Digitally Downloaded's Scores

  • Games
For 3,523 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 11% same as the average critic
  • 37% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 73
Highest review score: 100 Final Fantasy XV
Lowest review score: 0 Hentai Uni
Score distribution:
3525 game reviews
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There’s not much wrong with We Happy Few that can’t be fixed with some patches, and regardless of what happens there, the game has a narrative that is brave, intelligently crafted, and so incredibly poignant.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Phantom Doctrine did come out of nowhere to become a truly enjoyable and memorable experience. If you had have told me six months ago that it would be possible to take the pulp sci-fi, raw entertainment of XCOM and apply it to a Cold War espionage narrative, I wouldn’t have believed you. That’s exactly what has been delivered here, though, and I hope it has the chance to surprise plenty of other people.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    When everything's working smoothly, Titan Quest is a very enjoyable game. It doesn't push any boundaries (it's more than a decade old now, after all), but it runs the classic Diablo formula well, with plenty of depth for character builds and a stunning world to explore.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    That mental barrier aside, however, The Amazing Shinsengumi really is an lovely little bit of storytelling.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Ōkami is truly one of the most incredible games ever crafted, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you look at it as a "Zelda clone". Look past that and look closely at the story it's telling, the symbology, and where the game got its ideas from. Ōkami is to video games what something like Spirited Away is to film; it's not only beautiful and powerful, but it speaks to the very core of the Japanese soul, and because of that it's hugely educational to anyone that has an interest in the country and its culture.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I came away from this year's version of the game convinced that the development team put its focus on the right area. That is to say, the gameplay. The results are obvious, and for those who decry the annual release cycle as nothing but a roster update, they are not giving enough credit to the locomotion improvements and continuing Longshot story.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    For such a cheap little game I had plenty of fun with it, and blew through it well before I got bored with it.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Beyond that it's surprisingly slim pickings. In that context, SubaraCity is a genuinely worthwhile little game; it's enjoyable, relaxing, and for the most part well designed.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    An amazingly done port. Graphics alone could be cause for some to leave the consoles behind in order to view this world the way that it really should be, but for others, it could be the start to the series that you’ve been waiting for as it makes itself easy to slide into and is now available on the PC.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Salt and Sanctuary is a solid homage to its blatant source of inspiration. It doesn't supplant its predecessors, but it does an admirable job nonetheless, and offers players a moody, intricate, and fundamentally enjoyable dark fantasy experience.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Whereas any other series would be derided for a sequel that was merely more of the same, Overcooked 2 demonstrates the series’ strong core mechanics and delivers another stellar experience to be had with friends. There is a very clear vision here, and it works on every front.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    There's nothing inherently wrong with Crush Your Enemies. It's presented nicely, has some nice, clean mechanics and is cleverly designed to be playable in short bursts of time. But it's also a strategy game that struggles to encourage players to be strategic, and its best feature, the multiplayer, is dead on release. A complete misfire in making the humour relient on stereotypes that grew old a thousand comedic games ago also doesn't help in giving Crush Your Enemies anything but a brief moment of forgettable fun.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    This is going to be a short review, because Ayakashi Koi Gikyoku is effectively unplayable.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    It's pretty in a generic manner, and has enough content that it will satisfy people that don't much care for creativity. But there is a point where a homage becomes a flat-out copy, and sadly, Tanzia simply doesn't seem to care that it's so brazen in its "influences."
