Indie developer, Bowlcut Studios, last week announced that MageQuit, their top-down area wizard brawler, will exit Steam Early Access and launch for Windows PC and Xbox One this fall. MageQuit sees up to 10 players take the stage to battle it out wizard style. With up to seven spells at their disposal and physics as their primary ally, players must find out if they have what it takes to control the elements, land a perfect game-ending blow, or else forever be cursed.
As a wizard, players are granted the enchanted glowing D20 staff, empowering them with unique elemental spells used to battle against opponents. Matches can be played with two teams, three teams, or as a free-for-all every mage for themselves brawl. Team games, however, present unique opportunities for success, such as pushing the enemy team off a cliff or a classic game of wizard hockey with the highest stakes!
Check out the newly released gameplay 101 trailer below!
The Pokémon Company held a brief presentation today about its new mobile game, Pokémon Masters, coming to iOS and Android in 2019. Here are the details:
DeNA Co., Ltd. (henceforth DeNA), in partnership with The Pokémon Company, unveiled additional information about the upcoming mobile game Pokémon Masters, which is planned to release globally on iOS and Android devices in summer 2019. In Pokémon Masters, players will embark on a new adventure to form teams of Trainers and their partner Pokémon and engage in 3-on-3 real-time battles.
Take the treasured bond between Trainer and Pokémon to the next level in an all-new location—the island of Pasio—where Trainers from every Pokémon region gather to compete Pokémon Masters takes place on the island of Pasio, where the rules of battle are different and the treasured bond between Trainer and Pokémon is taken to the next level with sync pairs—the combination of a Trainer and their partner Pokémon. For the very first time in a Pokémon game, Trainers and their partner Pokémon from every Pokémon region will come together to form sync pairs. Players can team up with duos such as Korrina & Lucario, Brendan & Treecko, Clair & Kingdra, and many more. With all sorts of Trainers on Pasio, there are sure to be some exciting and unexpected encounters in this new story. At launch, there will be 65 sync pairs to recruit in Pokémon Masters, with additional sync pairs to come following the game’s release. Form a team of three sync pairs, and battle to become champion of the Pokémon Masters League In Pokémon Masters, players will explore Pasio to meet various Trainers and make new friends while progressing through the story. Once a player has made friends with other sync pairs, they can recruit those friends to form a team of three sync pairs (meaning three Trainers and their three partner Pokémon) and battle AI (artificial intelligence) opponents to become champion of the prestigious Pokémon Masters League tournament. Command a team of Pokémon and Trainers in 3-on-3, real-time battles in this strategy and battling game
Pokémon Masters introduces a new way to battle in the Pokémon world. Players will command a squad of three sync pairs in real-time team battles and release a barrage of moves—all while the AI opponent unleashes theirs at the same time. For the very first time in a Pokémon game, players can also direct Trainers in battle to use moves and healing items to increase a Pokémon’s stats. In addition to standard moves, players can occasionally deploy sync moves—powerful attacks performed by specific sync pairs. Players will need to ration their move gauge, which refills over time, to deploy the best moves at the most opportune times to lead their squad to victory. “The Pokémon brand has captured the imagination of the world, and we are honored to create the newest Pokémon adventure for mobile devices with Pokémon Masters,” said Isao Moriyasu, CEO of DeNA. “We look forward to sharing new ways to battle when the game releases.” “For years, fans have created enduring memories engaging with their favorite Pokémon characters throughout the Pokémon video game series,” said Tsunekazu Ishihara, president and CEO of The Pokémon Company. “With DeNA’s development expertise, we’re excited to bring together past and present Trainers and their partner Pokémon in a unique gaming experience that will delight fans around the world.”
Pokémon Masters will be available worldwide as a free-to-start game with in-app purchases on compatible iOS and Android devices, with release planned for summer 2019. The game will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese.
Revealed back at E3 in 2018, it appears that Night Call is finally getting in our hands next month on July 17th coming to Xbox One and PC via Steam. For more information about the game, head over to the official Night Call website.
