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

Korgan (Xbox One, 2018)

Korgan
Developed/Published by Codestalkers
Released for Xbox One (4/27/2018)

Korgan was released for the Xbox One in April 2018 and was developed by Codestalkers, a one-man operation out of Barcelona, Spain. Though a one man operation, reading about the dev on the Codestalkers official site states that the single dev only does programming and outsources all other apsects of the game. Korgan marks the developers first release on a console, with all previous efforts being released for Android devices. Korgan is an episodic dungeon crawler that allows you to download the prologue for free and that's what I'll be looking at for this review, so without further ado let's go crawling some dungeons and see if it's worth the time...

There's not much story to Korgan, just explore those dungeons and complete the various quests and secondary objectives, fight a boss at the end then move onto the next where you'll do the same. A somewhat original design feature allows you to switch between 3 character classes on the fly. There's a mage, hunter and warrior, with the first two focusing on ranged attacks and the warrior is the melee specialist. The 2 projectile-based characters are far better than the warrior, so the only time you'll likely switch to him is when there are the few enemies that can only be damaged with melee attacks. You'll frequently encounter traps, which can be disabled by any class, but unless you use the hunter to disarm them you'll take some damage. The mage has the ability to launch ice attacks that can freeze enemies, so each class has situations you'll want to use them even if it is only temporary.

Each character has a light and special attack and every so often will build up a special attack that can cause massive damage. The attack system works okay, but feels archaic the way you have to face your enemy in order to attack, especially with the mage who launches fireballs. It seems stupid she can't fire behind her as she backs off and if the developer would have implemented twin-stick controls, the combat would've been instantly better. Instead you have this awkward style of attack where you have to strike, backtrack a bit, strike and rinse and repeat. In addition to looking stupid, it quickly grows stale and if the combat isn't any good in a dungeon crawler that's a bit of a problem. You'll warm up to it eventually and the game is playable, mostly thanks to the mage's ability to freeze the enemies, but it's far from good. As you go about killing enemies and opening chests, you'll unlock better gear and items to equip to boost your stats. There's also a level up system that allows you to upgrade certain perks for you characters, with skill points being shared between all 3 characters.

The prologue gives you 3 levels: dungeon, ruins and grassy fields. Each level features a decent-size layout and a map can be accessed at any time, which will mark all but a few of the secondary objectives. The graphics in the game are actually not bad, featuring a good use of colors and a smooth framerate, though everything looks a bit basic and generic. The characters you play as don't look bad, but again suffer from just being generic and having no back-story to generate any interest in them. The control scheme works good enough, though for some reason the same button is used to pick up loot and switch characters, which seems unnecessary when the triggers are unused.

Korgan was released where you could play the opening prologue chapter for free and additional episodes would be released periodically. Only 1 additional episode was ever released and seeing as this game was released back in 2018, I think it's safe to say that there's not going to be a 2nd episode. There are a few obvious reasons why this never made it past the first episode, the main one being the fact that all 1000 gamerscore can be unlocked in an hour or two by playing the prologue. So the developer didn't bother to add any additional achievements for the 1st episode, which really hurts because this thing is retailing for $20!

Korgan is not a bad game, it ran fine and played decent for what it was, which is a generic dungeon crawler that's held back by forgettable enemy/level design and lackluster combat. The character switching mechanic is interesting and had some potential, but outside of a few scenarios I found little reason to use anyone besides the mage, so the characters needed some more balancing to make them more useful all around. As it is, Korgan is going to appeal only to achievement hunters thanks to it's easy and quick gamerscore completion. On the plus side, at least the game won't take up too much of your time.

Final Verdict: Korgan is a dungeon crawler with the prologue chapter available for free. While the ability to switch characters on the fly is neat, the combat, graphics and design leave much to be desired. Achievement hunters will enjoy the easy free gamerscore, but all others I'd advise you to steer clear.

Related Links:
Get Korgan - Microsoft Store
Dungeon Crawlers - Xbox Overview
Codestalkers - Official Site
Korgan - Metacritic
Korgan - GameFAQs
Korgan - True Achievements
Korgan Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Tracks: The Train Set Game (Xbox One, 2019)

Tracks: The Train Set Game
Developed by Whoop Group
Published by Excalibur Games
Released for Xbox One (11/14/2019)
Also on PC

Tracks: The Train Set Game, developed by Whoop Group, is one of those games that's exactly what it says it is. Released for both PC and the Xbox One in November 2019, Tracks is a sandbox game where you construct wooden tracks which you can then drive the train on. It's a simple premise but Tracks does offer you quite a bit to do when it comes to track building.

