Tag: Reviews - Page 21
Review GONNER2 (Switch) - Another Way To Die In An Increasingly Crowded Genre
I live, I die, I die some more
It’s been three years since GoNNER dropped on Switch, a game we thought pretty highly of. Bringing us a challenging 2D platformer with rogue-like mechanics, it told the story of Ikk, our altruistic blob-like hero that set out to help a land-bound whale called Sally. Placing us in a series of procedurally generated...
Review MindSeize (Switch) - Slick Mega Man Zero-Style Action Jammed Into A Metroidvania
Nothing to Seize at
When it’s in full flow, MindSeize has the flair and feel of Mega Man Zero. And believe us, that’s not something we’d say lightly, considering that Capcom’s beloved handheld series remains at the apex of 2D action gameplay. There’s a similarity in certain aspects of the game’s design, but mostly in its mechanics and...
Review Crown Trick (Switch) - A Refreshingly Slow-Paced, Turn-Based, Roguelike Adventure
Crowning Glory?
Roguelikes and roguelites have a tendency to throw players through their shapeshifting gauntlets of murder and death at a rather frenetic pace. Recent popular examples, such as Hades and Dead Cells, really emphasise this almost uniform focus on speed and it's one that's quite understandable in a genre where repetition is such a...
Review Horace (Switch) - A Heart-Warming Nostalgia Trip And Must-Play Masterpiece
Horace doesn't go skiing
The name “Horace” has cultural cachet in the world of British retrogaming, and we can’t help but believe that the evocation thereof is very, very intentional on the Horace developers’ part. After all, their game is steeped in nostalgia; the pop culture of days past infuses Horace from its opening nod to Thames TV’s...
Review Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut (Switch) - Showing Its Age, But Still A Fun Ride
Risky click of the day
Though Shantae has become a mainstay in recent years, it wasn’t too long ago that this franchise was scarcely more than a niche curiosity. The original Shantae was an indie game in a time before indie games were in vogue, and its release at the very end of the Game Boy Color’s lifespan didn’t do it any favors in...
Review Cloudpunk (Switch) - An Evocative Noir Adventure Ruined By A Messy Switch Port
Blade Scunner
Nivalis, the futuristic metropolis in which the events of Cloudpunk take place, really is the heart and soul of Ion Lands' captivating "neon noir" adventure game. A wonderfully evocative voxel art city, it immediately transports us to a future that so precisely recalls the neon-drenched storefronts, rain-soaked streets and seedy...
Review ScourgeBringer (Switch) - A Gripping, Tough-As-Nails Roguelite For Dead Cells Fans
Bring the Pain
Do you love a properly hard challenge? Do you thrive in hostile and punishing game environments where constant death is an expected and necessary part of the cycle? Well then, Flying Oak Games' ScourgeBringer might just be right up your street. Here we have a tough as nails roguelite that funnels its players through a never-ending...
Review The Survivalists (Switch) - Surprisingly Light On Danger
At first I was afraid, I was petrified
The Survivalists is not the most enticing title that Team17 could have gone with for this one. Yes, it sets the stage for this follow-up to The Escapists in keeping with its traditional nomenclature, but they really should have front-loaded the monkey butlers, and called the game – for example – Monkey...
Into the Zoid
This new Switch release takes us on a trip down memory lane to the world of Zoids, Tomy's massive mechanical animals and their mad human riders who've been doing the rounds since all the way back in 1984. Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed, which originally released as Zoids Wild: King of Blast in Japan last year, ties into the long-running...
Review Hardcore Mecha (Switch) - Thrillingly Overblown Anime-Style Robot Action
Mechnificent
If you're a fan of great big robots mercilessly smashing each other's massive metal heads in – and let's face it, who isn't? – then RocketPunch Games' superbly stylish 2D side-scroller Hardcore Mecha would like a very loud word. This is an absurdly overwrought anime adventure spread across a solid seven-hour campaign which sees you...
