Switch Game Reviews
Review UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes (Switch) - A Deep, Addictive Anime Fighter
EXS to impress
Japanese developer Frenchbread's phenomenal anime fighter, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late, impressed the heck out of us when it dropped in its final revised form on Switch back in 2020. Nabbing a 9/10 score in our review, it quickly became one of those very special games that we just straight-up refuse to ever delete off our SD cards...
Review The Legend Of Steel Empire (Switch) - A Classic Steampunk Shmup Gets A Lick Of Paint
Full steam ahead!
We believe it quite impossible to be a shoot-'em-up lover and not have stumbled upon HOT-B’s cult classic Steel Empire, the 1992 Mega Drive-exclusive horizontal shmup that mesmerised players with incredible steampunk aesthetics, an epic soundtrack, and a stiff challenge. Far from forgotten, there have been in the past two...
Does Apollo justice
After the success of the original three Ace Attorney games, series creator Shu Takumi was ready to end Phoenix Wright's story. But the world wasn't done with these surprisingly intriguing lawyer games, and so he had to figure out how to make a new game without re-treading old ground. Thus, Apollo Justice, pointy-haired greenhorn...
Review Another Code: Recollection (Switch) - A Welcome Return For A Pair Of Cult Classics
Another chance
Our first big Switch exclusive of 2024 arrives nice and early and, rather than assuming the form of one of Nintendo's bigger franchises — we got Fire Emblem Engage this time last year — we are instead winding the clock back to 2005 and 2009 respectively, to dive into swish remakes of a pair of cult classic adventures from the DS...
Review Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown (Switch) - Slick, Stylish, And 2024's First Must-Play
The original Fresh Prince returns
Way back in 1989, Jordan Mechner's original Prince of Persia represented one of the first and best examples of what's become known as the 'cinematic platformer'. It's a traditionally challenging genre, one that combines strong art, fun storylines, and fluidly animated protagonists to bring us adventures that test...
Mini Review Batman: Arkham Knight (Switch) - One Of The Worst Ports We've Ever Played
Chicks dig the car
The final game in the Batman: Arkham Trilogy is Batman: Arkham Knight, which launched on the PS4 in 2015. This entry expands further upon its predecessor, Arkham City, taking a game which was already plenty big enough thank you and adding a little more of everything. Although the series' combat has seen some more refinement here,...
Mini Review Batman: Arkham City (Switch) - The Best Port Of The Trilogy
P.N. Guin? Wait a minute... the Penguin!
With Batman: Arkham City, the second game in the Batman: Arkham Trilogy, Rocksteady finally allowed players to freely soar above the streets of Gotham, providing the full Batman experience that we didn't quite get with its predecessor. The Switch port provides the biggest positive shock of the package with...
Mini Review Batman: Arkham Asylum (Switch) - A No-Frills Port Of A Superhero Classic
Gotham's Finest
2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum laid the foundations for Rocksteady's incredible trilogy, introducing us to the series' iconic combat, which combines slick parries, dodges, blocks and countermoves into a stylish and super-fun combo-based system that makes you feel like the Dark Knight at his most badass. Add in a novel detective mode...
Review Batman: Arkham Trilogy (Switch) - Two Solid Ports, One Technical Disaster
Hand me the bug repellent bat-spray, Robin
When it comes to superhero games, Rocksteady Studios served us up a trio of the very best examples of the genre with its superlative Batman: Arkham Trilogy. Whether you prefer the smaller scale and comparative intimacy of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the vast open world of Arkham City or the Batmobile-powered...
Gotta scout 'em all
While Pokémon has long been the undisputed king of the monster-catching RPG niche, there have always been other releases that have offered up their own distinct take on that unique brand of recruitment gameplay. Megami Tensei, for example, pioneered the concept with ‘Demon Negotiation’ in 1987 and Dragon Quest took a crack...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube773k Watch on YouTube Review The Walking Dead: Destinies (Switch) - One Of The Worst Games Of The Year
Integrity Gone Bye
There’s a moment during a particularly grueling fourth-season episode of The Walking Dead in which our protagonist, Rick Grimes, is appealing to the humanity of a man holding a samurai sword against a kind, gentle farmer’s throat. Getting more desperate by the second, he says “We can still come back, we’re not too far...
Review Bluey: The Videogame (Switch) - Captures The Look, But Not The Family Magic
Oh biscuits!
Given Bluey’s meteoric rise since the show's television debut in 2018, it seemed inevitable that a video game adaptation would eventually make its way into the hands of eager fans worldwide. Thanks to developer Artax Games and publisher Outright, that adaptation is now here, with Bluey: The Videogame letting you directly control each...
Review Super Mario RPG (Switch) - A Timeless Classic Returns In A Remake Done Right
It's-an-RPG!
On paper, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a game that probably shouldn’t exist. It brought together Nintendo’s platforming icon with RPG giant Square in a way that seemed impossible, imbuing the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom (and beyond) with bucketloads of personality beyond the hops, jumps, and yelps they were...
Review Persona 5 Tactica (Switch) - Thrillingly Varied Turn-Based Strategy With Joker And Co.
As refreshing as a river in a dry land
Never let it be said that Atlus is one to let its star franchises go untapped. It’s now been seven years since the Phantom Thieves were first introduced in Persona 5, and since then we’ve gotten an enhanced re-release of that game, a dungeon crawler, a rhythm game, a musou, an anime, a manga, and several...
Review DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing (Switch) - Ain't The Sharpest Tool In The Shed
They put a Shrek in it
Given that he’s an internet icon these days and the star of countless memes, it’s a bit of a surprise that it’s taken this long – 12 full years, in fact – to find a way to get Shrek into another video game. The last title to feature the onion-layered ogre was DreamWorks Super Star Kartz, released by Activision in...
