IGN

With its excellent writing, exceptional characters, and fun-to-use new powers, Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a worthy sequel to the 2015 original.

It’s terrifically tense, but A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead doesn’t quite have the story surprises or enough substantial changes to its simplistic stealth-based gameplay to allow it to completely go the distance.

Super Mario Party Jamboree is an amazing followup to Mario Party Superstars and easily one of the best games in the series. Not only does it faithfully return to the classic formula established in the Nintendo 64 entries, it confidently improves upon it with a fantastic set of boards that introduce unique and memorable mechanics. It’s also the most flexible Mario Party has ever been, with tons of ways to customize your game, including its brilliant new optional Pro Rules that reduce luck-based elements to a minimum and crank up the strategy for those who want it. The wonderful maps are supported by a great lineup of new and returning minigames and character-specific challenges that steal the show, even if I wish there were just a few more minigames in the rotation. The side offerings may not have much staying power, but when partying with friends and family locally or online, Super Mario Party Jamboree boldly completes the series’ redemption arc as its newest superstar.

Super Mario Party Jamboree combines nostalgia and innovation with five new boards, 110 minigames, and a competitive ruleset that rewards skill over luck. While the partner system can add some strategy, you’re heavily dependent on where that partner is placed on the board. The CPU isn’t always great at it, and sometimes makes frustrating choices. The extra modes feel a bit redundant, with the unsurpassed Party mode being the clear favorite. Despite the lack of major innovations, the game remains ideal for cozy nights with friends and offers enough fun to justify the purchase.

Refining the Atlus RPG formula of weaving tough turn-based combat into compelling social sim mechanics, Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t just send a powerful message across its political drama, it becomes a beautiful expression of the real impact storytelling can have on all of us.

Caravan SandWitch presenta un precioso mundo que no se termina de aprovechar. Todo se queda en pura apariencia, con la historia y sus personajes pidiendo a gritos más profundidad y un ritmo más lento. Si bien la jugabilidad se siente muy bien, esta no termina brillando debido a la pobreza del entorno.

Star Wars Outlaws vai continuar a ocupar o meu tempo ao longo dos próximos dias, felizmente já sem a pressão da análise, mas com a vantagem de passar a ser uma experiência partilhada com muitas outras pessoas. Pessoalmente é uma das boas surpresas do ano, pega em diferentes estilos de gameplay e cose-os numa amálgama muito bem afinada, sem exageros e com protagonistas de quem é impossível não gostar. Tudo isto, no universo de Star Wars, um excelente exemplo de como o mundo da Lucasfilm tem muito mais para oferecer do que lightsabers e Jedi.

A singular survival game steeped in an unnerving world, Pacific Drive pairs meticulous management with intense excursions that will test your motoring mettle. Balancing its symphony of systems can sometimes be an overly punishing process, but the riveting tension of each run was enough to keep me on my toes even through some repetitious pain points. And when my battered station wagon came screaming out of the portal to safety with no doors and a dead engine, I always felt compelled to fix its faults, buckle back in, and maybe play with the Laika bobblehead on the dash. That frustrating hunk of metal was mine, after all.

メトロイドヴァニアというジャンルに求められているものは揃っており、アクションもプラットフォーマーも完成度が高い。反面、とても革新的なギミックやアイデアがあるわけではなく、ストーリーの出来もほどほどである。

House Flipper 2 takes what made House Flipper weirdly addictive and cleans, paints, and builds its way to a worthwhile iterative upgrade on the renovation sim. A few visual tweaks give it a personality the original never quite managed, while the addition of the sandbox mode will give builders who want more power than paint choices the chance to run wild with their tools.