Review Ben 10: Power Trip! (Switch) - An Underwhelming Adaptation Of A Cartoon Favourite
It's hero time
The Ben 10 franchise is one of the most popular productions from Cartoon Network, with a fourteen-year run that’s spanned five iterations of the TV show, with the current one being a reboot of the first show. As one would expect of a multimedia franchise such as this, a litany of video game adaptations (of varying quality) have been...
Review Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Switch) - A Joyful Fusion Of Reality And Fiction
Built it and they will come
Nintendo products have always had a certain magic about them. From the earliest examples, such as the simplistic-yet-addictive Game & Watch handhelds, to more recent offerings like the motion-driven Wii, touch-focused DS or cardboard-based Labo, the Japanese veteran has a genuine knack for creating toys which raise a...
Review I Am Dead (Switch) - A Quirky Adventure That's Pleasantly Rewarding, Despite Its Faults
Dead good
I am dead. I am dead. I am dead. At the risk of getting a bit dark, that has quite a ring to it, doesn’t it? A lovely little get-out for those unwanted conversations, invitations and generally being approached by anyone at all. “What do you think of this political climate?” “I am dead.” “Oh, sorry mate. Didn’t realise. Never...
Review Projection: First Light (Switch) - A Brilliant Game Cruelly Betrayed By Poor Mechanics
Meant for Greta things
Oh, what a heartbreaker Projection: First Light is. It starts off so well. The opening sequence is a marvellous showcase of intelligently-crafted, dialogue-free storytelling, utilising the game's striking shadow puppetry art style to brilliant effect as your heroine, Greta, chases an effervescently glowing butterfly through...
Review AVICII Invector Encore Edition (Switch) - A Fitting Tribute To A Much-Missed Musical Talent
Nintendo SVICII
The music of sadly-deceased electronic musician Avicii didn’t initially strike us as a great match for a rhythm action game. The marriage of a single contemporary artist with the medium of video games gives us PTSD flashbacks to The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Thankfully, unlike Will.I.Am and Fergie’s barely-listenable dreck,...
Review Ikenfell (Switch) - A Magical Little Turn-Based RPG Adventure With Charm To Spare
Bewitched
There's certainly no shortage of turn-based RPGs available on Switch these days and an even greater number of retro-pixel indie efforts that present their strategic adventures in an increasingly overused 8 or 16-Bit graphical style. Honestly, we love them really but it can definitely feel a little wearisome at times prepping yourself to...
Review UnderHero (Switch) - A Solid Anti-RPG Platformer With An Eye For Undertale
Zero to Hero
Five years ago, the indie gaming scene was changed forever with the release of Undertale, a sort of ‘Anti-RPG’ that focused on mocking traditional RPG tropes as much as it did celebrating them. Suffice to say, it resonated with a lot of people and it’s clear that the uniquely unconventional design had no small effect on UnderHero...
Review FIFA 21 (Switch) - EA Insults Switch Owners Yet Again With This Half-Baked Effort
Don't spend your Mané on this
Okay, enough's enough. Ever since EA first brought the FIFA series to the Switch with FIFA 18, Nintendo fans have been given a lesser version of the game seen on other systems. At first, we gave EA the benefit of the doubt and put it down to the challenges of porting a game to a less powerful system with a user base...
Review Let's Sing Queen (Switch) - Makes The Rockin' World Go 'Round
Play The Game
When Freddie Mercury first penned Bohemian Rhapsody back in 1975, there's no way he could possibly have known the monumental challenge he was laying at the feet of Let's Sing Queen players some forty-five years down the timeline. Fair enough, the first half of the song isn't so bad – and let's face it, we've all cranked out "I...
The dood abides?
The best thing about Prinny 1•2: Exploded and Reloaded, a collection of Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? and Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!, is that game reviewers are paid by the word. Just that opening sentence has earned enough to buy several Wispa Golds, or your comfort food of choice. And you’ll need comforting...