    • 56 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I’ll be committed to Train Sim World for quite some time, I suspect. Give me some DLC train routes through Asia (especially Japan), and I’ll be all the happier. Give me one or two routes of the Sydney network and I’ll buy them just to gloat to Sydney Trains that it is possible to deliver passengers to their stops without a three hour delay. I’m oddly proud of my virtual train driving skills.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Banner Saga 3 is the appropriate swan song of the trilogy; hopeful, mournful, and utterly breathtaking.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A nostalgic experience that is worth playing if you are a fan of the 16-bit JRPG era. The cast is full of wonderful characters, the plot interesting and the battle system engaging. The whole game is wrapped up in a ten-twelve hour experience which was the perfect length to see the story out.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Not only is it hugely enjoyable in its own right, focused as it is one one of the most dramatic moments in living memory, but it has also managed to completely upstage an Academy Award-winning film that looked at the same moment in history.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Thematic problems aside however, the plot is filled with enough twists and turns to stay interesting throughout the game’s expansive runtime, and while the individual visual-novel segments might start to grate, they do a good job of breaking down the dungeoneering.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The humour tries a little too hard at points, but generally speaking, there's a genuinely great spirit to the game, and with the addition of multiplayer, you'd be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable brawler on the Nintendo Switch.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    There's plenty to like about Element. The game's stated goal was to distil down the strategy game to something that still felt grand and "complete" in scope, but was playable for a few minutes at a time. It achieves that, and at the same time gives players a compelling look at a theme that is quite pressing, as the world looks towards an era of depleted resources. But it's also hard to push past the feeling that there should have been more to this one.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    A very expensive way to play bad pinball.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The first of the two Mega Man X Legacy Collections contains four amazing masterpieces of platforming goodness. While it does not contain as many games as the original collection, the games here are all well worth your time, if not to revisit games from a bygone era, then to experience what all the fuss was about.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This appears to be a theme with the Mega Man franchise. Each series starts off well, and then after a half dozen or so numbered titles, the quality falls off a cliff. Much like with the original Legacy Collections, I would recommend the first collection over the second in a heartbeat if you were to only choose one.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For a first attempt at a kart racer, All-Star Fruit Racing shows that the team behind it is talented, and they know how to make a genuinely fun game. There’s a lot of joy involved in playing this one, and it’s an ideal party racing game, particularly on the PlayStation 4, where there’s no Mario Kart equivalent to reach for. If it wasn’t for the infuriating AI, I’d even argue that All-Star Fruit Racing takes a step forward in a genre that Nintendo itself is almost painfully conservative about.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If you’re able to settle into Realms of Arkania’s rhythm and allow it to engage with your imagination, there is an awful lot of nostalgic joy to derive from something so wonderfully classic as this.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    There are still some problems, as the platforming can feel awkwardly stiff at times and the game isn’t the prettiest of titles, but it’s a resounding triumph in teaching an important lesson. Those that finish Path of Motus will find themselves better for the journey and motivated to follow their dreams. That type of reward far surpasses the amount of fun a game can bring.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Between that design creativity and the sheer stylistic beauty of it, Semblance is a game that'll stick in my mind for a long time.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Vertical Strike is a super low budget and cheap little game, designed to give fans of the occasional dogfight a quick rush. Thanks to its tight and efficient mechanics, and the steady and enjoyable approach that it has to difficulty escalation, it achieves what it sets out to. Nothing more, and nothing less.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    As a puzzler, Yuso is definitely a mixed bag. It has wonderfully cute aesthetics that are pleasing to the eye, Yuso is an attractive game for sure. The implementation of the puzzles leaves a bit to be desired, some puzzles feel very clever, some are very easy, and some are too difficult, to the point that they require trial and error to pass.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Hand of Fate 2 will be most rewarding to those who like a lot of risk with their reward. It’s also a game for those who want to stray off the beaten path when it comes to the idea of role-playing.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Strike is mildly fun, but woefully ill equipped to provide any long term value.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    What players will find with Figment is a game that paces itself well to create a world that tackles the inner demons of its protagonist in a way that is simultaneously light hearted and without trivialising the seriousness of the themes. If for no other reason, you should look at this one for its art direction alone. It really is gorgeous.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    An interesting title that almost looks like an old-school point-and-click adventure game, but its mix of platforming and exploration make for a deeper if flawed experience. It is unfortunate that the controls and some of the more vague environmental puzzles are not more refined, because they hold back what otherwise is still a memorable game. Even with those blemishes, the way the world is woven together and the interesting premise are more than enough reason to spend some time exploring.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Frost is mechanically sound and has all the hallmarks of a truly great single player card game. Sadly, its inability to take the concept and really drive home something impactful leaves it feeling a little shallow and limited in the end; a missed opportunity for something so gorgeous and refined.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lion’s Song is a touching game that highlights individual’s creative struggles and how they overcome these hurdles in their lives. The struggles of the 20th century can still be seen in today’s society, so it is inspiring to see them discover themselves and overcome these hurdles.