Take a year-long journey through the American wilderness in Parks by Keymaster Games. Managing your pair of hikers, you’ll explore everything that nature has to offer, from deserts, to canyons, to forests, and America’s national parks. Are you ready to take the trip?
Reviews
Mario Golf: Super Rush Review
From the masterclass that is Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 to the groundbreaking golf RPG that is Mario Golf on the Game Boy, Nintendo knows how to make a great golf game. Unfortunately, incredible golf games don’t necessarily translate to mass appeal. Prior to the release of Mario Golf: Super Rush, the franchise has only sold about six million units across decades worth of games. That’s roughly half of what their tennis games sell and less than a quarter of what Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has sold in far less time.
For many, a lack of interest in the sport is a hurdle not worth overcoming to try a video game adaptation. Even for the few that give golf games a shot, the seemingly glacial pace of video game golf may be too much for newcomers to bear.
Enter Mario Golf: Super Rush. As a means of picking up the pace, Super Rush goes all-in on the concept of speed golf. On top of that, the running parts of the game a few fantastical elements akin to Mario Kart. Does this foundational shift towards speed make for a better and more accessible game?
Sushi Roll Review
You ready for another serving of sushi? This time, in dice form! Sushi Roll is the dice adaptation of the hit game Sushi Go and the third entry in the series. But with the first game being such a gem and its follow-up Sushi Go Party improving things with more cards and support for more players, is there anything meaningful that dice could add to the mix?
The Importance of Finding Game Reviews and Coverage from Sources You Trust and Can Connect With
At a certain point in my life, I became incredibly picky about where I get my fighting game coverage and reviews from.
Don’t get me wrong. I love sites like IGN, Gamespot, Giant Bomb, and Kotaku for their ability to provide news and reviews first. I will go to them to get a sense of what a fighting game’s broader feature set is. I love independent bloggers for being able to provide their personal insight and touch in ways that more generalist sites cannot. Will turn to them for stories about how they had fun with the game or logs of their personal progress in a fighter.
But when it comes to looking for information that will help me inform my purchase on a fighting game, these outlets are not adequate with answering the hyper-specific questions I have about a game. My most recent quests for information pertaining to Samurai Shodown and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid served as a reminder of that.
Confessions of a Gaming Hype Beast
Tetris Effect was not on my radar. I adore Tetris, to the point where I’ll gladly argue the stance that Tetris is the single greatest video game of all-time. However, it didn’t seem hard for me to build a case against me purchasing this particular version. Even with Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s flair for injecting games with hypnotic visuals and moving electronic music, the idea of paying $40 US/$50 CAD on a single-player-only version of Tetris seemed too hard to stomach. Especially when I’ve hemmed and hawed at picking up the cheaper-and-more-feature-complete Puyo Puyo Tetris on the Switch for over a year now.
Then the reviews happened. As of writing, it sits at an 89 on Metacritic, which is a fantastic score. All of a sudden, the game I’ve dismissed for largely rational reasons has flung to the top of my must-buy list. The only thing that’s changed is that a bunch of other people have said nice things about it.
In the world of urban fashion, the term often used for someone who chases trends is “hype beast”. If I really think about it, I am probably the video game equivalent of that. Sure, I’ll still play games and buy what I want based on my own personal motivations, and my final opinions on games are entirely my own, but the games I choose to buy and play can be heavily influenced by the conversations within the greater gaming zeitgeist. This is my story as a gaming hype beast.
Snipperclips Review
While new Nintendo Switch owners dove down the deep rabbit hole that was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, they may have missed out on Snipperclips in the eShop. Created by SFB Games, it’s a cooperative puzzle game where players cut pieces out of each other in order to achieve different tasks. It may not feature a stunning visuals or hundreds of hours of gameplay like Zelda, but in its own way, it’s actually an excellent showcase for the Nintendo Switch as a platform.
Check Out My Fire Emblem: Awakening Review on Splitkick.com
Since its release, Fire Emblem: Awakening has been tough to track down in stores. Though I’ve heard reports of the game being under-shipped, there’s also the fact that it’s really good. I enjoyed it so much that I beat it twice before finalizing my review for Splitkick. If you can find it, the game is definitely worth tracking down!
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Impressions
Though it’s one of the most storied franchises in all of gaming, I’ve largely ignored Castlevania. Having only played bits of the original, and Super Castlevania IV, its demon-slaying action didn’t grab me at the time. Though I understand that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is revered as one of the greatest games of all-time, I’ve passed on it repeatedly, knowing that I’m terrible at the Metroid style of world.
If it weren’t for the God of War influence, coming across it for cheap, and my girlfriend wanting to play this together, I probably would have passed on Lords of Shadow too. After a year or so of it sitting on my shelf, I finally gave it a shot recently.
Assassin’s Creed III Single Player Review
Ambition hasn’t been part of the Assassin’s Creed playbook for awhile now. Ever since Ezio’s debut, the last two spin-off titles felt like cash-grabs to strike while the iron’s hot. They didn’t do much to push the story forward, and their gameplay innovations varied wildly from great (the ability to call out fellow assassin’s for help) to bafflingly awful (tower defence). Though I’ve gotten some enjoyment out of these two games (more the first than the second), I’ve been waiting with bated breath for the real next step in the series.
Sporting a new world, a new main character and numerous revisions to its gameplay, Assassin’s Creed III has no shortage of ambition. In fact, had it delivered on everything it set out to do, this really could have been one of the best games ever. Unfortunately, this same ambition is the root cause of its many shortcomings.
Trials Evolution: Origin of Pain DLC Review
As much as I love Trials Evolution, I haven’t played it since wrapping up my review. Once I unlocked the extreme tracks, which I will never have the skill to complete, I set the game down and moved onto other things. Sure, I could have kept myself busy all of this time with user-created tracks, but it just fell out of my rotation. The Origins of Pain DLC pack aims to bring players like me back to the fold with 36 new tracks, more skill games, and a hundred extra track creator objects to play with.
In Third Person 