Staff Profile
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Review Doom II - It's Hell On Earth With This Devilishly Playable Switch Port
Ah Hell, here we go again
Not only did Bethesda grace the Switch eShop with the presence of Doom recently, it also saw fit to give us its similarly-adored sequel too (as well as Doom 3, but we’ll get to that). At first glance, Doom II looks like a carbon copy of its predecessor but it’s got a little more than that going on, to the extent that...
Review Doom - Blasting Hellspawned Demons Like It's 1993, All Over Again
Hell switches over
There are few games as genre-defining as Doom. While it didn’t invent the first-person shooter, it came early enough in the life of the FPS and was such a monumental leap forward that most people associated the genre with Doom for years (if not decades) after its release. Heck, it even got name-checked in an episode of the...
Review Automachef - Considerably More Complex Than Using A Microwave
Rice of the Machines
Given that Team17 has already enjoyed huge success with Overcooked and Overcooked 2 – both of which are available on the Switch – you’d be forgiven for initially thinking that Automachef was more of the same; an attempt to tweak the format a little and keep dining out (ahem) on what it knows is already working. This...
Review Rise: Race The Future - Imagine Anti-Gravity Ridge Racer, And You're Close
Just a lonely drifter
There isn’t a day goes by when we don’t pray that Bandai Namco finally snaps out of it and realises the Switch needs a new Ridge Racer game. The series’ arcade-style, drift-heavy racing action would be perfect on Nintendo’s system, but alas, we’ve heard nothing despite rumours early last year. So when we were told...
Review Etherborn - A Work Of Art Hampered By Its Own Brilliance
Super Malevich Galaxy
At its core, the game is a puzzle platformer in which the central aim is straightforward: reach the end of each stage by activating various switches and avoiding dangerous obstacles along the way. Naturally though, it isn’t quite as simple as that, and that’s because of Etherborn’s other central mechanic: your ability to...
Review Dr. Mario World - A Fun Puzzler That Really Comes Alive In Online Multiplayer
A National Wealth Service
It’s a well-kept secret that the WiiWare version of Dr. Mario is one of the greatest online multiplayer games ever released on a Nintendo system. The series may have originally launched on the NES back in 1990, but it was that release of Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (AKA Dr. Mario Online Dx) on the Wii that absolutely...
Review SEGA AGES Wonder Boy: Monster Land - When RPG Meets Arcade Platformer
The boy is back in town
By this point, anyone familiar with the Sega Ages series should already know what to expect: a flawless port of a single game from Sega’s history, complete with a few tweaks and updates here and there to provide the ultimate version of that game. Wonder Boy: Monster Land is the latest offering from Sega and developer M2,...
Review SEGA AGES Virtua Racing - A Truly Historic Remaster Effort By M2
It’s hip to be square
The Sega Ages series has quickly established itself as the premium name when it comes to retro gaming on the Switch. While each release is generally more expensive than other old-school offerings on the system, it’s worth it for the pristine emulation, the extreme attention to detail and the way developer M2 improves each...
Review Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled - A Karting Treat For Fans And Newcomers Alike
It’s got loads in it (literally)
Although it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a Mario Kart 9 any time soon, the Switch is starting to grow its own roster of licensed karting games in a way not seen since the GameCube days. Just last month we got Team Sonic Racing, for example, and even though the likes of Nickelodeon Kart Racers and Hello...
Review Contra Anniversary Collection - Run 'N Gun Perfection
Gunning for glory
And so we come to the end (for now) of Konami’s triple helping of retro compilations. After giving us an arcade collection that was heavy on the shooters and a Castlevania collection that celebrated the spooky series’ early days, the same treatment has now been given to the Contra series, which offers some of the finest run...
Review Team Sonic Racing - A Safe Effort Which Lags Well Behind Mario Kart 8
Triple Trouble
It’s all well and good releasing karting games on Sony and Microsoft’s consoles, but it takes a big old set of Sonic Spinballs to try launching one on Mario’s home turf. If anyone’s shown it’s capable of this, though, it’s Sheffield-based studio Sumo Digital. Very few developers have perfected the art of arcade-style...
Review Castlevania Anniversary Collection - You'll Want To Get Your Teeth Into This
Whip it good
Konami recently kicked off its trio of Anniversary Collection compilations with an assortment of arcade shooters that, while certainly classics, were let down by limited emulation options (though since then Konami has confirmed it’ll be fixing most of our concerns with a patch). Now it’s time for the second helping, this time aimed...
