I’ll be honest, Tomba! Special Edition(Tombi! in the EU) is not for me. It just is not. I tried it, twice, just never clicked with me. Cannot put a finger on exactly why. I should like it, its a 2.5D platformer where you can traverse the foreground and background, but I didn’t care for it. Maybe because it plays more like a point and click adventure. You see, in each area, you get various quests to complete, like find baby chicks or feed a monkey, go do that, the story story progresses. However, if you don’t even find the monkey, the story stops dead as you cannot move forward, so you have to go read a guide. I shouldn’t have to read a walk-through for a port of a 1997 platformer, but you kind of do for Tomba! Special Edition.

Tomba! Special Edition has nothing particularly wrong with it. It is well made, allows you to save anywhere, has lots of behind the scenes stuff. I just don’t like it. And that’s just fine, somebody else might. So playing a pink-haired cave-man fighting pig men sound appealing, by all means, play it. This is why the Your Mileage May Vary verdict exists, for these types of games. I shouldn’t have to suffer through it just for a review, so I’m putting my foot down. Tomba! Special Edition gets a YMMV with a seven back-end score. Again, there’s nothing wrong with it, it just was not for me.

Overall: Tomba! Special Edition is a remaster of a odd platformer from another age that some might enjoy even though I did not.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	8/1/24
Cost	$19.99
Publisher	Limited Run Games
ESRB Rating	E

PS. Try Glyph!

Game received for free from the publisher.

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DarkStar One is a 2006 space sim that won’t die. I’m serious, I bought it in 2006 and they keep resurrecting it every couple of years since. You play this guy who his given your father’s experimental ship and you search for the truth about how he died. First you go here, then you go there, then you go to this third place where you get a lead that sends you to the fourth place. I’m serious, you get your copilot in a scene that goes:

Her: I have information you need.

Him: Ok cool, welcome aboard.

Its not Shakespeare, its not even pulp-level storytelling. Its elementary school storytelling. But that’s not why you are playing this. The point is to pimp your ship, the titular Darkstar One to get from point A to point B.

First, to pimp the Darkstar One, you need artifacts. These are sitting around certain systems in asteroids. Just fly up and collect them. Then you choose to upgrade your hull, wings or engines. This will upgrade various stats. Then on Trade Stations you buy new weapons, systems and equipment. This part all revolves around credits of course, which is earned by killing pirates, completing missions and trading/smuggling goods. Early on, you’re mostly upgrading your jump drive to get father, but you’ll need to upgrade everything to survive. This is because danger lurks around every corner, usually in the form of those pirates who show up to die.

Controlling your ship in Darkstar One is pretty good. Its nice to play this on a controller rather than a mouse and keyboard. Everything is intuitive, except landing on trade stations. You see, you’re either going 100% fast, 150% fast or stationary. You can also back up. Become speed is regimented, its often hard to navigate into the little docking bays. This is especially true with cargo in tow, though that is mitigated with ship levels. Combat though, is smooth like butter!

The biggest drawback of Darkstar One, besides the horrible story, is that what you’re doing gets repetitive quickly. The game loop is essentially upgrading your ship to get to the right system to advance the story, which always involves ship combat. The systems are all the same, the trade-station missions are all the same. You start off in Terran(human) territory, then you go to Mortok territory, and everything is still same game play wise. I got bored, quit and went to write this review. Maybe the game throws curve balls later on, but I’m not sitting through hours upon hours of identical game play to get there.

Darkstar One is not a bad game, just extremely generic. There is a meaty game of pimp your ship here, but everything surrounding it is a snore-fest. And trust me, the game did not exactly stand out in 2006 either. So, there is a game here, but its not exciting enough to recommend to anyone but those who are most curious. Darkstar One gets a Your Mileage May Vary verdict, with a six back-end score.

Overall: Darkstar One is a port of a 2006 space sim that should have stayed in 2006. Totally generic, boring and not really worth it.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	6/20/24
Cost	$29.99
Publisher	Kalypso
ESRB Rating	T

P.S. For another Switch space-sim try Space Commander!

Game received for free from the Publisher.

The post Darkstar One Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

There’s No Socks is a free hidden object game with a four locations where you find a random assortment of twenty socks out of sixty socks… and that’s it. That’s all there is. Find socks in black and white environments. For $2.49 you can buy The Extra Challenge, which gives you a dark mode and five extra levels. So really the game is not really free if you want the whole experience. Plus get it if you don’t want to be done in twenty minutes like I was. Its fine for what it is, and it was enjoyable for what it is, but run out and get it? No real hurry. This is especially true when you learn that this a series, with titles like, There’s No Dinosaurs. The game is just there.

