Hey, a new week in games and unlike last week we actually have some new games. Well, new is a bit of a strong term since almost everything out this week is a remaster, rerelease, reimagining, or remake of an older title.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is the highlight particularly if you have never played the handheld originals. There are a lot of Dungeon crawlers out this week with Zanki Zero: Last Beginning giving a survival game and visual novel twist to the genre.
Earth Defense Force has a new release that seems somewhat polished. Constructor HD gets a rerelease with bug fixes and new buildings as Constructor Plus. If you always wanted to know what Dark Souls would be like as a point and click adventure, the remaster of Shadowgate is out.
Finally, we end with a delightful video from the folks at XBLA Fans who apparently object to the exact same game being released seven times with just a reskin and don’t hold back in their review of Royal Roads.
Dangerous Driving is here. Hey, it is a new Burnout game from the Burnout developers that will be just like Burnout. I really liked Burnout, but EA in their constant battle against success has not put out a proper new Burnout game since 2006 (2008 if you include Burnout Paradise) and good Lord that was a long time ago.
Here I am anticipating this game, alas the reviews are, to be generous, mixed. Most reviews focus on how Dangerous Driving just doesn’t have the feel of a real Burnout game as if it was a faded copy of the original. Boring races, rubberbanding, and glitches galore round out the concerns.
It turns out after 2008 EA had canceled any further Burnout games and instead focused Criterion’s efforts on the Need for Speed series. As a result, the founders of Criterion Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry, along with some top talent, left Criterion to form Three Fields Entertainment.
This is a shame. I will still put Dangerous Driving on my backlog as a bad Burnout game is still better than no Burnout game, but it is going to the back of the line behind the Burnout Paradise remaster. Faint praise indeed.
Dark Quest 2 is a smaller dungeon crawler that works better on PC than on a console where the controls are apparently quite awkward. Which is quite an accomplishment since it is turn-based.
This control issue along with generic graphics put Dark Quest 2 towards the end of the to buy pack. It still makes the cut as the gameplay overall looks fun, and the game can be completed in a decent six hours. A quick retro indie title.
Earth Defense Force has a new game out. Like a few other series this generation the EDF games are starting to pile up in my to buy backlog. In reality, they have been piling since 2006’s Earth Defense Force 2017. In theory, this game is very appealing to me, and some reviewers have pointed out that with shinier graphics and a more reasonable frame rate Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is a good jumping in point for the series. Other reviews (Notable ACG) were less kind, but no one out and out panned the game. We don’t have a Dynasty Warriors 9 situation here.
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain may turn out to be my entry into a series that has fundamentally appealed to me but that I have never actually pulled the trigger on buying.
The Mystery Of Woolley Mountain is a charming point and click adventure with logical puzzles. Yeah, I have been told this before as well. Well, there is a free demo on Steam, it does appear charming, and the main character reminds me of Baron Dashforth from Foul Play so I will give it a chance unlike the remake of Shadowgate that is also out this week that is a strong hell no.
For those of us who never had a Nintendo handheld the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is here for the consoles and PC. I have to admit this appeals to me. Investigation mixed with wacky court cases and an awful lot of content make Phoenix Wright an easy recommend.
Well if a Phoenix Wright game and a Burnout game didn’t make you feel like it was 10 years ago, I am pretty sure a dungeon crawler with an amnesiac protagonist and tank controls should push you over the edge.
On the plus side, Vaporum has a lovely steampunk setting and decent graphics. On the other hand, it seems to promise lots of frustrating puzzles. Yay. Puzzles, first-person viewpoint and tank controls do not sound like a recipe for fun. Still, it is pretty, and people seem to like it, so I will give it a spin.
I’ve put a couple of DPRGs on my backlog over the last few years but as a survival action RPG with a visual novel presentation Zanki Zero: Last Beginning is easily the most fascinating of the bunch. I had never heard of this game till this week but the reviews are positive, and it sounds like more than the sum of its many parts.
You play a clone of a suicide victim that artificially ages over thirteen days, and you are playing eight different characters at once. Just that leaving aside the investigations into the variously hidden backstories and the action RPG combat with goats, if the trailer is any indication, is intriguing on its face.