January2024
Does Apollo justice
After the success of the original three Ace Attorney games, series creator Shu Takumi was ready to end Phoenix Wright's story. But the world wasn't done with these surprisingly intriguing lawyer games, and so he had to figure out how to make a new game without re-treading old ground. Thus, Apollo Justice, pointy-haired greenhorn...
June2023
Review Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Switch) - A DS All-Timer Returns In Stunning Form
Trick time!
Is there such a thing as a perfect game? Yes, and it's this one. Listen, you are going to get to the end of this review and think to yourself, "Isn't a 10/10 score, like, Zelda: Breath of the Wild? How can this 12-15 hour game that doesn't even have Hestu in it possibly match up?" You are thinking that because you have not played Ghost...
April2023
Review Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (Switch) - A Rock-Solid Compilation
Jack in!! Mega Man, Execute!
In the early 2000s, an ancient and long-forgotten era when Capcom regularly released new Mega Man games, the company decided to produce not one, but two mainline Mega Man series on the popular Game Boy Advance. Mega Man Zero would continue the gameplay and storyline that the previous action platforming franchises were...
December2022
Mini Review Resident Evil 7 Biohazard Cloud (Switch) - Pretty Horrific
Cloudy with no chance of fun
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi and wired ethernet cable, along with a 5G mobile connection. The launch of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard back in 2017 was a revelation for fans of the franchise. After the lukewarm reception to Resident Evil 6 and decidedly...
November2022
Review Resident Evil 3 - Cloud Version (Switch) - Disappointingly Constrained And Very Short
Do the staaaaaars shine?
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil 3 was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi and wired ethernet cable, along with a 5G mobile connection. Following up Resident Evil 2 — whether it’s the 1998 original or the 2019 remake — is no easy task. Indeed, in the run-up to the launch of the PlayStation 2, Capcom found...
Classic horror reborn
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil 2 was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi and wired ethernet cable, along with a 5G mobile connection. Capcom is marching on with its plan to release its modern Resident Evil titles as cloud versions on Switch with Resident Evil 2, and while we approach every streaming-only version...
October2022
Review Resident Evil Village Cloud (Switch) - A Solid Streaming Version For Switch Owners
A cloud tech coin flip winner, mostly
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil: Village was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi along with 5G mobile connection. The Resident Evil series has seen its ups and downs over the years. After a strong start with the original trilogy (and Code Veronica), Capcom’s seminal horror franchise hit what...
August2022
Review Mega Man Battle & Fighters (Switch) - A Surprise Neo Geo Package Of Blue Bomber Beat 'Em Ups
Lost in translation
Mega Man: The Power Battle was a 1995 arcade release followed by a sequel, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Both are one-on-one fighting games, and they retain the series hallmark of obtaining enemy skills for tactical use. Controlling either Mega Man, Proto Man or Bass (and Duo for the sequel) imagine Mega Man minus the...
July2022
Review Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium (Switch) - Captures That Arcade Magic In A Quality Package
Insert coin
Since there’s little 'wrong' with Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, what’s right with it will depend on the sensibilities and interests of the player. The second of Capcom’s superbly curated compilations following on from Capcom Arcade Stadium, its 32 arcade titles (one of which is free) now feature a greater emphasis on action and...
Review Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak (Switch) - A Deliciously Difficult, Must-Have Expansion
An expansion with bite
Monster Hunter Rise has proven to be a welcome continuation of the IP's global growth in popularity, following the breakout mainstream success of 2018's Monster Hunter: World and its Iceborne expansion on non-Nintendo platforms. Rise itself brought some interesting evolutions from World, retaining more of the quirky charm we...
June2022
Review Capcom Fighting Collection (Switch) - An Essential Buy For One-On-One Fighting Fans
It’s a Graveyard Smash
Capcom was a king of the nascent arcade industry back in the 1980s. An innovator, a game-changer, its invention within the fighting game genre remains unsurpassed. The company isn't new to releasing retro collections, with close to 30 compilations across various platforms. With newer hardware, however, there’s a more...
July2021
Review The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - Two Detective Games That Do Almost Everything Wright
Ryunosuke rises from the ashes
The last time we saw Phoenix Wright and friends, the stars of the Ace Attorney franchise, they were in a made-up country called Khura'in. Spirit of Justice came out for 3DS in 2016, and was relatively divisive — a lot of critics ranked it highly, but others found issue with its "wishy-washy" mechanics and its heavy...
Review Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin - A Franchise Riding High
An ideal introduction to the series
Monster Hunter is a series with a longstanding tradition of being impenetrable to casual first-time players, with systems layered upon systems and tricky combat. In the mainline series Monster Hunter: World provided a multi-platform mainstream breakthrough, while on Switch the recent Monster Hunter Rise followed...
