Feature Chatting to 10tons About Its Prolific First Year on the Switch eShop
Heavy hitters
The Nintendo Switch has been a notable success this year, and its eShop is attracting more and more indie developers and publishers. One of the most prolific has been Finnish team 10tons, with top down shooters such as JYDGE and Time Recoil, as well as puzzlers and physics-based games including King Oddball and Tennis in the Face...
Review Mom Hid My Game! (Switch eShop)
Mum's the word
This summer's Nindies showcase thrust a number of smaller, lesser known and previously unannounced titles into the Nintendo Switch buying publics consciousness, including Mom Hid My Game!. It's fair to say that it was met with a wide spectrum of reactions. Mostly somewhere between bewilderment and ridicule, the game didn't...
Snow Joke
While the first Syberia game may have arrived on the Nintendo Switch a full fourteen (ish) years after its initial PC release, its point and click legacy has no doubt been felt since, and there have been a few decent modern examples - such as Thimbleweed Park and Violett - on Nintendo's hybrid system. Not to be outdone, the second...
Review Tennis In The Face (Switch eShop)
What the deuce?!
Ever since the tennis in Wii Sports stole our hearts, entered our minds and (sometimes literally) TV screens, the virtual representation of the sport has taken on a new lease of life in the home. Sure, Top Spin and Virtua Tennis have scratched that realism itch on other systems (as well as Rockstar's Table Tennis on the Wii), but...
Review Red Game Without a Great Name (Switch eShop)
Flying low
The influx of mobile games on the Nintendo Switch since its launch has been met with mixed reactions. On the one hand it provides some approachable experiences, complimenting the other games on the eShop and indeed on store shelves. At their best, these mobile titles introduce new audiences to hidden gems with complete content packages...
Feature Nodding Heads Games and the Quest to Bring Ancient India to Consoles
"Our aim is to provide a fresh and unique universe"
Nodding Head Games is a console developer based in India, with a talented team that has experience with companies like Rockstar, Ubisoft, EA and Zynga. It's aiming to be one of the first studios out of India to release a high profile game on consoles, and to do so with a tale rooted in ancient...
Review Xenoraid (Switch eShop)
Four's company
Another week, another indie shooter drops on the Nintendo eShop. While it would be rude to complain about the number of games coming to Nintendo's newest console, the roguelike shooter has been more than popular among developers and publishers on the machine. With that in mind, there is a balance to find between tapping into a beloved...
Review Serial Cleaner (Switch eShop)
Cleaning is bad for your stealth
The stealth genre is predominantly associated with gruff, grizzled, highly trained assassins with a renegade attitude, stern demeanour and corrupt superiors. Normally involving sneaking or silently killing to get out of dark and tight spots, the tension, evasion and strategy of a well executed infiltration garners a...
Review Crimsonland (Switch eShop)
Hopefully not doomed...
It was once said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, and with the icon / box art being a homage to a certain hellish current-gen first-person shooter, 10tons' most recent port - Crimsonland - tries to establish its similarly savage tone and style right from the off. It's such a brazen reference that you'll feel...
Review Green Game: TimeSwapper (Switch eShop)
Tick, tock, flock
The Nintendo Switch hardware has provided developers with a range of different inputs to utilise; we've seen games previously released on mobile taking advantage of traditional sticks and buttons, while the touchscreen has also been put to work. There have been some interesting examples - the wonderfully kooky touch-only adventure...
Review Maria The Witch (Switch eShop)
Return to sender
Bayonetta. Twinrova. Gruntilda Winkybunion. There have been some truly terrific witches on Nintendo consoles over the years. Whether friend or foe, ally or adversary, these spell casting sorceresses have entertained, antagonised and tormented audiences for decades. In addition, the notion of video game phenomena has been...
Feature 13AM Games on Runbow for Switch and Its Hopes for the Future
"I wanna use that silly little IR camera. Like, what even is that?"
It's easy to get drawn into the Switch eShop's current surge in momentum and get a little carried away, declaring it as a bright new dawn for the download store. That does a disservice to the early efforts of the Wii and DSi stores, and the notable improvements and variety of...