There’s really nothing else to say here. There’s No Socks gets a YMMV with a 7/10 Back-End Score.

Overall: There’s No Socks is a hidden object game where your goal is to find socks. Its fine for what it is.

Verdict: YMMV

Release Date	6/5/24
Cost	Free
Publisher	Error 300

Game received for free from the publisher!

P.S. Try Kitten Island for a similar experience.

The post There’s No Socks Steam Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Musashi vs Cthulhu is a glorified rhythm game where you must tap the correct buttons at the right time or you will die. You are Musashi, a famous warrior in feudal Japan, and you must do battle with the forces of Cthulhu, who come from the left and the right. Each enemy requires the right button press to die. There left upper, middle and lower attacks, and right upper middle and lower attacks. Each attack fills your spirit lantern. When full, I believe it slows enemies down. A hit will drain it, even if its just charging. You get hit when you miss, and three hits and you are dead.

If you read my Conarium review, you’ll know HP Lovecraft is one my favorites. Musashi vs Cthulhu certainly has the right idea. Cthulhu in Feudal Japan is awesome. It looks good. It sounds good. There’s a very good tutorial. There’s an online leader board. The issue I have is the game play is disappointing. I didn’t find it fun at all. Rhythm games are great, I used to have an expensive DDR mat(still do for Xbox 360). Musashi vs Cthulhu misses the point I think by having completely one note game play. There’s no real progression. No unlockables. No other playable characters. Only five different enemies. The Steam reviews are positive though, so people do like this.

Honestly, Musashi vs Cthulhu is too an awesome an idea to waste on such one note game play.But buy it if you want to. This gets a Your Mileage May Vary with a six back-end score.

Overall: Musashi Vs Cthulhu is too awesome an idea to waste on the uninteresting rhythm-game like game play.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	5/16/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Qubyte Interactive
ESRB Rating	T

Game received for free from the publisher!

The post Musashi Vs Cthulhu Switch Game Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Awesome Pea 3 is a platformer like Saomi, N++ and Celeste. You run and jump through challenging stages to reach the end. Awesome Pea 3 looks and sounds great. It also plays great… except for one fatal flaw, no tutorial or explanation for anything. I couldn’t get past level 2. Now before you claim I’m Dean Taskahasi playing Cuphead, let me explain why using the level itself.

Ok, so in Awesome Pea 3 level 2, you start on the platform to the far left. Simple jump to where I am in the image. Now, to get to the next platform, you must air dash. Does the game tell you how to air dash? No. It’s the Y button, but I had figured it out by button mashing. The I’m on the far right platform. I assume you have to wall jump to get the key, except how do that is not explained, and nothing I did seemed to get me high enough to get me the key. So I gave up after half-an-hour and went and wrote this review. And no, the answer wasn’t hidden in the settings menu. Bad game developers, bad, bad.

Awesome Pea 3 should be awesome, but its missing documentation on how to play or even a simple controls screen. I don’t care that this is the third game in the series, absolutely no excuse for base-level things. Even some of the worst games I’ve played told you the controls. I shouldn’t be stuck on level 2 because the developers forgot to tell you how things worked. Maybe you can past level 2 and enjoy the game more than I did. I’m moving on. This game gets a YMMV with a six back-end score.

Overall: Awesome Pea 3 would have been awesome if the developers didn’t forget to tell you how anything worked.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	5/15/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Sometimes You
ESRB Rating	E

Game received for free from the publisher!

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I tried with Tales from Candleforth. I really did try to get past Chapter 1. I tried playing three different times, and lost interest each time. But since I got the game free from the publisher Feardemic, I sort of have to cover the game. The game is a point and click with escape room mechanics. There are puzzles, there are inventory items, and your goal is to solve the room and move on to the next chapter. The story is centered around this book of dark tales, and the first tale is a tale of Sarah, a 16 year old girl with powers, or something, I really didn’t pay much attention.

Don’t get me wrong, Tales from Candleforth is a perfectly fine game that does all that you’d expect from the escape room genre. The puzzles are often macabre and wrapped in a horror theme. People who enjoy this sort of game with have a lot to like here. The game just didn’t click for me, and I honestly can’t say why. It just did not, that is fine. But you might enjoy it more than I did, so if this sounds the least bit interesting, check it out. I give Tales From Candleforth a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a seven back-end score.

