Author: Lee Jewett

Developer: Chromatic Games Publisher: Trendy Entertainment LLC Genre: Action Tower Defense Reviewed On: PlayStation 4 Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC The Basics: Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is the third and latest entry in the Dungeon Defenders franchise, a series which blends gameplay from the tower defense and third person hack and slash genres. I never played any of its predecessors for any significant length of time, so I’m not able to speak to how similar Awakened is or how it measures up; what I can do is judge it by its own qualities, and unfortunately my verdict is…

Developer: Fiction Factory Publisher: PQUBE Ltd. Genre: Dating-sim Visual Novel Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One/Series X, Nintendo Switch The Basics: Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers is an extremely queer dating-sim visual novel with surprisingly compelling sci-fi aspects mostly centered around video games. Like the original Arcade Spirits, it is set in a world where the 1983 crash of the video game market never happened, which allowed arcades (and video games in general) to continue to flourish and grow into a (somewhat) respected part of the cultural zeitgeist. The differences between our own…

Developer/Publisher: Spike Chunsoft Genre: Visual Novel, Adventure Reviewed On: PlayStation 4 Also Available For: Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch What’s wild about AI: The Somnium Files is that it doesn’t feel like a game that needed or even particularly expected to have a sequel. It is perfectly self-contained and resolves itself well, leaving the player satisfied with where everything ends up… and yet, the surprise announcement of a sequel – subtitled nirvanA Initiative – roughly a year ago was still cause for excitement. Having now played nirvanA Initiative, I’m pleased to report that it does not at all feel unnecessary…

Developer: Neon Giant Publisher: Curve Digital Genre: Isometric Shooter RPG Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PlayStation 4, Xbox, PC Cyberpunk is a weird genre for me. Thematically, I absolutely ADORE the themes it commonly explores – transhumanism, capitalism’s impact on government and the lives of private citizens, the impact of capitalist overreach on the concept and possibility of transhumanism and the control that potentially gives corporations over the lives of anyone with cybernetics – but I cannot STAND its aesthetics most of the time. The excessive grime, the urban sprawl, the overwhelming cynicism hard-baked into the settings –…

Developer/Publisher: Ska Studios Genre: Souls-like Platformer Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PlayStation 4, PC The Basics: Salt and Sacrifice is a side-scrolling souls-like and the follow-up to 2016’s Salt and Sanctuary. Its predecessor has some light metroidvania elements, and while Salt and Sacrifice doesn’t do away with abilities that open more of the game world to the player, the progression and exploration isn’t structured in the same way. It is, however, still very well put together, and presents a compelling world that is very much worth visiting. The main premise of the game is that the player…

Developer/Publisher: The Game Bakers Genre: Bullet-Hell Dueler Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One When bullet-hell boss rush game Furi released in 2016, it rightly received a lot of attention. Everything from its artistic direction to its creative concept, high-octane gameplay, difficulty, and even soundtrack drew praise. In time, Furi faded from the public consciousness – as is natural for most games – though it maintained a bit of a cult following even after the initial rush of attention died down. However, French developer The Game Bakers evidently decided they weren’t quite done…

One Hand Clapping Developer: Bad Dream Games Publisher: HandyGames Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox, PlayStation 4 One Hand Clapping already received a review from Sequential Planet back in January, specifically covering the Nintendo Switch version. While we usually don’t do too much in the way of cross-referencing when we write different reviews for the same game on multiple platforms – heck, I try not to even read my colleagues pieces in these instances, to avoid any potential influence on my own opinion – One Hand Clapping is… a bit of an exceptional case. As…

Developer: Sengi Games Publisher: Team17 Genre: Crafting-focused Sandbox Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox The Serpent Rogue is a very fun game that I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to. The Basics are that the player assumes the role of a newborn Warden, mystical humanoid creatures whose purpose is upholding the balance of nature and aiding mortals with their illnesses and other troubles. Wardens – by which I mean you, the player – do this by gathering resources from the world around them, studying them, and figuring out how to use them to…

Developer: Sky Machine Studio Publisher: Blowfish Studio Genre: Isometric Stealth Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch The Basics: Winter Ember is an isometric stealth game in which players assume the role of Arthur Artorias, a former wealthy playboy out for revenge years after his family was killed and he was left for dead. Despite being a very basic premise, I wasn’t about to judge it for that; plenty of games with worse or even no excuse for their action have been fun and engaging experiences. However, upon starting up the game I…

Developer: DigixArt Publishers: DigixArt, Plug In Digital Genre: Narrative Adventure Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Also Available For: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC Whenever I have to play a game that has bad politics, I find myself questioning how much I should let that impact my review of it. Sometimes the answer is easy, because its politics are so abhorrent that encouraging anyone to buy it and support the developers is out of the question – other times, it’s much harder, with misguided or uninformed beliefs that aren’t prominent or noxious enough that it wholly overshadows what might otherwise…