Tag: Reviews - Page 14
Review Unpacking (Switch) - An Emotive Experience, Beautifully Packaged On Switch
Living in a box
Videogames: pure escapism. Enact extreme, often immoral, experiences that you would never dare explore in real life: steal a car, murder hundreds of people, grow a moustache and stamp turtles to death. But Unpacking ups the ante: how would it feel to keep your cutlery in the second drawer down? Yes, a journey into the mind of a...
Review Blue Reflection: Second Light (Switch) - A Stunning-Looking Anime Adventure
Back-to-school days have never been this weird
There are few joys in life greater than a good mystery, but a mystery surrounding cute anime girls? That is even better. Blue Reflection: Second Light is the sequel to 2017’s Blue Reflection from developer Gust and publisher Koei Tecmo. This game sees a fresh cast of characters thrust into a new...
Review Voice Of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars (Switch) - Yoko Taro Deals An Impressive Card-Based RPG
A royal flush
Especially in more recent years, the eccentric Yoko Taro of Nier fame has made quite a name for himself as a game designer simply without an equal. Any project he works on is sure to be interesting and experimental in certain ways, and this trend has continued with his latest release: Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. Though this...
Review Just Dance 2022 (Switch) - Still Fun, But Feels More Like An Ad Than A Game
Love Story?
Ubisoft's Just Dance returns once again to give us our annual dose of disco boogie action, and there's absolutely zero surprises in Just Dance 2022 if you've ever played an entry in this series before. There's a fairly solid bit of dance fun to be had with this one, but it's also overwhelmingly familiar stuff that takes every opportunity...
Yawn of the Dead?
Saber Interactive's World War Z is the very definition of a bland, middle-of-the-road game that takes very obvious inspiration from much better titles – in this case the Left 4 Dead series – and serves up a rather lazy rehash, excelling at nothing in particular while still providing a reasonably breezy good time, so long as...
Review Shin Megami Tensei V (Switch) - The Best Entry Yet In This Dark, Engrossing RPG Series
A HEE-HOme run
Shin Megami Tensei V has been a long time coming. The last mainline entry in the series was released over eight years ago for the 3DS, while the last home console entry was another ten years before that. Moreover, Shin Megami Tensei V was one of the first games ever revealed for the Switch, mere months after the console itself was...
Review Demon Turf (Switch) - A Tight, Stylish 3D Platformer With Plenty Of 'Tude
Off the hook
If there’s one thing gamers constantly crave, it’s a decent 3D platformer. Though the genre has seen its fair share of all-time classics, it’s safe to say its popularity waned as shooters and action-RPGs ascended through the 2000s. Indeed, unless a 3D platformer comes bearing the name ‘Mario’, ‘Crash’, or ‘Spyro’,...
Review Pikmin Bloom - Pokémon GO's Sister Title Is A Glorious, Glorified Pedometer
These blooms were made for walkin'
While fans of Nintendo's delightful Real-Time Strategy series patiently await the long-rumoured next mainline entry, Niantic has served up a new mobile Pikmin experience to while away the time, an application that looks suspiciously similar to the company's previous project involving Nintendo (or a Nintendo-aligned...
Review Blazing Rangers (NES) - A New NES Game In 2021? Youbetcha, And It's A Good 'Un
Toasty!
Gaming is not short of NES-like experiences these days; titles filled with 8-bit-style blocky pixels, beepy music, and some controllable character for you to take from the left side of the screen to the right. These games tend to chase the past from a comfortable distance, the harsh technical restrictions of almost 40 years ago something to...
Review Mario Tennis (N64) - The Game That Gave Us Waluigi
Ace
This review originally went live in 2010, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. When Mario Golf was released back in 1999, it was already known that Camelot was working on another Mario sports title for the N64, and following a decent title released for the sadly ill-fated Virtual...
Review Sin And Punishment (N64) - A Genuine Treasure And No Mistake
Run-and-gun fun
This review originally went live in 2007, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Tiny Japanese developer Treasure has a back catalogue packed with classic titles, but one that sticks out more than most is Sin & Punishment. Released in the twilight days of the N64...
Review LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Switch) - Still One Of The Best Lego Games
With great power comes absolutely no responsibility
Long before Fortnite's metaverse and brands talking to each other on Twitter, there were the Lego games: winning combinations of a world-favourite kids' toy and some of the biggest movie franchises in the world. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Batman were all Lego-ified by UK-based...
Review Mario Kart 64 (N64) - Frantic, Formative Four-Player Karting Chaos
Welcome to Mario Kart
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Taking a bunch of Mario characters and having them speed around race circuits using a range of special items to rush or smash past each other is something that has worked very well since...
