Review by Matt S. Hades has ruined me. Zengeon is a perfectly competent roguelike action game, but it’s not the kind of genre-transformative experience that Hades is, and that leaves it feeling a (very) distant second in 2021. The first issue is the narrative itself. Zengeon has a perfectly adequate…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. My favourite Dungeons & Dragons setting has always been Ravenloft, where heroes get trapped within pockets of gothic nightmares, and need to figure out the mystery behind the “domain” in order to escape it. Crimson Spires is like that. Just with romance. Dark, sexy, dangerous romance.…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Toodee and Topdee is one of those tiny little games that will largely escape your notice, but at some point or another, you’ll find yourself playing it and be glad that you did. This humble little game won’t win any great prizes nor make its creators…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Dragon Star Varnir is one of Idea Factory’s deeper and more intelligent titles. Belonging to the same experimental series (unrelated to one another, but conceptually similar) as Fairy Fencer F and Death end re:Quest, Varnir is certainly dark and brooding, and subversively feminist in a way…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Steam: Rails to Riches is a perfectly competent board game, which works well enough on Nintendo Switch. It’s no Wingspan, which is both a masterful board game and plays beautifully on Switch. It’s also not the board game I wanted to see most on Switch (where’s…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. Emergency operations sounds like it could be a fascinating job, but I know that I’d never be able to cope with the stress that emergency services providers are constantly under every day. So when Jutsu Games’ 112 Operator promised the responsibility with none of the real-world…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Three years ago, when Idol Manager popped up on Kickstarter, and promised to give you the opportunity to manage your own AKB48-style J-Pop idol group, I assumed that it would all be something of a joke. I assumed it would be focused on fanservice, with very…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Like most people, I wasn’t sure how a sequel to The World Ends With You would work. Like most, I wanted one, but the original game was so noteworthy because of the integral way that it used two screens on the Nintendo DS. That is something…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The Ace Attorney series has always been one that you can look at two ways; you can chuckle at its eccentricities and either enjoy it or dismiss it as an example of “weird Japan” (you’d be wrong either way), or you can look at these as…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. One of the great problems we come across as game critics is what we do with games that are indistinguishably similar to something that’s come before. I don’t just mean “inspired by” or “a homage to,” and I don’t even mean superficially different. I mean the…
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