Review Round-Up - June 2021

June 2021 saw a lot of great things for SuperPhillip Central--13 years online and our 1,000th review: Resident Evil Village!

What a month here at SuperPhillip Central for the month of June! It was a massive month on the site, as we celebrated our 13th anniversary, as well as the arrival of SPC's 1,000th review! While we're on the subject of reviews, let's take a look at all seven of the reviews published on the site for the month of June with the good, ol' Review Round-Up!

The month started out mellow enough with a wonderful photo expedition starring hundreds of cute, adorable, and amazing Pokémon in New Pokémon Snap, which earned a B+. Also earning a B+ but a decidedly less mellow experience was that of the Donkey Kong Country-inspired Kaze and the Wild Masks. From safaris and platforming escapades, we then took the ocean waves with King of Seas, which rocked the proverbial boat a little too much, getting a C- for its excessive grind and repetitive content. Another indie title quickly followed, Piczle Cells, and this short but sweet puzzler impressed, getting a C+.

What came after was what the review SPC has been teasing and hyping for months now, and it finally arrived--the 1,000th review! Resident Evil Village took the honor, and it wowed (and scared with its quality) with a stellar A grade. From there, we wrapped up the month with two platformers, one retro remake with Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World (which got a B-) and the Super Meat Boy-esque Super Magbot, which was quite the attractive game, getting a B.

Finally, for your convenience, check out all seven of the reviews, with links and excerpts, below. And don't forget to check out the SPC Review Archive for every review--all 1,000+ of them--ever published and posted to SuperPhillip Central!

New Pokémon Snap (NSW) - B+

With 10-15 hours of playtime to complete the initial campaign, and dozens of hours more to snap every Pokémon, fully explore every area, and earn every title (achievement-like challenges), New Pokémon Snap is very much worth its price tag. It won't enthuse every player out there, but if you're the type who loves Pokémon, the idea of seeing them in natural surroundings, and taking pictures of some Pocket Monsters, then I certainly recommend that you snap up New Pokémon Snap.

Kaze and the Wild Masks (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) - B+

Looking for an entertaining but relatively short 2D platformer that invokes wonderful DKC-style gameplay while adding a few interesting twists of its own? Then, Kaze and the Wild Masks is indeed worthy of your time. It's challenging, it's gorgeous to look at, and it's packed to the brim with exceedingly well done designs in both levels and boss battles. I waited quite a while for the retail release of the game to arrive, but fortunately and blessedly so, my wait was most definitely worth it.

King of Seas (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) - C-

Between the groan-worthy grind that is the campaign and utterly uninspired side quests, and tons of time wasted within its slow sailing, lack of fast travel, and punishing deaths, King of Seas is a lot of floundered potential. The base of the game is inspired with regard to controlling your ship and presents some excellent ideas, but the game's economy, glacial sailing speed, and campaign woes all lead to a game that capsizes not too long after the adventure starts to unfold.

Piczle Cells (NSW) - C+

As a puzzle game, Piczle Cells will put your brain through the wringer, giving you 100 brain busters of cell sliding, combining, and solving to enjoy. The core concept and gameplay mechanic is structurally sound, but once these 100 puzzles have been completed, there's not much else to keep you returning to the game. While puzzles have multiple solutions, there's really no incentive to find new ways to solve them, unless you really, REALLY are loving the game. The appearance of that aforementioned touch screen control-related bug made that control option less than functional, so go into the game thinking you'll be using analog exclusively (unless you have more patience for bugs than I) and you'll be fine. At any rate and even with these issues, Piczle Cells is hardly a puzzle game that I would call a tough cell--er, sell! In fact, I recommend it.

Resident Evil Village (PS5, PS4, XBS, XB1, PC) - A

[Village is] an almost perfect combination of action and survival horror elements, taking the best from past Resident Evil games, most notably Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 7. Between the astounding assortment of villains in Village--some of the series' absolute best and most memorable--the wide range of awesome moments that stun and delight to the point that you'll want to replay them many times over, and a combo of gameplay and level design that stand head and shoulders above other modern games, Resident Evil Village reigns as one of the best installments of the series to date. One heck of an accomplishment, for sure, and one treasure of a game--one that the Duke would most certainly buy for a high price.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World (NSW, PS4, PC) - B-

Compared to previous remakes of Wonder Boy/Monster World series games, Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World feels a bit too simplistic for its $40 price tag. Yes, the visual style is lovely to look at, and the increased personality in Asha's animations--whether she's sliding like a figure skater on ice, or shaking her can as she prepares to open a treasure chest--is also pleasant to see. However, by a gameplay and game length standpoint, Asha in Monster World isn't the strongest experience. Again, the gameplay is rather simple, and the length is quite short. These aspects notwithstanding, there is a lot to like about this remake of Monster World IV (especially if you get the physical version as--at least the Switch port received the original game on the cartridge), and now a new generation of players can join Asha on her fun-filled adventure.

Super Magbot (NSW, PC) - B

Despite being a game that did once again reveal that I'm not the mellowest platformer player out there, after personally witnessing moments of gnashing my teeth together, cursing to the heavens, and having my blood pressure noticeably rise at times, Super Magbot was an overall fun and enjoyable platformer. If you crave an almost Super Meat Boy-like challenge from your platformers, then you'll most definitely discover something great to enjoy from Super Magbot. For everyone else, you may find yourself "repelled" from the level of challenge on display in this game.

Meanwhile, a vastly different game tonally, SPC started this momentous month for the site
with a review of the cozy and quaint New Pokémon Snap!

