Switch Game Reviews
Review Bladed Fury (Switch) - A Pretty Yet Bland Hack-And-Slash Platformer That Lacks An Edge
Muramessy: The Demon Blade
NEXT Studios' Bladed Fury is a side-scrolling hack 'n slash platformer set in the Warring States period of ancient Chinese history, an era characterized by endless warfare and high political drama that's been nicely infused here with a hefty dose of mythology and the supernatural. This is a game with a few good ideas up...
Review BIG-Bobby-Car - The Big Race (Switch) - Chugs A Bit, But Fine For A First Little Runabout
Life in plastic, it's fantastic(ally average)
We’ve seen some odd licensed karting games in our time but the BIG Bobby Car is certainly one of the most left-field ones we’ve come across, even though it does make sense when you think about it. For those not in the know, the BIG Bobby Car is a plastic ride-on car for young children that’s been...
Review Balan Wonderworld (Switch) - A Charmless, Confusing Fossil From The Creators Of Sonic
A relic of another age
Balan Wonderworld is a strange game. Mascot platformers were all the rage around the turn of the century, but that fad has long since died off. Yet here comes a brand-new seemingly high budget entry in the genre that feels straight out of 2001 (not in a good way) and it’s produced by Square Enix no less. Unfortunately, Balan...
Review Root Film (Switch) - A Surprisingly Grown-Up Visual Novel
A murder mystery through a different lens
Like any good story, it starts with a death. We don’t know why someone is laying on the street or why people are taking pictures of them with their phones, but the world is dark and getting darker until it all fades to black. Root Film starts out grim and a little bit frightening, but the shock soon fades...
Review Story Of Seasons: Pioneers Of Olive Town (Switch) - Enjoyable, But Unremarkable
Is POOT a fart in the wind, or a glorious trumpet?
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town might not bear the Harvest Moon title that would identify it as a continuation of the beloved series, but that's all down to copyright, Japanese-to-English translation, and a schism between XSEED and Natsume. It's not very interesting, so to summarise: Story...
Review Overcooked! All You Can Eat (Switch) - Stuff Your Face With This Awesome Multiplayer Marvel
Seconds, please
Team17 has just released Overcooked! All You Can Eat, which pulls together the two Overcooked! games as well as all of the related DLC. By the same token, we've compiled this mega-review which covers all of the content. Enjoy! Overcooked: Special Edition: Part of the draw and charm of the Nintendo Switch is the increased focus that...
Review Plants Vs. Zombies: Battle For Neighborville Complete Edition (Switch) - Dig For Victory
A bountiful harvest
It’s been a long and weird road for the Plants vs. Zombies franchise. What began as a simplistic and quirky tower defence title eventually led to the creation of a surprisingly high-quality shooter spin-off series. The latest release in this series, Plants vs. Zombies: Battle For Neighborville, originally saw its debut on other...
Review Monster Hunter Rise (Switch) - A New Apex For Capcom's Beastly Franchise
A new Nintendo Switch classic has risen
This encounter felt fated. Written in the stars. Ever since the Nintendo Switch was revealed in late 2016, one pervasive thought has been: “How great is Monster Hunter going to be?” While we saw the release of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate in 2018, it was just a port of the 3DS title that was...
Review Sea Of Solitude: The Director's Cut (Switch) - Fun While It Lasts, Which Isn't Long
Sea by name, C by nature
There are simply not enough games where you get to ride around in a boat. It was the best part of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, formed the pulse-pounding backbone of Hydro Thunder, and it’s everyone’s favourite bit in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Cars, planes and humans are cool and all, but boats? They really...
Review WRC 9 The Official Game (Switch) - The Best Rally Game On Switch, But That's Not Saying Much
Still not rally what we're looking for
Over the past few years, the WRC series of rally games has gained a reputation for providing arguably the most accurate depiction of the sport. While the Colin McRae Rally series has over time evolved into Dirt – which tends to focus on more over-the-top racing (not that it’s on Switch anyway) – the...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube773k Watch on YouTube Review Kaze And The Wild Masks (Switch) - A Brilliant Homage To Donkey Kong Country
Kaze ni nare
Despite being a) beloved and b) hugely successful, the Donkey Kong Country series feels a little… well… under-rated. Offering a weighty yet fast-paced alternative take on the side-scrolling platformer, it’s always been second fiddle to Nintendo’s flagship Super Mario titles. It’s a surprise that such an overt love letter to...
Review Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (Switch) - RPG Action That Really Shows Its Age
Combat is King
Some six months on from its initial release on PS4, Xbox and PC, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, THQ Nordic's "remaster" of 2012's action-RPG epic, finally arrives on Nintendo Switch, bringing with it a solid hundred hours'-worth of high-fantasy shenanigans. While it's more than showing its age in many respects – and certainly...
Review Harvest Moon: One World (Switch) - A Poor Imitation Of A Once-Great Series
Time to take this old horse out to the back of the barn
Harvest Moon: One World, to summarise the next few hundred words of complaining, is a badly-paced, unattractive, hollow facsimile of a Harvest Moon game. And yes, we're well aware of the Natsume/XSEED schism, and that Story of Seasons is the "true" Harvest Moon game, but even still, how the...
Review Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (Switch) - Better Late Than Never
Worth taking for a spin
In one sense, it should come as no surprise that Crash Bandicoot 4 has eventually made its way to the Switch, albeit five months after it came to other consoles. When the N. Sane Trilogy came to the Switch a full year after launching on the PS4, it was hugely successful despite that 12-month gap – both critically and...
