Tag: Reviews - Page 20
Review Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty - A So-So Remake Of A Legendary Game
Maybe Abey
What a difficult game to review. Yes, yes, you're thinking. It must be so hard for you to review a well-received remake of a beloved classic. But, you see, it is, because Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty does so much wrong and is in many ways so utterly redundant that it's difficult to keep a cool head when approaching it. Here's the thing; there...
Review Disc Room - A Meat Grinder Of A Game Which Packs A Real Challenge
My god, it's full of discs
In 1977, the United States launched the Voyager program, in which NASA launched two probes into deep space as a sort of “bottle into the cosmic ocean”. Aboard these two probes, golden phonograph discs were included bearing images and sounds relevant to all cultures and forms of earthly life, and these were placed...
Review Angry Video Game Nerd 1 & 2 Deluxe - A Double-Dose Of Accomplished Platforming Action
Don't get angry
There’s a reason that James Rolfe’s Angry Video Game Nerd character has outlasted and out-performed so many imitators – the veneer of showmanship and the pantomimed, goofy, insincere anger are worlds apart from the genuine venom spewed by those he seems to have influenced. The Nerd isn’t a dangerous, hateful entity – he’s...
Review Green Hell - A Brutal And Rewarding Open-World Survival Sim
Welcome to the Jungle
If you're a fan of relentlessly brutal open-world survival sims that fling you sans ceremony into a dangerous wilderness full of death and danger, then Creepy Jar's Green Hell might just be right up your street. Here is a survival effort that sticks admirably to its core conceit, never once allowing you an unearned foothold in...
Review Wallachia: Reign Of Dracula - Contra Meets Castlevania In This Excellent Action Title
Vampire slaying meets running-and-gunning
French studio Migami Games made a name for itself with excellent Castlevania fan games like The Lecarde Chronicles 1 and 2, but fan games don’t keep the lights on or put food on the table, so the team has understandably embraced commerci
Review Oceanhorn 2: Knights Of The Lost Realm - A Likeable But Ultimately Shallow Zelda Clone
Knight fever
It goes without saying that the early months of the Switch saw the new console effectively being defined as a portable Breath of the Wild machine that you could also maybe play other games on if you really wanted to. Still, those who snooped around the eShop could find some gems that were certainly worth a punt, and one of those early...
Review Pikmin 3 Deluxe - Perhaps Not Worth A Double Dip, But The Choice Pick For New Players
Wii say U want a resolution
As each month passes the Wii U becomes less and less relevant, as most of its first-party library continues to be lifted up, piece by piece, and carried over to the Switch. Why, it’s almost like what Pikmin do – DO YOU GET WHERE WE’RE GOING WITH THIS? Pikmin 3 Deluxe is Nintendo’s attempt at a definitive port of...
Review Transformers: Battlegrounds - Accessible Turn-Based Action That's For Noobs Only
Bah weep grana weep Ninty bong
Hot on the heels of fellow Hasbro license G.I. Joe comes this turn-based tactical outing for those robots that take on the form of mack trucks, massive pistols, sheds and benches, the Transformers! Given the sheer love fans have for the series, Transformers: Battlegrounds has a lot to live up to – even more so when...
Review The Red Lantern - A Survival-Focused Roguelite In Which Luck Plays Too Big A Part
What do forests and dogs have in common? Bark.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that every dog in possession of a big fluffy coat must be in want of belly rubs. At least, that's the thesis behind the wildly successful Twitter account, "Can You Pet The Dog", which judges games the only way they deserve to be judged: by whether or not the...
Review Supraland - A Playful Platformer With Squandered Potential
A sandbox of missed potential
Sometimes a game’s overambition can be to its detriment, and Supraland is a prime example of this. The game is a disappointing tale of clear purpose and great ideas that, unfortunately, does not create an enjoyable product. While it is impressive that the game was created by only two developers, Supraland feels closer...
Review HyperBrawl Tournament - A Fun And Frantic Arcade Handbrawler
The Beautiful Maim
Milky Tea's HyperBrawl Tournament sees teams of futuristic handbrawlers compete in chaotic 2v2 matches where they duke it out — literally kicking, punching, stabbing and hammering each other into submission — in order to stick a great big metal ball into each other's neon nets for a GOOOOOOOAL! It's Speedball blitzed with...
Review Tennis World Tour 2 - A Promising Seed With Far Too Many Faults
John McEnwoe
Let's forget the warm-up and jump straight to the first serve, shall we? Tennis World Tour 2 demands a level of precision from its players that it simply isn't capable of facilitating. This is a sombre and serious tennis sim that bases its take on the sport around the perfect timing of shots and their precision placement on court. It's...
