PixlBit

Metal Slug and Metroid had a baby.

As I’m coming to realize, I have a weakness for games classified as Metroidvanias. Between the layered progression and backtracking and the feeling of getting progressively more powerful, with some great boss fights sprinkled throughout, there’s always something to help continuously pull me through these experiences. Omega Strike, clocking in at five hours, is no exception to this rule and is further bolstered by its clear Metal Slug influence.

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How to make an OlliOlli: Take Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, make it 2D, remove the vert tricks, and put all the trick controls on the analog stick. Voila!

It's hard to say "skateboarding" and "video game" in the same sentence and not evoke immediate thoughts of the now classic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (THPS) series. Those games redefined the genre and brought social relevance to the counter-culture sport. Given that the craze for these games is over, OlliOlli has rolled through the door in an attempt to rekindle our love of the extreme sport with a new take on it. Rather than the vert-centric experience of Tony Hawk, OlliOlli is a pure street skating game, and a 2D side-scrolling one at that. Though clearly influenced by THPS, it goes about things in its own way. Unfortunately, Roll7's unique take on the sport doesn't ascend to the heights that The Birdman did in the '90s.

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A cheerful cooking simulator that offers a more genuine experience than similar titles.

It’s easy to write off Order Up as nothing more than the latest piece of shovelware or shallow entertainment experience for the casuals. The truth is, Order Up has a lot more depth than one might think. It provides a quality, yet simple play experience that is an enjoyable and relaxing escape between more thought intensive titles.  In the world of Cooking Mamas and other point-and-click cooking adventures, Order Up gives fans of these games a fast-paced, tactile experience that is deep enough to prevent monotony, yet simple enough to be accessible to everyone.

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You Shall Not Pass!

You would think that by my thousandth dead orc I would have stopped grinning when a horde of them walked into my carefully constructed labyrinth, setting off a chain of traps that resulted in their own glorious deaths by piercing, dismemberment, crushing, burning or all of the above. But then you haven’t played Orcs Must Die! yet. Created by Robot Entertainment, Orcs Must Die! is a light hearted third-person take on the classic tower defense genre that in addition to placing various traps and obstacles against an overwhelming orc horde you can also engage them with melee, ranged, and magical attacks.

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Believe it or not, a technologically inferior system can still host a good sequel to Okami. If you don't mind the copy-and-paste feel.

I am just going to say this right now: don’t ever expect Okamiden to outdo its predecessor. The original, directed by Hideki Kamiya and developed by the beloved Clover Studio, was a fantastic take on mixing Zelda gameplay elements and Japanese mythology. While many wanted a sequel (myself included), Capcom closed up Clover and the staff behind Okami left to form Platinum Games. Now we have a sequel in our hands, Kamiya-less and developed by a completely different team, on an inferior piece of hardware too.

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