Switch Game Reviews
The Starter's the best part of this virtual meal
It would be fair to say that the initial Labo kits divided Nintendo fans. The company’s cardboard caper seemed, on the one hand, to be utterly, uniquely Nintendo, but also exasperated some gamers who saw Switch as a belated return to ‘proper’ games after a decade of Wii-based whimsy. When...
Review Mortal Kombat 11 - A Satisfying Dose Of Comic Hyper-Violence Despite Loot Balance Issues
Fighting dirty
It's bizarre to think that it's been 13 years since the likes of Scorpion, Kung Lao and Raiden spilled blood on a Nintendo platform with 2006's Mortal Kombat: Armageddon on Wii, but that absence has enabled NetherRealm Studios to finally bring the quality of its combat model to the level that reflects its devotion to slapstick gore...
Review Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Monster Hunter Meets Darks Souls
Hardcore Pawn
While Capcom actually has a firmer grounding the world of RPGs than we give it credit for – Breath of Fire, anyone? – the company's name doesn't instantly spring to mind when discussing the genre; that's what made the release of Dragon's Dogma in 2012 such an unusual event. Following hot on the heels of FromSoftware's...
Review Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster - Two Games In One Remarkable Switch Collection
The final word on these fantasies
2001 represented an exciting time in video games, as the industry began a shift to newer hardware and started to move past the growing pains of figuring out 3D game development in the previous generation. As the tenth mainline entry in the series, Final Fantasy X had a lot riding on it, as all waited with...
Review Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission - A Shallow But Satisfying Arcade-Style Card Battler
Card-carrying heroes
By now there have been so many Dragon Ball games that they’ve practically ticked off every genre there is. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to know that this isn’t the first time Goku and co. have taken their war of fisticuffs to the world of card-based battles. The franchise has one of the most successful TCG...
Review My Time At Portia - An Engaging Life Sim That Will Eat Up Your Spare Time
Take a load on
The life sim genre is fairly under-represented on Switch. We’re still eagerly awaiting the arrival of Animal Crossing, and the only Harvest Moon game on the system is a half-hearted affair that doesn’t really do the old Marvelous-developed games justice. At the moment, the only real heavyweight available is Stardew Valley, but...
Review Darksiders: Warmastered Edition - The End Of The World Comes To Nintendo Switch
War (mostly) never changes
If you’re going to strap on the shoes of anyone during the end of the world, who better than one of the Four Horsemen of Said Apocalypse? The end times have unexpectedly been unleashed, and as the armies of Heaven and Hell go to war on a ruined Earth, all the fingers are pointing to moody horseman War as the instigator...
Review Xenon Racer - A Spluttering Speed-Fest That Lags Well Behind Its PS4 And Xbox One Siblings
Stalled effort
By now, we're all pretty smart to the realities of porting a game from other consoles to Nintendo Switch – especially when that game has arrived within the last year or so. Unless you're working with a particular art style or setup that's purposefully easy to render, most Triple-A games are going to take a knock to both performance...
Review Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet - A Sun-Soaked Romp That Loses Its Appeal Too Soon
Leer, there and everywhere
Welcome, one and all, to this beautiful tropical retreat – a place where weary people come to unwind with a host of activities including ball sports, endurance races, knocking opponents off platforms or simply relaxing on the beach. Oh yes, you can do all this and more on wonderful Wuhu Island... Hang on, that’s not...
Review Yoshi's Crafted World - A Charming Construction Made From Familiar Materials
5.2 gigabytes of beautiful bog rolls and bottle tops
The Yoshi games have carved a niche for themselves as colourful, mostly frictionless experiences well-suited to younger gamers or anybody after some cute low-pressure platforming. Completionists may find challenge in hunting down every last collectible, but these games are built to be approachable...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube773k Watch on YouTube Review Unravel Two - Another Confident Switch Port, Perfect For Platforming Fans
Wool you bring a friend?
If video games have taught us anything over the years, it’s that adventures are always better when undertaken with a friend. Experiencing a challenging mission for the first time. Overcoming a boss with hard-fought teamwork. Solving a puzzle at the exact same moment. Co-op can often give us some of gaming’s most...
Review R.B.I. Baseball 19 - An Improved Showing, But Still Sadly Lacking In So Many Areas
Batter up!
It’s been a quiet baseball off-season this past Winter. A few players went here, some went there. Then it went quiet. Nothing much happened. Then Manny Machado signed for a lowly $300million to go to the San Diego Padres. The once damp squib of a Hot Stove was now absolutely napalmic. Not wishing to be undone, and desperate to smash the...
Review The Princess Guide - A Rewarding Action Title Ruined By Obtuse Mechanics And Poor Design
"Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited"
Should you scold your warrior-princess because she keeps turning her subordinates into frogs and you think it is a bit extreme as far as disciplinary measures go, or should you praise her because she just survived being double-teamed by enemy mechs without any squad support? This...
Review Fate/Extella Link - One Of The Best Musou Games On Nintendo Switch
Can I just have one more moondance with you, my love
Musou fans have been a bit spoiled this generation, with many great releases in this niche genre coming out for the Switch, some of which are from the Big N itself. One of the more middling Musou games from the early days in the Switch’s life was Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star, which married that...