A NEW KIND OF NARRATIVE & NOIRE GAME
You are a taxi driver. Paris is your city and you know every corner of it.
Your shift starts when the night is dark and ends when the city wakes up. You work hard to pay back your car, your taxi license, and your bills.
At night, passengers hop in your taxi. Sometimes you talk to them, sometimes they talk to you. You are not only a driver; for some people you are a priest, a confident, and a friend. You like this routine.
Everything changes when the police reveals that the recent murders shattering your city are connected. As their investigation is stalling, they ask everyone to keep their eyes peeled.
You want to do more. Because the victims were all clients of your taxi company. Because you are the last person to see the most recent victim alive…
You begin to investigate with your only advantage: on your backseat, people talk, open up, share secrets. So listen to your passengers, collect clues, and stop the killer.
Developer – Frogwares
Publisher – Bigben Interactive
Release date – June 27th, 2019
Platforms – PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Reviewed on – PC
Review code provided – Yes
The fictional world of Oakmont, Massachusetts is a secluded fishing town, very opposed to newcomers and making sure it stays well hidden from the outside world. This all combined with a mysterious flood that has put half the town underwater makes for quite the mysterious place. To make matters worse, conspiracies and cults are common place for residents. This is the setting for The Sinking City, a Lovecraftian detective horror game. You play as a man named Charles Reed. Charles is an ex-navy sailor from the first world war turned private eye who is a newcomer to Oakmont. You arrive with stories of strange visions that can only be described as utter horror. Your job is to get answers, so you’ve left the big city of Boston and come here, believing that you’ll get answers. You’re hired to find an expedition, as a member is believed to have the answer to the visions.
From the start of the game, you can tell that the artists at developer Frogwares were hard at work designing the world and characters. The scenery and each of the characters is designed in quite a distinct way that helps set the tone. A lot of the characters are dressed in more dark colors to represent the dark tone, and the world reflects that which can prove to set the tone well. Even the music matches this, giving off that dark tone while also being quite reflective of how the music was at that time. This all weaves well together with the few cutscenes present. These offer some jaw dropping scenery that make the strange visions take shape.
In terms of gameplay, I found that the detective side of things was definitely one of the game’s strongest (if not the strongest) mechanics that really makes it stand out. You go through the crime scenes, picking out bits and pieces that help build the bigger picture of what really occurred. You then go through a dimensional portal which lets you view what really happened at the crime scene. It really kept me engaged and wanting to find out the next piece of the puzzle in the grander story. The resource management aspect (despite not my favorite game mechanic) was definitely a nice touch to the game and made me have to think differently during each encounter.
The cases (main missions) played out well for the first half of the game. They featured some really cool challenges to face and intriguing places to explore. Some of the cases would have choices for you to deduce near the conclusion. This often had you in a moral dilemma deciding right from wrong. There weren’t many where I didn’t take a minute or two in between dialogue to decide what action I should take. Needless to say, the choices presented to you were very well crafted.
Through those cases, there were a lot of themes that connected to real life. There’s one group in the game called the Innsmouthers who are humans but have fish like characteristics. They’re heavily seen as lower by the other characters of society, and I think they went into this perfectly. They even explored the idea of the KKK being in the game which is an extent I wasn’t expecting. While obviously the idea is horrifying considering history, it’s nice to have that connection to real life. That combined with all the other connections (and seclusion factor) makes you think about the idea of a real life scenario like this.
The game on the surface really is something to be appreciated and had me into it from the get-go. Unfortunately, diving deeper really does expose the prominent issues with the game as a whole. Traversing through the open world, the atmosphere really begins to lose its uniqueness and feel repetitive. The color palette chosen doesn’t help this either, with discolored fog making the already similar structures look identical. With so much potential in front of Frogwares, I’m surprised they ignored that opportunity.
They do appear to have tried to remedy this, with some areas having their own distinct architecture along with fast travel. That style change though only takes its true effect in two areas with one being the size of two. It feels that more work should have been done to really set each location apart, along with toning down of the fog’s saturation. As for fast travel, you can only go between certain points which adds on to the troubles of walking. Free fast travel to any of the aforementioned locations would’ve gone a long way.
