Latest Reviews
Review Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA) - The Series' Second Western Release Still Hits Hard
Worth fighting for
This review was originally published in March 2015. We're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of the game in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library. While Fire Emblem is a franchise with a long history in Japan, its track record in the West is far more condensed; in fact, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones...
Sirei-iously good
Back in 2018, a new studio called Too Kyo Games was formed, with the main creatives behind it being Kazutaka Kodaka (the creator of Danganronpa) and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the director of the Zero Escape games. Four projects were unveiled as part of the studio’s reveal, and while three of them saw release over the following years,...
Review I, Robot (Switch) - Another Psychedelic Success For Llamasoft & Atari
Proper bangin'
If you looked at the title of Atari’s latest release and thought, 'The Will Smith movie?', don’t worry. I, Robot has nothing to do with the 2004 sci-fi film, nor the original Isaac Asimov short stories upon which it was based. Instead, this is a Llamasoft-developed remake of the 1984 arcade title I, Robot from Dave Theurer...
Review Rusty Rabbit (Switch) - A Hop, Skip & Some Junk Away From Greatness
More rabbit than Sainsbury′s
We always find it a bit trite to start a review with comparisons, but humour us. Rusty Rabbit is a bit like SteamWorld Dig 2 mixed with Sylvanian Families. Or, it’s somewhere between Drill Dozer and Star Fox. Umm, Dig Dug mixed with Conker’s Bad Fur Day? We might be losing steam here… From developer SoFun,
A Lunar landing
Love and miracles. These are two words that get thrown around a lot when talking about video games, particularly our childhood favourites. But with the Lunar Remastered Collection, these are two words that feel more than appropriate. A combination of rights disagreements between co-developers Studio Alex and Game Arts and the...
Good time Gals
Inti Creates is a fascinating development house that has spent the past few years crafting throwbacks to beloved genre archetypes. The team tends to take a specific model and iterate on it across several titles. Aside from Comcept's infamous Mighty No. 9, Inti has a strong history with the Mega Man series, and another beloved template...
Review Star Overdrive (Switch) - Uneven But Ambitious Open-World Hoverboarding
The boards do work on water
In much the same way that modern society pines for the flying cars they have always been promised, the modern gamer yearns for hoverboards in their open-world adventures… or they should - because it’s a lot of fun. Last year’s Gori: Cuddly Carnage featured a floating board as both transport and weapon, and now...
Review SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered (Switch) - A Solid Port Of A Great JRPG
It's about family
Families, huh? They can cause us all manner of headaches. Sometimes they invade your personal space or take your favourite shirt without asking, and sometimes they get banished as a child and return home to try to take their rightful place on the throne. Between all of the turn-based combat and extended cutscenes, SaGa Frontier 2...
Review Rift Of The NecroDancer (Switch) - Imagine If Guitar Hero & Ikaruga Made A Baby
Slimes to the left of me, zombies to the right
Canadian developer Brace Yourself Games first hit the spotlight with Crypt of the NecroDancer, a rhythm-based roguelike, all the way back in 2015. Dungeon crawling to a relentless beat became the new dance craze sweeping the nation, and it was warmly welcomed into the Switch indie canon with the 2019...
Review Croc: Legend Of The Gobbos (Switch) - A Solid, If Unspectacular Retro Adventure
The closest we've ever gotten to a 3D Yoshi game
Back in the mid to late ‘90s when the fifth generation of consoles was still going strong, mascot platformers were all the rage. Hoping to take advantage of the then-growing trend, Argonaut Software—best known for its work on Star Fox and the Super FX chip for the SNES—made a pitch to Nintendo...
Now rendering
Rendering Ranger R2's original release is a layered story of mystique and intrigue. Developed by Manfred Trenz of Turrican fame, it was only ever released in Japan after its American and European incarnation, Targa, was cancelled. With only 10,000 copies produced, it’s one of the rarest Super Famicom games and by far the most...
Mini Review Breakout Beyond (Switch) - A Thrilling Iteration On An Arcade Classic
Breaking the mould
Breakout Beyond comes from Bit.Trip developer Choice Provisions and sees you paddle your way through a total of 72 levels (plus an unlockable ‘Infinite Mode’), most of which are based on iconic Atari developers or IP, like ‘NOHLENN’ (Nolan Bushnell) and ‘RAH-BAHNET’ (Warren Robinett). With plentiful neon and a gentle,...
Robot Jox
We were somewhere around 20 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, on the edge of thinking, 'This is all very familiar,' when the really feeling it began to take hold. As fun as Xenoblade Chronicles X is in its opening six chapters — and it's up there with the rest of the series in this regard — things only really...
Review On Your Tail (Switch) - A Charming Detective Story Stumbles On Switch
A tail of mystery
In this charming indie, an aspiring writer gets lost in a scenic coastal destination while searching for inspiration. Diana Caproni wanders Borga Marina, making friends and solving mysteries in this low-intensity detective story. Italian developer Memorable Games has crafted a gorgeous setting that serves as an ode to Ligurian...
A new day dawns
Atelier has always been one of the more niche JRPG franchises out there, but it started to gain much more widespread appeal with the significant success of the Ryza trilogy over the past few years. Now that Gust has closed the book on Ryza’s adventures (for now, anyway…), it’s come time to see if they can maintain that momentum...