Review G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout - Bland, Forgettable Saturday Morning Fare
G.I. No
There was a huge red flag right from the off, when G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout had not been accurately renamed Action Force: Operation Blackout for a British audience. We don’t want to be reminded of the incredibly crap films, we want to be reminded of the brilliant IPC comic Battle, and its Action Force strips that eventually spun off...
Review Pumpkin Jack - The Perfect Platforming Treat For The Spooky Season
Tonnes of skele-fun
We don’t know about you, but Halloween is one of our favourite times of the year. Autumn is in full force, supermarkets are littered with skeletons and pumpkins, and it’s possibly the only time of year where it’s acceptable to watch The Exorcist on repeat while gorging on Toblerone (although you'll forgive us if that's been...
Review GONNER2 - Another Way To Die In An Increasingly Crowded Genre
I live, I die, I die some more
It’s been three years since GoNNER dropped on Switch, a game we thought pretty highly of. Bringing us a challenging 2D platformer with rogue-like mechanics, it told the story of Ikk, our altruistic blob-like hero that set out to help a land-bound whale called Sally. Placing us in a series of procedurally generated...
Review MindSeize - Slick Mega Man Zero-Style Action Jammed Into A Metroidvania
Nothing to Seize at
When it’s in full flow, MindSeize has the flair and feel of Mega Man Zero. And believe us, that’s not something we’d say lightly, considering that Capcom’s beloved handheld series remains at the apex of 2D action gameplay. There’s a similarity in certain aspects of the game’s design, but mostly in its mechanics and...
Review Crown Trick - A Refreshingly Slow-Paced, Turn-Based Rogue-Like Adventure
Crowning Glory?
Roguelikes and roguelites have a tendency to throw players through their shapeshifting gauntlets of murder and death at a rather frenetic pace. Recent popular examples, such as Hades and Dead Cells, really emphasise this almost uniform focus on speed and it's one that's quite understandable in a genre where repetition is such a...
Review Horace - A Heart-Warming Nostalgia Trip And Must-Play Masterpiece
Horace doesn't go skiing
The name “Horace” has cultural cachet in the world of British retrogaming, and we can’t help but believe that the evocation thereof is very, very intentional on the Horace developers’ part. After all, their game is steeped in nostalgia; the pop culture of days past infuses Horace from its opening nod to Thames TV’s...
Review Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut - Showing Its Age, But Still A Fun Ride
Risky click of the day
Though Shantae has become a mainstay in recent years, it wasn’t too long ago that this franchise was scarcely more than a niche curiosity. The original Shantae was an indie game in a time before indie games were in vogue, and its release at the very end of the Game Boy Color’s lifespan didn’t do it any favors in...
Review Cloudpunk - An Evocative Noir Adventure Ruined By A Messy Switch Port
Blade Scunner
Nivalis, the futuristic metropolis in which the events of Cloudpunk take place, really is the heart and soul of Ion Lands' captivating "neon noir" adventure game. A wonderfully evocative voxel art city, it immediately transports us to a future that so precisely recalls the neon-drenched storefronts, rain-soaked streets and seedy...
Review ScourgeBringer - A Gripping, Tough-As-Nails Roguelite For Dead Cells Fans
Bring the Pain
Do you love a properly hard challenge? Do you thrive in hostile and punishing game environments where constant death is an expected and necessary part of the cycle? Well then, Flying Oak Games' ScourgeBringer might just be right up your street. Here we have a tough as nails roguelite that funnels its players through a never-ending...
Review The Survivalists - Surprisingly Light On Danger
At first I was afraid, I was petrified
The Survivalists is not the most enticing title that Team17 could have gone with for this one. Yes, it sets the stage for this follow-up to The Escapists in keeping with its traditional nomenclature, but they really should have front-loaded the monkey butlers, and called the game – for example – Monkey...
Review Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed - Flashy Fighting Ruined By Basic Gameplay And A Lack Of Content
Into the Zoid
This new Switch release takes us on a trip down memory lane to the world of Zoids, Tomy's massive mechanical animals and their mad human riders who've been doing the rounds since all the way back in 1984. Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed, which originally released as Zoids Wild: King of Blast in Japan last year, ties into the long-running...
Review Hardcore Mecha - Thrillingly Overblown Anime-Style Robot Action
Mechnificent
If you're a fan of great big robots mercilessly smashing each other's massive metal heads in – and let's face it, who isn't? – then RocketPunch Games' superbly stylish 2D side-scroller Hardcore Mecha would like a very loud word. This is an absurdly overwrought anime adventure spread across a solid seven-hour campaign which sees you...
Review Ben 10: Power Trip! - An Underwhelming Adaptation Of A Cartoon Favourite
It's hero time
The Ben 10 franchise is one of the most popular productions from Cartoon Network, with a fourteen-year run that’s spanned five iterations of the TV show, with the current one being a reboot of the first show. As one would expect of a multimedia franchise such as this, a litany of video game adaptations (of varying quality) have been...