Overall: Tales from Candleforth is a decent escape room style game that I didn’t click with, but someone else might.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	4/30/24
Cost	$11.99
Publisher	Feardemic
ESRB Rating	T

Received the game for free form the publisher!

The post Tales from Candleforth Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Arcade Archives: Sunset Riders is a rerelease of a 1991 arcade game set in the Wild West. You play one of four gunslingers and fight through eight levels and eight charismatic bosses, including a guy on a horse called Dark Horse, a Mexcian guy with a whip called El Greco, and and a Native American who throws knives called Chief Wigwam. The bosses are the highlight of the game, and really the only reason to play. The run and gun portion of the levels in Sunset Riders are short and kind of forgettable in my humble opinion. The game was kind of a classic in its time. But has it stood the test of time? Read on.

In this Arcade Archive release of Sunset Riders, you get the Japanese and American versions both in two and four-player versions each, for a total of four version of the game. I played through the 2 player North American version pretty quickly, it is a short game. What made it possible is the L button, which adds credits. And you’ll need them, as this game can get hard. Also remember that arcade games like Sunset Riders were designed to suck quarters out of you, so it is hard on purpose. It is also a simple game mechanically, because arcade games were also designed to be pickup and play. You shoot, you jump, that’s about it.

This being an Arcade Arcade Archives release, there are tons of features and options, but I did not touch one of them. They are almost irrelevant. So is Sunset Riders worth playing in 2024? Not really. That seems harsh, and it is harsh. But the game is relic of the past. With infinite credits, the difficulty disappears, and you will see how short and bare bones the game really is. Sunset Riders was a good arcade game for its time, but it hasn’t aged well, in my opinion. You play through once, you’ve seen all that it has to offer. There are nice details, like El Greco giving you his hat which you through the rest of the game, but it is simply not enough to carry this.

I’m giving Sunset Riders a YMMV with a six back-end score. I wanted to give this a higher verdict and score, but I’m not sure it deserves it anymore, especially with infinite credits.

Overall: Sunset Riders was a classic in it’s day, but it’s a very short experience with little replay value. It just hasn’t aged well.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	6/11/20
Cost	$7.99
Publisher	Hamster
ESRB Rating	E10+

For a great Wild West game, try Gunman Clive. For a horrible Wild West experience, try Guns and Spurs 2!

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This is not my usual review. I don’t review fifty-dollar Nintendo published titles. I bought this for myself to play for fun. But with Endless Ocean Luminous getting a 63% percent on Metacritic, with IGN giving it a 4/10, I felt it is worth putting my two cents in. Will this get read? Probably not, but at least I can put this into the ether and see what happens. So anyways, Luminous is the third entry in the Endless Ocean franchise, after the first and Endless Ocean: Blue World. You are a diver in the mysterious veiled sea, and your job is to save the “world coral” by scanning tons and tons of fish, to get light that transfers to the coral. The game is divided into three parts: Story, Solo Dives and Shared Dives.

Endless Ocean Luminous’ story is really not important beyond giving you a point for being there. After chapter one, each section is locked and is unlocked by having a set number of scanned fish in solo or shared dives. Each story section is short and really not that interesting. I see as more of glorified tutorial(at least chapter 1 is). The meat of the game is in solo and shared dives. You swim around scan fish and pick up the occasional salvage. The maps are procedurally generated, and many reviews knock that. I don’t have a problem with it as the maps for the first two games weren’t exact that interesting either. Besides, the maps here are huge and filled with tons of fish from around the world, current and extinct, and even made up.

Endless Ocean Luminous’ Heart

The point of the game is to explore a map, scan fish and pick up salvage… and that’s it. There is nothing else. No dolphin companions, no above ground, no island hubs and no upgrades(all from Blue World). Endless Ocean Luminous is solely focused on scanning fish and picking up salvage. You can dive deep and never run out of air. The money you get is solely used on cosmetics. Many of the user reviews on Metacritic absolutely slammed this as a “soulless husk,” and yeah, it could be seen that way, especially when a Japanese Crab and an American Lobster are sitting next to each other on a rock(the fish are randomly scattered each map).

