DeVuego

Alien Spidy is a very cute game. Its charming, has beautiful graphics, great music, simplistic and challenging game play but that fun experience can really turn to extreme frustration at the snap of your fingers. Alien Spidy is a great premise for a game but the extreme difficulty, inaccurate controls, and ridiculous level advancement requirements really hinder what could have been a great game.

Scrapland is dripping with charisma despite its two-dimensional characters and decaffeinated storyline. The compulsion to return to Chimera again and again is hard to resist, even if it's just to satiate your curiosity of how good things could have been.

Call of the Sea has plenty to offer puzzle and walking sim fans alike. The story kept me going even when the puzzles felt difficult and excessive. The puzzles can be tough and seem unfair at times, but overall feel very solid in how they were crafted. The conclusion to the story of Nora, her illness, the previous expedition, and the true nature of the island left a satisfying feeling once I had completed it.

Konami's newest Castlevania sequel is marred by repetitive gameplay, terrible stealth missions and an uninteresting story that overstays its welcome. On the other hand, the game's final act and incredible boss battles make Lords of Shadow 2 worth playing. In a lot of ways this feels like a step backwards, but that shouldn't keep fans from having a good time finishing off Gabriel's adventure.

Deiland: Pocket Planet Edition has a lovely, relaxing vibe, and some pleasant, very recognizable farming mechanics. But some quest problems lead to frustration – and worse, hours of bewildered wandering. When progression grinds to a halt and there is nothing to do but grow endless crops, Deiland starts to feel less pleasant, and more like a purgatory.

Beautiful 2D platformers are practically a meme when it comes to indie game development, but Gris still rises above its contemporaries. Artful in both its watercolor design and broad-strokes storytelling, Gris is a gentle reminder that good puzzle platformers can make you feel smart without smarting, and that being succinct is not a bad thing, especially in the current culture of exhausted replayability.

Hunt the Night requires a lot of skill and a lot of patience, but becomes more enjoyable once you learn how everything works.  Everything looks, sounds, and controls great, and you’ll definitely begin to feel the challenge even in the opening areas of the game. Between the interesting puzzles and multiple ways to customize your loadout for dealing with enemies, Hunt the Night is an enjoyable game, though frustrating at times.  If you’re up for a challenge, Hunt the Night will definitely put your skills to the test.

Million to One Hero is a well-polished game in the “custom level creation” genre (is that a genre…well it is now).  The controls are fluid and you’ll have to employ a lot of skill to finish some of the creations players can come up with.  The level creation itself is pretty robust, though it would have been nice if some of the icons were a little bigger on the screen, and combining levels into a mini-adventure is a nice touch.  If you’re a fan of 2D platforming and level creation, you’ll find a lot to do in Million to One Hero for a satisfying price.

Moons of Darsalon is a lovely action puzzle platformer with a slight bug problem. With that said, it is so unique and so confidently designed that I don't think you should skip it.

Nihilumbra is a good first effort from BeautiFun Games, hopefully this promising title leads to better things from the studio in the future. It's definitely a standout title on the Vita's indie store, even with some minor issues.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is great. I don't know how they got the controls so tight, but it's magic. Bonus points for tying up a story for a game I still loathe to this day. And more Kumori please.

The visual calisthenics in Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle are a sheer triumph. But the dialogue-tree hula hoops will simply leave you out of breath. It hits the rare smart moment, if not a mild-pepper compulsion to progress a stagnating storyline. But far more often than not, it languishes in clueless comedic timing (is it really all lost in translation?), who-knows-what-they're-smoking puzzle pieces, and a Teen People sense of sensuality.

Outbreak does little to excite but it can be entertaining at times if you can round up some friends to play along. The controls are rough and sometimes unresponsive and the weapons don’t feel like they pack any sort of punch. The multiplayer however, on the other hand, does provide some enjoyable sessions.  If you can grab yourself some friends to play with the issues seem much more tolerable, just don’t expect anything new in this area. As long as you are happy with an experience that consists of your usual deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag, you might find this worth your time and money.

The Kindeman Remedy has players putting an evil doctor and his nun assistant through the paces of dark experiments in a way that ends up feeling a lot like a repetitive day of work.

Red Strings Club is a worthwhile three-to-four hours for $15. The story is told pretty well and it’s fun to tease out of the various conversations and vignettes it presents. The writers leaned a bit too heavy on a few of the points they were making to suit this old gumshoe’s gray noir tastes and I really wish there were multiple endings, but overall it’s an enjoyable visual novel with an impeccable sense of style.

While the game itself is really quite good, the lack of gameplay options and lack of thought into porting over the control scheme make for an average experience overall. This is a port that feels very much like one done with the absolute minimal effort required, and that's just not good enough for 2019 when so many other games this year have done so much better in this same PC to console space.

Toy Tactics is a great example of "less is more", brilliantly opening-up the RTS genre to newcomers, while still managing to challenge longtime fans with confident, intuitive gameplay design. An excellent singleplayer suite overshadows a seemingly DOA multiplayer mode, but that shouldn't stop you from playing one of the finest strategy titles in recent memory.

Wanted’s repetitive gameplay, awful dialogue, and plain-jane graphics provide an underwhelming experience that doesn’t make a case for being wanted by anyone.

This isn't a bad first attempt by Crocodile Entertainment.  Zack Zero has a few good ideas and incredible graphics.  Sadly the gameplay feels a bit loose and the level designs are an uninspired mess.  The biggest disappointment is the use (or lack thereof) of the elemental powers.  Considering this is the game's gimmick, I expected more from the power suit.  A lot of the puzzles feel tacked on, only there to keep you from beating the game in a quick 90 minutes.  Zack Zero does have its moments, but they are few and far between.

Ziggurat's smooth, comfortable gameplay, combined with it's addictive, just-one-more level rewards, make it a game that's really hard to put down. It's a simple concept, but there's such a surprising amount of depth that it doesn't get repetitive. It has everything that a game like this should have, and for $15 (at the time of this writing) it's an absolute steal. I've had more fun with Ziggurat than several full-priced games in the last several months. There's something here for everyone, and there's a lot here for most.