Latest Reviews
Review 3000th Duel - A More Approachable Alternative To Dark Souls
Karma is served
Nearly 9 years after its initial release, Dark Souls’ influence is as strong as ever. Its brutal difficulty and focus on slow, methodical gameplay have become iconic staples in modern gaming, with some games taking inspiration from the title, and others outright copying it. 3000th Duel sits somewhere in the middle. It’s a...
Review Animal Crossing: New Horizons - An Accessible And Addictive Masterpiece
The shores of Bell
Back when – what feels like forever ago – we found out that a new Animal Crossing game would be coming to Switch, we were told basically diddly squat about the whole thing, but excitement ensued nonetheless. As time went by and we learnt more and more about it, the hype reached ever higher rungs on the big ladder of...
Review Syder Reloaded - A Free-Scrolling Shmup Switch Owners Should Check Out
Free to roam
The Defender-style free-scrolling shmup sub-genre has always had a lot of untapped potential, and while some free-scrolling shmups like Fantasy Zone and Black Bird have garnered a fanbase of admirers, the style of allowing the player to control the movement of the screen still feels unexplored. Syder Reloaded is another take on this...
Review Langrisser I & II - Fire Emblem’s Erstwhile Rival Gets A Second Shot At Glory
Back from the dead
Back in the early '90s, there were two very similar fantasy-styled SRPG franchises that battled each other for relevance: Fire Emblem and Langrisser. Though each series offered certain defining gameplay or stylistic characteristics that the other didn’t, they were about neck and neck when it came to the overall experience being...
Mini Review NinNinDays - A Short And Sweet Visual Novel With Some Rough Edges
An everyday tale of near-naked ninjas
There are certain things those familiar with romantic comedy, slice-of-life visual novels have doubtless come to expect by this point: a scene involving a maid costume; a heroine who can’t cook; a date at an amusement park; and some sort of boob-based misunderstanding. NinNinDays from Qureate has all of these...
Review Dead Or School - Mutant-Slaying With A Sense Of Style
A diamond in the rough
Dead or School is a game full of obvious jank: likely the product of a tiny team of three working on a very tight, crowdfunded budget to realise a very – perhaps overly – ambitious creative vision. It’s questionably optimised, particularly in handheld mode, where it chugs quite a bit. Its 2D sprites appear obviously...
Mini Review Half Past Fate - A Great-Looking Rom-Com Adventure Brimming With Personality
NOT a Steven Seagal movie
If you’re in your teens or beyond, chances are you’ve probably found yourself falling head over heels in love with someone at least once in your life. We all know the feeling: you see a stunning stranger out of the corner of your eye, someone who you’re absolutely sure is way out of your league, but your eyes lock,...
Review Overpass - A Slow-And-Steady Racer That Strays Off The Beaten Track
Muddy textures
The active ingredient of pretty much every racing game that you care to mention, from Out Run to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, is speed. Overpass might require you to get to the finishing line in the shortest time possible, but it's almost wholly lacking in that S-factor. It sounds perverse, but in order to make suitably rapid progress here...
Review Afterparty - A Hellishly Good Night Out, Without The Hangover
Hell yes
Night School made a relatively big splash with its 2016 debut Oxenfree, a ghostly story-based video game that set new standards on how dialogue can be executed in a game. The follow up to that title was always going to be an interesting one, then, as the question would be how Night School would iterate or, potentially, break away from the...
IMMORTALIZE!
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late is the third iteration of the indie visual novel/2D-Fighter from developer French Bread which was first released in Japanese arcades all the way back in 2012. An update in 2017 added four new characters, a bunch of new modes and gameplay tweaks for console versions, and this latest iteration adds yet...
Mini Review Oddmar - An Acclaimed Mobile Platformer That Just About Holds Its Own On Switch
Inspector Norse
When Oddmar hit iOS and Android in 2018, it prompted many to proclaim its beautiful cartoon graphics and tight 2D platformer gameplay worthy of the Nintendo Switch itself. Now that Oddmar has hit the Nintendo eShop, we have a chance to put those lofty claims to the test. Do you know what? Those people were right, at least for the...
Review Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo - A Fine Shmup Selection, But Input Lag Remains An Issue
Continued delay
Just as Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is the companion game to the earlier release of Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha, what you're reading now should also be considered the companion to our earlier review of the latter title. We suggest, to help digest the full context of this review, that the reader also hop over and read this companion...
Review Murder By Numbers - Ace Attorney Meets Picross In This Engaging Detective Adventure
Holmes and Robotson
There's a lot going on in Murder By Numbers. Mediatonic's rather mad mashing together of Ace Attorney-esque sleuthing and Picross-style pixel puzzles manages to cover sexism in the workplace, divorce, suicide, overbearing parents, the dangers of social media, the vacuous and often sleazy nature of the Hollywood TV industry and,...
Review Boulder Dash 30th Anniversary - An Awkwardly-Ported Tribute That's For Fans Only
On the Rocks
It’s amazing to us that 2020 is only Boulder Dash’s 30th anniversary. In fact, come to think of it, that can’t possibly be right, because we remember this one back on the Apple II. Indeed, a quick glance online reveals that Boulder Dash was first released in 1984, which would make this Switch version Boulder Dash 36th Anniversary,...
Mini Review Spartan Fist - This ARMS-Style Brawler Fails To Pack A Punch
Not quite a knockout
Spartan Fist is described as a 'first-person puncher', and for better or worse, that's exactly what it is. Taking place within a series of procedurally-generated arenas, the game is reasonably fun for short bursts, but thanks to some dodgy controls and a distinct lack of variety, it ultimately fails to pack a punch. Taking...
