Dom kicked off his games writing career first as a production assistant at Future, then as Production Editor for Official PlayStation Magazine UK. He became Editor at Nintendo Life in December 2017 before pivoting into a career in marketing.
Review Azure Reflections - Bullet Heaven Or Hell?
Touhou time
There’s nothing quite like a good bullet hell game. Done right, it can be the perfect marriage of chaos and order, where lightning-quick reflexes, a constant sense of spacing and a bucketful of luck can be all that stands between you and a hell of bullets. Switch already has a handful of great examples to its name - including Danmaku...
Review Fernz Gate - A Retro-Style RPG With Some Interesting Ideas
When worlds collide
You’ve really got to feel sorry for developer releasing a traditional RPG on Nintendo Switch in the wake of Octopath Traveler. Square Enix’s throwback summer release may have had a few niggling issues, but it took all the things we loved from the glory days of Final Fantasy and made them feel fresh and new once more. Fernz...
Review SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy - A Sexy Street Fighter That's Perfect For Beginners
Girls aloud
Rest assured, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy knows exactly what kind of game it is. Which is handy considering it’s being released in 2018, where any sort of game with this much of onus on unrealistic cup sizes and objectification is likely to have the social media mobs banging at the door, pitchforks in hand. Thankfully, it’s a game...
Review The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season - The Perfect Intro To Telltale's Classic Series
The beginning of the end
It’s almost frightening to think it’s been almost six and a half years since Telltale first brought The Walking Dead to life in a new and exciting interpretation; the game that finally took its choice-driven narrative template and made those consequences truly consequential in a world where a single decision could...
Review Planet Alpha - A Truly Mesmerising Puzzle-Platformer That You Should Download Now
An odyssey to another world
There are so many games out there that wear their inspirations proudly, pinned to their breast like a badge of the highest honour. For some, it ends up showing just how lacking their imitation ultimately is (take Fall of Light: Darkest Edition’s love for Dark Souls, for instance), but for a select few that obvious love...
Review Yo-Kai Watch Blasters - A Spin-Off Done Right, Even If We've Had To Wait A While
Blasting makes us feel good
When it comes to most of the best games coming out of Japan, we dedicated Western fans are often left waiting years to finally getting our hands on them. Three years, in fact, when it comes to this particular (and very popular) Yo-Kai Watch spin-off. And considering the series’ third full entry entirely avoided a...
Review Moonfall Ultimate - A Failed Attempt To Update Sega's Golden Axe For The Modern Age
Hack. Slash. Repeat.
A good 18 months in and Nintendo Switch isn’t struggling for content - especially when it comes to role-playing games. Be they turn-based affairs or action-RPG romps, owners of this plucky hybrid machine have a buffet of long-form adventures to gorge on. So when a new entry tries to hack and slash its way into this packed...
Review Claws of Furry - Yet Another Couch-Play Classic, But Solo Players Should Beware
Scratching that brawling itch
Originally set for a release in January 2018, the co-op brawling of Claws of Furry has finally emerged from its developmental dojo and onto Nintendo Switch. But has that nine extra months in the oven helped this indie prospect add an extra edge to those titular weapons, or is this just another arcade brawler destined to...
Review Fall of Light: Darkest Edition - A Shambling Dark Souls Wannabe You'll Want To Avoid
The night is dark and full of errors
A dark and dreary medieval world. Lots of obtuse and cliched references to dark forces and evil people doing predictably evil things. Slow melee combat with a focus on stamina management. Shrines that become spawn points when you die. Enemies that revive every time you’re resurrected. Sound familiar yet?...
Review Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition (Switch eShop)
Lost in space
On its barren surface, Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition is a difficult game to quantify. Is it a sandbox exploration title? A walking simulator? A puzzle-platformer? A sci-fi adventure with a splash of horror? In truth, it’s an amalgamation of all these things, but it only ever dips its toes into these creative sources and ends...
Review Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition (Switch eShop)
A modern classic, updated
Two years on from its original release, Hyper Light Drifter might not feel quite as unique in both its art style and the relentless difficulty of its combat - especially in the company of Dead Cells and so many other pixel art indies - but that doesn’t mean this acclaimed hack ‘n’ slash odyssey has lost any of its...
