, there's a ton of variety to the game as a whole. Thanks to the Wonder Flowers, the game is constantly throwing new ideas at you to keep the adventure feeling fresh and vibrant. There are also numerous shorter challenge stages to break up the action of the main platformer levels. On one hand, it's a bit of a shame that the classic level structure feels a little bit short-changed in Wonder, and aside from the super secret extra-difficult bonus level you're not going to face wildly challenging platformer design, but overall the experience is still so vibrant and engaging that it's hard to be too upset. Additionally, a lot of the shorter challenge stages are Badge Challenges, which reward you with an equippable Badge that augments your abilities in some way. Most of them add helpful bonuses, like the ability to float through the air or a higher jump, while others feel more like an extra difficulty mode, such as the Badge that causes you to never stop running. Generally you'll probably stick with the helpful Badges, but the more complex ones could make for interesting challenge runs. Wonder also puts a slightly different spin on multiplayer by allowing you to play with friends locally, online, or with random players online. No matter the situation, this game has removed collision, meaning you can't pick up another player and toss them into a pit (I mean, toss them to a ledge to help them, of course). Instead everyone operates independently, but you can still help each other a bit. When you're playing online you'll see other players as ghosts, and if they die you can revive them by touching their ghost within a few seconds. You can also place standees that have the same effect. You'll also see standees frequently used to offer a helpful hint about a hidden item or a clue for reaching a secret area. It's cool to have this level of cooperation with other players in a Mario platformer, though purists might want to play solo so as not to spoil any hidden secrets for themselves. Despite the wide variety of level designs, Wonder does feel like it's a bit on the short side. It still takes a good eight to ten hours to finish the game, and around twice that to uncover every little secret possible, but overall the experience feels too brief. However, that may also just be an indication that there are so many great ideas constantly rotated through the game that the experience never gets old or stale. And if you finish the game 100% and still want to play, you can always jump online and help shepherd other players through by reviving them or dropping standees. Much like its gameplay, Wonder's presentation beautifully balances classic sensibilities with stylish new ideas. The game fully resides in Mario's fun, bubbly vibe, but there are also tons of little touches that add personality and charm to the experience (something that later NSMB games might have been lacking). The elephant power-up alone is kind of charmingly goofy, plus there are Wigglers on rollerskates, colorful Wonder effects and the aforementioned talking flowers. The little details of the playable characters' movements feel more energetic and varied. It's vibrant and lively and joyous while still feeling right at home in a 2D Mario platformer. The soundtrack is excellent as well, perfectly matching the excitement and energy of the whole game. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a delight. It's playful, flashy, and knows how to build upon the core Mario platformer mechanics intelligently to create surprising and engaging new scenarios. The Wonder Flowers add a seemingly endlessly inventive flair to the typical 2D platformer experience, and it's hard to play through many of these levels without a big grin on your face. Sure the challenge level might feel a little light for longtime players, and the adventure ends all too soon, but ultimately all of the bouncing, coin-collecting, and Koopa-stomping adds up to a wonderful time. Rating: 9 out of 10 Wonders
  23. Although Detective Pikachu on the 3DS was important enough to get a movie adaptation, it took about five years to get a sequel. The tiny private eye is finally back though, as Detective Pikachu Returns continues the narrative of the first game with a brand new mystery and new Pokémon to meet. Like the first game, this title is squarely aimed at young children, so expect less of a Phoenix Wright experience and more of a Dora the Explorer one. The story picks up two years after the events of the first game, and both Detective Pikachu and his human partner Tim are now well-recognized figures in Ryme City, the town where humans and Pokémon coexist. Don't worry if you aren't familiar with the premise though, the opening prologue of Detective Pikachu Returns includes a convenient recap of the first game. Now, however, Tim and Pikachu find themselves enmeshed in a new mystery, starting with the theft of a precious jewel. The premise remains awfully charming. Seeing humans and Pokémon interact outside of a training/battling setting is always cute, and the balance of Tim interviewing human witnesses while Pikachu interviews Pokémon witnesses has a lot of potential for fun storytelling. However, like the first game, Detective Pikachu Returns is truly only meant for young players. Arguably extremely young, because the game walks you through each clue/plot point so slowly that it's actually a little maddening as an adult. It's almost insulting when you hear a clue or piece of information, then the game turns to you and asks if you understand that clue, despite it being very clear. The overarching storyline through each case that Tim and Pikachu tackle is also extremely basic, with such predictable plot twists that it's hard to even call them twists, but at least this game continues the storyline of Pikachu's origins and Tim's missing dad. If you aren't an adult playing the game alongside a young child, reading all of the extensive text for them, you're probably not the target audience here. The gameplay in Detective Pikachu Returns has all the basic elements of a detective adventure, though boiled down to extremely simple parts. You'll investigate crime scenes, interview witnesses, then piece together deductions based on the clues you've amassed. Again, the game walks you through these clues in an excruciatingly slow way, plus all deductions are multiple choice questions anyway, usually with just three or four options, so you're never going to be