Review Yoshi's Story (N64) - Pleasant, But Not A Patch On The Dinosaur's Best
A pretty but short story
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. There's a lot to love about Yoshi's Story. The presentation is gorgeous, the mechanics are solid, the music is fantastic, and seeing a bunch of Yoshis wandering about remains adorable...
Review Star Fox 64 (N64) - A Cinematic Series High Point
Do another barrel roll
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Despite Star Fox 64 (or Lylat Wars in Europe) being only the second (released) game in the series, Nintendo decided it was time for a reboot and so, similarly to the SNES original, this...
Review Dusk (Switch) - An Incredible Port Of 2018's Quake-Inspired Boomer Shooter
Dusk and ye shall receive
Thank whichever deity (or prominent YouTuber, we guess) that you believe in for the "Boomer Shooter" explosion, and we mean explosion. Now that those who grew up on the original Quake (currently available in a very good edition on Switch) are themselves developers, we're seeing a bigtime resurgence of old-school style...
Review Super Mario 64 (N64) - The Best Launch Game Ever Made
Mario steps into a whole new dimension
Mario's first foray into the world of 3D is regarded by many — most, even — as one of the greatest video games of all time, and with good reason. It ranks as the first really convincing realisation of a 3D world in a platform game and it introduced the concept of analogue control to a generation of console...
Gross Negligee
A terrible way to play a very good game. That pretty much sums up our thoughts on this cloud version of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on Switch. Where we've previously rated cloud versions of the likes of Hitman 3 and The Forgotten City as worth your time and money — with the caveat that streaming has its inherent foibles —...
Review Mario Party Superstars (Switch) - A Party Most Hearty
Dad dancing mandatory
For years now fans of the Mario Party series have been pleading with Nintendo to just go back to the roots of what made the series great; no cars, no bizarre new modes, not just a collection of minigames that when presented in a vacuum lose all context or purpose — just Mario characters running around a board grabbing stars...
Review Fatal Frame: Maiden Of Black Water (Switch) - A Ghostly Wii U Treat Resurfaces On Switch
Maiden voyeurage
Were you to see a ghost cutting about, what would be your first instinct? Forgive us for this assumption, but we imagine it's probably not "take a polaroid of it", right? Tell that to the various heroes of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water — Project Zero in Europe — who seem to fancy themselves budding Sir Donald McCullins and...
Review The Legend Of Tianding (Switch) - Terrific Combat In An Intriguing Setting
Tanto-lising combat
It’s always a joy to see an under-represented culture or time period in video games. In The Legend of Tianding, you’re thrown into the streets of Taipei - the capital of Taiwan - during the early 20th century as the legendary outlaw, Liao Tianding. It’s a wonderfully authentic take with locations that feel remarkably alive...
Exactly what it says on the tin
We all worship the deluxe son et lumière of today’s games. Battles suck us in with explosive imagery, lavish cutscenes frame every encounter and voice artists declaim stories to rend our hearts. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing, then, if that were all shown to be a charade? If a game came along that created more...
Review Dying Light Platinum Edition (Switch) - A Solid Switch Port That'll Please Portable Players
Dead good
Note: Dying Light Platinum Edition is unavailable on Switch eShop in Europe at the time of writing pending an issue with the game being banned in Germany. In 2011, Techland released Dead Island on most seventh generation consoles to mostly positive reception. Still, Dead Island had never quite been the game that Techland envisioned it to...
Review Crysis 3 Remastered (Switch) - The Best-Looking But Shortest Game In The Trilogy
Game, Ceph and Match
The final instalment in Crytek's Crysis franchise is the best-looking of the bunch by quite some distance, a big budget action extravaganza that looks and sounds incredible as you blaze through its five hour long campaign. But can the Switch handle it? Well, we're happy to report that yes, it can. Saber Interactive has delivered...
Review Crysis Remastered Trilogy (Switch) - A Slick FPS Package That Runs Fine On Switch
Nothing to cry about
When we first heard that Crytek was bringing Crysis to Switch in remastered form, we seriously doubted that Nintendo's dinky little console could handle the stress of running this PC-melting behemoth, even if it was now 13 long years down the line in terms of technology. As our review of that game points out, however, we were...
Review Aeon Must Die! (Switch) - An Aggressively Repetitive Beat 'Em Up That Tries Way Too Hard
As long as it DOES die
Do you have that friend who'll compromise the enjoyment of the group in order to indulge their own ego? You know, the 'wacky' friend who not only has to do everything just a little differently, they need you to know that they're special and unique and out there and WILL YOU JUST ORDER A NORMAL COFFEE, CLIVE? Ahem, sorry...
