amphibious_ReViews

It's hard not to accidentally review the Pokémon Trading Card Game itself when taking a look at PTCGO since it manages such a perfect virtualization of the official game. It even includes the main competitive formats sanctioned by The Pokémon Company , which is the major draw to the title. However, I think that PTCGO is worthy of recognition for all of the choices it made to improve the overall gameplay experience. The steps they took to make the card game itself more convenient, like highlighting playable cards or sorting the discard pile, are fantastic, but I'm more impressed by the decisions made outside of the actual gameplay. One of the biggest surprises is the complete lack of microtransactions. Because every real-world TCG product comes with a code to redeem it in PTCGO , the physical products are treated as microtransactions, and digital-only products can only be earned, never bought. That way, if you never buy real cards (and if you stay away from the second-hand cod

A few games found an unexpected spotlight during the pandemic, mostly thanks to their ability to bring people together digitally when in-person interactions were less common. However, I was still blindsided by Wordle . Contrary to most other COVID-era hits, it initially seems as single-player as a game can get. The only thing that helps get your friends involved is the spoiler-free share option, but that ended up being a lot more important than I had given it credit for. Now the game is big enough to make news headlines every day, and the rights were even bought by The New York Times for their own collection of daily word games. As a daily Wordler myself, I think it can be a fun challenge, and it's definitely better when playing alongside friends. When I first played Wordle , I was immediately reminded of Mastermind . The idea is generally the same, but instead of a pattern of colors, you are trying to guess a five letter word. You get up to six guesses, and each time you can see

Gunman Clive is one of the best values you can find in a platformer. Although it's rather short, it's both affordable and replayable. I only paid a dollar each of the three times I bought it, and I ended up playing through the campaign multiple times on multiple platforms. The sepia-toned sketchbook style looks absolutely amazing, and the soundtrack was so good that I bought that too, but even if the pure joy of playing isn't enough to keep you invested, you'll still likely appreciate the four unique characters and the ways they change how you approach each of the stages. However, even if you just play through the game once, I think it is a worthy investment. Gunman Clive starts out as a pretty standard action platformer, having you run and gun your way across the old West as you try to save the kidnapped Ms. Johnson (or Clive himself if you play as any of the other three characters). It's not until you come across your first duck that you'll get the subtle fe

One of the most natural translations to VR is the first-person-shooter. Not only because it's already in the correct perspective, but also because the basic gameplay of aiming and shooting couldn't be simpler. Mighty Games recognized this and released a spin-off of their mobile arcade shooter, Shooty Skies , for virtual reality. While it is fairly simple and has about as much content as a mobile arcade-style game, there's plenty to enjoy here. To play, you grab hold of a tiny animal piloting a tiny fighter jet, and guide them as they take down hordes of strange enemies while avoiding incoming projectiles. With your other hand, you can catch secondary weapons that fly out of defeated enemies, providing support to your little buddy for a short time. Amongst this secondary arsenal is a chainsaw that extends about a yard to hack your foes to pieces, an energy shield that splits your main attack into two while deflecting enemy projectiles, and, my personal favorite, a buddy pla

Like its predecessor on the NES , Metroid II on the Gameboy hasn't aged all that well. While a technically impressive feat, the clunky controls and crunched screen just aren't something that most people want to put up with anymore. Despite that, the game's story is an incredibly important chapter in the main Metroid narrative, so it's not something that you would really want to miss. Luckily, Nintendo understood the need to retell this story and offered up the second remake in the series. However, Samus Returns is special in the fact that its gameplay was designed to remodel the standard used for Metroid games going forward, replacing the Super Metroid style used in the past few games. When I first started playing Samus Returns , I was a bit jarred by how much the combat mechanics have changed from Zero Mission . However, it didn't take long for me to be so comfortable with this new style that I never wanted to go back. While countering charging enemies seeme