thinking too hard about figuring out the answer. It's a basic, hand-holding journey through a detective story that is only going to capture the attention of a quite young crowd. Detective Pikachu Returns at least does have one notable feature. Pikachu will occasionally partner up with another Pokémon in order to use their unique skills. There's nothing too elaborate here but it's nice to have something to break up the long dialogue sequences of the game, and highlighting other Pokémon is a fun touch as well. There are also a few minor action moments, things like mashing the A button until a meter fills, but these add little excitement to the adventure. The game is roughly the same length as its predecessor, about ten hours or a bit longer, though there are fewer cases to solve this time. Instead the individual cases are longer, which also means a bit more mindless running back and forth and scenes/clues that are stretched out a bit too long. There are also side quests in Detective Pikachu Returns, though they're pretty underwhelming as well since they generally just require you to talk to one character then talk to another one—not the hardest detective work around. The game's presentation also leaves a lot to be desired. The art style here is perfectly bland, as if the developers didn't want to incorporate any kind of unique detail or flair to the graphics. Without the Pokémon characters the game would be devoid of virtually any visual personality at all. The soundtrack doesn't do a great job of adding pep to the experience either, while the voice acting is awkwardly inconsistent. The main characters sound fine—and it's still hilariously weird to see Pikachu talk with a grown man's voice—but a lot of the side characters deliver flat, dull voice lines. Detective Pikachu Returns is a completely by-the-books sequel to a quirky Pokémon spin-off. For this second adventure though, the novelty has worn off a bit and the incredibly basic mystery story comes off as a bit grating. Young Pokémon fans may certainly enjoy it, but it's a shame that the developers didn't deliver a game that could appeal to all ages and offer some actual depth. Rating: 6 out of 10 Cases
  24. I'll start off by saying I haven't played one second of League of Legends. The entire MOBA genre holds little interest for me, but Riot Games has figured out a clever way of expanding their game's universe to new customers through the excellent Arcane series and through spinoff games. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story requires no prior knowledge of LoL to enjoy, but leverages that wealth of lore and worldbuilding and combines it with developer Airship Syndicate's strategy-rich gameplay for a wonderfully engaging RPG. Ruined King quite smartly balances out its myriad references to the LoL backstory with its own narrative, meaning you don't need to know anything to jump right in. Sure you might enjoy the nods and references more as a fan, but even new players will be quickly endeared to this likable cast of characters, from a pirate queen to a wandering swordsman. They're all given room to develop and grow through the course of this spinoff story, ensuring that this is a complete, rewarding narrative on its own even without the main LoL content. The story begins with Miss Fortune, the new ruler of the town of Bilgewater by way of hostile (re: violent) takeover. Strange ghostly mists start spreading across the sea though, bringing death and destruction. A handful of champions come together to investigate the source of the deadly fog, leading to a story that pulls the past forward in a new light. Again, it's a fun story with a great cast of characters and is a blast completely on its own. Characters are well realized and their banter is always fun to hear, especially since the conflict brings together some unlikely allies. If anything, it helps that there's an entire LoL foundation to build upon, even if you aren't familiar with it, because it makes the world feel more fully realized and alive. The gameplay in Ruined King heavily recreates the formula of Airship Syndicate's previous game, Battle Chasers: Nightwar. Both games have an RPG dungeon-crawling vibe, and use a similar battle system that requires some degree of strategy—this is not a "mash A to get through it" kind of turn-based RPG. Instead, turn order plays an important role. Each character has a handful of basic/instant attacks, but the real damage dealers (and vital healing or shielding effects) are special abilities, which cost mana and take time to cast, as reflected in the turn order at the bottom of the screen. The wrinkle here though is that instant attacks will build up Overcharge, which is temporary extra mana, meaning the best way to manage your mana is to build Overcharge so you're not using much actual mana in each battle. Special abilities can also be used in either the Balanced, Speed, or Power Lane, changing the ability's strength and cast time. You can also upgrade your abilities which sometimes yields special effects depending on which Lane it's cast in—a healing spell might also cleanse debuffs if used in the Speed Lane, for example. Enemies sometimes have barriers that can only be dispelled by hitting them in a specific Lane, and some of your attacks also have the ability to push back an enemy's turn which is always fun to mess around with. Finally, there are hazards and boons that appear in the turn order, and you may want to time out your attacks in order to reap the benefits or avoid the pitfalls. Success in battle relies upon weighing all of these small effects and making combat choices as efficiently as possible, which makes even normal battles thoughtful and engaging. It may sound like a lot to consider in this description, but when you're in the thick of things it's a ton of fun to plot your moves and see your plans pay off. Every battle becomes a satisfying strategic challenge, which is also rewarded in the bonus EXP you can earn for playing efficiently. Every time you upgrade an ability you also have an option between two effects (and you can change your mind at any time), leading to a lot of variety even with relatively few abilities per character. Each character is also so unique that you can build interesting parties with any combination. Maybe you risk not having an actual healer but instead use Braum's shield ability to mitigate damage. Maybe you go all in on status effects with Pyke. Each