Review Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute (Switch) - Great Games Let Down By Poor Ports
A slightly troublesome trio of tributes
This trio of retro shmups — Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang and Guardian Force — have released under the “Saturn Tribute” umbrella (bundled together on a physical cartridge in Japan that's recently been announced for the West, or available individually via your local eShop at the time of wr
Review The Good Life (Switch) - Cats, Dogs, And The Best Version Of Britain We've Seen Since Galar
She's more of a dog person
White Owls Inc. really buried the lede in their Kickstarter description of The Good Life. We’ll do the same here and see if you can spot it: The Good Life is a “daily-life debt repayment RPG” in which you play as an American woman in a pastoral English village, enjoying day-to-day activities such as taking...
Review Gang Beasts (Switch) - An Adorably Janky Brawler Arrives Late To The Switch Party
Boneless brawler
In the Party Game Hall of Fame, Gang Beasts is one of the OG big dogs, alongside Nidhogg, Jackbox, and Overcooked. Gang Beasts is a chaotic, wonky physics brawler that relies on the utter incomp-itude of its players to create mirth and merriment, and much like a massive chocolate cake or a puppy, it's always been a huge success...
Review Astria Ascending (Switch) - A Solid JRPG Salvaged With The Help Of Final Fantasy Veterans
Second time's the charm
In late 2015, a new game came to iOS called Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey, offering up a reasonably high-quality classic JRPG experience. Though it was originally slated to arrive in some form on the PlayStation consoles of the time, this console project never got off the ground and was subsequently cancelled. Now, that project has...
Review Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (Switch) - Still An Absolute Triumph On Switch
Where is my mind?
Every now and then, a game comes along that feels completely unique. Now, we know what you’re thinking: you’ve seen the same thing said about countless titles over the years — what makes this one so different? We get it; more often than not, when a game is described as ‘unique’, you can probably identify at least a few...
Mini Review A Juggler's Tale (Switch) - Stylish But With Some Strings Attached
I got no strings to hold me down
A Juggler's Tale will feel instantly familiar if you’re a fan of PlayDead’s Inside and Limbo. A narrative-driven 2.5D adventure game, A Juggler’s Tale share’s much of the same DNA as its critically acclaimed siblings (it even feels a bit too familiar at times). Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,...
Review Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Switch) - A Strong Platform Fighter With Polish Problems
It's better than bad, it's good
Licensed games have a history of being largely a bit pants. There are notable exceptions of course, but for every Goldeneye 007 or SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom there’s fistloads of the likes of M&Ms Kart Racing, Superman 64, and the Wii version of Iron Man.
Review SGC - Short Games Collection #1 (Switch) - It's All In The Name
Not really shorts weather
Gaming and gamers aren’t what they used to be. In the '80s, strict gatekeepers foisted action-flick-derivative moneyspinners on children; now, one-person indie devs suggest conceptual art experiences to midlife wage-slaves. Nerd Monkeys is hunting that time-poor customer with games “that you can play through from start...
Review Tetris Effect: Connected (Switch) - Mizuguchi's Masterpiece Finds Its Ideal Platform
Better connected
Has there ever been a more perfect marriage of hardware and software than Tetris and the Game Boy? Despite not being an original Nintendo IP, Tetris felt like it was made for the monochrome portable, and it's hard to imagine either of them being anywhere near as successful without the other. However, Tetris is very much its own...
Review Agatha Christie - Hercule Poirot: The First Cases (Switch) - More Visual Novel Than Puzzler
Compels me, though
Mystery fans will have been keeping an eye on Hercule Poirot: The First Cases following the frightful crime scene that was The ABC Murders. The Belgian detective’s latest arrival on Switch is again courtesy of French publisher Microids, but the developer this time is Blazing Griffin, who have engaged with the Ardennian gumshoe...
Review Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (Switch) - A Novel And Very Twee Paper Mario-Alike
Billy Yes Mates
We’ve seen some twee stuff here in the Nintendo Life zeppelin, but Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan may be the twee-est thing ever created by human hands. It’s so ruddy twee that it might as well have been coded by the Teletubbies, all crowded ‘round Po’s little belly computer trying to punch in line after line of...
Review Metroid Dread (Switch) - Quite Possibly The Best Metroid Game Ever Made
And the E.M.M.I. goes to...
After absolutely nailing its first shot at a Metroid adventure with 2017's Metroid II 3DS remake Samus Returns, Nintendo has given MercurySteam another bite at the cherry in which they've chosen to retain many of the unique gameplay elements of their last outing whilst adding a bunch of stealth. It's a risky manoeuvre,...