When it came to missions, I found that the first half felt great and varied. Later on this kind of variance wasn’t really kept and started to make the game feel much slower. It was a loop of finding a person dead or alive, and discovering why or doing them a favor (minus the final case). It’s quite a shame too, because I found myself invested in the story prior to that point.
As far as mechanics go, I found that a lot of them (excluding the aforementioned ones) weren’t used to the effect I had been hoping for. There should be many uses for your camera to capture evidence, but it was only used one time. Along with that, the insanity meter very rarely caused much concern for me. Having the camera come into play more often would’ve made the detective aspect outstanding. That, combined with the insanity meter being more effective would’ve helped a lot.
Overall, The Sinking City is an awesome looking game with a lot of potential. That, combined with an awesome detective mechanic really gives a lot to go off of. Unfortunately though, the game is hindered by a dull open world, repetitive missions, and under-utilized mechanics. If you can pass through it’s poor qualities though, there are some truly great moments to be had. The Sinking City is available tomorrow on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch for $59.99.
Nintendo and PlatinumGames look to have a winner coming on the Switch this August. Astral Chain has been a long anticipated game since it’s announcement back in March of this year.
It looks like PlatinumGames truly wants to capitalize on that hype. In an interview with IGN Benelux, director Takisha Taura said the game has no DLC planned, however if it sells well it does have plans to become a trilogy. Twitter user Moox has translated his full remarks:
“Currently, there are no plans to publish extra content for Astral Chain. That is different for the game’s story. We’re making the game as a trilogy, and this is the first part of that trilogy. If this game sells well, we might see how the story of the series continues.”
It looks like Taura has every intention of continuing the story with two more games. It’ll be up to fans to show how much they want to see future games in this series!
Astral Chain hits retail August 30th exclusively on Nintendo Switch. The collector’s edition is currently sold out but you can preorder the game at Amazon, Gamestop, Walmart, Target or Best Buy below.
In a very unsurprising and somewhat expected move, Square Enix has announced that the popular Final Fantasy VII character Tifa Lockhart will be joining Final Fantasy Dissidia NT on Steam and PS4 on July 2 and 3 (depending on your time zone).
Tifa has reached more popularity recently, with a big uproar over Square Enix apparently choosing to decrease her bust size. This was, however, debunked by executive producer Tetsuya Nomura in an interview translated by Kotaku.
It’s unsure as of yet what her moveset and style will be, but a little of that can be seen in the video Square Enix posted on the official Final Fantasy Twitter.
When Team Sonic Racing first got revealed, I remember watching the trailer at least 10 times, trying to analyze the new mechanics of the game. Revealed for a Winter 2018 release, I was ready to play a new racer with Sonic & friends. However, a delay happened. The game was delayed to May 21st, 2019, and although it was disappointing, I’m very glad they decided to. Team Sonic Racing, although not perfect, is a blast, and has many elements that I really enjoyed.
Being a Team
Team Sonic Racing is all about being and working together as a team. There a total of 5 teams in Team Sonic Racing, but you can mix and match as you wish. Each of the five teams have one character representing one of three types of racers. The three kinds of racers are the speed type, power type, and the technical type. Each of these play differently and have their own type of stats that are beneficial in a race. Team Sonic Racing has implemented many very helpful moves used as a team during a race. When you are in a team race, the player on your team that is the closest to 1st place will leave a shining yellow trail behind them as they drive. The other two players can follow that trail to get a speed boost, which can be incredibly helpful if you are far from 1st. There is also the ability to requested, receive, and give items. During a race, you can drive through item boxes to get an item, and you can give that item to someone on your team if they request one and you feel like it. I found this most useful when I was close to taking the lead and needed something to get the edge on the other players. While we are on the topic of item boxes, I have to say I’m not a fan of their simplistic design. I wish they had more pop to them, as they’re quite boring. Finally, the slingshot ability. After a teammate crashes into a vehicle, object, wall, or gets hit by an object, you can drive past them to give them a big boost to their speed. This can help ensure your team the chance to get first, as you won’t get left behind because of a collision. As you and your team build up and perform your team abilities, your Team Ultimate is charged. When your Team Ultimate is activated, everyone on your team accelerates to incredible speeds, as well as gaining invincibility for a couple seconds. These team abilities are essential to Team Sonic Racing, and if you can’t perform them, you most likely will not be winning any races.
