Storm Boy (Xbox One, 2018)

Storm Boy
Developed by Blowfish Studios
Published by Blowfish Studios/New Holland Publishers
Released for Xbox One (11/20/2018)
Also on Android/iOS/Mac/PC/Switch/PS4

Storm Boy is based upon a children's book from 1964, which was written by Colin Thiele and shares the same title as the game. The book has also been adapted into 2 live-action films, first in 1976 and again in 2019. The Storm Boy game was released in November 2018 for a wide variety of platforms and, as expected, we'll be looking at the Xbox One release for this review.

Storm Boy has you playing as a young boy, who discovers 3 baby pelicans in a nest while walking along the beach. After seeing that the birds have no mother, he helps raise them and eventually sets them free into the wild. Later on one of the pelicans returns to visit the young boy and from there he develops a close friendship with the bird. The Storm Boy game is about adventures that the young boy and his bird friend had over the years. There's no voice acting here and the story is delivered in text, mostly as you walk along the beach to your next destination. While the game is short and can easily completed in under an hour, the story is well-written and you get a good feel for the friendship between our two characters.

Gameplay consists of walking along the beach until you discover a thought bubble, at which point you'll enter into a sort of mini-game. There are 9 different mini-games to discover, with a decent amount of variety among them. A majority of the mini-games don't really have a definitive end, they just sort of let you mess around until you're ready to move on to the next thing. For example, one of them has you flying around as a pelican from a side perspective, allowing you to go left, right or turn around. The screen scrolls on endlessly until you decide to hit the B button to back out. Another mini-game has you drawing in the sand with a stick. While there's certainly not much of a challenge factor to the mini-games in Storm Boy, the laid-back and relaxing style of gameplay make this a good one for those just looking to unwind. Upon completing the game, a new option at the main menu opens up, allowing you to access any of the mini-games or chapters on the fly.

Storm Boy is a nice-looking game, featuring bright and colorful environments to explore, though the frame-rate tends to be a bit erratic at times. Most noticeable is the opening segment, which has our character walking along a beach and the frame-rate really struggles to even maintain a smooth 30 FPS, even when played on an Xbox One X. While I stated the game looks nice, and it does, the graphical style is quite simple and should not be this taxing on the console that it couldn't run this game without a hitch if it was properly optimized. The next sequence, which has you walking along the beach during a sunset, runs much smoother and hits closer to 60 FPS, so the frame-rate is all over the place. These frame-rate issues don't break the game, but it is definitely noticeable and worth mentioning.

Outside of the slight issues with the frame-rate, Storm Boy was an enjoyable time. For a game of such a short length, there's a surprising amount of heart in the story. There's not much of a challenge here, so those looking for something a bit more relaxed should like this one. Those who have read the book or seen the movie will also want to have a look at Storm Boy.

Final Verdict: Storm Boy tells the story of a young boy and his pelican friend's time together. It's extremely short, consisting of a series of mini-games to play. If you're looking for something a bit more laid-back or a fan of the source material, give this one a shot.

Related Links:
Buy Storm Boy - Microsoft Store
Blowfish Studios - Official Site
Storm Boy (Novel) - Wikipedia
Storm Boy (Full Movie) - YouTube 
Storm Boy - Metacritic
Storm Boy - GameFAQs
Storm Boy - True Achievements
Storm Boy Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Bonk: Brink of Extinction (XBLA, Cancelled)

Bonk: Brink of Extinction
Developed by Pi Studios
Published by Hudson
Announced for PS3/360/Wii

Bonk: Brink of Extinction was developed by Pi Studios and was aiming for a 2010 release on XBLA, PSN and WiiWare as a digital-download. It was going to retail for $10, or 800 Microsoft Points. This would have been the first Bonk title in quite some time, not counting the mobile game or re-releases of the old games on the Wii's Virtual Console. This was going to be a 2D Bonk that uses 3D-rendered graphics. It's not the most attractive looking game and much of the charm and tight controls of the old games are lost in the transition. Some of the background design and the colors looked decent, but the character models themselves were just strange looking. The developers had to create something that could run on the Wii, so that definitely held back the graphical presentation a bit. It's still recognizable as Bonk I suppose, but it would have been so much better to just go with 2D sprites.

Bonk: Brink of Extinction was going to feature a story mode with both local and online coop play. Gameplay looks to remain true to the old games, where you navigate 2D platforms while headbutting, climbing, swimming and biting your way to the end. Eating certain items will transform Bonk  into several different forms, acting as a temporary power-up. There are hidden entrances on many levels that will lead to mini-games. From what I've seen of the gameplay, it looked like a rather standard 2D platformer. 3 DLC packs were also planned, 2 of which appeared to be competitive modes and another to be an additional story.

