Switch Game Reviews
Review Vampyr (Switch) - Choice-Based Adventure Worth Sinking Your Fangs Into
A vampire game that doesn’t suck
Vampyr, despite its title, isn’t really about vampires. Okay, it is to a large extent (obviously), but what it really explores is the power of temptation – for the main character, most of the people he meets (or eats), and for the player themselves. The game puts you in the pasty skin of Dr Jonathan Reid, a...
Review Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch) - Gooigi Takes Ghost Busting To The Next Level
Drop dead gorgeous
Despite being the glimmering jewel of the GameCube’s launch, Luigi’s Mansion has enjoyed relatively few sequels for such a beloved Mario spin-off. The 3DS had a pop with a well-liked sequel, and the original got a second chance on the same system with a remake. Now it’s time for a true home console follow-up with Luigi’s...
Once, twice, three times a JRPG
Dragon Quest, alongside Final Fantasy, has to rank as one of the most famous JRPG franchises ever. Like Square's epic series, it began life on the 8-bit Famicom (NES to you and me) and sold millions of copies in its native Japan. However, unlike Final Fantasy – which exploded in the west following the release of...
Review Doraemon Story Of Seasons (Switch) - A Charmingly Slow-Paced Life Sim
Wrap up with this winter warmer
The tale of Story of Seasons is a bit of a strange one. Originally conceived under the series name Harvest Moon, developer Marvelous enjoyed relative success with titles like Friends of Mineral Town, A Wonderful Life and Back to Nature. However, in 2012, the licensing of the name lapsed, and owner Natsume reclaimed...
Review Disgaea 4 Complete+ (Switch) - An Often Overwhelming SRPG That Genre Veterans Will Adore
Give it a try, dood!
The Disgaea series has always been one of those in gaming that could best be described as an ‘acquired’ taste. The sheer amount of complexity and micromanaging offered up by each game is nigh peerless in the genre, and though these games are a veritable feast for those who love a nice thousand-hour grind in their RPG, it can...
My First JRPG
Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is an RPG aimed primarily at younger players and those who perhaps haven’t dabbled in the genre before. Telling the story of Sherry, a young girl who’s whisked away on a time-travelling adventure after time itself is frozen during a New Year’s countdown in her hometown of Clocknee, it’s a...
Review AeternoBlade II (Switch) - A Host Of Good Ideas Wiped Out By Shoddy Execution
Aeternoff
The central problem with AeternoBlade II is that it tries too hard to fit too many elements into its gameplay and, in doing so, ensures that pretty much nothing it attempts works as well as it should. Just like its 2014 predecessor, this is a title that squeezes in time manipulation puzzles, side-scrolling hack-and-slash action,...
Gotta hack 'em all
You’ve got to admire Bandai Namco for releasing a monster capturing/battling RPG just weeks before a certain selection of Pocket Monsters swarm the Nintendo Switch - but Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition offers more than enough in the way of different mechanics and content for those looking for an alternative to Game...
Review A Hat In Time (Switch) - A Fine 3D Platformer That Was Worth The Wait On Switch
Just in time?
The classic 3D platformer has seen a bit of revival lately, reminding of us of simpler times with bright primary colours and the likes of Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon, and our very own moustached plumber. We’ve already seen a few attempts at bringing back the good old times, such as Yooka-Laylee and well as re-releases of Crash...
Review Spirit Hunter: NG (Switch) - A Spooky And Gripping Visual Novel
Spirited away
The Switch has become home to a vast array of horror titles over its relatively short life, including multiple entries from big-hitters such as Resident Evil to the likes of Layers of Fear and Outlast. It is in this crowded landscape that Aksys Games’ NG has been brought over to the west, under the title
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Review Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip (Switch) - Undead, Unfunny, Unnecessary
Braindead
High Voltage Software’s Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip keeps alive the great video game tradition of absolutely terrible, overpriced movie tie-ins. With a campaign that clocks in at around about the two-hour mark, extremely basic twin-stick shooting action, bland graphics, inexplicably long loading times, rotten narrative segments...
Review Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) - Fitness Fun For Everyone
Vive la resistance
What a difference a decade makes. In 2008, Nintendo released Wii Fit and was met with an interesting mixed reaction. While it became an enormous global success, shifting over 22 million copies, a percentage of Nintendo’s long-time fanbase expressed anger (rightly or wrongly) because they felt the company was seemingly abandoning...
Review Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure (Switch) - You'd Have To Be Off Your Nut To Play This
Glacial disaster
Wow, there’s just no stopping Ice Age, is there? Just like The Pleistocene, 20th Century Fox’s (or Disney’s now, we guess) animated juggernaut has been relentless since the release of the first movie back in 2002, with a total of five cinematic releases, a host of short films and TV shows, and a plethora of console and online...
Review Killer Queen Black (Switch) - A Multiplayer Marvel That's Easy To Pick Up But Hard To Master
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Note. This game's online multiplayer component closed down in 2022 and is therefore no longer accessible. Local multiplayer support is unaffected and still functions as designed. Finding the right balance for a multiplayer experience is always a challenge for developers. How much emphasis do you place on teamwork?...
Review Into The Dead 2 (Switch) - An Overpriced Zombie Shooter That Should Have Stayed Dead
World War $$$
Into the Dead 2 is an auto-run zombie survival game which originally launched back in 2017 on iOS and Android as a free-to-play title laden with the usual mobile microtransactions. The aim of proceedings here is to make your way through gauntlet after gauntlet of shambling, braindead zombie attackers as your player character moves...
