Digitally Downloaded's Scores

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For 3,524 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 Bayonetta 2
Lowest review score: 0 Orc Slayer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,789 out of 3524
  2. Mixed: 1,411 out of 3524
  3. Negative: 324 out of 3524
3526 game reviews
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    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    112 Operator
    112 Operator is ultimately a niche game let down by some bad design choices on the Switch. While the premise is interesting, the UI immersive and the gameplay compelling, the control options and confusing visuals on the Switch make it hard to stay focused. This is a game best played on a workstation with no distractions, and that’s about as far away from the Switch’s capabilities as one could imagine. If you’re the kind of player who can stomach the game’s flaws and dry moments, you’d still be better off to try it on another platform.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Toby: The Secret Mine
    The only redeeming factor of Toby: The Secret Mine is that it’s not one of the many, so many, “roguelikes” or pseudo 8-bit platformers that are the norm these days from indie developers. It felt kind of refreshing to go back to 2014, even for a fleeting moment. The ideas in Toby are sound, the execution however is a lot to be desired.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!!
    It's a niche game for a niche audience. Fighting game fanatics who don't mind a spot of fan service will get right into it. Everyone else is better off sticking to BlazBlue, or Dead or Alive, or Street Fighter, or any of the dozen other more accessible fighters that have been released in the past few years.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Battle Fantasia: Revised Edition
    Battle Fantasia has some ambition. Character variety is strong, and one or two characters are designed in such a way that spam attacks don't immediately overcome strategy, and are both fun to play with and against as a consequence. But there are too many negatives to encourage a purchase over other quality fighting games available now.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Monolith
    Monolith is made by people who love the genre, and has clearly been made for people who love the genre. I cannot fault the intent or the effort that has gone into it. It’s beautiful, most of it is genuinely intriguing, and it’s filled with classic puzzle design that the genre’s biggest fans must surely be missing for long stretches of time these days. If only the onboarding in the first hour wasn’t such a poor start, and if only that ending wasn’t such a rug-pull, this could have been something memorable.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore
    Combine the uninspired enemies and level design with a checkpoint system that’s more than happy to erase half an hour of progress if you die midway through a run, and you’ll find that RemiLore becomes a game that’s more tedium than fun.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Vesta
    The gameplay isn't enough to carry the simple story and Vesta shouldn't be played in anticipation of the engrossing dystopian tale that it initially promises.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    SwapQuest
    I really wanted to love SwapQuest but it's neither memorable nor essential in any sense of the word. That's not to say it's a bad game, because it's not. It's still fun to play, but as an experiment in mixing a puzzle genre with the RPG, it's proof that this particular genre isn't necessarily easy to smash together.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Settlers: New Allies
    Ubisoft’s city builders tend to be good: Anno was released on console just last year and it is a genuinely good time. But then Anno respects the player’s intelligence and allows them to make mistakes and try things along the way. The Settlers: New Allies wants you to play like an automaton, and the inflexibility and lack of variety in this game become draining far too quickly. It’s a treat to look at, but it’s a sour thing to play, and it’s immensely disappointing that we’ve waited 13 years for this.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    WarioWare: Move It!
