Switch Game Reviews
Review Terminator 2D: NO FATE (Switch) - A Simplistic Yet Fascinating 16-Bit Love Letter
Hasta la vista, LJN
Are you old enough to remember being a kid and seeing a NES, Super Nintendo, or Mega Drive game of a licensed movie, and having your imagination run wild as to all the playable scenarios potentially contained within? If the answer is 'yes', then you’re equally likely to remember the actual experience typically being rushed,...
Mini Review Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Switch 1) - An Impressive Version If You've Yet To Upgrade
Smooth as a Morph Ball 'round a half pipe
After having completed Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Switch 2, booting the game up on the original Switch was an immediately familiar, if bizarre experience. The game was almost certainly made with Nintendo’s 2017 system in mind from the off given how long it’s been in development, and yet there’s...
Review R-Type Delta: HD Boosted (Switch) - The Best R-Type? Possibly, And It's Never Looked Better
Playing with your balls
In the great pantheon of shoot-'em-up games, R-Type is both one of the greatest and one of the most excruciatingly difficult. Released in arcades in 1987 and drawing visual inspiration from the works of H.R. Giger, you pilot an R-9 fighter craft through spectacular alien worlds in a bid to destroy the Bydo Empire. Although...
Review Indika (Switch) - A Port That Makes You Lose Faith In An Indie Gem
Thoughts and prayers
There’s a version of Indika I’d call one of the most singularly audacious narrative exploration games in recent memory, a daring title that defies easy classification with its surrealist flourishes, cinematic art direction, and cynical inversion of familiar video game mechanics. Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch version...
Review Double Dragon Revive (Switch) - Nice Ideas, Uneven Execution
Not much of a revival
The beat ‘em up genre has experienced something of a renaissance in the last generation, with original titles like Fight’n Rage (2019) and more recently Absolum (2025) finding new ways to move the genre forward, while releases such as Streets of Rage 4 (2020) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (2022)...
Review Once Upon A Katamari (Switch) – A Roll-'Em-Up Revival Done Right
A star is born
The core gameplay conceit of the Katamari series — rolling up everything you see into a giant ball of wriggling debris, one object at a time — almost feels like it shouldn’t work. Yet Once Upon a Katamari manages to turn mess into something meditative, pulling you into a satisfyingly tactile flow state where hoovering stuff up...
Review Night Striker Gear (Switch) - The Shining Apex Of The 'Super Scaler' Concept
All the gear, and a great idea
Imagine, if you will, an alternate timeline where 3D graphics never happened. Instead, Sega's 'Super Scaler' concept — popularised in games such as Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner — evolves to the point where 2D sprites can not only be scaled without any degradation in visual fidelity, but are...
Mini Review Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Switch) - Mostly Stable, Much Less Shiny
An evolution on Switch 1, but not a Mega one
Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Switch is 'fine'. For a lot of people, that'll be enough. And certainly, even I'm surprised it's as stable as it is after Legends: Arceus and Scarlet & Violet had more than their fair share of performance woes — the latter of which is almost a completely different game with the...
Review BALL x PIT (Switch) - Ballsy, Beautifully Balanced, Mercilessly Addictive
Bouncing off the walls
Here comes a ball – a great big wrecking ball, ready to smash down the headquarters of productivity that might otherwise control your life. Kenny Sun Studios’ Ball x Pit is a mercilessly addictive mix of, well, a lot of stuff. First, take a big dollop of Vampire Survivors and a healthy scoop of Breakout – then just mix...
Review Absolum (Switch) - Evolves Arcade, RPG & Roguelike Formats Into Something Fresh & Exciting
Absolumtly fantastic
Absolum is the brainchild of Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, and Supamonks, collaborators largely responsible for bringing about the renaissance of the scrolling beat 'em up with Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Dotemu’s first original IP, Absolum is a 'rogue 'em up' inspired by Capcom’s...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube841k
Review Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (Switch) - Cracking Karting, But Struggles To Keep Up On Switch
Everybody super sonic racing
Nintendo has spent the past few decades going from strength to strength with Mario Kart, so it’s not hard to see why companies holding other recognisable IP have wanted to take a crack at the kart-racer formula to see if they can pull a following of their own. While plenty of copycats have popped up over the years, one...
