Reuben Mount
If you have children, or if you are a huge child at heart yourself, I couldn't recommend this more. It's unashamed fun, and completely worth the price just in terms of the sheer amount of time you can get out of it if you do everything it has to offer.
A good collection of some of the best fighting games of all time, but held back by missing key titles from the Street Fighter legacy, and an arguable lack of care and attention that these games deserve.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is already proving itself to be a feature-rich and engaging game, with a really addictive "one more quest" feel to it. Once the issues are fixed, and with some more characters added to the game, this could become the best Disney game in years. Now, if you excuse me, I'm off to continue plugging hours into the game until I get Stitch in my valley as they're teased in the loading screens and I want to befriend them.
Did you pick up SNK Heroines? If so, what did you think? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter, and keep an eye here for more coverage of more anime fighters and other Japanese games. SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is out now on Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4.
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is out now! Do you think you will pick this title up? What is your favourite SNK title? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter, and check back for more coverage of SNK titles and other Japanese games.
With unenjoyable and clunky combat that is made much worse during the 3D segments, a laughably archetypal fantasy story, and dated character models, it's hard to actually believe that AeternoBlade II released this year for modern consoles. AeternoBlade II simply falls short of all of its ambitions, whatever they might have been.
RemiLore ~Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore~ is out now for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with Steam in the pipeline for release.
Happy Birthdays is out now on Nintendo Switch. Thank you to NIS America For kindly supplying the review code for this game.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance fails to live up to both the potential of its placement in the D&D canon and the legacy of the Dark Alliance name. As a mediocre-to-good game, depending on whether you're alone or with friends, the whole experience is sluggish and dull in execution, and sails close to the average tabletop D&D session where you play for four hours and somehow only walk down a single corridor, but without the enjoyment that comes with that experience.
Aokana is a wholesome underdog story ruined by panty shots and sudden nudity. This being said, if you can see past the fan service, the distinctly unlikeable protagonist and one note characters – OK, that's a lot to look past – this actually comes together to create an engaging tale of overcoming fears and the power of friendship, and you can't help but root for them.
Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn is out now on Nintendo 3DS. Fancy a copy? Then why not grab one?
Ninjin: Clash of Carrots is out now on PS4, XBox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam. Do you think Ninjin and his ninja skills have done enough to sell you on his adventure? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter, and check back for more coverage of titles like this and Japanese games too.
So, should you buy Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai? For such a low price, this is a surprisingly solid fighting game with a lot of depth to the gameplay mechanics.
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is out now for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC. Why not pick up a copy? EU/US
Freedom Planet is out now on Nintendo Switch. Thank you to Marvelous Games for kindly supplying this review code.
A romp through a cursed forest playing as a cute little critter. It's not doing anything groundbreaking or new by any means, but what's here is worthwhile for a palette cleanser between other platformers.
A formerly excellent game brought down significantly by a poor remaster with barely any upgrades to sell it to a new audience, at a price that's a little too high for what the game is. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance still has a great, classic DnD story and setting, with an excellent musical score, but the experience is marred by technical issues that range from disappearing sound effects and frame rate drops to frequent crashes.
Balan Wonderworld is a passable platformer marred by a string of increasingly baffling design decisions. It has charm by the bucketload and off-the-wall concepts that land well in spite of themselves, but the experience is inconsistent at best and frustrating at worst. There is a good game in here somewhere, and it is great fun at points, but waiting for those points isn't really worth it.
There's a lot of depth to the combat and managing your party in Tears of Avia, whilst still remaining user friendly. However, while the effort put into the game's design can't be denied, it has a large amount of problems and rough edges. If you can get past the initial lacklustre visuals and pacing issues, Tears of Avia is a solid turn-based strategy world to explore.
Ultimately SWORD ART ONLINE: Alicization Lycoris takes too long to get to the point both in its combat and story, leaving the player disinterested before it even really begins. There is a good game here if you do commit to it, with some great character and world design, enjoyable combat, and interesting game systems, but it's just not worth the slog to reach it.