Tag: Reviews - Page 35
Review Duck Game - A Frantic Multiplayer Mess That Makes For A Quacking Good Time
Duck, Duck, GUN!
As far as video game titles go, there are few as self-explanatory as Duck Game. It’s a title so simple that we wouldn’t be able to come up with a better one no matter how hard we tried. Quackers has unfortunately already been taken by American chain restaurant Chuck-e-Cheese and Duck Hunt is a Nintendo classic. With all the...
Review The Swords of Ditto: Mormo's Curse - A Roguelike Take On Zelda
Alright, let's do this again...
Those of you that go to the trouble of connecting the ‘timeline’ of the Legend of Zelda series are no doubt aware of how there’s a sort of meta-narrative at play, in which the hero and villain are locked in an endless battle that reignites when they’re both reborn in new generations. The Swords of Ditto:...
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 Picross S3 - More Of The Same, But We're Not Complaining
Now with colour!
There are three constants in this world, it seems – Death, Taxes, and Picross sequels. Nintendo’s long-running puzzle franchise has now seen a whopping 33 entries and shows no signs of stopping, even though little has changed in the core gameplay of the main entries. But perhaps that’s the primary strength of Picross;...
Review Shadows Of Adam - A Short But Sweet Throwback To The Glory Days Of 16-Bit JRPGs
AP as Larry
Once upon a time, traditional JRPGs were ten a penny. Even a few generations ago we were inundated with riffs on that very familiar formula, from Shadow Hearts to Shin Megami Tensei and beyond. Today, that recipe has evolved in all manner of directions leaving those more classic JRPGs as more curio than common. In both gameplay and...
Review Beyond Enemy Lines: Covert Operations - A Tragic FPS That's Beyond Hope
Bullet to the head
The heart feels a slight flutter every time a new FPS hits the eShop. Is this it? Could this be the game that firmly cements the genre on Nintendo Switch? We’ve had some impressive attempts thus far (Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and DOOM), some decent offerings (Payday 2 and Paladins) and some average at
Review Giga Wrecker Alt. - A Puzzle-Solving Mega Man-alike From Pokémon Masters Game Freak
She's gonna wreck it!
Despite the fact it's often working on the next entry in the eternal cultural phenomenon that is Pokémon, Game Freak every so often takes the time to cleanse its creative palette with something that doesn't involve pocket-based monsters. The most recent of its side forays was Giga Wrecker, which smashed its way onto PC two...
Review Cytus α - A Wonderfully Tight Rhythm Game That Really Sings On Switch
Hitting all the right notes
It’s pretty safe to say that we’ve been feeling rather hyped to give Cytus α a try ever since it was first announced for Switch. The game comes from Rayark, a Taiwanese indie developer which has already brought both VOEZ and Deemo to Switch in the last couple of years, following their rhythm-based footsteps right to...
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 BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! - A Challenging Little Puzzle-Platformer That Ticks Most Of The Boxes
Boxing clever
The original BOXBOY! trilogy proved to be one of the quiet triumphs of the 3DS era. These unassuming puzzle-platformers might have lacked the visual fireworks or the 3D gimmicks of some of their contemporaries, but they more than made up for that with a fresh concept and rock solid level design. We're delighted that HAL Laboratory has...
The Starter's the best part of this virtual meal
It would be fair to say that the initial Labo kits divided Nintendo fans. The company’s cardboard caper seemed, on the one hand, to be utterly, uniquely Nintendo, but also exasperated some gamers who saw Switch as a belated return to ‘proper’ games after a decade of Wii-based whimsy. When...
Review Mortal Kombat 11 - A Satisfying Dose Of Comic Hyper-Violence Despite Loot Balance Issues
Fighting dirty
It's bizarre to think that it's been 13 years since the likes of Scorpion, Kung Lao and Raiden spilled blood on a Nintendo platform with 2006's Mortal Kombat: Armageddon on Wii, but that absence has enabled NetherRealm Studios to finally bring the quality of its combat model to the level that reflects its devotion to slapstick gore...
