This game is honestly all over the place. There’s a naming of an accomplice that is tough for others to guess. There’s a voting about which art to investigate. (And then you loop around and do more of them anyway?) It never feels like Weapons Drawn knows entirely what it wants to be. Still, there’s some fun in trying to spot letters. The second round keeps the same letter for your art, but uses different writing styles to make it truly tough. We appreciate the ambition, but this one’s tough to get your mind around most of the time.

Yohane the Parhelion -Blaze in the Deepblue- is a solid Metroidvania experience full of pleasant surprises that will delight seasoned veterans of both the genre and Love Live fans. With plenty to explore and discover, this game is well worth your time and dollar.

If someone were to ask me which KEMCO games to play, Metro Quester would not just be on that list. It would absolutely be somewhere near the top of it. While the nature of it means it isn’t going to be for everyone who typically goes for every KEMCO RPG, it’s a really special and challenging experience that makes you think about all your actions.

If all this sounds very negative, let me re-clarify that I actually really like the game. Again, the paper cut-out art style is adorable and the way the dragon and its effects use a completely different style works excellently. The world of Gatherac is full of funny little guys and, despite the child-friendly nature of the game, it also contains little comments on things like labor, misinformation, and even market regulation. I can even see what I think the developers were going for with the way you explore the world with friends, doing quests and helping each other out, but it all just doesn’t come together at the end.

I appreciate what WayForward did with Yars Rising, as it incorporates the source material in some cool ways while doing something entirely new. It’s a solid Metroidvania, and bringing in Yars’ Revenge gameplay for hacking can be entertaining. I just feel that even with the unusual approach to hacking, some design elements and decisions feel a bit bland. It’s enjoyable, but I’m not entirely sure it’s very memorable.

Infinity Nikki completely blew away my expectations out of the water, and it’s worth checking out, especially when you consider the game is free-to-play.

Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 is another example of how clever and unusual a Strange Scaffold game can be. It’s really appreciated. The fact that it also arrived at a time when I ended up dealing with a lot of serious, unpleasant, and heart-wrenching things made its arrival all the more welcome. It’s well executed and quite a delight.

Patapon 1+2 Replay isn’t the most exciting remaster collection, but it is incredibly enjoyable and accessible to newcomers.. Both games are still strong real-time strategy games that look and play unlike anything else out there. It would have been nice if, for preservation purposes, we could have gotten extra features like an extensive art gallery with concept art or lots of music to listen to on demand. The few additions that are there will probably make it more accessible to newcomers or folks unfamiliar with the genre.

BlazBlue Entropy Effect X is a generally sound roguelike with lots of references to the fighting game series. The story could be better, but at least this time around it feels more directly tied to BlazBlue. I did encounter some issues on the Switch, but they also seemed like problems that could be patched out along the way. If you’re into games like Dead Cells and Astral Ascent, it’s certainly worth a look.

WarioWare: Move It is an absolute blast to play and is the perfect mix of chaotic gameplay and bizarre humor. However, the game’s heavy reliance on motion controls and strict minigame requirements may be a dealbreaker for some players. Ultimately, Nintendo’s decision to go all in on the Joy-Con mostly pays off as WarioWare: Move It has some of the series’ most innovative and bizarre minigames to date. If you can get past the hurdles, this is one of the best party titles on the Nintendo Switch and is a perfect love letter to the long-running franchise.

A Little to the Left is a good puzzle game to play when you need to take a moment to sort things out. It lets you take a moment to calmly organize things, perhaps tidying up your thoughts. I do wish its levels felt a bit more balanced. There are absolutely tasks that feel like rote behavior, as well as a few puzzles with solutions that might not seem to make sense. At least there’s always the option to “let it be” and move on.

After watching the credits roll on Akito and K.K.’s journey, I still find myself itching to finish up every single thing in Ghostwire: Tokyo. Pray at those last few Jizo statues. Find the remaining tanuki. Figure out how to get inside of the 24th floor of the shopping complex so I can take out its pesky corruption spot. I’m forty hours in and counting and one hundred percent willing to do it all over again.

