At the risk of irrelevancy to most DDNet readers, I will add the quality family time Vignettes gave us is worth more than ten times its admission fee. Make no mistake about it, I warmly recommend you take up on the invitation, make a reservation, and roll up for the Vignettes magical mystery tour!

It’s all so completely charming that immediately after swearing for a few seconds, I was good to go again. I would like to see Koei Tecmo and Square Enix collaborate on more of these kinds of games down the track. Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is undeniable proof that the mix between a genuine JRPG and Warriors game works, and now it’s time for a Final Fantasy Heroes, methinks.

The split between aesthetic pleasure and unforgiving gameplay will be what drives the spear between whether this game is a worthwhile buy or not. There are a few things which the developers get absolutely right, and as a product of a small-team it’s fun to simply celebrate the sheer joy with which Lichtspeer was made. There’s value in the art, the style, the writing and the magic when it all comes together. As much as I enjoyed all that, however, I can’t say that this is a game which plays well.

For all its wealth of content, Puyo Puyo Tetris does rely on developing and then maintaining a strong online community for truly long-term value. As a local multiplayer game, you’ll be glad to have it around for the parties, and it’ll help plane trips and other long travels fly by in a snap. Get hooked into the game’s steep learning curve online, however, and you’ll have a game that you’ll be playing for months, if not years, and not once, for even the briefest second, will the game lose its charm.

I am so happy that The Dragon’s Trap was rereleased in this way. Its visual style appeals to a whole new generation, and the love and attention given to the game as a whole will make fans of the 1989 original smile from ear to ear. From the hand-drawn visuals to the instrumental soundtrack, everything about The Dragon’s Trap remake shows how remakes should be done. This isn’t a mere cash-in for nostalgia’s sake, this is a remake that has been targeted for all audience, a rare gem for sure.

ArmaGallant is a budget production, and that means that it will likely not sustain the community that a game of its nature needs. I’m already finding myself queuing for ten minutes at time to get a match going, and that’s really disappointing, because this is one I could see myself playing for quite a while yet, given half the chance. It also helps that I am, to date, actually undefeated. Bring on a world championships and those eSports sponsorships, please, I want to turn pro at ArmaGallant.

It might be a flawed experience, but that’s almost irrelevant when you consider just how much of it there really is on offer. This is how you do an “HD remaster."

It’s a cool little game that pokes fun at a lot of what is wrong with AAA First Person Shooters, and a lot of it is still relevant today. I'd just avoid playing through as Duke Nukem.

What I love about this game - and its iOS port - is that it has done such a great job of capturing and respecting the essence of Japan.

Now keep in mind, this is a port of the original Wii U title. if you already have it, there probably is not enough here to warrant coming back for more unless you want split screen cooperation, higher resolution or achievements. That being said, if you missed LEGO City Undercover the first time around and enjoy this unique brand of adventure gaming, know that this release is one of the most entertaining and original LEGO games in quite some time.

The problem with the package is that it’s difficult to argue that any of the games in it a bona fide classics.

That ending notwithstanding, Kona is a trip worth taking. It’s a beautiful, moody showcase of the snowy wilds of northern Canada, and a slow-burning mystery steeped in atmosphere. Play it for the journey, not the destination.

There’s a lot to like in Vikings, even if the game’s never able to effectively articulate how it’s different to the genre’s greats. It manages - just - to be more than a by-the-numbers Diablo clone thanks to the creative energy that went into its bosses and environment design, but it relies too heavily on that, and the assumption that you’ll be playing the game in multiplayer. As a single player experience, the limits on what Vikings can offer become distracting; making it good for a lazy afternoon of grinding fun, but not something that you’ll remember over the longer term.

The problem for Mervils is that none of it works that well. It’s not a game that benefits in any substantial way from being in VR, because you’ll be focused entirely on your avatar, which sits beneath your view and demands your attention at all times; you have no time to actually enjoy the game as a VR experience, and Mervils does nothing with that VR perspective.

