Jon Ledford
Just when you thought there was nothing else that could be done to ruin the Sonic franchise, all it took was a Big Red Button.
We know that there are plenty of fighting game enthusiasts out there who are hoping to expand their hit boxes beyond Killer Instinct, but Fighter Within is not the title to do it with. Furthermore, Fighter Within only sets an immensely bleak tone in regard to future Kinect-exclusives. Even with its reduced price tag, the Fighter Within is a broken mess everyone could do without.
Type-0 HD's "Mature" rating and blood-filled imagery should be telltale signs that we're in for a different kind of Final Fantasy experience heading onto the new systems. Unfortunately, Type-0 HD doesn't rectify the shortcomings of its predecessors and simply rehashes the mistakes of the past while doing very little to update an already outdated PSP title.
If you ever have friends over and they say something like "Oh is that the Xbox One?" And you want to show off the system to them, Lococycle should be the last title you would ever want to consider playing. But if you have children who wouldn't know any better, then yes, Lococycle would be for you.
Much like its tie-in's shock ending, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 let us go when we were least expecting it and Beenox failed to swing in to save Spider-Man's love when it mattered the most.
While Godzilla and the other monsters' designs were fairly solid, everything else in the game looks poorly done, and it's not just because the game adheres to a 60-year-old monster movie motif.
Crimson Dragon doesn't live up to its Panzer Dragon ancestry. If we were to compare it to the rest of the console titles of the series, Crimson would most rank towards the latter end of the franchise. Its final levels are pretty, but everything up until then is repetitive, difficult and annoying to the point where Crimson Dragon feels more like a chore than it is any actual fun.
We must say that Ryse offers no long-lasting value, it is definitely a renter at best, but it is a beautiful one. Once you complete Marius' story mode in about five to six hours and try out the co-op multiplayer once or twice, there isn't much else to it. Ryse does an excellent job at showcasing the capabilities of the Xbox One itself, but it lacks any real substance.
For something that tries so hard to test your reflexes, Spectra ultimately tests your patience more than anything else.
Given the difference in capabilities between the Nintendo DS and the 3DS, we had rather high expectations for Yoshi's side-scrolling return.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water's full price tag might shy away some would-be buyers since it's only available in North America as a digital release, but veterans of the series or survival horror fans in general will certainly have a good time having an otherworldly photo shoot at Mt. Hikami.
Utilizing the full extent of the current-gen hardware, Need for Speed revs up into a promising experience that is all about underground and urban street racing, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee a smooth ride.
Battlefront certainly doesn't reinvent online multiplayer FPS gameplay or even have any lasting reasons to keep you coming back for more, but its presentation and nostalgic values are more than enough to keep casual gamers out there entertained.
Ultimately, we can only recommend The Curse of Brotherhood to those with an Xbox One who must have a platforming title on their system. Whether its Braid, Limbo, Fez or Super Meat Boy, there are plenty of other indie platformers out there that excel far beyond The Curse of Brotherhood in terms of everything except its graphics.
The entire game just boils down to pairing together items to save children. The narrative aspect of Road Not Taken is surprisingly thoughtful for its style of gameplay, but there isn't much to keep players engaged, nor is there any kind of incentive to keep playing after Year 15. On top of this, the game-stopping glitches we encountered should not have been an issue for a game this light on the PS4 hardware. Nevertheless, Road Not Taken is still a solid, if unspectacular puzzler on its own.
Capcom's swansong to Street Fighter IV was hit with a massive combo breaker.
The plastic peripheral-slinging music game developers at Harmonix have returned to their roots with a modern remake of Amplitude.
Besides its impressive sound effects, everything about Spartan Assault felt like a rushed-over port and does not offer any type of depth or impressions to warrant its release as an Xbox One downloadable title. Nevertheless, it still felt like Halo, which means a lot to would-be buyers.
Hyrule Warriors lives up to expectations by having as many tropes from the Zelda series attached as it can, but it does have its fair share of shortcomings.
Dead or Alive 5: Last Round takes everything fans could love about the series and cranks it all up to 11, but that doesn't mean it's doing anything new.