Review RICO - A Great Tactical Shooter That Truly Comes Alive In Co-Op
Breach and cheer
‘Kick doors, kill men.’ These four seemingly simple words, which appear on-screen while you patiently wait for one of RICO’s procedurally generated levels to load, might seem like a throwaway line – and yet they perfectly sum up its bombastic simplicity. For all the extra objectives and features, everything boils down to...
Review The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame - Accessible And Enjoyable Action For The Whole Family
Bricking it
In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and LEGO video games. On every platform, seemingly since time immemorial, the good folks at TT Games have been taking those humble Danish toy bricks and turning them into a successful – if not particularly groundbreaking – series of titles. Of course, having access...
Review Rad Rodgers Radical Edition - Fun, Foul-Mouthed And Forgettable
Not so radical
Rad Rodgers is a walking, talking ’90s cliche. A wisecracking kid who clashes with his parents while boasting a love of video games so deep it’s burgeoning on a clinical addiction. He’s perpetually glued to the CRT TV in his room and the blocky grey console (called ‘Dusty’, naturally) sits beneath it. Then, one day, the TV...
Review Fimbul - An Atmospheric But Unforgivably Flaky Norse Adventure
Hitting a Thor spot
It might sound like the name of a cute character from a generic platformer, but Fimbul is actually the final, brutal winter before Ragnarök – AKA: Norse Armageddon. Which tells you an awful lot about Fimbul the game, both in terms of its icy northern European setting and its grim, violent gameplay. You play the part of...
Review RemiLore - An Endearingly Sweet RPG Experience That Might Leave You Wanting More
Got a sweet tooth?
In the modern game industry, it feels like there’s quite a continuous push for ‘event games’, like the sorts of action titles you see plastered over advertisements and social media just about everywhere you go. What doesn’t often get talked about is the market for less intense games; the sorts of experiences more geared...
Review Trials Rising - Death-Defying Stunts On The Move
On the rise
Very few games as close to marrying sheer frustration and abject joy as Trials. From its earliest days as a browser game in 2000 to its breakout success on XBLA, RedLynx’s 2.5D racer has always been a tough cookie to crack thanks to its physics-driven stunts and high difficulty curve, and as such, it’s boxed itself into a...
Review RIOT - Civil Unrest - A Fantastic Idea Undone By Some Sloppy Execution
I predict a riot
Ah, the strategy game. Once a stalwart of the PC gaming scene, the genre has bloomed on console in recent years as developers re-approach the genre in new and exciting ways. And it's those titles that break away from the traditional military concept that's gripped its mechanics for so long, taking the principles of an RTS and...
Review BlazBlue Centralfiction Special Edition - Well Worth The Wait For Fighting Game Fans
Don't be Blue
In the world of virtual fisticuffs there are 2D fighting games and then there are 2D fighting games, those series and franchises that are often the richest in mechanics and delicately-balanced subsystems, filled with equally convoluted plots and backstories. On the flip-side, that usually means said games are super-niche in their...
Review Aragami: Shadow Edition - What We Do In The Shadows
Sadly not about a ninja folding up paper
Stealth is a difficult thing to get right in gaming, and it’s something developers have been trying to nail for decades. Do you go down the GoldenEye route and encourage the player to sneak around while still giving them the option to go all guns blazing should they so desire? Or do you go for a strictly...
Moving up through the pack
Such is Nintendo Switch’s popularity as a platform, that within two years of its launch we have no less than three motocross and supercross-related games. For such a niche corner of the racing simulation genre, the world of two-wheeled mud shenanigans has been scoring holeshots and podium finishes on handhelds for quite...
Review Gelly Break - A Unique Co-Op Platformer That Will Make Or Break Friendships
Don't be gel
When is a platformer not a platformer? When it’s a shoot-’em-up, of course. That’s the dual nature Gelly Break presents you with. A puzzle-platformer that requires you to flip between two different colours while jumping and shooting copious numbers of enemies all at once. To say it’s challenging would be an understatement, but...
My first Diablo
It’s fair to say most licensed tie-in games these days – with the exception of TT Games’ LEGO output -– tend to fall somewhere between ‘awful’ and ‘meh’. Usually developed and shipped out in double-quick time to save money and hit a theatrical release deadline, these sorry bits of software are more often than not...
A bit of a drag
Inti Creates has made quite a name for itself on the Switch with quality titles like Mighty Gunvolt Burst, Blaster Master Zero, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, and Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack all offering up some excellent retro run ‘n’ gun action. Going back further, however, the company put itself on the m
Review Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy - A Bit Musty Due To Age, But Still Worth A Look
Mother may I
No one really remembers Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, which makes it rather odd property to raise from dead. Originally released on the GameCube back in the early 2000s, it came out during the renaissance for action platformers, with the likes of Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and Jak & Daxter cementing PS2 as the place to be. Add...
Review Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes - A Stylish Return For The Otaku Hitman
Everything IS awesome
We haven’t heard a peep from otaku assassin Travis Touchdown since he last graced our screens in 2010’s No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Brainchild of enigmatic industry figure Goichi ‘Suda51’ Suda, Travis cut a stylish swathe through Wii’s catalogue of casual fodder. That same infectious energy is alive and well...
Review Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition - An Aptly-Named Refresh Of A True JRPG Classic
Blastia from the past
If you’ve owned a console in the last two decades – and have a passing interest in Japanese RPGs – there’s a very good chance you’ve played at least one of the Tales games on your travels. There are so many entries (not counting the ludicrous number of spin-offs) it’s a surprise it’s taken this long for one to...