Graphics / Performance
I feel that the graphics in Team Sonic Racing are limited. They aren’t bad by all means, but they could’ve been so much better. Everything is sort of dull, and there isn’t that pop that most modern games today have. I also think the shadows and lighting are mediocre, and not up to par with some of Sumo Digital’s other games. It’s still a great experience, but they could have done so much better. Hopefully in the next installment Sumo Digital can up the graphics a lot to make everything look much better. When compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Team Sonic Racing is not even close graphically, which makes me think that this game could have looked a heck of a lot better. Performance is not that big of an issue in Team Sonic Racing, although it could be much better. The Nintendo Switch version runs at 720p 30FPS. The frame rate is extremely solid, and does not budge at all. Although I wish Sumo Digital could have pulled 60FPS for Switch, I’m not mad about it as the game still runs fluid and smooth. For the next installment of Sonic Racing, I hope we see more popping visuals and a higher frame rate.
Game Modes
There are a large variety of ways to play Team Sonic Racing. There are two main modes in Team Sonic Racing. The first main mode is Team Adventure, which is Team Sonic Racing’s story mode. Team Adventure is split up into “Chapters”. Team Adventure has both good and bad things about it. First off, let’s start with the good. Team Adventure offers players a way to play single player through levels by offering challenges to get stars that allow you to pass the level. Each level is set in a world, with different courses and challenges. There are five different types of races in Team Adventure. For example, in Chapter 1: The Mysterious Invite, Stage 1-2 is a Team Race with the challenges being Win the race as a team, finish first individually, and finish in the top three places as an individual. When you complete one challenge, you earn one of three gold stars. These serve as a sort of progress tracker, as you can see how complete the level is. The story mode has cutscenes, but they aren’t as good as I hoped. They have the voice clips of Sonic and friends over a still image. I wish we got fully animated cutscenes, but if it was due to the budget I completely understand. The second major mode in Team Sonic Racing is multiplayer. You can play local or online play, with up to 4 separate players! For local play, there are a variety of available options to choose from. Grand Prix, Exhibition, Time Trials, and Wireless Play. For Grand Prix, you can choose a Team Grand Prix or a Standard Grand Prix. There are three levels of difficulty for each, being Normal, Hard, and Expert. There are a total of 5 different Grand Prixs, each containing 4 unique tracks to race on. For exhibition races, you can also choose a Team Race or Standard Race. You can choose to race on any of the twenty one tracks Team Sonic Racing has to offer. In Time Trials, you can play on one of twenty one courses to try and get a super quick time. The game times you, and you can try to beat your record! Wireless play is good in TSR. You can choose to either create a custom lobby, or you have the option to join one. I played a couple of wireless matches and they were fantastic with no lag.
Online Play
The online play in Team Sonic Racing is great, however you have to wait a ridiculous amount of time just to get in one match. I started up online play for the first time on day 1, expecting quick wait times. However, I was treated with a 10 minute wait, and it made me question if I was the only one playing. Thankfully that is not the case, but it is not pleasant to have to sit through the ridiculously long wait times. Once you’re in a lobby though, it is smooth sailing for there. There is little to zero lag when playing online, and it’s a fantastic experience. This was totally unexpected, but I was treated to a wonderful zero lag experience. If you don’t mind waiting, I highly recommend trying online. Hopefully this will get patched in the future.
