2024 so far has been challenging in the industry. This is a good time to take stock of last year's performance to gauge demand-side conditions and what direction consumer spending is going in the UK when it comes to full games (games that are paid for upfront).
Despite uneven storytelling and design flaws, Toriyama's magical Sand Land is plenty amusing, a Shounen adventure not reliant on complexity.
VGChartz's Lee Mehr: "It may grow tiring to consistently compare this minimalist platformer phylum to Playdead's work, but it's tough to ignore in the face of clear evidence. The crux of the problem is this: no copycat should be satisfied in reproducing its inspiration without incorporating a visual, aural, story, and/or mechanical nuance alongside it. None of these four categories are met here, so what's left is a ditto platformer that's content with showing yet another hellish landscape after humans are nearly wiped out. And by disregarding any meaningful point over its environmental themes, the title's namesake seems all the more ironic since it never says anything for itself up to the bitter end."
Review - You’ll find the most fun of PERISH in co-op, having a blast with a few friends; it will make the gameplay loop more enjoyable
"Although physical disc spending has continued to slip since 2021, the rate of the decline had slowed. Between 2021 and 2022, spending declined by 4% to £496 million but between 2022 and 2023, spending declined by just 2% to £487 million."
Good news.