Monster World IV Review
We’ve got Arabia Mania, but no Monster Vania… and no Wonder Boy either.
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Iconoclasts Review
Crank it from the underground to the stars and then back again.
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Wonder Boy in Monster World Review
It’s no wonder why nobody ever brings up this dirty boy…
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Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap Review
Or in this case, Wonder Girl.
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ICEY Review
ICEY… I see? No, I really don’t. I don’t see what you’re doing here.
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Darksiders Warmastered Edition Review
“Natalie, why do you do this to yourself?” Do what to myself, voice in my head? “Why are you going back to a game that you remember disliking when you played it 5 years ago?” Because I always felt that I should actually like this game, and wanted to give it another shake. “Even after re-reading your original review?” Well, I tried to. My writing was just awful back then. “You know, you sometimes have a really bad tendency for self-destructive behavior.” I know voice in my head, I know. (more…)
Freedom Planet Review
Well, this has been sitting on my to-do list for quite a while. After going through the Genesis-era mainline Sonic games back in 2016, I wanted to go through Freedom Planet as it was originally envisioned as a Sonic fan game, and takes many clear inspirations from the series. Yet due to my previous experience with the game, there was one minor mechanical decision that simply prevented me from giving the game my full attention. One that I will get to in a little bit. (more…)
Jotun Review
Considering how utterly massive my list of games to check out has been getting as of late, it’s becoming uncommon for me to forget about certain games, or even why I was interested in the first place. Some titles inevitably fall through the cracks, and with my memory becoming progressively worse as time goes on, which is especially worrisome considering I am 22-years-old, and Jotun was one of those. The game’s premise and warm reception were enough to justify giving it a closer look and, as is the case with every game I play to completion, a review. (more…)
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove Review
Yeah, I know I’m late to the party on this one, as Shovel Knight’s heyday wherein it received copious amounts of praise was nearly three years ago. However, it was recently rebranded as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove and given additional content just shortly ago, so now is as good a time as any to revisit the game and go through its three fully fledged campaigns… at least that was my intention, but I’ll get to that. (more…)
MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune Vs. Zombies Review
After having gone through Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1, Re;Birth2, Re;Birth3, Hyperdevotion Noire, Neptunia U, and Megadimension Neptunia VII, I’d say I have a very thorough familiarity with the Neptunia series, and for the seventh time in the past two years, another game in the series has found its way to PC, and law permits that now I have to play and review it. I expected a fairly lacking game that featured marginal improvements from the mechanical predecessor Neptunia U, but not only is that not the case here, MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune Vs. Zombies is the worst Neptunia game I’ve ever played. I’d say worse ever, but the PS3 games were rubbish. (more…)
Red Faction: Guerilla Review
Red Faction: Guerilla has been off my radar for quite some time, which actually surprises me, as it is a game developed by Volition, the people behind Saints Row, and I absolutely loved the second and fourth games in that series. It is also a game about destroying buildings, which has a primal and cathartic appeal to me. However, the brown aesthetic of this game always put me off, and it wasn’t until I caught a few glimpses of people gushing about this game before I chose to check it out and see what made their knickers so tight and cozy. Yeah, I still have no idea what they found so appealing about this game. (more…)
Cat Girl Without Salad ~Amuse-Bouche~ Review
Cat Girl Without Salad originated as an “April Fools joke” back in 2013, with developer WayForward claiming the game will be every genre under the sun, and come out for every system possible in fall of that year. That didn’t happen, and the game’s announcement, despite being supposedly real according to WayForward staff, was largely dismissed as a simple joke. Over three years later though, the project was announced on the tumblr of the lead artist and was released exclusively through the Humble Monthly Bundle for June 2016. Was this oddball little curiosity something worth waiting so many years for? Eh… Kind of. (more…)
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX Review
“Natalie! Natalie! Why are you reviewing a game that came out 18 years ago?” “‘Cos my backlog was cleared out when I played this game a month ago. Also, I liked this game, wanted to replay it, and did so in order to reassess its quality.” “But do you really have the knowledge and foresight to properly analyze games like this in the detail they are accustomed to?” “…No. I played it for twelve hours and wrote a two page thing about it. Is that unacceptable, Maple-chan?” “I guess it’s fine. But I’m not gonna read it.” “Yeah, nobody will. Nobody ever reads anything I write…” “Okay… I’ll leave you alone now.” (more…)
Hyper Light Drifter Review
I’m one of those few thousand people who threw a few bucks at Hyper Light Drifter during its Kickstarter, as the project looked interesting, and I would surely check it out after release. Then, with a week’s notice, the game came out, and everybody proceeded to announce their adoration of it. While I would love to do the same, I genuinely cannot say I like Hyper Light Drifter. Yeah, after going through this game, trying to find everything without a guide, I never want to play it again. (more…)
Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed Review
Throughout 2015, I reviewed the three Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth games, a trilogy of remakes for the first three games in the series, and my dissatisfaction with their quality only intensified as I went through one every few months. They weren’t bad games, just meddling and complacent with abiding by negative gameplay based JRPG tropes and recycling content and assets like mad. But before Megadimension Neptunia VII, which is looking to fix a lot of the misgivings of its predecessors, comes to PC, there’s Neptunia U: Action Unleashed, a button basher spin-off from the Senran Kagura developers. (more…)
Remember Me Review
I often try to avoid playing games that bring me frustration, and even if I want to write a review about it, I try to stop my playthrough after I invested two digits of time into the game. However, I only got about seven hours into Remember Me, a ten to twelve hour long game, before I became so frustrated with it that I felt that it would be a waste of my time and energy to continue playing it. Why did I feel this way? I would likely forget within the year, so here’s a review to properly articulate why I disliked this title