Bonk: Brink of Extinction was actually completed and there were a few contributing factors as to why it stayed unreleased. In January 2011, Konami bought Hudson and began setting projects aside to save money. The US branch of Hudson, Hudson Entertainment, closed down in February 2011 and the following month it was announced that Bonk: Brink of Extinction was cancelled. Developer Pi Studios also closed down around this time. It didn't help matters that the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit in March 2011. Bonk: Brink of Extinction features a natural disaster in the game so this basically ensured that Bonk would stay cancelled.

Related Links:
Bonk: Brink of Extinction - Unseen64 
Bonk: Brink of Extinction Feature - Nintendo Life
Bonk: Brink of Extinction Unreleased Soundtrack - Disaster Peace
Hard4Games Playing Bonk: Brink of Extinction - YouTube
Bonk: Brink of Extinction - Wikipedia

Contra Online (Xbox, Cancelled)

Contra Online
Pitched by Konami of America
Also Proposed for PC/PS2

Not much is known about Contra Online, making it one of the more mysterious entries in the franchise, probably because it didn't make it far in development. Exact dates for when the game was proposed and cancelled are unknown, but obviously it's sometime in the early 2000's with this being an Xbox/PS2 game. Contra Online was pitched by Konami of America, which is a bit foreboding when looking back at how the previous non-Japan developed entries in the franchise turned out, which to put it nicely was not up to the series standards.

An online Contra game sounds ambitious and the game was planned to support 4 player coop. Players would be split into teams of 2 and would fight separate missions before meeting up to face the boss. An online versus mode was also planned, which would take place in a virtual reality type of environment, which seems to be the only screenshot that exists for this game. In the end, Konami had internal disagreements between the Japanese and American divisions regarding the game, which ultimately led to its cancellation. Since it looks like Contra Online was going to take place from a third-person perspective rather than staying true to its 2D roots, it may very well be for the best that this game didn't release.

Related Links:
Contra Online - Unseen64

Bleeding Edge (Xbox One, 2020)

Bleeding Edge
Developed by Ninja Theory
Published by Microsoft
Released for Xbox One (3/24/2020)
Also on PC

Bleeding Edge was released in late March 2020, brought to us by Ninja Theory and is a class-based, team-centric online-multiplayer 4v4 brawler. I enjoyed the previous games from these developers, though I was bit skeptical coming into Bleeding Edge since multiplayer was never really something Ninja Theory had dipped into before. With Ninja Theory being purchased by Microsoft in June 2018, Bleeding Edge was featured on Game Pass from day one, making it easy to check it out if you're on the fence about it like I was, so let's take a look at the game and see if it's worth the download...

Bleeding Edge features a colorful art-style and characters with over-exaggerated traits that look a bit cartoony, similar to the styles of Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch. The levels themselves look nice and the game makes great use of bright colors. The music fits the theme well, though I can't say I found any of it particularly memorable. The sound design is about what you'd expect, with lots of appropriate hi impact sound effects and quips from the colorful roster. Menus are clean and easy to navigate, so overall Bleeding Edge does a nice job in the visual and sound presentation. Despite the fact that the word bleeding is in the title, those expecting buckets of blood will be disappointed that there really isn't much to speak of here and the depiction of violence is not graphical in nature.

There were a total of 12 characters to choose from as of April 2020. The fighters are broken up into classes, with 5 damage characters, 3 supports and 4 tanks. Each character have unique move sets, with a normal attack, 3 special attacks and 1 super move. The special attacks have a recharge after each use, so you can't just sit there and spam the best moves. The super moves can only be used every so often, featuring a longer recharge than the special attacks but inflicting more damage. Upon selecting a character, each has 2 different super moves to select from. Each fighter can be customized under the workshop, which can be accessed from the main menu. From here you can change up mods, boards, emotes and skins in addition to reading that fighter's bio. Mods will give little boosts to certain skills or stats and up to 3 of these can be applied at once, allowing you to customize to your playstyle a bit. Additional mods can be purchased or they will be slowly unlocked as you just keep playing. Boards, emotes and skins allow you to select between a couple variants in each category. Other than starting out with a handful of boards, you'll have to purchase all of these. Currency unlocks very slow, so only those in it for the long haul will get to see many of these. Overall it's an interesting character roster offering a good amount of options and a reasonable amount of customization. When I first started playing Bleeding Edge, there were only 3 tank characters available. By the time I was wrapping up my play for this review, an additional fourth tank character was released, so this looks to be a good indicator that the developers will continue to support this game as time goes on.

