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A PlayStation fan for most of his childhood, once he picked up an Xbox with Panzer Dragoon Orta he never looked back.
Tamarin on Xbox is a game that does not know what it wants to be, one capable of completely blindsiding player expectations. It’s simply a weird game, perhaps one of the weirdest in the platformer genre. Still, the real disappointment is just how boring and bare the third person shooting action is, with no real sense of rewarding level design or progression.
Alchemic Cutie on Xbox is an interesting but tough sell. It no doubt has its charms and strengths, and yet its distinguishing ideas lack real substance in execution; the experience as a whole can feel pointless for a genre that is known to champion a pointless slice of life loop in the first place.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a solid and enjoyable remake of a Harvest Moon classic. Yet while you get to enjoy a classic experience intact, it also feels incredibly dated given the other options available on Xbox today.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy- Definitive Edition on Xbox is an overpriced and poorly produced release which does absolutely no favours to the classic games it attempts to celebrate. The experience here is far from definitive, and aside from the sheer laziness in the graphical remastering and performance, it introduces a whole slew of performance issues.
Spark the Electric Jester 2 on Xbox One is an admirable effort from an indie gaming standpoint, as creating even a functional 3D platformer is a tough task even for a fully budgeted development studio. The game manages to execute its ideas with much success, and ultimately as flawed as the many moving parts may be, they all come together to create a memorable whole, especially when it is backed by excellent soundtrack presentation.
Minoria on Xbox One is a worthy entry in the broader Momodora canon. While Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is arguably the more memorable experience, Minoria is still a welcome and unique take on the developer’s own Metroidvania formula; one that manages to do things with its own style both in presentation and gameplay.
It’s a fun and cheap little distraction on Xbox One, a fun little experimental idea, but beyond a few sittings and some easy achievements there is not much else about 112th Seed that stays with you.
Nowhere Prophet on Xbox One is a quality experience for what it intends to do, even if it is a bit of an acquired taste. It is soundly designed as a single player card game and will certainly appeal to its intended audience.
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift isn’t very easy to find at the local shops anymore, but it isn’t exactly a desired rare item as copies can be found for clearance rates mainly because there isn’t a demand for it. Ultimately, it makes sense why Xbox doesn’t get BlazBlue or Guilty Gear anymore, but who knows, if enough of us drive up the second hand price of Xbox BlazBlue games we may even see the next Guilty Gear on Series X.
If you love the idea of spontaneously chatting with fascinating strangers, then Night Call will most certainly give you a long list of memorable characters.
Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 on Xbox One may not have anything as interesting as a demake of Pac-Man Championship Edition like that seen in Vol. 1, but this is still a strong collection of some of the company’s best Famicom classics, with most titles still as enjoyable now as they were decades ago.
Despite the glaring omission of actual museum content and clunky implementation of some features, for fans, a novel interpretation of one of the best Pac-Man games at least makes Vol. 1 the better of the two volumes currently available on Xbox One.
Project Warlock on Xbox One is a run of the mill clone of classic shooters, but it doesn’t incorporate the ingenious and thoughtful level design that made its forebearers such timeless classics.
Evan’s Remains on Xbox One is a unique platformer with great puzzle design, and an adventure experience driven by a substantial narrative which successfully delivers on its lofty ambitions. With beautiful sprites, simple but charming artwork, emotional music, and a cast of memorable and well-written characters, this is the kind of video game experience that stays with the player years after the credits have rolled.
The lack of multiplayer is felt here even with an interesting eliminator mode, and so Formula Retro Racing is only one to check out if you aren’t able to play Virtua Racing and are starved of options.
Huntdown on Xbox One is a game with immense personality and presentation, featuring a 2D action campaign that is built around memorable boss encounters, and plenty of them too. With so many games out at the moment it’s easy to let things slip by, but don’t let Huntdown go under your radar, lest there’s a bounty on your head for doing so.
