Switch eShop Game Reviews
Telling tall Telltale tales
Has it really been fifteen years since Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space was originally released? It still feels so contemporary. The new Sam & Max. Which is now older than Sam & Max Hit the Road was when Beyond Time and Space first launched. Aargh, skeleton, etc. Never mind, grandad! It's back now with...
Review Hollow 2 (Switch) - A Sequel That Shoots Itself In The Foot
Game over, man, game over!
Sequels are supposed to be better than their predecessors. Although such a statement doesn’t always ring true (plenty will have a lot to say about which of the Metroid Prime games is their favourite) the intention behind a sequel is to learn from and improve upon previous works - that’s the theory, at least. When...
Review Dungeon Munchies (Switch) - Not Without Potential, But Also Serious Early Access Issues
Undercooked
There’s a lot of debate these days about what constitutes a ‘complete’ game. Is a game complete when it launches, or does it only cross that threshold when the developer finally stops updating it? If it’s neither of those, how many updates or how much content have to be added until it is done? What about when a game is ‘content...
Is it worth the hype?
Well, here we are. Eight months after The House In Fata Morgana's release, and six months since our first diary entry of "the game better than Breath of the Wild", it's finally time to actually, finally review it. Fata Morgana is an subject of bafflement, a tantalising enigma, and a frequent point of mockery, all because its...
Review Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Switch) - A Masterful Marriage Of Mechanics, Themes And Visuals
Available handheld or Chicory dickory docked
There are few things more personal than art. That is, the art produced by an artist. Obviously. Even in its most commercial, populist form — including when it’s a small part of a much larger product — the work of an individual artist is ultimately recognisable, whether from obvious sweeping traits...
Review Wytchwood (Switch) - A Striking And Addictive Crafting Adventure
It's wytchcraft
Let’s start this off with just one word, shall we: crafting. There you go, now you know whether or not you’re going to enjoy Wytchwood; thanks for stopping by! In all seriousness, crafting has become such a prevalent mechanic in modern gaming, and it’s one that people rarely sit on the fence with. You either love it or you...
Much more fun than Regular Possible Path
Spoilers: The road is, in fact, possible. Yes, it’s another example of flagrant false advertising and the sort of thing that gives this fine hobby an ill reputation. No, we’re joking. Of course we’re joking. It’s not impossible to traverse, it’s impossible to build. A road free-floating in space on...
Mini Review Omno (Switch) - An Easygoing, Pensive Platformer With Echoes Of Journey
Omno? Om-yes!
Omno is an easy game. It’s unchallenging in every sense of the word. You already know the controls. You’ve seen this general graphical style before and can quickly read the environments. The gameplay loop is familiar: explore, platform, do a sliding-block puzzle, reach a new area. The story is simple and doesn’t dig very deep...
Review Doctor Who: The Edge Of Reality (Switch) - A Fair Adventure With Serious Performance Issues
Flux, but no capacity
It seems as though the key to making a good Doctor Who game is... to not let the player take control of The Doctor. Developer Maze Theory's recent (and rather excellent) Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins was a compelling realisation of this concept, and now Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality is a somewhat more traditional take on...
Review Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon (Switch) - A Super Addictive, Combat-Driven Puzzler
Diggin' it
Sometimes just before his boss battle, Specter Knight will warn you, “All who play Pocket Dungeon’s deadly game will be consumed by it.” He’s certainly right. Yacht Club’s newest spin-off of its critically lauded Shovel Knight franchise is, in a word, addictive. It’s easy to look at Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon and think...
Review Loop Hero (Switch) - A Creative And Incredibly Addictive Distillation Of An RPG
You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
When you get right down to it, almost every game consists of a very simple loop. For example, every Mario 2D platformer ultimately is nothing more than having the famed plumber jump over obstacles and run to the right. We’re rarely focused on the repetition, however, because it’s the new things that...
I know how you feel
It’s hard to believe that we’re now on the fourth Life is Strange game in just six years (fifth if you include the short introductory installment for Life is Strange 2). That’s a lot of content within a relatively short space of time, so there’s an undeniable danger of the series running out of steam. Thankfully, however,...
Review Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX (Switch) - All Monsters Go To Heaven In Tecmo's Cult Classic
Breeding virtual monsters to fight for fun and profit
Name the first classic game series that centres around collecting, training, and battling monsters against other trainers around the continent that comes into your head. No, we’re not talking about Pokémon — instead we’re looking at Monster Rancher, a series which started in 1997 on the...
Mini Review DoDonPachi Resurrection (Switch) - Same Great Game, Same Old Problems
Bee-rilliant, bee-witching, bee-ry annoying
Another day, another prestigious arcade shmup finds a happy new home for itself on the Switch. This may sound like we’ve skipped straight to the end of this review a few paragraphs early but as it’s been a full decade since DoDonPachi Resurrection’s English Xbox 360 release, more than that since it...
Review BloodRayne 2 ReVamped (Switch) - A Definite Improvement, But Dante Won't Lose Any Sleep
Second time's the charm
Sometimes it takes a few tries for a developer to properly execute their vision for a game. Just look at the original Metroid and then think of how it led to Super Metroid. It’s not that the original was bad, but it was a rudimentary initial take on what Yoshio Sakamoto really had in mind from the beginning. The same...
