Author Profile
- Username
- Jon_Mundy
- Articles
- 93 (93 reviews)
- First Article
- Tue 21st, November 2017
- Avg. Review Score
- 6.7
Review Hello Neighbor (Switch)
Neighbour from hell
The sinister neighbour has been a cinematic staple for decades, from The Burbs to Disturbia via Arlington Road. It's curious that few video games have made full use of the concept, though. Hello Neighbor looks to buck that trend with a game that leans heavily on the premise, but it falls well short in a number of critical...
Review Pool Panic (Switch eShop)
Cue much hilarity
We find Adult Swim's claim that Pool Panic is "The World's Least Realistic Pool Simulator" to be some way short of accurate. That's not to say that the game is in any way high on realism, you understand. In fact, it's as mad as a hatter. But to refer to Pool Panic as any kind of Pool Simulator is kind of like calling Splatoon 2 a...
Still absolutely heaven
Switch owners have been spoiled for moody, melancholic platformers of late. First, we got the Metroidvania masterpiece that was Hollow Knight, then the beautifully grim platform-puzzling of Inside and its equally downbeat older cousin, Limbo. We've already taken a look at Inside and recommended it wholeheartedly. But if you...
Playdead leaves us happy feeling sad
If Inside proves anything to Mario-obsessed Nintendo fans, it's that there's more than one way to skin a platforming cat. Which is a bizarrely grotesque image to contemplate. But then, Inside is full of bizarrely grotesque images. This is a thoughtful, masterfully-paced platform-puzzler with one of the most...
Review The Lost Child (Switch)
Pokémon meets Ghostbusters meets Etrian Odyssey?
If you find the setting for most modern JRPGs to be rather too much like the old JRPGs, The Lost Child might be of some interest. Set in present-day Tokyo, it casts you as Hayato, a junior reporter for an occult magazine who soon falls into the old journalistic trap of becoming part of the story...
Review Hollow Knight (Switch) - One Of The Finest Metroidvanias That's Not A Metroid Or 'Vania
Much more than a solid achievement
The Switch isn't exactly lacking for quirky Metroidvanias, with the likes of Yoku's Island Express, Dandara and SteamWorld Dig 2 all stretching the genre in new and interesting directions.
Review Soccer Slammers (Switch eShop)
Cheap kicks
World Cup 2018 is upon us, and with it comes the inevitable rush of pick-up-and-play football games. Soccer Slammers is one such effort, and it's pretty much at the polar opposite end of the Switch footy game scale compared to FIFA 18 - for better and for worse. On the 'better' side, it forgoes the dry, manicured pomposity of EA's fully...
Review Fallen Legion: Rise To Glory (Switch)
The best form of defence is attack
RPG developers have long struggled over how to make a turn-based battle system that excites on a visceral level. If nothing else, Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory suggests one possible solution to such a conundrum. This side-scrolling role-playing game features a competently written narrative as well as light...
Review Pirate Pop Plus (Switch eShop)
Plundering the past
Anyone who hastily misread the title and clicked expecting a digital conversion of the immortal novelty game Pop-up Pirate is in for a disappointment. Pirate Pop Plus is not that game. Once you've dealt with this potentially crushing let-down, consider the good news: Pirate Pop Plus will indeed evoke all manner of fond childhood...
Review Yoku's Island Express (Switch eShop)
A pinball-metroidvania that really delivers
It's safe to say that Yoku's Island Express is the first pinball-Metroidvania game we've ever played. We sincerely hope it's not the last. Swedish indie studio Villa Gorilla has produced an improbable mash-up that succeeds through an uncommon combination of charm and inventiveness. Beyond all that, though,...
Review Punch Club (Switch eShop)
Super punched out
The idea of a fighting game in which you don't actually do any fighting might sound like an odd one, but that's precisely what you'll find in Punch Club. This is a conversion of a casual management simulator that started out life on PC and mobile before making its way to 3DS and other consoles last year. There have been no radical...
Review Saturday Morning RPG (Switch eShop)
Role player one
The whole point of a role-playing game is, quite obviously, to play a role. To pretend to be someone - or something - else. It's a mystery, then, why so many RPGs ask you to play minor variations on the same part. There are only so many times you can put yourself in the shoes of an amnesiac swordsman, adopted prodigy or mysterious...