Tracks: The Train Set Game features some clean visuals, featuring detailed maps with well-rendered objects and environments. The sound design is minimal, with some calm piano music in the background that suits the laid-back gameplay quite well. The menus are simple and easy to navigate, rounding out an overall nice presentation. The options menu allows you to choose between 4K at 30 FPS or 1080 at 60 FPS, which is always a nice option to have. There are a variety of different "levels" to select from as your background. These include blank white/black rooms, modern apartment day/night and bedroom day/night. The bedroom and apartment levels have various objects scattered about like beds, shelves and couches. These objects can all be built on or around with your track, so if you want to build a ramp up onto the table you can. The levels all look nice and add some good variety.

After selecting your room type, you have 2 options: free play and passenger mode. Free play mode allows you let your imagination go wild and build what you want, within the confines of the game of course. Placing tracks where you want is easy and intuitive, which will be explained in a brief tutorial the first time you play. The game will let you place an impressive amount of track and objects, just load up the included sample roller coaster track for a good example of this. You can also place tracks that branch off and while driving the train, holding in a direction will allow you to choose which way to steer. Pieces of track can be removed and this can even be done while the train is traversing the track, which will send the train flying off the track. There's quite a bit of fun to be had within the free play section.

There's a ton of different scenery to add in, featuring a vast array of buildings, decorations, trees, cars, passengers, signs, active elements and construction items. The active items are stuff that can be interacted with, such as fireworks or boxes that can be knocked over as you pass through them. Construction items include stuff like corkscrew tracks, tunnels and track supports. There's a category to change the terrain type as well. It's impressive how much stuff there is to choose from in here and it really gives you a lot to work with if you want to go all in your creations. There are additional options for choosing the train texture and the scenery, giving you many ways to customize things to your liking.

Passenger mode tasks you with locating groups of passengers and getting them to the station. This will require you to place a platform near the passengers, build the tracks up to the platform to the station and then drive then train. Occasionally a set of passengers will have a time limit or a request, tasking you to make the train jump 5 times before arriving at the station. Passenger mode is a nice little diversion, but all of the levels can be cleared in around 20 minutes, so it's not likely to be something you'll keep coming back to.

Tracks: The Train Set Game ran smooth and I didn't encounter any technical issues while playing, though there is some strange lack of clipping when the tracks passes through certain objects, but it's definitely best to just not build directly into objects. I preferred building in the clear rooms most of the time anyways so it wasn't really an issue. Tracks features an incredibly easy set of achievements that can be unlocked in under an hours time if you want.

Tracks: The Train Set Game allows you save your tracks, but unfortunately there's no way to share tracks with others. I would have enjoyed seeing what kind of crazy stuff people have cooked up. As it is, Tracks: The Train Set Game is a laid-back and enjoyable train-track builder.  Outside of the passenger mode, there's no real objective other to build and have fun, but there's nothing wrong with that sometimes. While achievement hunters will be drawn to it for another easy completion, there's enough to Tracks: The Train Set Game that you can really sink some serious time into it, if you fancy building wooden toy train tracks that is. As of April 2020, Tracks is currently featured on Game Pass and is the type of game that fits great for that service. Recommended, but wait for a sale or play it on Game Pass (if it's still there).

Final Verdict: Tracks: The Train Set Game is a relaxing toy train track builder that provides quite a bit of stuff to build with, allowing you to let your imagination run wild. Recommended if you're the creative type, but due to the high initial price wait for a sale.

Purchase Links:
Buy Tracks: The Train Set Game - Microsoft Store
Game Pass - Microsoft Store

Related Links:
Excalibur Games - Official Site
Tracks: The Train Set Game - Metacritic
Tracks: The Train Set Game - GameFAQs
Tracks: The Train Set Game - True Achievements
Tracks: The Train Set Game Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Awesome Pea (Xbox One, 2019)

Awesome Pea
Developed by PigeonDev
Ported & Published by Sometimes You
Released for Xbox One (3/1/2019)
Also on PC/PS4/Switch/Vita

Awesome Pea, developed by PigeonDev, is a 2D platformer that was originally released for PC in September 2018, while the Xbox One version was published by Sometimes You in March 2019. Awesome Pea attempts to capitalize on the nostalgia craze, featuring retro-inspired graphics that mimic the look of the Game Boy with it's limited yellow-green color palette. There's been no shortage of retro-throwback titles or 2D platformers over the years, so without further ado let's look at Awesome Pea and see if it's worth taking the money and time to download and play...

In Awesome Pea, you take control of the little blob-looking thing that I'd guess is supposed to be the titular pea. The pea looks quite reminiscent of the main character Jerry from Game Freak's Jerry Boy (or Smart Ball in the US). You move the pea with the analog stick or d-pad and use the A button to jump. You also have a double-jump. That's it to the controls in Awesome Pea. While simple, they work well enough and the platforming feels good for the most part.

