The Best Games of June 2018

The Best Games of June 2018

Honorable Mention: Sushi Striker

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Senior Editor Hayes Madsen: Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido is a game that could only come from Nintendo, the same company that gave us squid kids that shoot ink at each other. In Sushi Striker, you play as a young orphan named Mushasi, who lost his/her parents in the great war fought over the world’s supply of sushi. After meeting a Sushi Sprite named Jinrai, you engage in puzzle-style battles that have you linking different colored plates of sushi together to throw at your enemies.

The most surprising thing about Sushi Striker is just how deep and engaging it actually is. There’s a good amount of strategy involved with combat, as you can build a team of three Sushi Sprites who each have different skills and types of sushi. On top of that, you can use equipment that changes the speed of your sushi lanes, and level up to increase your stats. Sushi Striker’s story is utterly ridiculous but it’s all good fun, highlighted by quality anime cutscenes that really flesh out the characters. It’s not every day that you see a game as unique as Sushi Striker, and it already seems like it’ll go down as another Nintendo classic.

The Best Games of June 2018

Honorable Mention: Onrush

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Assistant Editor Tom Hopkins:  Tom is out this week on vacation! But here’s a snippet of his review of Onrush. He was clearly a big fan: “Since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One released in 2013, the gaming world has been pretty devoid of arcade racers, instead opting for open-world or simulation experiences. The likes of Motorstorm, Disney’s Pure, and the criminally underplayed Blur have disappeared recently, but Onrush’s blend of classic arcade racing, stunning visuals, and online team-based shooter ideas make it unique enough to stand out even against the competition of old. It’s an unconventional idea, but it’s the most fun you’re likely to have with a racing game this generation.”

The Best Games of June 2018

Honorable Mention: Vampyr

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Features Editor Alex Gibson: Dontnod Entertainment’s Vampyr has been one of the big surprise packages of the year so far. This blood-sucking tale of death and disease set in a bleak 1918 London couldn’t possibly have been a bigger departure from the developer’s most recent forte if it tried. But what a great success Vampyr turned out to be.

We absolutely loved how Dontnod drew on its narrative experience to produce an RPG in which player actions make a tangible impact on both the story and the environment. Every NPC had their place in the world and an interesting story to tell, and each decision as to whether to indulge or harvest them for XP presented a tough moral choice to player in a way not many RPGs have ever experimented with before.

Vampyr’s distinctly AA polish and simplistic combat mean that there isn’t the same level of presentation and depth of gameplay as other projects from bigger studios, but it makes up for that with its unique emphasis on dialogue, fascinating setting, and superb atmosphere. Ultimately, Vampyr doesn’t quite top our game of the month for June, but it’s absolutely one that you should have on your radar.

Game of the Month for June 2018: Mario Tennis Aces

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Editor in Chief Ed McGlone: Despite wanting to throw my Joy-cons out the window on a number of occasions (I’m looking at you Blooper), Mario Tennis Aces by and large is a blast throughout. Most importantly, it’s a well constructed games with a wide variety of characters, game modes, and control schemes to choose from. There’s a sizable enough (for a Tennis game anyway) campaign to play through in Adventure Mode, addictive competitively online monthly tournaments with participation prizes, and plenty of ways to play offline with friends.

That last one is where Mario Tennis Aces truly shines. It is best played with others, and provided you don’t hate tennis, I find it hard to believe that a group of friends playing together won’t end up looking like a commercial for the game. You can play singles or doubles, play with the new features such as crazy Special Shots that use an energy bar, or just play a classic simplified version, or even opt for motion controls if you want.

There’s so many ways to enjoy Mario Tennis Aces, and that makes it easy to recommend to anyone that has a Nintendo Switch.

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That does it for our June 2018 Game of the Month. Congratulations to Mario Tennis Aces! What do you think were the best games from last month? Let us know in the comments.