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    This is the best Sonic effort in years as the developers managed to blend the things that made classic Sonic games so great in the first place.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    If you are a roguelike fan, then this is a lovely, charming, colourful and traditional take on the genre, and it's the first really good example of that on the Nintendo Switch to date. For that reason alone it's the superior version of one of the more fundamentally enjoyable roguelikes I've played in quite a few years now.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I must say I really enjoyed building and running my own Jurassic World park. It's not perfect, and certainly given the heritage of the developer in theme park games we possibly could have expected a bit more from it, but you just never know what DLC and the ongoing development promised of the game might bring.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Octopath Traveler is a beautiful game that somehow never gets tired. It has a labyrinthine plot that bravely attempts to give eight characters the same scope and development as eight sole protagonists would get in lesser games. It’s also a game that bravely makes the story all about those characters, with the world, harsh as it can be, almost secondary to the insular unit and their individual arcs. That sheer ambition is all the more impressive because Octopath Traveller uses sprites. Little 2D characters made up of even littler squares. People need to play this game if only to realise that not everything spectacular needs to be photo-real.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Its striking monochrome art style and juxtaposition of atmospheric peacefulness with wince-inducing violence lends to a dreamlike quality that is utterly entrancing. The first few hours of this game had me terrified, wondering how the environment was going to turn against me in ever more creative and depraved ways. I loved the graphics and music which still manage to feel unique despite the game’s age. For the puzzles and atmosphere alone, Limbo is worth a try. Once the ordeal is over however, I found myself wishing for a larger narrative to delve into, or a deeper exploration of themes that the game teased but never fully committed to.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The game itself is a noble effort, sure, but ultimately far too ambitious to achieve what it’s really looking to achieve. The end result is the death knell for horror games; it’s just not intense or frightening enough.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Sadly, I can't imagine a single scenario that I would actually want to play Awkward with anyone. None of the questions I came across are either things I want to learn about a friend in a party setting, or they're things I already know and, whether I agree with them or not, I just don't find the subject matter amusing.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The concept was there, and I so badly wanted to enjoy it. Unfortunately, caring about the contrived cancer plotline would have only been possible if so much of my time wasn’t taken up by wondering how DigixArt has taken a great mobile game and made it somehow less accessible on a more powerful device.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Groove Coaster, to me, isn't a game about precision and perfection, like most rhythm games. It's a game about letting your senses get overwhelmed, and enjoying the music through sight and touch as much as by hearing it; the "game" is just one means of bringing that about. More than anything else, Groove Coaster is a game about losing yourself in the music, and that's something it achieves perfectly.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Shining Resonance Refrain might not be a classic example of the genre, but it gets the most important components of the genre right – the characters and the storytelling – and backs it up with some gorgeous art and a perfectly competent combat system.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mushroom Wars 2 is the ideal casual strategy game. It has the potential to be much more than it is – the lack of a story to go with the gorgeous characters and art design is unforgivable – but nonetheless this is the perfect example of how to make something simple and elegant, while leaving just enough in there for people to feel like their strategic brain muscles are being flexed. As I said at the outset, Mushroom Wars 2 is a delight.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    While the Nintendo Switch version of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy may not look quite as dazzling as its counterparts, there’s no denying that it’s bolstered by being available on a portable system.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Crew 2 really isn’t all that engaging. Sure, The Crew 2 can be recommended as an arcade game that controls well for casual racing fans, but those updates are going to have to be really good in order to give this title longevity.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai is going to be one very niche fighting game on the PlayStation 4. Very few people in the west will care about the extended franchise that it comes from, being adult visual novels, and those that are fans enough of Koihime Musou have been able to buy the previous version of Koihimi Enbu on PC. I hope some people discover it though, because there really is a good little fighting game in there.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hexologic is beautiful in its zen minimalism. The soundtrack is gorgeously relaxing, the beautiful aesthetic makes wonderful use of crisp lines and white space to be the kind of thing I'd happily point design students to as a way of doing interfaces and modern chic properly. That beauty is backed up with an elegant, efficient, and clever logic foundation, and as a result it's all very classy and the kind of experience you can enjoy with a glass of good red wine. It's just disappointing that Hexologic didn't prove testing enough on the intellect to be a truly spectacular example of a puzzler.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    But the thing which makes Anima: Gate of Memories work is that despite the individual failings of nearly every part of the game, the finished package is coherent.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Donkey Kong Adventure feels like a lick of fresh paint on the same experiences that were provided during Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Whilst the inclusion of Donkey Kong changes the way that you strategise; Donkey Kong Adventure is rather predictable and I did get fatigued with it by the second world.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The purity and simplicity of what drives this game is appealing, and even refreshing, and the perfect thing for a lazy Sunday afternoon, when you just need to clear your head.