The classes are very important in Bleeding Edge and having the right composition of classes can make the difference between winning and losing. The most important thing is to make sure that there is at least 1 support class on the team and if there's not, do the team a favor and switch over to one since the game allows you to switch classes on the fly, so long as you're in the starting spawn point. The support class is without a doubt the most important class since they can specialize in keeping the team members alive. Tank and damage class players are focused primarily on killing the enemy, giving the game a decent variety of roles for players to take. Upon death you'll be sent back to the base spawn and will have to wait a few seconds before popping back in.

While the gameplay in Bleeding Edge will seem hectic for the first few rounds, once you get the hang of how all of the characters play it's manageable. Staying together as a team is key, as you'll quickly learn that trying to take on anything by yourself will almost always end in death. Matches with teams that stick together vs uncoordinated teams will end up very lopsided. If you get into a match and see all of your teammates running off doing their own thing, prepare to lose. The game gives you a message if you quit out of a match early, stating that you will be penalized by being put into a queue with other quitters, making it harder to find a match. I don't know how this works, but I didn't want to test it so I stuck out out all of the terrible matches. Finding a match was never too bad, usually finding a game in under 2 minutes but I'd imagine that if you frequently rage quit that this time could be much longer.

Bleeding Edge is an online-only game, featuring multiplayer battles of 4v4 going at it in 2 different events. It's recommended to play through the brief tutorial when you first load the game up and there is also a practice mode that lets you mess around with the characters. In order to enter into a game, you select fight from the menu and then play the waiting game while a search is conducted. This usually took no longer than a minute or two before you're loaded into a game. Unfortunately, there's no way to select which type of game mode you'd like to search for, so you've got to take what you get.

The first game mode is objective control, where players fight to capture three capture points. These points only appear for a limited time and it randomizes it up so different points will be active throughout a round. The team that holds the capture points the longest wins. The other game mode is called power collection, where the first part of the round spawns a bunch of canisters scattered around the map. Once you bust these canisters open they'll drop a power cell. Once all of the power cells have been collected or the timer runs out, a point (or sometimes multiple points) will open up on the map where you can deposit your power cells. The first team to reach 50 wins the match. Eliminating an enemy player also gives points and if you take out somebody before they drop off their power cells, they'll drop them upon death. It takes a few seconds to deposit the power cells, meaning you can interrupt a player doing this with an attack. Power collection can be extremely frustrating when you die and lose a bunch of power cells, but it can also be quite gratifying to kill an enemy and steal all of their cells. Both modes will vary in enjoy-ability, depending on how competently you function as a team. A king of the hill or capture the flag style of game mode would work well with this style of gameplay and hopefully there are some new game modes added in the future.

Bleeding Edge is off to a decent start in several aspects, but there's certainly lots of room for improvement. There needs to be some additional game modes as only having 2 gets repetitive in a hurry. Also, after playing a round you have a summary screen that lists stats and can view highlight plays, but the timer is so short on this screen you'll hardly have a chance to look at it. After the summary screen times out, you're kicked back to the main menu. Why is there no option to stick with the players you have and keep playing? Having the game load into another round after playing would surely tempt more players to stick around for another match.

An option to play with bots would have been nice, both to help new players get more comfortable with the game and to have something to play once the inevitable server shutdown happens in the future. Another minor nitpick is that you can't view the scorecard during the match, only once the round has finished. All of my other issues were already mentioned: takes too long to unlock stuff, a bad team means a bad time and there need to be more game modes/maps. In the end, Bleeding Edge features some nice graphics, some cool character design and can be a good time if you get placed on a team that sticks together. However, your fun is directly correlated to your team, so if you have a bad team it can get rough.

Note: This review was submitted on April 30, 2020 and therefore is reflective of how the game was at that point in time. There will no doubt be new features, characters and tweaks added to this title over the coming months/years, but this review should at least provide a general idea of whether you should check this one out and perhaps I'll write a follow-up review if the game sees massive changes.

Final Verdict: Bleeding Edge is a team-focused, class-based 4v4 online brawler. While still early in its life, the game shows some promise and can be fun if you get placed with team-minded players. Worth checking out on Game Pass if you're into brawlers/hack 'n slash gameplay.

