Latest Reviews
Mini Review Project Neon (Switch) - A Capable New Neo Geo Shmup To Test Your Mettle
Neon Geo
Project Neon is a Neo Geo game that was successfully Kickstarted in 2019. A vertically scrolling, arcade-style shoot 'em up that will feel familiar to those ingratiated with CAVE and Toaplan, its frontend presentation is simple and to the point. There is one default difficulty, a single, non-configurable CRT filter, and some rotation and...
Let's do the time warp again
A couple of decades ago, before the average cost of game development launched into the stratosphere, it used to be common to see more experimental 'AA' releases on console. These lower-budget games didn't have quite the same production value as the major, best-selling games of the time, but they often made up for this...
Review Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube) - Not What We Expected, But It Still Shines
Water, water everywhere, so let's all have a drink!
This retro review was originally published in April 2010. We're republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack GameCube library. Mario made his 3D platforming debut on the N64 way back in 1996 in one of the greatest and most influential pieces of gaming...
Review Final Fantasy XIV Online (Switch 2) - An Expansive Port That Demands Your Commitment
Reborn... again
Final Fantasy XIV Online has been through quite a rollercoaster journey over the years on its way to becoming one of the most respected MMOs in the industry. Its 2010 launch was a disaster, plagued with performance issues and shoddy design that torpedoed its reputation. Rather than pulling the plug early, Square decided to swap in a...
Mini Review Future Knight (Switch) - Channels The Spirit Of Tiger Handhelds To Great Effect
Don't worry about your grandma. She can live with me, be my maid.
Do you remember those Tiger handheld LCD games, extremely limited and mostly rubbish, that you used to love so much? Future Knight’s styling is exactly, and uniquely, that: its foreground sprites crisp, black and inky; its backgrounds lucent, pastel-hued imprints. Charming,...
Review The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (Switch 2) - A Solid Update Of All-Time Classic RPG
To Weynon Priory, then
15 years after its release, Skyrim is now well established as a household name in open-world RPGs. It captured the zeitgeist in a way that few games ever have, and is so enduring that its many re-releases are subject to memes. Yet Skyrim is just one section of the great Tamriel continent, and during the seventh console...
Review LEGO Party! Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2) - Comes At The Party King And Doesn't Miss
Lego another round
Like a beastly kraken ensnaring a ship in its countless tentacles, it’s getting harder to find a portion of the gaming landscape that Lego hasn’t infiltrated. From action-adventure offerings like LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight to racing with LEGO 2K Drive and puzzle-platforming with LEGO Voyagers, the monolithic toy...
Mini Review Dragon Hopper (Virtual Boy) - A Zelda-Like With Height, Heart, And A Spring In Its Step
Worth hopping into
Editor's note: Due to the low resolution and peculiarities of how screengrabs display for Virtual Boy games on NSO, all the screens here are Nintendo press shots. When Nintendo pulled the plug on 1995’s Virtual Boy after roughly a year on the market, Dragon Hopper was one of its immediate casualties. Developed by Intelligent...
Lovely jubbly Bubbly
It's safe to say that since its release, Pokopia has taken over my life to a certain degree. I've explored the skies, made pals with my favourite Pokémon, and even made a certain coastal town a little less bleak. I've even caused chaos and instated town politics with my friend on our own Cloud Island with very little building...
Even older entries find a way
It is hard to imagine a better fit for a real-time-strategy simulator than Jurassic Park. At some point, while watching the films, everyone has thought about how much better they could run the parks than John Hammond, InGen, or any of the other mega corporations that repeat the same dinosaur mistakes time and time...
Mini Review Zero Racers (Virtual Boy) – Is This F-Zero Spin-Off The VB's Long-Lost Killer App?
From zero to hero
Editor's note: Due to the low resolution and peculiarities of how screengrabs display for Virtual Boy games on NSO, all the screens here are Nintendo press shots. I can honestly say that Zero Racers is the most fun I have ever had in a Virtual Boy headset. In fact, the more I play it, the more it feels like it could have been a...
Review Kynseed (Switch) – Not The Fairest Of Them All, But Still A Merry Fairytale Life Sim
Grow your own way
Kynseed begins with a personality quiz that bestows upon you in-game benefits based on your answers. That’s a pretty good sketch of the life sim’s magic: choice. The debut from English studio Pixelcount (a team of former Fable devs), this fairytale-inspired game has entrepreneurship, fishing, marriage, combat, and plenty more...
Review Lies Of P: Complete Edition (Switch 2) - No Strings On This Superb, Immersive Soulslike
Little puppet made of pine, awake
Developers Neowiz and Round8 Studio get it. I mean, they really get it. I’ve played plenty of Soulslike games in my time - titles like Nioh, Lords of the Fallen, and The Surge that pay homage to FromSoftware games but never fully understand what makes them tick.
Review Big Walk (Switch 2) - A Co-Op Adventure Like Nothing Else That Somehow Struggles On Switch 2
Little House House on the Prairie
If you’re familiar with House House’s previous title, Untitled Goose Game, you’ll know that the whole game hinges on surprises and quiet charm. Big Walk is entirely different in its structure, but those key principles are made even more pertinent, so I’m going to do my best to skirt around specific details...
Is the Switch feeling it?
This review was originally published in November 2017 back when Xenoblade Chronicles 2 launched on the Switch 1. To celebrate the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, we're republishing the text along with impressions of the Upgrade Pack's performance enhancements. You'll find the Switch 2 details and discussion just...