Awesome Pea features an overworld map featuring 4 worlds with 30 stages between them, unlocking the next as you complete each one. There's a couple different types of themes for the stages which you'll see repeat with different layouts as you progress. The backgrounds are detailed enough when taking the game's limited color palette into consideration. The music and sound effects are retro-themed in order to complement the graphics, and while nothing stands out too much they're not bad either. The limited color palette makes the game a bit ugly though and I frequently found myself wanting to play only a few levels at a time as the drab palette makes it uninteresting to look at for long periods of time. That's not to say that the game is terrible, it's an above average effort, just that the lack of colors and repetitive stage designs makes it hard to bear for long periods of time.

Each stage has a set of collectibles in the form of coins and gems, with an achievement to be unlocked for gathering all of them on every stage. This helps add at least a small amount of replay value, which is good because Awesome Pea is a short game. The first time you boot the game up, both of the featured "effects" are turned on, which are actually just filters. The tube-effect warps the corners of the screen to emulate and old computer or television monitor. The CRT-effect adds some overall transparent fuzziness and a bit of a warped picture down towards the lower portion of the screen. This looks more like viewing a worn-out VHS tape or watching a channel with bad reception than your standard CRT picture. We'll delve a bit more into these filters when we get into the gripes here shortly. Awesome Pea features music and sound that feel appropriate to the graphic style, and while they suit the game well enough there's not enough music tracks and the overall sound design is unremarkable.

In a platformer like Awesome Pea, it's important to be able to control your character with accuracy. I'm glad to report that the controls here, while far from perfect, work well enough with regards to the challenges laid out by the developers. It feels like there's a slight lag between the moment you press the jump button and when the pea on-screen reacts to it, but it's not game-breaking and is something you'll adjust to if you stick with the game. Awesome Pea has a double-jump that's easy to use and adjusting in mid-air works well. You can control the pea with either the analog stick or the d-pad.

Most of the levels themselves are quite standard and not too challenging, just jump over the obstacles while collecting the coins and gems. There is one particular stage type that stood out as more annoying than the others, which are the stages where you're descending downwards while the ball projectiles are coming up from below and the sides. These stages are far more difficult than the others and will no doubt be the main source of frustration for those trying to 100% the game. They're do-able, just a major pain in the butt.

Other gripes include a questionable player hit-box, where it feels like I clearly jumped over the spike or projectile but somehow still got hit. The included CRT filter not only makes no sense for a game trying to replicate something from the Game Boy, but it also obstructs the view of some coins or gems located on the sides of the screen, thus it handicaps the gameplay. The other included screen distortion effect also makes no sense on a Game Boy game either and is a rather pointless inclusion.  If you intend to play Awesome Pea, my first recommendation is to go into the options and turn the filter and distortion effects off.

While Awesome Pea delivers a serviceable 2D-platforming experience, when you reach the final stage it feels anti-climactic and the game just sort of ends. With a lack of boss battles or any type of confrontation at all, the game feels a bit hollow when compared to other efforts in this genre. A little bit of action mixed with the platforming might have went a ways to make the game a bit more fun, but as it stands Awesome Pea is a middle of the road 2D-platformer with a relatively easy set of achievements to obtain. It's not bad, but it really doesn't do much to stand out.

Final Verdict: Awesome Pea is a basic 2D-platformer with decent controls and relatively easy achievements, but the game feels a bit underwhelming in the long run due to the lack of any boss fights and unmemorable level design. You get what you pay for with this one.

Related Links:
Buy Awesome Pea - Microsoft Store
PigeonDev - Twitter
Sometimes You - Official Site
Awesome Pea - GameFAQs
Awesome Pea - True Achievements
Awesome Pea - Xbox Achievements

Coffin Dodgers (Xbox One, 2016)

Coffin Dodgers
Developed by Milky Tea Studios
Published by Wales Interactive Ltd.
Released for Xbox One (5/6/2016)
Also on Linux/Mac/PC/PS4/Switch

Coffin Dodgers was developed by UK-based Milky Tea Studios and was released for the Xbox One in May 2016. Coffin Dodgers features a bunch of senior citizens racing on their mobility scooters. The retirement village residents are in a competition hosted by Death and the winner gets to keep their soul. It's definitely a quirky concept with some potential, so let's delve in and see how it plays...

The story in Coffin Dodgers involves 7 residents of a retirement village, racing it out against the Grim Reaper and each other and the winner gets to keep their soul. The single-player mode involves 13 races which are separated into 4 themes. The themes are the village, town, farm and graveyard, with the final race against the Grim Reaper taking place on a track that mixes all 4 themes together. The themes themselves aren't particularly imaginative and none of them are very memorable, though they do at least function okay as far as tracks go. There are a few cool parts, like one of the town tracks that has the street blown out and you'll drive down onto the subway tracks, but these moments are few and far between. While most kart racers will have you race for the standard 3 laps, this game has you run 4 laps, which was likely a result of the tracks feeling too short. The characters look decent, sporting a cartoon look in sync with the rest of the game, but like the tracks none of them are particularly memorable except for the Grim Reaper. While Coffin Dodgers features an interesting story, the graphics and track designs lean more toward mediocrity than being good.