Review Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit - A Joyful Fusion Of Reality And Fiction
Built it and they will come
Nintendo products have always had a certain magic about them. From the earliest examples, such as the simplistic-yet-addictive Game & Watch handhelds, to more recent offerings like the motion-driven Wii, touch-focused DS or cardboard-based Labo, the Japanese veteran has a genuine knack for creating toys which raise a...
Review I Am Dead - A Quirky Adventure That's Pleasantly Rewarding, Despite Its Faults
Dead good
I am dead. I am dead. I am dead. At the risk of getting a bit dark, that has quite a ring to it, doesn’t it? A lovely little get-out for those unwanted conversations, invitations and generally being approached by anyone at all. “What do you think of this political climate?” “I am dead.” “Oh, sorry mate. Didn’t realise. Never...
Review Projection: First Light - A Brilliant Game Cruelly Betrayed By Poor Mechanics
Meant for Greta things
Oh, what a heartbreaker Projection: First Light is. It starts off so well. The opening sequence is a marvellous showcase of intelligently-crafted, dialogue-free storytelling, utilising the game's striking shadow puppetry art style to brilliant effect as your heroine, Greta, chases an effervescently glowing butterfly through...
Review AVICII Invector Encore Edition - A Fitting Tribute To A Much-Missed Musical Talent
Nintendo SVICII
The music of sadly-deceased electronic musician Avicii didn’t initially strike us as a great match for a rhythm action game. The marriage of a single contemporary artist with the medium of video games gives us PTSD flashbacks to The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Thankfully, unlike Will.I.Am and Fergie’s barely-listenable dreck,...
Review Ikenfell - A Magical Little Turn-Based RPG Adventure With Charm To Spare
Bewitched
There's certainly no shortage of turn-based RPGs available on Switch these days and an even greater number of retro-pixel indie efforts that present their strategic adventures in an increasingly overused 8 or 16-Bit graphical style. Honestly, we love them really but it can definitely feel a little wearisome at times prepping yourself to...
Review UnderHero - A Solid Anti-RPG Platformer With An Eye For Undertale
Zero to Hero
Five years ago, the indie gaming scene was changed forever with the release of Undertale, a sort of ‘Anti-RPG’ that focused on mocking traditional RPG tropes as much as it did celebrating them. Suffice to say, it resonated with a lot of people and it’s clear that the uniquely unconventional design had no small effect on UnderHero...
Review FIFA 21 - EA Insults Switch Owners Yet Again With This Half-Baked Effort
Don't spend your Mané on this
Okay, enough's enough. Ever since EA first brought the FIFA series to the Switch with FIFA 18, Nintendo fans have been given a lesser version of the game seen on other systems. At first, we gave EA the benefit of the doubt and put it down to the challenges of porting a game to a less powerful system with a user base...
Review Let's Sing Queen - Makes The Rockin' World Go 'Round
Play The Game
When Freddie Mercury first penned Bohemian Rhapsody back in 1975, there's no way he could possibly have known the monumental challenge he was laying at the feet of Let's Sing Queen players some forty-five years down the timeline. Fair enough, the first half of the song isn't so bad – and let's face it, we've all cranked out "I...
Review Prinny 1•2: Exploded and Reloaded - Masochistic Platforming That's Rough Around The Edges
The dood abides?
The best thing about Prinny 1•2: Exploded and Reloaded, a collection of Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? and Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!, is that game reviewers are paid by the word. Just that opening sentence has earned enough to buy several Wispa Golds, or your comfort food of choice. And you’ll need comforting...
Review Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix - A Massive Improvement On The Terrible Original
Happy Happy Joy-Con Joy-Con
We’re afraid we've got some bad news for you. If you opened this review expecting a typically sarcastic put-down of the latest half-hearted karting game with a cartoon licence cynically slapped onto it, you’re going to be deeply disappointed. Turns out this one's actually quite good. To be fair, you'd be forgiven for...
Review Warsaw - A Brutal Experience Which Proves War Is Hell
Wojna to piekło
Waaaaarsaaaaaw. Lovely woody word, Warsaw. Almost worth a point or two by itself. It's a shame that such an enjoyable word to say has been attached to such a downer of a game as this. Don't get us wrong, that's not a knock on Warsaw's (Waaaarsaaaaw's) quality; it's a polished production through and through, and its component parts...
Review Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! - An Odd Change Of Direction For A Classic Series
Kawase Kawa-sah Ba-ba-zoo-ka
Stumbling across the original Umihara Kawase for Super Famicom many years ago, we never thought it was the sort of thing that would become such a recurring series. Following traditional entries on PlayStation and 3DS (as well as a clutch of reissues and appearances in Blade Strangers and Crystal Crisis), you’d be...
