Escape Goat 2 is a solidly-designed, sharp-looking title with no shortage of replayability thanks to its nefarious tower of challenging puzzles.

She Remembered Caterpillars is a beautifully crafted and well-designed puzzler that also touches on the grief of losing a parent. While the game doesn’t tackle its emotional themes on a large scale, it certainly left a lasting impression on me after only a few hours of gameplay.

Despite 18 years passing between the original and this port, it feels like not much has changed at all — it remains a heavily flawed but interesting work. Unfortunately, I was hoping that it would right the wrongs of the original version, especially in terms of the additional content, but fails to do so. That’s a bit disappointing, but even with the game being re-released in the state it is, it remains more enjoyable and refreshing than most of Star Wars‘ more recent offerings.

If every element of Metro Awakening were on par with the reloading, it’d be one of the best VR games of the year. Instead, I struggle to imagine who this experience is for. I’m a longtime fan, and after spending time with it, all I have is a list of complaints about how the previous Metro style has been sanded down to nothing. I can only imagine new players being lost on its lore while finding gameplay that comes off like a blander version of every other shooter on the market. It’s not even a technical or graphical showcase. Instead, it feels like a product. The Metro series is an incredible, harrowing journey with moving ruminations on the human condition. Metro Awakening is… not.

Casey Jones & The Junkyard Jam DLC isn’t a game-changer, but the asking price is low and the recent option to quickly join players online improves the entire package’s quality. As a result, those who might have given Splintered Fate a pass before might find themselves now intrigued by the possibility of slapping ninjas and robots around with three other players, at least for a few afternoons.

In the end, I somewhat enjoyed Disney Afternoon Collection in spite of its shortcomings. Retro gaming isn’t just a fad, but rather a growing movement for gamers who miss the simple challenge of using just a pair of thumbs. For that population – and fans of the equally nostalgic cartoon series – this collection is a bargain. But, for a true throwback thrill, there are plenty of ways to get it without resorting to unresponsive controls and questionable game design. Like most collections, this is a well-intentioned labor of love for fans of the IPs and 8-bit completists, yet I’m guessing most newcomers won’t see much value in this journey down memory lane.

While the gameplay is fairly standard, this version of Save me Mr Tako still ended up feeling like a win — it’s great to see the developer release a more complete version of the game after being denied by the original publisher, and I think anyone who enjoys small indies or throwbacks can appreciate that.

Little more than a time capsule giving players a glimpse into a series that stubbornly refused to improve along with its competition.

There were interesting ideas-and a very pretty opening video-but everything about Solatorobo felt…flat.

Issues aside, it’s good to see LEGO Builder’s Journey receive a wider release. It’s a little on the short side, but has a surprisingly good story. Players who enjoy puzzle games, especially fans of LEGO, will find a lot to like.

Dead or Alive 5's a very good game, but one that also seems slightly confused in its intentions-the neat new mechanics and impressive environmental interactions seem to be butting heads with Team Ninja's desire to make it a more competitive fighter-and by extension, a more traditional one. That said, it's still the best game in the series and incredibly enjoyable, regardless of whether or not it'll finally appease the hardcore fighting gamers out there.

Knights in the Nightmare struggles under the weight of its own complexity but the bizarre melding of divergent gaming subgenres make it a title I'd recommend to anyone bored with gaming's status quo.

As a diehard Dark Souls fan I’ve played nearly every soulslike, and none have done it as well as Mortal Shell. Not only has Cold Symmetry nailed the fundamentals, but they’ve added their own spin to the formula without being coy about their influences. Mortal Shell is the only copycat that can stand toe-to-toe with FromSoft’s own work, and although it’s considerably shorter than their offerings, it’s no less beautiful, haunting and rewarding.

It’s a slick, if understated, little title that delivers a frenetic, yet rewarding experience—like the best escape rooms.

Rival Megagun is a tight, accessible, and well-executed game that offers plenty of incentive to return, improve and master its play. This is a gem of a title, and one not be missed by fans of bullet-hell games, or shmups in general.

Because this game oozes love for mecha anime and RPGs without falling into being merely referential or nostalgic, Wolfstride is its own beast — a zany, at times heartfelt tale built atop a solid gameplay foundation of meeting giant robots and punching them in the face.

While many of the game's components have become stereotypes over the years, here they are carefully constructed and fit together perfectly, creating something larger than the sum of its parts.

Gamers who can't stand reading should probably stay away, but for everyone else, Judge Dredd is great stuff.