    Nintendo’s had a bumper year, so I’ll forgive it for some filler (especially when there’s also the Super Mario RPG remake on the way yet). WarioWare: Move It! achieves what it sets out to by providing players with a bunch of microgames that use the Joy-Cons and motion control in an inventive and silly manner. You’ll enjoy the boundless creativity in coming up with so many microgame ideas. In addition, you’ll enjoy the colour and humour at first. And then, about an hour later, you’ll be done with it for good.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Lushfoil Photography Sim
    I came into Lushfoil Photography Sim expecting to love it, and maybe that was a mistake. I do like it. I plan on returning to it for little escapes sometimes (emphasis on little). There is just something I love about taking a view that countless others have seen and putting your own twist on it; as it turns out, that feeling can also exist thanks to video games. Unfortunately, the camera controls never became intuitive, and accessibility around motion sickness is lacking. Lushfoil Photography Sim has a solid base, but I could never recommend it to someone without also pointing out the heavy negatives.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Firefighters: The Simulation
    Firefighters: The Simulation is a long way from being a great game, and in the state that its in now, I wouldn’t even call it a good game. But if you can look past its flaws, you’ll find a framework for something quite fascinating. I just hope that updates, or maybe a sequel, eventually do that framework justice. I’d love to see what a truly finished version of Firefighters: The Simulation would look like.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Middle-earth: Shadow of War
    The whole experience feels so utterly soulless it’s hard to really care about any of it. It feels like a game that has been carefully pieced together with every feature, bit of narrative and gameplay moment structured out of commercial desire, rather than any love or respect for the Lord of the Rings franchise. And as far as I'm concerned, for a game that's quite explicitly a Lord of the Rings game, that's a fail.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
    It simply comes across as decidedly average and without an ideal target audience.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    In Space We Brawl
    Having a complex customisation and battle system, means that whenever a new player comes along the first few rounds are quite dull while they learn the ropes. And by the time they've learned the ropes it's time to move on to the next game.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Solstice Chronicles: MIA
    With few quirks, Solstice Chronicles is a well-made isometric shooter that effectively cribs an aesthetic that calls to mind a blend of Doom and Aliens. For local multiplayer fun, mowing down the hordes with a mate remains reliably good fun. A shockingly cliché and poorly-constructed narrative, combined with a sense of monotony that sets in far too quickly, does let this game down though. It’s best played in very short bursts, with big breaks in-between sessions.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Feist
    Despite its short runtime, Feist feels like the video game equivalent of being pushed over and kicked repeatedly without respite.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    8DAYS
    I could perhaps recommend this game to those looking for a crushingly difficult dual stick shooting game. It’s humorous at times and it does have some personality to it. It is the kind of game that could be brilliant with a few tweaks here and there, but presented as it, I do find it difficult to recommend to most people.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania
    I'm all for retro compilations giving players the option of making games more accessible, so players can set their own experience. Rewind features in old arcade shooters and platformers are great. But imagine if a retro re-release of Castlevania (or whatever) made it impossible to fall down a gap or get killed by a boss by automatically rewinding the mistake. Now imagine they gave players no way of turning that off? To deny people an inherent, defining quality of a game in favour of something that fundamentally changes the experience, without completely redesigning the game so that the new experience makes sense... Nah, it hurts this to say because I love Monkey Ball, but this is all terribe decision-making by everyone involved.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Party Hard
    Overall it's hard to recommend this game as it feels unpolished and very repetitive.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Demetrios - The BIG Cynical Adventure
    Some of the one-liners make me snicker, and the gameplay is decent despite the fact it relies on throwing overwhelming amounts of items at the player to slow them down. But Demetrios is nothing that great. Or special. The crudeness is unnecessary. The amount of things to sift through is unnecessary. And unfortunately, nothing entirely makes up for these downfalls.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Hidden Folks
    Hidden Folks is good as a mild diversion, but doesn't offer much beyond that. The development team seems to have missed what made Where's Wally books truly special - it wasn't simply in packing the books full of stuff, and then challenging people to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. It was in filling the books with vibrant, exciting, and imagination-stirring scenes. Hidden Folks doesn't do that.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Super Mega Baseball 4
    Overall Super Mega Baseball 4 is immensely disappointing and an unworthy successor to its predecessor. SMB 3 was a genuinely fun and clean playing arcade baseball game, and never needed to be more than that. Now, though, it seems like the series is being positioned as a viable alternative to the MLB license. The new game modes, efforts to bring real-world names into the fold, and aesthetic shifts all seem to be designed to pivot Super Mega Baseball to become something to take more seriously and commit more time to. You know, like MLB The Show. Unfortunately, these new additions are directly at odds with arcade good times and now, thanks to the influence of EA in all likelihood, we’ve been dumped with a series experiencing an identity crisis.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dragon Age: The Veilguard
    Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an objectively well-made product that is perfectly playable and it’s both empowering and entertaining. But it’s also nothing more than a product, finely tuned for passive consumption, right off the content mill.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dragon Sinker
    Dragon Sinker's strength is that, in being such a slavish homage to one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, it too manages to be more playable than many of the original story JRPGs that Kemco produces. It is an endlessly replayable formula that the developers are copying wholesale, after all. But then, in being a slavish homage, the Dragon Sinker also opens itself up to comparisons with the game it's derivative of. And, sadly, it doesn't come out well in those comparisons at all.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Trials of the Blood Dragon
    There is a solid core game here in Trials of the Blood Dragon, the problem is when the team extends away from that core to do other things. Not all of the motorbike tracks are great, but that is true of the Trials games as well. The platforming segments are terrible, however, some of the more bombastic and colourful stages are an absolute joy to play, and the neon visuals and pounding soundtrack do an excellent job of selling the action.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Demon's Rise - War for the Deep
    There's plenty of merit to Demon's Rise as the developers have delivered a game that is nicely balanced and blends a rich tapestry of gameplay elements together in a surprisingly nuanced manner. Purely on the basis of how this game is presented you just would not expect that going in. The total lack of effort in the writing kills it, though. How am I meant to enjoy a fantasy game if there is nothing to draw me into the fantasy?