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    I would have liked more context to the action, better realised characters, and more involved levels. And, of course, some kind of single player experience. But, for what it is, as a no-frills Overwatch clone, Paladins gets the job done. It’s a game I’ll likely be playing for quite some time to come, because it certainly scratches a very specific itch.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Lanota has the distinction of being the most interesting rhythm experience on the Nintendo Switch by virtue of that unique and clever gameplay mechanic. It lets itself down a little compared to the many other rhythm games on the console by having too much music at odds with the theme and aesthetics that are carried through the presentation, and that inconsistency is disappointing. It's still delightful, but perhaps a game that would have been better off in the hands of developers with a greater capacity for music curation.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Lumines is at its best when it's pure immersion, no frills. Throw on a really good headset, turn the volume right up, load up a playlist of your favourite music, and melt deep into the beats, thudding rhythm, and hypnotic colours. Lumines is a puzzle game, but the action becomes so driven by feeling and rhythm that it's not really fair to call it something so simple; at it's best Lumines is a game you don't think about. It's a game you feel. And Lumines is so perfectly good at that all the developers needed to do with Lumines Remastered is stick the exact same game on Nintendo Switch.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    While the latest package of Ikaruga isn’t quite the grand celebration it should be for a classic title, Treasure’s shooter has aged fantastically well. The puzzle-like shooting is just as thrilling and demanding as it was back in 2002, and it’s sure to challenge any fan of shooters. Ikaruga’s themes of polarity help it stand out from the bullet hell crowd, and make it one of the finest shoot ‘em ups that can be purchased on Switch.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The real strength of Gray Dawn lies far from its decent controls, its ability to run economically on a PC whilst looking amazing, and its employment of psychological horror tropes to get your heart rate up. The proof is all in the Christianity-flavoured pudding. I have never played any other game quite like this which uses all the trappings of religion in a way that subverts our everyday conceptions of it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Once again Dontnod has crafted a world ripe to explore, as it is set three years after the events of Life is Strange and still within Oregon the world is full of references to the original game, even within this brief pre-release teaser. Fans of the series will play this and find themselves completely relieved of any lingering concerns that they may have had that Max and Chloe are no longer the focus of the series, with Captain Spirit proving the Life is Strange universe - and Dontnod's on mastery over this kind of storytelling - is bigger then just the original protagonists.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 10 Critic Score
    It’s genuinely sad to see NinjaKiwi like this. I wonder if the studio’s founders realised that, ten years down the line, they’d have an international company gouging players for microtransaction money, and re-releasing empty husks of old games onto the Switch for the chance at even more revenue.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    As far as pure entertainment goes, it's hard to look past Sushi Striker. The manic energy and silly sense of humour combine with match-3 gameplay that is far more nuanced than is the norm for the genre, and while I could take a hard pass on the way it appropriates some of the more irritating features of the free-to-play trends that dominate puzzle games, for the most part Sushi Striker is an end-to-end delight that probably didn't deserve to be localised at all, but I'm glad it has been.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This is one hell of a journey.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Iro Hero ambitiously seeks to reinterpret polarity switching shooters. Baffling design choices render it alienating even to seasoned shoot ‘em up fans, however. The blueprint for a clever shooter is here and it’s possible the developers will rectify that base game with patches and updates, but the Iro Hero of today does not reflect that lofty potential.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    I’m so delighted to say that Lust For Darkness is the real deal. The fact that I can compare it to one of the greatest erotic thrillers of all time in Eyes Wide Shut, and not break down laughing, is in itself is a great credit to the developers. The game lacks the sheer mastery and refinement that Stanley Kubrick had over his canvas, but this is still leagues ahead of the clumsy, overly-simple idea of “horror” that most game developers aspire to.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Vampyr is the vampire story that I’ve waited for many, many years for. As a fan of Anne Rice and the deeper tales around vampires – and as a fan of stories that are focused on moral conflict and consequence, Dontnod have crafted something that feels custom-designed for me.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    I was disappointed that The Lost Child failed so completely to do something meaningful with the Lovecraftian concept. In fact, the game has so completely missed the mark on that that it’s almost insulting that the developers used names like “Hastor” and “Cthulhu” to describe your foes, rather than replace them with more original monster names. Once I settled past that disappointment, though, I discovered that The Lost Child is also a game that so cleanly represents everything good about the dungeon crawler genre that I found it hard to put down. The fact that it’s the perfect introduction to the dungeon crawler genre also makes it the perfect first example on the new hardware.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The environments are detailed and beautiful, replete with pops of colour. Unfortunately, navigating them through a haze of lag destroys your enjoyment quite quickly. Pathways are dotted with doors, and the slightest glance in their direction pops you into places that you don’t want to be.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sorcery Saga is a solid roguelike with a big heart, lots of content and a hefty challenge, but its repetitive gameplay and occasionally hostile design choices makes it a niche pick.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    I wanted to be more engaged in Samurai Defender. It takes place in one of my favourite periods of history, and we've got plenty of reference examples of games handling this era well - everything from Nioh and Samurai Warriors to Muramasa, Onimusha, Nobunaga's Ambition and Tenchu. All of those games or franchises offer enjoyable gameplay, but just as importantly, a sense of history and place to give the gameplay context. Samurai Defender looks like it should be more than it is, but never gets there, and feels overwhelmingly shallow as a consequence.
