What's this? An interactive FMV mystery adventure, originally released to wide success on DOS and CD-i in 1993, with later ports for Mac, Windows and smartphones this version is based on the more recent 25th-anniversary reissues and sports optional upscaled video, toggles for different soundtrack versions, auto-saves, the ability to skip scenes, newly-optimized movement controls and new voice acting and subtitles, including voices in English, French, Russian and German. Helpful tip: There is a demo, and I strongly suggest you try it out rather than go in blind. If nothing else, those of you who genuinely looked forward to the not-talky parts of 13 Sentinels might get a kick out of it. Why should I care? The original GrimGrimoire felt a little half-baked - yes, they satisfactorily realized the essence of PC RTS play on a side-view map with controller commands, but to what end? - and this version hasn't received nearly the overhaul afforded to Odin Sphere a few years ago, but the extra layer of familiar customization is appreciated and the fast-forward option helps paper over the saminess of a lot of the content. What's this? A remaster of Vanillaware's magic-school-themed side-view real-time strategy game, originally released by Nippon Ichi Software for the PlayStation 2 in 2007 this new version features enhanced visuals and a newly-optimized widescreen playfield, a fast-forward function, re-recorded voices, mid-battle saves, new skill trees and tide-turning "giant spells", unlockable art/lore galleries and more. Platform: PlayStation 4+5, Nintendo Switch (worldwide).Useless fact: This is yet another early work from Okasana Koda, creator of the highly-acclaimed Sepas Channel and the upcoming indie game OU - it seems G-MODE's consciously trying to reissue his early works right now. Why should I care? The impression I've been given from people who played this game back in the day is that it was one of the signboard games for a more advanced wave of bigger, more sophisticated and sensibly-designed mobile RPGs, and what little I've experienced so far definitely suggests that to be true. What's this? A turn-based RPG centred around finding and equipping various powerful, partner-summoning gems, originally developed and distributed for Japanese feature phones by G-MODE in 2005 the player-character Dino lives in a floating city held aloft by the power of twelve mysterious gems, but when those gems suddenly scatter to the surface world below, Dino is forced to travel to the surface world to collect them, and confront his ingrained falsehoods about the lives of those below. Useless fact: Future shooting game maestro Manabu Namiki worked on Rezon as a young part-timer, not as a composer or sound designer but as a pixel artist he'd later be fired from Allumer due to a dispute over their notoriously inadequate sound driver (which, as you may notice if you pick up Rezon, is bugged to only play extremely short loops of music, among other issues). Why should I care? This game is a huge R-Type ripoff - the devs knew it, the media knew it, even R-Type devs Irem themselves joked about it - and not one made with the finesse required to ensure its extremely finicky, memorization-heavy style of game design doesn't dip into tedium, but the spot-the-difference metagame is amusing and, to, their credit, they did at least mimic Irem's pixel art style with a reasonable degree of competency. What's this? An extremely familiar-looking horizonta/ sci-fi shooting game, originally developed by Allumer and distributed in arcades by Taito in 1991 players fly an R-Type-esque spacecraft through R-Type-esque stages on a mission to destroy a bunch of R-Type-esque biomechanical monstrosities, with the aid of a pair of arm-shaped appendages attached to the top and bottom of the ship that undulate with the movement of the ship and can fire angled aim shots and block enemy bullets (unlike R-Type, but not entirely unlike sister game X-Multiply.) Platform: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (worldwide).To those who observe, may you enjoy the long weekend festivities, but do not lose sight of the true meaning of this sacred period: the martyrdom and pending resurrection of Tommy Tallarico.
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