Detective Pikachu Returns, Assassin's Creed Mirage and more Fall games reviewed

Assassin's Creed Mirage and Detective Pikachu Returns both come out this week. Wildly different as the two games are, they're both reviving classic designs from their respective companies, Ubisoft and Nintendo.

The early Fall has already brought a veritable cornucopia of quality games as well, from indie puzzlers like Cocoon and Chants of Sennaar, to stand-out expansions to Cyberpunk 2077 and Resident Evil 4. NPR staff and contributors reviewed the headlining games from the season so far.

Detective Pikachu Returns

As I prepared to play the review copy of Detective Pikachu Returns, I couldn't help but wonder: after the success of the 2019 Detective Pikachu movie, would this even be the same game I remembered? The answer to that mystery is, yes — decidedly so.

Just like the later movie, the 2016 3DS game starred the gumshoe duo of Tim Goodman and his Pikachu, who he can understand and who speaks in full sentences. As they solve mysterious happenings in Ryme city, they'll also try to find Tim's missing dad, Pikachu's original partner (sorry movie fans, no Ryan Reynolds this time!).

Detective Pikachu Returns begins by reintroducing you to a now college-aged Tim and catching you up on events from the previous game. From incident one, Tim and Pikachu continue to solve mysteries with the unique approach of Tim handling human interviews, while Pikachu interrogates the Pokémon.

The new game brings fresh tools to crack your cases. You can use the powers of other Pokémon you meet in your investigation. For example, you can use Growlithe's powerful nose to pick up a scent, or use Luxray to see through walls. The one thing these skills don't help, however, is the slow storytelling.

I'm no stranger to these kinds of games. I'm an extreme fan of the Ace Attorney series, so I'm aware of how wordy the genre can get, but the pacing felt lethargic for such simple dialogue, especially in fully voiced scenes. In addition to the verbosity, the game uses (mostly) fixed camera angles, which don't help you properly explore to find clues.

All in all, I still found that the game matched the charm of its predecessor, even if it lacks the verve of the movie. Detective Pikachu Return's characters and interactions are fun enough to entice Pokémon fans, younger players and newcomers to the sleuthing genre.

— Tre Watson, Audio Engineer

Assassin's Creed Mirage

I haven't been the biggest fan of the last few Assassin's Creed titles. Ever since the series took on a more open-world, RPG-esque persona, I haven't made it very far into the games. Assassin's Creed Mirage, however, promises to