Review BloodRayne ReVamped (Switch) - A Joyless, Frustrating Port That Shows How Far We've Come
Dhampir squib
These days, it feels like every other ‘new’ game being released is a remake or a remaster of some old game. There’s value in this, however, as it’s wonderful to have great games that were previously locked to old platforms brought onto modern devices with improvements and additions. But, just because a game is retro, doesn’t...
Review Archvale (Switch) - A Bruisingly Brilliant RPG And Bullet-Hell Blend
With a dash of Zelda for good measure
It really feels like we’re in somewhat of an extended ‘bullet hell’ renaissance, doesn’t it? As soon as developers realised that the sub-genre didn’t need to be confined to linear vertically scrolling shmups, we’ve seen fresh takes that inject new life into other genres. Archvale is a mashup of a...
Review Clockwork Aquario (Switch) - A Short And Oh-So-Sweet Arcade Platformer Rescued From Oblivion
Definitely better late than never
Back in the early '90s Westone, best known as the creators of the Wonder Boy / Monster World series, were supposed to release a cute and colourful arcade game — Clockwork Aquario. Unfortunately for them the cutting edge polygonal thrills of Virtua Racing were busy setting the arcade world alight at the time,...
Review Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp (Switch) - Fanservice Aplenty, But A Total Grindfest
A Killing Game for your wallet
As we've established previously, Danganronpa is pretty skeevy in its narrative. Thankfully, though, it has managed to avoid bringing said skeev outside of its world, outside of the fictional space that makes it somewhat more palatable. Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, unfortunately, rather breaks that promise. The...
A real Class act
Everything was leading up to this. Danganronpa. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. The anime Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School. Even the god-awful, mercifully not re-released for Switch Ultra Despair Girls. It has all lead to Danganron
Nagito you will never know, anything about my home
It’s Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and this time it’s on a tropical island. Now, being a sort of anime-ish game, you’d think that means the variously endowed female cast taking their turns to show up in swimsuits in a somewhat desperate parade of fanservice, and you’d be right! Danganronpa...
Havoc go if you think you're hard enough
The Danganronpa franchise is a twisted, vulgar little thing. Rife with problematic politics, egregious erotic fanservice and some truly breathtakingly ill-judged swings at far heavier themes than it really has any right to tackle, it is in many ways a reprehensible, amoral and quite appalling series of games...
Mini Review Real Boxing 2 (Switch) - A Pitifully Poor Punch-Out That Should Have Stayed On Phones
Fright Night
Boxing games live or die by their gameplay. You can make the visuals look as beautiful as possible, down to the rippling biceps and beads of sweat, but if the punches don’t land right, then the whole experience will suffer as a result. Unfortunately, Real Boxing 2 comes up short with both its visuals and its gameplay, delivering a...
Review Ruined King: A League of Legends Story (Switch) - A Brilliant Experience Beyond Its Franchise
Comfortably out of League's league
It feels like the world of Runeterra has just entered the first stages of a great expansion. After being mostly confined to the MOBA for years, things like the new Arcane show, an impending MMO, and some spinoff games are starting to bring this rich universe to audiences that aren’t reached by the main title...
Review Death's Door (Switch) - Much More Than The Sum Of Its Zelda And Soulslike Parts
Ready to play the reaper's game?
Despite all the innovation that frequently takes place in the indie space, there’s an awful lot of games that are content to just do what’s already been done. It can be easy to become jaded, then, when a lot of these copycat games turn out to be worse than their clear inspiration. After all, who wants to waste...
Review Unsighted (Switch) - A Fantastic Top-Down Metroidvania With A Warm, Vintage Feel
The final countdown
Sometimes a great idea needs time to mature. Just because a smart concept isn’t executed all that well, it doesn’t mean there isn’t an excellent game coming a sequel or two down the line. What’s incredible about Unsighted is that first-time indie dev Studio Pixel Punk has created the refined experience of a longstanding...
Mini Review Klang 2 (Switch) - A Noisy But Satisfying Rhythm Adventure
Pitch please
There isn’t exactly an abundance of rhythm games available on the Switch (certainly not recently), so it goes without saying that Klang 2 sticks out a bit from the pack simply by catering to this oft-overlooked genre. We’re not sure why Tinimations decided to bring Klang 2 over to the Switch before its predecessor, but from what...
Review Epic Chef (Switch) - Needlessly Bloated But Perfectly Edible
Undercooked life sim
Despite what its name suggests, Epic Chef is about more than just cooking. Taking place in the city of Ambrosia, you take on the role of Zest (like lemon zest, right? Ha!), who is chucked head-first out of a ship as it comes to a stop at the city docks. After meeting a few of the local residents, he makes his way to a run-down...
A chaser
The weight of expectation can be a terrible thing for a game. When you expect nothing, every moment has the potential to offer a surprise and an unanticipated feeling of discovery, and the original Toree 3D benefited from absolute zero expectations when it launched back in April. Releasing out of nowhere for a bargain basement price,...
Review Beyond Blue (Switch) - Echoes Of Endless Ocean In This Noble Effort That Never Quite Gels
More wet than deep
Imagine you dragged yourself into a boring marine biology lecture and it turned out to be an awesome rock concert about dolphins. That’s the edutainment promise and it’s more or less what E-Line Media seem to be aiming for with Beyond Blue – but with a cool video game instead of the rock concert. There’s some serious cred...