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s
    If the developers bring a lot more focus Pantsu Hunter, and more carefully consider how to make the various gameplay and narrative elements fit together, this could yet become something special.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    STAY
    For its escape-room premise, Stay’s narrative is surprisingly large in scope, and despite all its shortfalls the eerie atmosphere does linger with you as you play.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dogos
    The game is decent at times but it lacks some features that would have made this a better experience. Things like mutiplayer and a leader board would have really helped to give Dogos legs. There's also some irritations in the art style, frame rate and general presentation, and the lack of a narrative to give context to what's going on hurts as well.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sailing Era
    Sailing Life has depth, and if you can deal with its rough edges, you may appreciate the grand vision and intent behind it all. I would buy Sailing Life 2 in a heartbeat if the team polished the foundation up and got a better translation team, worked on the consistency of the aesthetics, and made the breadcumb trail less obtuse. Unfortunately, as unrefined as this is, it’s very difficult to imagine this finding much of an audience.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stargate: Timekeepers
    On one level I am sure that there will be people that appreciate that, after all this time, they finally have a Stargate SG1 game. I just can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity on every level. Stargate was, at its core, a narrative-driven (not action) show about exploring the stars, meeting alien species and embracing science over religion. A more grounded take on Star Trek, basically. An isometric RPG in the vein of Disco Elysium would have certainly been harder to produce, but much more appropriate to the ideology and intent of Stargate than this stealth tactics title. It’s well-crafted and were it not carrying the license it would have been much easier to enjoy. Painted as it is, however, it’s far too dissonant and incoherent to be the celebration of the property that it needed to be.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Siege Survival: Gloria Victis
    Variety in stories and settings could have gone a long way to making Siege Survival Gloria Victis a more compelling game. As it stands, while those who enjoy a mix of strategy and deliberately melancholy narrative threads may find it engaging for a while, it’s all a bit too uneven to really recommend.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Doraemon Dorayaki Shop Story
    The problem with Kairosoft games is that they’re inevitably good fun and even compulsive for a while. Once you sit down to one fresh you’re inevitably going to get hooked for a while, be that a few days or a few weeks. But soon after you’ll put it down and completely forget about it. You’ll come across it at random a few years later and then get very briefly hooked again, but again you’ll soon get tired of it. Kairosoft games are pure consumption, no meat, and while they’re fun – and this game is fun too (I hate coming across as overly critical of Kairosoft!) they are junk, and Doraemon deserved better.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Ultimate Racing 2D
    This is not an indie that has looked to a quick cash-in for minimal effort. It's just unfortunate that the racing genre is such a competitive one and, even on the Nintendo Switch, there is everything from Mario Kart, to rally racers, bike racers, and a half dozen existing top-down speedsters. It's just not enough to provide such a stock-standard racing game, however good the intentions.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Remorse: The List
    I do appreciate the effort that went into Remorse: The List. The developers had a strong vision and did their best to execute on it. On a technical level, I also found it to be quite impressive for the Switch. There are much bigger games that struggle to lift to this visual and mechanical quality on that hardware. But, unfortunately, at the end of the day, this is a horror game where its enemies – which it relies on far too much to carry the experience – are more likely to make you giggle than sweat. That’s a death knell for any horror experience.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Crimsonland
    There is a lot of thought that has been put into this game's survival modes, and people will enjoy that side of things. It's just a shame that thought couldn't be put into the rest of the game.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Zaccaria Pinball
    A very expensive way to play bad pinball.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Abyss of the Sacrifice
    Abyss of the Sacrifice is close to being something special, but its little irritants around presentation, puzzle consistency and design, and localisation mean that you'll need to be pretty far down the visual novel rabbit hole to want to play this. It wasn't long ago that Root Double was debuted on the Nintendo Switch, for example, and that game too takes place in an underground facility that the characters are trapped in. It might lack the puzzles, but it is incredibly well written, and as we see with Abyss of the Sacrifice, sometimes a VN is better off without the puzzles anyway.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Skater Cat