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Saints Row IV Review
As the years have gone on, I feel as if I have gotten increasingly more cynical, and less permissive of things that I openly would have praised in year’s past. I do truly and always want to sing the praises of just about anything I believe to deserve it, but there are and were moments where I was a bit too excited and felt too justified in saying nice things that I ignored some of the negligence thoughts that now fill my mind whenever I play any game, which kinda sucks now that I think about it. (more…)
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell Review
I have professed pretty regularly that I have nothing shy of a strong affection towards the Saints Row series, well, namely to parts two and four. I have mentioned my issues with Saints Row: The Third but most of those stem from how much I enjoy the two aforementioned titles and very much want to love everything related to the series. That said, even when viewing Gat Out of Hell as a standalone expansion that I managed to get at launch for $5 because of a pricing error, I have some pretty major qualms about it. (more…)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review
I… I had very high hopes and extreme fears when this game was coming out, and when I picked it up a while ago. I am not good at character action games by any means, but was so taken in by the soundtrack that I felt I had to go through the game… which I did one and a half times. Still, saying I cleared, or beat the game would be a lie, as I only got through it on the super easy mode, and after repeating two encounters for two hours, each, I hit my limit and ceased my proper playthrough. I was half joking when I tweeted out “Likes: Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. Dislikes: Playing Metal Gear Rising Revengeance.” But no, that was far more accurate than I intended and… Let me explain this relationship properly. (more…)
Batman: Arkham City Review
Okay, so earlier this year I decided to revisit Batman: Arkham Asylum, where I investigated the doubt I felt after playing the game, and decided that I really did not find the game to be all that great. I gave it a 7.5 and all that, but not GOTY material in my book, just a surprisingly good liscense game. I did recall enjoying its sequel, Arkham City a bit more, but even after plowing through it I distinctly remember feeling a sense of emptiness, and I figured out why… at least partially. I mean, I’ve yet to reach max reviewed level, but I’ve at least gained ten since I started, right? (more…)
Saints Row: The Third Review
If you put me on the stop at this very moment and asked me what my favorite franchises are in the realm of video games, I would probably ponder and stutter for a few seconds before spitting out Pokemon, Metal Gear, and Saints Row. The last one is naturally what I’m here to talk about, as while I do adore parts two and four, the first and third parts of this to be pentalogy are far lower on the totem pole of quality in my mind. While part one is the franchise before it really got its own identity, part three was where the franchise was established, became AAA to a certain extent, and had a staff that was 80% people who did not assist in building this franchise up. But that was three years ago, and I feel it is worth revisiting… That, and I was in the mood for a game with character creation, and this was the only one on my list of games I own which I ought to play. (more…)
Lococycle Review
Twisted Pixel is a company I certainly gained a fondness towards during the time where the Xbox 360 was my platform of choice. Their games were fun and creative and each offered something new while remaining consistently enjoyable. Though when it came to Lococycle, the reception was pretty cold from the majority of outlets for reasons I did not read, as I knew I’d pick the game up when it was cheap enough, and $2 is the cheapest I could hope for. But for those looking for a TL;DR and do not want to scroll down, this is by far the studios worst title and one I can hardly recommend. Onto the why!
Batman Arkham Asylum Review
So, how do I follow up getting a new system? By reviewing three titles that are not only very multiplatform friendly, but I had already played previously. And this one is no different as am I here with another critically acclaimed game, but I went through it about three years ago and it was actually a title that helped spark my interest in reviewing as something about it just seemed off and the 16-year-old who would eventually call himself Electric Nigma didn’t know how. Yet I believe I do as of now, so I’m going to do it now… Also, I wanted to go through the game on PC, as I will with many others. (more…)
Cave Story+ Review
It may seem to be more than a little odd to go out and review a title like Cave Story. A game originally released as a freeware PC title and developed by one individual who toiled away for five years in order to more or less become the archetype for many indie developers to follow. In fact, Cave Story is probably a good reason for why independent gaming is where it is today as the game served as something of an inspiration that not only was there milage in making retro styled games, but just about anybody could make them with enough know how. That said, I played the Steam version of the game after playing the Wiiware one way back in 2010, and trudged my way to the “good” ending because why would I ever go through something the creator finds challenging?
Alice Madness Returns Review
I have a small list of games that I feel I should have really played through this past generation, simply due to my own curiosity surrounding them, and if those games happen to be $5, then I haven’t any reason to pass them up, especially when they are technically two games. Unfortunately, American Mcgee’s Alice was very much a PC game, so controlling it with a controller felt odd, and the gameplay was more daunting than it had any right to be. So how is its more modern sequel? Pretty bad.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Review
I have not touched the Assassin’s Creed series in nearly four years. It began with the prior two numbered titles, and I certainly enjoyed them at the time, but past-me is an idiot, as he didn’t like 999 and was adamant about defending Final Fantasy XIII, as that is why he bought an Xbox 360. So, skipping three iterations, my thoughts on this installment could have been summarized by how I ended my first day of 11 hours of play with, “Well, today was devoted to Assassin’s Creed IV. The game is fun, but it probably won’t be 40 hours in.” Which it sure as sugar wasn’t.
(more…)Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death Review
Let me lay down a scenario before diving into this… examination of what I consider to be one of the most amazingly unnoticed non-indie titles in the past few years. You have ZootFly, a team of about fifty Slovenians who, after making a series of under the radar titles in the mid to late 2000s. 505 games, a publisher who has one of the oddest track records for titles I’ve seen when you consider their European releases. And a dream to create a character action game that is best described as if you mixed that Tomb Raider XBLA game with God of War. It is Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death and… I am super excited to be talking about it!