Review CastleStorm II - A Legitimately Great Game Hobbled By Poor Execution
Storm's coming
Zen Studios has always had a bit of an issue with being typecast as ‘that pinball studio’. To be fair, the studio has done a tremendous job in designing the dozens of tables in its Pinball FX line, but that’s far from the only thing the team works on. The most notable of these ‘other’ projects is Castlestorm, a fusion...
Review Lost Ember - An Artistic Experience That Fails To Live Up To Its Potential
More aggravating than art
To different people, video games can represent different things. Some play games for their challenges, others play them for a good time, and some play it for an emotional experience. Lost Ember attempts to cater to an audience looking for an artistic, story-driven game, yet unfortunately fails to create an engaging piece of...
Review Rivals of Aether - A Surprisingly Complex Alternative To Smash Bros.
Earth, wind and fire (and water)
After diving into the unmitigated disaster that is Bounty Battle just recently, we can't say we were particularly enamoured with the idea of slogging our way through yet another Smash Bros.-esque indie fighting effort quite so soon. However, Rivals of Aether is an experience that's just about as far removed from that...
Review Goosebumps Dead Of Night - Survival Horror For Kids That's Far Too Short
Reader beware, you're in for a meh
It's embarrassing to admit this, but Goosebumps Dead of Night can be – on the rare occasion – a touch frightening. Given that the books and films (upon which this game is based) were about as scary as rocket salad, we were rather surprised to find this outing to be genuinely – whisper it – quite atmospheric...
Review The Long Dark - Just Like Real Life, Nature Is Your Enemy Here
I am just going outside and may be some time
Playing The Long Dark made us feel cold. Sure, the longer nights are slowly drawing in, but this ambitious port of Hinterlands' 2017 survival hit exudes such a frosty atmosphere that we were reaching for the blankets. The stylised visuals, muted use of colour and the sheer pitch-black oppression of the...
Review Super Mario Bros. 35 - A Six-Month Jolt Of Life For An Iconic Classic
The sweetest plumb
The original Super Mario Bros. has been officially re-released no fewer than 19 different times over its 35-year history. From graphical updates (Super Mario All-Stars) to handheld upgrades (Super Mario Bros. Deluxe), to various Virtual Console re-releases and most recently its inclusion in Switch Online’s NES catalogue, if...
Review Trollhunters: Defenders Of Arcadia - WayForward Take A Big Step WayBack
You're trolling us, surely?
Aliens: InfestationCall off the hunt, the trolls have been located. Somehow they have infiltrated WayFoward, usually purveyors of fine digital entertainment, and forced them to create this, the drabbest platformer in recent memory. Worse, it is cynically wrapped in the skin of a TV show that is, by all accounts,...
Review Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ - A Solid And Compelling Dungeon-Crawler
Dead ringer for love
It’s been a long road to release for Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~. The project first sought funding via Kickstarter back in 2015 and initially failed to meet its modest goal, but the ex-NIS America staff of developer Mr. Tired Media were convinced that there was an audience for this game and remained determined to see it...
Review Alwa's Legacy - One Of The Best Metroidvanias We've Seen On Switch So Far
A legacy to be proud of
A couple of years ago, Elden Pixels put out Alwa’s Awakening, a nice sort of throwback Metroidvania that built a quality experience around a few well-designed ideas. It didn’t exactly light up the charts, but Alwa’s Awakening still managed to amass a small following, one which Elden Pixels tapped last November went it...
Review Ys Origin - An Awesomely Accessible And Amiable Action RPG
Eesey peasy
Nihon Falcom's Ys (pronounced "eese") been around since the days of the PC-8800, but only now are we seeing this formative tale in the enormously popular saga. Well, technically, a lot of people already saw it in 2006 when it originally released, or 2012 when it was initially localised. Thankfully, now it's on the Switch we can see that...
Review Kirby Fighters 2 - A Brilliant Bite-Sized Alternative To Super Smash Bros.
Kirby sucks, but this doesn't
You don’t need us to tell you this, but Nintendo makes some strange decisions sometimes. The latest example of this is Kirby Fighters 2, a digital-only fighting game that was stealth-dropped onto the eShop without any warning, promoted with a couple of tweets then generally abandoned (at least at the time of writing)...
Review Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - Deliciously Daring Dogfighting In The Depths Of Space
You've got your mother in a whirl
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, Double Damage Games' prequel to 2015's Rebel Galaxy, brings a much-needed slice of old-school space sim action to Switch with swagger and style to spare. Following the fortunes of battle-hardened rebel Juno Markev, whose husband has been murdered and ship destroyed as she escapes an attempt on...
Review Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York - One For The Bookworms Out There
Nintendosferatu
There are visual novels, and there are visual novels. Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York joins the likes of Phoenix Wright and the not-yet-on-Switch Danganronpa series in marrying the visual novel form with its second-most prominent genre, that of detective work. What's the most prominent? I'll tell you when you're older...