Virry’s not a game, and I know that in writing that I’ve disqualified it as a potential purchase by many. But Virry is such an important little experience, because it gives people the chance to get close to threatened animals, and hopefully come away caring a little more about conservation.

The enemy’s AI is non-existent; it will spawn slowly strengthening hordes of soldiers, but otherwise it won’t do anything. If you can get a multiplayer game going there’s a bit more strategy involved, I guess, but there isn’t much of a community wrapped around this one, leaving Korix feeling like a game that had a good idea buried away in there, but fails to give people the VR strategy experience that they’ll be looking for.

What’s most important is that the game works without giving me the slightest bit of motion sickness, and as a fan of trash B-grade science fiction, I was really able to appreciate the inherent silliness of it all. There might not be much depth here over the long term, but for some short bursts of frenetic action, it absolutely has the lightgun genre nailed.

Accompanying this storytelling is a delightful tap-tap-tap sound as dialogue is spoken, as though the story is being typed out on a keyboard as the player reads along.

Talk about a piece of media that can capably transport the player directly into the 1990s of ice hockey games, Old Time Hockey does exactly that. From the one-colour loading screens, to the sound effects, right down to the chosen font, Old Time Hockey is a fun yet flawed experience. In a time where many developers are looking back to the 1990s as inspiration for their games, Old Time Hockey stands out as one of the success stories.

Fated: The Silent Oath is exactly the kind of game that VR was made for, and it’s nice to finally see the technology put to work on small, intimate, emotive character drama. The good news is that this is the first part of what’s planned to be a multi-episode game, and I’m really looking forward to spending more time in this world, with these people.

I had a great time playing The Inner World and was sad to say goodbye to its wacky denizens, the cheeky humour and the fairytale world of Asposia.

Despite falling neatly into typical fantasy locales (forest, volcano, snowy mountain), there’s something unique about Eekeemoo’s levels, and they inspire plenty of curiosity. Sadly, those feelings are quickly laid to rest by every other aspect of the game. Despite its potential and the love poured into it, Eekeemoo: Splinters of the Dark Shard is a broken mess that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

MLB The Show 17 is the only AAA baseball game in town, but the series is clearly not content resting on its laurels. With notable improvements in several areas and increased accessibility to try and hook newcomers, baseball fans should find a lot to like about this year's release. Play ball!

Ticket to Earth is not a book by Sartre. One need not spend too much time assessing it in depth. However, the player is clearly not going to suffer the dreaded death by PowerPoint; the theme of the rich and powerful exploiting everybody else creates enough interest (and, sadly, relevance) to lift Ticket to Earth into more than just another tile based mobile game. It even meant yours noobishly had no problems whatsoever going through the grind required to upgrade my character to a level I could actually make progress with. I needed to know what’s going to happen!

It’s probably just as well Sony gave this thing away for free with PSPlus memberships. It’s the only hope the game has of actually keeping an audience (because it’s a multiplayer-only game, it needs a large and sustained community). But if David Jaffe genuinely wants to make a transgressive game, next time he should pay some attention to how actual transgressive artists like Goichi Suda and Yoko Taro do it.

Andromeda is still Mass Effect, and for some that might be enough, but this avenue needs more to be held in similar esteem. It does reach a satisfying conclusion, at least as far as the buildup warrants, but it takes the long way around. It does hit something that feels like a fresh, Mass Effect-patterned beginning, but a lot of the sophistication in plot that’s alluded to is left up in the air. Of course, we've also heard all of this before, when people were unsure about just what BioWare was trying to do with the original Mass Effect. It really took us two games to come to believe in the vision in the first instance, and perhaps that is the case with our new home in Andromeda, too.

The presentation in general is great, and the challenge level is oddly compelling. This is a difficult game to put down.

If you’re here for the fighting however, you’re in luck. King of Fighters 98 is one of the most robust 2D fighters ever made. Game balance is impeccable, and each character has a solid amount of offensive and defensive options to make them viable. Matches are decided entirely upon skill, so this game is best experienced with a few friends who are willing to learn the strategies and get good enough to compete. You’re sure to be playing this one for a long time.