Review Aeon Drive (Switch) - Celeste Goes Cyberpunk In This Satisfying Speedrunner
Gotta go fast
Speedrunning has been an integral part of the gaming community for decades. People might lean on glitches or exploits to 'break' a game, but often it’s simply a case of learning the mechanics, inside and out, to nail down the most efficient route from A to B. Aeon Drive is all about speedrunning; that’s its hook, and it's a good...
Review Monster Crown (Switch) - Enjoyably Old-School Monster Battling For Pokémon Lovers
"I choose you... to read this contract!"
About three years ago, Studio Aurum pitched Monster Crown on Kickstarter, a monster-battling RPG which wasn’t shy about taking inspiration from a certain popular Game Freak franchise. After making over nine times as much money as the initial goal, the title then shifted to Early Access on PC, where it was...
Review FIFA 22 (Switch) - Another Match Abandoned
Getting a new game? Neuer not
“Fool me once,” the famous phrase goes, “shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” With FIFA 22, EA is attempting to fool us thrice, and although we haven't been able to find any official ruling on what this means, we’ve come to the conclusion that it basically rolls back to “shame on you” again...
Review Embr (Switch) - A Spark Of Co-Op Potential, But Never Catches Fire On Switch
In the line of fire
At first blush Muse Games' Embr put us in mind of riotous slapstick comedy titles such as Overcooked and Tarsier Games' excellent The Stretchers. This is a bright and colourful multiplayer-focused mess of firefighting carnage that also presents itself as a wry satirical take on the state of 21st Century capitalism. It's got the...
Romanes eunt domus
Note: Minor early-game spoilers feature in this review, so if you want to go in totally blind, skip down to the conclusion. Let's get the elephant in the room out of here before we begin. At this point in the year, the "Cloud Version" suffix is nothing new — and neither are the criticisms. The Forgotten City is a seriously...
Review UnMetal (Switch) - A Surprisingly Robust Metal Gear Parody Brimming With Ideas
UnFunny, but UnExpectedly good regardless
Comedy video games. This writer's blood runs cold just to think of them. In a medium that sees you define your own pace, how can comedy possibly work without fundamentally transforming the medium from interactive to inert? The comedy and the gameplay are necessarily completely separate and so few games have...
Review Lost In Random (Switch) - A Rich Audiovisual Treat With Inventive But Limited Combat
Finely diced
Lost in Random tells a story of two sisters, Even and Odd, who inhabit a fantastical storybook world of woollen chess pieces and steampunk teapots and the like. They’re separated by the Queen in accordance with a draconian tradition that sees children roll a dice on their twelfth birthday to determine their station for the rest of...
Review Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot + A New Power Awakens Set (Switch) - An Iconic Story Retold Well
A pleasant trip down Memory Lane
There are few characters in the world of anime more iconic than Goku, the Saiyan sent to Earth as a baby who eventually becomes one of the most powerful beings in the universe. His story has been told across almost every medium imaginable since his manga debut in 1984, including anime, video games, and the terrible...
Review Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch) - Utterly Essential Thanks To Aria Of Sorrow
You're out there playing your high class games
Konami has been bringing back some of their older Castlevania titles recently. While 2019's Castlevania Anniversary Collection focuses mostly on the “Classicvania” style of games (stage-based progression, limited lives), this one features the “Metroidvania” style (open-ended exploration, RPG...
Review Darksiders III (Switch) - A Poor Switch Port Of A Distinctly Average Series Entry
Hellish
We're pretty big fans of the Darksiders franchise here at Nintendo Life. These games may pilfer their core mechanics from all over the shop, and make no attempt to hide the fact in the process, but they're pure comfort food; cosy, familiar, resolutely old-fashioned in how they go about their business, and for the most part a lot of...
Review Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania (Switch) - Feature-Packed, But Far From Top Banana
"I really love bananas!" - AiAi
Super Monkey Ball is an incredibly simple idea: poor little monkeys are trapped in air-tight balls. They can probably breathe but it isn't specified, and all you have to do is roll them to the goal. Yet somehow the original two games and the expanded Deluxe compilation managed to take that premise and mould it into...
Review Knockout Home Fitness (Switch) - Too Limited And Lightweight To Be A Contender
Fails to pack a punch
The Switch is slowly but surely becoming home to a new dawn of fitness games. The success of Ring Fit Adventure has clearly inspired a new batch of keep-fit titles, with the likes of Fitness Boxing 2, Active Life Outdoor Challenge and even Nintendo’s limited release Jump Rope Challenge all vying for a piece of the fitness...
