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Super Mario 3D World is the closest we will ever come to a perfect Mario game, one that is a culmination of every right decision ever made in the series. Alone, or with friends, the first time, or the tenth time, it does everything right. It's a wonderful adventure, and makes me proud to be a Wii U owner.
Overall, Need for Speed: Rivals delivers the most solid racer to come from EA in a long time. The ability to play as both Cops and Racers is a welcome gameplay diversity that gives you the power to choose how to play the game. Back that up with a seamless multiplayer, a solid audio foundation, and killer visuals, and what you get is one of the best racing games to come out in recent years. Whether you choose to be a Cop or a Racer, either way you're going to have a lot of fun, which is what gaming is all about.
Killer Instinct certainly is a fun game that does everything fighting games need to do right. It just doesn't have a whole lot to offer otherwise. So unless you have a dedicated group of fighting gamers to play the game with you, you probably won't get the Killer Instinct experience you were hoping for, and even if you do, high-level play feels a bit shallow. Killer Instinct certainly has a lot of potential to become a great tournament fighter after we delve deeper into the gameplay system and the roster expands. It just isn't quite there yet.
At the end of the day, even though I had a good time playing Ryse: Son of Rome, it just didn't have too much to offer. Sure, it has online multiplayer and a gladiator mode, but these regurgitations of the single-player combat engine still feel repetitive and over-used. The story is shallow but well executed, with next-gen visuals and high-end sound production that make the experience worth having, if only once. I saw a lot of potential in Ryse: Son of Rome. With a little love, I could see a sequel to this game with several playable characters, combat styles, and a more diverse command structure that could seriously take this game to the next level. But for now, it is just a "pretty good game."
If none of these things bother you, you'll get hours upon hours of enjoyment out of Forza 5. And if you are bothered, both Polyphony Digital and Slightly Mad Studios will have competing offers in short order. Either way, you won't be disappointed.
Dead Rising 3 is exactly what I wanted. I wanted a game that focused on some of the issues the previous entries had and tried to fix them while staying true to the series. In some cases, this is done perfectly. In others, well, let's just say we might need to revisit the old drawing board. Are those things bad enough to prevent you from having a good time with the game? Absolutely not. It's fun. It's as fun, if not more, than any of the previous games. It's not going to change the world ten times over, but for a launch title, this is where we should be. Dead Rising 3 might not be the game everyone wanted, but it is a game we needed. I, for one, am thankful it is here.
I had fun with Crimson Dragon, but I'm not entirely sure everyone will. You have to have kind of an addictive personality to really get into it. A lot of the game is propelled forward by its grindy levels and progression system, and if this isn't your thing, then you'll likely get incredibly frustrated and just turn the game off to play more Killer Instinct. However, if you are the kind of person who could spend hours raising their perfect dragon, getting S ranks on every stage, and simply appreciating some fantastic graphics, then you will probably have a lot of fun with Crimson Dragon. It's not the AAA blockbuster that we all thought it was going to be--heck, I won't even go as far as to say that it's better than Panzer Dragoon--but it is a solid title that you can pick up for a budget price. As far as Xbox One launch titles go, you can do far worse.
I dearly wanted to enjoy Contrast. It's the kind of game that is normally right up my alley, featuring puzzles, platforming, a stylish, historically inspired world, and an intelligent young female protagonist. It simply wasn't fun to actually play. Contrast would have made a delightful short film, but I'm afraid that it isn't a particularly good game.
There just isn't anything fun about Fighter Within. The story is bad, the controls are bad, the characters are uninteresting, and if you aren't using a controller, it's nearly impossible to even navigate the Kinect-controlled menus. Ubisoft has done so much better with so many other franchises, but Fighter Within is flawed right down to its very concept. Motion-control fighting games simply don't work, period. I'm a big fan of fighters, and while it was obvious that Fighter Within was never going to be the next big, hardcore title on the EVO tournament floor, I wouldn't even suggest it to casual fans. Go play Smash Brothers or something-- anything is better than this flail fest. The only thing you will get out of Fighter Within is a pair of sore arms and a bunch of disappointment.
