Kyle LeClair
Enchanted Portals is an absolute mess, plain and simple.
It's going to be tempting for many of you to buy Super Seducer solely for the unintentional hilarity and maybe even write an “ironic” positive review for it based on that alone.
Phantom 8 Studio shouldn't be discouraged from future attempts at delivering a cinematic experience of a game on par with triple-A output, because they still have some neat ideas and directions to take.
There's a joke about two huge lumps of coal somewhere, but I refuse to offer Sakura Santa even that. Whatever cheap thrills this visual novel does include aren't worth sitting through incredibly flat writing and a lack of substance for. If you're looking for shiny anime mammaries, hit the rest of the internet instead.
The sad thing is that Silent Hill: The Short Message has a lot of good story ideas, characters and world-building, but then proceeds to waste them on completely unoriginal, shallow gameplay. It paradoxically wanted to move ahead and tackle more mature themes and stories, yet has gameplay that feels blatantly regressive, settling for the most generic aspects of modern horror games. If this is the direction that the franchise wants to take, then it's headed straight for a cliff. Hopefully the likes of No Code will be able to salvage things with their side games later, but for now, you can easily skip over The Short Message.
If you're looking for good party games on the Switch, you can do and have done better.
Balan Wonderworld presents itself as having a world filled to the brim with imagination, ambition, whimsy, emotion and more.
Dreambreak may look pretty on the outside, but peeling back its pixelated style and impressive music reveals the dull story, flat characters, lack of substance and clunky gameplay within.
It’s clear that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan was aiming to be Left 4 Dead with Ninja Turtles, which does sound awesome, but it’s too focused with cramming in elements from other games as well, including the classic TMNT arcade brawlers and Arkham Asylum (down to the Detective Vision and stealth takedowns).
Slain! gleefully comes off as the fever dream of a drunken teenage Iron Maiden fan, but unfortunately comes off as having been designed and programmed by a drunken teenage Iron Maiden fan as well.
To put it bluntly, Bombshell is a dud.
Protodroid DeLTA is one of those game that may be technically competent when it comes to areas like graphics, music and basic gameplay, but it suffers from not having an original bone in its body.
Perhaps if Scars Above had put more work into the areas where our lead heroine has to explore this strange world and analyze it more in order to solve various puzzles, basically letting her be the scientist she is, it could have been vastly better overall, or at least help give it a better identity to help it stand out more.
JETT: The Far Shore has an impressive world with well-crafted lore, an intriguing story and eye-catching visuals. Unfortunately, you actually have to play through the game to experience any of it, and that ends up being a slow, plodding mess in more ways than one. Maybe those with more patience will enjoy the trip more, but everyone else can rightfully skip JETT: The Far Shore and just remain grounded with better games instead.
While Blacksad: Under the Skin shows a lot of promise in its story, world and a couple of neat gameplay mechanics that help put you right in Blacksad's shoes, it unfortunately suffers when it comes to the execution.
Simply put, Call of Cthulhu is a game of wasted potential.
The first episode of Bear With Me still hints at a greater game to come, nicely setting a proper noir tone with some occasional creepy bits and a gleeful dose of snark throughout.
If you’re the type of person who’s more of a fan of Demetrios’ intentionally crass sense of humor, it may be worth a whirl, especially given its modest fee.
Even for a game priced at five dollars, Ninja Senki DX is a letdown. What could have been another classic addition to the Tribute Games lineup instead ends up feeling like any generic retro-inspired indie game. It's far from terrible, but with so many other great games out there that do a much better reminding you of the NES days, there's no need to pick up one that does a sub-par job at it. Save your nostalgic urges for something with more meat on it.
We Are The Dwarves shouldn't be completely dismissed, as it still at least has some neat ideas, controls nicely and looks pretty, but it comes across being so viciously unfair that it can only be recommended to the most hardcore fans of this genre. I was constantly finding myself too frustrated at the game to enjoy it, but to those willing to invest hours upon hours of seeing dwarves die over and over, knock yourself out.