Recommending An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs depends a lot on one’s tolerance for backtracking and exploring huge areas with no map available. While the great wit and sheer absurdity of the situations managed tograb ahold of my interest, it wasn’t enough to keep me playing until the end.

The campaign offers a good mix of classic characters, the location in which the adventure happens is unusual, the tactics are rich and the gameplay is enjoyable — if the script and voiceovers didn’t dump a bucket of hog slop all over everything, we’d be in business. Unfortunately, the narrative aspect of Naheulbeuk is truly abysmal and it ruins everything else the game gets right. In this case, a boring by-the-numbers ‘save the world’ questline would have been far, far preferable to what we actually got.

I don’t make this comparison lightly, but Knockout City almost reminds me of the elegance of Rocket League – it’s that combination of simple and fresh, where it’s easy to understand but offers a sky-high skill ceiling. Only time will tell if Knockout City has as long a tail, but it deserves a chance.

In summary, Guilty Gear Strive is an excellent evolution of a series that’s always provided players with a unique and interesting approach to weapons-based combat, and now it’s slightly less impenetrable for newcomers. It’s got room to grow, but it’s a stylish, standout fighter whose strengths absolutely outnumber its flaws.

Griftlands’ successful experiments in branching narrative, combined with a deckbuilding system that ranks among the genre’s richest, make it one of my favorite roguelikes to date. Whether I’d recommend it on Switch, however, is another matter. Roguelikes sing on handhelds, but anyone opting to experience Griftlands on Nintendo’s hardware is setting themselves up for a massive learning curve that may turn prospective players off. One way or another, though, Griftlands is a title that deserves every roguelike fan’s attention.

It’s easy to think that the run-based deckbuilder genre has been entirely tapped out, but Roguebook counters that notion in an instant. Though its broader narrative and post-game balance may be a little thin, everything else between these pages is incredibly rich and satisfying. By combining the elegance of tabletop map exploration with a thoughtful evolution of deckbuilding mechanics, Abrakam and Richard Garfield have found a match made for the history books.

There’s not much to complain about in Clan o’ Conall — the developers have successfully managed to put together a pleasing side-scrolling action-platformer that looks amazing, plays well and manages to implement a neat multi-character system. This one might not break new ground, but there’s no question that it’s a win.

After my time with Rise of the Slime, I was left feeling a bit confused. It’s too simple and the graphics don’t seem like they will appeal to fans of the genre, yet it’s too punishing and difficult for casual players or those unfamiliar with the deckbuilders. I’m not sure of who it’s trying to target, but my guess is that it’s a bit off the mark regardless.

Honestly, I love that Wave Break exists. It’s a delightful homage to what is arguably my favorite series of all time, complete with an interesting aesthetic and an enjoyable story as well — it’s just a shame that I spent most of my time fighting the physics, controls and camera instead of just enjoying it.

Sure, it’s a shame Bluepoint Games weren’t drafted to take care of this collection of and give it some real love, but what the hell. I still had a great time revisiting them, and my only real criticism is that Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was a poor pick in a world where Ninja Gaiden 2 exists. It’s a shame that more of an effort wasn’t made to jazz these up, but it’s still great that the classics are finally on PC.

In the end, Of Bird and Cage left me with a terrible taste in my mouth, and I wondered how it managed to get released today. In fact, it’s so bad that I would almost recommend it to connoisseurs of terrible games, but frankly, I’m not sure I could live with my conscience.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends tries too hard to mesh different game types into one unified multiplayer experience, and its lofty ambitions get buried under clashing elements. What could have been an exciting co-op title ended up a frustrating slog, and in a heist — whether it’s a movie or a game — if the main caper ain’t good, the rest doesn’t matter.

Whether the story pays off is up to personal interpretation (for me, it did not) but putting that aside, Returnal’s general lack of persistence, enthusiasm for negative items, and heavy focus on twitch skill without options for self-regulating difficulty results in an experience that caters to a very, very specific type of player and coldly shrugs off the rest. With some rebalancing and a few tweaks, it’s not hard to imagine Returnal as one of the year’s best thanks to its fantastic controls, intuitive physics and beautiful graphics. But as it stands? My guess is that most people will abandon Selene to her inhospitable time loop long before the credits roll.

Overall, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids was the perfect excuse to return to one of my favorite games from last year. While there isn’t much new here to win new fans, returning players who couldn’t get enough of Valhalla’s rich world and exciting exploration will be right at home in the green fields of Ireland.

