review

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King Review

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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.

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Sagrada Review

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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?

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Overcooked 2 Review

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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?

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Jett and Randy Finish Off Overcooked 2!

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Returning from a camping trip with a ton of mosquito bites, I return to streaming by playing the last third of Overcooked 2 with my brother Randy! Jett recounts the joy he felt while watching a meteor shower with his wife and friends, and the terror he felt when someone brought an 8-FOOT SNAKE TO THE BEACH AND PUT IT IN THE WATER!

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Unstable Unicorns Review

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Ever dream about building an army of unicorns? Me neither. But if you did, or if the concept of doing just that sounds interesting to you, the Unstable Unicorns card game is here to save the day! Players race against each other in order to be the first to complete their army, while also attacking other players in hopes of keeping them at bay. Beyond it’s silly concept and cute art, is it worth waging war in this rainbow battlefield?

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Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Review

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From being the first fighting game to go mainstream, to being the franchise that brought the genre back from the dead in the late 2000s, to the cultural impact the franchise has had on society as a whole over the course of three decades, the impact that Street Fighter has had on the world is immense. To celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary, Capcom released this collection of 12 games that span every major iteration of the game from the original to 3rd Strike. Does this collection score the perfect victory?

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Jaipur Review

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Jaipur was a game that entered my radar very early on in my board gaming journey. However, time-and-time again I’d pass on it. In a classic case of judging a book by its cover, it was a game that didn’t appeal to me due to it being a game about merchants selling goods, which is a theme that failed to pique my interest. Years after the fact, I finally gave the game a chance to see what the hype was all about.

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NBA 2K18 on Switch Impressions

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I checked out of the NBA 2K experience a few years ago. Though I was madly in love with it at one point, the lack of meaningful upgrades from year-to-year caused it to fall out of my rotation. Ever since then, I’ve also heard that the game’s microtransactions have gotten so brazen that they drastically hurt the overall experience.

None of that mattered when I recently bought the Canadian edition of NBA 2K18 with Demar Derozan on the cover. Still devastated by my all-time favourite Raptor being traded away, I picked up the Switch version with his box art as a keepsake to that time of #wethenorth prosperity. Since I now own this game, the most curious version of it no less, I put this one through its paces to see what we’d find.

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Lumines Remastered Review

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I missed Lumines in its 2004 heyday. While I have since grown up to embrace a platform-agnostic lifestyle, this game came out during a time when I was a fierce Nintendo loyalist and wanted nothing to do with anything associated with the PlayStation brand. So much so, that I actually got a PSP for free and sold it a few days later before even opening the box. Despite seeming to be a game right up my alley, this was caught squarely in the crosshairs of my overzealous fandom.

Fast forward to 2018 and Lumines finally makes its way to a Nintendo console, among other platforms to receive Lumines Remastered. Not to say that I wouldn’t have played it on something else, but the Switch seems like a great place to play this specific game due to its pick-up-and play nature and how well it could work as a portable experience. Does this blast from the past still shine in modern times?

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Pocket Rumble Review

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In this modern era of fighting games, the subject of accessibility has been one of the community’s hotly-debated topics. It’s no secret that the genre is impenetrable for most due to an inherently steep learning curve created by complex inputs, game design that greatly rewards skill and knowledge, and a seemingly endless wave of players locally and online that are ready to stomp newbies out until they give up. From masher-friendly auto combos in Dragonball FighterZ, to more lenient input timings in Street Fighter V, to the most extreme simplification of the genre in Divekick where each character only has 1 move, developers have and will continue to search for ways to bridge the skill gap without compromising what makes fighting games fun in the first place.

Combining a Neo Geo Pocket aesthetic with a two-button interface, simplified special move inputs, and a wallet-friendly price point, Pocket Rumble from Cardboard Robot Games is the genre’s latest attempt at accessibility. Does this game have what it takes to bring the joy of fighters to a larger audience?

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