Prima Games

“Metal Max Xeno Reborn is a totally fine game with awesome tank tinkering and a cool dog that straps a machine gun to its back and draws power from its bodily fluids. But if you’ve played the original Metal Max Xeno, you might be more confused than hyped. It’s more of the cool tank stuff, but a dramatic shift in style and tone that just makes the weird low budget JRPG feel like a weird low budget JRPG in a different way.”

“SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash is definitely one of the most celebrated cult classics in the NGPC library, and starting the year off with it feels like a smart move.”

“Gley Lancer may be one of the best examples of official emulation, like, ever made.”

“Mary Skelter Finale stands out not only as the big ending for the trilogy, but also an excellent overall package that lets you start there without missing a scrap of storyline. This stuff is a niche within a niche to say the least, but gorehounds, anime dorks and dungeon devotees can eat pretty well here.”

“If you’re curious about the history of arcade games, especially ones like Space Invaders that have been constantly iterated upon over four decades, Space Invaders Invincible Collection is a good place to start. It isn’t completely comprehensive and it’s technically missing one of its games, but it has its own share of unique content you can’t get anywhere else.”

“It’s amazing how much fun you can have with a card game like this when the financial barriers we’re used to today vanish. There’s just so much less pressure involved, letting you take it easy and helping losses sting much less. At the same time, there’s a powerful element of nostalgia for players of a certain age that can make Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle feel like a revelation almost. This is a totally solid, compelling digital card game, and perhaps an unintentional nod back to a bygone era.”

“I played through both options in Cotton Reboot, and was glad I did. I barely have any knowledge of the X68000 whatsoever, and this was an illuminating peek into that chapter of gaming history.”

“There’s a cool game in here somewhere, but Within the Blade feels like it tries to do too much and cram it all into a small space. If this were a more focused sort of action game there could be a bunch of cool stuff surrounding its fast and weighty physics. But with trying to have it all, Within the Blade only manages to be a cool throwback to older, better games.”

“There really is a lot to this game in the way of management and strategy, and you can tell the developers put a lot of time and effort into making sure you always have something to do. Idol Manager has the potential to become the game you ignore other new releases for, and if that doesn’t speak volumes about how good the game is, I don’t know what will.”

“Neptunia ReVerse wears that 10th anniversary badge as a part of its feature list, rather than a decoration. You’ll get the most out of this game as a returning player who can remember what it was like to move from the PS3 original to the Vita/PC update.”

“NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1’s timing has weird optics, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a quality compilation of underappreciated classics. The historical features are great, so is the emulation. And it helps that this is a pretty powerful set of games by themselves. The physical release is icing on the cake, and I hope this means the brand has been successful enough to keep things rolling.”

“I’m stoked to have more easy access to games like this, especially since we never got the original game Saviors of Sapphire Wings is based on. Experience has only been around since 2008 or so, and with this release we’ve plugged a hole of sorts in its library. Unfortunately the other hole is four games deep at this point, but progress is good!”

“I don’t think it’s a total swing and a miss like Super Neptunia RPG was, but that may have made the experience more disappointing considering all the parts I liked.”

“As part of the collection we’ve seen several releases of now, there’s nothing surprising here in terms of bells and whistles. Code Mystics’ emulation wrapper is awesome as usual, with all the different frames, visual tweaking and multiplayer options you’ll find in all the other ones. Perhaps most importantly, Match of the Millennium appearing here means that we don’t have to worry about the Capcom licensing being a barrier.”

“This isn’t a huge game you invest all your brain juice in; it’s a chance for JRPG nuts like myself to take it easy but still get that dopamine hit. There isn’t a lot to it, but everything there is appropriately presented and works as you expect it to.”

“Fatal Fury: First Contact is an awesome game. It doesn’t look good if you compare it, as an individual purchase, to its peers that are also available. But those games don’t exist without this one.”

“Collection of SaGa contains one of the more fascinating chapters of Square Enix history, and I encourage any longtime or new Final Fantasy fans to check it out. Like I said earlier there are hurdles here, but with some real JRPG treasure on the other side.”

“As it stands, Mad Father remains one of the best RPG maker games ever made thanks to its fantastic writing, interesting characters, creepy setting, and enjoyable gameplay. The remake only adds to the things the original game got right, it never detracts from them.”

“This isn’t the kind of cerebral character action experience offered by the likes of Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, but it isn’t on the opposite extreme either. It’s a solid, polished, competent sword fightin’, zombie splatterin’, anime-inspired romp that is exactly what it presents itself as. You’ll laugh, have fun, roll your eyes, and totally ignore the gallery menu.”

“It’s too edgy and incomprehensible to be a good story, too blurry and noisy to look nice despite all the clear effort, and the combat system ultimately adds up to grinding and making your basic numbers go up. It’s a style over substance kind of situation, but without the style to actually pull that off.”