Challenge is once again nice and the visuals are consistently sumptuous with a bright sunlight highlighting magnificent features of the valley of the Monkey Gods. It’s a shame that for such an endearing endeavor the tomb is, it takes only some 1,5 hours to see the whole DLC through. I would have liked the challenge tomb twice of its current size and I have a feeling that more could have been made out Lara’s personal nightmare, too, despite its effective use of cutscenes. As it stands, it was bit of a rush and unlike the advertising led to believe, the Croft manor plays only a bit part and Lara’s now-dead acquaintances don’t exactly walk and greet her as they’re reduced to silent background elements.

Nagging control issues aside, A Fisherman’s Tale is a charming PlayStation VR game that I found to be a total joy to experience - the same joy I felt playing Astro Bot: Rescue Mission. As far as first-person virtual reality experiences go, this makes the medium so worthwhile. Shooting zombies and exploring derelict space stations is fun in VR but could easily be reproduced and playable as a regular console title. I couldn’t fathom playing A Fisherman’s Tale without VR and experiencing the same feeling of wonder and delight. Consider this an essential addition to your PSVR library next to Beat Saber, Moss, and Astrobot: Rescue Mission.

In many ways, Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal presents a win-win situation; it’s undoubtedly the best game in the franchise and as it happens, also an excellent introduction to the wacky world of sexy shinobi girls. However, if you object sexualization for any reason, the game is not for you. For everyone else, Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is pure video game entertainment that is satisfying on many levels, in and out!

I was annoyed by the writing and combat and a pervasive and unwarranted “too cool for school” attitude that began with the character creation screen and never really went away. Streamline the dialogue and expository overkill, re-tool the combat and YIIK: A Postmodern RPG would be closer to those classic games from which it draws inspiration.

In spite of its uneven difficulty, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition is an easy recommendation for fans of JRPGs. Its world is large, combat is varied, and solid pacing makes it an easy game to digest – especially from the comfort of the Switch's handheld mode. The writing could be better, as could voice acting during most of the game's more important scenes. However, Vesperia still holds up surprisingly well, even after all these years. If you're in need of a game to tide you over until the next big modern JRPG, or if you missed out on Tales of Vesperia the first time around, Definitive Edition makes a compelling case for your hard-earned cash.

The Eternal Castle is a neat experience that prides itself on its unique aesthetic and interesting environments. Unfortunately, gameplay felt a bit dated, though, and left me with conflicted feelings. Overall, The Eternal Castle is undoubtedly a title that is definitely style over substance.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a fantastic return to form that benefits from modern console hardware, making a more dynamic air combat experience. The story, told from different perspectives on both sides of the war, has a tendency to be too serious and overwrought to the point of hilarity but I always give it a pass because it’s so endearing.

There is probably a reason that chess has withstood fundamental changes over the centuries, and that reason might be its near-perfect balance of offensive and defensive strategies and how it appeals to gamers at all levels of expertise. Still, there is an intimidation factor and a perception that beyond the basics, winning requires a lot of memorization and the ability to think many moves ahead. Super X Chess removes that particular barrier and although the Super X rules are not going to permanently revolutionize the game, they do serve to sweep the cobwebs off the dusty shelf of rote, memorized and uninspired play.

A decent spin-off. The hack-and-slash gets tiresome, but it works in small bursts and is a fine fit for the Switch's handheld mode. The graphical genre shifts and peppered-in minigames provide good variety, thematically feeding into Travis’ love for games. The game is not a visually exciting entry, but it may still be worth it for fans of the series to indulge in Travis’ latest adventure. The insane story beats and off-the-wall humor are still here, alongside satisfying teases. It may not be No More Heroes 3, but Travis Strikes Again stands as a fine stepping stone for Suda51’s otaku assassin.

It's a shame that the single-player and online components of Nidhogg 2 are so underwhelming, because the local multiplayer itself is quite fun. As a party game, the game has a lot to offer, especially when passing the controllers around and playing the game in small doses. While it's not going to pull anybody away from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nidhogg 2 deserves a place in your lineup of Switch party games, especially at its price tag of 15 bucks.

Don’t bother with Nippon Marathon if you don’t a have company to play the game with or if saying “keep it real, keep it Nippon” makes you irritated. Everyone else, though, forget cheap production values and throw yourself broad-mindedly into the craziness of Nippon Marathon!

There’s absolutely no variety, not even when the lurking horrors start to crawl in and the characters are taken into a dream world once in a while. They, too, play out painfully similar to everything else in the game. As a reviewer, I’m obliged to play games throughout so that I can give an objective view of them. But I have a hunch that if I had purchased Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics for my own pleasure, I would have played it only for a couple of missions and then moved onto something more exciting. When the Cthulhu mythos is left largely untapped in the tepid action, the game is yet another addition to the long list of unsatisfactory takes on the subject.

