Kirby: Planet Robobot is not just the best Kirby game on the 3DS, but one of the best entries in the whole series. It tells a surprisingly thoughtful story about rampant capitalist greed, the dangers of technological progress, and imperialism. And it offers a complex and varied level design that, unlike the two previous entries, never lets the new gimmick interrupt the flow of the action.
The opening cutscene shows Planet Popstar in peace – King Dedede is playing chess, Kirby is sleeping, Meta Knight is looking cool – when suddenly the shadow of a huge alien spacecraft is cast on them. The Access Ark, as it is called, arrives unannounced on Popstar and installs drills on the [...]
Boasting the series tried and true formula of demon hunting and an engaging combat system, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is an excellent dungeon-crawling RPG that successfully builds an oppressive, pessimistic atmosphere while telling a story about humanity’s suicidal greed.
The story is set at the end of the 21st century. Humanity amounts to 7 billion souls and social conflict has been escalating while the planet suffers. There’s war in Eastern Europe, an economic crisis in South America (rampant inflation has led people to raid malls), and the most powerful nations just stand by, accumulating wealth. To make matters worse, a space anomaly appears suddenly at the [...]
Metroid Fusion is a game designed around secrets: as Samus explores a dangerous space station, finding secret passageways and items, she is also uncovering the truth about the place, shedding new light on the hidden agenda of her employer. It’s a tense, suspenseful adventure, packed full of dark corridors, somber music, and a scary double with piercing, empty white eyes that hunts Samus down relentlessly.
Fusion begins with the protagonist, bounty hunter Samus Aran, recounting the general events of the previous games. The Galactic Federation hired her to commit genocide on SR388, killing all surviving metroids on the planet, since they’re dangerous creatures that suck the [...]
Resident Evil: Revelations is a game of two halves: the first one is effective in building a horror atmosphere in a claustrophobic environment, but the second offers mediocre action sequences with endless amounts of similar enemies to be defeated.
The story begins when Jill Valentine and Parker Luciani – agents working for a counter-terrorism group – are tasked to investigate a drifting vessel on the high seas, a luxury ship named “The Queen Zenobia”. Bizarre carcasses carrying a devastating virus have appeared on a nearby beach and their colleagues, Chris and Jessica, have gone missing: their last know location is on the Zenobia. When Jill and Parker arrive on the [...]
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is far from being one of the best entries in the series. It has some good ideas, making exploration a more engaging part of the experience, but its narrative is too sparse and unfulfilling, having nothing new to say about its themes while refusing to advance the overarching story until the last moment. In that sense, Dream Drop Distance is much more akin to Re: Coded than something meaningful like 358/2 Days.
The plot exudes that yawning-inducing stench of a filler. Sora and Riku are summoned before Yen Sid and told they have to pass a test to be granted the title of Keyblade Masters. This “Mark of Mastery” exam is supposed to prepare them [...]
Metroid: Samus Returns, the 3DS remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, seeks to reimagine certain elements of the original, but focuses on all the wrong elements: instead of improving the original’s linear structure or doubling down on its foreboding atmosphere, Samus Returns decides to revamp the combat and visuals, making them flashier and more complex. The result is a disappointing game that misses what worked in Metroid II without adding much in return.
The plot is fairly straightforward. Bounty hunter Samus Aran is hired to go to the alien planet SR388 and commit, well, genocide: she’s to kill all Metroids in the planet, ridding the universe of the species.
Killing [...]