Grind those gears
Image & Form Games has done very well to branch out from its charming subterranean platforming series SteamWorld Dig into other genres. 2015’s SteamWorld Heist took the aesthetic and amusing writing of that steampunk fantasy universe (which started out, lest we forget, with SteamWorld Tower Defence on DSiWare) and transposed...
Review The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa - This Wayward Youth Has Unexpected Facets
Youth of the nation
The friends of Ringo Ishikawa has plenty of beat-’em-up DNA in its makeup. You’ll often get into scraps while roaming the streets of its Japan-inspired setting. You’ll throw rival gang members over you shoulder, deliver roundhouse kicks to the face and land jab after bloody jab. But those little skirmishes are only one...
Review Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Monster Hunter Meets Darks Souls
Hardcore Pawn
While Capcom actually has a firmer grounding the world of RPGs than we give it credit for – Breath of Fire, anyone? – the company's name doesn't instantly spring to mind when discussing the genre; that's what made the release of Dragon's Dogma in 2012 such an unusual event. Following hot on the heels of FromSoftware's...
Review Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster - Two Games In One Remarkable Switch Collection
The final word on these fantasies
2001 represented an exciting time in video games, as the industry began a shift to newer hardware and started to move past the growing pains of figuring out 3D game development in the previous generation. As the tenth mainline entry in the series, Final Fantasy X had a lot riding on it, as all waited with...
Review Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission - A Shallow But Satisfying Arcade-Style Card Battler
Card-carrying heroes
By now there have been so many Dragon Ball games that they’ve practically ticked off every genre there is. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to know that this isn’t the first time Goku and co. have taken their war of fisticuffs to the world of card-based battles. The franchise has one of the most successful TCG...
Review Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Champions - Who Needs Hearthstone?
Cards against inhumanity
While Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering – arguably two of the biggest names in digital CCGs (collectable card games) – continue to pass Nintendo Switch by, the genre's growth in the mobile market has seen plenty of other alternatives see the potential of making the jump to Ninty's hybrid hardware. British studio...
Review Katana ZERO - A Razor-Sharp Action Platformer That Everyone Should Play
A much-needed shot in the arm for sidescrollers
The '80s was a decade that modern media seems to be overly enamoured with, to the point that it becomes almost tiresome to see yet another game or movie that makes its '80s influence a big selling point. Often, these works merely pander to nostalgia, going after the low-hanging fruit in an effort to...
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 The Padre - A Clunky But Scary Survival Horror Offering
Daddy issues
If there's one genre that truly feels at home in the interactive world of videogames, its horror. Reading a spooky tale from Edgar Allen Poe or sitting down to watch something from the ingenious mind of Jordan Peele might get your senses on edge, but feeling intrinsically part of that terror is something else entirely. It's a unique...
Review Shadow Blade: Reload - Fast-Paced Ninja Action, But There Are Better Versions Elsewhere
The quick and the dead
Shadow Blade: Reload has no time for the weak or the slow. It’s an action-platformer that demands you move at lightning speed, leaping from platforms, collecting items and dealing out ninja-themed death like a cracked whip. There’s a clock ticking away at the top of the screen, urging you to run faster, bounce off walls...
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 Cel Damage HD - A Flawed Cult Classic That Only Comes Alive When Played With Friends
Soft Cel
When it comes to causing carnage and unleashing violence, few things fit the bill as well as vehicular combat. From the heyday of Destruction Derby to the headline-baiting prime of Carmageddon, using a car to smash your friends/foes to bits is so satisfying it’s almost primal. Hell, there was even a Star Wars game back on PlayStation...
Review Shadowgate - A Faithful And Tricky Remake Most Suited To Retro Fans
Warlock and key
A good 30 years ago, first-person point and click games were a very different beast. These progenitors were brutal and merciless not just in their difficulty, but how they often forced you to study every room to pick out hard-to-miss items while juggling timed puzzles that would sooner kill you than let you waste time dithering on...
Review Metagal - A Mega Man Clone That Comes With A Mega Problem
A Wily attempt at mimicking a classic
There’s an old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, yet while there’s certainly something to be gained through being inspired by a previously existing work, a new work generally must add something to the mix to keep things fresh and interesting. If the new work fails to add anything...