I love the style and overall concept of Creature in the Well, but after its initial statement, it just didn’t have much to say. With more detail, a few more ideas and a bit more depth, it would be a must-play. Although it doesn’t get where it needs to go, it’s a great start from Flight School Studio that’s got me excited to see how they up their game next time around.

finally has a permanent place in my collection – it’s obviously doing something right. The melee combat is truly some of the best I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve been playing on a nightly basis, knowing what a rush it is if I find the perfect opponent. Unfortunately, I struggle to recommend it when the total package is so skimpy and the online so unreliable. I sense an earnest attempt by Ubisoft with For Honor, but at the moment all they’ve done is laid the groundwork for a stronger experience in the future.

As a games critic for more than 20 years, I play a lot of titles. For me, the best ones are those that surprise me or subvert my expectations – titles that find a new angle, or offer something that I haven’t quite seen before. Golf Club Wasteland managed all of that, and left me with a few things to think about afterwards, to boot.

The biggest obstacle facing would-be Phasmophobia players is finding enough people willing to join in the shared roleplay that it requires. But, anyone able to put together a quartet of ghost investigators who are free for couple of hours on a particularly dark night will find themselves in one of the most effective co-op horror games ever made.

A sound choice that will not disappoint.

Those already converted to the unique sport of monster breeding will find Monster Rancher Advance to be a fine continuation of the PlayStation series that translates very well to the Game Boy Advance.

Lego Batman represents the first real misstep from developer Traveller's Tales in their moderately popular Lego franchise.

Despite these minor graphical issues, Monster Hunter Stories remains an incredibly charming game. It’s easy to understand but fairly deep, and the combat system offers plenty of freedom in tackling the series’ classic roster of creatures in engaging and novel ways. For newcomers to Monster Hunter interested in learning about the lore or looking for a point of entry that’s not as intense as the mainline series combat, this is the ticket.

It's not the longest game, and it's not the most complex game, but it succeeds at almost everything it sets out to do-which puts it head and shoulders above most other games out there, Star Wars-related or not.

And despite the very real possibility of some people being put off by the huge amount of text to get through, I strongly feel that Riviera has quite a bit to offer-not only to people still hanging on to their GBAs, but to fans of RPG's in general.

I don’t have any criticisms of Mutazione worth mentioning. Die Gute Fabrik has done a masterful job in crafting Kai’s tale, and it held my attention from start to finish. It was so good, in fact, that I have reached the end of this review without celebrating the absolutely marvelous art style which is what brought the game to my attention in the first place. This tale of a girl reconnecting with her grandfather while learning about the connections he made is not to be missed.

Clustertruck is admirably insane. The action is so fast and engaging that it made me enjoy a randomized, chaotic platformer, which was something I’d previously thought impossible. Still, I couldn’t avoid the nagging sense that I wasn’t wholly responsible for my failures (and successes!) they way I would have been in a more tightly-designed game. That said, anyone willing to loosen their grip on the wheel and go with the flow can expect a consistently surprising and raucous good time.

See, as suboptimal as many of Knights of Honor II’s macro design choices are, they add up to a vision of the grand strategy genre that, at the very least, provides a much different rhythm and feel from its contemporaries. Instead of the player securing their family line for future generations, or expanding an empire from the stone age to the space age, the player is given a modest patch of land and tasked with developing and defending it at all costs from inscrutable opponents that often feel like a swarm of angry wasps buzzing at the player’s stoop. Its core systems could use some elaboration, perhaps, but fans of this genre who need this particular itch scratched could do a lot worse!

Despite the huge amount of money obviously spent licensing and producing Scarface, in the end, it's nothing more than an acceptable title. Better written and designed than most, but too short and shallow to stand apart from the crowd.

The boss fights are a sore spot that killed my momentum and pushed me towards rage quitting, but I still had a blast pushing the oppressive corporate world back with vibrant colors and great music, and plastering the world with gorgeous graffiti pieces was always a good time. With a campaign that takes around five to six hours to complete, it’s an enjoyably stylish way to spend a weekend.

Mafia: Definitive Edition takes an old title and adds polish in the places where it counts most — story and character — while delivering a solid experience in most other aspects. The driving isn’t great and there are a few bugs that need to be squashed, but diving into this wonderfully tragic tale is an offer that no one should refuse.

