DeVuego ES_COR

FullBlast is hard to fault entirely in one particular of its many aspects. It doesn't do much wrong: it controls well, the music is nice enough, the visuals, while not impressive, do look clean. It gets the action going, yet it fails to capture the attention because it's too repetitive and not engaging enough. It's neither good nor bad, it just feels dull. Nothing outstanding distinguishes one level from the next, and the lack of anything truly surprising or groundbreaking means that it feels more like work than entertainment to get through all the levels and see the ending. Online leaderboards, while they are a good addition (and are seriously lacking in the brilliant re-releases of old classics on Nintendo platforms), won't be its saving grace. The boring repetitiveness of the action, music, and scenery is likely to put off the most purist of fans, who will likely prefer to whip out an old classic rather than sticking around for too long in this newer title. Lack of content, replayability, and engaging factors hold back what could have otherwise been a much better home console experience, and proves that copy-pasting a mobile game onto a home console is not a good idea.

Zombie Incident is not without a couple of annoying factors at times, and some decisions in terms of game design do seem odd. Saying that, though, the feeling it provides coming out of playing it is a good one - a rewarding sense of accomplishment. It has enough charm to outweigh most of its shortcomings. Through its new 3DS coat of paint, it is obvious why it won the competition back in 2011, and, given its low price on the eShop, it can confidently be recommended to anybody interested in the concept, or fans of old-school indie games. Give this one a shot and be assured that, whether or not the same kind of occasional frustrations are experienced, gamers are likely to get hooked and end up not regretting the small monetary investment.

In trying to distance itself a little bit from the formula that 2D Metroidvanias have now stuck to for the past 15 years, Mirror of Fate succeeded in most areas but falls a little bit too short in others. The new, more action-oriented kind of gameplay is a pleasant experience, but lack of variety of weapons and super powers makes it a less versatile experience. Had the game been a bit longer, which we cannot help but wish it was, it would have felt too repetitive. Exploration is still there in decent quantity, yet the lack of secret "off the map" rooms to find by yourself make the experience a bit too straightforward for its own good, despite 3D graphics lending themselves pretty well to render destructible things hiding interesting secrets within the castle. Finally, while the story certainly is interesting in its own right, the Lords of Shadow sub series stabs long time fans in the back by throwing away all of the plot points established by the 25-year-old series. What remains is a great looking game that controls well and is still very much worth experiencing, but is still more easily recommended to newcomers and people who can forget what the series has established so far - at least for the time Mirror of Fate will last them - and look past the minor hiccoughs in the execution. The demo available, unfortunately, doesn't really give off an accurate representation of what playing the full game - unlocking new powers as progress is made and exploring progressively - feels like.