Switch Game Reviews
Review Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore - A Pitch-Perfect, Feel-Good JRPG
A perfectly Chrom-ulent port
The number of big Wii U exclusives that have still yet to receive Switch ports is well into single figures now, with Nintendo seemingly all too happy to continue queuing up its back catalogue and giving each title another chance at success (rightly so, in our opinion). Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is the latest game to get...
Review SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays - Brilliant Strategy RPG Action Bursting With Content
A Gundam 40th anniversary party, SD style
It takes a certain type of western gamer to be a Mobile Suit Gundam fan. You probably got hooked into mecha anime and spent your youth glaring at import gaming magazines, making lists of Gundam games you would either never play, or end up doing so decades after their original release after some brave fans...
Review Blacksad: Under The Skin - Technical Woes Make This A Tough Case To Crack
Feline rough
Detective games can be an unpredictable sort. Their quality often comes down to A) how engaging the core mystery is, and B) how well its mechanics blend with the traditional features of their chosen genre. At their collective best, Telltale and LucasArts really nailed this delicate balance, but some of the recent Frogwares Sherlock...
Review Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch - Not Quite As Smart 14 Years On
Doctor Why
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of the original Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (or Brain Age, if you’re based in North America). Even though these days many credit the Wii with bringing gaming to non-gamers via the likes of Wii Sports, it’s crucial to remember that Brain Training was doing it first, shifting countless DS...
Review ESP Ra.De. Psi - The Best Shmup On Nintendo Switch, Period
M2 ShotTriggers' Switch debut is a thing of beauty
Before we begin our review of ESP Ra.De. Psi, M2 ShotTriggers' latest triumph, here's a little history for those who may not be intimately familiar with ESP Ra.De. and its place within the pantheon of shooting games. In 1998, the blossoming shmup developing studio, CAVE, just finished delighting and...
Review LastFight - A Weak Clone Of Capcom's Legendary Power Stone
Power Nap
Piranaking's LastFight attempts to recapture the crazy multiplayer chaos of Capcom's classic Power Stone series, lifting its signature chaotic gameplay wholesale and transplanting it into the world of cult comic book Lastman. All of the most recognisable elements of Power Stone – small 3D fighting arenas, numerous objects and weapons...
Review Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - An Unforgivably Sloppy Port Of A Genre Classic
Nights into screams
Imagine if you bumped into an old friend you hadn’t seen in 17 years. You spent ages with them back in the day and over time you just drifted apart, but now you’re finally face-to-face with them again and you realised you’re delighted to see them after all this time. Now imagine if you and your newly-reunited chum went out...
Ship Shape
Back in May this year, we reviewed Assassin's Creed III Remastered for Switch and didn't have a great deal good to say about it. It's been patched since – and plays a considerably better game for it – but upon release, it was pretty much a buggy, blurry shambles with a stuttering framerate and a pretty big disappointment for...
Review Farming Simulator 20 - Fine Farming With Some Serious Simulation
Keep farm and carry on
While reviews of any sort can only ever be subjective, sometimes writers have to don a different 'hat', so to speak. Games often have particular tempos or ways of doing things that may not marry with your mindset at the time, with other work and deadlines looming. Farming Simulator 20 requires a very particular hat – a...
Review Decay Of Logos - An Epic Mess Of A Game, Despite The Lengthy Delay On Switch
Soulless
Originally planned for release back in August on Switch, Decay of Logos was delayed by its developers in order to fix some issues with the game on Nintendo's platform. We played this original version back at the time and found it seriously lacking, suffering from a crushing number of gameplay bugs, some terribly muddy graphics and a dire...
Mini Review Zumba Burn it Up! - Ring Fit Adventure Too Crazy For You? Try This Instead
Rhythmic calorie counting
Out of all of the family-centric games introduced during the lifetime of the absurdly popular Nintendo Wii, only a handful have seemingly thrived and continued into the present day. Perhaps the most prevalent is the Just Dance franchise, which releases every year like clockwork, but the Zumba series is just about hanging by...
Review Narcos: Rise Of The Cartels - An XCOM-Style Outing That Doesn't Live Up To The Show
Plata o plomo?
Remember when licensed games used to be all the rage? A generation ago, practically every film worth its salt had a tie-in video game, and while there were the occasional good ones – GoldenEye 007 anyone? – for the most part, they were a cheap and forgettable way to boost your Gamerscore while simultaneously filling up the shelves...
Review Disney Tsum Tusm Festival - A Colourful Party Game That Isn't As Fun As It Looks
Less 'Heigh Ho', more 'hey ho'
Like the toys themselves, Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is a mutated mess that is both adorable and yet utterly bewildering. On the face of it, this is a collection of mini-games populated by stylised versions of your favourite Disney characters, yet it doesn’t quite live up to that promise. This is in part down to its...
Review Raging Loop - A Gorgeous Visual Novel Cursed With Pacing Problems
Kill or be killed
If you’ve ever had a friend excitedly praise whatever TV series they’re currently watching only to have them, almost apologetically, say “it starts off really slow but gets really good about 12 episodes/chapters in” then you’ll have a really good idea of what it’s like to play Raging Loop. Initially, Raging Loop’s...
Review Hello Kitty Kruisers - If Your Age Is In The Double Digits, This Is Best Avoided
So easy an actual cat could play it
It’s odd what passes for rare these days. Take Hello KItty Kruisers, for example; released physically on the Wii U in limited numbers, it can be bought on the Wii U eShop for a mere ten bucks and yet the boxed version regularly sells to collectors for upwards of $60 online. Thankfully, the game has now...