Review Overwatch: Legendary Edition (Switch) - Hardly The Best Way To Play, But Still Pretty Great
Nerf this
Once upon a time, it would’ve been a cold day in hell before we’d see a Blizzard game on a Nintendo console. The traditionally PC-centric company broke its nearly twenty-year hiatus from Nintendo when it released Diablo III last year, and after making that port a reality, tongues got wagging about what else the company could bring over...
Dead men crop no farms
There are few things in life as relaxing as a farming simulator. From the likes of Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley and, well, Farming Simulator, it’s a genre that has crept into the mainstream as mellow experiences that can be tackled at your own pace. The joy of them, of course, is that feeling of accomplishment when you...
Review Planescape: Torment & Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition (Switch) - Two Very Different RPG Gems
Mouse and keyboard no longer required
Black Isle Studios’ Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale are two classic RPGs built on the same game engine that really couldn’t be more different from one another. On the one hand, you’ve got the almost completely narrative focus of Planescape, where combat is mostly an afterthought and pretty much every...
Return of the White Frost
Originally released on other platforms back in 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt arrives on Nintendo Switch over four years later, and it's somewhat surreal to hold such a gigantic game in the palm of your hands. Ported over by Saber Interactive, this is The Witcher 3 in almost all of its glory. The same brilliant base game,...
Review Baldur's Gate And Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Editions (Switch) - Two RPG Classics On The Go
Bhaal of the Lights
The Switch has seen some excellent RPG action in recent months, with Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin 2 to name just two of the heavy hitters landing on the eShop in quick succession. Nintendo’s portable platform certainly feels like a perfect home for these epic adventures, with players able to dip in and out of...
Review Call Of Cthulhu (Switch) - Oppressive Cosmic Horror That's Plagued By Problems
Don't heed the call
Focus Home Interactive’s reputation for creating daring tie-ins to lapsed license continues. This time we’re taking a peek into the unknowable with Call of Cthulhu, which is based more off of the pen-and-paper RPG of the same name than the original work written by notable author H.P. Lovecraft, who once referred to people of...
Review The Alliance Alive HD Remastered (Switch) - This 3DS Classic Is Worth A Second Look
Back from the dead
Back in 2018, the 3DS was still receiving a slow, but steady trickle of new releases despite the Switch stealing the spotlight with its runaway success. Though many put away the old handheld in favour of bigger and better things, there were still plenty of excellent titles released in this period, one of them being The Alliance...
Review Valfaris (Switch) - Heavy Metal Mayhem That's Rough Around The Edges
Headbangers brawl
The concept of subtlety doesn’t exist in the world of Valfaris, a grimdark sci-fi realm where a grizzled warrior crashes his ship onto an alien world, shooting, slashing and headbanging everything that dares move in the name of vengeance and violence. You’ll shotgun bugs into red mist, collect guns obsessively named around the...
Review Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince (Switch) - This Magical Series Is Back On Track
More than just a dream
It’s been rather fascinating to follow the development of the Trine series since its debut in 2009. The initial title was lauded for its fantastic puzzle design and aesthetics, which were honed and improved even further by the sequel that launched two years later. Things took a turn for the worse, however, when Frozenbyte...
Review Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered (Switch) - Bare-Bones, But A Thrilling Nostalgia Trip
"Why am I drippings with goo?"
Games based on movie licences have a bad reputation, but the idea that they’re universally rubbish is simply untrue – there are plenty of examples of movie-based games that range from 'pretty good' to 'excellent'. Ghostbusters: The Video Game fell somewhere between the two when it launched ten years back, exceeding...
Review BurgerTime Party! (Switch) - Too Many Cooks Spoil The Burger
Overcooked, or a rare treat?
You can tell BurgerTime originated in 1982 from the state of the burgers you’re building. Nothing fancy: a flat bap, a patty, a limp bit of lettuce and maybe a tomato or cheese slice in the more exotic levels. A true 2019 update should deliver ludicrous towers of buttermilk chicken, smashed avocado and chipotle sauce...
Review Arcade Love: Plus Pengo! (Switch) - A Unique Bundle Of Japanese Zaniness
Arcade beatings, shooting and Pengos for everyone
Triangle Service's debut title for the Switch is a fairly safe option for the small developer, which compiles three of their previously-published arcade titles – along with a unique 2012 version of Sega's Pengo – into a single package. But is it worth investing in Arcade Love: Plus Pengo!, which...
Review Dead By Daylight (Switch) - Fun Online Horror Action That's Ugly And Expensive On Switch
Daylight Robbery?
Dead By Daylight is an asymmetrical, online-only survival horror game that has been pitting teams of survivors against crazed killers since 2016. The story sees innocent bystanders pulled into the world of the Entity, a supernatural being awakened from its slumber by the horrific actions of the cast of killers you get to play as...
Revisiting a visual novel trendsetter
Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World might not be a catchy title for a Japanese visual novel, but this remake of the beloved PC-98 classic is an important watershed for the genre as a whole. Originally released in 1996, Yu-No tells the tale of Takuya, revealing the nature of his father’s...
Review Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair (Switch) - A Delicious Mix Of Donkey Kong And Zelda
Lair today, Kong tomorrow
It’s possible to beat Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair in under half an hour. Now, hold on a minute. Before you make a beeline for Amazon to start pricing pitchforks (it’s about £25 for a good one, if you’re asking), let us clarify. We said it’s possible. But there’s no way you’ll be able to manage it right...