Review Fashion Dreamer (Switch) - Some Decent Dress-Up, But Lacks Style Savvy's Depth
Flashy façade
Fashion Dreamer, the newest release from the developer (Syn Sophia) of the cult classic Style Savvy games, garnered high expectations from fans hoping to find a spiritual successor to the series. While Fashion Dreamer is not technically part of the Style Savvy family (known as 'Style Boutique' in Europe), it offers fans of those DS...
Review Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 - A Poor Switch Port Of A Promising Platform Pounder
All-Star Bawl
Just two years after the release of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, the Nicktoons have been thrust together once again in the name of licensed platform fighting, of all things, in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. The original was a solid outing with deep mechanics, but was held back by a lack of polish outside of gameplay, and although...
Review Air Twister (Switch) - An Arcade Blast From Yu Suzuki's Past, And A Missed Opportunity
Like we did last summer
Back in 2010, the Wii's Sin & Punishment: Star Successor inadvertently informed how, in various ways, the Space Harrier model could be revitalised in a contemporary fashion. In Air Twister, director Yu Suzuki, famous for creating Space Harrier, Out Run, and After Burner (not to mention Shenmu
Review WarioWare: Move It! (Switch) - A Fine Return For Wario's Wii-Era, Motion-Based Mayhem
Good Form
As much as we loved 2021's WarioWare: Get It Together!, it's definitely an entry in this barmy franchise that's ended up dividing opinion over time. With little in the way of truly engaging multiplayer options, no real core gimmick, or any significant attempt to utilise the Switch's unique control opportunities, some folks (not us, mind)...
Review Star Ocean: The Second Story R (Switch) - One Of The Very Best RPGs Of The Year
Come sail on a different sea of stars
The Star Ocean series has always occupied a weird spot in Square’s massive catalogue. This sci-fi-focused JRPG series started off relatively strong, but the last few entries have been middling at best and just plain not good at worst. Nonetheless, those earlier games were really something at the time, and...
A legend returns
Editor's Note: If you're looking for our thoughts on the individual releases within the Collection, then check out our reviews on Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which you can buy individually on the Switch eShop. For Nintendo fans, the Metal Gear franchis
Review Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Ecto Edition (Switch) - Dripping In Nostalgic 4v1 Fun
Be the one who answers the call
If you’re a child of a certain age, you absolutely grew up wanting to strap on a Proton Pack and go bust some ghosts with your friends. There have been plenty of attempts to tap into the nostalgia for Ghostbusters over the years, and, while Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed isn’t the best of the bunch, it is a...
Review Harvest Moon: The Winds Of Anthos (Switch) - Terrible Title, Pretty Alright Game
Harvest Dew
If the 'Uncanny Valley' is the term for something being almost-human-but-not-quite, then Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos is in the Uncanny Stardew Valley. It's so close to being a really good farming sim game, but doesn't quite manage to hit the mark. However, for the first time in the
Review CRYMACHINA (Switch) - Silly, Stylish, But Oh-So-Repetitive Action-RPG-ing
Cry me a river
FuRyu has made a name for itself in recent years of being a publisher that does a great job of churning out RPGs that you’ll certainly like, but probably not love. Games like Monark, Caligula Effect, and Crystar have all offered players some decent yet flawed experiences, and now the company has brought us yet another entry in this...
Review Agatha Christie - Murder On The Orient Express (Switch) - A Clever New Spin On An Old Mystery
Train of thought
When a mystery story has been told millions of times before, how can it still be a mystery? This is the challenge faced by anyone adapting Agatha Christie’s phenomenally widely-read 1934 novel, Murder on the Orient Express. And just in case anyone missed out on the book, decades of film adaptations have also solved the case again...
Review Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) - The Best 2D Mario Since The Super NES
Wonder boy
When Super Mario World first released back in 1990 (or '91 or '92 depending on your region), it felt like a huge moment for Nintendo's iconic platforming franchise. Here was Mario as we already knew him, bounding energetically through 2D environments on the way to his usual goal but, at the same time, everything felt as though it had...
Review Sonic Superstars - A Fine, Authentic-Feeling Return That Runs Great On Switch
Speed up, superstar
If you’d have told us that two of gaming’s most iconic rivals, Mario and Sonic, would be going head-to-head with two brand-new platformers in the space of a week, we’d have said you were probably off your rocker. What’s more, if you’d have said that Sega’s latest entry, Sonic Superstars, would turn out to provide one...
Burning rubber
Hot Wheels, man. We remember those. In the '90s almost every Saturday morning ad break featured a Hot Wheels commercial braying out superlative adjectives over thrashy rock solos. Invariably, two pearly-toothed, spiky-haired kids would grin as their miniature cars jostled for pole position, giving each other a thumbs-up after a...
Review Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition - Makes The Jump To Switch Almost Entirely Intact
"Do you hear screaming, or am I having another one of my episodes?"
A little less than ten years ago, a port of Borderlands 2 famously launched for Sony’s ailing PS Vita to middling reception. The fact that a then-current game could run at all on a portable was remarkable, but the flat visuals, crashing, and consistently sub 30 FPS performance...
Review Wild Card Football (Switch) - An Ambitious Take On Gridiron Lacking A Full Deck
Missing the Playoffs
While the Nintendo Switch has never had the prominent American Football video game series, it has had some notable efforts in the Indie and retro spaces. Now we can add Wild Card Football to the mix, and it's certainly an ambitious release in comparison to its contemporaries on the system. From Saber Interactive, it follows a...