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| Sonic the Hedgehog reached for the stars with this remake of Sonic Colors, earning a B+ grade and top honors as SPC's Featured Game of the Month! |
The month of September brought autumn to SuperPhillip Central as well as four new reviews published to the site. Let's dive into them like a pile of freshly fallen and newly raked leaves with the Review Round-Up!
We started the month of reviews early with an impressive, classic shoot-em-up known as DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX+, which blasted its way to a B- grade. Following that was another game receiving a satisfying B- grade, Kitaria Fables, though this was an adorable but grind-heavy action-RPG.
Wrapping up the month were two stellar titles. SPC's Featured Game of the Month was Sonic Colors: Ultimate, bringing back of the Blue Blur's best 3D outings and making it marginally better in some ways, worse in others. It got a B+. Finally, we blasted off in more ways than one with the high-octane rides of Cruis'n Blast, which got a solid B.
As you can see, it was a month of satisfying games, all within the B range for September! If you want to see something else, check out the SPC Review Archive for every review ever published on SuperPhillip Central. Let's wrap up with a link to each review and a concluding excerpt from each, as we is customary to do on the old Review Round-Up! See you near the beginning of next month, all!
DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX+ (NSW) - B-
DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX+ is another shoot-em-up to add to the pile of stellar games within the genre on the Nintendo Switch. There is a ton of content to be found for those who enjoy partaking in the genre, and plenty of challenge to be discovered as well. The limited field of view and screen real estate utilized for the Switch version is a bummer, but ultimately, DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX+'s mission to be an entertaining Switch home port of an older arcade game is a success.
At the end of my 20 hours with Kitaria Fables, I found myself having played some marathon sessions of over five hours at times. There's certainly a "let's do one more day" or "let's do one more quest" type feeling I got from this game. There is definitely no shortage of things to do to preoccupy yourself in Kitaria's whimsical world, whether that be monsters to slay, materials to craft, treasure chests to open, bosses to battle, dungeon-like areas to explore, and quests to complete. You'll be doing all of this with a hefty focus on grinding and backtracking, too, so if you're not of the right mind for an experience like this, you need not accept your invite to Paw Village. Sure, you'll probably be put on the Empire's bad side, but at least you won't have to do busywork--whether enjoyable (like it was for me) or not.
Sonic Colors: Ultimate (Multi) - B+
Sonic Colors: Ultimate takes a great 3D Sonic game from the Wii and makes it marginally better. Not so much better that it makes the Wii version obsolete by any stretch of the imagination--which I could see as a bit disappointing for many--but marginally all the same. With glorious new graphics, mostly lovely new remixes alongside the original musical themes, new additions like Rival Rush, Tails' rescues from bottomless pits, and unlockable cosmetics, Sonic Colors: Ultimate makes a great impression. I loved the Wii original in 2010, and in 2021, I enjoyed revisiting this wonderful Sonic game.
Cruis'n Blast was a game that as soon as I saw videos of it being played in arcades, I felt the urge and definite desire to play it. It has taken a few years of patience, but now that I got to experience the game on the Nintendo Switch thanks to this home console port, I am pleased to say that my patience indeed paid off. Cruis'n Blast is ridiculous and crazy in all the right ways. How can you not love speeding through tracks where you witness UFOs whiz by, blowing up a dam, all the while you drift into your opponent, causing them to crash in a burning blaze of glory!? I defy you to not love that! Despite lacking online, longevity, and track variety, Cruis'n Blast delivers an action-packed arcade racer that will most likely make you laugh and smile with how outrageous its racing scenarios can get and how fun the overall package truly is.
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| We also went cruisin' with Cruis'n Blast on the Nintendo Switch, which is very much a "must-play" arcade racer! |