Piczle Cells (NSW) Rapid Review

Do you like puzzle games? Do you own a Nintendo Switch? Do you have an interest in puzzles games on the Nintendo Switch that launch today on the eShop? Then, you may just be interested in the next game in the Piczle series published by Rainy Frog: Piczle Cells. How does this cell-based puzzler stack up? Pretty darn well, especially for its $4.99 price tag. Let's check out the game together with the SPC review.

Adequate and Affordable Cellular Service

Puzzle games are plentiful on the Nintendo Switch, and now arrives the combo of developer Score Studios and publisher Rainy Frog's latest installment in their Piczle series of puzzlers: Piczle Cells, to add to the hybrid console's library. Simple enough to learn, though possessing a somewhat sizable learning curve to become comfortable with its gameplay and main mechanic, Piczle Cells winds up being a solid puzzle game overall.

The concept of Piczle Cells revolves around the titular cells that you slide across an 8x6 board. The end goal of each level is to finish it so only one cell remains. That's of course easier said than done, as different cells are different colors, and react uniquely when pushed together. Green cells are the smallest, then there's blue, yellow, and ultimately green. When single cells of the same color are pushed together, they absorb one another, creating a mass of two cells that can no longer be slid around. It's only until a third cell of the same color gets pushed into this mass that a new cell color is formed, allowing it to be pushed around yet again. Three green cells pushed together create a blue cell, three blue cells pushed together create a yellow cell, and three yellow cells create a green cell. 

Learning the basics with the initial batch of 20 puzzles in Piczle Cells gave me more trouble than any others.

When cells of different colors slide into one another, the cell that gets slid into basically serves as a wall, stopping the slid cell from moving anymore. Otherwise, a cell will slide from one side of the board and appear on the other until it returns to the spot where it was originally slid. In other words, if you slid a cell to the right without a cell to block it from moving anymore, the slid cell would slide past the right edge of the board and reappear on the left before coming to a spot on its original position. You can probably guess that using different colored cells to stop the movement of other cells you slide is required to solve many of the puzzles in Piczle Cells. In fact, pretty much every puzzle requires this, in addition to crossing over the edge of the board to appear on the other side. 

Each batch of 20 puzzles begins with a visual tutorial of the batch's central mechanic,
whether it be walls or exploding cells.

As you can imagine, the basic building blocks of Piczle Cells are quickly iterated on, adding new mechanics and tricks to keep things interesting. The game contains 100 puzzles, and each new batch of 20--these 20 can be played in any order, and you only need to complete just over half a batch to unlock the next--introduces a new gameplay concept to make for a fly in the proverbial ointment. Once you think you've mastered the game, the developers toss in something to shake things up considerably. This can be walls that serve as obstacles to block cells from being combined easily, special cells that change places with whatever cell is slid into them, and conveyor belts that move cells along a specific path. 

Understandably, new concepts and mechanics are introduced to keep each new puzzle batch interesting.
This batch introduces these big, red cells that explode upon impact with another cell.

Funnily enough, I struggled most with getting the basics of the game down. The beginning batch of 20 puzzles was the one that I spent the most time on, as there were no real gimmicks like walls to make puzzles easier. Once I learned how cells interacted (and pausing the game shows miniature "equations" that serve as a helpful reminder until you get it down pat), I was sliding and combining cells like a pro. No doubt later puzzles eventually perplexed at times, but nothing compared to the near 20 minutes of bewilderment that early puzzles presented to me.

Piczle Cells supports both analog and touch screen controls. The latter, however, has one issue with it that I noticed appear rather often for the short time I played with touch controls. While the controls themselves read fine, with me sliding my finger to send cells flying left, right, up, or down, there would be occasions where the game would see itself combining cells out of essentially thin air after a touch input on a cell on an adjacent square from yours truly. It would make puzzles unsolvable. That said, the ability to take back as many turns as you like or simply restart a puzzle by holding down the ZL button makes for these issues to be easily digestible instead of overly frustrating. 

Still, this particular bug occurred more times than I cared to see in my brief time using touch controls, so I eventually opted for analog input instead. The button controls feel natural and nice as well. You can use the analog stick or the D-Pad of the Switch to move the cursor while the four Switch controller face buttons serve as the four directions you can slide a cell. If you are left-handed, you can alternate the D-Pad's functions for the face buttons, using the latter to move the cursor and the D-Pad/analog stick to slide cells.

If you get bored with the standard purple board and background, "orange" you glad you can change the color yourself?

Piczle Cells has a pleasant enough look to it. The cells are cute and reminded me similarly of Dr. Mario's viruses, only cuter and less angry. The game allows you to change the background and color of the board to one of six different colors, so if purple grates on you at any time, you can just swap to say, pink, black, or blue, for example. What won't grate is the chill music, offering a nice, relaxed, laidback vibe. Less impressive in a technological sense is the opening video, but even then, there was a charming feel to it regardless.

As a puzzle game, Piczle Cells will put your brain through the wringer, giving you 100 brain busters of cell sliding, combining, and solving to enjoy. The core concept and gameplay mechanic is structurally sound, but once these 100 puzzles have been completed, there's not much else to keep you returning to the game. While puzzles have multiple solutions, there's really no incentive to find new ways to solve them, unless you really, REALLY are loving the game. The appearance of that aforementioned touch screen control-related bug made that control option less than functional, so go into the game thinking you'll be using analog exclusively (unless you have more patience for bugs than I) and you'll be fine. At any rate and even with these issues, Piczle Cells is hardly a puzzle game that I would call a tough cell--er, sell! In fact, I recommend it.

[SPC Says: C+]

A code was received by SPC from the publisher for the purpose of writing this review.