Switch Game Reviews
Review The DioField Chronicle (Switch) - A Solid Tactical RPG That Falls Short Of Its Ambitions
It was I, DioField!
Published by Square Enix and developed with assistance from Lancarse, The DioField Chronicle looks and feels like most tactical RPGs out on the Switch in many ways, but with everything just slightly tweaked. The characters are all undeniably stylised, but never quite as much as Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The politics are front...
It's more than zero
We don't blame you if you’re intimidated by Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails series. This massive saga is now up to its twelfth mainline game in Japan, with the West falling behind at an alarming rate. However, one piece of the puzzle has been missing for years – Crossbell. After years of begging, fans are finally...
Review NBA 2K23 (Switch) - Michael Jordan Challenge Is A Slam Dunk In Another Solid Switch Port
A 'Magic' season for Switch b-ball
It's once again reached that time of year when another entry in the NBA 2K franchise slam-dunks onto our consoles. Yes, it's sometimes difficult to muster much excitement for these annual instalments, and it's easy to dismiss them as just another incremental update that looks and plays almost identically to the...
Review Temtem (Switch) - An Innovative Pokémon-Like, With Depth And Grind In Equal Measure
Into Temtemtion
At the beginning of our Temtem adventure, we had every intention to review the Pokémon-inspired massively multiplayer game based on its own merit, steering clear of comparisons between the two as best we could. Developer Crema never shied away from where Temtem’s blueprints came from during its successful Kickstarter campaign and...
Review Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling Into Darkness (Switch) - Makes You Work For The Good Stuff
Insert obligatory Nietzshe quote here
Made in Abyss feels like an anime/manga ripe for a game adaptation, especially given its almost Happy Tree Friends-esque combination of cute visuals with incredibly disturbing violence. We finally got that adaptation in the laboriously named Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness, which manages to be...
Review Splatoon 3 (Switch) - The Pinnacle Of The Series And Switch's Slickest Shooter
Peak squid performance
When the original Splatoon launched on the Wii U back in 2015, it was pretty groundbreaking. Nintendo making an online shooter? It sounded like a recipe for confusion, but as they so often do, Nintendo took a formula that had been refined to the point of parody and decided that it would be fun to be able to swim in bullets...
What a beautiful Duwang!
Anime games are in a weird spot. During the late '90s to mid-2000s we would get varied games like Berserk: Guts’ Rage, and Arc System Works’ Fist of the North Star. Aside from Dragon Ball — which in the last few years has gotten an RPG, 2D fighter, and even a Dead By Daylight clone — most anime series are relegated...
Mini Review LEGO Brawls (Switch) - Disappointingly Basic Brick Battles That Stutter On Switch
All minifigures, except the price
Originally released back in September of 2019 on Apple Arcade, Lego Brawls is a Super Smash Bros. style fighting game that sees you jump into eight-player action as one of over 200 unlockable Lego minifigures. You'll battle it out here across a slew of Lego-themed arenas in free-for-all fights or cooperative...
Review Pac-Man World Re-Pac (Switch) - Perfectly Passable PS1 Platforming
"I'm a mad Pac-Man, livin' in a leveled world..."
By the late '90s, the golden age of the arcade was a dim and distant memory, and with it the ubiquitous Pac-Man fever of the early '80s. Not ones to let the yellow puck thing fall by the wayside, Namco moved to reinvigorate its video game icon by having him star in a 3D platformer, which were all the...
Pizza dude's got 30 seconds
For gamers who weren't yet born in the 1980s, it may be surprising to learn that Konami’s pedigree was once second only to Nintendo’s first-party output. Undyingly creative and highly quality-driven, the innovative glow that earmarked their arcade years was never truly rekindled post-1994. Hot on the heels of...
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Review Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 (Switch) - Another Pair Of Lesser-Known RPG Gems
Another two RPG classics to dive into, dood!
The Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volumes 1 and Volume 2 each brought a different pair of games to Switch. The third volume brings a PlayStation classic to modern consoles as well as the Western debut of an obscure but well-loved game in the NIS stable. Die-hard tactical RPG fans might have heard of La...
Review Dusk Diver 2 (Switch) - An Anime Hack 'N' Slash That Misses The Mark
Livin' La Viada Loca
After launching on PC earlier this year, JFI Games’ Dusk Diver 2 has made its way to consoles three years after the original game. While Dusk Diver was seen as a solid foundation, it lacked in several departments. Sadly, while Dusk Diver 2 makes some steps in the right direction, it comes with a host of its own problems that...
The NeverEnding Story
If “Kureshin × Bokunatsu” a) makes sense and b) sounds appealing to you, and if c) you haven’t already bought this game in the year since it was released in Japan, then we can keep this review nice and tight: buy this game! For those not residing in that modest nub of the Venn diagram, let’s see if you’ve moved there...
Review Two Point Campus (Switch) - A Beautifully Balanced Sim That's More 'Friend' Than 'Fiscal'
Putting the 'U-need' in 'Uneedversity'
After the excellent Two Point Hospital released on Switch moments before the world was rocked by a global pandemic, Two Point Studios are at it yet again with Two Point Campus. If the name hadn’t made it clear already, rather than running a hospital for money, Two Point Campus has you running a university...
Mini Review MADiSON (Switch) - Jump Scares Aplenty In This Effective, If Unoriginal, Horror
Say cheese!