Review Reigns: Game Of Thrones - An Unpredictably Gripping Take On An Epic Series
You swipe or you die
For years, it seemed the only format worthy of HBO’s global TV mega-hit was a consequence-driven point-and-click adventure from Telltale Games. That prayer to the Seven was finally answered in 2014, but a second season was eventually cancelled amid internal collapse and we were soon left with nothing more than cheap mobile...
Review Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - A Dazzling Port That Sacrifices Very Little
Ninja Theory's critical darling arrives on Switch in fine form
The critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice won a whole host of awards back in 2017 on PS4 and PC, so hearing that the game was coming to Switch sent ripples of excitement through the NL office. Ninja Theory, the studio behind Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and...
Review Out There: Ω The Alliance - Somebody Turned Mass Effect 2's Best Bit Into A Full Game
Into the expanse
There are plenty of reasons Mass Effect 2 is considered the pinnacle of Bioware’s grand space-faring saga, but who knew a mining mini-game would remain one of its most enduring qualities? For all the suicide missions and inter-species 'sexy time', it was the sedate pastime of visiting new planets and surveying each one for...
Review The Mystery of Woolley Mountain - A Forgivably Flawed Point-And-Click Adventure
Point and click bait
If the legacy of LucasArts – and, as a direct result, the continued success of independent studios such as Double Fine – has proven anything, it’s that point-and-clicks are almost always better with a healthy dose of humour. A sense of razor-sharp wit, self-deprecation and black comedy have helped make the likes of Day of...
Review Nuclear Throne - Fans Of Enter The Gungeon Should Check This One Out
Totally rad
One of the top ten best-selling indie releases on the eShop to date is that of Enter the Gungeon, a super-tough twin-stick roguelike that’s great for local co-op sessions. However, those of you that regularly play on the PC may be aware that Gungeon was actually not the first notable game to execute the concept of a twin-stick...
Review Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - An Especially Fine Courtroom Drama
I am (still) the law!
Visual novels can be very hit-and-miss at times. Without the right story and dialogue married to the correct balance of interactivity from the player, they can too often descend into dull melodramas where player agency is reduced to skipping through an endless stream of cutscenes. So when the very first Ace Attorney confidently...
Kweh! Kweh!
Esoteric and sprawling as it may be, the Final Fantasy series has always been unified by certain persistent themes, images, and music tracks, and one of the most recognizable of these continuities is that of the chocobo, the goofy-looking species of bird mounts that show up in most of the main games. Over the past few decades, Square...
Review SEGA AGES Gain Ground - A Commendable Failure, But A Failure Nonetheless
No gains to be made
For some unfathomable reason, Gain Ground has something of a cult following with Sega fans. Originally released in arcades in 1988, it gained notoriety largely down to the fact that it was quite unlike anything that had appeared before; while it looked like Atari's Gauntlet, the gameplay was actually totally different, requiring...
Review Super Kickers League - A Second Division Arcade Football Game
Misses the target
Over the decades it's been possible to track a small but beloved lineage of arcade football games that don't take the sport too seriously. From SNK's Soccer Brawl through Sega Soccer Slam and on to Mario Strikers Charged, the best of these games embellish the footy basics with fantastical settings and improbable special moves...
Review Hob: The Definitive Edition - Panic Button Strikes Again With Another Exciting Switch Port
Mechanical animals
The best worlds are often the ones that give you the choice to explore their secrets at your own pace. Where the right path isn't often the most obvious one, but the journey to finding it is satisfying nonetheless. Travelling through the biomechanical realm of Hob: The Definitive Edition, it's easy to lose track of exactly why...
Review Mechstermination Force - A Small But Perfectly Formed Boss-Battler
Mechsterminate! Mechsterminate!
The announcement that Cuphead is Switch-bound was greeted with overwhelming approval from Nintendo fans, although there's probably one person who'll be slightly peeved to see the beautiful boss-battler landing on the handheld mid-April. You see, Mechstermination Force is the latest game from Bertil Hörberg – the...
