Reviews

Pascal's Wager has a truly terrible story, but its exploration, combat, and enemy design set it apart.

Gnosia is a mind-bending time-loop adventure which blends social deduction and visual novel elements to create a truly tricky, engaging mystery.

Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse stays true to the zany antics and dark humor of the franchise, and packages it as a point-and-click adventure that makes absolutely no sense (but that’s actually okay). It may not appeal to players who have no clue about the franchise, but it’s bound to be an absolute delight for fans—or anyone who appreciates a twisted joke every now and then.

Blind Drive offers a solid and funny arcade romp that can be played just the same by blind and sighted gamers, but the fun wears off pretty quickly with repetitive gameplay.

The survival elements of Breathedge are pretty standard fare for the genre, but its hard to enjoy the experience due to dated humor and its insistence on abandoning its best elements halfway through.

Grind House is a straight-forward game with limited rules, a small number of thematic components, and a huge grasp of theme and enjoyment. It includes player elimination, but it's done very well that still keeps players involved, to the point where it's not really player elimination at all. The core set has a solid amount of replayability, which is hugely increased with the purchase of the expansion pack. Players who take games personally should be aware that this includes tactical voting that can't be avoided. If you like escape room-style tabletop games and can get behind the persona cards will have a blast with Grind House.

Boasting classic mechanics that have aged like a fine wine, the few additions to the formula make Stronghold: Warlords a worthy entry into anyone's RTS library.

Dexterity and careful planning collide in the world's first "flick and write" board game.

Loop Hero combines idle game's passiveness with the mechanical depth of a fantasy RPG. The result is a deeply absorbing and rewarding game.

Friday the 13th Horror At Camp Crystal Lake is a great push your luck game mechanically, the fear cards are particularly well done and a lot of fun. Yet while all of the components are thematically awesome, in trying to avoid player eliminattion, it misses the core of the theme. If it had been aimed at a higher age group, with player elimination, and bonus points for the brutality of the death, it would taken it from simply good, to an awesome game.

PixelJunk Raiders is just a few steps away from something I could like. It grabs something that could be good and just makes it feel a little alien.  

Worker Placement Meets Tile Placement In This Pleasant And Thinky Point Grab

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury is a fantastic package that any Mario fan should own. Super Mario 3D World might not be the most unique Mario, but it sure is fun. With Bowser's Fury as an extra mode, it's a smash hit.

Yupitergrad is a great addition to the roster of Oculus Quest games, despite its issues

The Naga x will likely be a little excessive for most but if this is the mouse you’re looking for, it’s quite great

Dreadball has extremely straight-forward mechanics, which allows for very fast-paced play. The sequencing of player actions can get very tactical, which can slow down the games during the first few plays, but quickly speeds up when you learn the team. The flexibility in team selection for the 6 payers on the pitch is surprisingly varied for the limited player types, and gives a huge amount of replayability, with only the 2 included teams. The multiplayer option, large number of teams, and the league rules included in the rulebook along with the quality components make the core set incredible value.

Curse of The Dead Gods is an extremely addicting roguelike that features deeply rewarding and exciting combat mechanics.

The Shadow You tries to get by on shallow imitation and angry teenage energy with all of the elegance and skill of terrible fanfiction.

Pusheen Purrfect Pick offers up family fun with a fair bit of strategy.

Nioh 2 doesn't dramatically alter what came before, but wisely updates the first game to create a stunning sequel and absolute must-play for fans.

Shattered - Tale of the Forgotten King is brimming with potential. Unfortunately, it's too buggy, boring, and repetitive to realize that potential.

Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing is a cute lockdown love story, with nice enough characters and the world building of Half Past Fate to rely on, but will disappoint those looking for a deeper romance.

Night of the Living Dead: A Zombicide Game feels very different from the other Zombicide games. The same straight-forward mechanics and component quality are there, but the survivors are less powerful and require building up, and can still be hampered by the appearance of the relatives. Playing through the scenarios in order is a fantastic experience, and anyone looking to recreate the movie, or simply looking for a new way to play Zombicide will enjoy this. 

Playing Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is like curling up in front of a fire with a good book: you give yourself to the story. Bugs and obtuse puzzles aren't enough to detract from what's a unique and thoroughly entertaining experience.