    I just wish the level design better lived up to its potential. Skater Cat is a charming, enthralling game inhibited by a bloated amount of lesser content that regrettably comprises most of the experience.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    SingStar Celebration
    SingStar used to be a tremendously fun party game way back on the PlayStation 2, and I still have some fond memories of the PlayStation 3 incarnations. SingStar was a beast, but the lack of backwards functionality, latency issues and a rather generic song list is no way to “celebrate” what made SingStar so great back in the day.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Digimon World: Next Order
    On a whole, Digimon World: Next Order isn’t a bad experience. It does take some time in order to get used to the flow of the game, and to deal with its irritations, but once you're there, you're in for what might potentially be a very addictive grind indeed.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gomoku Let's Go
    I'm sadly torn on Gomoku. I love that we have a serious take on a great game on Nintendo Switch, but the lack of online play defies all logic. If you've been dying to learn Gomoku, then this will get you going (aside from the missing application of a critical rule). Otherwise, though, anyone interested enough in Gomoku to consider a video game adaptation surely has a board of their own for local play, and the game's utility as a training tool is hindered by how few opportunities most of us will ever have to want to play the game seriously enough to train. The application itself is presented lovingly, but I just don't see the audience here.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Piece: World Seeker
    There's a basis here to grow into something truly spectacular, but the first entry of open world One Piece hasn't delivered on its promise.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    One Piece: Unlimited World Red - Deluxe Edition
    The boss battles remain a highlight and almost enough of a reason to play the game in itself, but the rest of the game structured around them is so pedestrian and bland that keeping motivation in this one is perhaps the greatest challenge of them all.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    CounterSpy
    One might be quick to dismiss CounterSpy as nothing more than a half-broken stealth game, but you’d be remiss for doing so. I for one prefer to look at it as a half-working stealth game, one that has passion and enthusiasm where it counts. Dynamighty may not have hit a home run the first time around, but based on the love of the medium of the team there, I wouldn’t count them out just yet.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast
    Goblin Slayer is a perfectly adequate tactics JRPG that people who have nostalgia for the genre back on the PlayStation will have a particular fondness for. Mileage may be slightly better for the fans of the anime, but even then I think the big problem this game has is that it’s very superficial and shows very little interest in making any kind of statement or point. In other words, it plays exactly like an ‘anime tie-in’ game, and nothing more or less than that.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Starlight Alliance
    Although the game is fun to look at, and to think about, it rarely lives up to its lofty ambitions once it’s in motion. Combat is thankfully sparse enough that players get pushed towards their next objective briskly. Although enemies aren’t always fun to fight, they do look cool, and their bullet patterns are always an impressive spectacle. And while I came in expecting a 3D bullet-hell action RPG, what I got instead was an interesting sci-fi world to explore. It’s a pleasant surprise to see that a world this rich and complex came from a studio this small. Origamihero Games is a developer with huge ambition and a lot of promise, so I’d be keen to see the team iterating on ideas from this game and continuing to polish their craft.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Super Mutant Alien Assault
    It’s clean and works, but it’s a game that is difficult to see people getting long-term value out of it.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    RETSNOM
    What Somi has achieved in creating Retsnom all by himself is remarkable. It’s just a shame that the frustrating puzzle design and brutal level of difficulty will, I imagine, prevent most people from being able to experience the full weight of what it has to offer.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Spy Chameleon
    As with mobile games there are a number of optional objectives to each level that can be completed to earn stars, and those stars give completionists a reason to come back and replay levels. Unfortunately the game really lacks for personality and character, and there’s really nothing that helps this game stand out from the pack.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Resident Evil: Revelations 2
    Of the two, I give the tip to the first Revelations, as that boat setting really is up there with the original Resident Evil’s mansion, and Resident Evil 0’s train as a distinctive and brilliantly designed environment. Otherwise I find these games to be unremarkable. Entertaining, but unremarkable.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    RIKI 8Bit GAME Collection