Mini Review Turnip Mountain (Switch) - A King Of Swing-Style Climbing Puzzler With Charm & Challenge
Reach for the stars
The 2026 bingo card continues to expand with another unexpected surprise: a spiritual successor to Donkey Kong's King Of Swing. Released on Game Boy Advance in 2005, this beloved puzzle platformer saw DK traversing vertical walls and avoiding hazards along the climb. Luke Sanderson's Turnip Mountain takes that idea and adds...
Review Truxton Extreme (Switch 2) - A Thrilling Return For A Classic Shoot-'Em-Up Series
Just keep on Truxing
Legacy is a heavy burden. The ever-present danger of attempting to bring a new chapter in a revered series from the past and offending an entire fanbase in the process should not be something taken lightly by developers. In recent years within the shmup genre, we have seen such attempts fizzle for revered franchises like R-Type,...
Review Splatoon Raiders (Switch 2) - The Best Single-Player Splatoon Has Fantastic Multiplayer
Salmon point
Whilst it wasn’t part of the original release 11 years ago (yikes), Salmon Run has become a core part of the Splatoon experience, as important as Turf Wars and bizarre single player adventures. Splatoon Raiders is Salmon Run to an extent, but it feels to me like a side mode from 'Splatoon 4' that simply… got out of hand. If...
Review Moss: The Forgotten Relic (Switch 2) – A Port That Doesn't Fall Flat On A Flatscreen
Where there’s a Quill, there’s a way
When I first played Moss on PSVR in 2018, it was the game that truly sold me on virtual reality. Here was an adventure with the ambition and polish of a console release that used VR to draw the player into its world in a genuinely compelling way. At the time, it felt like developer Polyarc had finally cracked...
Review The Mermaid's Mask (Switch 2) - A Stylish Mystery That's All Killer, No Filler
Sub-lime
SFB Games’ Detective Grimoire series has gone from strength to strength as it has plotted its course from flash game to iOS to consoles. This time, the sleuthing twosome, Sally and Grimoire, arrive on Switch 2 with The Mermaid Mask, putting a fresh new murder mystery straight into your hands. It’s a classic setup: a pair of detectives...
Review Gecko Gods (Switch 2) - A Stripped-Back Zelda-Lite, Uneven But Made With Love
A cold-blooded puzzling adventure
It took me the best part of four hours to click with Gecko Gods. Some may argue that my initial hesitations — about playing through a Zelda-lite 3D adventure as a gecko plucked straight from the wild, with little motivation beyond consuming bugs — put me in the wrong frame of mind from the start. But that was...
Stone culd classic
Culdcept has been around since the days of the Sega Saturn, but the odds are pretty good that you’ve never heard of it, let alone played it. Not all of the handful of titles released have left Japan’s shores, and of those that did, sales were low and reviews mixed. It’s the kind of game that either really clicks with you or...
Review Disgaea Mayhem (Switch 2) - The Tactical RPG Series Tackles Action To Mixed Results
It’s rough, dood!
If I asked you to close your eyes and picture a Disgaea game, what images come to mind? Ludicrously high damage number pop-ups? Oodles of customisation menus? A penguin-esque creature enthusiastically exclaiming “DOOD!” perhaps? Any of those answers would be fitting, but chances are you’d also envision some permutation of...
Never stop never stopping
Management sims sit at the busy intersection of stressful and fun. Now joining the pile-up is Go-Go Town, a city builder from Australian dev Prideful Sloth (Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles). It certainly is stressful in parts — hustle is implied in the name — but somehow manages to make that stress fun. When the...
Review Denshattack! (Switch 2) - A Satisfying Yet Bloated Dreamcast Homage
Onsen-sational?
From the moment I laid eyes on Denshattack!, there was something about it that had me instantly enamoured. Was it the Dreamcast-inspired bright, blocky colours? The upbeat music? Or the fact that you’re pulling off sick tricks and grinding rails on a freakin’ train? Probably all three, come to think of it. The only sticking...
Its about Time
It's safe to say that, while they're often unfairly compared as franchises, Digimon and Pokémon have diverged in recent years. Game Freak has stuck to the same mechanical loop, taking the odd risk with its tried and true formula, while Digimon has pushed into story-driven adventures with darker themes and monster-collecting mechanics...
Review D-topia (Switch 2) – A Sci-Fi Narrative Puzzler That Has Less To Say Than It Lets On
Human judgement required.
In a society optimised for the happiness of the many, what becomes of those who disrupt the balance? As the newest residential Facilitator at D-topia, a meticulously managed AI-run settlement, your job isn't just to resolve mechanical issues and keep the facilities running smoothly; it's to be a moral cog in the algorithm,...
Cleared for takeoff
Though Cygames has always been a mobile game developer, the company has historically been pretty good about supporting its games with some excellent console-focused spinoffs. Shadowverse got Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle, Battle Champs got Little Noah: Scion of Paradise, and Dragalia Lost got… oh. Though the company’s...
Review Deltarune (Switch 2) - A Superbly Subversive RPG That Defies All Rules
Updated with Chapter 5 impressions
With the release of Chapter 5, we've updated this Deltarune review with our impressions of the new content - scroll down and you'll find them above the conclusion. It’s going on seven years since the first chapter of Deltarune became available and after the release of Chapter 2 in 2021, we’re now finally...
Review Rhythm Heaven Groove (Switch) - A Low-Key Swansong And Perfect Mic-Drop For Switch 1
Capture the lag
I remember thinking that 2023's Tears of the Kingdom was the perfect bookend for Switch 1, a fitting sign-off for a generation which began with a transformative open-world take on Hyrule. But Switch 2 wouldn't arrive for another couple of years, which means it's a very different game that gets the 'swansong' label. And low-key as it...
