1. Shadow Warrior - Playstation 4 - January 1
2. The Order: 1886 - Playstation 4 - January 2
3. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop - Wii - January 3
4. NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits - WiiWare - January 4
5. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd - Vita - January 5
6. Shadow the Hedgehog - Gamecube - January 9
7. Fairy Bloom Freeia - Steam - January 10
8. Petit Novel Series: Harvest December - 3DS - January 13
9. Gas Guzzlers Extreme - Steam - January 14
10. Muramasa: The Demon Blade - Wii - January 16
11. Project Zero 2: Wii Edition - Wii - January 19
12. Killzone: Liberation - PSP - January 20
13. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor - Wii - January 20
14. Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii - January 24
15. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love - Wii - January 25
16. Corpse Party - PSP - January 25
17. Freedom Planet - Wii U - January 25
18. Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space - Vita - January 25
19. Silent Hill: Homecoming - Xbox 360 - January 26
20. Life is Strange - Playstation 4 - January 28
21. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows - PSP - February 2
22. Megadimension Neptunia VII - Playstation 4 - February 12
23. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - February 13
24. Corpse Party: Blood Drive - Vita - February 17
25. If My Heart Had Wings - Steam - February 18
26. Missing: An Interactive Thriller - Steam - February 18
27. Her Story - Steam - February 18
28. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 3DS - February 26
29. Saints Row 2 - Steam - March 1
30. Saturday Morning RPG - Playstation 4 - March 3
31. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3DS - March 6
32. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Wii U - March 8
33. Pokken Tournament - Wii U - March 20
34. Moe Chronicle - Vita - March 22
35. Tom Clancey's The Division - Playstation 4 - March 23
36. Yoshi's New Island - 3DS - March 28
37. Alien Rage - Steam - April 1
38. Alien Breed: Impact - Steam - April 2Alien April continues for me with this gem of a shooter from Team 17, the guys who made the venerable Worms series. Alien Breed: Impact is the first part of a trilogy of top-down arcade style shooters that I got in a bundle who knows how long ago as "Alien Breed Trilogy." You can get it by itself for $10 from Steam, or you can get it along with its two sequels - Alien Breed 2: Assault and Alien Breed 3: Descent - for $23 as Alien Breed Trilogy.
For those of you who have played Alien Syndrome on the Wii, this was EXTREMELY reminiscent of that game, but it plays
much better than the Alien Syndrome reboot in my opinion. You play as Connor, a generic space marine-turned-chief engineer on a ship that's going somewhere for some reason. They don't really tell you why you were doing whatever it was that you were doing prior to the events of the game because about 10 seconds into the opening scene (all of which are done in a really great comic book style), your alcoholic pilot crashes the ship into some monolithic "ghost ship" that's just drifting through space.
This gentleman was probably the ship's pilot. #MakeEarthGreatAgain
So anyway, after your idiot pilot crashes your ship into some ancient, derelict dreadnought, killing like 90% of the crew, you go off to see what's what. Oh, and your character is a racist against synths. Cheers.
You explore the ship, trying to get systems restored when OH SHIT there are bug alien things trying to eat you. You start off with just a pistol (unlimited ammo) and an assault rifle (very not unlimited ammo), but the first few aliens you encounter are just stupid little ankle biters that you can kick to death with one hit. You start to see the giant bug-aliens that want to use their spiky alien mandibles to butter up your fleshy human pooper real good.
One thing I do want to note is that this game plays MUCH better with a gamepad. You can totally play it with a mouse and keyboard, and I'm sure that there are those who prefer that control scheme, but I found that an Xbox One controller worked far better for this game than a traditional PC control setup. The controls are about what you would expect from an arcade style shooter. It's almost a twin stick shooter in that you move with the left stick (obviously) and aim in a two dimensional circle with the right stick, using the right trigger to fire and the left trigger to use an item (medkit, grenade, etc.). You use the left and right bumpers to change the camera perspective. There's also a co-op feature, supported by both local and online mutliplayer, but I didn't play around with that.
This is not a complex game, nor is the story especially interesting until the end (in the last of the five chapters, there are some things that, if you pay attention, will make you say "Hmmm, why is that there?"). It's a whole bucket of alien-killing fun, though. You've got five weapons from which to choose - your pistol, an assault rifle, a shotgun, a laser rifle, and an ion gun. Oh, and a flamethrower, which is straight up sex. All of these weapons can be upgraded three times - one upgrade for fire rate, one upgrade for reload speed, and one upgrade for attack strength (which is the only one that I ever bothered spending credits on).
Now then...the flamethrower. Imagine, if you will, mixing the taste of your favorite food, the sound of a creek gently flowing over pebbles, and the sensation of vigorous fornication with your anime girl of choice, all blending into one euphoria. That euphoria is what you feel when you use the flamethrower in this game, ESPECIALLY after upgrading its firepower. It's just....bliss. Pure, unadulterated bliss.
So here's basically what it boils down to. Aliens, arcade shooters, co-op, and flamethrowers - if you like any of two of those things, then you need to get this game. Like, yesterday. It's really great, surprisingly so. It feels like one of those gems of a game that manages to use a low budget to hit the "sweet spot" of gameplay, atmosphere, and charm that no $100,000,000 AAA title could ever quite emulate.