    • Digitally Downloaded
    • 49 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    This absolute travesty was the maiden game by Big Deez Productions. It’s never a nice feeling to be this critical about something, because people did put hard work and passion into it, and as a critic I feel like I’m being cruel to say that something is completely irredeemable. But what Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is: irredeemable. This is 2018’s most cuttingly unpleasant game to play. And I'm one of those that played Agony.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Musynx is as no-frills as rhythm games get. That's not necessarily a criticism, because the music - the most important feature of the genre - is a stand-out delight. I will play this one a lot more than I play DJ Max or Superbeat Xonic, for example. And yet, while the promise of plenty of DLC music to come is exciting, Musynx also lets itself down by being far too easy, and limited in features, to hit those high notes as one of the best examples of the genre.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    That standout map is Egypt. It’s a complex arena, with wide desert fields interspersed with columns and trenches that really open up your tactical toolset.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Azure Reflections has plenty of challenge to offer the hardcore bullet hell fiends, but with its relative approachability and level of polish, it's also a great introduction to the world of Touhou shooters.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The high degree of simplification seems unnecessary when the studio has successfully pulled off both technical and stylish input modes in the past. The roster, in its non-DLC state at least, is also wildly lopsided towards BlazBlue. It doesn’t have the staying power of the top-tier games of the genre, but it’s still a blast to see these fantasy crossovers play out with friends, so it more than evens out.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    This is the kind of game I can sit down to and play for an entire evening without realising how much time was slipping. It's always "just one more turn," or "just one more battle", and even after all these years of playing Koei's strategy and action games set through the Sengoku period, and reading books about it, I'm always impressed that Koei Tecmo manages to teach me something new each time it releases something in the franchise.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker’s hook, for me, remains the need to take over as a psychiatrist. It’s not as easy as sitting comfortably and saying things like, “and how does that make you feel?” As Doctor Dekker’s replacement you are toeing the line between your patients’ sanity and insanity, having to decipher clues in their personality or stories to gain insight into what to ask. The supernatural, Cthulhu-centric story behind the game is also a shining point that has led me to finally break my hesitancy to read Lovecraft. Your own sanity comes into question.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The very best examples of nostalgic homages are those that add something in the process. Goichi Suda's grindhouse-toned games, for example, add all kinds of stylistic features that help to build on the thematic basis. Milanoir isn't that game. It's slavishly devoted to something very obscure and doesn't do enough to appeal to people who don't know the base material. But that's not to say it's a poor game. Its energy and ballsy attitude is engrossing all in itself.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    I can't for the life of me understand why the developers, who put such an earnest effort into recreating a true vision of the Judeo-Christian hell, would let some arbitrary need for gameplay let their work down.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    World Soccer Pinball is still not great pinball, because it offers such a pedestrian, basic, near-childish design, but it's playable and passable.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It's just too simplistic and bog standard in design. I appreciate that the developers were aiming for traditional pinball experiences, but that's no excuse for not at least coming up with some dynamic, flowing table designs.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    I truly love West of Loathing. It's charming, silly, fun and, most surprisingly, offers genuinely engaging combat and questing. This made it easy to play until my Nintendo Switch battery was running flat over, and then have me itching to play again while the battery was charging. And it did convince me to start playing Kingdoms of Loathing again. I guess I'm never going to get away from these nonsense stick figures.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    If you haven't played many tower defence games in the past, this one is the best place to start, since it'll be the only tower defence game you need after that. Q-Games produces some of the most distinctive, charming, and beautiful games out there, and PixelJunk Monsters is the team's best work to date.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The most impressive thing about Street Fighter is just how playable it is to this day (at least, from Street Fighter II onwards).