Weird West is a truly special experience. While each one of its stories is compelling in its own right, when put together they transform into something fantastic. This is a game that shows its monsters and asks the player to be disgusted, and then turns them into a monster and asks if they feel the same way. As such, every one of the journeys contained within is worth taking, but it’s only once players have trod all of those roads that they’ll appreciate just how amazing Weird West‘s accomplishments are. It’s deep, it’s fascinating, and it’s full of the kind of storytelling that resonates for a long time after credits roll — truly an incredible experience from beginning to end.

As a philosophical rumination on the ownership of art, The Beginner's Guide is what Boswell might call an "ingenious sophistry", but not a compelling argument. As an exploration of an obsessive relationship that failed painfully, it's a sneakily effective success. Is the latter so bound up in the former that it loses impact? I thought not, but that's just me.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is pleasant but shallow. The initial “wow” factor of the wonderful aesthetics wears off once the backtracking starts, and the game never recovers. It looks wonderful, but no amount of prettiness can cover up gameplay that can’t come close to the quality of the visuals.

While I enjoyed my time with Horizon Chase Turbo, I wished it was an arcade cabinet instead of something to play at home. Part of the arcade appeal was always seeing how long I could get on a quarter — having unlimited access to such a thing puts it in a new, unfavorable light that reveals the content was never meant for it.

Old School Musical is a wonderful audio tribute that keeps the beat of classic games going on and on and on.

In the end, Brigandine: Legend of Runersia is one of the finest turn-based wargames on consoles in years. The concepts aren’t necessarily new or even deep compared to others in the genre, but they are masterfully rendered in service of a narrative that brings wargaming’s original sin forward into a harsh light.

I don’t envy any roguelike unfortunate enough to release immediately after Hades — that game made every run feel distinct and provided a persistent narrative justification for the repetition inherent to the genre. I obviously can’t expect smaller developers to match that effort, but what Hades does well underlines the fact that so many roguelikes let stellar ideas go to waste, lost amid endless monotony. Noita is a spectacular technical showcase in desperate need of a more fully-formed game.

After the last few installments, WWE 2K22 succeeds in bringing the zest back into this long-running franchise. Each match is intense and exciting, and I couldn’t stop myself from exploring different play styles and re-enacting some of my favorite encounters. Even if the whole WWE circus only exists to present a cheap power fantasy, games like this one triumph in highlighting the best side of the affair.

Ultimately, Slime Rancher 2 is a strange beast. On paper it has everything the original does, and more. More slimes, more unlocks and more imaginative environments. Sadly, the frustrations overshadowed many of those positives for me, as many of the new additions actively work against the tone of the experience. Quicker access to fast travel or unlimited stamina would go a long way to easing these complaints, and make me feel less like my time was being wasted. I’ve been rather negative on its latter sections, but for those who enjoyed the original Slime Rancher, it manages to hit many of the same pleasant notes — but maybe have a guide handy to minimize the travel and grinding.

Overall, the core mechanics were engaging and the world was enchanting enough to keep me coming back night after night. Even when it suffers from subpar writing or when the boss fights are a little too breezy, the dynamic, well-balanced combat, effective worldbuilding and ability to immerse the player in their role as the leader of a diverse group of adventurers who make choices that matter will appeal to a wide variety of gamers. There is much to do, much to say and much to discover around every corner in the world of Thedas.

In the end, Windjammers is a mechanically interesting experience that still feels fresh 23 years after its release, but this PS4 edition doesn’t include much to enhance the original. As it stands, Windjammers is enjoyable for an afternoon with friends, but it doesn’t offer much to hook players for the long term.

Although I badly want to like The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves more than I do, the honest truth is that it's a hell of a lot of work for a game that's basically nothing but grinding through dungeons. If the difficulty and frequency of encounters were just a bit lower, the insanely high cute factor would be able to carry the experience and I probably would have powered through. Instead, it's way, way too much effort for too little return—my patience and stamina wore out long before the credits rolled.

Singularity is the very definition of average, and the lack of subtitles knocks it just below. It is the gaming equivalent of white rice, the Ford Focus, and black coffee. Its taste is decidedly bland, but it'll do its job.

While the combat leaves a bit to be desired, Masquerada is by far the best story-driven game I’ve played, and I have no doubt that I will play it again. There’s something incredibly valuable about playing something that challenges the way I see the world, and that’s an experience worth repeating, even if I have to plow through a few fights to do it.

While I greatly enjoyed Control and The Foundation was solid, it feels like Remedy didn’t have any gas left in the tank for AWE. It’s visually boring, it’s irritating to play, and the connections to Alan Wake are laughably thin — the entirety of it could have been summed up in 90-second cinematic trailer. If this content had been available when I was going through Control the first time, I probably wouldn’t have objected. But now, a year later? It’s far too little, far too late.