Customization
Team Sonic Racing has a wide variety of customization options for everything about your car. In order to customize your car, you have to go to the garage from the main menu. Doing so will take you to a screen with two options, customize performance parts, or customize car cosmetics. Customizing the car’s performance parts change its stats. You can equip a more powerful engine in the front to get better boost and defense, however doing so will decrease your acceleration and top speed stats. It’s all about strategy, and I’m all for it. Cosmetic customization allows you to change the color of you vehicle, and it’s cool to be able to do so. The colors available can have different effects, such as matte or metalic, so there is a ton of variety available.
Final Thoughts
Team Sonic Racing is a great racer that any racing fan should try. Although there are some issues and things that could be better, overall it is a fantastic experience and I highly recommend trying it.
Ahoy mate! Fire your cannons at all enemy ships! Sea King is a game all about controlling a pirate ship at sea. You control the ship and fire away with cannons on all four sides of the ship. There are a large variety of game modes available to try, from Deathmatch to Capture the Flag you will not get bored that easily. This is a fantastic party game, and with that being said let’s dive deep into this review.
Gameplay / Modes
Sea King has a variety of ways to play, and almost all of them are extremely fun. The game itself offers 4 player co-op, and is fantastic for parties or gatherings with friends and family. There are 8 different colored ships in Sea King. Each of them look different, and each sort of cover a generation of pirates in a way. Below you can find the names of the 8 differently colored pirate ships.
Doomy
White Owl
Sea Horse
Ishtar
Anubis
Xibalba
Blue Mary
Dragon Flame
There are a ton of modes to try in Sea King! I have tried every single one of these and they are all fun. Here is a list of each of them below along with a description of it.
Deathmatch – First player to destroy 5 ships wins!
Last Ship Standing – Be the last one standing to win the round. Win 5 rounds to win the game.
Capture the Flag – Hold the flag for 20 seconds to win.
Fishing – Have the most fish when time expires.
Treasure Hunter – Collect all 5 bottled clues to win the game.
Shark Pong – Hit the shark to make him attack other players.
Pearls Collector – Take the pearl from the seashell and bring it to the port. Do this 3 times to win the game.
Seagull’s Nest – Grab the Seagull and stand still for 10 seconds to allow him to rest.
Siren’s Song – Destroy 5 ships while a siren charms your crewman. While she sings, you will be unable to control the ship.
Vortex Royale – Last ship standing in the eye of the vortex wins the round. Win 5 round to win the game.
Kraken Hugs – A kraken is slowly shrinking the area. Be the last ship standing to win the round. Win 5 rounds.
Catch The Flu – Avoid the flu. If you have the flu, give it to someone else. Be the last ship standing.
Personally, my favorite modes were Fishing, Kraken Hugs, and Vortex Royale. Fishing is extremely fun to play with others, as you have to try to keep the most amount of fish in you boat without getting hit by a cannonball. It requires some strategy to navigate away from cannonballs and enemy ships. In Kraken Hugs, a giant Kraken restricts the sea and you are forced closer and closer to the enemy ships. Votex Royale pulls everyone into a vortex directly in the middle of the sea. All of the modes are fun, I highly recommend trying them all at some point!
UI / Feedback Feature
The UI in Sea King is fantastic. In game, next to your completion bar (how close you are to winning the game), there is a player indicator identical to the one on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and Joy-Con. The little details like these really make the game look fresh and clean, and it’s nice and easy to see your progress and pirate ship color while playing. The other thing I really find cool in this game is the feedback tab in the main menu. This allows you to communicate with Interactive Stone directly through the game. Pretty neat right? They also have an optional email slot in the Send Feedback tab, where you can receive an email back from Interactive Stone.
Final Thoughts
Sea King is a fantastic party game for when you have friends or family over. While it can be played by yourself and be fun, you will get more enjoyment out of playing with others. The only thing I wish they could add is the ability to play online with others. This is the perfect game to do so, and I would love to play with some of my friends online.
Sweat Proof Gaming is responsible for many gaming accessories, such as grips for the Nintendo Switch Pro controller. When they saw that Nintendo was reentering the virtual reality market without a head strap, they seized the opportunity and made their own. The comfort set comes with a head strap, padding for your forehead, and padding for your nose. Its easy to install. You do have to dissemble a part of your Nintendo Labo VR headset to install, but its not much. The padding is very easily installed. You peel off a sticker on the back of the pads and put them on the headset. It is easily removable. The head strap can be adjusted via velcro. Its suppose to be able to fit on any head due to its flexibility. The Joycons can also be attached to the Nintendo Switch while using the head strap.
