Destructoid

The gameplay in the Umihara Kawase games may be a tough sell to some people, as it requires finesse and familiarity rather than twitch reflexes. However, if you’ve ever been interested in the series, or if you’ve never heard of it at all, Umihara Kawase Fresh! is probably the best entry point. It makes concessions that create a gentler experience and the inviting framework makes for a more engrossing experience. Better yet, it pulls it off without sacrificing the addictive nature of the core swinging mechanics and the high skill ceiling they provide.

The other half is a platform game with no quality control, no impetus for putting legitimate effort into your original designs, and no way to weed out poor content creators other than trusting that players will be able to discern the difference between a bad level and good level and rate them accordingly. Given how many positive messages I've seen attached to genuinely bad stages, I don't have much faith in the Mario Maker community right now and I question whether it'll get better down the line.

I'm conflicted. Cooperative titles like this are hard to find nowadays, especially with drop-in, drop-out co-op. There's no denying it's fun exploring with a friend and the game contains some genuinely clever challenges, especially during the boss fights. There's the seed of a great game here, and I'd genuinely like to see more like it. I really hope BonusXP gets the chance to use this engine to make something else: It's pretty good for a licenced product, but ultimately, that's all it is.

With Blazing Chrome you kind of get what you get: it's an hour and change shooter that pays extreme homage to the Contra series. JoyMasher has already proved that they "get" the bygone eras of retro gaming with Oniken and Odallus, and now they have yet another triumph to add to their resume.

It's easy for me to say Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a good game because it'd be a lie for me to say otherwise. The groundwork laid by the first title is still sound, but it just didn't grab me the same way its predecessor did. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop playing anytime soon -- I still have my home island to complete -- but it does mean it's not going to get my undivided attention for weeks-on-end like the first game did.

Super Mario Run's "buy the entire game" concept likely would have worked at a different pricepoint, or perhaps it was worth experimenting further instead of hitching their wagon to one of many runners in an already-bloated runner market. Instead we now have energy meters and gacha-gambling in nearly every mobile release; an extreme 180 compared to the original strategy. Dr. Mario World had plenty of potential to be added to my list of regular mobile games, but I literally can't play it as often as I'd like for that to happen.

Ultimately, though, the game ended up not being for me. I do believe it's worth a look to the right person, but you should know what you're getting into before taking the plunge. I'd also recommend you check this out on PC because that random bug in the Switch version could wind up causing you to waste a ton of time without you even knowing it.

Marvelous and Honey∞Parade Games' biggest mistake with Senran Kagura: Peach Ball was treating it as a budget title because it deserves so much more: more tables, more girls, more everything. Combining the cheeseball sexuality of Senran with pinball is perhaps the most brilliant idea this franchise has ever had and the execution of what is here is nearly flawless. But the lack of a diverse set of pinball tables and a curtailed cast keep Peach Ball from reaching the excellence it could have so easily achieved if the developers had more time and more ideas for what they wanted Peach Ball to be.

Sea of Solitude stands out as heartfelt, almost painfully sincere, so much so that I hesitated to actually put a score on this review at all. It felt almost crass to do so, like being allowed to read a relative's diary, only to give it a thumbs-up or -down. Though engaging gameplay and meaningful messaging aren't mutually exclusive in games, Sea of Solitude is squarely one of a growing number of titles that challenges the notion that "fun and entertainment" should be a game's main priority in every case.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled not only succeeds as a loving and faithful adaptation of the classic PS1 release, but it has been turbo-boosted by a glut of welcome new content including characters, tracks, and modes. Though it occasionally shows its age in course design, and erratically pumps the brakes with a surprising difficulty spike, Nitro-Fueled remains a fast and fun kart racer, sure to please old fans and worthy of a test drive from new ones.