Evil Dead: The Game pleases the Evil Dead fan in me as the perfect love letter to Sam Raimi’s horror masterpiece. As an actual game, however, it’s disappointingly bare-bones, with a multiplayer mode that gets stale way too soon and a dreadful series of single-player missions– qualities that are a serious concern for online-focused games like this one.

It appears that NBA 2K has finally started to take the “next step” into greater gaming possibilities. Though MyPlayer needs a good amount of tuning and streamlining before reaching the heights of past story modes, it hints at bigger things down the line. But, based solely on the thrilling, beautiful, on-court presentation and gameplay, 2K22 is still a tremendous achievement.

The Club's greatest flaw is that it thinks it's a whole lot more revolutionary than it actually is. Despite the game's claims to the contrary, there's nothing new about any of this.

I'm very sad to see that the developers have lost the magic that the first Shadow Hearts had. It's clear that they've nailed the technical half of the formula (and have had it down for a while now), but half a game is still half a game— I would have preferred that they spend less time tweaking something that wasn't broken and instead focus on the intellectual side.

Flinthook is right on the cusp of being an absolute superstar. The art is top-notch, the music rocks, and in a general sense, it squarely nails the energy and vibe needed to rise above the chaff. On the other hand, the controls need some modifications and I can’t help but feel like it might have been better off as a traditional action game instead of a roguelite. While this interstellar adventure lost me before we reached the destination, I hope to see this cute space pirate again, and I’ll always cherish the time I spent whipping that grappling hook around.

Overall, Fantasy Strike takes a leap and tries to create a deep fighter that’s also accessible. It’s successful, but I don’t see it dethroning any of the heavyweight fighters anytime soon.

Despite the issues I’ve highlighted, Dying Light 2: Stay Human is an improvement over the original in nearly every way. While there’s plenty to complain about, the world is more interesting, the parkour is fantastic, and the story has more weight — of the two, it’s absolutely the superior game, and the thrill of rocketing through a crumbling city with monsters in hot pursuit is unparalleled in the genre. It’s not perfect, but it’s as good as parkour action gets.

I hope that future Phoenix Wright titles are able to keep the character and plot development at the same level achieved in Phoenix Wright: Justice For All.

Greater diversity is always a good thing, and if there are more quality gems like this on the way, then I'll be quite happy holding a Controller S for some time to come.

Momodora provides fast platforming and combat, a beautifully realized and interconnected world, and plenty of challenge, although often this challenge becomes frustration. However, it doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before by better games, and ultimately, it leaves no lasting impression.

Wild Bastards sounds like it shouldn’t work. Its foundation is a patchwork of different genres frankensteined into a single title and the frenetic FPS portions are broken up by long stretches of slow-paced tactical movement and galactic navigation. Despite all this (and the damned RNG) I can’t deny that it all works. The story is filled with fascinating and funny (if not likable) characters I wanted to see succeed. The tactical portions present interesting choices, and the FPS sections are fast and furious. if there was ever a game where the whole was more than the sum of its parts, it’s this one — and it comes highly recommended!

The Phantasy Star games are classic RPGs (yes, even the third one…which everyone seems to hate), and they deserved at least a little updating.

It’s a dark experience from beginning to end, but one that’s absolutely worth playing, especially when it offers some insight into what makes people compelled to fight for the future, no matter how futile the battle may be.

It may sound strange, but the developers of Brave Story: New Traveler have created an above-average experience by taking a perfectly average formula and making absolutely no errors in its execution.

The Pitt doesn't offer a lot of impressive loot to score, collecting items for that last achievement is more trouble than it's worth, and the struggle-with-a-twist to free Pittsburgh's slaves (or not) is over before you know it.

With a fascinating story and great gameplay, Broken Lines makes a strong case that turn-based combat can be used for projects more modest than the grand strategy and expansive RPGs that generally feature it.

At the end of the game something is revealed about Aliya, and she must make a choice. Unfortunately, neither option held any impact for me. The core mystery of Heaven’s Vault and the puzzles that must be solved to illuminate it are compelling. Yet, like its world and its core character, Heaven’s Vault gets caught up in physical things and forgets the human, rendering its final revelations as cold as the dead moons where Aliya digs up her artifacts. Then again, perhaps it’s fitting for an archaeologist that the story she uncovers is more compelling than her own.

