Destructoid

The Mageseeker meets the bar for spin-offs, expanding well and adding more to the world while putting a unique spin that Digital Sun can call its own. This burly mage adventure is definitely worth looking into if you’d prefer a League game with more action, story, and gorgeous art.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a tough sell to some for a variety of reasons. Straight-up: a lot of folks likely aren’t going to want to pay full price to experience these games all over again, and I get it. But I found myself falling in love with the Advance Wars universe for the second time in my life, despite occasionally going back to my still-working GBA copies.

Dead Island 2 sports a solid world, great audio/visuals, and an excellent combat system, wrapped up in a resonant, bleakly comic story of mankind’s inability to ever save itself.

Ultimately, Minecraft Legends is a bit hard to evaluate. Everything from its game modes to its core systems is uneven, littered with many highs and notable lows. The parts of it that draw specifically from Minecraft proper come off well, while its more RTS-adjacent moments are lacking. Additionally, I can’t recommend playing this solo at all. The foundation is good enough, but it needs company to sustain it.

The narrative doesn’t really pitch any curveballs, the gameplay doesn’t twist things into interesting pretzels, and there isn’t really anything truly unique that I felt my teeth sink into.

The story is also enjoyable, but not necessarily compelling. It’s very light-hearted, featuring some decent characters and a mountain of references to other media. The writing is optimistic, so even if it isn’t necessarily the deepest plot, it at least doesn’t stumble over itself trying to be anything more than it needs to be.

It makes great use of its runtime, and playing through it again feels like a reasonable prospect. It tells a complete story but leaves things wide open to continue. In many ways, I love that the focus is entirely on the interior of The Grid and leaves out any human interference. It’s a terrific approach.

Terra Nil offers some replayability, in additional levels and challenges, though seeing the credits roll can happen fairly quickly if you’re on a roll. The final coda to your clean-up campaign is touching, though, and puts a sweet bow on the efforts you’ve made.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore is a stunning game with gorgeous character art, beautiful hand-drawn story segments, and wonderfully creative creature design. Like almost every other Vanillaware title, it’s a fabulous piece of art. If there is one area where the visuals do disappoint, it’s in the backgrounds of the battle sequences.

Despite a few issues with the controls, The Last Worker is a riveting 6-to-8-hour narrative experience. Sorting each box as a pseudo-employee is surprisingly entertaining, and the characters are endearing. There are also twists and turns in the storyline that will keep you gripped throughout this journey, at least until the endings start to play out. With the gorgeous visuals by Mick McMahon, fun gameplay, and meaningful script, I’d happily recommend The Last Worker.