Retro Machina is a game that diligently stays true to its title, putting on the table nothing more or less then what is implied with the opening menu. Unfortunately, the developers have kept too sharp a focus on the ‘retro’ aspect, and in failing to leverage the design improvements and innovations from recent years, the end result is an experience that feels far smaller and more limited than it should.

Cozy Grove‘s time-gated content slowed the pace of play too much for me. I love the art style and bringing color back to the island, but when each session’s content ends up being exhausted after 30 minutes or less, it was too easy to forget the whole thing and divert my attention elsewhere. I do look forward to learning more about the spirits, I just wish it wasn’t so slow!

War in the East 2 is a great wargame, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an approachable one. It further entrenches a tradition that lives more as careful study than fast-and-loose gameplay, standing apart as a stunning reflection of the Eastern Front conflict that it simulates. As I peer down from the parapets, bolstered by the obligation of a generous review period, I find it a little too easy to tell all the new players held at arm’s length outside the walls of the genre that it’s worth it to climb all the way up here…but just take my word for it that the view is nice, even if the blood-soaked footprints in the Rasputitsa below are frozen, forever, in history.

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.

R-Type Final 2 is about as niche as niche gets. It represents a genre that’s hardly en vogue, and it’s a traditional, hardcore example of an experience that ferociously clings to its roots. This is not the shmup I would gift to someone in hopes of luring them into the genre, and it’s an especially difficult sell with the rather astounding $40 price point before DLC. All of this makes R-Type Final 2 a game with a fairly narrow scope, but anyone directly within that Venn diagram will be in for an exceptionally-produced, technically excellent iteration on a legendary franchise.

While I find it laudable that all of these options are available to players, I just wish they were attached to a better package. The story is too chaotic and comes with a payoff I didn’t find satisfying, and the combat is not spectacular enough to be noteworthy. Completionists can try to find every hidden nook and cranny, but the game isn’t compelling enough to warrant it. This is good work, but it’s lacking that certain something that would push it into ‘great’ territory.

The Procession to Calvary is a gem. It’s wild, smart, incredibly unconventional romp, and it’s new experiences like this that give me life as a reviewer. I’m very glad to have played it.

Silicon Dreams asks important questions that address our nature as human beings and the rights of minorities, while also providing its own interesting brand of sci-fi narrative while avoiding shallow slogans and easy resolutions, and it definitely comes recommended for those wanting something more engrossing and relevant than the average visual novel.

My own interpretation aside, Crime Opera: The Butterfly Effect doesn’t require any theorizing to enjoy since its story stands strong on narrative tension and thrill alone, and showing this side of the mafia that’s often glossed over is something that I can thoroughly appreciate.

The lack of difficulty and lack of evolution in the gameplay mechanics are an issue, but they don’t diminish the overall appeal of Out of Line, though they do hold it back from being something truly special. I savored exploring San’s forsaken habitat and eagerly awaited what lied around the next corner. The gameplay can’t match the lofty bar set by the presentation, but Out of Line remains a visual and atmospheric triumph.

Red Solstice 2 is a bleak ordeal, but it’s not without its charms. There’s a real sense of frantic desperation created as the player scrambles desperately from one mission to the next, helplessly watching the global infection meter always climbing. Whether it’s zombie biomass, sinister corporations, or environmental catastrophe, for the entirety of Red Solstice 2′s play time I was sure that we were only ever a hair’s breadth away from extermination — which only served to make fighting against it feel all the more satisfying. If the developers could ease the repetitiveness from their random mission generator, this would be one of the best successors to XCOM’s legacy, but in its current state it’s just an extremely solid squad-based RTS.

Would I recommend Strangeland? Yes I would, especially to players willing to expand their boundaries and go beyond the general concept of what a videogame story is. The obscure, allegorical journey of the Stranger is not a typical adventure game for fans of the genre, but ultimately an experience that will amply reward those who come to it with an open mind. Will it prove as enduring as the great literary works? Only time will tell.

Even if World Brothers were just a quickie distraction meant to tide fans over until the post-apocalyptic madness of EDF6 it would still be worth a look. It manages to be so much more than that, though — the huge cast, constantly surprising powers, humorous writing and huge numbers of classic enemies and heroes all combine to turn this into a celebration of the franchise. Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is a love letter to one of the craziest videogame series ever, and its simplified look and gameplay ironically make this unbelievably niche title one of the best jumping-on points the series has ever offered.

Despite its age, Fez manages to feel as entertaining and relevant as it ever was — it’s a puzzle-platformer that expertly hides a deep level of difficulty behind a surface layer of relaxing action, beautiful music and attractive graphics. While there are no new features of note on this Switch port, what’s here is still as scrumptious and inviting as it ever was.