Latest Reviews
The NeverEnding Story
If “Kureshin × Bokunatsu” a) makes sense and b) sounds appealing to you, and if c) you haven’t already bought this game in the year since it was released in Japan, then we can keep this review nice and tight: buy this game! For those not residing in that modest nub of the Venn diagram, let’s see if you’ve moved there...
Review Arcade Paradise - An Addictive Arcade Management Sim That Proves Laundry Can Be Fun
Not a wash out
Have you ever wanted to turn your local laundromat into an arcade? For the three of you that have, boy do we have a game to recommend you. Created by Nosebleed Interactive, the same developer behind the well-received Vostok Inc., Arcade Paradise puts you in the role of Ashley, an inheritor to a run-down laundromat called King Wash...
Review Mega Man Battle & Fighters - A Surprise Neo Geo Package Of Blue Bomber Beat 'Em Ups
Lost in translation
Mega Man: The Power Battle was a 1995 arcade release followed by a sequel, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Both are one-on-one fighting games, and they retain the series hallmark of obtaining enemy skills for tactical use. Controlling either Mega Man, Proto Man or Bass (and Duo for the sequel) imagine Mega Man minus the...
Review Two Point Campus - A Beautifully Balanced Sim That's More 'Friend' Than 'Fiscal'
Putting the 'U-need' in 'Uneedversity'
After the excellent Two Point Hospital released on Switch moments before the world was rocked by a global pandemic, Two Point Studios are at it yet again with Two Point Campus. If the name hadn’t made it clear already, rather than running a hospital for money, Two Point Campus has you running a university...
Review Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 - An RPG Classic That Time Hasn't Been Too Kind To
Old, but gold?
Back in the early 2000’s, the Dark Alliance subseries of the Baldur’s Gate franchise was created as a means of bringing the Baldur’s Gate experience to console players. Either due to hardware limitations or a simple lack of audience interest at the time, the computer RPG design of traditional Baldur’s Gate wouldn’t work for...
Mini Review MADiSON - Jump Scares Aplenty In This Effective, If Unoriginal, Horror
Say cheese!
To anyone familiar with the recent spate of first-person horror titles, MADiSON will seem instantly familiar. With its moody lighting, tight corridors, and affinity for jump scares, there's little here that really sets it apart from the likes of Outlast or Layers of Fear on the surface. Diving into the game a bit deeper, however, unveils...
Review Strange Horticulture - An Odd Occult Puzzler That Blossoms Into A Fantastic Mystery
It’s a grower
Strange Horticulture takes on some big challenges. It’s a carefully authored story that wants to be driven by interaction, and it’s a single-scene play space that wants to create immersion in a whole world. It’s such a tricky line to walk between structured gameplay that’s interactive but dry and a carefully managed story...
Review Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 2 - Harmless Fun, But More "B-Side Filler"
A stumbling sophomore outing
After the launch of Wave 1 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass, everyone and their nan turned their attention towards Wave 2; specifically, when on earth it would be coming out. Excitment reached fever pitch (just check out the comments section of any Mario Kart Tour related content if you don't believe us!), so...
Mini Review Turrican Anthology Vol. 2 - Mega Turrican Steals The Show Amidst The Filler
Could have been turrific
If you wanted the original Amiga classics Turrican I & II, you likely spent a pretty penny to obtain them in Turrican Anthology Vol. 1. But Mega Turrican, widely considered one of the series' finest, was held back in lieu of a limited single stage Score Attack mode. Fortunately, Turrican Anthology Vol. 2 includes Mega...
Mini Review Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 - A Pricey Package Of Solid Run-And-Gun Classics
Turrn it up
Although Turrican is best remembered as an Amiga classic, it actually started life on the Commodore 64. A technically remarkable feat for the then eight-year-old home computer, it subsequently appeared on almost every system on the market. Often compared to Konami’s Contra, Turrican is a run-and-gun game with Metroid-esque elements...
Mini Review Hindsight - Another Beautifully Moving Hit For Annapurna
Don’t look back in anger
If you played the excellent Neon White recently and were surprised to learn it was published by Annapurna Interactive, brace yourself to be completely unsurprised with this one: they don’t come much more Annapurna-y than this. Hindsight is a story that plays out through gentle interactions, with no complex objectives or...
Review Digimon Survive - This Champion Visual Novel Proves The Wait Has Been Worth It
DigiDestined for greatness
The long wait for Digimon Survive is finally over, with players at last able to dive into this unusual entry in the series. Fans expecting the usual fare from a Digimon game might be understandably disappointed, but for those with an appetite for visual novels and tactical RPG combat, there is plenty to get your teeth sunk...
Review Frogun - A Charming Platformer That Doesn't Croak Its N64 Inspirations
It’s time to hop into action
At a time when game developers are consistently striving to create something photorealistic and fully immersive, we begin to lose touch with the games that kept us up at night as kids. Luckily Molegato, the developer of Frogun, kept this in mind as this crisp, retro-style puzzle platformer came to fruition. The story...
Review Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 - Another Cracking Mega Man Zero-Alike
Capturing lightning in a bottle again
Way back in 2014, Inti Creates—of Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX fame—made waves in the action platforming space when it released Azure Striker Gunvolt, a clear successor to its previous work on the Blue Bomber. Though that initial release was kinda similar to older Mega Man games, this franchise has evolved...
Review Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - An Epic, Emotionally-Charged Masterpiece
From Here to Eternity
The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 key art promises a hell of a lot. You know the shot, that jaw-dropping vista with its deep blue skies and lush green fields, this time joined by an impossible rock formation looming large on the horizon as the silhouettes of a band of heroes you've yet to meet look on. It's an image that exudes the...
