Staff Profile
- Username
- SwitchVogel
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- News/Features
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- Avg. Review Score
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Hands On Getting Our Feet Wet With Trials of Mana
So far, so good
Trials of Mana is every bit one of those ‘lost classics’ that bafflingly never made it outside of Japan until recent times. The ‘90s were a fantastic time for RPG’s, yes, but their popularity on western shores was still not an entirely dependable factor, leading to developers not deeming it worth the cost of localizing many...
Review La-Mulana 2 - A Deep And Challenging Metroidvania For Your Switch
Passing the torch
As indie game development has massively ramped up over the past decade or so, there’s also been an equivalent rise in the popularity of the Metroidvania genre. We’ve seen countless fascinating examples of how elements of the genre can be bent or expanded upon to create amazing new experiences, but one of the finest examples of...
Review La-Mulana - Packed With Peerless Puzzles That Demand Dedicated Players
It belongs in a museum!
If there’s one element that it feels modern game design has largely left in the past, it’s mystery. There are some bastions of it still around today, such as the delightfully esoteric Dark Souls series, but most games these days just aren’t made to have impenetrable secrets. By that, we mean of the sort that can grind...
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...
Feature Oxenfree Developer On Mixing Up Demons, Drinks, And Drama In Afterparty
"We wanted to make something that felt [...] like an R-rated Pixar movie"
Just last week, Night School Studio put out Afterparty on the Switch, a release that we absolutely loved. The follow up to 2016's Oxenfree proves itself to be a worthy successor, mixing a darkly humorous story with a cutting edge focus on directly marrying cutscenes with...
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...
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...
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 Knights And Bikes - A Zelda-Style Adventure That's Perfect For Couch Co-Op
A Nessa-sary buy
There are few things on this earth as expansive and wonder-filled as the imagination of a child, and there are few games that can communicate this concept as effectively as Knights and Bikes. The latest release from Foam Sword – a studio comprised of some ex-Media Molecule staff – manages to perfectly convey the carefree and...
Review Code Shifter - This Forgettable Franchise Crossover Is A Missed Opportunity
By the numbers
Though it certainly occupies a niche, it’s tough to dispute the level of clout and influence held by Arc System Works. The studio positively thrives on 2D fighting games, with franchises like Guilty Gear and River City being among its more well-known work, and its 30+ year lifespan has seen the introduction of plenty of new games...
Review Arc of Alchemist - One Of The Worst RPGs To Hit Switch So Far
An unfortunate concoction
Say what you will about the overall quality of its output, but never let it be said that Compile Heart doesn’t love to make RPGs. The studio – best known for its successful Hyperdimension Neptunia series – has always been prolific, to say the least, but alas, it’s also developed a reputation for putting out many...
Review Puzzle & Dragons Gold - Sadly, Not Everything That Glitters Is Gold
An unfortunate misstep in a beloved series
The Puzzle & Dragons series has been a juggernaut in the mobile gaming space for close to a decade now, due in no small part to its distinctly satisfying blend of RPG elements with match-3 puzzle action. Even today, the series still routinely pulls grosses well into the billions, which has naturally led...
Feature Game Of The Decade Staff Picks - Xenoblade Chronicles
The game the fans asked for
Following on from our reader-voted Top 50 Games of the Decade, Nintendo Life staff members will be picking their personal favourite Nintendo games between the years 2010-2019. Today, Mitch argues his case for one of the Wii's final big releases... The year was 2011. After a long and successful run, Nintendo’s Wii...
Review Dauntless - A Monster Hunter Rival Which Suffers From Tech Issues On Switch
Join the hunt, for free
Back in 2004, Capcom released the first title in the Monster Hunter series for the PlayStation 2, kicking off a long and successful franchise while also creating something of a new RPG sub-genre. Since then, Capcom’s series has remained the undisputed king of this sub-genre, but many other players have arrived in recent...
Mini Review Five Nights at Freddy's 4 - A Surprisingly Scary Return To Form
Freddy comes home
Everyone can relate to that feeling of being a young child and hiding under the covers out of fear of the imaginary monsters under your bed or somewhere in the house. It’s that paradoxical feeling of both power and vulnerability that made such experiences so memorable; you were ‘safe’ as long as you were under the covers, but...
Review Shovel Knight Showdown - A Smash Bros. Challenger That's Perfect For Switch Parties
Have at you!
After completing its record-breaking Kickstarter run for Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games had its work cut out in terms of keeping the promises it made with stretch goals. The much-lauded three additional campaigns were what drew the most reaction from press and fans, but one other mode was announced which didn’t seem to grab nearly as...
Review Shovel Knight: King Of Cards - A Worthy Swan Song To A Legendary Platforming Series
The closing chapter of five years of shovelry
Nearly seven years ago, Yacht Club Games launched the Kickstarter for Shovel Knight, thus beginning the long journey towards building one of the most recognizable characters in the indie gaming space. After a record-breaking response from the community, not only did the game receive the funding it...
Review Five Nights at Freddy's 3 - Proof Of The Law Of Diminishing Returns
What could possibly go wrong?
By the time Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 came out, it had been just over half a year since the first game’s debut. The low budget feel and ongoing lore had solidified the series as a popular mainstay, although for many, a modicum of franchise fatigue was beginning to set in. Though each game features its own take on...
Review EarthNight - A Rewarding, Well-Presented Auto-Runner Lacking A Long Tail
A roaring good time
The auto-runner genre is one that’s typically associated with the mobile gaming space, where microtransactions and shallow gameplay are an expected burden. Indeed, some examples—such as Super Mario Run—have shown there can be a little more depth to the concept than one might assume, but nonetheless, these games have...
Review Five Nights at Freddy's 2 - A Sinister Sequel That Dials Up The Complexity
New location, same horrors
Five Nights at Freddy’s took the world by storm after its August 2014 release, yet series creator Scott Cawthon wasn’t one to simply rest on his laurels. A mere three months after the first game’s debut, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was available for purchase, offering an expanded and revised take on that basic cat...
Review Five Nights At Freddy's - Accessible Horror That Loses Its Edge Too Quickly
"The characters do tend to wander a bit..."
When it first launched in 2014, Five Nights at Freddy’s seemed for all the world like just another basic low-effort horror game; the sort of thing that wouldn’t make much of a splash in the broader gaming world. However, thanks to the help of some popular YouTube creators and a rapid-fire succession of...
Review Romancing SaGa 3 - A JRPG Classic That's Often Quite Hard To Love
"You and me could write a bad romance"
It would take years to fully play through the entirety of Square Enix’s seemingly bottomless back catalogue of RPGs, and though the company is best known for genre stalwarts such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, there’s also a staggering number of ‘other’ offerings that – for some reason or another...
Feature Hopoo Games On Bringing Risk of Rain 2 To The Switch
Coming soon to a storeshelf near you
Earlier this fall, Hopoo Games opted to release Risk of Rain 2 on the Switch and its fellow console brethren, setting another milestone moment in the long and ongoing development cycle that's been taking place since the title entered early access on PC in March. We were quite pleased with the build that was made...
A story about one very curious Kat
The Professor Layton series is one that’s defined puzzling on Nintendo handhelds ever since the early days of the DS. Since 2007, we’ve received two trilogies and two spinoffs starring the eponymous professor, but declining sales and a general sense of stagnation seemed to have scared Level-5 off from...