character has little effects that they can build up on themselves or on enemies, so you're constantly tracking how far along everyone is during battle and when is the most opportune time to use powerful abilities. All of these options add so much depth to the gameplay, ensuring each player can devise unique strategies, virtually all of which are viable. Veterans of Battle Chasers: Nightwar may also be pleased to hear that the normal difficulty in Ruined King is notably easier than Nightwar's. That game was happy to make you work hard for every little victory, but Ruined King feels much more approachable to any level of player. If you do want that extra challenge though, there are different difficulty levels to keep combat interesting no matter your skill level. The production values of Ruined King are also excellent. The art style retains Airship Syndicate's (and director Joe Madureira's) distinctive look, but it feels perfectly at home in this LoL world. The environments are sprawling but filled with detail, and the same goes for the carefully designed characters. Everything has a slightly grimy, ocean port vibe to it, which perfectly suits Bilgewater and the creepy, ghostly mist at the heart of the story. And the comic book-style cutscenes are gorgeous, infusing just a bit of motion to still images, which creates a vivid, memorable effect. The game also features some excellent voice acting, perfectly bringing these characters and their massive personalities/egos to life. The soundtrack is solid as well, even if it's somewhat overshadowed by the top notch voice work. Ruined King feels like a pretty compact, quick RPG, but the truth is it will still last you a good amount of time. Even getting through just the main story will take a good 25 hours or so, and of course as an RPG there are a variety of side quests you can tackle which typically yield valuable rewards—seeing those stat numbers go higher always makes the side venture worthwhile. However, Ruined King is a lengthy game on the Switch for another, less fun reason. Even with the 1.7 patch, the game runs pretty poorly on the Switch. There are some shockingly long load times in this game. Most are long but tolerable—20 or 30 seconds maybe—but for some of the larger hub areas you could be staring at the loading screen for a couple of minutes. That also includes starting up the game as well. That kind of flaw is annoying but tolerable if not for the other major issue: the game can crash surprisingly frequently. Every few hours of play, perhaps especially because of the clunky loading during those busy hub areas, the game crashed on me. Thankfully there is a fairly frequent auto-save system, but needing to restart the game so often, especially with the lengthy load screens, was incredibly disappointing. Don't worry if you're not a League of Legends fan—Ruined King: A League of Legends Story perfectly stands on its own as a rich turn-based RPG set in a wonderfully realized world. Even without knowing all of the backstories and references, it's easy to love these characters and love the strategy-rich combat that allows for a ton of fine-tuning variety to suit your interests. Unfortunately, the game has a real rough time on the Switch, which almost makes it hard to recommend if you have access to another system, but whatever platform you play it on and whether you're a LoL fan or not, Ruined King is an RPG well worth enjoying. Rating: 7 out of 10 Stories
  25. "Cozy" games have become a genre unto their own, but Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery might blow them all out of the water. Cozily, of course. With its gorgeous, Studio Ghibli-like aesthetics and relaxed approach to gameplay, Behind the Frame is an eye-catching experience, though entirely too brief. You play as a young woman who is working on a new painting and spends her days posted up next to a bright window with a view of her elderly neighbor, who is also a painter. Scattered around her apartment are little hints of the larger story at play, and you'll need to gradually explore all of them to find the inexplicably hidden tubes of paint that allow you to progress. Unearthing the woman's backstory might be more important than finishing her painting, though. Not surprisingly, there's more going on here than it seems at first. While the narrative's twists and progression aren't wildly unexpected, the simple character study at the heart of Behind the Painting is nevertheless an emotionally engaging little story. The gameplay is not at all interested in challenging the player or making them work to progress. The painting and sketching mechanics are extremely simple: just pick the right color in the right spot, or when sketching just run the pencil/cursor across the screen until the image appears. The game's puzzles require a tiny bit more thought, but are still pretty simple with obvious clues. Since you're so limited on where you can move or what you can interact with, it's extremely easy to figure out each step of every puzzle. No one should be playing Behind the Frame for complex game design, though. This is a leisurely stroll of a game, a calming little exploration of creativity. That said, it is a bit disappointing that the experience is so short. The main game is barely an hour long, and that includes clicking on just about everything to see all the optional text. This version of the game also adds an epilogue, but it's also quite short and, while pleasant, doesn't add too much to the larger story. The controls are also a touch finicky, clearly due to the game's PC/mobile roots. Controlling the cursor with a control stick doesn't have the smooth immediacy of a mouse or touch controls. Thankfully though nothing in this game requires dexterity, and you can always play in handheld mode to use the touch screen. The presentation is far and away the highlight of the game. The hand-animated visuals feel straight out of a Studio Ghibli film or similar anime, and paired with the warm, relaxing soundtrack it's the perfect setting for a peaceful little adventure. Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is a beautiful and calming experience, even if it's lacking more typical gameplay structures. Even the puzzles it does have are fairly basic. Still, players looking to relax for just an hour or two should enjoy this cozy and colorful game. Rating: 7 out of 10 Paintings
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