Pokemon snap for the enlightened.

Alba is a charming and quaint love letter to nature and family that had me smiling from ear to ear very often. I like that it is a short game that makes you feel at home on the island without feeling restricted by it. The setting is this game's selling point. It's a vivacious island with tons of cool sights and inhabitants. It definitely scratched my Short Hike itch in that way, but this game brings a lot to the table in its own right. The characters are very charming as I would easily enlist in both world wars for Alba's Grandfather. Taking photos of all the different wildlife is super neat and never got old. I wish there were more non-birds, and it'd be cool if they had more quests where you lured animals out like the fox. But for what it is, it's fun and its a great tool for the player to interact with the island. The music is also very enhancing, and I loved the moments they wove together with fun tunes.

An okay shooter with colorful maps and quirky enemies, heavily mimics the new DOOM games but doesn't quite reach the same heights. Most of the levels followed the same formula of bouncing back and forth between small platforming sections and enemy arenas rather than letting you explore more open areas. The constant mayhem in the arena gunfights was fun at first but goddamn did they get tedious after a while. There was quite a bit of emphasis on environmental hazards and "Chi-Blast" powers but that stuff rarely came in to play with the core combat loop which was odd to say the least. The gameplay just kind of felt slightly off during the fights which is a pretty big detriment to a fast-paced game like this. Weapon arsenal was not the greatest either save for the katana (which should have been utilized more in general).

I hadn't played the previous Shadow Warrior titles so neither the story nor the supporting characters really interested me. I was fairly lukewarm on Lo Wang as the protagonist. I expected a bit more "Duke Nukem meets Big Trouble in Little China" out of the narrative - and there definitely was some of that in this - but the game stepped a little too far into the Borderlands and Guardians of the Galaxy territory for my taste. Overall not bad though, unlike many others I was perfectly fine with the game's shorter length and it was a decent enough FPS experience despite my gripes with it.