Review Realpolitiks (Switch eShop)
Diplomatic impunity
If the recent successes of Element and Bad North have taught us anything, it’s that the deep mechanical function of strategy games doesn't often work well when ported wholesale to a new platform. When you’re porting such a title, you really need to keep in mind the technical restraints of a console - and especially the...
Review The VideoKid (Switch eShop)
Gotta get back in time
You don’t have to have lived through the ‘80s or the ‘90s to enjoy the familiar faces you’ll encounter in the star-filled suburbs of The VideoKid - after all, most people are going to know the Ghostbusters or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when they see them - but there’s a palpable thrill to playing a...
Review Blade Strangers (Switch)
Beginner's Fight Club
When it comes to the world of virtual fisticuffs, few genres offers as much nuance and space for creativity and flair as the 2D fighter. It was here that fighting games were born after all, and as the years have passed this two-dimensional melting pot has refused to cease bubbling. Instead, it’s evolved into something far...
Review Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition (Switch eShop)
Grand slammer
Video games have treated us to all manner of simulation jobs over the years. We’ve built hospitals, maintained zoos, tilled farmland and even built roller coasters that were definitely not safe for anyone to ride. But what about building and running your very own prison? Now that’s a whole other kettle of incarcerated fish. Do you...
Review Bad North (Switch eShop)
Heathen chemistry
If the recent releases of Jotun: Valhalla Edition and The Banner Saga Trilogy have taught us anything, it’s this: the Vikings make for the most bloodthirsty of heroes. But what if the tables were turned, and it was you defending against the reaving Norsemen? The sound of a ghostly war horn roaring in the distance. Longships...
Review Kero Blaster (Switch eShop)
A ribbeting throwback shooter
Sometimes, when things are going awry and the world finds itself in desperate need of a hero, only a bipedal frog armed with a blaster will do. Okay, technically it’s a company called Cat & Frog Inc. that needs assistance and our ‘hero’ is actually an employee, but why ruin the moment? Turns out C&F Inc...
Review Morphies Law (Switch eShop)
Mass murder
Morphies Law’s premise is a satisfyingly simple one, but much like Splatoon 2 - a game Swiss developer Cosmoscope has clearly taken a great deal of inspiration from - those arcade wares hide plenty of depth should you care to delve deeper. Here’s how it works: shoot another player and the body part you hit will shrink, while the...
Review The Walking Dead: The Final Season (Switch eShop)
Done Running, indeed
After all this time, it’s a strange and melancholy thing to see Telltale draw one of its many choice-driven interactive stories to a definitive end. After all, this was the franchise that put the California studio back on the map, with a fine-tuned formula that took everything that made Robert Kirkman’s original comic story...
Review Next Up Hero (Switch eShop)
Lives long enough to see itself become the villain
No one likes kicking the bucket in a game. Whether you’re licking your wounds in a beat-’em-up or lamenting a mistimed jump in a platformer, death is the constant that keeps us coming back for more with respawns, ‘Game Over’ screens and more. But what if popping your proverbial clogs could...
A prayer for the dying
The term ‘old-school’ can often be a poisoned chalice when it comes to the pantheon of the FPS, but every now and then a title emerges from the crowd that captures the brutality and unrelenting action of the classic corridor shooter. It’s time to acquaint yourself with the righteous violence of Polygod. Make no mistake...
Review Tetra's Escape (Switch eShop)
Attack the block
Ever wondered what would happen if gaming grandaddy Tetris decided it didn’t want to spend the rest of its days dropping blocky shapes down an endless chute? Where would it go next? Try its hand as a first-person shooter perhaps? No, too predictable. A fighting game cameo? No, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has already reached full...
Review Robbotto (Switch eShop)
Robo Bobble
Once upon a time, in an era where arcades were the verdant breeding grounds of gaming’s next big thing, there was a little game called Bubble Bobble. This cutesy platformer from Taito followed the adventures of Bob and Bub, a pair of diminutive dragons who used the power of bubbles to dispatch their enemies in adorable fashion. It...
Identity crisis
From beginning to end, State of Mind is a game of polarising contrasts. It has an intriguing sci-fi setting, but a story that tries to make one too many social commentaries and ends up muddled as a result. It uses low-poly character models, but boasts some of the most impressive environmental textures and lighting we’ve ever seen...