    I hate to be the guy railing against a lack of content in a game, but while Riki 8Bit Game Collection was clearly a labour of love, I have to question why this wasn’t released as a music CD or music download instead, because 99% of the experience is in those music players and the Switch is not the ideal place for a music player. There’s less than ten minutes worth of gameplay in this collection, and as good as that music is, I can’t add it to my Apple playlists for working out or enjoying while I’d reading a book. The end result is, sadly, a conceptual misfire.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    RICO
    Having "unlimited replay value" means nothing when it results in such a grind, and I can't help but think that Rico would have been so much better if it was over and done in a couple of hours, but that bombastic action really had a chance to fly thanks to carefully designed levels arranged to help boost that experience.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Toree 3D
    The biggest pity is that the developers were so modest in their scope. Perhaps this little experiment is just to test the waters and get some money together for a more ambitious second project. I hope so, because Toree 3D has a lot of potential to be a more full-featured homage to B-tier platformers. As it stands here, though, it's a moment or two of fun. Nothing more, nothing less.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Urban Trial Tricky
    Urban Trials Tricky ends far earlier than I thought it would – there’s only a handful of levels and I breezed through them all in a matter of hours, but perhaps it was because of the exploit I’d discovered for all of the Trick stages. I would have wanted further spaces to play around in, since the real strength of this game was just letting players ride and bounce around the creative and incredibly vertical zones. The physics and level design stand out here, considering that Tate Multimedia has had a few games in the series under its belt already. I would hope that future games in the series have better events and scoring systems which effectively test the player’s understanding of the mechanics. What is available here is a fun game, and I certainly didn’t hate the time I spent with it. But it could also have been so much more.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Harvest Moon: Skytree Village
    The game is still very playable, and that same old loop around farming up some veggies in order to afford the adorably cute animals is as entertaining as always.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Crazy Strike Bowling EX
    Crazy Strike Bowling is a fun little game but with a lack of features and online play, it's hard to recommend.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Stickman Super Athletics
    Unfortunately, too-simple presentation, an absence of personality, and just seven events also means there’s next to no long-term value to this. You’ll be done with it in about the time it takes for an Olympic event to finish, so it’s up to you whether you consider that’s worth a couple of dollars or not.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    End of Serenity
    End of Serenity is proficient as an homage to the genre’s earlier days, even if it lacks standout qualities and often feels like it’s going through the motions.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Replica
    I wanted Replica to say a lot more than it did. We're living in a time where governments are becoming more aggressive in snooping into people's lives and for the first time since McCarthy, being branded as a "communist" is shifting from being someone who the right-wing impotently laugh at to someone who could be in some real danger. Replica does the right things in many ways, name-dropping real-world events and giving it enough context that the game is clearly anti-fascist in tone. Unfortunately, it lacks the intelligence and emotional resonance to be the interactive Orwellian experience that it wants to be.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Infliction: Extended Cut
    Horror is an intensely difficult genre to get right. You need to draw players in and immerse them in the experience to the point that they have an emotional connection to the game, and then hit them with things that are not just grotesque, but also deeply unsettling. Horror needs to engage the brain as it engages the more visceral reactions, and that's very hard to do. Infliction: Extended Cut doesn't get there. It's simply too pedestrian and rote to really work.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    SpiritSphere
    Despite its lack of content, SpiritSphere is still a blast for the first few rounds of play. If you’ve got friends who don’t have much time for a long haul multiplayer game, but still want some fast paced action, SpiritSphere has you covered. It’s an interesting look at how nostalgic and culturally significant footnotes in gaming can be remixed and re-appropriated into completely new experiences.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    EA Sports PGA Tour
