Land of War deserves a small praise for its decent soundtrack, but other than that it’s a disaster, an awfully generic, ill-designed, half-baked shooter that can’t compete with 20-year-old classics. It actually looks like an unintended, distasteful parody of the horrible events of September 1939. [09/2021, p.68]

An unconventional platformer where you can’t jump and instead use magnets to tackle obstacles in your way. It’s a simple idea, but the developers showed incredible creativity and made a game that surprises you all the time and constantly challenges both your reflexes and your mind. Be warned though, Super Magbot’s difficulty is hardcore. [09/2021, p.67]

This gorgeous game could have been great, but it stumbles on important details. Sometimes graphics make it hard to discern important objects (I advise against playing A Tale of Synapse in handheld mode) and the puzzles are tediously repetitive. Additionally, once in a while double jump happens when you don’t need it, which makes some parts of the game unnecessarily frustrating. [09/2021, p.66]

Ender Lilies is one of the best metroidvanias of recent years. What immediately caught my attention was its unusual combat system based on summoning spirits that attack your enemies, but I also enjoyed the dark, oneiric and slightly melancholic atmosphere of this beautiful, varied world. Hunting down bosses, discovering shortcuts, and a checkpoint system that resembles Dark Souls’ bonfires give Ender Lilies a distinct soulslike aftertaste. [09/2021, p.64]

A modest but highly enjoyable and relaxing puzzle game. No references to popular franchises this time, no saving the world. You just use your building skills and brainpower to help a father and son on their atmospheric journey across 35 beautifully rendered levels that look especially striking on ray tracing-capable GPUs. [09/2021, p.63]

It’s not an awful game but you’ll be noticing untapped potential every step of the way. The Olympic Games deserve a good official game, but they’ll have to wait longer for it. [09/2021, p.62]

Thatgamecompany stole our hearts with Journey, and Sky looks like a natural evolution of that concept, as it draws from the ideas, mechanics, setting, character movement and art direction of its predecessor. The problem is, you can only surprise people once with a specific trick. Even if it’s focused slightly different and puts greater emphasis on online features, this “new Journey” will never make the same impression as the original, fresh experience. [09/2021, p.61]

Nerd Monkeys’ mix of an adventure game, a platformer and a puzzle game won’t surprise you with any new ideas and won’t get stuck in your head. It looks good though and thanks to its low difficulty level and lack of violence it could have been a great family game, but sadly it doesn’t offer co-op. [09/2021, p.60]

Scarlet Nexus is all about combat. The fights are spectacular thanks to vibrant cel-shaded graphics, but primarily because the developers skillfully combined a couple of truly explosive ingredients: agile protagonists with psychokinetic talents, well-designed enemies, and the ability to unleash hell using the powers of your AI-controlled companions. As for the game’s downsides, the environments are repetitive and the writers failed to tie up all the loose ends and left some plot holes. [09/2021, p.54]

The remaster of Legend of Mana turned out to be too conservative. It improves the backgrounds (they’re beautiful!), the save system and the music, but the game’s biggest problems (poor combat system and botched storytelling) remained and will bother you more than they did decades ago. This new version might be enough for the fans of the original Legend of Mana, but I doubt it will appeal to anyone else. [09/2021, p.53]

Minute of Islands seems like a promise of a brilliant story but sadly some mechanics and developers’ choices got in the way and the game’s potential was squandered. Poorly designed platforming sequences quickly becomes tedious, while hallucinations caused by spores are boring and repetitive. I also wish the designers told me more about the intriguing world they created, because minimalist storytelling does not work here as well as it did in Journey. [09/2021, p.52]

I like a lot about Roguebook: the combat system that gives you loads of possibilities despite being simple; revealing the map through "painting” it with brushes and ink that you find along the way; enhancing your cards with crystals that modify their effects. You just feel it’s not a debut project but a very solid game created by developers who have card-based gameplay down to a science. [09/2021, p.50]

Mario Golf: Super Rush is a solid game with hints of Camelot’s past RPG prowess. While the new features are hit-and-miss and the story mode is a bit too basic, it’s the core gameplay that has made this series shine, and Super Rush is no exception. [09/2021, p.48]

It looks as if Tim Burton and the developers of Neverhood and Psychonauts decided to join forces and create something together. Unfortunately, the result is not impressive – the game is short, quite pretentious, pretty ugly and rough. The music and the puzzles are decent and the dreamlike open world has its moments, but on the whole, Onirike is mediocre. [09/2021, p.47]