Battle Princess Madelyn had all the makings of a charmer (there are never enough games featuring a warrior princess!) but it turned out to be a downer. Given ill-defined looks and sloppy level design, sprawling here and there for no other purpose than to pester you, the game is too committed to the gaming of bygone days. The best bet for retro-inclined developers would be fitting their games into modern conventions, and not fall into same old pitfalls that used to plague the genre. Even though your friend Frankie doesn’t realize it, there has been remarkable evolutionary steps in the gaming.

Beat Saber comes at the end of a really important year for the PSVR, with games like Tetris Effect, Moss, and Astro Bot Rescue Mission giving renewed life to the two-year old device. These games — but especially Beat Saber — are the best evidence for VR being more than a promising but ultimately niche technology. It has mass appeal and gameplay that just about anyone can enjoy.

Overall, Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is a light-hearted turn-based RPG with some novel concepts attached to it. Still, the magic wears thin pretty fast as there is not much strategy and variation involved in the combat, while side quests are mostly glorified fetch jobs. Nevertheless, the game is still a fun experience in itself and worth checking out if you love tabletop RPGs and haven’t played the first game.

For its beautiful presentation and for all of the ponderous ruminations about life that it might invoke within the player, it’s a crying shame that Rain World just doesn't feel very fun to play. While there is nothing wrong with sluggishness and weight as intentional designs, the options given to the player feel totally at odds with the sheer relentlessness and urgency of the systems at work.

If you’re looking for a game with not even a sliver of hand-holding, Viviette will scratch your itch. If you need no motivation to explore a spooky mansion, you’ll find that in the game. However, If you need either of those things even in the slightest, this is one game I would suggest you hide from.

Book of Demons is an approachable, addictive action-RPG with a few new ideas but overall, an admirably lean approach that doesn’t allow feature-creep or overly ambitious design muddy the fun. Distinguished by its paper book aesthetic and player-friendly mechanics, Book of Demons is thin on story and level-by-level lacks variety but the ability to determine the length of each play session means that it won’t overstay its welcome.

I just can't get into the story here and the gameplay isn't exciting enough to hold my interest. I blame the dull characters and the repetitive hands-off approach to the battle system, respectively. There's a lot of individual things I like, but the game drops the ball on the most important parts of JRPG in my opinion, namely the story and the gameplay. I honestly can't recommend the game to anyone other than the most hardcore JRPG fanatics who are looking for their next fix. I suppose there is a reason it took ten years to get this game on PlayStation after all.

Its art style is unique but darkly opaque and as action/survival/roguelikes go, it doesn’t add much new to the genre. With wildly erratic difficulty spikes, the necessity for uninspired grinding and the inevitable and frequent loss of progress, Below is a niche game for a specific target audience that has enormous patience and determination.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the product Insomniac released, and it raises my expectations for what other companies are willing to put out with their names attached. While I have issues with some of the beats in the final chapter, I have zero qualms recommending it for anyone who enjoyed the main game. And for those that didn’t, well, they just don’t like fun anyway.

Addicted gamer as I am, I had another turn-based tactical combat game to play and review at the same time, namely Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. Oh boy, if its audiovisual excellence could be merged with loose and imaginative gameplay of Jagged Alliance: Rage!, we would have a real killer in the genre! Then again, it wouldn’t be the same game anymore. Like its mercenary cast whose prime time is behind them, Rage! really needs its rugged charisma to live another day.

Beholder 2 moves a little bit slow at times and its one-note humor can be hit-or-miss, but it still merits a Ministry of Reviews stamp of approval.

I can’t get enough of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I really can’t, and it couldn’t make me any happier that with The Forge and now The Pillar, the quality curve of the DLC is pointing in a good direction, promising a lot for the five remaining challenge tombs to come!

Those looking for a big investment of gaming will probably do best to avoid this title. But those after a nice palette cleanser, I recommend 911 Operator. It’s not going to light the world on fire, but is a decently-crafted little time sink that works well on the Switch. If you’re looking for something to do in-between catching Pokémon and settling it in Smash, 911 Operator is a nice buffer title to call on.

Ironically, although Ashen is one of the better Souls-like games, its strengths emerge the more it deviates from the template. With a distinctive art style and approach to co-op, base-building and character interaction, Ashen suffers in those areas in which its Souls model outshines it: fluid and varied combat being the most obvious area. Taken apart from its inspiration, though, Ashen is still an entertaining and elegant experience.

It’s a short game, taking about an hour or so to reach the end credits but the time is well spent and nothing feels wasted or padded for length. The game’s puzzles are just right, neither too easy or too hard, and in some cases make a great use of the facility’s retro-futurist technology. Some might balk over the absence of enemies or outright peril but hungry aliens, killer robots, or demon possessed soldiers would only serve as annoying distractions and just get in the way. All in all, Red Matter is an awesome science fiction yarn built with an eye for dreamy, retro futurism aesthetic.

I won’t lie to you, I am trying to be positive, and I want people to enjoy this game. ARK: Survival Evolved is a solid survival adventure with unique mechanics, an intriguing mystery and lore, and plenty of years of development in its past to show for it. However, there are just too many issues on the Switch version right now to enjoy it to its fullest, making it near unplayable for many, and I really hope that changes as we move forward.