I'll keep it simple: it just hits a sweet spot of polish that I can't really fault it for anything. I don't think tann is doing anything new with Slice & Dice, but they are doing everything well. It feels like a gold standard when it comes to scale for a game like this. 20 randomly generated waves, 5 randomly generated heroes, and upgrades between each round. The combat is standard Dream Quest or Slay the Spire but the pacing is much faster straight from the get-go. Health is low, enemy damage is high, and typically you're looking at a potential dead unit every turn. The undo mechanic ties everything together with a neat bow, allowing for players to explore different chains of combat resolution. The freedom to view cause-and-effect allows the player to easily understand some of the more deep interactions and plan around them. The reroll feature is also nice; it makes me wish there was the option to shuffle-draw in more deckbuilders as a standard. There are similar mechanics in Children of Zodiarc that has been quite enjoyable.

It's an exceedingly simple gameplay loop that you have definitely seen before in many other games, but it is the valedictorian. When it comes to broad descriptions of "replay value" and "bang for your buck," you can't beat an offering like Slice & Dice. The sheer amount of content will keep anyone receptive to it engaged for hours. It will be considered a classic in a couple years.

A solid 7.5-8/10 in my book. I feel like it really removed all the issues I had with the previous game but there are some issues. The biggest issue I had is something that ruined my attachment to the story. The memory system is back but they tell a linear story though flashbacks instead of them being mostly self contained like the original but in this game I had a death scene ruined for me because I apparently didn’t find the glyphs in the right order. Scattering random bits of a story around the map in an open world game that has twists to it is just asking for it to be viewed incorrectly. An issue did persist from botw in my opinion and that’s the content bloat. People often praise this game for how much you can do but I have a hard time finding enjoyment out of a lot of it especially the new underground which feels very rushed. There aren’t really many glaring / game ruining negatives here for me and I do wonder where the series is going next but I do worry that the open world style of Zelda could get very stale

A very interesting and short sonic game in my opinion and I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It was very cathartic seeing mechanics from this game appear in sonic mania like the train chase sequence from sunset park being the end of sonics act 1 mirage saloon , the bubble mechanic in hydro city zone, and fang in the heavy magician boss fight. My biggest issue with this game is that while it had great ideas it doesn’t allow them to be utilized long enough to be memorable . I feel like if it had 3 more zones and was created with enough polish as a mainline classic game it would be timeless