Mini Review Severed Steel - A Heart-Pounding FPS That Makes You Feel Like John Wick
Get equipped with: Time Stopper
Following movies like The Raid and John Wick, the genre of ‘solo badass fighting endless amounts of enemies’ has skyrocketed in popularity. Almost parallel to that style of film, the genre has also become prevalent in games thanks to the likes of Sifu and Superhot with their intense trial and error gameplay; where...
Review Omori - An Emotional, EarthBound-Inspired RPG That's Not Afraid To Shock
"Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here."
It’s been a long journey for Omori — the first video game from OMOCAT — on its way to the land of Nintendo. After a successful Kickstarter campaign all the way back in 2014, the game was originally slated for release on the 3DS, though this was later cancelled as development wore on and...
Mini Review Redout 2 - A Fast-Paced Blend Of F-Zero And Simulation Racing
Big Red
Futuristic racing games haven’t had the easiest go of things over the years. It’s been ten years since the last new Wipeout game, and the newest F-Zero entry, F-Zero Climax, is almost old enough to buy a pint. Luckily, independent developers have been carrying that torch a bit in recent years, with games like Fast RMX filling the void...
Review Coromon - A Charming Pokémon-Style Quest To Catch All Of 'Em
That's the line, right?
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Coromon is the greatest love letter ever written. It makes no secret that it has been inspired by classic Pokémon titles, particularly those from the Game Boy Advance era. It stops just short of being a direct imitation of those games but was clearly created to cater to fans...
Review Live A Live - A Brilliantly Faithful Remake Of A Unique And Influential JRPG
Living our best lives
Early on in Square Enix’s remake of Live A Live, it’s plain to see the influences the game had on Chrono Trigger. From spanning multiple timelines to the inventive area of effect skills, and right down to the simple, sometimes deep story, director Takashi Tokita clearly used 1994’s Live A Live as a springboard for his...
Review Bright Memory: Infinite - A Chaotic, Crysis-Style FPS, But Messy And Very Short
Micro-Crysis
Everyone has that movie, album or game that despite how objectively flawed it is, you can’t help but love it. Sure, something like Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny isn’t by any means a masterpiece, but that didn’t stop us from watching it countless times. Bright Memory: Infinite fits into that guilty pleasure camp so well. We...
Mini Review Growbot - A Musical Point-And-Clicker, Superficial But Sumptuous
The Tree Laws of Robotics
Growbot is a good old point-n-clicker in the classic style: screen-sized scenes to be pixel hunted, each one providing some combination of puzzles, items for solving puzzles, world-building, and story progression. The loop is “solve puzzles, unlock more puzzles”, with the added pay-off of the explorable world growing as...
Review Pokémon Puzzle League - A Thrilling Puzzler And A Heavy Nostalgia Hit
Panel de Pokémon
This review originally went live in 2008, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. For those who have dabbled with Puzzle League, this is obvious information, but please bear with us. Tetris Attack, the SNES game, was a westernized version of...
Review XEL - Promising Zelda-Style Sci-Fi Adventuring That Falls Short On Switch
Taking the Zelda formula into space
Zelda games have laid out a comfortable roadmap for developers to follow when making action-adventure games, and there's no shortage of Zelda-likes to enjoy on Switch and elsewhere. Tiny Roar evidently took heavy notes from Nintendo’s storied franchise when putting together XEL, which takes cues from both...
Review Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium - Captures That Arcade Magic In A Quality Package
Insert coin
Since there’s little 'wrong' with Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, what’s right with it will depend on the sensibilities and interests of the player. The second of Capcom’s superbly curated compilations following on from Capcom Arcade Stadium, its 32 arcade titles (one of which is free) now feature a greater emphasis on action and...
Review Spidersaurs - A Love Letter To Contra And A Fun Ride While It Lasts
Contrasaur
WayForward Technologies has made a name for itself as one of the best developers out there when it comes to retro-flavoured projects, from their excellent beat-em-ups like Double Dragon Neon and River City Girls to Metroidvanias like The Mummy Demastered and its signature Shantae series. The studio excels at that throwbac
Review Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series - A Classic Platforming Pair Worth Catching Again
Dream a little dream of me
The fifth console generation represented arguably the greatest shift in game design the industry has ever seen, as developers all over the world wrestled with how to transition 2D tenets into the 3D realm. There was lots of experimentation, and while platformers like Super Mario 64 and Spyro dived head-first into the new...
Review Rabbids: Party Of Legends - A Polished Party Game Journeys To The West
A party of mythological proportions
The Rabbids have come a long way since their first appearance in the Rayman series back in 2006. Since then, they’ve featured in numerous party games, all starring the titular little bundles of chaos. Rabbids: Party of Legends, previously a China-exclusive release, now comes to the West to help tide fans over...
Review Time On Frog Island - Charming Zelda-Style Trading With Animal Crossing Island Vibes
A 'tad' simple
Time on Frog Island is like a playable fever dream in the best of ways. It places you in the role of the captain of a little sailboat who finds himself marooned on a strange island populated by a frog society. His only hope of getting off the island is by successfully mingling with the frogs and getting them to help him with the...
Review F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch - Frustratingly Close To Metroidvania Greatness
And here comes a giant fist!
Let’s get it out of the way. FIST: Forged in Shadow Torch on the Nintendo Switch is a frustrating game. Not in the sense that it’s difficult, but rather that it is so frustratingly close to being something great and doesn't quite make it. Like doing a pole vault and you crack your ankle on the pole. There’s a lot...