It’s clear The Gentlebros studio has intentionally iterated on their approachable ARPG, and they’ve accomplished that goal with polished gameplay elements that hang together tightly. It might not be a satisfying experience for seasoned vets, but Cat Quest II is recommended for anyone seeking a bite-sized, straight shooting, heartwarming adventure.

And as a videogame, there's not much in Chain of Memories that I haven't seen before…except card breaks and room synthesis.

Arguably, the racing genre doesn't create classics anymore. Publishers merely try to make the least offensive version of their franchise for that year. Owing to this truth, NFSR succeeds at not being offensive. Sure, it's just bumper cars at its core. Just cats chasing mice. But sometimes that's enough.

Fury Unleashed can be tough as nails for many reasons, but thanks to developers that embrace the idea that someone should be able to adjust difficulty to their own abilities and tastes, players of all skill levels will find something to enjoy about this roguelite shooter.

Being a bit soft on the narrative is a sin that many games commit, and while I’m generally a big story guy, 7th Dragon III: Code VFD performs so fantastically in all other aspects that I can’t scold it for not making me examine the human condition. For players who want an excellent RPG-lite or a nonstandard dungeon crawler, this game is the total package—it’s got some of the most entertaining mechanics I’ve seen in years, it’s as smooth as butter to play, and everything about it oozes polish. It’s not only going to be one of the best 3DS games released this year, but one of the best 3DS titles overall.

Pumpkin Jack packs a lot of charm in this breezy adventure. It has flaws for sure, but players who have nostalgia for the specific kind of platformer that it’s paying homage to might find it to be worth their time.

Bonkies is cute and I found its ’90s cartoon aesthetic appealing, but the unbalanced difficulty swings make it hard to enjoy alone or in co-op. It’s possible that the optimal experience is with four players and the game does support remote play as well as couch co-op, so the best idea might be to find three friends before jumping into this monkey business.

Overall, Scene Investigators is a perfect game for CSI and The Mentalist fans. It offers lovers of the genre the challenge of analyzing crime scenes with a realistic approach in a way that remains loyal to its concept while also being fairly educational. A rare trick!

I looked hard for something wrong with this re-release of RE4, but I found… nothing. I suppose some could fault the developers for not adding a quick weapon switch to the D-pad (going into a briefcase to switch weapons has never been ideal) and it’s disappointing to see that the FMV sequences weren’t given the same visual overhaul as the rest of the title. Beyond those small quibbles, however, the game remains as good as it’s ever been. The campaign is the best in the series, the bonus chapter offers a huge amount of new content, and the costumes change the way the game is played. This really is one of the best games ever made, and over a decade later, it hasn’t lost any of its cachet.

I hope that Nintendo sees the error of its ways soon and pulls Fox & Co. out of this interminable nosedive.

The Evil Within 2 offers a few solid scares, some glimpses into a more promising game, and a lot of unexciting bloat. In such a crowded release season, it’s gonna take more than that to earn a recommendation from me. But hey, at least they got rid of the letterboxing. That’s a step in the right direction.

While it doesn't achieve much with the plot or its core concept, Alan Wake's American Nightmare offers an interesting-enough time-loop scenario with satisfying combat, and it knows when to end before it wears out its welcome. I definitely enjoyed my time with the game in a tactile sense, but I could never get over the nagging feeling that the series still has quite a way to go before reaching its full potential.

The introduction of a new type of weapon to a military organization really hit home with me and probably added to the allure of this game.

The Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle is a great collection of famous (and not-so-famous) games from what I would consider to be a golden age for the publisher, and despite their age and simple designs, there’s still some fight left in these old dogs.

Although it’s got some serious shortcomings, I would strongly encourage the developers to keep going in the direction that they’re going and to deepen and enhance what they’ve already built — this piece of work is absolutely headed in the right direction, it just hasn’t reached its destination yet.

Volta-X can’t be played without an active online connection. Forget about taking it on the bus or anywhere that the Switch can’t stay connected. Even putting it in rest mode for a minute or two will drop the connection, and along with this comes increased battery usage — my playtime between charges was notably reduced. This laundry list of issues breaks my heart, because Volta-X has a great concept and could have easily been a killer eight-to-ten-hour adventure filled with lasers, rocket-powered fists and awesome explosions. Instead, the experience is brought down by stretching it into the sort of neverending online game-as-service that it isn’t suited for. Time to take this ‘bot offline and reboot.

For my money, Days Gone remains one of the absolute best open-world games on the market, and now more people will have the opportunity to try it out for themselves as it puts its best foot forward. That’s something worth celebrating, I think.

