Slay the Spire for people wanting better art and story, though it sacrifices gameplay somewhat.

This is nowhere as tightly balanced as other roguelite deckbuilders - there's only 3 starting decks with very cut-and-dry gameplans, so once you know what cards to pick, upgrade and skip/remove, your scaling kind of explodes and you'll only really die to a major misplay or atrocious RNG. Path generation can be a bit wonky too, putting a load of only fights or vendors back-to-back.

All of which is to say, it's not bad or clunky by any means, it's just broken in your favour, and isn't nearly as replayable as StS due to the smaller scope of the game, unless you wanna wring out all the lore there is for Noah and the City. I've rolled credits at 9 hours in, but I've enjoyed myself.

The biggest reason you'll pick this up are for the story, art, and vibes. The writing is well-done, the twists and lore are intriguing, and the art style is an excellent mix of noir and eldritch horrors. Music's good, too!

All in all, I'm satisfied with this game. If you just want the gameplay, I'd wait for a sale, but I strongly recommend this at full price if you'd like a more involved narrative experience alongside your roguelite deckbuilder, which is something I'm surprised I haven't come across yet until now.

I have to wonder if the later stages were even playtested.

For a platformer, you want the controls to be responsive and consistent. They aren't. They really, really aren't. And when the stages actually get difficult, it's not just execution you can react to, it's a bunch of "gotcha" moments and times where you have to guess what the right course of action is to get past.

I quit at the last area of the game - probably, I no longer care to check - Lava Mountain. Which is a shame, because for once the plot of a Sonic game actually tries hitting some harder notes and to change up the level design (to varying success, but I have to commend the attempt). But the game is just so frustrating due to death upon death upon death being more the fault of the wonky, inconsistent platforming and controls rather than a failure on my part.

Save yourself the sanity, buy another Sonic game if you want to scratch the itch. Or watch the cutscenes if you want to see Zavok and Zazz in their first outing after playing Crossworlds.

tl;dr: Flawed, especially early on, but I still loved it. Grab it on a sale or something if the demo didn't leave you desperate for more.

While ostensibly a mech game at its core, this game does so many things differently that it's not fair to compare it to Armored Core. Or even the original DXM.

The story's a lot more centered in this one than in the original DXM, for good and bad. Early sections are particularly rough in both storytelling and voice direction (looking at you, Ash), but it smooths out as it comes together, and the initial combat had just enough depth to keep me engaged. Don't expect a masterpiece, but it starts okay and gets better as it progresses, in my opinion.

The open world isn't a collect-a-thon, but serves more as a space for the story and sidequests to take place in, a place to gather resources and gear, and fight some field bosses - closer to Monster Hunter's regions than an open-world sandbox.

So, this leaves combat as the meat and potatoes of the game, and it's genuinely not bad. It's not as nuanced or varied as other mech games, but there was enough variety to pique my interest within the demo, and it only opens up further beyond it in terms of variety. Balance is a little wonky - with a few exceptions, guns feel more like a supplement to melee, rather than both being on equal terms; they aren't unviable, but they definitely fight an uphill battle against bosses. Still, again - there's still plenty to enjoy here when it comes to buildcrafting and fighting enemy Arsenals.

All in all, while I genuinely do love this game, I can't recommend it to just anyone, but DO recommend giving it a try. Play the demo, and if you aren't as intrigued as I was, grab it on a sale.

"Sorry to say, but buy this a year or two after this review's post if you want a good, complete game - go play Vermintide 2 instead for that."
...is what I said when I originally posted the review around March. Now? I can honestly recommend the game, particularly if it's on sale.

There's still a few imperfections - the game is always-online, the story isn't really a focus, balance is still off in places, but build and gear variety's gotten a lot better, there seems to be new character banter added each patch, and the game honestly feels a lot more complete than it used to.

It's short. Very short. But it made me feel happy in like a minute, which I guess is what matters.

You basically run around, stepping on white blocks to make them colourful, climbing ledges, walljumping, and playing with pipes and physics to reach buttons to reveal more white blocks and another button. It's incredibly easy to pick up and play, looks simple yet pretty, and the soundtrack is relaxing and uplifting.

All in all, definitely worth the money. <3

Download was buggy and forced me to redownload the whole thing after revalidating game cache.
Game patches while I download, and I start creating an NCSoft account.
Filled in info, was unable to create the account due to "an error".

Waste of time and storage/10

As someone unused to 2D fighting games, this is simply too demanding for me. I don't have frame-perfect timing on my keypresses, I'm bad at comboing (most of these will be the result of key-mashing), and otherwise I'm simply not good enough. Haven't tried online because I don't want to become a punching bag, judging by the other reviewers' experiences.

If you're a pro at 2D fighting games, by all means get this game, it's really cool and really well-put together. The soundtrack is astounding, the characters are pretty good (even putting the fanservice or lack thereof aside)

If you're a casual that isn't well-versed in this sort of game, like me...well, at least I have an excuse to look up Skullgirls hentai without feeling dumb. Seriously though, it's easier to count the characters that don't have some form of fanservice.

Hurray for idle games!

Got this for free ages ago. Thought I may as well try it. I know my play-time isn't much (judging by the amount of levels in the first 2 chapters alone, absolutely dinky), but a review's a review.

Nice cartoon puzzle platformer, using multiple gimmicks to help Shuggy (that's you!) go through his ancestor's haunted mansion and collect keys to progress. The art-style is reminiscent of a kids' comic book, although with a certain narmy charm to it.

As puzzle platformers go, it's a bit more on the "puzzle" side than the "platformer", although that doesn't mean dexterity isn't required from time to time (hello there lava fishies). The gimmicks I mentioned earlier include stuff like a time loop, herding little critters called Shmus into cages to unlock the gems (no idea how exactly that works), or rotating the level itself.

If you want a relaxing puzzle platformer, this will fit the bill nicely. If you're aiming for a more intense platformer, go get Super Meat Boy.

Mind Screw: The Game