#Review
#Review
by Amr (@siegarettes)
With a focus on momentum and aerial combat, Speed Brawl brings one of the best feeling combat systems of modern memory. It combines elements from popular time trial platformers alongside mechanics of tag based fighting games like Marvel Vs. Capcom to create a brawler with a wide range of expressive tools to master. It brings together the need to shave off seconds to get that gold ranking, and the desire to build even more elaborate combos in training mode. All of this is wrapped up in fantastic and varied character designs, each with their own distinct playstyle and synergies.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
With the sheer volume of entries in the Yakuza series, sometimes it becomes hard to talk about just what it is that separates an exceptional entry from a great one. Thankfully the rapid releases of Zero, Kiwami and Yakuza 6 have all put on display different facets of Yakuza’s appeal. Zero remains the peak, with well integrated side stories and strong characterization, Kiwami’s core drama and combat held the game together despite a choppier narrative arc, and Yakuza 6 showed off the series’ incredible ability to capture local flavor. Yakuza Kiwami 2 then, is a synthesis of the work done in these previous entries, collecting the best elements and using them in its return to one of the series’ strongest stories.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Shooters live on spectacle. A good shooter can get by on satisfying gunplay, but an exceptional one often enhances it with strong aesthetics and world design. Aesthetically, Shikhondo has it nailed. Its detailed, illustrated style evokes both modern anime and traditional Japanese ink paintings, with subtle animated touches. The animation itself uses popular paper doll style techniques, with small distortions to the illustrations to give them a bit more life. It’s an impressive look, and even the UI feels stylish. But even with this close attention to the art direction, Shikhondo has some major inconsistencies, which damage both the art and its readability as a game.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
I was totally wrong about SNK Heroines. It’s not the followup to SNK Gals’ Fighter nor the girly themed KOF14 style game I got on first impression. In fact, it completely ditches the familiar mechanics of King of Fighters or any other SNK fighters and goes for a pared down approach to tag style battles.
It’s astounding how many genre conventions SNK Heroines has stripped away. For instance, you can’t even crouch. You won’t deal with any high low mixups, or even any jumping cross ups, since blocking has now been moved to a Smash Bros style block button. Blocking can even be used in the air to do an air dodge, or combined with a direction to perform a dodge roll. Dodge rolls can even be done during blockstun for a small amount of meter.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Before you start Unexplored the first thing you’ll see is a few words from a man at a pub. He’ll tell you a story about the dungeon you’re about to enter, and for a few drinks he’ll tell you a few more. This is Unexplored being upfront with its intentions.
Most roguelikes are obsessed with the player story. They make their on the ever golden promise of emergent play–the idea that by jamming enough systems and variables into play they’ll eventually combine into a endless set of unique situations.
Unexplored is built in this same foundation, but proceeds with narrative as its first concern. More than the usual sets of enemies and situations, Unexplored is concerned with creating a history to each dungeon. It adds an archaeological aspect, connecting floors and laying out clues in writing.
By: RJ (@rga_02)
Sometimes you ask yourself while playing a video game, “why was this game made,” or “who is this game targeted towards?” I kept asking myself that while playing Moero Chronicle. Now I’m not dragging down people who enjoy this game, we all have our weird likes - but Moero Chronicle is…special.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
If Shape of the World was an, open chill out session, then Anamorphine is its tonal complement. Taking place in a series of intimate, even claustrophobic spaces, it explores the emotional world of Tyler and Elena, a couple dealing with trauma and depression.
Anamorphine makes clear from the go it takes its subject matter very seriously. It opens with a content warning, giving players not only the option to skip the most upsetting scene, but also the option for a more detailed content warning containing spoilers for it. It’s an admirable approach that seems almost obvious in hindsight, and allows people to engage with the game on their own terms.
Which is good, since Anamorphine is a confident study in using space to communicate emotional states. There’s not a single spoken word in its entire run time. Instead it mixes the familiar with abstract, distorting otherwise everyday spaces into reflections of the characters’ mental worlds.
By Amr (@siegarettes)
Flat Heroes is a minimalist action game that demonstrates how animation and solid controls can make even simple shapes feel kinetic. Actions are simple–there’s a jump, a dash, an short burst attack, and wall kicks. Your avatars have weight–they roll around on their corners, and latch onto walls as their flat sides create friction. Enemies almost feel like they have they have personalities, operating with different behaviors, their basic shapes communicating immediately what their patterns are.
Each stage is a bite sized, almost puzzle like stage. Every stage is a single square screen. There’s a short countdown to let you take in the layout, then obstacles begin to come to life. This might be a series of shots that require you to observe and dodge their sequence, laser beams that cut off areas of the stage and require cover to escape, or enemies that chase you in waves as you pass them by. There’s a lot of variations, and they’re each slowly introduced before mixing them with other obstacles to complicate the problem. You’ll die frequently, but once you figure out the solution stages are brief, never going past a minute in length.That is, if you can nail the sequence.