Alex Kidd, SEGA’s forgotten mascot that preceded Sonic, returns in a remastered version of the 1986 plartformer. Miracle World DX is faithful to the original game but some new features (e.g. the option to disable the lives limit) made it easier. Although pretty, enhanced graphics failed to convince me completely, as softened edges, noticeably lower contrast, and new foreground objects (that sometimes obscure the action) are a bit confusing. It’s also a shame that you need to complete the game to unlock the classic mode. [09/2021, p.46]

Dark Alliance is a disappointingly run-of-the-mill action RPG whose most distinctive features are bugs and connection issues. Solid combat and levelling systems are not enough to outweigh repetitive, boring environments and the lack of decent endgame content. [09/2021, p.44]

Griftlands’ middling, insubstantial story and dull dialogues draw attention away from the game’s undeniable strengths: excellent negotiation mechanics and a pretty good combat system. [09/2021, p.42]

Backbone has far fewer puzzles and stealth sections than you might expect after finishing the brilliant first act, but it will still keep you engaged thanks to the quality of its storytelling. [09/2021, p.40]

Due to outdated technology, low budget and a slight old school feel, Ys IX gives the impression that it got stuck in time a couple of years ago. It has a lot going for it though, including an interesting multi-layered story, enjoyable exploration of a pretty large city of Balduq, and fun combat that has you mowing down crowds of enemies in real time. What’s important, despite connections to the previous games of the series, you don’t need to be familiar with them in order to follow and appreciate Monstrum Nox. [09/2021, p.39]

The Ninja Gaiden trilogy differs from all the other slashers and even today stands out from most of the representatives of the genre. Instead of pleasing the mainstream tastes, the Japanese have created games that require you to master available techniques and are brutally difficult even if you do. Most players will find them much to hard to complete, but that’s why we love these team Ninja’s masterpieces, right? [09/2021, p.36]

Disgaea 6 can’t deny its blood ties to the previous games of the series, but it introduces fully 3D graphics and significantly cranks up the level of absurdity. The price for the former is poor framerate on Switch and the story will give you a lot of reasons to smile but won’t leave a lasting trace in your mind. Combat on the other hand is very solid and discovering new abilities and developing your party of characters are strong incentives to keep playing. [09/2021, p.35]

Curved Space is a visually impressive twin-stick shooter with a twist in the form of an unusual level design. First impressions were great, but the game lacks a spark that would keep me glued to the screen for hours. It’s splashy but not addictive. [09/2021, p.34]

Desperate Struggle is based on the exact same concept as its predecessor, but the developers managed to weed out most flaws. Too bad the PC version is a lazy port from Switch that pretends keyboards don’t exist, offers only basic settings and can surprise you unpleasantly with crashes. [09/2021, p.33]

No More Heroes plays with conventions and puts you on a crazy roller coaster with no safety features. Just like every Grasshopper Manufacture’s game, it’s charmingly absurd, but sadly fails in many gameplay aspects. [09/2021, p.32]

I never thought I’d enjoy a game where drawing and coloring are gameplay’s core elements. Don’t let the seemingly infantile graphics fool you, because Chicory is much deeper and more serious than you might think. Or rather can be, because it’s for you to decide whether you want to delve into the deeper, darker layer of the game and uncover the therapeutic power of art in the fight against depression. If you don’t, you still get a weird, unusual and very enjoyable mix of an adventure game, a puzzle game, some platforming elements and a coloring book. [09/2021, p.30]

The sequel of a Monster Hunter spin-off will greet you with an expansive world to explore, a mechanic of training monsters that hatch from eggs (which resembles Pokémon games a bit), and a disappointing combat system. The combat is primitive, does not evolve in any way and long attack animations make it irritating. What might keep you playing is the game’s light, well-told story and tons of equipment to craft. [09/2021, p.28]

There are still a couple of months left until New Years Eve, but I can already risk a statement that Chivalry 2 is one of the best games of 2021. It’s hard to express the feeling of a massive adrenaline rush as you storm castle walls in the middle of a huge siege. The brutal combat system is brilliant, not overly complicated yet nuanced, and Torn Banner did an excellent job at balancing the game on every level – from weapons to controls to classes to maps and spawn points. I only wish there were more modes and maps. [09/2021, p.22]

An ill-designed and poorly executed game that was probably developed only to cash in on the COVID-19 pandemic. [03/2021, p.57]