Mini Review Mainframes (Switch) - A Fun But Frustrating PC-Inspired Platformer
No doomscrolling here
Mainframes presents an intriguing premise: What if your PC desktop was its own game world? Taking on the role of a cute, anthropomorphic floppy disk called, uh, Floppy, you set off on a journey through multiple ‘biomes’ of increasing complexity in which PC windows (or frames) are traversed to reach your goal. Though very...
Review Donkey Kong (GB) - One Of The Game Boy's Very Best
It's on with the King of the Kongs
This review was originally published in June 2011. We're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of the game in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy library. In 1994, Nintendo had a great idea; why not make a true sequel to the original Donkey Kong arcade game? The result is Donkey Kong for the Game Boy,...
Review Sorry We're Closed (Switch) - An Ethereal, Colourful Survival Horror Like No Other
Love is hell
To call à La Mode's Sorry We’re Closed a survival horror is certainly accurate in many ways, but it also does a disservice to just how unique and fresh this debut title really is. While it absolutely borrows a few elements from genre classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill (including the obvious PS1-inspired visuals), Sorry...
Read the rune, Konami
Few RPGs, or video games, deal with war and hope in the face of tyranny like the Suikoden series. Konami’s prime RPG series, created by the late, great Yoshitaka Muriyama, is beloved by those who have played them – particularly the first two. They’re about the underdogs, about those who want better for their country, and...
Review Everhood 2 (Switch) - A Subversive, Surprising Yet Shallow Undertale-Inspired RPG
Buckle up
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, there’s an oft-quoted interaction in which the titular character, having fallen down the rabbit hole and become trapped in a dreamlike world, complains to the Cheshire Cat that she doesn’t want to be among mad people. “Oh, you can’t help that,” says the Cat. “We’re all mad here.”...
Review Omega 6: The Triangle Stars (Switch) - A Fun Throwback Adventure From A Nintendo Veteran
Rock, Paper, Scissors...in space
Takaya Imamura has designed some of the most iconic characters across Nintendo’s history. Joining in 1989, his first major gig was creating the look of F-Zero’s Captain Falcon. Moving on to The Legend of Zelda series and Star Fox, he is also responsible for the unique art direction of Majora's Mask. After...
Review Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection (Switch) - A Comprehensive Round-Up With A Few Real Winners
Duels in the crown
One of the most striking elements of Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, is the sheer number of Yu-Gi-Oh! video games that came out between 1998 and 2004. The Early Days Collection includes 14 games just from Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance titles, some...
Review Sid Meier's Civilization 7 (Switch) - An Incredible Game That's Not Quite Ready
Short of Civilliant
Most games with numbered sequels tend to iterate and grow on their previous instalments. After all, you don’t want to alienate your audience by upending key systems and creating a substantially different experience from what they’re used to, it just makes sound economic sense. Change things just enough so that it rides that...
Review Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered (Switch) - A Fascinating But Inessential Second Collection
The good, the bad, and the ugly
It seems like an absurd notion these days, but after Tomb Raider made its debut in 1996, developer Core Design pumped out six mainline entries over the next eight years – six. It’s true that teams were able to turn projects around much more quickly in those days, as evidenced by franchises such as Resident Evil...
Review WARRIORS: Abyss (Switch) - Middling Musou With A Dash Of Diablo & Hades
Not Abyssmal
During Sony’s February 2025 State of Play presentation, the big shadow drop was Koei Tecmo’s Warriors: Abyss, which offers a low-budget, roguelite take on the popular Warriors hack ‘n’ slash formula. The good news is that this genre hybrid feels like both halves fit perfectly together—the mindlessness of the
Review Wario Land 4 (GBA) - A Boisterous But Impeccably Designed Platformer
Quality over quantity
This review was originally published in May 2014. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack GBA library. Although Wario's core platforming series has been overshadowed for years by the surrealist microgames of WarioWare, his excellent platformers have the sort...
Review Afterlove EP (Switch) – Music-Themed Visual Novel That Hits Mostly The Right Notes
Believe in life after love
Back in 2020 a little game called Coffee Talk boomed onto the indie scene with its visual novel deliciousness. Since then, one could argue the Switch has brought about stacks of visual novels – perhaps because handheld mode feels like reading a book. Coffee Talk creator Mohammad Fahmi tragically passed away in 2022,...
Let's do the time warp again
On Western shores last yast year, Falcom started a fresh arc in its long-running flagship franchise with The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak, breathing new life into the series while offering a great jump-in point for newcomers looking for a place to start. With the overall Trails series rapidly nearing the...
Review Turbo Overkill (Switch) - Ridiculous, Relentless Boomer Shooter Gets A Solid Port
The name's Turbo. Johnny Turbo.
Ask any "boomer shooter" aficionado what their favourite modern examples of the genre are, and Trigger Happy Interactive's sublime Turbo Overkill will most likely make the top three, alongside Dusk and Ultrakill, if they want to be our actual pals. Yep, this is a highly-regarded retro-style FPS and, once you've spent...
Mini Review Momodora: Moonlit Farewell (Switch) - This Exquisite Metroidvania Is The Series' Best
A fitting farewell
We love it when a studio demonstrates significant growth and improvement with each of its subsequent projects. With Bombservice specifically, the team has always boasted a strong understanding of what makes Metroidvanias ‘click’, and with Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, it’s delivered what may well be its finest game yet. The...
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