作者彙整: Kyle Hilliard

Rad is a rogue-like taking place in a world that has suffered two apocalypses thanks to mistakes made by The Ancients and additional follow-up mistakes by The Menders (who only made things worse). As a teenager growing up in the post-post-apocalypse, the burden falls on you to explore the procedurally generated wasteland and bring life back to the world. Sometimes it goes well, and you get all the best mutations to help you complete your mission. Sometimes you sprout useless wings, take damage from health items, you lose all your currency, and you wonder what you’re doing with your life.

Highs and lows like this are typical of the rogue-like genre, and in many ways Rad sticks close to the rogue script, but it does manage to set itself apart with its leveling mechanics. Combat takes place from an overhead perspective, with the action playing out as a cross between a melee action game and a twin-stick shooter. As you defeat enemies, you build up experience that eventually causes you to mutate. These Exo Mutations are all unique, and even after successful runs and plenty of hours, I still saw new ones. You might sprout a cobra head and be able to perform venomous long-distance strikes. You might gain a tail that lets you lay eggs that birth helpful spiders. The mutations change your appearance and your approach to combat, and you can earn three on a single playthrough, so the combinations go a long way in making each run feel different. I was always excited to see what mutation I was going to get, but some (like the wings mentioned above) are a sign that the current run is a lost cause, which is a bummer.

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Along with the Exo Mutations, you also find Endo Mutations, which offer significant passive boosts like imperviousness to fire, faster running speed, or one that makes your long-distance mutations (like a boomerang arm) fly farther. You don’t know what they will be until you activate them and they’re automatically equipped. Coming across these Endo Mutations is also exciting, but sometimes it doesn’t seem to take your loadout into account. Gaining the ability to throw long-distance attacks farther is great, but if your random mutations are all close-range, it feels like a waste.

You can also come across negative Endo Mutations, which is an interesting idea, but they’re all so damning that I learned to avoid them at all costs, even with the chance of getting something good. One I came across turned my screen orange making it harder to distinguish items and enemies and just generally made everything look bad. That mutation was active the first time I made it to the final boss, so I didn’t even get to see what it really looked like until I got there again on another run. When the negative outweighs the positive so heavily, it discourages you from rolling the dice at all.

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I like the look and sound of the world, but the layout can sometimes be frustrating, thanks to the procedural generation. Underground hallways filled with enemies sometimes turn into boring dead ends without rewards, and above ground, necessary switches might be difficult to find or reach. The later stages are particularly labyrinthian; I had one run where I killed every enemy and was just trying to find the exit while outrunning frequent lightning strikes, which eventually caught up with me and killed me. It just felt unfair. I never ran into game-breaking procedural generation, but the annoyances were enough to make me pine for hand-crafted levels.

One random element I enjoyed was the world-building. Occasionally, as you find new items or areas, a young woman’s voice narrates a random snippet describing what you found, giving you little factoids about what happened and who the various survivors you run into are. These little story moments are short and sweet and don’t interrupt gameplay, but they make the world of Rad feel like a real place with history.

The rogue-like is a difficult genre to nail as it relies on balancing challenging action and myriad random elements. The trick is making sure the frustration meter isn’t higher than the fun meter, and Rad generally walks that line well. I certainly had my attempts where I felt like the game was working against me, but when I had a good run with mutations that worked well with my playstyle, I enjoyed myself and was thoroughly proud of my accomplishments.

Score: 7.25

Summary: Frustrating lows and and exciting highs are typical of the rogue-like genre, and in many ways Rad sticks close to the rogue script, but it does manage to set itself apart with its leveling mechanics.

