Nintendo Enthusiast

Overall, Pokemon Sun and Moon take two generational steps forward, but also take one step back. Small new intricacies like battle enhancements and a refined presentation vastly improve the moment-to-moment experience of playing Pokemon. However, a sparse catalog of new Pokemon, shallow end game, and lack of launch Pokemon Bank support hold the titles back from being truly exceptional.

Mario Party: Star Rush isn’t the Mario Party game we all were hoping for and a return to form for the series, but I think it’s a step in the right direction after the questionable Mario Party 10 on the Wii U. The party isn’t as hype as it needs to be, but some will be able to find a good bit of enjoyment in this title.

The original Yo-kai Watch got a pass when it came to battle depth and strategy, but Bony Spirits and Fleshy Souls do not enjoy the same luxury. The battle system is not improved in any way, and as a result is both shallow and slow. The story itself pushes in too many words and fetch quests to stay interesting, and the cool dungeons in the game are few and far between.

Wings of Magloryx is a game where you play as a dragon and do dragon things, sort of. Unfortunately flying as your dragon feels like steering a double-decker bus underwater that occasionally gets pulled up by a crane. You will be unfairly killed by the game due to the terrible camera and everything (even the music) slowing down to a crawl during boss fights.

Excellent writing, impressive visuals, and great presentation save the game from the somewhat lackluster battle system and make it a solid game that will provide fun for fans of Mario games and the Paper Mario series.

Soul Axiom for Wii U is a rough port of an interesting first-person puzzler that just doesn’t quite live up to its potential. The combination of frustrating controls, poor graphics that don’t live up to the PC version, and intentionally slow storytelling may be too much for anyone that is not a huge fan of the first person puzzle genre.

It’s difficult to recommend Apocalypse to fans of the SMT franchise, though. On one hand, SMT IV is one of the best games on the 3DS and is surely worth a playthrough by every 3DS owner. Apocalypse, however, is more or less a re-skin of the 2013 title with a new story perspective. Those that are looking to dive back into an SMT title with an expanded story and don’t mind retreading familiar ground will surely find a lot of recognizable fun in Apocalypse.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through Noitu Love: Devolution, even though I would have preferred to have more of it. The levels were varied and the boss battles were spectacular. It is such a shame that the game does not have more meat on it, because in the current form I can only recommend Noitu Love: Devolution to the biggest arcade fans.

Once you get into the meat of the game though, you are greeted with a fantastic JRPG experience that doesn’t deviate too far from the traditional path. While some people may not like the older sort of play style, I think it works great in this game. Couple that with a good story, mostly solid graphics, and an excellent musical score, and Dragon Quest VII is yet another “must-own” JRPG on the Nintendo 3DS. I’m glad this game finally got translated and brought stateside, and I think a lot of JRPG lovers will enjoy the game as well.

This game is great. If you like hand-drawn art in games like Muramasa and epic boss battles akin to Monster Hunter then this is the game for you. Overall the presentation, music, sound, and level design is just as epic as the story. The biggest issue I had involves a crash in The Crater due to the Wii U chugging on an abundance of lighting effects.