But I think people forget the first game was pretty shallow and boring itself, only a little more than scanning fish to fill a book. Blue World was great, and the slim-down from it is disappointing, but I don’t think it kills Endless Ocean: Luminous. That just makes this a very specific title for a very specific kind of person, and that’s fine. For example, on Twitter yesterday, I saw this:

Lemme tell you, yesterday, when going to Gamestop. I saw a father and his young daughter looking around. They later came up to the register as I was chatting to my friends and were asking about the new Endless Ocean game. She got sooooo excited and started talking about all sort…

— Rad Dad Redemption (@Rad_Dad_Redempt) May 3, 2024

Basically the girl was excited about the fish she was going to see in Endless Ocean Luminous, and so the game is made for people like her. As for me, this game is a perfect game to play while listening to a podcast, something the requires less focus and the sound can be more or less turned off. Its a vibe. I will give Endless Ocean Luminous a YMMV with a seven out of ten. Its good, but not great. And Your Mileage Will Vary. I can’t say if you’ll like it or hate Luminous, that’s solely depends on if this game is what you’re looking for. It is for me, but may not be for you.

Overall: Endless Ocean Luminous is all about swimming around and scanning fish, and nothing else. Whether or not you will like this is solely up to you.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	5/2/24
Cost	$49.99
Publisher	Nintendo
ESRB Rating	E

P.S. While you are here, check out some other reviews, such as my Must Play list.

The post Endless Ocean Luminous Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

A long time ago, a game called Triple Town came out. You built a town by matching pieces, going from bushes to trees to houses, or bears to graves to churches. Village Match is a triple town-like game where you place pieces on an island to form towns. Match 3 huts to form bigger huts. Match churches to make cathedrals. Fields to make windmills, which then get surrounded by fields. It was apparently made by one guy on his computer and it shows. Its not bad game, I kind of like it. Except there’s no tutorials or anything. Just start an island and get going. It would have been nice if they you told you 3 big fields can only make a mill once, and once that’s made, you can only surround it with the same big fields. There’s also a limited number of tiles to place, but I’m not sure what exactly gives you more tiles.

Match Village has the basics down, but simply lacks some serious polish that something like Triple Town had. I mean one man teams have created glory with stuff like Balatro. This seems like a game Jam entry that was picked and put out for a few dollars. It seems to be a thing(like Shivering Stone as well). This would have been better with more polish and documentation. On Keymailer’s website it even says:

Hey, before you buy, know that this is an indie game, developed by a guy in his room. Don’t expect a AAA experience with hours of content in this game, ok?

That’s really not excuse for this lack of polish with Match Village. Calling it minimalist and simplistic doesn’t necessary help. Take Oxytone, which got a Must Play. Minimalist, and simplistic, but it had polish. Here, the game feels rough and needed a few more minutes in the oven. Besides, Triple Town was free, Match Village is not. This gets a YMMV with a seven back-end score. It only gets a seven because there is a game here that is complete and playable. It is everything else that is lacking.

Overall: Match Village is a fine one man game, but lacks polish so its rough around the edges.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	3/14/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Qubyte Interactive
ESRB Rating	E

Game received for free from the publisher.

The post Match Village Switch Game Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Enter the crypt and defeat as many monsters as you can before they overwhelm you!

Cryptrio is a retro-inspired Tetris-like game. You have several oddly shaped monster pieces that you cannot rotate dropping from the top. You must match three of them to make them disappear. Every three a levels a boss will drop the will require several adjacent matches to make it disappear. There is one mode, and the goal is a high score. If anything the game is too retro, there is no “next piece view,” which makes it difficult to plan a strategy. As it is, the piece dropping might as well be completely random. Cryptrio is therefore ok, but I wouldn’t call it good or great for that one reason. The lack of rotation, however, does not hurt the game, because otherwise, it would make things way too easy.

The graphics are retro with a limited palette but it fits the tone. The music tracks are well done chip-tunes. Other than that, there’s not really much to say about Cryptrio because there is not much to this game. It is five dollars and has less modes than something like Sushi Shot, a comparable game via price and scope. So I’ll give this a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a six back-end score. I guess I just wanted more than what is here. Plus the critical lack of a “next piece” view hurts this as well. I’m going to just end the review here and not pad it out because I can’t think of anything else to say or rant about.

Overall: Cryptrio is a competent retro-puzzler. I wish just wish there was more here and a “next piece” view.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	4/12/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Chequered Ink
ESRB Rating	E

Game received for free from the publisher.