Review Table Top Racing: World Tour - Nitro Edition - A Likeable Racer, But Beware The Switch Tax
Shrink my ride
The concept of miniature cars driving around dinky tracks is nothing new: ‘90s gamers were treated to the Micro Machines series back in the day and they were generally well received. Despite the obvious novelty factor though, modern takes on the idea are few and far between, meaning any time a new one rears its head it instantly...
Review Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection - Perfectly Functional, But Not Much Else
Shoot past the castle
Not content with sitting back and watching the likes of Sega, Capcom, Nintendo et al releasing retro compilations, Konami’s decided to get in on the act too. To celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, the big K is launching a trio of anniversary collections. The Castlevania and Contra collections will be coming in the...
Review Cuphead - The Xbox Masterpiece Becomes An Essential Purchase On Switch
It’s a mug’s game
It’s a well-known fact that teamwork makes a dream work. Console wars are all well and good, but when great games are made available on multiple systems, the ultimate winner is the player. The recent love-in we’ve been seeing between Nintendo and Microsoft started a while back when Minecraft was released on Nintendo...
Review My Time At Portia - An Engaging Life Sim That Will Eat Up Your Spare Time
Take a load on
The life sim genre is fairly under-represented on Switch. We’re still eagerly awaiting the arrival of Animal Crossing, and the only Harvest Moon game on the system is a half-hearted affair that doesn’t really do the old Marvelous-developed games justice. At the moment, the only real heavyweight available is Stardew Valley, but...
Review GALAK-Z: The Void: Deluxe Edition - The PS4 Cult Classic Goes Portable
It’s Macross to bear
Last year, Seattle-based developer 17-Bit released GALAK-Z: Variant S, a free-to-play Switch sequel to its much-loved 2015 PS4 game GALAK-Z: The Dimensional. While Variant S was reasonably well-received, its freemium-style timers and more restrictive stages meant most fans of the original felt this Switch follow-up was a...
Review SEGA AGES Alex Kidd In Miracle World - A Cult Platforming Classic, Tastefully Reimagined
Can’t Kidd a kidder
In an alternate timeline, Alex Kidd could have remained Sega’s mascot, instead of being unceremoniously dumped by Sega in favour of the much cooler Sonic the Hedgehog and forced into early retirement (a retirement that’s now lasted nearly three decades). Just think: if things had been different and Sonic had never been...
Review Aragami: Shadow Edition - What We Do In The Shadows
Sadly not about a ninja folding up paper
Stealth is a difficult thing to get right in gaming, and it’s something developers have been trying to nail for decades. Do you go down the GoldenEye route and encourage the player to sneak around while still giving them the option to go all guns blazing should they so desire? Or do you go for a strictly...
Review SEGA AGES Out Run - A Fantastic Update Of One Of Arcade Gaming's True Greats
The allure of the open road
Out Run is the greatest, most influential arcade racing game ever made. There, we said it. Yes, there have been other classics over the years: Daytona USA, Ridge Racer, Virtua Racing, Let’s Go! Jungle and the like. (Okay, maybe not that last one.) But no game has meant as much to the genre as Out Run. Back in 2015,...
Feature How One Nintendo Christmas Shaped The Rest Of My Life
Chris Scullion recounts how the NES altered his destiny one festive morning
It was the summer of 1987. My aunt had fallen in love with an American chap and moved to the States to marry him and live there. And so, my family – including a 4-year-old me – flew out from Scotland to Parma, Ohio to visit them during the summer. That was when I saw...
Review Battle Princess Madelyn - An Aimless Adventure Redeemed By Its Fantastic Arcade Mode
Girls ‘n Ghosts
Causal Bit Games founder Chris Obritsch loved playing Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, and his daughter Madelyn loved watching him. One day Madelyn explained that she wished she could be in the game but “girls can’t be knights”, so her dad decided to work with her to make a game in which she was the star, to show that girls can indeed be...
Review V-Rally 4 - A Bumpy Ride That Will Only Reward Dedicated Motorsport Fans
Its roots are showing
The Switch isn’t lacking when it comes to racing games, but there’s one particular subsection of the genre in which it’s been left wanting so far: rally games. The current king of rally in the gaming world is Codemasters, but it’s been slow to support the Switch and its first offering (coming in 2019) will be a port of...
Review Atari Flashback Classics - This Dusty Collection Sadly Opts For Quantity Over Quality
Going old, old, old school
Usually, when it comes to retro gaming compilations we tend to see two schools of thought: quality or quantity. The former usually consist of a modest helping of games, but each is given lots of care and attention and supported with heaps of extra content. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and the recent SNK 40th...