March2021
Review Monster Hunter Rise - A New Apex For Capcom's Beastly Franchise
A new Nintendo Switch classic has risen
This encounter felt fated. Written in the stars. Ever since the Nintendo Switch was revealed in late 2016, one pervasive thought has been: “How great is Monster Hunter going to be?” While we saw the release of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate in 2018, it was just a port of the 3DS title that was...
February2021
Review Capcom Arcade Stadium - A Rich Tour Through The Coin-Op History Of A True Legend
Keep your loose change
Even if you harbour a deep and sincere love for classic gaming, it can sometimes be tricky to muster a bounty of enthusiasm when a new retro gaming compilation lands. Over time we have perhaps become spoiled by an abundance of access to the mainstream of the video game form’s past. Iconic outfits such as Sega and Capcom have...
Review Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection - A Masochistic Medieval Marvel
Give ‘em Hell
Tokuro Fujiwara is back in town, and his mission is murder. The Ghosts ’n Goblins foreman has been summoned by his former employer, Capcom, to impart pain and suffering upon the gaming masses, and he’s come at it with gusto. To put a fine point on the conjecture surrounding Resurrection, it is indeed anvil-through-the-skull hard;...
April2020
Review Shinsekai: Into The Depths - A Watery Twist On The Metroidvania Format
Unsplashy adventure with hidden depths
We shouldn't be surprised any longer when a mobile-to-Switch port turns out to be decent. There are far too many examples to list here, but just recently both Exit The Gungeon and Oddmar have acquitted themselves admirably. Even so, we're as surprised as you are to note that the latest must-have Metroidvania...
February2020
Review Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection - A Superb Selection Of Retro Classics
A legacy to be proud of
Those of you familiar with the backstory of the ongoing development of the Mega Man X series may be aware that Zero – the sabre-wielding, long-haired secondary protagonist – was, in fact, the original design Keiji Inafune wanted to use for Mega Man. That idea got shot down because of how different Zero looks from the...
Review Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition - The Best Version Of The Best Devil May Cry
Three is the magic number
After the absolute mess that was Devil May Cry 2, Hideaki Itsuno returned to the fray in 2005 with this absolute banger, righting the wrongs of his previous effort, returning protagonist Dante to his righteously cocky self and letting loose with a no-holds-barred, non-stop action thrill-ride that, to this day, is as good as...
November2019
Review Resident Evil Triple Pack - Only One Game On The Actual Cart, But It's The Right One
Diminishing REturns
In a similar way to the Resident Evil Origins Collection and the Resident Evil Revelations Collection, Capcom has decided to bundle its three most recent Switch ports into one physical package. Labelled the Resident Evil Triple Pack, it includes not only series jewel Resident Evil 4 (appearing on cartridge
Review Resident Evil 6 - Not As Nightmarish As You Remember
Global terror on a portable scale
Okay, here’s the thing… Resident Evil 6 isn’t that bad. Wait, hold on, just hear us out. First released back in 2012, it genuinely felt as if the once mighty survival-horror franchise had hit rock bottom. Atmospheric environments and terrifying, lethal enemies were replaced by sprawling cities, gun-toting...
October2019
Review Resident Evil 5 - More Action Than Horror, And All The Better For It
Boulder punching action
Resident Evil 5 is a pretty controversial game. Don’t worry, we’re not going to go into the allegations raised against the game prior to its release more than a decade ago. Instead, Resident Evil 5 is controversial in the sense that many people believe it to be the title that killed the survival-horror franchise...
September2019
Review Devil May Cry 2 - The Series Nadir Isn't Worth Bothering With On Switch
Dante's Inferno
By now we all know the story of how Devil May Cry 2 was subject to a rather troubled and fast-tracked development. Hideki Kamiya, the director of the first game, was not involved and his replacement – whom, to this day, has remained unnamed – was dismissed deep into development, replaced by Hideaki Itsuno for the remaining few...
June2019
Review Devil May Cry - A Stone-Cold Classic That's Trapped In Time
Better the devil you know?
A good 18 years on, it’s mind-boggling to think Devil May Cry was once destined to become what we now know as Resident Evil 4. Capcom clearly wanted to take the series in a new direction at the turn of the millennium – and it did four years later, although in a more traditional and now much-beloved form – but a...
May2019
Review Resident Evil Origins Collection - Old-School Survival Horror Stands Up On Switch
Zero on the cart
With the original Resident Evil, its prequel and Resident Evil 4 all arriving as separate digital releases on the Switch eShop, survival horror fans have a bumper helping of the seminal series’ back catalogue to enjoy on-the-go. North American and Japanese gamers (tough luck, Europe) also have the option of getting two of those...