Once upon a time, our ancestors built great cities across the world. In the present, two-to-four “Delvers” are tasked with claiming these ruins and building new landmarks to restore these areas to their former glory. It’s a rather elaborate setup for Unearth, which is essentially a press-your-luck dice game. Are you ready to get some dirt in your nails in order to renew a city lost in the annals of time?
Save for an hour of noodling with Guardians of Middle-Earth on PS3 many years ago, the entire MOBA movement has essentially eluded me. Flagship titles like League of Legends and Dota 2 have a home on PC, a platform I don’t play games on. Furthermore, my eyes tend glaze over any time I try to watch a match or have someone explain to me how these games work. Probably the same reaction I get from most people when I go in-depth about fighting games.
With Arena of Valor on the Switch, it’s an opportunity for me to meet the genre half way. I can play it on a platform I routinely use, and the game from what I’ve heard is a more streamlined version of the genre’s titans. After two hours of play, did I enjoy my time with the Switch MOBA? And could this be a stepping-stone towards the real deal?
Put on your construction hat, cause it’s time to build! Blueprints is a game that combines dice, cards, and drafting in a clever game about creating buildings while attempting to prove your worth as the best architect around. Does this game have what it takes to inspire you to build to the top?
Throughout the course of my history as a gamer, there are two game franchises that are my kryptonite: Dark Souls and Metroid. The former brutalized me with its unforgiving combat and its need for players to really study the nuances of it all in order to scrape by. The latter exploits my inability to memorize directions. To this day, I’ve still never beaten a Metroid game for that reason, even though I own most of them.
Hollow Knight is the twisted child of those games mashed together. With a labyrinthian cave to explore with limited navigation guides, methodical combat that will punish button-mashing, and a limited save system that will regularly cause you to lose many minutes of play by virtue of not being able to locate the next save point in time, I initially had no plans to play this one at all. Never say never I guess, as the rave reviews and a sizable discount inspired me to give this one a go.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a cheeky take on one of the most horrifying tasks one can perform. With the aid of a few friends an a 23-page manual that exists outside of the game, you’re tasked with diffusing every bomb placed in front of you. Can you all keep your cool under pressure and solve each ticking time bomb before they blow up in your face?
Alhambra transports players to Granada in the year 1278. As the master builders of the time, each of you is tasked with building your own Alhambra complex. Do you have the vision of a master architect and the financial sensibilities of a project manager to build the best one?
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King is clearly a riff on The Legend of Zelda formula. But is that a bad thing? Some may write the game off as a clone at first glance due to its striking similarities with A Link to the Past. However, in a world where Super Mario Bros. and Metroid have had their formulas iterated on thousands of times over by game creators the world over, the Zelda formula seems like largely-uncharted territory by comparison. On top of that, if the derivative game is good based on its own merits, is there really a problem? Blossom Tales wears its influences on its sleeve, but it also tries its best to provide a worthwhile experience while adding its own spin to the mix.
Inspired by the unfinished Catholic church of the same name in Barcelona, it’s now your time to finish the job in Sagrada the board game. Players will each build a stained-glass window to display at the church with the best window being declared the winner. Do you have what it takes to design a masterpiece?
Mashing together elements of anime characters and story, European watercolour visuals, Advance Wars strategy, and the type of third-person action you’d find in the Gears of War series, the first Valkyria Chronicles was a novel take on the turn-based strategy game. I didn’t play it until years after the fact and it made a strong imprint on my heart, even though it got too tough towards the end and I never finished it. Not having owned a PSP, I wasn’t able to play the next two entries in the main series, but Valkyria Chronicles 4 is just weeks away from arriving on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. Having taken the lengthy demo for a spin on the Switch, I’m very excited to rejoin the battle.
My experience with the first Overcooked can be summarized by two distinct emotions: joy and anger. Having four players frantically attempt to coordinate their efforts in fantastical kitchens is a riot in the moment. Easily one of the most novel gaming experiences one can have with friends. However, structural choices such as overly-difficult score thresholds to unlock levels, a lack of online multiplayer, and a subpar single player experience made for a game whose shelf life petered out for me much sooner than it should have. On top of that, the Switch version had performance issues that wouldn’t be ironed out until long after launch.
Despite my criticisms of that first game, it was still a rousing success, selling over 500,000 copies on Switch alone. Furthermore, I came into Overcooked 2 with faith that at least some of my concerns of the first game would be addressed. Does the sequel fulfill the potential of the first?
In Third Person 