Purchase Links:
Buy Bleeding Edge - Microsoft Store
Buy Bleeding Edge - eBay
Game Pass - Microsoft Store

Related Links:
Bleeding Edge - Official Site
Ninja Theory - Official Site
Xbox Game Studios - Official Site
Bleeding Edge - Metacritic
Bleeding Edge - GameFAQs
Bleeding Edge - True Achievements
Bleeding Edge - Xbox Achievements

Forgotton Anne (Xbox One, 2018)

Forgotton Anne
Developed by Throughline Games
Published by Square Enix
Released for Xbox One (5/15/2018)
Also on iOS/Mac/PC/PS4/Switch

Forgotton Anne (no that's not misspell, it's the actual title) is the first release from Denmark-based developer Throughline Games. The best way to describe Forgotton Anne would be, in the words of the developers, a cinematic adventure with light puzzle platforming and meaningful storytelling.
The game first released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in May 2018. June 2018 would see a release for the Mac and then the Switch in November of the same year. The final port (as of April 2020) was for iOS devices in June 2019. Throughline Games did a good job getting the game out to multiple platforms, so without further ado let's look at what it is and if it's one you should play...

Forgotton Anne takes place in the mysterious Forgotten Lands, where Forgotlings dwell. Forgotlings are everyday objects that were tossed aside and forgotten by their owners, longing to be remembered by them. These objects are all alive and each have their own personality. Early on in the game, while having a conversation with a blanket I was reminded of The Brave Little Toaster, an old Disney movie I saw as a kid with a similar premise of objects taking on a life of their own. Speaking and interacting with objects might sound silly at first, but you'll quickly warm up to it as more characters are introduced, some of them being quite memorable.

The game places you in the shoes of Anne, an enforcer in this magic land that helps keep order among the Forgotlings. Anne reports to Master Bonku, who is building an Ether Bridge which he claims will send them back to the human world. Master Bonku informs you that there's been a problem with rebels who are interfering with his plans to activate the Ether Bridge. As Anne sets off to thwart the rebellion, she'll learn many truths and discover quite a bit about herself in the process. There's some excellent storytelling going on here and the voice actors did a great job delivering the dialogue. You'll have to sit and watch cutscenes often, so if that type of thing bothers you this is probably not the game for you. It's never overbearing with its cutscenes and none of them felt like they ran too long. I'll refrain from dropping spoilers since the story is definitely one of the game's strongest points, but I'll tell you it's well-delivered and there's a nice payoff at the end. There are also 2 possible endings to help add a bit of replayability. Upon completing the game, there's an epilogue and also an area you can explore and use to access certain chapters through the story to replay them.

The platforming aspect of Forgotton Anne reminded me a lot of the old cinematic platformer classics like Another World and Flashback, with a similar method of climbing up platforms and a familiar run/jump mechanic to cover gaps. The platforming is a tad stiff but you'll warm up to it and the game never presents anything to difficult in that regard. There are light puzzles, which typically involve Anne transferring power to and from objects using a device on her wrist. There are also lots of levers and switches to pull along the way, but none of the puzzles are too perplexing so you likely won't find yourself getting stuck at any point. There's quite a bit of exploring and talking to Forgotlings to be done, with the game doing a good job of balancing between the platforming/puzzling/exploring/conversing so it never feels like you do any of these more than the other. The gameplay loop is simple, but the story is compelling enough on its own to keep you moving forward.

Featuring an orchestral score, hand-animated visuals, excellent voice acting and an interesting story, Forgotton Anne delivers on a lot of fronts. The visuals are striking, with hand-drawn sprites featuring an impressive amount of animation along with some detailed backdrops. This is one of the better-looking games I've seen running on the Unity engine and it really looks like you're playing a cartoon at times. Forgotton Anne will last you around 8-10 hours and while these aren't the types of games you typically come back to, this one's worth that one playthrough if you like a good story with some light puzzle & platforming mixed in there. There's a lot of polish and effort that went into this one and it really shines through in all departments. While the premise will likely be too silly for many, those who dig in and give it a shot will be pleasantly rewarded.

Final Verdict: Forgotton Anne is a cinematic adventure with puzzle and platforming elements, featuring hand-drawn art and an excellent story, this one is easy to recommend.

Related Links:
Buy Forgotton Anne - Microsoft Store
Throughline Games - Official Site
Square Enix - Official Site
Fogotton Anne - Metacritic
Fogotton Anne - GameFAQs
Fogotton Anne - True Achievements
Fogotton Anne - Xbox Achievements

Tacoma (Xbox One, 2017)

Tacoma
Developed/Published by The Fullbright Company
Released for Xbox One (8/2/2017)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/PS4

Tacoma is a sci-fi walking simulator that was initially released in August 2017 for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox One platforms and in May 2018 received a port to the PlayStation 4. Developed and published by the Fullbright Company, the same studio that brought us Gone Home,  Tacoma is similar to that title in gameplay but provides an entirely different environment to explore. We've looked at quite a few of these walking sims on the site, so let's see how Tacoma fares in this popular genre...