The post Cryptrio Switch Game Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher is a puzzle game where you guide Mimi to her scratching post, usually floating the air and requiring a box or two to get there. There are jumps, specials boxes and box stacking(by pushing one into the other). The issue with the game is it was designed by amateurs. The Puzzles simply are not that difficult, and at points in the thirty puzzles, actually get easier not harder. Let me explain:

In the above puzzle in Mimi the Cat, I’m pushing the box down a narrow hallway. How will I push the box to the right at the end? Via the space at the left end. Mimi can only jump on the box when it cannot be pushed. So push it to the end, jump on, jump to the left space. Then I push the box to the right end and jump on to the end of the level.

Then there are the jumping puzzles in Mimi the Cat, like the above, where you don’t even have to push boxes around in most of them. In that one, just walk and jump. With these puzzles, they had an idea, but couldn’t follow through with them and then discard the idea completely. The puzzles overall do get trickier, yes, but nothing you can’t work out with your eyes. And if you do make a mistake, press the B button to reset.

Mimi the Cat is a disappointing game, much like Afil’s other recent game, Storyblocks: The King though for entirely different reasons. In that game, they didn’t modify the controls for the Switch. Here the controls are fine, just the game was “Baby’s first puzzler,” something like I’d create if I had to create a puzzle game. It reminds me of Shivering Stone, which was made in RPGMaker. If you want an easy puzzle game for a few minutes of fun, get this. Otherwise, there are far better puzzle games on the Switch. This will get a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a six back-end score.

Overall: Mimi the Cat: Mimi’s Scratcher is a puzzle game made by amateurs. The puzzles just aren’t well thought out.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	4/11/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Afil Games
ESRB Rating	E

Game received for free from the publisher.

The post Mimi The Cat Switch Game Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Storyblocks: The King should have been an easy recommend on the Switch. It is a nice and relaxing puzzle game that is not particularly taxing. You have a starting block and multiple end blocks. You make a path to one of the end blocks using all of the provided blocks. The hook is that there is a story about young man leaving his home village for adventure. You can either continue the story by linking to a sign block, or end the story with a book block and start over. I got a few endings and enjoyed the idea immensely. I found other, similar games. like Dolemenjord more brain taxing that Storyblocks: The King is. This is fine. So far, so good.

What knocks Storyblocks: The King down to a Your Mileage May Vary are the controls. Simply put, placing blocks on the Switch is a nightmare. The controls were designed for a mouse(there is a Steam version). You can only use the stick and the blocks do not snap into place. This makes placing blocks far harder than it should be as you cannot connect blocks unless they have a green outline. Getting the green outline is often more trouble than it should be. The developers should have reworked the controls so that you can use the D-pad and the blocks snap into place. As it is, you are spending more time fighting the controls than enjoying the game and story. Also the menu button at the top does not work.

I wanted to like Storyblocks: The King. I wanted to recommend it. However, with the controls being what they are, I simply have no interest in experiencing more of it and getting all the ending. This is disappointing. This game will get a YMMV verdict with a six back-end score.

Overall: If you don’t mind fighting the controls, you might enjoy Storyblocks: The King.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	4/4/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Afil Games
ESRB Rating	E

Game received for free from the publisher!

The post Storyblocks: The King Switch Game Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

DateJournal is a dating sim where you romance 6 lovely ladies in St. Petersburg, Russia. You do this by collect intimacy point ,by collecting stars in a Minesweeper-like dates. There are three three stars type, red(strength), grey(charisma) and blue(intelligence). Each lovely lady has their own preference. You also collect roses to increase passion, which increases the amount of intimacy you gather. There are also enemies on the board, which you attack and defend against with corresponding stats. There are broken stars that decrease intimacy, but they can be transformed into other things via items.Oh and did I mention each click takes energy, and if you run out of energy, you lose? Well yeah there’s that too.

Then there’s the board game section in Datejournal, that you use to move around St. Petersburg and romance the various women. You get cards with the number of moves you can make. You can move once per turn, then either send a gift of use the space for something. Like in the club, you use charisma points you collect to raise various stats. Same with the gym and university for their respective stats. There’s also the mall, where you use money to buy new date spots. The date spots correspond to a specific outfit you can have the lady wear, and not much else.