    Between the lack of personality, inconsistent aesthetics, physics that, accurate or not, look broken, and cynical always online requirements, EA Sports PGA Tour gets just about everything wrong. I found myself jumping right back to Easy Come, Easy Golf almost immediately. Sure, it’s not the most realistic golf game out there, but at least it has fun with the sport and I’m not booted from the game after every other hole. EA’s dour, miserable effort is the “you must be fun at parties” joke/insult manifested as a sports game.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Gundam Versus
    Gundam Versus is mechanically solid, though the melee side of the game still needs work. But that only takes this game so far. A lack of narrative or context for any of the action leaves this as a dry, multiplayer-focused game that fails to capitalise on the IP nearly as well as we might have hoped.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
    LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is in an odd spot where only diehard comic book fans will really appreciate all of its references, but those that already care about these characters will want to see them interact in more meaningful ways. Instead of giving players an interesting original story, it’s just yet another by-the-numbers LEGO title that will leave players occasionally laughing between bouts of frustration between its dull combat and often counterintuitive puzzles. Ultimately, this is one brick that doesn’t have to be collected.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Red Bow
    It's a super-short indie project, so it almost feels unfair to throw a score onto Red Bow. It's just not a game to put on the same kind of scale as major blockbusters from Nintendo. But, then again, the game is a commercial project and sits on the same virtual store shelf as Nintendo's games. The reality is that Red Bow struggles to understand how horror game stories are told, and adventure games are designed. There are some ideas buried in there, and when the developer is more experienced it would be great to see him revisit this but Red Bow itself its a bit too hollow for its own good.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Woah Dave!
    As a completely free game on PlayStation Plus, Woah Dave! is brief, throwaway fun. There's nothing wrong with it, but its sheer lack of content means I wouldn't want to spend anything on it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Vampire's Fall: Origins
    There’s nothing inherently wrong with homages. Vampire’s Fall is a little on the nose with its love of Diablo at times, but there’s a lot of merit to Diablo, and a turn-based open world RPG with that aesthetic and tone is certainly worth paying attention to. It’s just unfortunate that the developers were unable to elevate this beyond being a shallow grind, with more misfired attempts at humour than a narrative that’s actually worth following. Vampire’s Fall is lengthy and content-rich, but it will be quickly forgotten.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax
    Sadly there just isn't much more to Dengeki Bunko than this. It is an exceedingly limited, albeit pretty 2D anime fighting game, with very little appeal beyond the fact you can have the little sister from Oreimo beat up the Sword Art characters. While a fun concept, the modern fighting game needs much more than that.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Mighty No. 9
    It was certainly compelling enough for me to want to finish the game. There are also plenty of challenges to help hone platforming skills which ultimately do help in finishing the regular levels. As a game that is clearly supposed to appease Mega Man fans who will likely never get a new game in the series ever again, it falls spectacularly short of their expectations, particularly those that assisted in the crowdfunding campaign.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    J-Stars Victory Vs+
    J-Stars Victory VS is very playable. But, when you consider that the entire purpose of this game's existence is to act as fan service, the fact that it fails to offer the kind of fan service that would have had fans clamouring for it is incredibly disappointing.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Soulslayer
    Soulslayer is an impressively ambitious indie visual novel. There's a great concept in there, and it's designed well. Unfortunately the shaky localisation effort, and the irritating guesswork that is sometimes thrown at the player also makes the game an experience that doesn't quite live up to its ambition.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    DragonFangZ: The Rose & Dungeon of Time
    It has all the presentational and gameplay elements it needs to be really great. But this developer's track record isn't there, so what we’ve got here is a game with a translation bad enough that it effectively breaks the game.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Sky Rogue
    While the loot grind is generally enjoyable, and the randomised missions help keep the missions from becoming rote, Sky Rogue does struggle to give you a reason to care about any of it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel
    On the whole, Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel is a quality 2D fighter, even if it lacks the narrative in needed and the characterisation that would have made it more effective as fanservice. All I can recommend is that you give the game a chance until you've managed to topple the boss, because from that point on you'll probably find yourself with a game that has a combat system you'll quite enjoy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Uncanny Valley