Happy Happy Joy-Con Joy-Con
We’re afraid we've got some bad news for you. If you opened this review expecting a typically sarcastic put-down of the latest half-hearted karting game with a cartoon licence cynically slapped onto it, you’re going to be deeply disappointed. Turns out this one's actually quite good. To be fair, you'd be forgiven for...
Review Warsaw (Switch) - A Brutal Experience Which Proves War Is Hell
Wojna to piekło
Waaaaarsaaaaaw. Lovely woody word, Warsaw. Almost worth a point or two by itself. It's a shame that such an enjoyable word to say has been attached to such a downer of a game as this. Don't get us wrong, that's not a knock on Warsaw's (Waaaarsaaaaw's) quality; it's a polished production through and through, and its component parts...
Review Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! (Switch) - An Odd Change Of Direction For A Classic Series
Kawase Kawa-sah Ba-ba-zoo-ka
Stumbling across the original Umihara Kawase for Super Famicom many years ago, we never thought it was the sort of thing that would become such a recurring series. Following traditional entries on PlayStation and 3DS (as well as a clutch of reissues and appearances in Blade Strangers and Crystal Crisis), you’d be...
Review CastleStorm II (Switch) - A Legitimately Great Game Hobbled By Poor Execution
Storm's coming
Zen Studios has always had a bit of an issue with being typecast as ‘that pinball studio’. To be fair, the studio has done a tremendous job in designing the dozens of tables in its Pinball FX line, but that’s far from the only thing the team works on. The most notable of these ‘other’ projects is Castlestorm, a fusion...
Review Lost Ember (Switch) - An Artistic Experience That Fails To Live Up To Its Potential
More aggravating than art
To different people, video games can represent different things. Some play games for their challenges, others play them for a good time, and some play it for an emotional experience. Lost Ember attempts to cater to an audience looking for an artistic, story-driven game, yet unfortunately fails to create an engaging piece of...
Review Rivals Of Aether (Switch) - A Surprisingly Complex Alternative To Smash Bros.
Earth, wind and fire (and water)
After diving into the unmitigated disaster that is Bounty Battle just recently, we can't say we were particularly enamoured with the idea of slogging our way through yet another Smash Bros.-esque indie fighting effort quite so soon. However, Rivals of Aether is an experience that's just about as far removed from that...
Review Goosebumps Dead Of Night (Switch) - Survival Horror For Kids That's Far Too Short
Reader beware, you're in for a meh
It's embarrassing to admit this, but Goosebumps Dead of Night can be – on the rare occasion – a touch frightening. Given that the books and films (upon which this game is based) were about as scary as rocket salad, we were rather surprised to find this outing to be genuinely – whisper it – quite atmospheric...
Review The Long Dark (Switch) - Just Like Real Life, Nature Is Your Enemy Here
I am just going outside and may be some time
Playing The Long Dark made us feel cold. Sure, the longer nights are slowly drawing in, but this ambitious port of Hinterlands' 2017 survival hit exudes such a frosty atmosphere that we were reaching for the blankets. The stylised visuals, muted use of colour and the sheer pitch-black oppression of the...
Review Super Mario Bros. 35 (Switch) - A Six-Month Jolt Of Life For An Iconic Classic
The sweetest plumb
The original Super Mario Bros. has been officially re-released no fewer than 19 different times over its 35-year history. From graphical updates (Super Mario All-Stars) to handheld upgrades (Super Mario Bros. Deluxe), to various Virtual Console re-releases and most recently its inclusion in Switch Online’s NES catalogue, if...
Review Trollhunters: Defenders Of Arcadia (Switch) - WayForward Take A Big Step WayBack
You're trolling us, surely?
Call off the hunt, the trolls have been located. Somehow they have infiltrated WayFoward, usually purveyors of fine digital entertainment, and forced them to create this, the drabbest platformer in recent memory. Worse, it is cynically wrapped in the skin of a TV show that is, by all accounts, legitimately wonderful (this...