To anyone familiar with the recent spate of first-person horror titles, MADiSON will seem instantly familiar. With its moody lighting, tight corridors, and affinity for jump scares, there's little here that really sets it apart from the likes of Outlast or Layers of Fear on the surface. Diving into the game a bit deeper, however, unveils...
A stumbling sophomore outing
After the launch of Wave 1 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass, everyone and their nan turned their attention towards Wave 2; specifically, when on earth it would be coming out. Excitment reached fever pitch (just check out the comments section of any Mario Kart Tour related content if you don't believe us!), so...
Review Digimon Survive (Switch) - This Champion Visual Novel Proves The Wait Has Been Worth It
DigiDestined for greatness
The long wait for Digimon Survive is finally over, with players at last able to dive into this unusual entry in the series. Fans expecting the usual fare from a Digimon game might be understandably disappointed, but for those with an appetite for visual novels and tactical RPG combat, there is plenty to get your teeth sunk...
Review Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch) - An Epic, Emotionally-Charged Masterpiece
From Here to Eternity
The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 key art promises a hell of a lot. You know the shot, that jaw-dropping vista with its deep blue skies and lush green fields, this time joined by an impossible rock formation looming large on the horizon as the silhouettes of a band of heroes you've yet to meet look on. It's an image that exudes the...
Review Live A Live (Switch) - A Brilliantly Faithful Remake Of A Unique And Influential JRPG
Living our best lives
Early on in Square Enix’s remake of Live A Live, it’s plain to see the influences the game had on Chrono Trigger. From spanning multiple timelines to the inventive area of effect skills, and right down to the simple, sometimes deep story, director Takashi Tokita clearly used 1994’s Live A Live as a springboard for his...
Review Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series (Switch) - A Classic Platforming Pair Worth Catching Again
Dream a little dream of me
The fifth console generation represented arguably the greatest shift in game design the industry has ever seen, as developers all over the world wrestled with how to transition 2D tenets into the 3D realm. There was lots of experimentation, and while platformers like Super Mario 64 and Spyro dived head-first into the new...
Review Rabbids: Party Of Legends (Switch) - A Polished Party Game Journeys To The West
A party of mythological proportions
The Rabbids have come a long way since their first appearance in the Rayman series back in 2006. Since then, they’ve featured in numerous party games, all starring the titular little bundles of chaos. Rabbids: Party of Legends, previously a China-exclusive release, now comes to the West to help tide fans over...
Review Time On Frog Island (Switch) - Charming Zelda-Style Trading With Animal Crossing Island Vibes
A 'tad' simple
Time on Frog Island is like a playable fever dream in the best of ways. It places you in the role of the captain of a little sailboat who finds himself marooned on a strange island populated by a frog society. His only hope of getting off the island is by successfully mingling with the frogs and getting them to help him with the...
Wright 'em up
We didn’t quite know what we were getting ourselves into when we agreed to review Yurukill: The Calumniation Games. On one hand, Yurukill fronts as a murder-mystery adventure similar to Danganronpa or – if you squint hard enough – Phoenix Wright. On the other, Yurukil
Review Wreckfest (Switch) - An Absolute Banger (In A Good Way)
Wreck and ruin
On paper, Wreckfest is one of those games that should never really be possible on the Switch, at least not in a sufficiently playable state. When it came to PS4 and Xbox One in 2019, even though it was widely praised, many noted that it suffered from some technical issues and extremely long loading times. Surely if you’re bringing a...
Review AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative (Switch) - Another Very Fine Murder Mystery
An AI in your Eyeball
It is hard to beat a good murder mystery. The classic battle of wits between the detective and killer makes for perfect tension and AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative takes advantage of this established formula to give players a fun mystery with plenty of twists and turns, keeping them engaged through the closing...
Review Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (Switch) - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
Dynasty Worriers
With the success of the likes of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Persona 5 Strikers and, of course, 2017's Fire Emblem Warriors on Nintendo Switch, it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that Omega Force, the developer behind the long-running Warriors franchise, is intent on continuing to serve up more zany crossovers
Devilishly good
Though the manga only started in 2016, Demon Slayer has gone on to become one of the most successful media franchises in existence—even passing up the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft in raw sales. Despite this, Demon Slayer has had shockingly little presence in video games; aside from a Japan-only mobile game that still...
Review Metal Max Xeno: Reborn (Switch) - A Welcome Rebirth Despite Its Flaws
Don't get mad, Max
Editor's note: This review, originally published on Saturday 14th May 2022, was based on the imported Japanese version of the game. However, you can find updated comments relating specifically to the English language release at the bottom of the page. Metal Max fans in the West are not what you’d call spoiled for choice,...
Review Mario Strikers: Battle League (Switch) - Simply The Best Sports Game On Switch
Violence is apparently the answer
Name a sport. Go on, name one. Now presumably you’ve chosen some obscure sport that Mario hasn't played because you saw where this bit was going, but that doesn’t change the fact that our red plumber chap has been in a hell of a lot of sports games. Mario Strikers: Battle League attempts to carry on the legacy...
Review PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ (Switch) - A Gaming Legend's Best Collection Yet
Who let the ghosts out?
Pac-Man Museum+ follows Pac-Man Museum (2014), a collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This updated compilation includes some of the titles in the previous release, and adds several new ones, bringing the total count to 14 (although Pac-Man Arrangement is featured twice with arcade and home versions). It comprises...