Concept: Explore a rogue-like post-post-apocalypse while earning game-changing mutations as you defeat enemies and explore

Graphics: The neon-drenched setting is an enticing, overgrown apocalypse obsessed with ‘80s arcade culture

Sound: The music all sounds like synthy ‘80s songs and it’s great. The infrequent voice announcing various achievements is charming without being obnoxious

Playability: The twin-stick and melee controls work well, though slowdown during rain makes dealing with lots of enemies unnecessarily difficult

Entertainment: Frustrations related to random abilities and level layout can be annoying, but the overall aesthetic is inviting. Successfully completing a run is always an exciting achievement

Replay: High

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Picross has quietly become a staple of Nintendo’s handheld platforms that is consistently fun, but rarely strays too far from its comfort zone. Lord of the Nazarick tries something new and changes up the formula, but only slightly, by partnering with the anime and novel property, Overlord, to deliver a picross experience that has a little bit of storytelling. The main draw still remains picross, though, even if the occasional cutscene appears.

Picross is a number-based, picture-drawing style of puzzle that has more in common with Sudoku than something like Tetris. Looking at a grid lined with numbers, you have to use logic to figure out which squares to fill in and which ones to mark with an X. After filling in all the appropriate squares you are left with a pixelated image. Tapping away at a grid to ultimately create a picture is always a rewarding finish line to a puzzle. This element of picross has mostly been the same since the puzzle’s inception, but Nazarick adds a few wrinkles, some welcome quality-of-life options, and a narrative.

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The story, which is the element that separates this picross from the games before it, is minor. The Overlord anime (and novels) follows Ainz, a player obsessed with an online video game called Yggdrasil. At the start of the story, Yggdrasil’s servers are shutting down, but Ainz stays online anyway, and he is transported to a new reality based on the game making him an ultra-powerful overlord in a fantasy world. The idea behind Lord of the Nazarick is Ainz is trying to restore documents (by solving picross puzzles) in order to figure out what has been going on in the world prior to his arrival. If you’re familiar with the source material, you get a chance to see conversations between Ainz and familiar characters, but newcomers will likely be confused about what is happening; it doesn’t do a very good job even setting up the base plot. The story elements end up being middling, but on the plus side, the character interactions are short, and I liked even having a small conceit for completing puzzles. Usually in picross you’re just handed a long list of puzzles and that’s it.

To see the full story you only need to complete the standard picross puzzles, but a number of optional additional puzzle types are available. Color Picross is a new type of puzzle that plays by picross’ normal rules, but adds color. Color Picross forces you to rethink your normal picross tactics and rewards you with a more interesting picture. I initially struggled with Color Picross, but came to enjoy it once I wrapped my head around it.

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Clip Picross isn’t new to Nazarick, but is a welcome addition. These puzzles are made of smaller picross puzzles that eventually come together to create one large picture, which is a lot of fun and always has been. Mega Picross puzzles, which change the way numbers are displayed on the grid, are also available, but they’re totally optional (and even somewhat hidden in the menu), which I am thankful for because I have never enjoyed this style of puzzle.

When it comes to solving any of the puzzles, you can now hold down the R button to help you count out squares. While this admittedly sounds like a small addition, it makes the whole process of solving puzzles more convenient and accurate and if it does not appear in future picross games, I will sorely miss it.

Combining picross with a relatively obscure anime (and not even using the anime’s name in the title) is a weird choice, but if you’re looking for more picross, you can’t go wrong here. The quality-of-life improvements are good, the Color Picross mode is fun, and having a little bit of story is a nice change of pace, even if the plot doesn’t have much to it.

Score: 7.5

Summary: Combining picross with a relatively obscure anime (and not even using the anime’s name in the title) is a weird choice, but if you’re looking for more picross, you can’t go wrong here.

Concept: Loosely tie a large collection of picross puzzles to the anime Overlord

Graphics: The art from the anime looks sharp as do the menus housing various picross puzzles, but nothing stands out as being visually exceptional or noteworthy

Sound: The quiet music, subtle sound effects, and lack of voice acting means playing this game on mute is a viable option

Playability: The typical, functional picross controls all exist here, but a new option to hold down the R button to help you count squares is incredibly helpful

Entertainment: Having even a little bit of story context for why you’re solving picross puzzles is nice, but the main draw here is more picross puzzles, Color Picross puzzles, and some added control options

Replay: Moderately high

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Stranger Things is a well-executed throwback to classic ‘80s nostalgia that follows a group of kids in a small town as they solve world-threatening mysteries and try to grow up at the same time. A 16-bit callback video game is well-suited to tap that same viewership vein. The aesthetic makes the game feel like it should have been released for the Super Nintendo, but the simple action gameplay holds it back from being a worthwhile companion to one of Netflix’s biggest hits.