Review Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ (Switch) - A Solid, Compelling Dungeon Crawler
Dead ringer for love
It’s been a long road to release for Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~. The project first sought funding via Kickstarter back in 2015 and initially failed to meet its modest goal, but the ex-NIS America staff of developer Mr. Tired Media were convinced that there was an audience for this game and remained determined to see it...
Review Alwa's Legacy (Switch) - One Of The Best Metroidvanias We've Seen On Switch So Far
A legacy to be proud of
A couple of years ago, Elden Pixels put out Alwa’s Awakening, a nice sort of throwback Metroidvania that built a quality experience around a few well-designed ideas. It didn’t exactly light up the charts, but Alwa’s Awakening still managed to amass a small following, one which Elden Pixels tapped last November went it...
Review Ys Origin (Switch) - An Awesomely Accessible And Amiable Action RPG
Eesey peasy
Nihon Falcom's Ys (pronounced "eese") been around since the days of the PC-8800, but only now are we seeing this formative tale in the enormously popular saga. Well, technically, a lot of people already saw it in 2006 when it originally released, or 2012 when it was initially localised. Thankfully, now it's on the Switch we can see that...
Review Kirby Fighters 2 (Switch) - A Brilliant Bite-Sized Alternative To Super Smash Bros.
Kirby sucks, but this doesn't
You don’t need us to tell you this, but Nintendo makes some strange decisions sometimes. The latest example of this is Kirby Fighters 2, a digital-only fighting game that was stealth-dropped onto the eShop without any warning, promoted with a couple of tweets then generally abandoned (at least at the time of writing)...
Review Rebel Galaxy Outlaw (Switch) - Deliciously Daring Dogfighting In The Depths Of Space
You've got your mother in a whirl
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, Double Damage Games' prequel to 2015's Rebel Galaxy, brings a much-needed slice of old-school space sim action to Switch with swagger and style to spare. Following the fortunes of battle-hardened rebel Juno Markev, whose husband has been murdered and ship destroyed as she escapes an attempt on...
Review Vampire: The Masquerade (Switch) - Shadows Of New York - One For The Bookworms Out There
Nintendosferatu
There are visual novels, and there are visual novels. Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York joins the likes of Phoenix Wright and the not-yet-on-Switch Danganronpa series in marrying the visual novel form with its second-most prominent genre, that of detective work. What's the most prominent? I'll tell you when you're older...
Review Going Under (Switch) - This Satrical Dungeon Crawler Proves Employment Really Is A Grind
We're in the money
We’ve seen plenty of games critique capitalism in recent years and on Switch alone, 2020’s already had The Outer Worlds and Journey To The Savage Planet make the jump. Joining them next is Going Under by Aggro Crab, but rather than take us to a science fiction setting, it brings that satirical humour into an all-too-familiar...
Review SEGA AGES Herzog Zwei (Switch) - A Seminal RTS And One Of The Best Two-Player Games Ever Made
Duke it out
When it launched on the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis back in the very early days of the system, Techno Soft's Herzog Zwei confounded quite a few people. It came from a studio which – in the west, at least – was most famous for its Thunder Force series of blasters. The top-down perspective looked similar to the free-roaming overhead...
Loop Dreams
Did you know that rollercoasters were originally invented, in their American form at least, as an attempt to rid the country of sin? Apparently LaMarcus Thompson, the "Father of the American Rollercoaster", was so sick of the disgraceful antics of his fellow citizens that he got to work building the Switchback Gravity Railway on Coney...
Review Ori And The Will Of The Wisps (Switch) - This Xbox Classic Is A Must-Have On Switch
A beautiful sequel that stands on its own merits
Back in September of 2019, one of the most surprising announcements was that Ori and the Blind Forest, an indie game under the ownership of Xbox Game Studios, would be getting a port on the Switch. After the much-anticipated sequel released on Xbox earlier this year, many wondered whether Ori and the...
