review

Mario Tennis Aces Review

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Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 has proven to be a very difficult act to follow. Released in 2000, Nintendo found the sweet spot between simulation and arcade action that made that game a master-class title. To this day, if you play any of the Mario Tennis games released after this one in “Classic” or “Simple” mode, you’re essentially playing the same game that was conceived almost 20 years ago.

Later installments of the franchise would try really hard to make meaningful additions to its seemingly-iron-clad formula with little luck. Mario Power Tennis on the Gamecube undermined the skill-based action of the original with silly power shots and even sillier courts that were so cluttered with crap that it was hard to discern what was even happening. As for Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash – besides being an overall lackluster product – also failed to build on the core formula, as it simply made standard power shots more powerful through jumping and added a mega mushroom that essentially gave you power shots all the time.

It may have taken almost two decades to get here, but Nintendo has finally found a way to make Mario Tennis better.

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BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Review

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Historically, my relationship with the BlazBlue franchise has been strained at best. Initially wowed by its visual splendor, its gameplay complexity was impenetrable to me. As they had done previously with the Guilty Gear franchise, they stacked character-specific mechanics on top of an already steep list of system-level mechanics onto BlazBlue, making for a game with an incredibly steep learning curve. Even now, as someone with almost a decade of serious fighting game experience under my belt, mainline BlazBlue is too much for me to handle.

When news of a BlazBlue tag-team spinoff arose, I didn’t bat an eyelid. Having been burned by the first two entries in the series, I wasn’t ready to try again. However, after having spent some time with the demo, I realized that this wasn’t the same type of BlazBlue game that didn’t work for me back then.

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Azul Review

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Inspired by Potugese ceramic tiles, Azul is an abstract strategy game in which players create decorative walls in order to gain the most points. As someone who can take issue with some of the more banal themes behind European-style board games, just hearing the concept for this one made my eyes roll into the back of my head. After having played a few times, the theme still doesn’t excite me at all, but the game sure is fun to play.

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Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Review

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My fandom for Castlevania is a relatively recent phenomenon. Despite having played a few games in the series over the course of my lifetime, none of them really clicked with me until I spent an extended period of time with the original game on the NES Classic. While this epiphany occurred well after the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Kickstarter ended, I jumped in just in time for Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

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Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido Demo Impressions

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Originally presented as a Nintendo 3DS title, Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido will also be released day-and-date on the Nintendo Switch. Admittedly, the game hasn’t been on my radar, but I like puzzle games and there’s a free demo available now on the Switch. Does Nintendo have a sleeper hit on their hands?

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Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon Review

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Previously, Game Freak took us to the island-based Alolan region for Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. Before putting a bow on this era of the franchise, we put on our beachwear one more time explore Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Not having played Sun or Moon prior to this, I can’t really give you a sense of how different this new entry is in comparison.

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Early Nintendo Labo Variety Kit Impressions

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Sometimes, wacky Nintendo is the best Nintendo. From the Wario Ware series, to Elite Beat Agents, to the world-shifting Wii Sports, their free-thinking approach can blaze the trail for others to follow. On the other side of that same coin are duds like Wii Music, the Wii U, or the e-Reader; ideas that couldn’t overcome their own insanity. By virtue of including cardboard into the mix, the Nintendo Labo put itself on the fast track to one of those two extremes.

Having now made and played with three of the five Toy-Cons in the Variety Kit, I think I have a better idea of where it fits on that scale.

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God of War Review

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I’ll always love that first God of War game. Even though I experienced it on the PlayStation 3 years after its original release, I was wowed by the game’s balance of frenetic action, bombastic setpieces, Greek mythology, and light puzzle solving to keep players on their toes. However, the formula got stale after a while, and issues with Kratos’ always angry character design became too hard to ignore. Though the series would add five other games to its catalogue before going on hiatus, I never got very far in II or III and I skipped the rest.

Had Kratos never come back, I would have been okay with that. His first game made an impact on me that I’ll always cherish and I thought that was good enough. 2018’s God of War proves that sentiment wrong as the Greek God returns in a wholly new experience that is bigger and better than any game in the franchise before it.

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Beyond Baker Street Review

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Sherlock Holmes is a popular guy in the world of board gaming. Not only does the franchise lend itself well towards mystery themed games and puzzle solving, but Sherlock Holmes as an intellectual property is mostly in the public domain, allowing game designers and publishers to make games about the world’s best detective.

Beyond Baker Street is one such game. Playing as a team of investigators, 2-4 players will team up in order to solve a case faster than Sherlock Holmes can. Do you have what it takes to get to the bottom of things?

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Oxenfree Review

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A group of teenagers get together for a night of debauchery in a secluded area before twisted and horrific things begin to happen. Even in the world of video games, this premise has been done before by Until Dawn on the PlayStation 4.

Oxenfree by Night School Studio puts its own twist on the teen thriller by shifting the perspective. In this game, you watch the action from a 2D side-scrolling view. While it does give the game a unique look, it’s not the only trick the game has up its sleeve.

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