A perfect game to be filed under the category of "plays much better than it looks", I am a little embarrassed to say that I almost skipped over this one while browsing through the App Store, but I'm incredibly glad that I didn't-it quickly became one of my favorite iOS games, period.

Unfortunately, the game comes off as disappointingly beholden to classic computer RPG style despite being a modern creation, and the world feels dry and dull. I can’t imagine many players who aren’t already familiar with the license finding much enjoyment here. But worst of all? This particular version is a terrible port that’s nearly unplayable in some areas, and serves as a good example that not every game belongs on the Switch.

With a variety of interesting characters and well-balanced gameplay, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare should have been a perfect entry-level team-based FPS, letting younger and more casual audiences learn about the fun of meeting others online and shooting them in the face. Sadly, the frustrating unlock system puts a damper on that, and it never manages to make players feel rewarded for playing.

I don’t know whether it’s a testament to the design or just my stubbornness, but while I didn’t enjoy Panzer Paladin much the first time through, I do want to go back and master it in the future… just not right away.

I played Crimson Shroud for a total of 6.5 hours before I got frustrated and gave up because five hours of that playtime was spent fighting the same group of enemies over and over for the random drop which never appeared. Holding back rare weapons or magic items is one thing, but it's incredibly disrespectful of a player's time and a waste of a consumer's money to make forward progress reliant on pure luck.

There are lessons to be learned in Attentat 1942. Whether on social media or on the streets, there’s something to be said for taking a stand in the world. It might be hard to see it now, but we can only hope that in fifty years we’ll we be proud that we were talking about #YesAllWomen and #BlackLivesMatter and #LoveIsLove because we changed the times… or perhaps the times will change us? Attentat 1942 is a welcome wake-up call showing that it’s impossible to look into the future, but we can recall our past, and when doing so, good people are going to wish they had something better to say for themselves than “I didn’t know what to do.”

Despite a healthy amount of competition roughly covering the same territory, Hunt: Showdown manages to find its own fresh take. It’s not as polished as it should be and the interface needs work, but as an experience it carves a niche for itself within this blossoming genre.

While some may think New Super Lucky’s Tale is too easy, I appreciate its accessible approach to 3D platforming, and I found it to be a great way to kick back and unwind as everything here is scientifically designed to make me smile — there are loads of charming touches like the looks on Lucky’s face, or when enemies danced along to the music during one boss fight. While nothing here is mindblowing and it doesn’t push the genre forward, NSLT absolutely manages to maintain a sense of joy and wonder lost in most modern games.

I spent a lot of time complaining in this review because it chafed against my particular tastes for these kinds of experiences, but there’s little here that’s bad on an objective level. As such, Kotama and Academy Citadel wouldn’t be at the top of my metroidvania recommendation list, but that’s due more to the amount of stellar competition in the genre than any particular flaw of its own.

Despite these minor hiccups, Tower of Guns almost perfectly achieves what it sets out to do. The tower can be run quickly, but the array of weapon and perk choices, combined with the randomness of the drops, the bosses, and the levels themselves, produces an enormous variety that ensures running it almost never gets old.

Penny’s Big Breakaway shows promise, but it’s bogged down by long stages, smudgy-looking backgrounds, a lack of camera movement, and finicky controls. The yo-yo antics of our heroine felt great and looked cool when I could pull them off, but more often than not, I found myself back at the checkpoint or having to redo a part of the level. I was really hoping for more magic from the former Sonic Mania team. With a little more polish, this feels like it could be a great addition to the 3D platforming genre.

A game like Red Orchestra 2 is a rare find in this era, even considering that World War II has been done to death as a game setting. An uncompromising title that does not have any qualms about throwing players to the sharks and saying "deal with it", it's a deeply satisfying multiplayer experience if one can suffer enough to allow it to be.

JYDGE isn’t very long, but it’s incredibly wide, and its winking embrace of ’80s-style ultraviolence should charm both devotees of the franchises that inspired it and anyone who can appreciate a clever shooter.

Overall, I predict that Pode’s problems will come more from external forces than from within the game itself. With 20-30 new competitors flooding into the eShop every week, this charming little puzzler will inevitably have a hard time getting noticed. For those who give the bud some attention, however, a beautiful flower will grow.

Hero-U is an imperfect experience that it is difficult to recommend, even to fans of these devs’ previous work. It might be an interesting proposal to those looking for something far outside RPG norms, but there are too many other choices out there to give this one a general recommendation — if nothing else, I’d suggest tracking down the original Quest for Glory titles instead!