The Best Game of June 2016

Honorable Mention #1: Kirby: Planet Robobot

Managing Editor Ed McGlone: Kirby games are built to do one thing really, really well: put a smile on your face. They aren’t ever particularly challenging to most video game players, even children usually, nor are they very unique or different from one another. Sure, Kirby: Planet Robobot lets you pilot a robot suit this time around, but it’s nothing that dramatically mixes up the formula. But just about every game, going back to Kirby Adventure for the NES, has been a blast to play just because it’s so damn fun being Kirby. Kirby is an un-vanquishable, overpowered, unstoppable force, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

The robot suit added this time around is just another new toy for Kirby to dominate his opponents with as it can weaponize the copied abilities, making them even more destructive than usual. At first, I was worried that this game would boil down to boring gimmicky levels that would force this new feature down our throats. Thankfully that’s not the case. Piloting the mech is just as fun as controlling regular Kirby, and traditional Kirby gameplay still makes up the vast majority of the Planet Robobot. HAL Laboratories has once again gone back to the Kirby well and returned with another excellent game.

Honorable Mention #2: Inside

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Assistant Editor Hayes Madsen: Inside is the kind of experience that sticks with you for quite a while after your finish the game. It isn’t a terribly long experience clocking in at roughly four hours, but that time is filled with mystery, horror and a wealth of smart puzzle solving. From the very beginning of Inside you can tell that something is not right in the game’s world, and that sense of unease and dread slowly builds across the entire experience. The gorgeous art style and dark tones of the game’s color scheme only help drive that feeling home.

The puzzles of Inside are simple as the game only has a couple different mechanics, but are surprisingly difficult in execution. They really make you slow down and figure out how one piece of the puzzle fits with everything else, or how each piece needs to work together. On top of everything, Inside has an incredible ending that you really don’t see coming. It’s something that keeps you thinking hours after the credits roll, and people will surely keep talking about it as more and more of them finish the game.

Honorable Mention #3: LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Senior Editor Ishmael Romero: It’s funny seeing the LEGO games as they come out each year, taking on a new property or returning to an old one. Everyone has come to know what to expect from TT Games as they employed those lovable minifigs to pull off impossible stunts ripped straight from our favorite movies. Yet TT Games sometimes proves they can do so much more than just the tried and true, and they showed just that with LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it released at the tail end of June.

At its core, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still another LEGO game, allowing players to break nearly everything in sight, solve puzzles by building, and use over 100 different characters from the Star Wars universe. But it also goes above and beyond by adding new mechanics and features. Multi-Builds add new depth to puzzles, forcing players to make choices and work with the other minifigs onscreen as a team. Blaster Battles throw some cover-based shooting into the mix, finally showing off why Han Solo is so cool. And then there’s the amazing dog fights that put you right into the cockpits of some of the most famous spacecraft ever seen. Want to take out a bunch of TIE Fighters in Poe Dameron’s X-Wing? Go right ahead. How about a spin in the Millennium Falcon? That can be done too, all across beautiful landscapes in the center of hectic battles.

What shines the most is that LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens serves as a vessel to build on the story that captivated audiences on the silver screen. Episode VII left fans with a lot of question, and this latest game actually fills in many of the gaps. It provides a glimpse before, after, and during the events of the movie that provides much greater insight into the growing lore, something fans would surely enjoy. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a true Star Wars game, and that’s most definitely a good thing.

June 2016’s Game of the Month: Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

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Senior Editor Zhiqing Wan:  For series fans, Zero Time Dilemma is a miracle of a game that almost didn’t get made. As for newcomers, this is the perfect time for you to jump in and see exactly what all the fuss is about.

Zero Time Dilemma is a direct sequel to Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, and follows the story of time-jumping heroes Sigma, Phi, and Akane as they attempt to stop the Radical-6 virus from breaking out of a Mars facility and dooming the entire human race. While some might be turned away from the series because of its visual novel and heavy reading aspects, Zero Time Dilemma proves to be just as well-written as its predecessors were. The game transitions seamlessly between tense logical debates about morphogenetic field theory to jokes about a character’s chest size and the glorious funyarinpa.

Complete with an overhauled UI that makes it easier for you to check which timeline you’re in, and well-designed puzzles, Zero Time Dilemma stands out as the most polished entry in Zero Escape series. As with the previous two titles in the series, it also tells a unique story that simply can’t be conveyed through any medium other than video games. While nothing will ever match the emotional impact of the harrowing final puzzle sequence in 999, Zero Time Dilemma ties up lots of loose ends and wraps up the trilogy neatly with a satisfying conclusion.

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That does it for our June 2016 Game of the Month. Congratulations to Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma! What were your favorite games this month? Let us know in the comments!