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It’s the combination of well designed levels, hauntingly picturesque visuals and a consistent overarching tone which make this game hard to put down. I admire the developers’ ability to keep the player fixated on a pensive mindset, so that regardless of how difficult the levels become, they always have something deep to ponder on as they repeat each level until the correct button timings are ingrained into their fingers.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    For the most part though, Yoku’s Island Express is a lot of wholesome, whimsical fun. It manages to make the hybrid of two disparate genres work in some inspired ways, and the result is a unique game full of surprises that is sure to delight players. The only flaw is when the mechanics outweigh their welcome and stop feeling unique – the moments where Yoku is just a pinball game, or just a Metroidvania, are generally the weakest.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Many will say that Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 isn’t as great as the first collection. While the first seems to have had a bit more attention to detail in it, this collection is still a great way to explore the Mega Man games of yesteryear. I am crossing all of my body parts hoping that we see a third collection containing the likes of the Game Boy games, Mega Man & Bass and Wily Wars, as I have enjoyed every minute of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, despite missing a few key features found in the first collection.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The Mega Man Legacy Collection on the Switch is the best I’ve played yet. With extra challenges, a rewind feature and some of the best emulation of the Nintendo Entertainment System I’ve seen. This is a must-have collection for sure.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    For such a bright, happy, cute game, the core of what Happy Birthdays tells us is both potent and important. This is a game about environmentalism, respect for the ecosystem, and it's a chance to watch the form that evolution takes in a palatable and enjoyable manner. Wada's most famous work, Harvest Moon, did a remarkable job of highlighting the life of a farmer to people who may have never comprehended what a country lifestyle might look like, so too has he made the basic idea of evolution accessible to people of all ages in Happy Birthdays. This game's predecessor was remarkable. This game itself is a remarkable evolution of that original vision.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    In the end the problem with the Fairune Collection comes from the fact the series is a short lived one and yet it still took its time to find its stride. The most recent game, Fairune 2, should have been the foundation and the first title, but as it is, it's the only one that feels complete, with the rest of this collection being more akin to proof of concepts or tech demos.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This game is undoubtedly a dream on the Switch.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    This remaster really needed the novelty of the Nintendo Switch handheld portability to provide the definite hook to justify a re-purchase.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Despite those small issues, I can see this game developing a strong core audience that will play it for quite some time to come. It's simply too groovy, colourful, and cheerful to resist.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    The collection of games itself is just such incredible value, covering off such a broad range of SEGA's history when it was at its very finest, that anyone missing out on this is doing themselves a real disservice. Heck, for the three Phantasy Star games in there alone I would instantly recommend this package. That series was every bit as good as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest back in the day.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Even if you can overlook the troublesome philosophies that permeate Detroit, you still won’t find much interesting here. The story loses a lot of its charm once it goes from dealing with day-to-day android life to trying to tell a huge event that will change the shape of civilization. It falls into a common trap of video game writing, as it forces the player into life or death situations constantly. These mostly fall flat and players are left with a game that really doesn’t have much to say that wasn’t already incredibly obvious from the start.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    It's not exactly the first science fiction game to bring up the humanity of AI, but its exploration of that is more thoughtful than most. At the same time, it's an edge-of-your-seat thriller full of charming characters, brought to life with gorgeous portraits and artwork. So long as you've played Steins;Gate before it, Steins;Gate 0 is a game you don't want to miss.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey transcends the standard dungeon crawler. Posing innumerable questions about reality while using the dungeons themselves to full effect, it will keep players thinking even when slaying demons. Redux is not some grandiose HD reimagining with a bloated budget but an insightful expansion to a masterpiece’s original vision.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Asemblance was bottled lightning. Oversight was never going to be able to recreate that, but it comes as close as it possibly can.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Super Mega Baseball 2 is an accessible, arcade-style game anyone can enjoy. I hadn’t enjoyed a baseball game myself in a long time, and I tied it to simply not being able to hit the ball while batting. Super Mega Baseball 2 pretty much fixes everything I didn’t like about modern baseball games.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    For people who didn't play through the DLC on the Wii U version, or want a portable version of Hyrule Warriors that doesn't feel like a one massive compromise after another, Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition is essential.

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