Slice, Dice & Rice (PS4)

Slice, Dice & Rice (by Dojo Games) is a gimmick fighter in the vein of games like 'Dive Kick' and 'Bushido Blade'. It takes the rock, paper, scissors formula in regards to trumping one's attacks or Bushido Blade's opening focus and wound system while utilizing a four button controller layout with 3 melee attacks (horizontal, vertical, heavy) & a parry along with dash options, aerial attacks & cancels to do so with. The fights last up to several rounds depending on the mode being played with each round being a potential insta-kill depending on the attack landed. There are fatalities done through a heavy attack no matter what round you might be on as well as splashy blood effects. The graphics are cell shaded, and the stages layered. It has an ancient Japanese folklore appearance, and a traditional instrumental soundtrack with a variety of different fighters included that each move, and attack differently according to fighting style & weapon type. The 'Dojo' mode which takes the place of a practice mode allows for learning the characters attacks on a basic level while the Story mode allows for a ladder style series of matches against select characters with story elements embedded.

Project Xenon Valkyrie+ (PS4)

Diabolical Mind and COWCAT Games take a tried and true indie platforming formula, jazz it up with impressive pixel art, and seal the deal with challenging gameplay that isn't off putting, but actually fun. The game comes complete with a light sprinkle of established lore about evil from the dark side of the moon encroaching on a civilization's turf with the intention of destroying all that is good. Past the hieroglyphics inspired telling of the world's looming disaster you are plunged beyond the animated display that is the story's prologue into a hub world with a crashed ship housing three could be heroes and heroines as well as a portal leading deeper into the alien world, and a shop of godlike gear to help you slay the evil that awaits you further into the game. There are no tutorials given beyond the set plot, and only through clicking the button prompts in front of NPC characters and items are you able to figure out a little more about the world, objectives, and features that will aid you as you go along from portal to portal facing a host of various alien creatures in a variety of different stages. Thankfully nothing in the game is overly complicated, and if you've ever played a game like Mega Man or any other Metroidvania you will be able to pick up on things rather easily.

PlayStation's Lack of Moderation

Tonight, while playing on the PSN I was given a code of conduct breach notice for reporting players for network manipulation, modding, and potential hacking. All of which I 100% sent in as legitimate claims, and concerns. On average, when playing certain competitive online games, I report upwards of 30 players a session. I don't pull the accusations out of my ass as Sony's PlayStation moderators would have you believe, but base my claims on multiple signs that tie-in with a players' PSN profile and their actions in-game. No claim is given without merit. Upon reporting these players, an average acknowledged and processed report takes 1 to 5 minutes each. Nowhere near the time needed to properly investigate a player. In the world of PSN online gaming there are proven cases of hacking, modding, and lagswitching. Under Sony's/PlayStation's supervision most of this goes noticeably unchecked due to their poor selection of reporting options that DO NOT include options for connection tampering, modding, or hacking. I have to report the activity as "illegal" as the things I are reporting are illegal, and have to forego the lack of report options by using an option that does not directly cover the threats at hand, but offers a report form where I can type in what I suspect the player is doing.

The Aquatic Adventures of the Last Human (PS4)

Nowadays climate change is an unavoidable topic of discussion. Whether you're online on social media, or offline having a conversation with family and friends somebody will bring up their side of the argument. Personally I'm a climate change denier. I feel there's a more sinister cause behind the change in weather, and that while it does deal with humankind's interference I think it's more controlled than one might think, and purposefully so. Enter Brad's conspiracy theory of storm seeding. A deep seeded theory for a different time, and place ...

At the end of the day everybody including myself likes to throw their two cents worth in on the subject, and while the topic of climate change is interesting enough to entertain it all boils down to a lot of assumptions, and uncertainty. We just don't know for sure. The developers of this particular game take that very notion into account in an extreme yet not so far fetched way themselves. While there is little story handed to the player in "The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human" at the start the plot is hinted at continuously through a time referenced cinematic intro, and holo-deck recordings of a textual nature that allow the climatic demise of the human species to unfold in stride via a ambient Metroidvania experience.

When the game opens up we, the gamer, see a ship fly from Earth towards a wormhole during the Earth's future. The launch date into said void is 2971 AD to be exact. A time when Earth was flooded and frozen over due to the escalation of weather events, and it's surviving populous made to live in underwater cities as a last resort. The pilot enters the wormhole in search of a new place to live, but returns thousands of years later to a future Earth where humans were made extinct by their continued tampering of nature's creations. Seems they didn't learn their lesson the first time around, and thus the pilot of this story is left to find that out the hard way. Crash landing on the frozen watery planet the pilot dives deeper, and deeper ultimately discovering that he is the only human left, and that what lurks in the depths might just wipe out himself along with all of humanity's historical achievements.

Tiny Metal (PS4)

Area35 & Unties' "Tiny Metal" is a cutesy military grade SRPG made possible by a controversial kickstarter campaign. It is a turn based tactical RPG supposedly not originally planned by the developer. A turn based tactical gaming experience in which you command, control, and conquer with various military units on a tiled map that has special terrain and capture points made available. You basically fight enemy units as one of the game's warring factions while capturing points to spawn new units, heal, and bank METAL coins for spawning the new units. The inclusive gameplay also uses special terrain to add in other tactical/strategic options such as height and cover advantage. Tiny Metal currently includes two modes of play including a story driven 'Campaign', and a 'Skirmish' mode outside of that. It says it has a multiplayer coming soon as well, but that has yet to be implemented as of the posting of this review.

The game's campaign story which is the core focus of the game involves the warring America-like Artemisia, the Japan-like Zipang, and some suspicious mercenaries for hire who are all involved in an ongoing war resulting from the aftermath of a Great Global War. A great war that left in it's wake an electronic corrupting miasma which rendered electronics useless. There is betrayal, suspicion, and misunderstanding involved between the two included warring nations as the stakes of the fight continue to escalate. It is through key characters such as Nathan Gries of Artemisia that the plot unfolds in a point-by-point series of battles that get progressively harder, and progressively more inclusive when it comes to features and mechanics. The art style within this inspired plot setting is kind of anime in nature as one might expect from a Japanese developer, and includes multiple language/audio options for both English and Japanese gamers.