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While still generally adhering to the formula of its predecessors, this installment at least opens better than its brethren
After playing quite a bit of these first four titles in the Garten of Banban series, I wasn’t quite sure how to collectively review them. Since they’re all essentially building off of the same engine, components, and characters and are all hitting the eShop together, it’s very hard not to lump them together quite a bit. Without the benefit of time and a break between each release, they feel more like a drop of multiple episodes to launch the new season of a series of some sort, so I’ve decided to cover their general composition first, and then follow up with specifics for each game in question at the end.Once a popular preschool for happy youngsters, an incident one day where everyone suddenly disappeared has turned what was once a facility filled with happiness and good feelings into a creepy shell of what it once was. Armed with your wits, whatever tools you may be able to find, and a handy drone, you’ll take it upon yourself to explore and try to get to the root of what happened, and hopefully try to save the day. Just beware, there are still some secrets lurking about and if you aren’t careful things can go badly in a heartbeat.After a much more hectic opening than the other games in the series, for a moment you could make the mistake of thinking perhaps the developers have figured out how to turn this ship around. Or maybe not. While I’ve been critical of the general lack of overall true lore in the games, aside from what you can extrapolate from bits and pieces, I think this installment’s decision to try to explain some things doesn’t quite go as planned. Spending time staring at huge shiny mascot characters that look like they were rendered 2 generations ago doesn’t entirely work out, though I suppose I applaud the effort to at least be trying. From that point on it’s mostly more of the same beats from the other games though, walking around, trying to understand the puzzles, fighting with the mechanics to solve the puzzles, and mostly being a bit bored by it all.
Justin Nation, Score:Bad [4.6]