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Rive: Ultimate Edition
If I were to judge this game based on its logo and screen shots, I would probably pass it by. That’s exactly what I did. It may be what you did, too. Well, I picked it up to see what it’s about and I was pleasantly surprised. First off, I’ve heard people call it a metroidvania-like game. It’s not; not really. While you will likely revisit areas, it’s from a central hub area. The story mode has the player going through levels, sometimes repeating areas with a different path. It’s definitely not an open world game like those classics, but that doesn’t mean its not good. In fact, I found…
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Brawlout
Here you are, dying to hear that Nintendo is porting the last Smash Bros. game to the Switch, but they’re leaving you in the cold, waiting. Then along comes Brawlout, and you’re chomping at the bit to try it out, right? Unfortunately, there’s no demo available to take it for a spin. That’s where I can help. After reaching out to Angry Mob Games with no response, I decided to pick it up myself so I could have a first-hand experience to share with my readers. Brawlout, while fun, is pretty lackluster. Not because it’s a Smash Bros. clone or because it has no-name or “generic” characters. The character designs…
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Slain! Back From Hell
Slain! was originally released on Steam to a disappointed audience. After numerous delays, developer Wolf Brew Games decided to launch the game in a semi-unfinished state. It was kind of a mess. The game was filled with cheap deaths and framerate hiccups. After a few months, and numerous fixes, they decided to re-release the game as Slain: Back From Hell. This is the version that we have on the Nintendo Switch. Despite having the better version of this game, it still has some issues. “Cheap” deaths are still a thing, but it seems to be by design. I vowed that I wouldn’t write this review until I managed to beat…
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Superbeat: XONiC
I played this game back on the Vita, and I found it amazingly easy to pick up and play a song or three. The fact that there’s no story mode or campaign mode means that you play much like you would play DDR or PUI in that you select a mode, pick a song, and have at it. If you fail, game over. If you succeed, you move on to the next song. After 3 songs, you get graded on performance overall and rack in your experience and hopefully unlock some more songs, modes, DJ icons, and other things. As such, the game might seem incredibly short or shallow, but…
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Chess Ultra
Chess Ultra sets out to deliver a solid way to play chess as well as teach players the fundamentals of the legendary game. I am a Chess newbie, and I learned a lot through the tutorials presented within. I wish there were more to that end as I found it highly entertaining and interesting. I’ve always wanted to learn the game, but I’ve never had a tutor. I mean, I learned how each piece moves, and never forgot that. It’s the deeper things and setups that I’ve always had difficulty with. Chess Ultra helps with that, but it only goes so far. It looks like there will be DLC in…
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Earth Atlantis
Earth Atlantis is a visual delight when you first see it, but everything that I loved about it, eventually became its downfall. The visual style is one not unlike my own school doodles of monsters and space ships, and other things. Naturally, my classroom doodles were far less refined or focused. Earth Atlantis, on the other hand, has a very focused style; everything is some kind of sea creature look alike robot. In Earth Atlantis, the world is submerged in water. The Statue of Liberty prominently stands in the background of the first area, albeit mostly submerged in water along with whatever buildings weren’t destroyed in the apocalypse that ravaged this world. Other…
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Ironcast
Ironcast is a turn-based strategy game that looks like a puzzle game on the surface. When I first got a glimpse of the game in action, it looked like a Puzzle Quest clone with a steampunk spin, but after playing the game, I came to realize that it has only aesthetics in common with that series. Originally launched on Kickstarter in the summer of 2014 by Dreadbit, Ironcast enlists the player as a pilot of a seven-meter tall walking tank called an ironcast. Only the most elite strategists are allowed to pilot these massive vehicles that are powered by a mysterious energy source called Voltite. The story revolves around an…
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ARMS
When ARMS was first revealed, I was not impressed in the slightest. When Nintendo held their April Nintendo Direct that focused on ARMS and Splatoon 2, I started to change my perspective. After playing the Test Punch a few times, I was a total convert. I forced myself to remain skeptical until the final game was released. Now that I’ve put nearly 30 hours into the game, I feel confident in my assessment of the game. As I stated a moment ago, I wasn’t originally impressed with ARMS. It looked like a casual and overly simple Punch Out type game with springy arms as the defining gimmick. While the game…
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Disgaea 5 Complete
When I heard that Disgaea 5 was not going to come to the Playstation Vita, I knew I would probably only put in the bare minimum on the PS4 version. Sadly, I didn’t even do that. I just don’t enjoy games like this on home consoles. I’ve played all the games in this series, except La Pucelle Tactics on a portable system. I really wished they had brought that to a portable system because I never finished it. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness was an amazing game to play on the PSP, and was the first of the series that I actually finished. Not only did I finish it, I made…
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Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap
When I started playing Wonder Boy, I was instantly floored by the beautiful graphics, but I ultimately hated the gameplay. It felt slow and dumbed down as if for an infant, yet the difficulty was far too high for a child of that age. Something felt off. I knew there was an old game called Wonder Boy, so I started looking into it. Wow! I felt like a complete dolt when I found out that this isn’t a sequel, but more of a 1 to 1 recreation of the original Master System game with new visuals. The game’s mechanics are identical to the original which says a lot both for…
Handheld Gaming Reviews