Review Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Switch) - Still Out Of This World
Luma-nescent
I have to admit, prior to this review, it’s been a while since I played either Super Mario Galaxy or Galaxy 2. I dabbled a bit in the first entry in Super Mario 3D All-Stars, but I spent the majority of my time there playing Mario Sunshine (still my ‘favourite’ of the 3D entries – blame nostalgia, I guess) before getting...
Pyramid scheme
Isn’t it comforting to settle in with a good book that you already know? Microids certainly seem to hope so, as their Studio Lyon is snuggling yet another Christie classic right into your Switch. A follow-up to 2023’s Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile may not be as big as that choo-choo colossus, but it nearly is...
A good walk spoiled
Fans of Everybody’s Golf have had to twiddle their one-gloved thumbs for a while now, waiting since 2017 for a new official entry in the series. Mashing together the series’ previously regionally distinct names (Everybody’s Golf and Hot Shots Golf), Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots has finally stepped up to the tee. Have series...
Review Operation Night Strikers (Switch) - M2 Does It Again With This Taito-Themed Collection
Wolf pack
Taito may be famous for creating the likes of Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble, but for a brief period at the close of the 1980s, it became the hottest name in arcades thanks to the release of Operation Wolf, a Rambo-inspired military shooter with a realistic Uzi strapped to its cabinet. Ported to pretty much every home system of the era,...
Review OFF (Switch) - A Worthy Remaster Of A Weird Cult Classic RPG
Get up, get up, get out of here!
Though it may feel like the ‘quirky’ branch of indie JRPGs has become a played out trope by now, it wasn’t too long ago that a confusing, humorous, and parodying take on the standard template was seen as a novel concept. One of the most significant examples of this was OFF, a simple freeware RPG Maker project...
Review Patapon 1+2 Replay (Switch) - A Pleasing Return For Some PSP Charmers
Drumroll, please
Ever since I was a kid stomping his feet to pop songs in Dance Dance Revolution and getting pep talks from PaRappa the Rapper about how I gotta believe, I’ve been a fan of rhythm games. And while I love popular juggernauts in the genre like Guitar Hero, I’ll always prefer something with more originality than just simply holding...
Review Chronicles Of The Wolf (Switch) - A Spot-On Castlevania Tribute That May Test Your Patience
A Metroidvania with claws
Chronicles of the Wolf is a tough game to review. A decade or so ago, 2D Metroidvanias were rarer, but they now represent one of gaming’s most enduring and best-developed genres. But how do I assess a production like this that purposefully ignores many of the design changes that made the genre more accessible? This meaty...
Review Front Mission 3: Remake (Switch) - Didn't Get The Love & Time This Tactical RPG Deserved
Wanzer more unto the breach
Every time I pick up the Front Mission series, I am rooting for it. Mechs (wanzers, in this case) are always cool and I always love a good tactical RPG. However, Front Mission 3: Remake doesn’t just manage to put me off with its deeply frustrating combat mechanics; it feels like a haphazard and even insultingly bad...
Mini Review Locomoto (Switch) - On The Right Cosy Track, But Has A Few Train Faults
Tickets, please
I thought Locomoto would be the perfect game for me amidst the Switch 2 chaos. With all the excitement of opening new games and speeding around the track in Mario Kart World, I needed something much slower, calmer, and cosier. And, for the first five hours, Locomoto slotted into that role perfectly. You're the conductor of your own...
Review Gex Trilogy (Switch) - A Happy Throwback That Couldn't Be Any More '90s
Enter the '90s
Dimitris Giannakis’s Carbon Engine is back on behalf of Limited Run Games, and, despite some previously reported bugs, it fairly accurately brings vintage games to new hardware. Speaking of bugs, Gex the gecko thrives on them. That and gnarly '90s flair. Combining all three titles released on Sony’s original PlayStation, Gex...
Review Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma (Switch) - A Bold Reinvention That Pays Off
It'd be rune not to
Rune Factory’s first entry arrived to a welcoming fanbase almost 20 years ago, and players have signed on for the adventures of a string of amnesiac protagonists, equal parts fighter and farmer, ever since. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma delivers on the promise of the series with another hero mysteriously connected to the...
Review Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (Switch) - A Cracking Collection Of Top-Class Arcade Fighters
A Dream(cast) collection
We love Capcom Fighting Collection 2! There, that's the review done. Seriously though, this is a particularly strong lineup of actual arcade Bangers (yes, with a capital B), that doesn't have anything approaching a full-on weak spot across a stellar roster of classic titles, so it's not really a surprise, is it? Indeed,...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