In Stranger Things 3: The Game (which is confusingly the second Stranger Things game), you control the main cast from an isometric perspective to explore the town of Hawkins, Indiana, and beat up monsters and bad guys as you play through the events of the third season. The story beats are identical to those of the show, but the dialogue is truncated. Playing an adaptation like this is nostalgic in its own right, as direct video game adaptations of popular media are rare these days. I enjoyed that element, but it does nothing to expand the lore, dig deeper into the characters, or show interesting beats happening outside of the main story.

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The main missions are hampered by their need to hew close to the source material. They’re all fetch quests, or arbitrary moments where the characters proclaim it’s time to talk to Steve at Scoops Ahoy, or agree they should all meet at Mike’s basement. I felt I was moving around in a circle as I traveled point to point with simple puzzles and enemies serving as hurdles. A handful of sidequests exist, but they tasked me with doing boring things like killing rats in a basement, delivering pizza, or finding hidden gnomes and the payoffs were disappointing.

You play as two characters at all times, swapping between them whenever you want. You unlock additional characters every few missions, and each of the 12 has different abilities. Mike and Hopper are up-close brawlers, for example, while Will is a ranged fighter and Max’s special ability drops healing items. I enjoyed trying different combinations, but also appreciated that you can use whoever you want at any time, even if it doesn’t fit with the story. That freedom extends up to the end boss, when I was forced to use a pair of characters I had learned early weren’t for me.

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Despite having different strategic options available with various characters, the moment-to-moment combat is bland. Depending on your attack range, you just press the attack button a bunch and then move to the next enemy. When lots of enemies are on-screen you use your special ability, but that’s about it. I didn’t find blocking useful until the end boss, when it was forced upon me as a necessary mechanic. The geometry of the levels often made it harder to attack enemies than it should have been. I would get stuck on corners or they would be out of reach when they didn’t appear to be.

The upgrade system disappoints, only giving you five upgrade slots shared among the 12 characters. I switched characters often, so I didn’t like equipping upgrades that benefited single characters. I ended up using the ones that granted universal bonuses, like extra health or extra walking speed, which were consequently the most boring ones. You craft the various upgrades by finding items in the environment or buying them from shops and vending machines, but I always seemed to be short on items and money, despite destroying every breakable item in every location.

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No online multiplayer options are available, but local co-op exists. Playing with a friend is functional, but it splits the screen as opposed to letting both players control their character on a single screen. The scrunched screen makes it more chaotic, but having the option to play with a friend is always welcome, even if caveats exist.

As someone who enjoys Stranger Things, walking around a pixelated version of Hawkins’ familiar locations with characters from the show is enjoyable. Outside of the sightseeing, however, the game does little else to garner excitement. The combat doesn’t ask much of the player and the mission structure underwhelms. If you want to experience the events of Stranger Things’ third season, you’re better off sticking to the source material.

Score: 6

Summary: The combat doesn’t ask much of the player and the mission structure underwhelms. If you want to experience the events of Stranger Things’ third season, you’re better off sticking to the source material.

Concept: Take the plot and characters of the third season of Stranger Things and adapt it into a pixelated, old-school action game

Graphics: The pixel art characters and environments recall the 16-bit era in a fun way, but each character only has a few animations

Sound: Much like the show, the synthwave soundtrack sets the mood well, but the number of tracks is disappointingly small

Playability: The characters move slow (even with upgrades), combat is too simple to be interesting, and lining up attacks can sometimes be needlessly difficult

Entertainment: The video game adaptation of the popular show emulates the ’80s aesthetic well, but the action is boring and the missions rarely push you to do more than move from point A to point B

Replay: Low

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