For everyone else, Go! Go! Nippon doesn’t go far enough in any one direction to be recommended as anything more than a pleasant diversion for a few hours.

I'm not going to offer any theories as to whether this whole thing should be legally actionable, but setting potential plagiarism aside, Abyss is a high-quality hidden object game more than enough content to keep anyone entertained.

As it is, Lord of the Mind is a great HOG for most of its running time, but the jarringly disappointing finale keeps it from being one of the classics.

What I can say is that the concept of rewinding and rewriting has much potential. If it delivers genuine variances based on player decisions, there could be many interesting outcomes, but it's too early to tell how much Effect the Butterflies will have.

In many ways, Marvin's Mittens is a perfect game for young ones. Its story, aesthetic, and mechanics are simple and inviting enough to remain engaging, but despite its younger skew, I found the game to be delightful.

With more polish, it could have been a great mashup. As it stands, it will only appeal to the small segment of players who love punishment, but to those less skilled, it's got nothing to offer.

The fact that they didn't take advantage of advancements in modern game design and usability keeps Elliot Quest from being anything more than a too-faithful tribute to a flawed game.

Fat Chicken doesn't really succeed either as a reverse tower-defense game or as a political statement. By clinging too tightly to a standard in-level economy that doesn't play well with its twist on the genre, Fat Chicken ends up with play that's overly constrained.

It's hard to fault the developers for not including a split-screen multiplayer mode, but that might have sent Disco Dodgeball over the edge of recommendation for me. While the fast-paced action of all-out dodgeball combat is consistently enjoyable, it would be even better with friends in the room.

The Bozak Horde isn't very large and doesn't offer any of the fascinating storytelling flourishes of the main game, but it's fresh and creative, with the developers doing a great job of showcasing their mastery of traversal and combat construction. Anyone who enjoyed Dying Light will find this a satisfying diversion for at least a few hours while waiting for the dune buggies coming down the line.

A gimmick can make for a classic game if done well, but High Strangeness doesn't develop its ideas enough to get there.

While Static didn't really work for me, it's short, it's free, and certain aspects of it are very much open to interpretation. I've been sitting on this one for a while due to a fear of misrepresenting a piece of art that I don't entirely understand, but I can still recommend that interested parties check it out for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

While the developers could have made a by-the-numbers vampire story, they've done something far more interesting, turning it on its head to creating one of the most delightfully absurd narratives I've seen in ages.

Although I liked the minimalist aesthetics and I'm open to interesting little projects like this, Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition didn't feel like it had much of a point. I'm sure that something about this content is very significant to its creator, but the problem is that it wasn't very significant to me.

Ultimately, Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours may be too careful for its own good. For all of its accommodations to different types of play, this is a game that still leans heavily on the conventions of shooters past.

While the game is relatively short, it ends before overstaying its welcome and the difficulty in many stages means players won't be breezing through on their first pass. It also makes up for its brevity by providing strong atmosphere and an intriguing story. Despite the issues I had with it, it's worth seeking out every one of Mion's memories and uncovering how this little girl and her fireflies ended up in such a dire situation.

Its castle isn't worth exploring, nor are its mysteries worth examining.

Overall, CarneyVale Showtime offers striking presentation and promising core gameplay which is let down by some questionable design decisions, sometimes-poor controls, and a lack of accessibility options.

A fan of the hidden object genre who doesn’t mind a little extra padding will certainly find this to be a worthwhile entry.

While the visuals are appealing and the bots are full of life, I find myself a bit let down by the gameplay. It’s not precise enough to be a true ballet of blades as the title implies, and really, it’s too bad since the market has room for a top-down Nidhogg. On the other hand, it’s too precise to be a wacky laugh-with-your-mates brawler like Gang Beasts, which it could have done equally well. As is, it is a decent game within reach (in either direction) of being something much greater.

The most puzzling thing about Lost Castle is that it makes mistakes it has no reason to. The games that obviously inspired it have already solved its design problems — Rogue Legacy showed how to do an upgrade-based economy perfectly. Dark Souls‘ enemies have weaknesses and the player can defend. The devs rival Isaac‘s dizzying array of items and weapons, but nailing one out of three aspects isn’t enough to recommend it. There’s some quality stuff in Lost Castle and I genuinely hope it gets fixes for its flaws. But, as of right now, it’s a decent-ish co-op title that’s borderline unplayable alone.

While Dead Rising 2: Off The Record outdoes its predecessor in terms of raw playability and the amount of content it offers, it’s just not as satisfying. Both Dead Rising 2 and 3 understand that these are games are fundamentally about helping people in a terrible situation, and they’re richer because of it. Frank West’s jokey manner fits the sandbox mode well, but his detached, ironic worldview doesn’t land the way the rest of the series does. In the end, this effort feels like a minor sidenote before the series put the best pieces together for Dead Rising 3.

At its core, Zombie City Defense 2 is just fundamentally wrongheaded. If the developers had wanted to make either an RTS or Tower Defense game with the concept, I might have found something of value. By trying to do both, they’re left with nothing.

Ellipsis is an immensely high-quality puzzler that’s recommended to absolutely anyone… so long as they have a steady hand.

Deathstate captures the wonder and horror of Lovecraft as well as a shooter possibly could, throwing aside existential dread for overwhelming strangeness. This isn’t a genre pairing that I would have anticipated, but once again Lovecraftian horror has proven that it can work anywhere, so long as it’s produced by developers who understand and care about it.

In around an hour, I managed to complete Bucket Detective with two endings, and the developer smartly added the ability to load any section of the game I wanted so that I could go back and play for the others. I guess the fact that I want to see more of it makes it a ‘good’ title, but to be honest, I’m not sure I’d ever recommend it to anybody.

Gunworld 2 is a pleasure to play, and a retro experience in all the best ways. Unlike Double Dragon 4, which preserved the worst parts of that franchise, Gunworld has looked at Zelda 2 and the Mega Man series, carefully decided which parts still feel worthwhile and will work best together, and transformed them into a new experience that captures the 8-bit feel without being beholden to its limitations.

It’s cute, and it’s strange, and it’s certainly got a solid ruleset, but there’s just not enough to Acorn Assault. The main campaign is twenty-five levels of repetitive combat, and the multiplayer mode is strangely handicapped, leaving it an oddity without much to recommend it. Unless, of course, one was curious about the events which inevitably led to the rise of Squirrel Napoleon…