Review AngerForce: Reloaded - A Superb Shooter With Surprising Staying Power
It's raining robots
The ability to undock the Switch Joy-Con and play the console in 'portrait' or 'TATE' mode has gifted Nintendo fans with some truly excellent shooters since the console launched in 2017; we've already seen the likes of Ikaruga, Strikers 1945, Psyvariar Delta and Gunbird 2, all of which can be played in portrait orientation,...
Review GODS Remastered - A Timely Update That Sticks Too Closely To The Original
A classic odyssey
Remasters are fickle little things. They've given new players a chance to experience the great games of yore, but the quality of the original product doesn't always stack up to modern expectations. Even games from a couple of generations ago can often enter the contemporary realm with archaic mechanics and creaky concepts that were...
Review Final Fantasy VII - A Timeless RPG Classic That's Nonetheless Beginning To Show Its Age
Better late than never, right?
The release of Final Fantasy VII in 1997 was a watershed moment for both Square and the role-playing game genre as a whole, forever changing the status quo moving forward. After the previous six games had seen a release on Nintendo platforms, this marked the first time (of many) that Square’s flagship series would be...
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 Darksiders: Warmastered Edition - The End Of The World Comes To Nintendo Switch
War (mostly) never changes
If you’re going to strap on the shoes of anyone during the end of the world, who better than one of the Four Horsemen of Said Apocalypse? The end times have unexpectedly been unleashed, and as the armies of Heaven and Hell go to war on a ruined Earth, all the fingers are pointing to moody horseman War as the instigator...
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 Xenon Racer - A Spluttering Speed-Fest That Lags Well Behind Its PS4 And Xbox One Siblings
Stalled effort
By now, we're all pretty smart to the realities of porting a game from other consoles to Nintendo Switch – especially when that game has arrived within the last year or so. Unless you're working with a particular art style or setup that's purposefully easy to render, most Triple-A games are going to take a knock to both performance...
Review Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet - A Sun-Soaked Romp That Loses Its Appeal Too Soon
Leer, there and everywhere
Welcome, one and all, to this beautiful tropical retreat – a place where weary people come to unwind with a host of activities including ball sports, endurance races, knocking opponents off platforms or simply relaxing on the beach. Oh yes, you can do all this and more on wonderful Wuhu Island... Hang on, that’s not...
Review Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid - A Promising Fighter Undone By Publisher Greed
Power trip
Power Rangers is one of those franchises that simply refuses to die. There's a good chance you were into it as a kid, whether that was back in the '90s heyday when everyone – and we mean everyone – was Rangers crazy or anytime throughout the last 25 years of Morphin' Time. And it's still going strong, with new series' of increasingly...
Review Windscape - A Pleasantly Laid-Back Take On A Well-Worn Genre
Gone with the Morrowind
Roaming the skyward islands of Windscape, you'll find yourself descending into a perpetual state of explorative calm. This is a world of monsters and ne'er do wells, much like any other fantasy setting with a splash of the medieval, but roaming its semi-cartoonish lands often invokes the sedate pace of Firewatch and...
Review Yoshi's Crafted World - A Charming Construction Made From Familiar Materials
5.2 gigabytes of beautiful bog rolls and bottle tops
The Yoshi games have carved a niche for themselves as colourful, mostly frictionless experiences well-suited to younger gamers or anybody after some cute low-pressure platforming. Completionists may find challenge in hunting down every last collectible, but these games are built to be approachable...
Review Blaster Master Zero 2 - Pure, Retro Platforming Goodness At Its Finest
A masterclass in retro game design
In the early days of the Switch eShop, one of the first indie darlings to resonate with audiences was Blaster Master Zero, an enhanced remake of the NES classic. What began as an already solid remake quickly grew into something much more substantial thanks to a series of paid content drops and free updates that...
Review Unravel Two - Another Confident Switch Port, Perfect For Platforming Fans
Wool you bring a friend?
If video games have taught us anything over the years, it’s that adventures are always better when undertaken with a friend. Experiencing a challenging mission for the first time. Overcoming a boss with hard-fought teamwork. Solving a puzzle at the exact same moment. Co-op can often give us some of gaming’s most...