This head strap makes play secession’s last longer, and makes them more enjoyable. The software that comes with the Nintendo Labo VR Kit benefits from the head strap greatly. A lot of the mini games require you to point at objects using a Joycon. Being able to focus on the actual game and not having to focus on holding the cardboard up to your face is great. It makes the experience much more immersive.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild in virtual reality is not the greatest experience. Does this head strap make the experience any better though? The answer is yes. Overall, the experience is still bad due to its performance, but the head strap makes it a tiny bit better. Being able to use a Pro controller is a good touch. it does not feel like a work out playing this game in virtual reality anymore. The head strap lets you enjoy the game without having to hold the cardboard to your face.
Due to how short the missions are in Super Mario Odyssey VR, the head strap doesn’t do much. The virtual reality experience in Super Mario Odyssey remains great. The padding from the head strap comfort set was really the best improvement to this game in particular.
In my opinion, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate VR benefits from the head strap the most. This is by far Nintendo’s best virtual reality experience they offer. Using the head strap to look around the stages is way more immersive than holding the headset up to your face and looking around. It feels so much more comfortable to just have the head strap on and look around the stage compared to having to hold the cardboard up to your face.
Overall the the head strap and the extra padding improves a majority of the virtual reality experiences offered on the Nintendo Switch. The flexibility of the head strap is very good. You can use the Joycons attached with the head strap no problem. It’s flexibility to fit on any head easily is great. The head strap comfort set is fully worth the $13.99.
The Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04 VR Kit Starter Set and variety kit released on April 12th 2019. These Nintendo Labo kit is Nintendo’s first return to virtual reality since 1995 with the failed Virtual Boy. The starter set is the Labo kit I purchased. This comes with the Toy-Con VR Goggles, Toy-Con Blaster, and the Toy-Con Windmill. The Toy-Con VR Goggles take about half an hour to an hour to build. The building process if very smooth. The directions are also very informative and easy to understand. The quality of the cardboard and plastic lenses are very sturdy. Accidentally breaking or tearing the cardboard or plastic lenses was not something I worried about. You slide the Nintendo Switch into the VR headset to start playing. My initial reaction was “Nintendo did it again”. The quality of the VR is good enough. It works. VR Plaza offers 48 VR mini games. The first game is “Welcome to the VR Kit!”. This game introduces Nintendo’s own VR bot. It also introduces the controls for these mini games. You can jump around in this game and also shoot blocks and other targets. Most of these mini games truly are mini games. The second game, “Jump and Destroy” is a prime example of that. All you do in this game is jump with Labo bot and try to hit blocks while in the air. The third game is “Bomb Hockey”. This is basically Pong 3D. The fourth game is “Climb to the Finish Line”. This is by far my favorite mini game. In this mini game the goal is to climb through 3 Donkey Kong like obsticals. Once you finish all 3 levels you save a mermaid. The fifth game is “Car Driving”. You drive a car. “Car Battle” is the sixth game. The goal is to smash cars with your car. “UFO Pilot” is a game where you fly around as a UFO. In “UFO Crane Game” the goal is to pick up apples with a UFO Crane. The ninth game is “Wobbly Dancer”. Using the right Joycon you pick a doll and make him dance. In “Animals Galore” you play with animals. As you can tell these games are very very basic. The rest of the games include Zero Gravity, Kitchen Capers, Shootin’ Hoops, Boomerang!, Good Aim!, Bat and Ball, Pinwheel Blow, Pinwheel Targets, Pinwheel Spinner, Pinwheel Inflation, Tilt and Roll, Hamburger Chef, Go Fishin’, Snippety Scissors, Boxing Practice, Goalkeeper, Psychic Powers, 100-Bounce Challenge, Break Through, Build a Tower, See-Saw Balance Plinky Pinball, Record Player, Big Old Book, Making Music, Giant Crane Game, and Tilt Maze. A majority of these games were average VR experiences. I do wish there was more too these mini games.
