Marvel’s Women of Power (PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox One, 360, PC, iOS)
Girl Power is taking over pinball! A bevvy of Marvel’s superheroines have teamed up to bring you two new action packed pinball tables for play on Zen Studios’ pinball platforms: Pinball FX2 and Zen Pinball 2. They’re available on nearly all current game consoles and computers, but reviewed on PS3 here.
Storm King’s Thunder (D&D RPG)
This year, Dungeons and Dragons is all about the giants. The various types of giants (fire, hill, cloud, etc…) have gone to war with each other to determine the best kind of giant. Since the release of of 5th edition, Wizards of the Coast has picked an overarching storyline and theme for the year’s releases. This year focuses on a disruption of the natural order of giant seniority, and the infighting between the giant types to get higher in the pecking order. Player characters get caught up in the political intrigue and can even steer the outcome in one way or another before the tale’s final denouement.
Jotun: Valhalla Edition (Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Thora is a big, burly, tough as nails female Viking warrior. Unfortunately for her, her boat sank and instead of going to Valhalla, she ends up in Norse purgatory and must fight her way through collecting runes and battling huge bosses to impress the gods. Jotun: Valhalla Edition is a downloadable top-down viewed action game featuring hand-drawn graphics and animation. It’s available for nearly all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on Wii U here.
Noitu Love Devolution (Wii U, 3DS, PC)
One of the things I like about reviewing games is learning about certain series that I would’ve never had heard of before. This is a good example. Noitu Love was a computer game released in the mid-2000’s, and Devolution is the sequel. It was actually released a good while back on PC, too, but now you can play it with touch screen controls on the Wii U and 3DS (Wii U version reviewed here). It’s a 2-D action game that has a lot in common with 16 and 32-bit Treasure titles.
Poncho (Wii U)
Buildings are burning and the world has ended. Kind of a dark way to start out a game where you play as a happy little toaster-like robot wearing a poncho. In the game you play as Poncho, who must explore a 2-D 16-bit styled world filled with other robots wandering around not knowing what to do. Your task is to find an item left by your creator which will supposedly save humanity somehow. The game is available to download on the Nintendo Wii U eShop.
Pac-Man Pop! (iOS, Android)
So what happens when you combine my all-time favorite video game (Pac-Man), with one of my favorite puzzle game series (Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble). You get Pac-Man Pop! It’s a new free-to-play puzzler downloadable on iOS and Android devices (reviewed on iPad here). So you know I had to check it out!
Axiom Verge (Wii U, PS4, Vita, Xbox One, PC)
So Federation Force may not have been the Metroid game that fans wanted, but luckily you can get your 2-D Metroid-style game fix in with Axiom Verge. In the game you play as Trace, a scientist who gets caught in an explosion in a lab in New Mexico. But instead of dying or winding up in a hospital, you are transported to an alien world, and it’s up to you to survive, explore, and find out how you got there in the first place. Axiom Verge is a 2-D platforming 16-bit style game very similar to Super Metroid on the SNES. It’s available for download on nearly all current consoles, but reviewed on Wii U here.
Woody: Endless Summer (iOS, Android)
Solitairica (iOS, PC)
Picross 3D: Round 2 (3DS)
You may know HAL Laboratory best for their excellent Smash Bros. and Kirby series, but they’re no slouch when it comes to puzzle games either. They made the downloadable 3DS BoxBoy games, the original Picross 3D on the DS, and old fart gamers like me may remember the NES Adventures of Lolo series, all done by HAL. And now they’ve done it again with Picross 3D: Round 2, downloadable on the 3DS.