    If the developers had been content to just play to the game’s strengths as an adventure game, Uncanny Valley could have been something really good. Sadly, the shoehorning in of dull “survival horror” pulls the rug out from under that potential.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Blair Witch
    For fans of the Blair Witch franchise, this game is an interesting vignette which fleshes out the universe a little more. But for those looking for a horror game filled with good scares, this is probably one to pass on.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Eat Beat Deadspike-san
    Unless you really love the music of BlazBlue (and you might be better off purchasing a soundtrack if that’s the case), it’s pretty difficult to recommend Eat Beat DeadSpike-san. It’s a polished rhythm game with a really enjoyable look to it, but there’s just little replayability for a genre that is built upon that principle. This certainly won’t give anyone their Elite Beat Agents fix, but it does show that the touch-based rhythm games are right at home on the portable.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Perception
    If your big point of difference is that you’re playing a blind girl, but the way you’ve structured the gameplay means that she doesn’t behave blind at all, then you’ve shot your game’s credibility in the foot before it even starts.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Drawn to Life: Two Realms
    I am happy to see that Drawn To Life is still mulling around in the minds of the creators. I'm not the world's biggest fan of platformers, but I greatly enjoyed the playful creativity and customisation that the original games offered. That Two Realms has somehow pulled back on a concept that even primitive DS and Wii titles managed perfectly well is very disappointing, but I hope that the low price point means that this was just a token first effort that will lead into a more substantial, and conceptually true, re-boot down the track.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    ACA NeoGeo: Shock Troopers
    Unfortunately, the game’s high difficulty and unavoidable bullet patterns make it a hard sell for modern players. The game’s multiple pathways and variety of characters don’t hide the extremely simple gameplay at the core – gameplay which wears thin after a few too many cheap deaths. Unless you’ve got a nostalgic soft spot for this one, you won’t miss out on much by avoiding it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Secrets In Green
    Despite the subject, Secrets in Green is easy to play, so that’s a plus. The issue comes with its development side of things. The game does touch on mental illness, but it almost feels like the secondary narrative rather than the primary. It had so much potential thanks to its theme (women with mental illness in Victorian England), but it did little to touch on them. The classic visual novel gameplay fits well with the narrative, though I would have liked a few more choices sprinkled in. Some of the behind-the-scenes graphics choices are just plain strange to me. Unfortunately, my best one-word description of Secrets in Green is “forgettable.”
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Dusk Diver 2
    The sense of shallowness is impossible to shake, and over the course of a reasonably long brawler/RPG gets tiring. Dusk Diver 2, much like its predecessor, has all the potential in the world, and most of its individual elements are really competently made. It just doesn’t come together in execution, and while I was willing to give the developers the benefit of the doubt the first time, I’m just not certain they have a good grasp of how they want to execute on their ambition with this series. I don’t know if a third would be a good idea at this stage.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Metroid Prime: Federation Force
    A limited game that fails to do justice to its source material. That’s not to say that the game has no value, because it is decent fun in multiplayer for short sessions, but lacking the atmosphere and narrative as it is, as well as any kind of balance to make it viable for single player play, means it’s one that is going to be forgotten within months.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    WWE 2K20
    The core product still has a good deal to offer. Unfortunately a bevy of technical and gameplay issues give the impression that Visual Concepts needed more time with this title. I imagine that 2K20 will continue to receive patches and support that make it better, but in its current state it is impossible to recommend this over last year's version of the game.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Crossing Souls
    If only the rest of the game could live up to those visuals. Crossing Souls works just fine as a vessel for rose-tinted '80s nostalgia, but shallow storytelling and gameplay that shifts from uninteresting to outright frustrating ensures that it never gets to be anything more than that.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates
    Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates has a lot of potential but unfortunately it's made so clumsily that it is just painful to actually play. I wanted to love it because of some of its unique ideas, especially in the premise, but I just couldn’t get past the mechanical issues. Being a PC game and all perhaps community feedback will lead to this game being revised. I hope so, so I can come back and give it another spin.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Generation Zero