Coffin Dodgers is a budget kart racer, this will become evident quickly when you see the simple nature of the graphics. The characters and environments and made up of blocky polygons that look like something that could've been on the original Xbox. While the graphics are simple, the game has a cartoon-like style to it and the bright colors help complete the look. The characters themselves look decent enough, but the whole presentation comes down a bit in the audio department. The music feels like it could've come straight out of a Tim Burton movie and, while not bad and it does fit the theme of the game well, it felt like there was a lack of variety to the soundtrack as a whole. There's not much going on in the sound fx department, with just the sound of mobile scooters, a few odd collision sounds, weapon noises and ambient sounds of crickets chirping. The characters really could've used some dialogue to help add some personality, because the races tend to feel a bit quiet and uneventful.

No kart racer would be complete without weapon pickups on the track and of course Coffin Dodgers follows this trend. There's your standard boost powerup, an EMP that shocks and slows down anybody near you when activated, oil you can throw behind you to slip up opponents, a shield that blocks incoming projectiles, rockets that home in on targets and an uzi. Some of the powerups are more effective than others, but overall the pickups roster is decent but uninspired. Every character also has a default melee attack they can use at any point, allowing you to swing when close to an opponent Road Rash style. It'll take several hits, but you can eventually drop them if you land enough blows. You can also hold the attack button and charge it up, unleashing a super blow that will knock an enemy off their scooter in a single hit if landed. There's some mildly amusing ragdoll physics when the racers fall off their scooters

Between races, you can access an upgrade screen, which allows you to upgrade various aspects of your scooter. It's mostly the type of stuff you'd expect, like better handling, speed and acceleration but there's also upgrades for your melee attack, pickups and paint options. Each category can be upgraded 3 times and can be purchased using credits earned from racing. The first upgrade for the pickups allows you to carry 2 pickups, the second will let you swap between pickups and the third will lock the pickups, allowing you to keep them when hit where you'd normally lose them. The upgrade system is nice, but when the game is as easy as Coffin Dodgers these upgrades are far from necessary.

In addition to the story mode, the main menu offers a few additional modes. There's quick race where you can select a single track to race on, time trial and an open world option. The open world has 2 modes, explore which allows you to drive around the tracks at your leisure (not sure why you'd want to) and crazy granddad mode which tasks you to retrieve and deliver items within a given time. The open world modes were a nice gesture from the developers, but outside of getting the single achievement affiliated with crazy granddad mode I doubt anybody is going to spend much time in these modes. Coffin Dodgers offers up local split-screen multiplayer for 2-4 players. There are only 2 modes: explore and race. Playing with friends always helps the enjoyment factor on these types of games, but it's a bit of a bummer there's no online multiplayer support.

Now we get to the part of the review where I get to really delve into what I didn't like and Coffin Dodgers gives you a lot to talk about in the department. The gameplay is simple to a fault, even for a kart racer. You can simply hold down the accelerator the entire race since your mobility scooter turns sharp enough that you never have to let it go. This makes for a very boring racing game and it really could have done with a drift system at the very least. The weapons pickups are unbalanced since the EMT that shocks everybody in proximity is easily the best pickup while the uzi borders on being completely worthless (and seems to pop-up more frequently than other powerups). After starting a race in single player mode, you can't restart the race, so if you mess up the game forces you to finish that particular race or exit out to the menu. It's not a huge deal, but a big oversight from the developers and gives you a good idea how much testing/tuning didn't go into this game. Despite the game having 4 different themes for the tracks, the levels overall feel too similar and as a result none of them really stand out. The sound design could've helped add some excitement, but it's about as generic as it could be. At the main menu, it's easy to accidentally select new campaign instead of continue campaign and the game doesn't ask for confirmation, making it easy to erase your progress if you're not careful.

Coffin Dodgers is a budget kart racer that has a cool concept but is lacking in execution. The cons outweigh the pros and there's not much reason to play this game when there are better alternatives available in the same genre. Those looking for some easy achievements may get something out of this one, but even then I'd still recommend waiting for a sale due to how quick you'll be done with it.

Final Verdict: Coffin Dodgers is a budget kart racer with an interesting, quirky concept of old folks racing against the Grim Reaper to retain their souls, but the game is lacking in execution with uninspired track design and a lack of any challenge.

Related Links:
Buy Coffin Dodgers - Microsoft Store
Milky Tea Studios - Official Site
Wales Interactive Ltd. - Official Site
Coffin Dodgers - Metacritic
Coffin Dodgers - GameFAQs
Coffin Dodgers - True Achievements