MonsterVine
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Latest Reviews
On the sound front, Shadow of Mordor is quite well-done. The voice work is exceptional, especially for Orc captains. It would be easy for these orcs to blend together if they had identical voices, but they’re given enough variation to give each captain their own personality. My favorite voice would...
Divinity: Original Sin II
Original Sin 2 wears its love for tabletop games proudly on its sleeve and this isn’t more evident than in its Game Master mode. I personally love playing D&D games with my friends but getting everyone together, let alone at a consistent schedule, has always been an issue and I...
Cuphead
Cuphead’s sound perfectly emulates the big band feel of the era it pays homage to. I watched some classic cartoons before playing Cuphead to really compare the game’s aesthetic to, and the soundtrack immediately reminded me of jazz master Cab Calloway, whose best-known cartoon work was likely Betty Boop. The...
On the audio front, Lego Ninjago is nothing spectacular. The music is largely forgettable, and the sound effects are the same ones you’d hear in any other Lego game (the sounds of building items out of Lego is still as satisfying as ever). The voice acting is alright, but it...
Hob
The biggest bone I have to pick with Hob is the music. While it is almost always present, and changes to match the environment you’re in – it never felt particularly impactful. When it’s just your mute little hero exploring the world the soundtrack is there to keep you company,...
Blue Reflection
The story gets into some serious topics at times, such as whether it’s acceptable to manipulate people’s emotions in the real world to gain more power for fighting demons, but in general it’s lighthearted and cute in both tone and appearance. The enemy designs are also sufficiently alien and bizarre...
A big part of why I love Marvel vs Capcom so much is because it feels like an explosive celebration of both companies and the worlds they’ve crafted, a feeling that is almost entirely absent in Infinite. Rather than a celebration, Infinite feels like a promotion for upcoming movies and...
Peach Beach Splash has quite a fun soundtrack, full of uppity J-pop songs and excited summer jams that make you ready to take on the hordes of anime girls in front of you in aquatic combat. The voice acting is well-done, with the more enthusiastic characters standing out the most....
Ruiner
There are characters to speak to and side-missions to collect, but they either don’t lead to anything or are practically forced upon you. One side-mission is given to you by a police officer who asks you to kill eight targets in exchange for Karma. The problem here is that those...
Monster Hunter Stories
Nevertheless, Monster Hunter Stories isn’t a game to be played for a deep plot or complex systems, but for its exploration and monster-collecting. It struggles with frame rate and texture pop-in on original 3DS systems, but overall it’s a fun turn-based RPG.
Project Cars 2 offers plenty of driver assists to make the experience easier. But there’s still a large wall to climb over for players looking for a more arcade like racer. Unfortunately that means it’s hard for me to see a game like this be appealing to a large audience....
Songbringer
And that’s the key to whether you’ll enjoy Songbringer. If you’re a member of the “losing is fun” school where you may be screwed from the initial seed, but finding that out is half the fun, there’s a very nice little game at work here. There’s some small gripes: The...
