Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke
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XboxEraLatest Reviews
An incredible, nigh-on herculean effort from a very small team, developers Microbird Games have made something very special in Dungeons of Hinterberg. In my 20 or so hours exploring, I found a successful medley of genres with enjoyable combat and a variety of gameplay mechanics resulting in something uniquely memorable.
The plot thickens as a family yearning for power ‘battle’ over the Idol, and there’s a neat twist to the proceedings that I won’t spoil here. But I fear that many will struggle with the sheer patience required to play on controller, and while it all works just as well...
Every one of the fights and combat sequences I played through felt like a boss-level face off in some way. It always felt like a true survive-or-die moment – all or nothing. It’s the only time in my entire gaming memory, that I can remember being so in the moment...
Revisiting Braid: Anniversary Edition has been a nice nostalgic experience for me, having not played the original since I fully completed it back in 2008. I was amazed at how some solutions had been completely forgotten by my aging brain, and it was lovely to get that feeling of being...
Harold Halibut
If you’re expecting more action and puzzles, then boy, you might bounce right off this one once you’ve finished gawking at how pretty it all is. My advice? Take it slow, and enjoy every moment with this bizarre and eccentric cast of characters. Games like Harold Halibut don’t come around...
South Park: Snow Day! isn’t a bad game – it looks nice enough, and it nails the franchise’s irreverent humour – hell, there’s even a dedicated fart button (and an achievement for finding it!), and there’s enough here to keep younger players interested. But – and it’s a big but...
There was raucous laughter throughout the sessions, even when it ends in abject failure, and of course come round two and beyond, teams can become far more organised. Further sessions reduce that fear of being ‘the hunted’ further, and then it really does become an escape room in all but...
To say any more would delve deep into spoiler territory, but suffice to say, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is still a journey worth taking, and remains a shining example of how gameplay and narrative can combine to produce something that only this medium can provide. However, fans...
Skull Jones
I feel conflicted even typing that, because like many that may have been looking forward to the idea of an expanded Black Flag-like game, so much of this game is designed to be completely different to it’s original inspiration. And yet, despite my genuine hatred of most grindy games, I’ve...
A Little to the Left is at its absolute best when it’s focusing on finding just the right spot for everyday things, and at its worst when it’s operating on its own, chaotic-puzzle logic. Those two worlds and design choices are at odds in my opinion, and collide to unfortunately...
“I love this game, I love how this did it, I love how it turned out, I loved the ‘ventures and my brother is really annoying, he was shouting at me but this was my first time and I never played a game on the big TV. I was really...
Jusant
Not all is perfect though – the control system, when it works, which is most of the time, is great – but I had more than a few occurrences where arms seemingly wouldn’t respond, or my character would get stuck on nothing at all. Thankfully, these don’t detract too much...
