The music is as diverse, and I often found myself just sitting back, taking it all in, because the second I picked up the controller, the magic clashed with how stiff the character was. That toppled with awkward controls that often stutter or outright don't work, and Wonderworld fails in the most important part of any platformer - movement.
Eldest Souls is one of the most beautiful indie games out there but the hurdle to get into it is far too high. The skill points handed out to upgrade your character do little to help while there is no room to learn the mechanics. The notorious Souls difficulty is only amplified in the boss-rush genre, which makes this a near-impossible entry-level game. For anyone who enjoys Dark Souls’ most difficult segments emphatically because of the challenge, Eldest Souls has a lot to love. But that’s just it - Eldest Souls is one for the die-hard fans and no one else.
From milking bugs to slaying frogs with jetpacks, Tails of Iron is an off-the-walls, brilliantly intuitive sidescroller, but it has a heart and keeps you gripped from start to finish as you slaughter a conveyor belt of would-be challengers. It’s not about avenging your father, not entirely - it’s about family and community. Vin Diesel would be proud. Sadly, it’ll probably get lost in the busy end-of-year shuffle among the triple-A powerhouses. But in the downtime between releases, make some room for Tails of Iron - it’s one of 2021’s best.
Doctor Who doesn’t work without those three things - it’s a fairly bog-standard sci-fi show at the end of the day, but it’s mine and many’s favourites because of the Doctor. The Doctor is the show’s edge, a lovable idiot that’s too smart for their own good tying everything together, ending up in random situations and being forced to interact with strangers to uncover plots of intrigue. We do none of that here. You go to A, do what you’re told, go to B, do what you’re told, until the game ends. Given how short it is, you’re better off watching a few episodes from the show, because this is barely Doctor Who, let alone a good game.
Once you get going, it’s hard to put Grow down. Animal Crossing tends to have a firm cut off point each day where you know you’re best leaving it until the island replenishes, but in Grow, you can sleep and keep going. It’s therapeutic in a way that even its inspirations aren’t. Often games like this can get overwhelming fast as new features pile on. Grow doesn’t - it’s simple and to the point, so that relaxing sensation never wanes.
An Outcry is an unsettling game in more ways than one. The talking birds that eat people are frightening, sure, but there’s a weird comfort in embracing their company when given the choice between them and the transphobes filling the halls of your apartment complex. It almost feels like purgatory, a place of judgement with the birds acting as reapers, and you’re watching as these horrible people are picked off one by one, punished for their wrongdoings. An Outcry is a quaint world packed with so much character and atmosphere, oozing personality while holding up a dark mirror to our own, yet it makes me proud to be queer and proud to embrace who I am.
There aren’t many games I’ve been bursting to play. Skywalker Saga was a rare case, but that came with an added risk - not living up to the hype. It’s the first Lego Star Wars to bundle the films together since the Complete Saga and that’s a tall order, especially since it’s now nine films. Not just three trilogies, either, but all their worlds, their cities, and their landmarks. The old games had small hubs with Dexter’s Diner and Mos Eisley’s Cantina, but Skywalker Saga goes above and beyond to bring Star Wars’ galaxy to life. It lived up to the hype and shattered my expectations. Somehow, Lego Star Wars returned, and it returned with style.
Hooked on You is a fun spin-off for Dead by Daylight fans, but if you’re a dating sim fan, you’ll probably find it a little lacklustre. It’s often simplistic and repetitive, but it brings the ‘90s meta edge to horror games in a way that hasn’t really been done before, with characters I fell for and a world I didn’t want to leave. It might be a breezy 70-minute game, but I’ll be going back for all the achievements and digging into every single romance all the same.
I had a lot of fun with You Suck at Parking, something I could stick on for the night and play while passing the controller back and forth with a friend to try and one-up each other when we kept inevitably failing. It has that communal feel, especially with its leaderboards, that will no doubt push people to try and perfect its Deathrun-like level design. I can’t wait to see what community pops up around it, but, unfortunately, I don’t think You Suck at Parking built enough of an identity to leave a lasting impression.
Perish could’ve brought Hexen and Heretic’s medieval boomer shooter vibes kicking and screaming into the 21st century to the tune of howling metal riffs, topped off with a roguelite twist. However, it offers little to incentivise you to go back for replays. Every death feels like starting the whole game over from scratch, with so little changing that each run turns into a chore. The striking set-pieces, like the twisted Herculean monster, with a cage of heads for a, well… head, crumbling the moon just to beat you, are fantastic, but they’re too few and far between to justify Perish making you start from scratch and slogging through shallow mechanics to reach those exciting moments.
Patch Quest is a novel dungeon crawling rogue-lite that has unique ideas which set it apart from some of the most noteworthy in the genre. However, it quickly becomes repetitive, with a huge, sprawling dungeon full of discoveries to be made that leave little impact on the world back home, turning it into an adventure that soon becomes aimless and disjointed.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is, at best, a serviceable Souls-like. If you enjoy Nioh and Sekiro, it’s a fun bit of filler, but it’s derivative and bloated, serving as a highlight reel of previous Souls-likes while missing the point of what made its inspirations, and even predecessors, unique to begin with.
Longevity will no doubt come from DLC, much as with Dungeons, but that ultimately leaves Minecraft Legends feeling like an incomplete experience. There are so few schematics and troop types to work with, keeping things from getting too overwhelming for those new to the genre, but leaving little else for those hoping to enjoy a new strategy game. And if you come to it hoping to find Minecraft’s signature sandbox feel, you’ll also be sorely disappointed, as the well quickly runs dry.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the asymmetric horror game fully realised. It weaves the horror of one of the slasher genre’s most guttural and unsettling movies with the thrill of Dead by Daylight’s action beautifully and stands a chance at finally offering a true competitor in the genre.
Broken Roads is an ode to the cRPGs of old, but it’s also a step forward for the genre, showing that the ‘90s approach still has a place today. The turn-based combat is punchy and responsive, the art style is gorgeous, and the roleplaying capabilities brought about by its revolutionary morality system lift Broken Roads out of the shadows of its inspirations and into its own spotlight.
It does all of this with the trappings of the classics, yet makes the genre approachable to newcomers. It’s a must-play for fans of survival horror, whether you’re put off by the ‘90s games or itching for that old-school experience all these years later.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space is one of the best asymmetrical horror games so far, standing side-by-side with the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’ll be interesting to see if it fares better under the enormous shadow of Dead by Daylight than Sumo Digital’s efforts, but it’s stepping out of the gate with some interesting concepts that reinvent the way the genre plays, making survivors more formidable and killers more tactical, encouraging teamwork and adding so much more depth to each match.
This is their linking the flame moment, a chance to be reborn and usher in a new age, capped off by what can only be described as their magnum opus.