There’s there the dialog and story of each woman in Datejournal. Which honestly, is quite boring and doesn’t really matter. It often makes no sense. Like one lady is telling me off, while my response gives hearts, showing she likes me or something. There are five dates, and after each date you get a picture. None show nudity. While the game is rated M, it is not because there are titties(though the final pics are very risque). Anyways, like I said, the actual story lines are probably the worst part of the game. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about anyone. You can find out more about the ladies, but doing that doesn’t amount to much, since sending gifts on the board really isn’t important I found.

I’m kinda torn on Datejournal to be honest. One one hand, the game had the decent board game section and dating game section. Problem is the ladies and stories just aren’t interesting to me. Maybe something was lost in translation, not sure. I’ll give DateJournal a Your Mileage May Vary(YMMV) with a seven back-end score. In the end, play for the minesweeper-like dating game, ignore the story.

Overall: Datejournal is an alright dating sim where the ladies are boring, but the actual dates are not.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	3/8/22
Cost	$14.99
Release Date	Sometimes You
ESRB Rating	M

P.S. For a dating sim to avoid, try Summer Sweetheart!

Game received for free from the publisher

The post DateJournal Switch Game Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Matsukeke Burst deserves some credit, it does have a fairly original take one the falling object puzzle. It was originally a submission for smilebasic4, a switch programming programing. But it has been expanded and turned into its own thing. The goal here is to create big twisty loops using blocks with lines on them. However, the game does take cues from Puyo Puyo, with similar character design and the nonsensical campaign mode found in many Puyo games. I’ll be honest, I didn’t find this particularly appealing for some reason. It should work. The loop building is original, sure. But not all that engaging. Maybe its because Balatro still has its grip on me, It wasn’t entirely impressed with Matsukeke Burst

The core of Matsukeke Burst is to create loops with lines. The bigger and more loops you create, the better. like Puyo, the game is mostly played versus an opponent, with a surprisingly competent AI. However, there is a score attack more. That mode is tricky because the high score is not calculated based on how many tiny individual loops, but one single combo. So you have to make many big loops at once. There is also a coloring book if you’re interested, I wasn’t.

So what to make of Matsukeke Burst. Will this be the next Puyo? Doubtful, mostly because its a tiny indie project and doesn’t have marketing muscle behind it. Still, if you looking for a something original with falling object puzzles, this might make your day. It did not for me, but that’s me. It’s really a decent game, I just did not particular like it, but I recognize something it’s had its positives. Matsukeke Burst will get a YMMV with a seven back end score.

Overall: Matsukeke Burst is a fairly original falling object puzzle game. That’s all I can really say about it.

Verdict: YMMV(your mileage may vary).

Release Date	2/29/24
Cost	$4.69
Publisher	SmileBoom
ESRB Rating	E

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Geometry Survivor is an auto-shooter that calls back to Geometry Wars, the series of twin stick shooters that needs to be revived by Microsoft(they bought Activision after all). I’m not the only one who feels a giant hole where it stood, hence this game, and others like Breakpoint. As for the auto-shooter(aka Vampire Survivors clone), I enjoy them. One of my top five reviewed ever is an auto-shooter, that being Army of Ruin. Geometry Survivor is an alright auto-shooter for what it is, though under-cooked. The weapons range from must have to near useless. There is only one mode, survive for twenty minutes. The UI isn’t helpful at all. The rate of credit acquisition is at a snails pace. I simply don’t feel like I make any progress. It does hook for a bit, but is no Army of Ruin or Vampire Survivors.

I could go deep into Geometry Survivor, but its a standard auto-shooter. You just dodge and move around while your weapons fire. It’s standard by this point, and does little to move the genre forward at all. Some of the weapons are cool, like the black hole and force field(that slows enemies in the field). The problem with them though is that the cool down is so long they border on near useless. You have upgrades you can buy, but most of them have to do with what happens when you take damage, like speeding up for a second, or invulnerability. In the end, Geometry Survivor takes cues from Geometry Wars, but honestly I’m not sure the mixture works. Even the music is reminiscent of Geometry Wars, but not nearly as catchy. I’d rather go back and play better auto-shooters, or Geometry Wars on my Xbox. The last thing I want to play is this. So this will get a YMMV with a six back-end score.

Overall: Geometry Survivors is an auto-shooter that takes cues from Geometry Wars, but I’m not sure the mixture works.

Verdict: YMMV

eShop Page

Release Date	2/22/24
Cost	$4.99
Publisher	Brain Seal Entertainment
ESRB Rating	E

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