September2020
Review Jump Force Deluxe Edition - A Textbook Example Of Style Over Substance
Jump Farce
Spike Chunsoft's Jump Force arrives on Switch more than a full year after its release on other platforms and it is, as it was then, a very mixed bag of anime nuts. Jump Force Deluxe Edition is an easy to learn, easy to master button-mashing brawler with a huge roster of over fifty characters from the illustrious archives of Shonen Jump...
Review Captain Tsubasa: Rise Of New Champions - Not Your Typical Football Game, But Fun All The Same
Manga-chester United
Captain Tsubasa has been around for nearly 40 years. Initially appearing as a series in the best-selling manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in April 1981, he’s seen numerous comics, animated series, movies and, yes, video games over the years. It’s one of the most well-loved series in Japan and is credited with contributing...
July2020
Review Mr. Driller: DrillLand - As Much Fun As It Was 18 Years Ago, If Not More So
Want a great puzzler? Bosch, here's one
There was a time when Mr. Driller was widely considered one of the best puzzle series around. After the first game hit arcades in late 1999, it spawned a bunch of sequels throughout the following decade, with 11 different versions launching in 10 years. And then... nothing. We haven’t had a new one since...
June2020
Review Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 - An Eclectic Mix That's For Hardcore Fans Only
The other Galaga brother
Not content with releasing just one compilation of vintage 8-bit goodies this week, Bandai Namco has given us a second helping for those not completely satiated with the first batch of 11 games. Much like Namco Museum Archives Vol 1, this isn’t your typical Namco Museum compendium containing a cornucopia of coin-op...
Review Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 - A Great Way To Rediscover Namco's Classic NES Titles
A fun dig dug through the vaults
There has now officially been more Namco Museum games over the years than there are actual museums in the world (probably). There’s even one already on the Switch: simply titled Namco Museum, it contains 10 classic Namco arcade games as well as a port of the GameCube title Pac-Man Vs. At first glance, then, Namco...
May2020
Review Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto - Naruto Fans Will Lap It Up
Storm warning
Like most ports of Japanese origin, the Nintendo Switch version of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road to Boruto has taken its time to go handheld – the original launched back in 2016, and its anime film tie-in expansion a year later – but with three different story modes, and a frighteningly large number of playable...
April2020
Review One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 - Exactly What You'd Expect, No More, No Less
Maybe the real treasure is the friends we made along the way
The One Piece franchise is truly something to behold. Nearly a thousand episodes of the anime have been produced and the manga – which has been running since 1997 – has nearly a billion copies in circulation. Despite series creator Eiichiro Oda’s initial wish for it to run for only...
March2020
Pulled punches
Few shonen anime series fit popular culture’s continued obsession with western superhero tropes quite as well as My Hero Academia. This long-running manga and anime follows the journey of Izuku Midoriya, a young boy born without powers (or Quirks, as they’re known in the series’ canon) in a world where extraordinary abilities...
January2020
Review SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays - Brilliant Strategy RPG Action Bursting With Content
A Gundam 40th anniversary party, SD style
It takes a certain type of western gamer to be a Mobile Suit Gundam fan. You probably got hooked into mecha anime and spent your youth glaring at import gaming magazines, making lists of Gundam games you would either never play, or end up doing so decades after their original release after some brave fans...
November2019
Review Disney Tsum Tusm Festival - A Colourful Party Game That Isn't As Fun As It Looks
Less 'Heigh Ho', more 'hey ho'
Like the toys themselves, Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is a mutated mess that is both adorable and yet utterly bewildering. On the face of it, this is a collection of mini-games populated by stylised versions of your favourite Disney characters, yet it doesn’t quite live up to that promise. This is in part down to its...
October2019
Review Doraemon Story of Seasons - A Charmingly Slow-Paced Life Sim
Wrap up with this winter warmer
The tale of Story of Seasons is a bit of a strange one. Originally conceived under the series name Harvest Moon, developer Marvelous enjoyed relative success with titles like Friends of Mineral Town, A Wonderful Life and Back to Nature. However, in 2012, the licensing of the name lapsed, and owner Natsume reclaimed...
Review Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition - Pokémon's Biggest Rival Is Still Worth A Look
Gotta hack 'em all
You’ve got to admire Bandai Namco for releasing a monster capturing/battling RPG just weeks before a certain selection of Pocket Monsters swarm the Nintendo Switch - but Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition offers more than enough in the way of different mechanics and content for those looking for an alternative to Game...
September2019
Review Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch - Level-5's RPG Classic Will Bewitch Your Switch
"It's flippin' finally on the Switch, en't it?"
In 2008, Level-5 was coming up on its tenth anniversary and wanted to produce a project that its staff was passionate about, regardless of how well it would sell, and the world was introduced to Ni No Kuni: The Another World. A two-pronged project, one version of it came to the Nintendo DS as the...
August2019
Review RAD - A Gnarly Roguelike Which Is Let Down By Balance And Performance Problems
Get bent, muties
Double Fine has long since made a name for itself as a rather ‘out there’ studio that nonetheless produces quality work, such as Brütal Legend, Psychonauts, Headlander, and Costume Quest. Its latest release, RAD, fits right in with this lineage, blending in crazy '80s themes with an action-heavy roguelike gameplay loop. It’s...
Review Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet Complete Edition - This Anime Adaptation Misses The Target
Hollow Fragment
Sword Art Online has been around in some form or another since all the way back in the prehistoric times commonly referred to as 2002. Originally a series of light novels, it’s been praised for its exploration of themes relating to the intertwining of real and virtual worlds and the effect this has on the psyche and physicality of...
July2019
Review God Eater 3 - A Great Port Of A Fine Monster Hunter Alternative
Aragami killer
While simply describing God Eater 3 as a Monster Hunter clone might be a little disingenuous, it does comfortably sum up the core tenets of its gameplay. Much like Capcom’s seminal slaying series, you’ll explore pre-defined areas and face off against monsters of varying sizes. You’ll hack off body parts and use the resources you...
June2019
Nothing hollow about this one
Sword Art Online has been around for quite a while now; what started in 2002 as a simple light novel series has gone on to span a multimedia franchise including several books, manga adaptations, video games, movies, and – yes – an impending live-action Netflix series. It was only a matter of time before the...
May2019
Review Super Robot Wars T - Enjoyable Tactical Mecha Goodness For Returning Fans And Newcomers Alike
The T is for ‘Terrific’
Super Robot Wars T is the most recent entry (and the first on Switch) in Bandai Namco's very successful series of tactical mecha adventures that stretch all the way back to deepest darkest 1991. With dozens upon dozens of previous entries under their belt you'd imagine they'd have exhausted Japan's supply of pilotable...
April2019
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...
January2019
Review Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition - An Aptly-Named Refresh Of A True JRPG Classic
Blastia from the past
If you’ve owned a console in the last two decades – and have a passing interest in Japanese RPGs – there’s a very good chance you’ve played at least one of the Tales games on your travels. There are so many entries (not counting the ludicrous number of spin-offs) it’s a surprise it’s taken this long for one to...
December2018
Review Katamari Damacy REROLL - A Timely Remaster Of A True Modern Classic
Keep rollin'
Games are often at their best when they embrace the truly weird and wonderful. In an era where so much emphasis is placed on gritty realism, life-like character models and terrifyingly accurate simulations, it’s nice to punctuate that authenticity with oddity or two. Thankfully, the peculiar world of Katamari has returned in the form...
November2018
Review Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum'n'Fun! - Worth The Wait, But Don't Forget That Drum Controller
1-2-3-4, I declare a drum war
From the searing colour of the menu icon to the lively title screen, Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! arrives on Switch with a spring in its step. And with good reason – alongside sister title Drum Session! on PS4, it’s the first Drum Master ever to arrive in Europe, and only the second to come to the US. In the...
October2018
Review My Hero One's Justice - In-Your-Face Fighting Fun That Might Be Too Shallow For Some
Quirks of the job
2018 hasn’t just been a golden year for fighting games - with everything from Blade Strangers to the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate laying the smacketh down on consoles - it’s also been a cracker for anime adaptations making themselves welcome on Nintendo Switch. So what happens when these two potent streams collide? Well,...
Review Dark Souls: Remastered - Perfect Portable Punishment
Git gud on the go
The Nintendo Switch has played host to countless ports in the relatively brief 18 months it’s been on the market, but every so often one comes along that brings with it all the prestige and reverence that made it such a touchstone elsewhere. Last year, that game was arguably The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a port that was made all...
Review Dragon Ball FighterZ - A Stunning Switch Port That Will Leave You Breathless
What you Super Saiyan?
Nine months after release on competing platforms, Dragon Ball FighterZ has finally made its way to Switch. Back in January, when our sister site Push Square reviewed the original release, they gave it a glowing 9/10 score, and for good reason. Even by PlayStation 4 standards, FighterZ is breathtaking. So, how does one of...