Review Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX - Fun, But Only In Short Doses
Titled Zangoose Game
When it comes to Pokémon spin-offs, the Mystery Dungeon series is probably the lengthiest. For every short-lived game like Pokémon Dash or Pokkén Tournament, there’s a Mystery Dungeon title offering potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay. Of course, whether you’d actually want to play one of them for hundreds of hours...
Review Double Dragon & Kunio-Kun Retro Brawler Bundle - A Stunning Retro Collection
Come for the Dragons, stay for the Kunio
Being a Kunio fan in the West is tougher than the mean streets Kunio and his friends come from. We've had to endure butchered localizations and dozens of titles being missed because they were simply deemed “too Japanese for Western consumption”. In fact, even nowadays, few Western gamers might realise the...
Review Bloodroots - Wonderfully Flowing Combat Makes This Hotline Miami Rival Stand Out
Blood sport
Games like Hotline Miami and Katana Zero have become instant modern classics thanks to their razor-sharp and utterly addictive gameplay loops. Following hot on their heels is Bloodroots from developer Paper Cult, a supremely stylish, confident action title that encourages improvisation and experimentation at every turn as you take down...
Mini Review Hero must die. again - A Unique JRPG That's More Than The Sum Of Its Parts
What would you do with five days left to live?
It isn't the most cheerful game, but Hero must die. again is a fitfully fun and refreshingly unusual JRPG with a time management focus that's perfect for the flexibility of the Switch. See, the in media res opening scene depicts your intrepid hero defeating the Dark Lord, but suffering a fatal wound in...
Review SEGA AGES Puyo Puyo 2 - A Fun But Ultimately Forgettable Puzzler
Same Pu, different game
When we reviewed the Sega Ages version of Puyo Puyo, we wondered why Sega had decided to go with the very first game in the series, and not one of the numerous better sequels. Seven months later, Sega has responded – not to us, we’re not that big-headed – by going back to the Puyo Puyo well and this time giving us a...
Mini Review Ganbare! Super Strikers - Strategic Soccer Action That Will Be Too Sluggish For Some
Strategy fans will get a kick out of this
The beautiful game of football (or soccer for those across the pond) is generally known for its face-paced, high octane action. The players are constantly moving, constantly searching for that one crucial opening to find the back of the net. Ganbare! Super Strikers is an odd little duckling, then, as its...
Review Kitty Powers' Matchmaker - A Refreshingly Inclusive Dating Sim That Grows Stale Too Quickly
Love is in the air
Do you love watching Celebs Go Dating, Dinner Date and other mind-numbing entertainment on TV? Has it inspired you to start your own dating agency? Well, before you up-end your career and invest your life savings in becoming a professional cupid, how about investing in a Nintendo Switch game instead? And who better to mentor you...
Mini Review One Finger Death Punch 2 - A Brutally Rhythmic Brawler
Devastating left-right combo
For all of the hard work, physical preparation, and learned technique that goes into high-level combat sport, it's all about two basic things: hitting and not getting hit. It's an appropriate analogy with which to start a review of One Finger Death Punch 2, where an increasingly elaborate fighting game plays out through...
Review SEGA AGES Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - A Fantastic Game, But Who Hasn't Played It By Now?
Hogging the limelight
The Sega Ages series can evoke some strange reactions when it comes to game selection. There can be little denial that the series is at its best when it’s bringing us fantastic ports of Sega classics that don’t usually get the attention they deserve; the likes of Virtua Racing and Fantasy Zone are clear highlights so far...
Review Rune Factory 4 Special - The Definitive Version Of A Series Classic
"You're always welcome here"
The Harvest Moon series made quite a name for itself when it first released on the SNES in 1996, trading the typical combat-centric trappings of an RPG in favour of a much more laid-back and slower-paced focused on farming. Many sequels would follow in the coming years, and on the tenth anniversary, Marvelous produced an...
Mini Review Willy Jetman: Astromonkey's Revenge - A Fun Homage To The Classics Of Yore
Willy or won't he?
With a name like Willy Jetman, developer Last Chicken Games seems to be courting a nostalgic audience who fondly recall the ZX Spectrum adventures of Matthew Smith's Jet Set Willy and Rare's (née Ultimate Play the Game) Lunar Jetman. It's a tried and tested move to attract interest in a crowded digital marketplace, and frankly,...
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 Metro Redux - A Compelling Pair Of Amazing Horror Shooters
Apocalypse Now
Metro Redux unites a comprehensively overhauled Metro 2033 and its sequel Metro: Last Light in an excellent first-person survival horror package that's stuffed to the mutated gills with genuinely creepy stealth gameplay and a gripping story that sees protagonist Artyom make his way through the mutant-infested Metro deep beneath...
Review Metro: Last Light Redux - A Big-Budget FPS That's Right At Home On Switch
Half Light
Metro: Last Light Redux sees the first-person survival horror adventures of post-apocalyptic Metro ranger Artyom continue in a sequel that seeks to up the ante in terms of big-budget bombast. There are lots of OTT on-rails sections here and even a couple of traditional boss battles thrown into the traditional Metro mix, but it's when it...
Review Metro 2033 Redux - A Truly Astonishing Switch Port Of A Genre Classic
This is Sparta
When Metro 2033 originally released back in 2010, it was something of a graphical showcase that really put the latest consoles and custom-built gaming PCs through the wringer. Rebuilt from the ground up in 2014 for this enhanced 'Redux' edition in order to bring its visuals and gameplay more in-line with its sequel, Metro: Last Light,...