Despite fumbles with its new melee combat and difficulty balancing, Control Resonant's storytelling, world, and bizarre quests kept me eager to explore its distorted New York.
Simon Ordell’s journey through the Scottish town of St. Amelia in 1996 is not without its shortcomings, but the experience is an affecting one buoyed by the first-person perspective.
Building on the already-great remake of the first game, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter masterfully updates the gameplay and timeless story, adding up to what is now the Trails series’ defining entry, and one of the best RPGs of the year.
The long-running series has an opportunity to utilize Vita's hardware in
an effort to shake up the familiar gameplay of the series. While it does feature hardware-specific elements, they’re (more often than
not) detrimental to the experience.
Trapdoor's XBLA title features unique gameplay mechanics and a distinct art style, but the
experience becomes tiresome after the first couple of hours.
When it comes to the Vita, the majority of the games available upon
launch are ports, sequels, or offshoots of recognizable franchises. Very
few new games are in the mix, which is why Escape Plan has always stuck
out during preview events.
Other than a couple Vita-specific features, an easier difficulty level,
and a collection of trial missions, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus is the same game that has been re-released ad nauseum for eight years.