    When I first read the premise of Generation Zero I was intrigued and before I even loaded the game up for the first time I was excited. I wanted to like this game. Unfortunately, the game quickly falls into a beautiful void of its own making. With weak storytelling and empty gameplay, Generation Zero sinks into the mud and collapses like so many tents at the festival that day, gripping to weak foundations.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Rack N Ruin
    A game with much unmet potential. After clearing out the same area for the twentieth time, players will realise just how little effect they have on the gaming environment.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Toree 2
    I'm all for short games, and if a game really caught my attention I'd be more than happy to pay the equivalent of many coffees for an hour or two's play. My issue is when the game's so truncated in its brevity that it can't deliver on its promise. If Toree 2 is indeed a nostalgic love letter to the platformers of yesteryear, then the developers should have understood what made those titles cohesive, character-driven experiences. Toree 2's simply too limited and thin to deliver atmosphere, character, or a cohesive 3D platformer experience. As the saying goes: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I'm not making the mistake of giving this developer the benefit of the doubt this time around.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Escape Dead Island
    A game that leaves you basically going through the motions to get through a relatively short tale that has moments of intrigue, but otherwise falls flat.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance
    The gameplay gets quite repetitive after a while as there isn’t much change from one level to the next especially after the first ten to fifteen levels of each campaign. Frankly, Warhammer does deserve more rounded games than this.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Alvastia Chronicles
    Sadly, Alvastia Chronicles is yet another conceptual failure and broken mess of a game. I admire Kemco for its dedication to the retro aesthetic, and, as the old saying goes, a broken clock is right twice per day. Kemco has produced worthy games in the past through this approach. But while churning bland, derivative, and poorly tested games might work on the mobile space, in a commercial sense, there's nothing of value in Alvastia Chronicles. It's nothing but a drain on a person's time.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows
    It took me one day to start forgetting to check in to the app to issue new commands. It’s never a good sign when a game that is meant to encourage a constant check-in has lost its audience within 24 hours… especially given that I’m a big-time fan of the property it’s based on. The presentation of Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows is gorgeous and I would love to see a more meaningful game do something with this aesthetic. If only because it would also mean that, finally, a developer has figured out how to do the franchise justice.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tabletop Gallery
    There's nothing actually wrong with the game. It's just that I can't see many people getting meaningful value out of it.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Red Colony
    With all of that said, like I said at the start of the review, this is the Plan 9 From Outer Space of video games, and taken in that context, it's still a weirdly good time, and may well end up earning itself a similar cult classic status for it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The Witcher Battle Arena
    For now this game is little more than a noble, albeit misguided attempt to make a MOBA ideally suited to mobile platforms.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game
    Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game is such a great idea, but it becomes way too apparent, far too quickly, that the developers either didn’t have the budget to fully explore their idea, or simply had no idea how to turn the great idea into a compelling game. It’ll leave such a warm impression on you, but once that’s worn off, the game sours more quickly than a poorly cooked rhubarb pie. Hobbits like that for some reason. I do not.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Infinity Nikki
    I suspect that because I refuse to pay $500 for a digital dress, my interest in Infinity Nikki will disappear the moment I miss out on getting a particularly attractive costume from one of the limited events. But then I’d be better off just waiting for a Nikki figure to come out with my favourite dress on it instead anyway. I can see myself becoming a big-time collector of Nikki figures, and I love the character and what Nikki represents outside of the monetisation. However, the monetisation is inexcusable, even by the standard of exploitative gatcha games. No video game about collecting dresses is worth more than it would cost to buy the actual dresses in the real world. What’s more, when you let the monetisation undermine everything that the creative side of the game is aiming to achieve and suck the joy out of the fundamental mechanics, you’ve just broken your project.
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