Michael McWhertor
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Writing For
PolygonLatest Reviews
For the Dragon Quest-curious, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake offers a slickly designed new way into the venerable RPG franchise. It’s a solid starting point, thanks to its relative simplicity and ease of play. It’s also the very first Dragon Quest game chronologically, setting up the story for next year’s Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake. So if you’ve ever been charmed by Dragon Quest’s Slimes but weren’t sure where to start on your adventure, strangely, it’s the glossy remake of the third installment in the franchise.
What is on offer in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a delight. I don’t think it will make me any better at playing Nintendo’s old 8-bit games, but the challenges it presents are cleverly and cleanly designed. The collection lets me approach a small bunch of familiar NES classics from a new perspective, reinforcing just how timeless some of Nintendo’s earliest games are.
Despite its performance problems, RoboCop: Rogue City’s heart is in the right place. It’s trying to be the RoboCop 3 we should have gotten, featuring the return of original RoboCop actor Peter Weller as Detroit’s cyborg supercop. But it’s the mechanical half of Rogue City that’s often a letdown, with performance and story problems that get in the way of making RoboCop’s new game a truly great shooter.
With Mortal Kombat 1, NetherRealm has made an admirable effort to refresh its gameplay mechanics and differentiate its latest entry from the recent trilogy of games. On some fronts, particularly around the story, audiovisual presentation, and accessibility, it’s a huge step forward. But some very visible elements, especially online play, do not represent the same leap. Even after a four-year gap since Mortal Kombat 11, Mortal Kombat 1 feels like it needed a bit more time to cook. But with a commitment to seasonal content and the next six fighters already revealed as part of the game’s first Kombat Pack, it’s clear that Mortal Kombat 1 will grow over time and, hopefully, improve.
Dead or Alive 6 is an immensely fun package. Fights are thrilling, regardless of skill level, and the cast of characters is varied and fun to experiment with. But the game is dragged down by the series’ tired adherence to a sexed-up cast and bouncing body parts, as well as the business of selling provocative costumes. Given the game’s first season pass, which costs close to a hundred dollars and is stuffed with costumes — and one guest character, the busty Mai Shiranui from The King of Fighters — it’s pretty clear where Team Ninja and publisher Koei Tecmo’s priorities lie.
Injustice 2 is NetherRealm once again outdoing itself. This is the best, most polished, most impressively produced story mode to ever feature in a fighting game. The game’s cast — more than a dozen of which are newly playable characters — is varied and interesting, thanks to additions like Swamp Thing, Supergirl and the Red Lantern who has a blood-vomiting space cat, Atrocitus. Even if you aren’t a diehard DC Universe fan, there’s bound to be someone on the roster you’ll love to play as.