#Review
#Review
By: RJ (@rga_02)
“I’ve been waiting for this,” – a line made famous by Akihiko Sanada in Persona 3. His words rang true to my head when ATLUS announced Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight a year ago. “Finally,” I said to myself, the Persona game with the best music will take center stage. But will SEES get a standing ovation?
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Marble It Up! is at once familiar and strange. It’s a ball rolling puzzle platformer that alternates between open ended puzzle levels and fast paced time trials. While it might initially bring to mind to mind SEGA’s Monkey Ball series, it follows directly from the Marble Blast series, a PC series which shares some developers with Marble It Up! The devs’ experience comes through here, making it clear they know how to make a good momentum based platformer.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
When I originally reviewed Persona 4 Dancing All Night, I said it was a game with a clear passion for dance. It surprised me with how involved its story was, and the level of presentation it brought to its dance sequences. By comparison, Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight feels workmanlike.The word I’d use to describe P5D isn’t “passionate”, but rather “competent”. It’s made well enough, and if you enjoy the music of Persona 5 you’ll probably enjoy Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight. But it’s missing so many of the little touches that made P4D feel like a loving entry in the world of Persona and lays bare what P5D is–a spin off entry to get more money out of fans.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Companies like Konami and Irem might not be making shooters anymore, but I’ll be damned if that has stopped indie devs from following their designs. Games like Gradius and R-Type are clearly beloved and efforts like Rigid Force Alpha clearly aim to remind you why.
By; RJ (@rga_02)
Sometimes you should take a break from the usual breakfast you have. While drowning Frosted Flakes with a glass of Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Milk is bliss, you can’t have that all the time. It’s good to have something like eggs or bacon for once. It’s the same deal with rhythm games. We all love to listen to J-Core all day every day, but your ears need something else from time to time. Pianista is that different tune we need. Instead of the tunes of DJ Groovy Hoshii, it is time for Claude Debussy to take center stage. But is it worth your time?
Note this is the mobile version review of Pianista, the Nintendo Switch version will come at a later date.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Modeled in the style of a board game, Lightfingers is a party heist game that plays out like a living diorama. Players take turns rolling dice, moving around a board, and strategically playing cards on their way to be the first to get away with four bags of loot. As they perform heists they draw unwanted attention from guards and will have to duck them or stash it away before their inevitable capture to avoid losing it.
What’s striking is how well the materials of the game are well realized. There’s a physicality to the board and all the playing pieces. Characters feel like living miniatures, and a wonderful little mechanical action precedes movement as a tiny arm lifts, moves, and flips tiles of the board as they’re uncovered. When the game moves from its turn based back and forth to the heist action sequences, everyone comes together to interact with its playset style environments. The attacking player controls their character, while everyone else pulls and turns plungers and cranks to operate the deathtraps of each secure location.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
To Leave feels like a game out of 2008. So much of its design philosophy reflects the aesthetics of the Xbox Live Arcade generation, and the indie game trends that rounded out the end of the previous decade. There’s a story that tries to add a sense of importance by tackling subjects like depression and mental health, and the promise that each moment of gameplay, each written word, is a meaningful and intentional delivery device for metaphor. What this means is a game that mixes elements of cinematic platformers, adventure games, and uh, Flappy Bird? It’s an uneven mix, one that’s often beautiful, though just as often archaic in the way it delivers its points.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Originally designed for the Dreamcast and Neo Geo MVS, Fast Striker is a straightforward, almost routine example of a shoot-em-up. At the same time, it displays all the competences of the genre, providing examples of what makes the genre feel good. It works with its limitations to provide good visual feedback and varied styles.
