DeVuego ES_COR

Mika and the Witch’s Mountain has a good enough base, but not enough magic to keep it afloat.

Creatures of Ava is another solid example of what a cozy game can be with a little ingenuity and experimentation. Its world and gameplay provide a laid-back enough experience to push players forward. While it might not set the world on fire, it does add a little more light to it, which is pretty good in my book.

Ereban: Shadow Legacy cleverly uses popular mechanics from other games in a stealth adventure title that feels familiar yet fresh.

Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story fails to be an engaging puzzle-platformer and fails to deliver an emotional, heartfelt story about a child and his Yeti best friend. Considering the performance woes when playing the Switch version, too, this is a song best left unheard.

Laika: Aged Through Blood is a fairly remarkable game, even if it got on my nerves something fierce due to its predilection for unnecessary mechanics.

Blasphemous 2 is another excellent Metroidvania that’s quite different from its predecessor in a number of ways, even if it doesn’t quite manage to supersede it overall.

Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara is a decent, albeit very basic platformer that does enough to be mildly entertaining, but not enough to have a lasting presence.

Minabo - A walk through life takes some basic systems and fails to make them fun in any meaningful way. While the thought experiment is interesting, it’s just not much of a game.

Temtem shakes up the Pokémon formula in several ways, yet is held back by poor pacing and a world that needs more things to discover and do.

In summary, Ikai had a great first quarter or half with intense, heart-pounding moments, great jump scares, and creepy-looking yokai, but it fell short of being great with its story that felt short and contained troublingly difficult puzzles to solve. I would recommend it as a game to play for those who want to see some great design and partially unique game mechanics. Otherwise, this could have been time spent playing other similar horror games that did it slightly better, like Outlast or Fatal Frame. While I loved the puzzle aspect of the game, I think it should be tweaked a little.

Deiland: Pocket Planet seemed promising with all that it offered but ultimately fell flat, especially compared to all the other simulation games currently available.

Call of the Sea is a well-executed Adventure game that feels both familiar and distinct, with imagery evocative of both Monkey Island and H.P. Lovecraft that comes together in a fun and concise adventure game.

A brilliantly realized, brutal and bloody Metroidvania that is the next best thing to reading up on Catholic Martyrs while you whip yourself with a barbed cat-o-nine-tails.

Yuppie Psycho is a solid adventure game that plays rough with first-timers, but offers enough hidden content to make exploring worthwhile.

It’s a shame Gris releases during the holiday season as I fear the title may be over shadowed by other heavy hitting games. Gris is a must play for fans of the Metroidvania or adventure genre, relaxing games, or basically anything made by Thatgamecompy or Playdead.

Moonlighter’s loop of combat, exploration, and sales is an engrossing one, with steps taken to keep players invested in every part of the game.

While Immortal Redneck doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table, it does successfully combine the speed of old-school FPS like Unreal Tournament and Quake with roguelike elements to make a pretty fun little game worth your time if you don't mind a little grind.

That’s really the thing about Crossing Souls: it definitely has its flaws, however, I really can’t help but cherish the amount of love and heart that went into it. Its problems are more disappointing because you can see where a little tightening would’ve made for a better experience and probably would’ve warranted a higher score. But that aside, Crossing Souls is definitely a fantastic experience, and I would highly recommend playing it.

While, yes, comparisons to other games can be made, there is ultimately nothing else out there quite like RiME. I suspect there won’t be for quite a while. And I suspect that when it’s time to look back on 2017’s best, Tequila Works’ magical, humanistic opus will be at the top of many lists.

The Sexy Brutale is a fantastic game that combines style and unique mechanics to amazing effect. I truly hope to see more games like this in the future.

The first chapter in a series, this game has to make a catching opening, and it somewhat succeeds. A few bizarre twists and noted historical mutations left me equally confused and intrigued — it’s enough that I won’t dismiss the game right off the bat, but I have a hard time fully endorsing a season’s pass just yet. We’ll have to see if the next episodes expand well enough on what’s been established to warrant an immediate investment. At six dollars, though, this is worth trying out.

Dead Synchronicity is an impressively dark, grimy, and uncomfortable excursion into a horrible and oppressive future.