Review WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship - A Decent Racer That Struggles In Switch's Portable Mode
Hits the skids
After the disappointment that was V-Rally 4 on Switch – the only other 'pure' rally game currently available on Nintendo's console which arrived in something of a shambolic state – can developer Kylotonn return to the platform and finally give fans of the genre something to smile about with the latest entry in its WRC series of...
Review Sparklite - An Enjoyable Rogue-Lite That Pays Homage To Zelda In The Best Way
Spark lite, spark bright, you must play Sparklite
Sparklite is a charming action-adventure game that channels the Zelda franchise whilst satisfyingly differentiating itself and establishing its own quirks and nuances. Players will find something both familiar and new here, but what everyone will definitely agree on is that this is an instant...
Review Root Letter: Last Answer - A Clumsy, Laughable Stab At A Visual Novel
The Last Answer to a question no one asked
Do you have a niggling doubt about something you experienced as a child? Something unresolved or unexplained? Perhaps we all have a faint memory that haunts us; a gentle denial that we think we’ll never have to face up to. Have you a tingle in your spine? A skeleton in your closet, a secret sin you’ve...
Review Pokémon Sword And Shield - A Solid Start To Gen 8 On Switch, Despite The Hate
Dynamaxing expectations
If there’s one thing everyone knows about Pokémon Sword and Shield is that they have been talked about. They have been talked about a lot. Whether it’s the controversy surrounding the omission of individual Pokémon or a tree that looks a bit too low-res for people’s tastes, chatter about these games has been incessant...
Review Bubble Bobble 4 Friends - A Timely Update That Proves Classic Gameplay Never Ages
One of the great arcade classics makes a welcome return
Since the release of the original arcade classic Bubble Bobble by Taito in 1986, the core of the series has pretty much stayed with its well-proven formula. The biggest deviations being Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars, two sequels which returned Bub and Bob to their human forms. However, it's...
Review Resident Evil Triple Pack - Only One Game On The Actual Cart, But It's The Right One
Diminishing REturns
In a similar way to the Resident Evil Origins Collection and the Resident Evil Revelations Collection, Capcom has decided to bundle its three most recent Switch ports into one physical package. Labelled the Resident Evil Triple Pack, it includes not only series jewel Resident Evil 4 (appearing on cartridge
Review Garfield Kart Furious Racing - A Rancid, Regurgitated Hairball Of A Racer
This kitten's got flaws
“Garfield, the famous lasagna-loving cat, is back!” That’s according to the description for Garfield Kart Furious Racing on the Nintendo eShop. The reality, however, is quite another matter entirely. Despite a description (and a price tag) that would suggest this is a sequel to the infamous Garfield Kart, we’ve got...
Review Just Dance 2020 - The Same Old Song And Dance Perfected Over 10 Years
Dancing the decade away
Just like Christmas or a hefty council tax bill, you can always rely on the FIFA of dance to pop up with a new entry each year. Just Dance 2020 celebrates the tenth anniversary of Ubisoft’s popular franchise – the original Wii exclusive launched in November 2009 – and if you’ve played any of the numerous titles that...
Review New Super Lucky's Tale - The Perfect Tonic For Jaded Modern Gamers
The fox and the bound
We all need games like New Super Lucky’s Tale in our lives. You may not like to admit it; you may have a tough guy veneer and a no-nonsense online persona that suggests you have no time for such childish nonsense, but deep down – even if you don’t realise it – you could do with this sort of happiness in your life. We...
A story about one very curious Kat
The Professor Layton series is one that’s defined puzzling on Nintendo handhelds ever since the early days of the DS. Since 2007, we’ve received two trilogies and two spinoffs starring the eponymous professor, but declining sales and a general sense of stagnation seemed to have scared Level-5 off from...
Review Race With Ryan - A Thoroughly Average Racer Tied To The Most Annoying Licence Imaginable
Team Cynic Racing
It might be difficult to believe, but Race With Ryan is one of the most difficult reviews we’ve written in a while. When you’re covering a game based on a licence it’s always important to make sure your opinion of the licence itself doesn’t get in the way of the review. After all, nobody wants to read a review of an NBA...
To the Vector go the spoils
With the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang cruelly overlooked for some reason, fans of the Mario & Sonic series haven’t had a new entry for nearly four years now. Given that the 2020 Olympic Games are being held in Tokyo, the home of video games, it would have been truly bizarre for Sega to pass on that one too...
Review Xeno Crisis - An Old-School Twin-Stick Shooter Which Supplies A Stern Test
Standup fight or just another bug hunt?
The twin-stick shooter – originating in games such Robotron: 2084 – has proved to be a perennially popular genre. The fundamentals remain the same, generally, even when the themes differ and gameplay elements are layered on; players must clear a single screen of enemy waves before moving on to the next,...
Review Let's Sing 2020 - Uplifting Karaoke Goodness On Your Switch
A solid music title for modern pop fans
The real initial rush and heyday of home karaoke on consoles was the PS2-era, when it seemed like a never-ending cascade of SingStar games were being released every few months to a public that seemed to practically inhale them. They were everywhere, catering to most popular genres from rock to Disney...
Review Dusk Diver - Enjoyable Combat Can't Fully Atone For The Problems Elsewhere
Interdimensional Express
JFI Games’ Dusk Diver is a Musou-style hack-and-slash affair that tells the story of Yuma, an innocent high school student thrown into the middle of an interdimensional battle between the ancient animal Gods of Kunlun. Taking place between an impressively detailed recreation of the Ximending district of Taipei and its...