The problem is justifying an NBA Live 14 purchase when NBA 2K14 is on store shelves. As a newbie, I had fun with NBA 2k14, but I didn't have nearly as much fun with NBA Live 14. I felt like it assumed I knew more about basketball and basketball video games than I actually did. It just dropped me into the deep end and asked me to figure it all out, and all I could really do was button mash and hope for the best. It's a good foundation for a franchise that could prosper in the future--after all, I've been saying that sports games should use live updating stats via the Internet for years now--but at this very moment, it just pales in comparison to its competition.
Fun games can be simple, and simple games are often fun, but there's a tedium at the heart of Super Motherload that it just can't shake. With a number of tweaks that added more interesting puzzles, made the game less grindy, and reduced the amount of up and down necessary, it could've been a lot better. As it is, I think I'd really rather go back to playing Diamond Mine in Bejeweled 3.
The Mario Party series has been around for a long time now, yet even after so many iterations, it doesn't feel like each subsequent entry is a departure from its predecessor. In some cases, that is a good thing, but in Mario Party's case, it needs more than new music and a spin on game boards to evoke a sense of innovation. The mini-games must be more than simple variations of past offerings or lackluster uses of system features (like the touch screen and microphone). And the series absolutely needs online multiplayer, no exception. That said, I still had fun with Mario Party: Island Tour, and it was nice to have a brief but satisfying match while out and about.
Despite its flaws, The Walking Dead: season 2: Episode 1 is still an outstanding game. It still makes you feel for its characters in ways no other game on the market does. It's still one of the best examples of games as art our industry has to offer. In fact, this is perhaps the best piece of zombie fiction available right now. Yes, better than World War Z. Yes, better than Night of the Living Dead. If you are a fan of zombie fiction in general, you owe it to yourself to play this game.
When all is said and done, NBA 2K17 goes above and beyond to provide gamers with the true NBA experience regardless of which avenue you choose. The game is polished from top to bottom and rises to the high expectations 2K16 put in place.
Destiny has been a fascinating experiment, but at this point it could use a reboot from scratch in order to truly fulfill its promising premise. Rise of Iron makes the best out of what's been done, but what we really want is a new Destiny with a bold, cohesive story and a rock-solid expansion plan. Go forth, Bungie, and deliver.
Despite its issues, both technical and philosophical, I'm giving Freedom Cry a "must play" rating. I think it's an important start in tackling such a difficult and tragic topic via the medium of interactive entertainment. Few companies are brave enough to even bring up topics like slavery and genocide in a real-world setting. You should play it, and you should feel uncomfortable, angry, and sad while playing it. Adéwalé may not have been a real person, but this is our history, and the reality of slavery was even more brutal than the game depicts. Freedom Cry may stumble, but it opens up some important discussions that we should be having as gamers and human beings.
Don't Starve isn't perfect, but it brings something to the PS4 that is sorely needed. Its addictive qualities keep you playing, forcing you to lose hours of your life to dodging Pig Men, hunting rabbits, and gathering supplies to see how long you can last. This game will keep you playing that shiny new PS4, which is exactly what the PS4 needs right now. Now, time to jump in this rabbit hole and go to the Kingdom of the Bunnymen…hopefully.
Overall, Dr. Luigi certainly scratches that virus-busting itch, and is especially fun with two players. Fans of the series and Tetris addicts shouldn't hesitate to pick it up from the Wii U eShop. It's the kind of game that doesn't need to change a great deal between versions, and its designers have wisely stuck to the basics while adding some entertaining twists to the gameplay with Operation L.
Daedalic may have had the intent to spin a tale of treachery and malevolence with Blackguards, but from the outset you'll find that each character has a conscience that is rarely tested, ultimately weaving an only slightly less-than-virtuous tale. That being said, every encounter is exciting and challenging, and the massive amount of class tailoring gives you plenty of reasons to replay the adventure and sample different character choices. It's a great foundation, especially for a game developer not accustomed to the genre, and I am eager to see if Daedalic can do anything more with the series, be it with a sequel, new content, or tools for players to create their own adventures.
Despite its lack of challenge, Broken Age is absolutely worth playing in order to explore its world, meet its wonderful characters and become hooked by the mystery presented by its story. I might even suggest playing Part 1 now and being forced to wait for the second half of the game to come out in the spring. It gives us time to ponder the mystery, come up with theories, discuss them with fellow fans, and get excited over the kind of mystery that's rare in this day of Let's Plays and Internet FAQs. It may not be the perfect game, but Broken Age is something special that any gamer with a taste for the fantastic won't want to miss.