The Toy-Con Blaster took around 2-3 hours to build. There were 5 different steps to this. This was the only Toy-Con that had its own big separate game in the Starter Set. Its a first person shooter VR experience called “Blaster”. There are 3 different bosses in this VR game. In total there are 5 levels. Each level has 3 sections. The level names in order are Downtown Defense, Robo Crab Assault, Nest of Nightmares, Cobra City Campaign, Steel Rail Ruins, and Spaceship Slimefest. This game took about 1 hour to complete. It is by far the most complete and fun game in the Starter set. Kablasta is the second game for the Toy-Con Blaster. It is a multiplayer VR take on the classic “Hungry Hungry Hippos” game. There are four mini games for Blaster. “Blaster Blastin’!” is a game where you shoot shapes at a target. “Blaster Snipin’!” is a game where you snipe a target. “Blaster Bowlin’!” is a puzzle mini game. You have to destroy targets to get a ball to a target. This is my favorite blaster mini game. “Blaster Climbin’!” is a mini game where the goal is to kill all the targets while climbing the inside of a building. This is also another very good and complete mini game.
This headset relies on the Nintendo Switch’s 720p 60hz display. 60fps works surprisingly well for Virtual Reality. The problem relies more on the resolution side. It is occasionally hard to read text in games. I would hope a future iteration of the Nintendo Switch would have a 1080p display to fix this issue. For me, there’s was no signs of motion sickness at all. This varies from person to person. You do feel surprisingly immersed in some of the games. During the “Blaster” game I really felt like I was in that world. There is a screen door effect. It is more noticeably in some games than others. The screen door affect becomes a non issue as you continue your playthrough. One of the gimps of this headset is the lack of a head strap. Labo encourages coming up with your own creations, so I’ve actually constructed my own head strap at home, but the lack of a official one is really disappointing. I hope in the next Nintendo Labo set they include a head strap. If we compare this headset too a more powerful high end headset such as the PlayStation VR, it’s obviously worse in many ways. One major way it one ups the PSVR though is the 360 degree head and controller tracking. This is lacking on PSVR. Virtually everything else about PSVR is better though.
In conclusion, The Labo VR Kit Starter Set is well worth the retail price of 40 dollars USD. A majority of the games are very lackluster though. The building process is very smooth for the Toy-Cons. I hope in the future Nintendo releases more complete games for games such as “Blaster” or “Climb to The Finish Line”. I very much look forward to trying Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild in Virtual Reality this week. This headset has a lot of potential, and its Nintendo’s responsibility to act on that potential.
Nintendo Labo VR Kit Starter Set scores a 6/10 from me.
From the start of the game, you can tell that the artists at developer Frogwares were hard at work designing the world and characters. The scenery and each of the characters is designed in quite a distinct way that helps set the tone. A lot of the characters are dressed in more dark colors to represent the dark tone, and the world reflects that which can prove to set the tone well. Even the music matches this, giving off that dark tone while also being quite reflective of how the music was at that time. This all weaves well together with the few cutscenes present. These offer some jaw dropping scenery that make the strange visions take shape.
The game on the surface really is something to be appreciated and had me into it from the get-go. Unfortunately, diving deeper really does expose the prominent issues with the game as a whole. Traversing through the open world, the atmosphere really begins to lose its uniqueness and feel repetitive. The color palette chosen doesn’t help this either, with discolored fog making the already similar structures look identical. With so much potential in front of Frogwares, I’m surprised they ignored that opportunity.
As far as mechanics go, I found that a lot of them (excluding the aforementioned ones) weren’t used to the effect I had been hoping for. There should be many uses for your camera to capture evidence, but it was only used one time. Along with that, the insanity meter very rarely caused much concern for me. Having the camera come into play more often would’ve made the detective aspect outstanding. That, combined with the insanity meter being more effective would’ve helped a lot.
