Despite being hampered by Covid-19 development delays and the trials and tribulations associated with being the first Call of Duty title to launch onto 9th-generation hardware, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has established itself as one of the most beloved Call of Duty titles released in the last decade.
15 years ago, Ship of Heroes may have lived long enough to die with dignity, but in today's market, its chances of survival are slim to none.
While Call of Sentinels succeeds in being a more mechanically complex version of Vampriue Survivors, unfortunately, there is no market for such games. As a result, Call of Sentinels died within seconds of being released in August 2024.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is a decent attempt at making a modern bullet hell shooter. However, an overreliance on self-praise and dated portrayals of female characters reduces it to a case study of things to avoid doing if you wish to succeed.
Level Zero: Extraction is a nice attempt at unseating the king of the genre, but like all other pretenders before it, its attempts at unseating Escape from Tarkov will prove in vain.
How can Archor Games afford to release so many terrible asset flips onto Steam at $100 a title? I have no idea. Still, like the rest of their back catalogue, Multiplayer Shooters is a minimum-effort asset flip that is not worth playing.
Diplomacy is Not an Option is a near-perfect indie game for $15 or less; unfortunately, it retails for $24.99 in early access, and that price is set to increase before leaving Early Access.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is more of the same in the best way possible, and its release brings the West one step closer to full parity with Japan, with just one title left before full parity is achieved.
While Tomba never became the success that it could have been due to launching a few years too early for its complexity and a few years too late for its visuals, over a quarter of a century after its original launch in 1997, it still holds a special place in the heart of the millions of people who played the demo disk but were unable to find the game on the shelves (myself included!)