Author Profile
- Username
- Jon_Mundy
- Articles
- 93 (93 reviews)
- First Article
- Tue 21st, November 2017
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.7
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...
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 The Red Strings Club - A Brilliantly Told Cyberpunk Tale
Do androids dream of the perfect cocktail?
The all-wise, all-knowing barkeeper has become something of a narrative archetype. There are countless stories out there that feature an improbably wise drinks server who can get even the most uptight customer to relax and talk about their troubles. Donovan, the suave barkeeper and owner of The Red Strings...
Review Awesome Pea - A Retro Platformer That Lacks Colour In More Ways Than One
A little mushy
Awesome Pea is described as "a classic run-and-jump platformer," which is about as plain and simple as the game itself. Here indeed is a platformer that looks like an old Game Boy game, and that features a whole lot of running and jumping – and precious little else. At this point, we suspect the developer would like nothing more...
Review Fimbul - An Atmospheric But Unforgivably Flaky Norse Adventure
Hitting a Thor spot
It might sound like the name of a cute character from a generic platformer, but Fimbul is actually the final, brutal winter before Ragnarök – AKA: Norse Armageddon. Which tells you an awful lot about Fimbul the game, both in terms of its icy northern European setting and its grim, violent gameplay. You play the part of...
Review Q.U.B.E. 2 - A Well-Engineered Tribute To Valve's Physics-Based Masterpiece, Portal
Opening a Portal to fun
It's something approaching a tragedy that no Nintendo platform has ever played host to one of Valve's two Portal games. All platform allegiances aside, these are two of the finest first-person physics puzzlers ever committed to ones and zeros. Fortunately, they're also two of the most influential. Nintendo fans were able to...
Review The Liar Princess And The Blind Prince - An Alluring Fairytale With A Sad Ending
Cool story bro
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Once upon a time there was a game called The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince. When you looked at a screenshot of this game, or perhaps a brief video of it in action, it seemed the fairest Switch game in all the land. Alas, that beauty hid a mortal ailment, for The Liar Princess and the...
Review New Star Manager - Football Management At Its Most Tactile
The Jurgen Klopp of football management games
Leicester City (in 2016) and Manchester City (in 2018) are two recent Premiership-winning teams that went about their footballing business in completely different ways, and there's a neat parallel to be drawn here with New Star Manager and Football Manager 2019 Touch. Both are ostensibly playing the same...
Review Elli - A Charming Yet Scruffy 3D Platformer
Bumpy landing
We wouldn't exactly say that the 3D platformer has experienced a complete resurgence of late, but the likes of Yooka-Laylee and Spyro: Reignited Trilogy have certainly scratched a particular itch for faithful fans of the genre. And that's not even to mention the obvious example of Super Mario Odyssey, which is arguably the finest 3D...
Review HoPiKo - Brutal Platforming Fun That Provides A Stern But Fair Challenge
HoPpiNg mad
Speedrunning has become the established way to wring a hardcore challenge out of even the most fluffy, easy-going of platformers. Getting through a level as quickly as possible will stretch your skills to the max in much the same way as a time trial run in Mario Kart. Developer Laser Dog understands this. In fact, the entire game of...
Review Beholder: Complete Edition - A Grim, Dystopian Adventure That Will Test Your Morals
I spy
You are Carl, the manager of a crumbling apartment block in some grey European city. Which doesn't sound like a particularly thrilling video game role, we're sure you'll agree. That is, until you realise that Carl is a cog in the grinding machine of a totalitarian regime, and was appointed to his new role by the state. So, alongside repairing...
Review Guacamelee! 2 - A Fun-Packed And Often Relentless Metroidvania
An action-platformer with real punch
It's a ballsy developer that starts a game with a boss fight, but that's precisely what developer Drinkbox Games has done in Guacamelee! 2. The opening scrap is used as a clever device for recapping the climax of the original game, as well as serving as a catch-up for those of us who either didn't play or finish...
Review Football Manager 2019 Touch - A Truly Great Sports Sim That Still Feels Awkward On Switch
Still working out the system
Back in April, we likened Football Manager Touch 2018 on Switch to playing Ronaldo at centre back. It was an absolutely brilliant game, but one that was being showcased relatively poorly by the host system. What chance is there, then, that Sports Interactive has managed to make the necessary tactical tweaks in time for...