Review Hellpoint (Switch) - A Sci-Fi Soulslike Which Suffers From Hellish Technical Issues On Switch
Blighttown
Dark Souls crossed with Dead Space? Bloodborne set within the bowels of a great big derelict space station? Yes. Yes please, we like this, we want this, sign us up! Cradle Games' Hellpoint has got a great premise, a fantastically atmospheric setting and gameplay that unashamedly pilfers ideas and
Review Azur Lane: Crosswave (Switch) - Great Anime-Style Design Sunk By Terrible Combat
You sunk my busty battleship
Azur Lane started life on mobile devices as a 2D blend of RPG mechanics and side-scrolling shooting. Its move over to console with Azur Lane: Crosswave brings with it some flashy 3D battle scenes, but the overall experience retains a similar structure and feel to its mobile counterpart. Fans of this type of game will...
Review Bravely Default II (Switch) - An Excellent Old-School JRPG That's Happy To Play It Safe
A brave new world, or a throwback to an older one?
Square Enix has always been one of the biggest names in the RPG genre, but it’s been interesting to see how the company has changed its design philosophies with the times. For example, its biggest franchise – Final Fantasy – has long since left behind its humble origins as a turn-based RPG and...
Review Taxi Chaos (Switch) - A Crazy Taxi Spiritual Successor That Fails To Go The Extra Mile
Ticket to ride?
It’s been a minute since we last got a proper, honest-to-God taxi driving game. Putting aside a couple of questionable mobile spin-offs, Sega’s own Crazy Taxi series has remained dormant for more than a decade. Since then, of course, even the word ‘taxi’ has largely been relegated from the English language for the far less...
Review Gal*Gun Returns (Switch) - A Mechanically Basic Yawn-Fest
Absolute pants
Inti Creates' 2011 on-rails ecchi shooter Gal*Gun, a bishōjo game that has only ever seen the light of day in Japan, finally makes its way onto western consoles in this remastered edition that comes complete with dolled-up visuals, full voice-acting and all previously released DLC. But does it improve on the decidedly-average Gal*Gun...
Review Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch) - A Superb Mario Adventure With A Bowser Bonus
Meow that's what we call value
Well, it’s finally here. The 35th anniversary of Mario may soon be ending with a Thanos-style snap of the fingers for Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. 35, but before we mourn them, Nintendo has one final release to celebrate the big three-five, and this one’s sticking around for good. Super Mario 3D...
Review Little Nightmares II (Switch) - A Spooky Platformer Dripping With Tension And Dread
Sweet dreams are made of this
Ever been somewhere you know you shouldn’t? Fear and curiosity can entwine themselves into intoxicating shapes, dancing in your guts as you push ever forward into the dark, knowing that the consequences of your being discovered will most likely be dire and terrible? That’s what Little Nightmares II goes for, and it...
Review Persona 5 Strikers (Switch) - Much More Than Your Average Musou Spin-Off
Screwball Scramble
Persona 5 Strikers, otherwise known as Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers in Japan, finally blasts its way onto Switch consoles in the west and, if you were expecting this Atlus/Koei Tecmo crossover to be a straight-up Musou style spin-off, a Dynasty Warriors-esque effort with a fancy Persona skin hastily slapped on top,...
Review Turrican Flashback (Switch) - An Annoyingly Incomplete Collection That's Still Worth A Look
Are you a Turrican? Or a Turrican't?
Factor 5’s beloved Amiga platform shooter has been egregiously missing in action for some decades now. At least, the series is back on modern systems in the relatively exhaustive form of the Turrican Anthology 1 and 2, seemingly physical-only collections that brin
On the Ryza
Hot on the heels of 2019’s excellent Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout, developer Gust has wasted absolutely no time in releasing this second epic adventure for Reisalin “Ryza” Stout, a protagonist who’s proven so popular with fans that she’s the very first since the Atelier series kicked off back in 1997 to...
Review Aleste Collection (Switch) - M2 Does It Again With This Wonderful Fusion Of Old And New
Vintage shmup action on Switch
M2's Shot Triggers range has a track record of bringing rare and refined arcade shmups home, either making them available on consoles for the first time ever or at the very least making them affordable for the first time in decades. The titles M2 work hard to preserve for future generations are often so incredible...
Review Space Invaders Forever (Switch) - One Great Game Does Not A Great Package Make
We'd rather have a packet of Space Raiders
It’s probably a contentious thought, but does Space Invaders really need to keep coming back? We get it, the game was important. Is it fun to play Space Invaders in the year of our lord 2020? God, no. Not in the slightest. The game, in anything close to its original form, simply doesn’t hold up. But...
A thumpin’ good time
The Switch is no stranger to ports of older titles. Following hot on the heels of the delightful Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! in 2018, Don and Katsu are back with a pair of beefed up 3DS titles never before released in the West: Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1 and Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 2...
Review Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (Switch) - Another Fine Fusion Of Two Puzzle Greats
Another one of those block-dropping feats
The original Puyo Puyo Tetris was one of those strange combinations that didn't seem like it would work but was actually surprisingly moreish, sort of like whoever came up with the idea of cola chicken: a mad idea, without a doubt, but the results speak for themselves. Now Puyo Puyo Tetris has returned, and...
Review Commandos 2 - HD Remaster (Switch) - A Shoddy Update Plagued With Both New And Old Annoyances
An in-führer-ating remaster of an age-old classic
2001 really is beginning to feel like quite a long time ago indeed and Commandos 2, which originally released way back in September of that year is, it has to be said, now showing its age in many ways. Pyro Studios real-time tactics effort is undoubtedly something of a classic of the genre, for...
Review Empire Of Sin (Switch) - A Criminal Waste Of A Superb Premise
Eliot Mess
Romero Games' Empire of Sin is an excellent premise for a turn-based strategy/management mash-up that sticks you in 1920s Chicago during the heyday of Al Capone and a host of other real-life gangster legends and charges you with building up your very own criminal enterprise. It's an era that absolutely oozes atmosphere and one that we...