Review Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Switch eShop)
The Suburban Life Aquatic
Originally starting out as a Windows freeware title made by a group of Delaware University students, the original Octodad made a splash on the indie scene back in 2010. Many of the group would go on to form developer Young Horses and make its sequel, subtitled 'Dadliest Catch', appearing first on PS4 and PC in 2014 and...
Toying with your emotions
Point-and-click adventure games have historically found their audience on PC, especially in the heyday of the early-to-mid '90s with series such as Broken Sword and Monkey Island. While there has always been a core fanbase for this style of game on mouse-driven systems, the genre has been brought into both the console with...
Review Morphite (Switch eShop)
Reasonably fun-obtainium
It is remarkably easy to pigeonhole any game one way or the other. Last year's No Man's Sky debacle highlighted the pressure on indie games and their creators from all conceivable angles, not least from an increasingly vocal, demanding and influential consumer base. Unfortunately, that particular game became a victim of its...
Review King Oddball (Switch eShop)
Swing when you're winning
As ports of mobile games take up more and more online marketplace space, it's easy - if not completely fair - to dismiss them as competition with first party or even console-specific indie titles. Viewed by some as shallow and disposable time killers at best, and at worst... well, you get the idea. The phenomenon that...
Review Time Recoil (Switch eShop)
Step back in bullet time
For all the different genres of games that indies are releasing on the Switch eShop in the last few months, the rogue-like (or 'rogue-lite', on some occasions) has become particularly popular. Randomly-generated levels, upgradeable stats and permadeath are becoming staples of modern gaming, regardless of whether you're...
Gallery Japan's Collective Body Is Ready For Super Mario Odyssey
If only more people could get Switches to play it on...
Super Mario Odyssey launches this week - as if you didn't know - and Nintendo has gone big on promoting the game in Japan. Everywhere you look there are adverts, merchandise, magazines, cardboard stands and even Mario statues, all of which show that Nintendo isn't sparing any expense...
Review The Mummy Demastered (Switch eShop)
A run 'n stunning monster mash-up
There are a few different ways this review could have started. Lamenting that officially licensed video games based on blockbuster movies have had a rough history (to put it politely), or the even more disappointing tales of movies that have used gaming franchise IPs as source material. Whichever way you cut the...
Review The Jackbox Party Pack 4 (Switch eShop)
Changing the four-mula?
Ever since the first 'You Don't Know Jack' game arrived in the mid '90s, the Jackbox brand has increasingly targeted consoles with its quirky cooperative and competitive experiences. As 'traditional' party game experiences have been joined by more and more virtual board games and digital quiz shows over the last few years,...
Review Ninja Shodown (Switch eShop)
Bad for your stealth
Ninjas by their very nature are an elegant and elusive group - patiently lurking in shadows in order to dispatch foes without anyone ever realising they were there. Their grace and efficiency have become legendary over hundreds of years. In the medium of video games, however, ninjas have a somewhat 'varied' depiction, none more...
Review Neon Chrome (Switch eShop)
Minor oversight
Finding a home on consoles is an ongoing challenge for games that have seen success on Steam and smart devices. While free-to-play or relatively inexpensive titles are becoming available on digital marketplaces thick and fast, it could be argued that there is a degree of stigma that comes with titles making the shift from mobile to...
Dream on
If you could only pick one genre that Nintendo systems have nailed down during their history, it would probably be the platformer. With the hat flinging, overall wearing mascot going on his own three dimensional odyssey at the end of this month, the Nintendo Switch has had a slew of top drawer 2D side scrollers to keep fans jumping for joy,...
Review Earth Atlantis (Switch eShop)
Go deep
From the NES heyday shoot 'em ups like Gradius, and moving through the console generations with various sequels, Nintendo players have seemingly often had a soft spot for the genre. Right up to the recent tide of Neo Geo classics released on the Switch, including Blazing Star and Alpha Mission II, the genre continues to be well represented;...