All of the mini games are pretty fun to play. They're definitely something refreshingly different from anything you've played before. However, they're short.

Front Mission 4 is for die hard strategy RPG gamers, if its not your cup of tea Front Mission 4 isn't for you.

If you’re willing to relearn how to roll a Katamari and put up with some thumb strain Me and My Katamari brings everything you love about the series on the PSP. [JPN Import]

I genuinely appreciated almost everything about Urban Myth Dissolution Center, with its art direction, gameplay, and story all being quite captivating

We wish Voice of Cards took the time to explore its gameplay ideas a bit more. We also wish there were a few menu options to accelerate battle pace when you know what you’re doing. But as-is? There’s a lot here to love, if you have the right temperament for it.

I feel like Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game is a game you open up and play when you’re looking for a slight challenge to wind down. It isn’t excessively challenging. Going through it all in one or two sittings can call attention to its more tedious elements. Just spend a week or two helping Mary with some assignments at a relaxed pace, and you’ll probably have a pleasant time. But if you do want to go through it all at once, know it will take less than four hours to help Mary resolve all these situations.

There’s a lot to like about Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening. It’s an overall solid strategy game where all your tactical decisions really feel like they have an impact, good or bad. The systems feel smooth and the connections between them feel natural. It really makes you feel like you have to stretch your brain, especially in the early stages. But there’s almost too much going on, which can get very confusing, especially when more urgent matters come up. And with so much to do, a controller is a suboptimal input device. Fortunately, there’s no real punishment for taking some time to get to the menu you want to be in, but figuring out how to get there can be frustrating.

The shift to a full-on Metroidvania format makes Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark a bigger and more satisfying game than the already enjoyable original. With charming characters, interesting map design, and thrilling boss battles, it’s easy to forgive this game for minor sins like excessive backtracking and weak tutorials. Servants of the Dark is a solid choice for fans of the original game or Metroidvania enthusiasts alike.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is worth picking up if you just want to play as Akira and smash some folks with more accurate online play thanks to the game’s Rollback Netcode. The game is solid online and features a large roster of fun, unique characters (even if I find them visually dull) to keep you busy for years as you learn the nuances of how they fight. All the same, a few more extras or modes from past games might have made this purchase a bit more palatable. Even so, there’s a lot of fun and challenging fights to be had here.

A refreshing change from the other RPGs out there. The game's good sense of humor carries the title from start to finish. On the other hand the gameplay isn't all there. It feels like a hack and slash "Diablo"-esque game that you don't actually fight in.

If someone hasn’t kept up with Travis over the years, I’m not quite sure No More Heroes 3 would be the game to introduce a newcomer to the saga. However, it does feel designed with those familiar with the series in mind. The character direction, humor, style, combat, minigames, and even free map all call back to things that made the last few games stand out. Past UAA members will likely relish this new opportunity to rise through the Galactic Rankings.

Super Princess Peach will be enjoyed most by those gamers who tackled Nintendo's platformers in the pre-64 days. There’s a lot to collect and for once you get to save Mario. [JPN Import]

An awesome strategy RPG designed for lovers of the genre. [JPN Import]

If someone likes the Genkai Tokki series, I think there is a very good chance they will like and want to own Moero Crystal H. It completes a set, even though it is self-contained. It follows a lot of the same patterns, but then that’s really the goal. For people not familiar with it, well, it’s basically an average dungeon-crawler with a first-person perspective and turn-based battles.

The game has an innovative use of time travel that doesn't include a cat with a vacuum cleaner or a hard drive to enjoy.

Forestrike features an interesting concept and aesthetic I appreciate, but can feel unbalanced. I happened upon many situations where I felt like I couldn’t win, which was even why it took longer to prepare this review. I like the story and the way some of the martial arts movesets work. I just wish it didn’t often feel like chance so heavily affected my odds of success.