Charlie is a Chicago-based gaming, tech, and food journalist with bylines including IGN, CNN, NPR, and Paste. When he's not writing for Nintendo Life, you can probably find him playing Tetris or working on a new cocktail recipe.
Review Library Of Ruina (Switch) - Potential Aplenty, But Just Doesn't Stack Up
My library's in ruins
Library of Ruina is less than the sum of its parts. While this visual novel's dialog sets up a well-established, deep world with interesting characters, its talky repetitiveness eschews plenty of opportunities to make the most of what it's trying to set up. And even with a compelling, card-based battle system that rewards...
Review Dave The Diver (Switch) - One Of The Best Games In A Year Of Greats
If nautical nonsense is something you wish
Dave the Diver is a game about a diver named Dave. It's also about a restauranteur, archaeologist, marine researcher, and social media genius — also Dave. Poor ol' Dave has to wear all these hats in Dave the Diver, and living out his toilsome existence makes for one of the best games of the year and...
Review Gordian Quest - An Engaging Deckbuilder, But A Poor Switch Port
Knot the best port
Gordian Quest, like many games of its ilk, is bogged down by dense, cumbersome menus and volumes of small text. But unlike a lot of other games in the strategy and deckbuilding genre, it's much easier to wrap your mind around and isn't mired in frustratingly long tutorials and steep learning curves. Weaving tabletop inspirations...
Review Horizon Chase 2 (Switch) - More Arcade Racing, With Some Bumps In The Road
Follow the speeder
Horizon Chase 2 isn't the most interesting racing game out there, but damn, if it isn't hard to put down! It may not match the high-speed hijinks of kart racers starring Mario, Crash Bandicoot, or Sonic the Hedgehog, nor does it hit the same destructive highs of Burnout or the high-fidelity, simulative thrill found in other...
Review Gloomhaven (Switch) - A Cumbersome But Deep (And Hard-As-Nails) TTRPG Adaptation
No safe haven here
As anyone who plays board games (or with friends who like board games) can attest, an involved, TTRPG-style board game can be cumbersome. From in-depth rules and systems, it takes a while to get into Gloomhaven and introducing new players to its dense combat can make multiplayer challenging. But also like a dense board game,...
Review MythForce - A Decent Roguelite Buried By An Absolutely Dire Switch Port
MythFarce
With its bright, cel-shaded models and notably more tame environments, MythForce targets nostalgia for Saturday Morning cartoons from the 1980s like He-Man and Thundercats. A lot of people don't remember just how poorly a lot of those cartoons hold up, though. They have their die-hard fans, and they're fun to look back at with your tongue...
Review F-Zero 99 (Switch) - A Brilliant Battle-Royale Revival That Plays To The Series' Strengths
Got 99 problems, but F-Zero ain't one
What do you get when you take the first entry in one of Nintendo's most overlooked franchises and cram it with battle royale mechanics after nearly 20 years of dormancy? You might expect a shambling Frankenstein's monster of a game held together by nostalgia-baiting stagnancy. Instead, F-Zero 99 is a clever...
Review Chants Of Sennaar (Switch) - Enchanting Anthro-Puzzling With A Side Of Frustration
Chants of Sennarrgh
Your character wakes up in a sarcophagus. At first blush, you seem alone as you guide your cloaked character, wandering through gorgeously rendered arches and passageways. At last, you chance upon another person. Finally! A chance to absorb some exposition about what the heck's going on. Maybe you'll even get a quest! Not quite...
Review Samba De Amigo: Party Central (Switch) - Sega's Cult Classic Returns In Need Of A Shake-Up
Going through the motion controls
In the Wii's heyday, some executive or other higher-up at Nintendo dove into the multitude of factors that converged to make the Wii such a resounding success. Among the factors was the idea that motion—even at a minuscule level, like flicking one's wrist—was tied to the brain's production of dopamine. Pairing...
Review Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (Switch) - Bleeding Cool Style But Always In Jet Set's Shadow
A turf battle against nostalgia
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is an immensely conflicting outing that capitalizes on nostalgia by drawing water from the same punk-as-hell city tap as Jet Set Radio. Sometimes the cup runs over. Others, rusted pipes bleed into the water, poisoning the experience. Jet Set Radio casts a low-poly shadow over any game about street...
Review Vampire Survivors (Switch) - Kiss Healthy Sleep Goodbye With This Must-Play Roguelike
Something to sink your teeth into
Vampire Survivors is a singular game. Kind of a roguelike, kind of an arcade game, kind of a bullet hell, but at the same time nothing like what you probably think of when those genres come to mind. After all, there's a reason it captured the hearts and minds of gamers and won handfuls of awards on other platforms...
Mini Review Patrick's Parabox (Switch) - An Exemplary Puzzler That Thinks Outside The Box
Boxed in
Patrick's Parabox is the kind of game you have to play to truly understand. This brain-bending puzzler deftly reinvents itself dozens of times over without deviating from its very simple, programmatic rules revolving around infinitude and recursion. Chances are, you've heard of this premise before: push an object around a grid-like playing...
Review We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie (Switch) - Yes, We Still Do
It's hard not to!
We Love Katamari might be the perfect video game sequel. Dialing just about every beloved mechanic and detail from the first game up to 11, all while ditching some of Katamari Damacy’s less beloved aspects, it’s no surprise that this entry is the fan favorite. For better and worse, its re-release, We Love Katamari REROLL +...
