Author: Joel

Mario Golf: Super Rush marks the series’ return back to consoles after more than a decade of handheld games. The new entry was announced and released within a short time frame and promised some new additions and an adventure mode, but is it worth the long wait for a full-fledged console game? One of the new additions that were being marketed in promotional materials is an Adventure mode. This is the perfect point to start if you are a newcomer to Golf games. Camelot, who has developed Mario Golf: Super Rush, appears to focus on providing an arcade-like experience that…

Square Enix is on a remastering spree that aims at bringing several of their classic games, either as a full-blown remake (Trials of Mana), or a remaster that enhances and improves on the original game’s visuals while adding several quality-of-life changes and new content (SaGa Frontier Remastered). Legend of Mana is a spin-off from the Mana series. It is not connected to the main series despite being the fourth game chronologically. This allows the developer to experiment with various gameplay ideas without having to worry about criticism. In my opinion, this is the best Mana game due to its sheer…

Final Fantasy VII Remake finally launched for the PS4 last year in April. It was visually gorgeous even on the PS4 Pro but the game did feel like it lacked a certain polish due to the hardware holding back from letting it achieve full potential. The release of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade has basically provided a picture-perfect version of one of the best JRPGs on the current-generation consoles. Additionally, the visual and technical improvements are not the only change as a whole new story chapter has been added in addition to new boss fights. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade…

Arc System Works is best known for their fighting games and they have continued to work not just on their own IPs, but also for third-parties with Dragon Ball and Persona spin-offs. Guilty Gear -Strive- is the latest entry in the popular Guilty Gear series that is often considered the benchmark of a certain type of fighting game. You are rewarded if you spend the time to master its core systems and the learning curve is not that high for a newcomer. In Guilty Gear -Strive- fans will be able to experience “more of the same” but with a new…

Biomutant is one of the rare games that feels like it was better suited for a previous era. It is a medium-scale AA game from a small developer but carries a lot of ambitions. Obviously, this also leads to several issues that are not properly addressed but for a game that is from a brand new developer and feels ambitious for the studio considering its size, it is an admirable effort. Biomutant was first revealed back in 2017 but it disappeared under the radar for a long time until it resurfaced again last year. The main developers behind it are…

DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power stuck as the odd game out of the Nintendo Switch lineup for this year. While the game appears to target teens, which could be perfect for the Nintendo Switch audience, it was also one of the rare third-party games aimed at kids that were backed by Nintendo. For fans of the show, it could be a dream come true since the main premise behind it looked interesting enough. The game is finally out now and as expected, there is not much mainstream coverage behind its release. One of the reasons why there is not…

Mass Effect was considered one of the best trilogies and a top-tier WRPG until Andromeda was released and basically put the franchise on the backburner. This is why it was important to release a successful remaster for the Mass Effect Trilogy while Bioware works on a new game in the series. EA has managed to accomplish this feat with the recently released Mass Effect Legendary Edition. It has received revamped visuals and several quality-of-life features that put it significantly ahead of the original release excluding the PC version with mods. When it comes to the Legendary Edition, Bioware doesn’t see…

Miitopia is a simple game from the outside. The entire cast of characters in the game is composed of Mii avatars. The player can use a customized set of avatars for their party members, or the game randomly picks them out of a random preset. The basic idea is simple, by using these personalized avatars, the game sets out the player, in this case, your avatar and others around you, on a quest to save the world from the tyranny of the Dark Lord. The game begins with the player picking out a character that can either be created from…

Famicom Detective Club Games were one of the surprise announcements of this year and revealed in a Nintendo Direct. These games were originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and remained exclusive to Japan. They are primarily a visual novel but with minor gameplay usually revolving around investigating the environment. The first two Famicom Detective Club Games have received a remake on the Nintendo Switch and were first announced back in 2019, but they were never localized by Nintendo until this year. The first thing that immediately drew my attention to these games is the art style. It looks neat…

Resident Evil Village continues the ‘soft reboot’ that Capcom pulled with Resident Evil 7. It stars the same protagonist, Ethan Winters while bringing a familiar face back to the series with Chris Redfield. While Chris was also a key part of its predecessor, he has a slightly larger role to play for the sequel. There is a lot of similarity between Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4, so it is not a surprise for me that I found it one of the best games in the series released by Capcom since Resident Evil 4 launched back on the Nintendo…