Review Othercide (Switch) - A Challenging But Ultimately Rewarding SRPG
Wake me up inside
You know you’re in for a rough time when a game tells you upfront that you’re going to lose a lot. One of the first things you see in Othercide – the latest release from Lightbulb Crew – is one such message, which plainly says, “your Daughters will die, and you will lose, only to rise stronger again.” Indeed, Othercide...
Review Bake 'N Switch (Switch) - A Fine Multiplayer Adventure Which Needed Longer In The Oven
Baking Bad
When it comes to the simple pleasures in life, few things can ever beat a good meal. We’ve seen cooking factor into various games by now, often as a side mechanic, but increasingly becoming that experience’s core focus. Developed by Streamline Games, we now find Bake ‘n Switch arriving on Switch, described as a “violently cute...
Review WWE 2K Battlegrounds (Switch) - A Disappointingly Poor Wrestlefest
We've Cena lot better than this
The one-word catchphrase is a mythical achievement in professional wrestling. If you’re so well-loved by the fans that you can get a single word ‘over’ with the crowd – Ric Flair’s “woooooo”, Steve Austin’s “what”, Daniel Bryan’s “yes” – you’ve clearly earned legend status. In trying to...
Review Hades (Switch) - A Heavenly Trip Into Hell That's Utterly Essential For All Switch Owners
The Devil is in the detail
Hell. We're all going there. There's absolutely no two ways about it. What? You really thought you'd get to spend your life on earth mouthing off like that on the internet sans reprisal? Come on now, mate, accept your fate and grow up. However, before we all head off to roast for eternity in the fires of the forever abyss,...
Review Georifters (Switch) - An Ultimately Unremarkable 2D Platformer
Puzzlingly dull
There’s been no end to 2D platformers on Switch, but only a select few featured that heavier focus on puzzle mechanics. Whether it’s enjoyable first-party efforts like BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! to indie affairs such as Evergate, we’ve seen a great line-up so far, and Georifters is next to the plate. Developed by Busy Toaster,...
Review Giraffe And Annika (Switch) - A Laid-Back Adventure That Might Be Too Chill For Some
Challenge Annika
We were pretty thrilled by this one before booting it up – I mean, how many games have giraffes in them?! Certainly not enough. The Adventure Pals repped the ruminant but nothing else really springs to mind. Imagine our disappointment, then, when we booted up the game and found nary an actual giraffe in sight, just a sort of weird...
Review Super Punch Patrol (Switch) - There's Plenty Of Rage On These Streets
Pleasing penny-punching pugilism
Super Punch Patrol sees a return to the signature sketchy style of Gunman Clive from developer Bertil Hörberg, last seen on Switch with really rather brilliant boss-'em-up Mechstermination Force. Here, though, he's turned his hand to the brawler genre with what feels like a homage to Capcom's Final Fight. Well, more...
Review World Of Tanks Blitz (Switch) - A Decent Port That Offers Hours Of Tank-Blasting Action
Pocket Commanders
If there's one thing we can all agree on during this most confusing of times on planet earth it's that everyone and their granny absolutely loves tanks. It's true. Go out on the street right now and ask anyone, you won't find a single person with a bad word to muffle through their face masks about these glorious war machines...
Everyday life with monster girls
Fair warning to those who need it: Moero Crystal H is a game that not only embraces sexuality, it positively revels in it. It is a game that knows and acknowledges that sexuality is fun, ridiculous, silly, and something that we should feel comfortable laughing about. And it is a game in which your party members...
Review Road To Guangdong (Switch) - A Fine Story Ruined By Shoddy Performance And Linearity
A recipe for disappointment
The capacity for indie games to present new experiences never ceases to surprise us. The parameters by which a game can be considered a game are now so broad and eclectic that the hobby is in the enviable position of having at least one thing almost anyone can enjoy. Strangely enough, this has also given rise to a...