Review Football Manager Touch 2018 (Switch eShop)
Like playing Ronaldo at centre-back
Even the best footballers in the world need to be placed in an appropriate system if they are to thrive. Put Lionel Messi at defensive midfield in a hard working long ball team and you'd undoubtedly still experience moments of supreme quality, but you wouldn't get the best out of him. That's an appropriate analogy...
Review Shelter Generations (Switch eShop)
Lynx to the past
Charm goes an awful long way in gaming, partly because it's often in such short supply. Many a mechanically sound shooter or platformer has fallen at the final hurdle by being hard to warm to. Shelter Generations doesn't suffer from such a problem. It's absolutely lovely to behold, with charm practically oozing out of every pore (or...
Review Infernium (Switch eShop)
Puts you through hell
It's a well-worn form of journalistic shorthand to describe a game by its influences. With Infernium, though, such an exercise might prove more confusing than instructive. And one thing this game doesn't need is any more confusion. While it would be wholly accurate to describe the game as 'Dark Souls meets Pac-Man meets...
Review Urban Trial Playground (Switch)
Easy riding
Both the original Urban Trial Freestyle and last year's stunt bike sequel managed to stick their landings on 3DS, though it's fair to say that neither game really attempted any outrageous stunts. At first glance, developer Teyon seems to have declined the opportunity to try something a little more gnarly with Switch exclusive Urban Trial...
Review Outlast 2 (Switch eShop)
Doesn't spare the rod
Outlast 2 is one of the most beautiful games on Switch, and also one of the ugliest. This sequel to the hit indie shocker Outlast (which hit the eShop earlier this month as Outlast: Bundle Of Terror) provides a strikingly evocative, bone-chillingly atmospheric game world for you to creep through. The use of light and shade...
A chilling experience
Kona seems to intent on reclaiming the term 'walking simulator,' which has become a bit of a slight of late. Describing a game as such instantly paints a picture of a barely-interactive first-person 'experience' that's more concerned with narrative than gameplay. And while it still ticks many of the aforementioned...
Review The Long Reach (Switch eShop)
Something strange in the neighbourhood
Most horror games on Nintendo Switch (and gaming in general) tend to be of the schlocky supernatural jump-scare variety. There's nothing wrong with that, as Resident Evil Revelations Collection and Outlast: Bundle Of Terror will attest to, but there's ample space for a more subtle, psychological brand of...
Review Midnight Deluxe (Switch eShop)
Driving at something different
Midnight Deluxe is a swift follow-up to last year's slight Switch eShop platformer, 36 Fragments Of Midnight. While it looks nigh-on identical, however, it's actually a very different game indeed. If 36 Fragments of Midnight was a fairly traditional bite-sized 2D platformer, Midnight Deluxe has more in common with the...
Review Fear Effect: Sedna (Switch eShop)
When gene splicing goes wrong
Fear Effect: Sedna is the answer to a question only a select few dedicated gamers of a certain age were asking. It's the Kickstarter-funded sequel to two cult action games and an unreleased third game from the PS1 era. If that sounds like a slightly odd list of ingredients for a modern Switch game, then you're onto...
Review Outlast: Bundle Of Terror (Switch eShop)
Hide and eek
As shock Switch releases go, Outlast: Bundle Of Terror didn't so much sneak up on us as jump out at us with a knife. Not that we're complaining about this surprise attack. When it comes to horror games, Switch owners have had to take the rough (Hollow) with the smooth (Resident Evil Revelations). Thankfully, Outlast joins...
Queasy does it
Hollow is a difficult game to play. We don't mean that in the sense that it requires great skill to complete, or that its dark sci-fi horror world is especially harrowing. Those would both be valid, even praiseworthy qualities. No, Hollow is difficult to play in mostly all the wrong ways. The game is perhaps best described as a...
What are words worth?
Would you say that you like the solutions in your games spelled out for you? In that case, Typoman is here to punish you for your careless use of language. This side-scrolling platform-puzzler spells things out for you alright. Its protagonist, antagonists, and essential level furniture are all quite literally made up of the...