Review Super Hydorah - New Ideas Meet Old-School Gameplay In This Superb Indie Effort
Much more than a tribute act
Dedicated 2D shoot 'em up fans might represent a small subset of Switch owners, but they've been pretty well catered for. There's a growing roster of brilliant Neo Geo shmups like Aero Fighters 2 for them to call upon, and just recently they were given the rather splendid R-Type Dimensions EX. It's to the latter series,...
Review Mother Russia Bleeds - A Tepid Beat 'Em Up That's Big On Gore But Low On Gratification
Wince and repeat
Like most things from the late '80s and early '90s, the 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up is no longer particularly cool or relevant. Sure, a certain type of ageing nostalgist (guilty as charged) will get excited about Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle or Streets of Rage 4, but the kids have long since moved on to something else. And let's face...
Review Valiant Hearts: The Great War - An Aptly-Timed Switch Port If Ever There Was One
Somme achievement
For all the games out there that are ostensibly about war, precious few of them handle the subject with any real depth or elegance. Such games tend to be all about the brutal mechanics of war rather than the exacting toll it takes on people and places. Valiant Hearts: The Great War, by contrast, is one of the most humane war games...
Review Zarvot - A Mixed-Up Box Of Tricks In More Ways Than One
What's in the box?
It used to be that describing a game's aesthetic as 'boxy' would be a negative. Zarvot developer Snowhydra, however, would likely see it as a boast. Zarvot's story mode stars two sentient cubes named Charcoal and Mustard, who set out on a journey to assemble a birthday present for their friend Red. It's a quest that's equal parts...
Review The Escapists: Complete Edition - A Likeable Prison Caper Rendered Irrelevant By Its Sequel
Old con
"I can't go back" is the common refrain of the ex-con in crime fiction. And while it remains a fine game in and of itself, Switch owners might find themselves expressing a similar sentiment about The Escapists. Team17 made the curious decision to launch The Escapists 2 prior to The Escapists on Nintendo's hybrid platform. It's a piece of...
Review This Is The Police 2 - An Uncompromising Look At Law Enforcement That Often Misses The Mark
Police brutality
New Sharpwood sheriff Lilly Reed is way out of her depth. She's conscientious and competent, but far too meek to corral the motley crew of misogynistic knuckleheads that make up her police force. Sheriff Reed soon makes the fateful decision to enrol the assistance of one Jack Boyd, the corrupt cop you controlled in the first This Is...
Review Broforce - Infectious Low-Brow Blasting Fun With Your Favourite Movie Heroes
Bros before foes!
Switch owners have binged on a rich diet of sophisticated 2D platformers of late, and sometimes what's needed is a gaming palette cleanser before you dive back in. In that regard, Broforce is like an action-platforming sorbet in between meaty courses of Dead Cells and Hollow Knight. It's big, dumb, disposable fun in the best...
Review Victor Vran: Overkill Edition - The Perfect Diablo III Appetiser On Switch
ARPG overkill
Diablo III is coming to Switch this December. We all know this. You could spend the next few months gawping into space, imagining how great it'll be to play Blizzard's seminal ARPG on the go. Or, you could snap out of your stupor and get warming up those looting muscles with a highly creditable alternative. Victor Vran: Overkill...
Review Spectrum (Switch eShop)
Limited palette
Is a platformer still a platformer when you don't actually jump on any platforms? That's just one of the (rather pointless) questions we found ourselves pondering whilst playing Spectrum. It says a fair amount about the general Spectrum experience. For one thing, that question references the fact that this is an odd sort of...
Review Cosmic Star Heroine (Switch eShop)
A JRPG that moves at light speed
Agent Alyssa L'Salle is the kind of peppy, grown up, consummately capable protagonist we so rarely seem to get in JRPGs these days. She's not the type to wallow in melancholy or self-doubt, or even to stick around in one place for too long. In fact, she's the perfect front for Cosmic Star Heroine - a game that pays a...
Review 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL (Switch eShop)
Back to the future
Author Bruce Stirling one defined cyberpunk as being a combination of "low-life and high-tech". 2064: Read Only Memories INTEGRAL certainly earns that description, but it also shoots for something a little loftier and more idealistic. This retrofuturistic point-and-click adventure game tackles weighty (and familiar) themes like...