Tacoma has you exploring the high-tech space station named Tacoma in the somewhat distant future of 2088. You take control of a subcontractor named Amy Ferrier who has been sent to this space station to find out what happened to the crew members and retrieve the computer AI. As you explore the abandoned station, you'll learn about the crew that was on board via 3D recordings and hacking their devices to read their personal messages.

The story is revealed primarily through text, but the voice acting that's here is all very well delivered. The 3D recordings are presented via AR reconstruction, allowing you to rewind, pause and fast-forward (similar to the Batman Arkham games). The gameplay feels a bit like Gone Home in space, with the story being revealed to the player in a similar fashion, though it's hard to deny that Tacoma contains a much more interesting setting to explore. The overall narrative of the game feels much less personal than Gone Home, but like that title it explores the human reaction to adversity in several ways, particularly when faced with death..

The space station feels appropriately futuristic, containing lots of little details that make it feel as if it was inhabited and a healthy amount of objects within the environment you can interact with. Tacoma is a nice-looking game and the options allow you to switch over to 4K visuals at the expense of a lower framerate. Without the 4K enabled the game runs quite smooth, with only small stutters here and there which I assume is when the game loads new areas up. If you're into walking simulators I'd easily say this one's worth a look, especially if you dig the sci-fi setting. While the story might not be as impactful as Gone Home, Tacoma features an interesting environment to explore and finding out about the death of the space station's crew is a trip worth taking. Tacoma is a bit on the short side and will only last anywhere from 2-5 hours, so I'd recommend picking it up on sale or checking it out via Game Pass if it's still on there (it was as of April 2020).

Final Verdict: Tacoma is a sci-fi walking sim that has you exploring a space station in the future, attempting to find out how the crew died and retrieve the ship's computer AI. While a bit on the short side, this one's worth a play if you like these walking sims.

Purchase Links:
Buy Tacoma - Microsoft Store

Related Links:
Walking Simulators - Xbox Overview 
Gone Home - Xbox Overview
Fullbright - Official Site
Tacoma - Metacritic
Tacoma - GameFAQs
Tacoma - True Achievements
Tacoma Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Deep Ones (Xbox One, 2018)

Deep Ones
Developed by BURP! Games
Published by Sometimes You
Released for Xbox One (4/11/2018)
Also on PC/PS4/Switch/Vita

Deep Ones was developed by BURP! Games, a developer that's hard to find much info on. From the little bit I could gather, I believe they are from Ukraine but everything else is a mystery. It really makes you curious what the process is for Sometimes You and where they dig up some of these obscure indie games to publish. Deep Ones was released for 5 platforms in April 2018, including PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, Vita and the Xbox One.

Deep Ones starts off showing your character, floating along in his submarine when it is suddenly destroyed by a giant octopus creature, leaving you to navigate the bottom of the ocean on foot. You'll pick up a harpoon quickly, which you'll need to defend yourself against the various dangers that await. The graphics in Deep Ones are composed of simple pixel-art that looks to pay homage to the ZX Spectrum and its limited color palette. Your character moves slow, but I suppose that's appropriate considering he's walking on the ocean floor.

There are over 20 levels you'll have to traverse and in the early levels you'll see enemies like turtles, blowfish and crabs, but later in the game it gets a bit crazier when the pirates show up. The pirates come in several varieties with some that fire rifles at you, some that attack with swords and big guys that attack when you get close. Every now and then, the game changes things up a bit to keep it interesting. One stage has you riding on the back of a giant seahorse escaping from a giant shark in pursuit while another a few later stages take away your harpoon and arm you with a sword. The stage design is extremely simplistic and a bit on the easy side, but the developer did a good job at least changing it up and keeping it from getting too monotonous. The campaign will last you around 3-4 hours and there are a few boss fights thrown in there for good measure.

It's easy to take one look at Deep Ones, notice publisher Sometimes You and just label it as more easy gamerscore garbage that the company has been known to pump out, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a fun little game here, well worth the $5 asking price. If you don't mind a 2D action-platformer with a slower, more methodical pace, give Deep Ones a look. While the graphic design is definitely an acquired taste, the gameplay is very basic and it's a bit easy, there's a lot of cool ideas and level variation that make this one worth a play.

Final Verdict: Deep Ones is a simple 2D action-platformer with a minimalist pixel-style where you play in scuba gear, slowly walking along with ground underwater. It's decent, but drags on a bit longer than it needs to.

Related Links:
Buy Deep Ones - Microsoft Store
Sometimes You - Official Site
Deep Ones - Metacritic
Deep Ones - GameFAQs
Deep Ones - True Achievements
Deep Ones Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements