Site News: So, Where's Our Baldo Review?

Aww. This sounds like you really want to love it so giving it a chance

You missed a perfect opportunity for the tagline to be Where’s Baldo!

this doesn't inspire any confidence in the finished product.
hard pass on this game.

This always looked like a project where the devs were trying to sell it on the art style, with some question marks over the animation, mechanics and general game design. I'm not surprised in the least about these delays and launch issues and any hope I ever held that this would be a great title are all but dead at this latest news.

The update is appreciated. I had read elsewhere no review codes were sent out before launch. Glad I'm waiting for reviews and other impressions before diving in. Though if it's as buggy as everyone says, that might be awhile anyway.

@nessisonett I logged in after not doing so in months just so I could give this comment a like lmao. Good stuff.

Waiting until it's an 8?

It doesn't seem journalistic to postpone a review until a game is patched. Just review it as released. If it does successfully get patched, you can decide to update the review or re-review.

@nessisonett blame the largely UK-centric staff. He was renamed Wally over here, so Waldo as a reference isn’t as ingrained in the collective subconscious

@nessisonett Bravo. Shame I can only like it once

@HolyGeez03 Exactly this. The game is a mess and should be reviewed as such. Nintendolife is putting their thumb on the scale and it really comes across as them wanting to review it well instead of reviewing it honestly. Bad ethics.

I started the game with my Apple Arcade subscription. I play it on my Apple TV with a ps4 joystick. Honestly, the game is beautiful, but the control is not as solid as a Zelda. There are some places in the game I'm stuck and I have no choice to restart the game to continue. It's quite frustrating at times. The 1st dungeon is quite difficult and it's not always obvious what we have to do and what can be done. I would like to have a Navi from time to time. In addition, it is not clear in which zone we can venture, one can suddenly die just crossing water without warning and sometimes it is necessary to do to continue the adventure.
I am still in the way to understand the mechanic and the thought of this game.
I'm glad I did not have to pay $ 25 for this game.

@Ambassador_Kong @HolyGeez03 yeah, go tell Bloodstained or Yooka-Laylee that you’re waiting for the patches before reviewing it…

I don’t mind the site waiting for an announced, imminent, game-fixing patch before reviewing, but at least be consistent with the approach for all games. How many other games got marked down for issues that were patched out?

@gaga64 I apologise for being incredibly pedantic, but he was renamed to Waldo, rather than the other way around

Still excited to hear how the main character manages to deal with hairloss!

Just another example of the current practice of games being released in half-baked status. We're all suckers, folks.

I'll wait when it's on sale

@peterandom I stand corrected, thank you.

I’d always assumed it was US first, since Odlaw’s name only really makes sense in relation to Waldo, not Wally.

This game looks good but the developer should polished it more before selling it. It's a very rough game, not just bugs but the gameplay just feels 'home made' - it's games like these that made me appreciate Nintendo 1st party games.

I have way too many games to play at the moment, so I'll wait for a sale at some point in the future knowing that the game will have been fixed by then

@gaga64 t'other way round.
Wally was Wally first.

It's a real shame that it's launched like this.
Doesn't sound well optimised in general as even the new gen consoles appear to be 1080p 30fps.
I've also seen a few videos saying that the first dungeon is needlessly difficult because it's so unclear.
Will wait for a while to see if it gets fixed up (I can imagine SwitchUp will check it out again in their "Patched Up" series).

For now i'll go for Psychonauts 2 on my PS5 instead.

I'll wait until its physical and hopefully has these "hotfixes" already in place.

Sounds like they rushed it at the end, or are just using players to play test it for them. Little bit lazy on their part

For those saying Review it as it is; I would agree but the game-breaking bugs are halting progress. They can’t review the game if they can barely access it.

On the Xbox store it already has so many 1 star reviews due to the game not starting up. According to this article that looks like it may have been fixed now, but I bet most of those reviews won’t be updated to reflect this.

@Compubraim I went for it on the Switch day one because I was so excited for this game.
But I totally agree with your comment.
I’m a couple of hours in and I’m still trying to figure out how this game exactly works.

Already countless instant deaths and I’ve been stuck too where the only solution was to close the game and start over.
Also, yeah, the first dungeon was kinda hard with no clues where to go or what to do.
That’s probably my biggest problem so far. There I was, facing the first dungeon without knowing anything about the story or background.

The music and visuals are great and I’ll continue this game because I really want to love it and give it a chance. But if things keep going like this it’s going to be a tough 50 hours, which de developers said it’s going to take to complete the game…

@gaga64
To be fair, Yooka-Laylee was reviewed with the Switch version, wich already has all the patches included.

@gaga64 @Ambassador_Kong @HolyGeez03
I know games can’t be re- scored after patches come out, but maybe we need a Patch Notes section for the review that can be updated. Then when we read older reviews we can easily find patch info.

Even have it be user based so devs and users can fill in patch notes (but separate from the discussion thread).

@Burning_Spear no big deal IF they fix all the game breaking bugs...some years ago I bought Mercenary Kings for PS Vita: the game had various bugs, but there were 2 really annoying bugs that prevented you from being able to finish a level: one was that you couldn't ride elevators (there was a workaround as players then found out though), and the second was that a boss freezed in mid-air and you were unable to hit it and you couldn't complete the level (unless you played co-op online with a PS4 user). Thankfully those bugs were fixed, but it took many weeks. The game was great though after the patches.

I am wondering if they were aware of the bugs and that’s why they didn’t hand out the early codes. Still interested in the game! Hoping they fix that stuff though.

So thats why. Been looking for reviews since last week. Found it really odd/suspicious that none were posted. Played it for 10 mins. Looks gorgeous. Fell off a small slope. . . died. Was told to by an old bloke find cabbage patch ... I couldn't. Shouldve really waited till reviews were released before taking the plunge BUT the trailer and previews promised a georgeous Zelda-esque experience. I couldnt resist.

I really want to play this game, but I want to play it properly. So I appreciate you're waiting for the game to be fixed before you release the review. They should've delayed the game a couple weeks, in my opinion...

Once it's "done", I plan to buy it directly.

Honestly I am torn whether you should have reviewed it as is, to inform potential customers, or wait until the latest fix; leaning more towards reviewing as is, since this is playing into the “fix in post” attitude that has permeated into the industry. If we only review games when they are in the condition they are meant to be, we are normalising bad practices and basically screwing over consumers.

At the very least, once it became apparent that major bugs were present I would have released a PSA to act as a warning to those who may have decided to take the plunge and buy it. Although that’s kind of what this article does, it reads that you first encountered these a few days ago.

Put in abit of hours. Fun game and got it free from Apple Arcade sub

I've been playing on Switch for about two hours and I haven't experienced a single "bug" so far. The game is gorgeous and the scope seems like it will be very grand. I'm having a great time with it. The first dungeon was a great challenge and none of it was really due to design issues. It's just a good dungeon!

There are issues though. The game is crazy hard and there is a bit of jank with combat and your dodge controls. If you are easily frustrated you will want to steer far FAR clear of this!

But if you are a long time gamer who sometimes feels like Zelda is a bit too much of a pushover, I think you'll find lots to love here. The positives far outweigh the negative for me so far

Probably why Early Access on Steam is a good thing. It gives indie devs a chance to have their game beta tested before officially releasing. Extensive testing that they otherwise may not be able to afford.

@gaga64 Whataboutism is not a defense. You review the game that was released. If a patch significantly improves the experience, you can update the review. You don't wait to review the game until it becomes the game you want it to be. Would have been smarter to just wait and review the game and not mention this at all because it's a huge hit to the site's / reviewer's credibility. Not that Nintendolife has much credibility to begin with.

Do you people know there's still a game breaking bug in Darksiders for Switch? If you die at the first earthworm miniboss and you reload the auto-save the miniboss doesn't appear and you're stuck there Forever, you can't do anything, if you didn't save manually you have to start from the very beginning: 8/9 hours wasted in the worst case scenario, only 1 for me because for some reasons ai thought it was wise to manually save the game! So yeah, there are various games with severe bugs out there, no big deal if they're fixed (or if you don't encounter them).

@Ambassador_Kong for 1 time they did the right thing and you complain about it??

@K1LLEGAL It's an unplayable mess. 2 out of 10. There's your review.

@gaga64 yooka laylee was a terrible 3d platformer with about as much charm as a vegan fart.
As someone who wanted the original game to be banjo threeie and backed the project, and even worse, waited for a switch version, yooka sucked balls on all platforms and this comparison is completely invalid.

@Whitestrider The right thing would have been to review the game as a broken mess. Not state that they are going to wait until they can lavish undue praise on it. It's like a teacher waiting to grade their final exam because the student got all the answers wrong and they're going to wait until they get them all right.

The game really is a hot mess- bad text boxes, too many side quests too fast, very little direction, lame story, too expensive.

Good art, though. Other than that, I wasted $24.99 on this mess and I really gave it a 8-10 hour chance.

3/10 for me based solely on art getting it a 3. Everything else has been done infinitely better elsewhere.

There are like bugs and glitches whatever in most games, but to release with game breaking bugs puts me off completely xx

Ok. Review King’s Bounty 2 instead, please and thank you.

I'm in the second donjon, first donjon wasn't good it got better when you get the sword but it was hard to found what to do, second donjon is easier so far. The game is hard, you die so fast, but I love it and I'm having a great time, I love the exploration of the world. I didn't had any bug but I'm just starting.

Odd that a game like this had these kind of issues, they should had just sent out a demo and then delay the full game for another two months and when everything run smoothly just let us transfer our save files from the demo to the full fix game. There's no excuse for this game still having game breaking bugs after release.

@GoldenSunRM @Effortless-gamer I thought the Switch version of Yooka was still getting patches/extra content aaaaages after launch, but I’m happy to be wrong on that front. I bought it in a sale years after the fact, and quite enjoyed it. It’s nowhere near as good as Banjo (which I think is overrated anyway), and there’s some frustrating design flaws, but not a terrible game by a long shot.

But regardless of that, the original version that launched (at least on other platforms) reviewed poorly at least in part due to the performance - which was later patched.

Maybe the FINAL version was still weak, but it was better than the original version that got reviewed.

Reviews don’t get patched.

Word-of-mouth reputation doesn’t get patched.

I’m absolutely loving this game. I think we should cut some slack to a team of 2 devs for these bugs (which are getting fixed).

I haven’t been this engrossed in a Zelda-like since….well since actual Zelda games.

@Ewaldus Poor signposting and a lack of direction can turn the pleasure of an open world game into drudgery. I have no interest in "I've Lost My Car Keys Simulator."

Initial impression review on Xbox. I've only made it to the second town. I've completed the first dungeon.

TLDR: Gem in the rough. Wait a few weeks at least before trying it.

PROs:
Graphics and music are beautiful.
Puzzles are complex.
Inspires a desire for adventure.
Enjoyed the setting of the first dungeon.
Seems to have a large world.
Devs seem adamant that they are fixing bugs.

CONs:
Gameplay was halted with bugs on Xbox. Emergency patch seems to have helped.
Quest/Speech text is needlessly wordy.
The difficulty curve seems very unbalanced.
Enemy fights need tweaking, including the first dungeon boss.
Certain enemies have a long reach which seems unintuitive.
Oddly, it's hard to tell which ledges I can drop from or which bodies of water I can enter without dying.
Many of my character's deaths felt "cheap."

Right now I'd rank it 6/10. Baldo has potential greatness that is (currently) held back by lack of refinement. The game needed more beta testing before launch.

@Ambassador_Kong can't you wait some days for the review? Also, if you want there are already plenty of users reviews out there, so no big deal if they wait the upcoming patch. In the meantime you can play other games if you want.

@atryue the fact that this game is HARRRRD should be a PRO for many gamers...
Not much for me unfortunately...But I managed to defeat the first boss after 10/15 tries at least!

@Whitestrider here’s where I bring up (yet again) the game-breaking bugs still evident in Final Fantasy 7 Remastered which have forced me to restart the whole thing after 25+ hours…

Bugs that were identified in the PS1 version decades ago, but Squenix can’t be bothered to fix at all…

Was talking with another poster about this in another thread, we both feel like we wasted our money. It is a shame to criticize a game that has clearly had a lot of effort and love put into it by a team that seem to be pretty talented in many respects. But unfortunately they got the graphics and sound right but failed with the fundamentals. Bug fixes are one thing, but the whole design here feels fudged.

Plenty of comments already here but just a few thoughts of my own. Why does almost everything suggest that you can push it when you can't? The first dungeon doesn't feel difficult from a puzzles point of view, just that you have to meticulously scour every part of the background to find elements you can interact with like those naff old 8-bit games where you had to hit every block in a wall to find out which random one was a switch. Why are vital parts of these puzzles seemingly disguised or hidden by the camera angle? Why is the cabbage patch full of pointless walls to walk around around just so that you can get to the needlessly far old woman and cabbage holes? Why are you dumped into an enemy infested dungeon unarmed and forced to fight loads of cookie cutter enemies with pots (not fun)? Why do several "rooms" have no content?

Those saying that it's hard and that's a good thing it doesn't really feel hard, just unfair. Being killed by enemies you couldn't see or slapped by a tentacle before you even got back up from the first slap because of the animation isn't fun.

Got to the boss door of the first dungeon (I think) and was told I didn't have the key. Didn't have the will to go back through all the rooms to find which part of the seemingly innocuous scenery I have failed to interact with to get it. At this point I think they would be better off withdrawing it from sale and giving it another year of development time. There is promise here, but it is just too rough around the edges.

Like I said I don't want to hate on this game, I really wanted to like it and acknowledge that some aspects are excellent. But it was also pretty expensive and they now have my money. I don't, however, have a fun experience in its place.

I might play it way down the line, but honestly I would probably do a second run of Breath of The Wild before I bought this game. Haven't played that game in years.

@gaga64 I had to go check why Odlaw was named as such, because yes, that is confusing. He wasn’t introduced until after the third book, at which point it would’ve already been localised and I guess they figured Odlaw was a better name for the British books, rather than using Yllaw!

@Warioware Thank you for your honest opinion. Those words definitely don't encourage purchasing this game in the near future. Perhaps someday the game could be what it should have been.

It's been a few weeks now already so might not be coming, but could we get a dreamscaper review? Was interested in it because of the person doing the music

Into the Balan Baldo nexus of doom.

Long gestating games always launch with a bunch of issues, even the ones from big companies. I'll cut them some slack and wait for the reviews, as it looks nice from what I've seem so far.

If all the bugs get ironed out and the patched version is released physically, I will surely buy this.

I don't like that we're getting more and more digital only releases. If I get it, it will be in the future when it gets a big discount.

@NoLife well, better paying 25 euros for a digital release than 40 (or more) for a physical one

@Ambassador_Kong thanks but I didn’t ask for a review?

But now that I have it it’s mine and I don’t want to let it go.

I went on Reddit for a while after seeing no reviews and there are so many issues that people seem to be having with the game across all consoles.
I was so looking forward to this game but it's definitely a hard pass now.

@gaga64
Even though the books and games were titled "Where's Wally?" in the UK, people still know the original name "Where's Waldo?" thanks to the Angry Video Game Nerd and the Irate Gamer. So I hope Gavin Lane changes the title of this article to "Where's Baldo?".

I'm glad you guys are going to wait until the game actually works to review it. I want to know how good the patched game is, not the unpatched version. I already know that all buggy messes suck - don't need to read a review to figure that out.

I’m personally just waiting for the review of Monster Train…
Seems like it is flying totally under the radar judging by the lack of reviews on Metacritic.

@HolyGeez03 While I see why one would give a bit of a break to an indie developer, they're still asking for money for this. If the game was pulled from the store then I would see why holding back reviews would make sense.

There's a weird trend going on with these comments.

People that have not played the game comment how they saw online that it's a mess. Other people respond and say what a shame that sounds horrible.

Meanwhile people that have actually played the game say they like it and are having a good time with it. Nobody seems to notice those comments though or reply and thank the user for letting them know their actual experience with playing the game.

Weird right?

@Dpullam It's a shame but like I say every time I play this I start cursing at the screen. Just made myself push a bit further with the help of a guide (yes, it was some piece of the background that was indistinct from the rest that I needed to fiddle with to get the key) so I got to and beat the boss (that also had a very janky final phase). There is a fair bit more that I could say about this game unfortunately, but the sad truth is that I'm not sure that a few performance patches are going to redeem it. The trouble seems to be far more of a design issue that would probably require actual development time and funds. A shame, I was looking forward to this one.

I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, I think it's important that we put pressure on devs to deliver a finished (or at least playable) product at launch. On the other, we're not living in the 90's anymore and the fact is that games now grow and evolve well after their launch date.

This reminds me of when I was reviewing Star Renegades last year. Absolutely excellent game and I was loving every second of it, but there was a game-breaking bug a few hours in that halted all progress. Originally, I was going to regretfully give it a 3/10, but the devs managed to get a patch out a couple days ahead of the embargo, which fixed the issue and brought it up to an 8.

Had that patch been another week later, however, that game would've gotten a 3/10 here and that inaccurate, outdated review would likely still be up even though the game is far better than that now. Given that, I think it's in the community's best interests for us to review a version that's more or less what the game is 'supposed' to be, even if that means waiting out a patch like this. I haven't played Baldo so I can't speak at all to its quality, but I'm sure the game will be fixed within a week or two and then we'll have a chance to see what it's really like and score it accordingly.

If the game is for sale to the public, review it. An update to the review can aways be made. If developers/publishers wish to release a game in a broken state it should be reviewed as such.

Perhaps it’s a tad melodramatic, but you really can’t help but draw some comparisons to last years Cyberpunk 2077 debacle.

I know Baldo: The Guardian Owls had been delayed a number of times already, but I just find it really sketchy to let fans buy such a highly anticipated, yet very buggy, game prior to reviews going live.

@SwitchVogel I think that is a very reasonable response. I can definitely look at it like that.

So the devs released it in this state, instead of delaying it. Doesn’t exactly make me feel confident about it.

@SwitchVogel
Excellent point about how games can evolve and improve post launch.
Random question, but are you guys working on a Monster Train review? I am obsessed with that game.

@KevinLo9 No, we aren't. I personally asked to do the review a couple weeks ago and got shot down. I'd assume it's because we haven't seen enough interest in it. I think it'd at least justify a mini review, but that's a decision above my pay grade. Maybe if it picks up more steam over the next few months?

Normally I wait for the reviews on any game, regardless of how nice the trailers appear. I took the plunge with Baldo, however, and probably logged about 15-20 hours now, so here's my personal take:

Any comparisons to Zelda or Ni No Kuni go out the window very quickly once you actually begin playing this game, Beneath its pretty facade are characters whose entire existence is based around some task or fetch quest; yes, I'm even referring to some who will be accompanying you. Forget character development or meaningful dialogue; it simply isn't there. Even Baldo himself, like the blank-faced NPCs that populate his world, is as generic as they come; the stakes of the "story" are so ambiguous (like everything else in the game, honestly) that 20 hours in I have no understanding of who/what the Big Bad is or why anyone in the game's world should care.

That's obviously a bad thing when the gameplay itself is such an exercise in sadism. I'm not referring to mere difficulty here; there's no "Git Gud" solution for glitchy, game-breaking issues. Some examples:

A) Puzzles that can leave you stuck in a room and having to either warp away or simply close out of the entire game and reset.

B) Collision detection that can be absolutely MADDENING (getting those three Savoca Prison skeletons into those cells; 'nuff said).

The gameplay itself is hampered by unnecessarily complicated mechanics. You're constantly fighting enemies who can move faster than you and attack from beyond your reach, and it takes 2-3 button presses to eat a medicinal item to heal yourself. By then you're often dead anyway.

It's bad enough that your sword can't cut the cobwebs in this game (they must be burned), but the swinging ones are DEATH. What makes it even worse is that you're stuck having to watch Baldo's health go down as there's no escape from his entanglement, which adds several extra seconds before hitting that "Continue" button.

Another issue with the game is the pacing. Get through one gauntlet that took you forever to do and you're immediately faced with another, with no special items, cutscenes, or other reward for your efforts. Getting past all the guards in the castle is an exercise in rage, because the camera's forced perspective keeps many of them out of your sight until it's too late. Then you have to repeat the same, minutes-long stealth attempt, over and over and over (yes, there's a recurring theme here).

There's even, I suspect, a bit of genuine sadism on the part of the devs where blue chests are concerned. You will come to HATE timed puzzles in this game, trust me. One in Savoca Prison that took several attempts yielded a stupid Pear that heals one unit of health.

All that said, my feelings toward this game are mixed. There is a lot to like here, from the game's overall size and the visuals to some cleverly designed puzzles. And obviously I'm still playing 20 hours in, so there's that; the problem is that probably two-thirds of that 20 hours has been repeating the same attempt at clearing a room/puzzle for the umpteenth time.

I predict that NL's score for Baldo will range between a 5 and 7, largely due to the game-breaking bugs. But the game's gravest cardinal sin is that, on far too many occasions, its die/repeat/die/repeat/cheap death/repeat/die/repeat motif gets to the point where it isn't FUN anymore. Time will tell how many folks this alone will put off from finishing it.

Reviews are one of the VERY FEW things protecting the rights of gamers in the hobby anymore, thanks to EULAs and the nature of digital distribution. Agreed with previous posters that if a game is put up for sale by a publisher, it's eligible for review regardless of whether patches are on the way. The reason is simple: they've put a product on the market for (non-refundable) sale, and consumers deserve to know whether it meets certain standards. If said product still has bugs, glitches, and other problems, all the more reason to not hold back because they KNOWINGLY put it on the market with them still in the game.

The videogame industry needs accountability. That's what these reviews are for when all is said and done.

@AtlanteanMan So it doesn't get better after the first dungeon then? I keep trying to press on hoping that it will get better and that what I've played so far is not indicative of the rest of the game. But then shortly after leaving that first dungeon I was one hit killed by a random lizard enemy that could block most of my attacks. Haven't encountered many bugs so far, although I had to reset once when I got stuck and I couldn't plant the cabbage, but the overall design flaws have made it a slog. Was hoping that might just be the beginning.....

@Warioware Sadly, I'm afraid the same issues run throughout the entire game. The parts I have enjoyed the most by far are when I can actually explore, solve puzzles, and collect items; those parts are actually fun and engaging.

But getting there is a chore. The early game especially is chockablock with barriers and restrictions that require disproportionate and overly convoluted tasks and fetch quests to remove.

Combat frankly feels like a tedious chore you have to keep repeating to get to the next tedious, repetitive task. You will find that finding and entering any door nearest an enemy you need to beat in order to progress is far more valuable than any of the underpowered healing items in your inventory, because shaving time between death and your next crack at them is essential to keeping your sanity. You always respawn at the last door you came through. Hope this helps, if only a little.

Man, I am bewildered at the hate this game is receiving. I'm about 15 hours in and loving it. It reminds me a lot of Secret of Mana. Maybe it's just a little too cryptic for the younger set? I don't know.

@SwitchVogel
That’s pretty surprising. I’m not sure if the titular train runs on steam, but I do hope can get a review sometime. It is charting well on the eShop (digital only) as well, so I’m kind of surprised at the perceived lack of interest or momentum.
Thanks for letting me know though. I guess I’ll stop hoping for it. 😜

I'd like to know how do you guys pick the games you're going to review. What is the criteria? I ask this because often times you review games nobody cares about and leave out more popular titles. Also I don't believe the story you're giving us a for a second.

@AtlanteanMan Thanks that is helpful and unfortunate. Think i will drop it for now and maybe try again if there are any improvements. I just rediscovered Crosscode from a year ago that i barely touched, think i will devote my time to that instead.

@Iancdub88 I can only speak for myself but I have been playing games since the early 80s. I have a lot of nostalgia for many games of the era but certain things that I am not too keen on seeing in modern games. With Baldo I just feel that it is a messy, laborious scouring of every background element whilst dealing with cheap enemies and a lot of jank combined with some bizarre design choices.

Glad you are liking it though, I tried to but just could not get over the issues.

@Iancdub88 I wouldn't go as far as calling all the criticisms here "hate"; as I said in another post, I've logged about 20 hours myself, so there has...so far...been enough to keep me playing. I am glad you're enjoying Baldo; each player's mileage varies for any given game, and differing opinions allow folks to make educated, informed buying choices.

For a lot of us here, even though there are enjoyable aspects to the game, there are also glaring flaws that deserve consideration. Once we click that "Buy" button in the eShop there are no refunds or accountability for publishers; we're stuck with whatever quality a game was released with while they can laugh all the way to the bank, rhetorically speaking. And it's not just the Indies and smaller publishers who are guilty; giants like EA and Ubisoft are routine offenders when it comes to releasing glitchy, basically unfinished products. That's the single biggest problem with online distribution; they get to cheat at our direct expense, and we have zero recourse. Outside of (unbiased and uninfluenced by $$$) reviews, word of mouth or forum conversations like this one are gamers' only advocate.

Hi there, i jumped in and bought this game on day one after watching it being played on SwitchUp. I had the most frustrating start, and nearly gave up - many times - but watched a walked through on the fist dungeon, the ship, and since I got through it, I am having the best time with it. Great music and graphics, and just fun running about. You get to know what type of puzzles they are throwing at you as well so it gets easier. So please, give it a chance, it's just amazing when you consider two guys made it, so talented. If you are vaguely interested, go for it. The map is huge as well, so there will be lots of explore and see. Some things are just worth sticking with for a while and this is one of them. Sparky

update - just played another hour on this game, and it's got even better. The graphics are just gorgeous. The details in the room are incredible. And the music is so catchy. Just been to the town library when you can buy tips on things if you really get stuck. Give it a go, one of the nicest looking games on the system.

This likes an early alpha of a pretty good game.

I love you NL team but this is nuts. So they release a broken game and you refuse to review it until it's fixed? They should be called out by all legit reviewers for releasing such a mess.

I'm sure the people who made Cyberpunk 2077 would have killed for the same courtesy.

@Ambassador_Kong idk, people like me who are waiting to see if it's worth buying, after really looking forward to it, will appreciate them waiting. If they gave it a bad score now, it would be really hard for people like me to get an accurate assessment after the updates, so knowing at least 1 site will tell me if it's worth playing after the patches is appreciated.

@sparkyfilm 2 guys made death's door on xbox too & that gane was amazing without all the padding & glitches etc...

@Meteoroid indie developers should focus more on making a great 15 hrs rpg, than a crashfest, bug ridden 50 hrs... Horrible judgement, so that doesn't bode well, imo.

@sparkyfilm You posted an 'update' comment saying you just played another hour (and that the game has got even better), but it was only 8 minutes after your previous comment. Did you time travel between your posts (😂) or am I missing something?

I'm currently at the Boss of Savoca Prison and, after a bunch of failed attempts, have decided to take an extended break from this one. One hit from the boss's webbing or so much as brushing against the swinging cobwebs scattered around the room, and you're stuck unable to do anything as the Boss follows through until you die. I've seen YouTube videos of people beating this Boss so I know how it's done, but execution isn't easy when using or cycling through items basically requires you to stand still and then press 2-3 times to use one. Meanwhile you're still under attack in real time, so it's not really the Boss that kills you so much as the clunky mechanics.

At the end of the day, sure I could probably succeed in beating the Boss given enough tries, but I have to ask myself the question "Is the reward worth the effort?". Especially when there are other, more polished, and simply better games vying for my attention. Especially when extended sessions of Baldo have left me feeling physically ill (including a splitting headache last night, and I haven't had a headache in years) from the sheer stress and frustration. I realize that some players eat that stuff up, but it definitely isn't for everyone, and certainly not when it feels so cheap and unfair.

I honestly don't know when or if I'll get back around to Baldo. It's a real shame because there's a lot of potential here. File this one under, "I really wanted to love this game, but..."

Not reviewing a released game because it's utterly broken and want to wait til it's fixed?
At least you were honest enough to tell but geeze, who gets to decide which games get this benefit in the future?

A game releasing unplayable is no excuse to postpone a review, it's the reason to write one.
It not only tells customers about the game itself, but the devs attitude towards polishing their product as well.

I'm eager to see what indies will get this "benefit of the doubt" in the future.

I've seen some other review on Youtube and they are all very positive, few minor issues. Whatever issues I'm sure will be fixed. This is too promising to pass up for me.

Bald-oh no!

Translation: Broken and unfinished but please hold on as they're an indie developer and this is literally their livelihood on the line so let's be kind.

@HolyGeez03 I agree. I’m annoyed that so many developers are releasing broken games. Very annoying for us physical collectors who value retro games. One day the servers that provide these patches will be shut down & then if your hardware breaks you’re stuck with a broken game.

@Einherjar Agreed. If everyone reviews based on initial code, it’ll discourage developers from releasing broken games.

It was so broken they didn't even bother to send review codes. Instead of delaying the launch, which they should have done, they marched on and let people fund their effort to complete the game by releasing it in an unplayable state. Did I get that right?

@SwitchVogel
Personally, would have appreciated a Monster Train review much more than some of the articles today like "Random: The Nintendo DS Browser Is On Sale, So Now You Can Use The Internet Wherever You Are".

Looks like there was a review for Slay the Spire, and Monster Train (from what I've seen of the PC version) looks even better.

If you were surprised by any of this, that's completely on you. The writing was on the wall; this developer's pedigree is bottom of the barrel with so many games developed in a short period, not a single one with an ounce of critical acclaim.

BuT iT lOoKs LiKe ZeLdA bOtW aNd Ni No KuNi So HoW cAn It Be BaD?

And holding back review codes makes them look even worse.

Nintendo Life, please stop reviewing games from developers who have a history of making bad ones. Stop succumbing to baseless hype.

@gcunit Exactly. This was a game made by a marketing department, not avid developers.

@Moto-Roto Look at their games list. They clearly have a history of crapping out game after game regardless of quality. Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks I guess. Then again crap sticks best sooo

@Einherjar I love this comment so much. Starting to think Nintendo Life has stake in or knows somebody who makes these crap games because some of them get a questionable amount of attention and leniency.

@Einherjar Not reviewing a released game because it's broken tells also a lot about Nintendo Life as they are supporting the shabby behavior of the developer who releases a game in a broken state. It's a slap in the face of the customers. Nintendo Life is losing all its credibility with this move waiting until a patch arrives.

@MJ1200 @BadWaluigi
Ayup, that's exactly the point. It pretty much corrupts their entire review credibility, as you can no longer rule out that they are playing any kind of favoritism here.

Like i initially said, good on them for at least saying so, but by doing it, it put every other review under scrutiny.
It sure is an interesting hill to die on.

Logged in for first time to agree with all these comments.
I wish I’d waited for the review.
There is so much that could be amazing about this game. But as others have noted almost everything about this is counter intuitive. The combat is painful. Every aspect is too slow and unresponsive. I think that I died at least 100x

I played it a bit on Apple Arcade where I haven’t really ran into any bugs but the gameplay itself is frustrating and awkward. It also has the most ugly and unnecessary Game Over screen I’ve ever seen. This seems like a minor quibble but it ruins the immersion and rhythm of the game, especially on the occasions when you die seconds after walking into a room. They should just throw you straight back in as Celeste does or at least give you a beautiful game over screen (hello Death’s Door) rather than the bright red/orange type face that seems to have been picked from an instruction manual.