Switch eShop Game Reviews
Mini Review Windosill (Switch) - A Cult Classic Puzzler Gets A Dreamy Switch Port
Flashback
Well, isn't this a nice surprise. Some 13 years after it first released as a Flash game on web browsers, Patrick Smith's delightful Windosill has arrived on Switch, giving players a fresh chance to experience this breezy, playful, and rather magical little journey through a series of enchanting puzzles. Windosill's unique aesthetic has...
Review Lunistice (Switch) - A 32-Bit Platforming Dream That Gives Sonic A Serious Run For His Money
Frontier justice?
Ever since game fans collectively realised that crunchy polygons were worth getting nostalgic over, PS1-core indie games have been growing into the new pixel art. With Lunistice, one-person shop A Grumpy Fox has delivered a shining example of this modernised lo-fi aesthetic. Sparkling in chaotic but coordinated palettes of...
Clever girl(s)
Few franchises captured the minds of children everywhere like the original Jurassic Park film did in 1993; it kicked off an entire dinosaur craze while maintaining much of the novel’s poignant message exploring the perils of genetic engineering. Jurassic World – 2015’s revival starring Mario Chris Pratt – had nowhere near the...
It takes a Lonesome Village
Since the first announcement of this puzzle adventure-slash-social sim, we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for Lonesome Village. Now that we’ve played it, we can confirm that it requires you to strap on both your exploring boots and your thinking cap, but it’s also a relaxing game that, for the most part, doesn’t...
Mini Review Save Room (Switch) - RE4 'Inventory Tetris' Writ Large, Though Not Large Enough
Packing heat
Ever thought inventory management in 2005’s Resident Evil 4 is like a game in its own right? Well, in the internet age, everything happens eventually, so here's that game. In Save Room from Fractal Projects, you have a limited and specifically shaped inventory space on the left and a load of guns and stuff on the right. Simply slot...
Review Ghost Song (Switch) - A Potent Mix Of Metroid And Dark Souls, But Maybe Not On Switch
Songs of praise
Over the past decade, the Metroidvania has seen a tremendous resurgence in popularity. And yet, it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come. If we rewind the clock back to the year 2013, the Metroid and Castlevania franchises were on ice and the indie Metroidvania scene was only just beginning to take off. That’s when Matt White...
Review Signalis (Switch) - Brilliantly Tense And Surreal Sci-Fi Survival Horror
The signalis good
Survival horror games are tough to get right. Even giants of the genre like Resident Evil find themselves leaning harder into action or simple jump scares over time, but when it is at its best it is more tense than frightening. Signalis is one of the best survival horror games we’ve played and the perfect title for Switch owners...
Review Resident Evil Village Cloud (Switch) - A Solid Streaming Version For Switch Owners
A cloud tech coin flip winner, mostly
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil: Village was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi along with 5G mobile connection. The Resident Evil series has seen its ups and downs over the years. After a strong start with the original trilogy (and Code Veronica), Capcom’s seminal horror franchise hit what...
A great game to play elsewhere
Note: This Cloud Version of A Plague Tale: Requiem was tested on 450Mb AT&T Broadband over WIFI, with the router directly adjacent to the Switch dock. On paper, it sounds like offering a ‘cloud version’ of a game is a good idea. The Switch’s hardware was relatively underpowered when it was new, so getting...
Review Factorio (Switch) - A Most Engrossing Management Sim, Despite Some Issues
A factory sim that never seems to end
If you’ve ever wanted to harness the power of industrialisation, Factorio is certainly the game for you. Stranded on a strange alien world, you must find a way to survive and escape this place using the vestiges of technology left behind by whoever came here first, as well as your own innovations. This is a...
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Mini Review Sophstar (Switch) - A Solid Shmup Bursting With Originality
Soft touch
Following the excellent Star Hunter DX, Raging Blasters, and Crimzon Clover - World EXplosion from Steam to the Switch eShop is Banana Bytes’ Sophstar, a vertically oriented bullet hell shoot-em-up with clearly delineated sprites set against simplistic rolling backgrounds. There are a whopping nine ships to choose from, all with...
Review Beacon Pines (Switch) - An Endearing, Engrossing, Explorative Adventure
Gives you the warm fuzzies – and the chills
Playing Beacon Pines feels a bit like early winter nights, where you’re surprised by how quick the darkness creeps up – yet comfy and warm under a blanket. Coming from indie developer Hiding Spot, the setting might look like your usual cute woodsy town populated by anthropomorphic animals, but...
Review Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher (Switch) - Bigger Means Better In This Monster Raising Sim
Size definitely matters in this one
In the world of Monster Rancher, bigger doesn’t always mean better, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. The newest entry in the series, Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher, takes this philosophy and turns it up to epic proportions, creating a world filled with monsters the size of mountains that need to be fed, trained,...
Still life in the old dog
Chapter 1 - An Overdue Return In the pleasant, reasonably well-kept living room of my small, comfortable home, I sat down on the sofa with a warming mug of strong, milky coffee and booted up my Nintendo Switch. As the main menu flashed into existence before me, a new icon caught my eye. It was bold in its simplicity; a name...
Review Dragon Ball: The Breakers (Switch) - Dares To Be Different From Other Dragon Balls
Survive in the nightmare that is the Dragon Ball universe
Video games based on the Dragon Ball franchise usually have a very specific focus. While there have been the occasional RPGs like Kakarot or The Legacy of Goku thrown into the mix, most have been firmly focused on fighting your way across the series’ story. However, Dragon Ball: The...
Mini Review Dorfromantik (Switch) - A Perfectly Peaceful Puzzler That Soothes The Soul
It means "village romanticization"
In an age where it feels like many big-budget projects are falling victim to 'FOMO mechanics' and stricter price schemes, it can be refreshing to play a game that focuses on simplicity, like Dorfromantik. Here you have a puzzle game that doesn't chase after complex mechanics, cutting-edge design, or intense action;...
Mini Review The Battle Of Polytopia (Switch) - A Gentle Introduction To Turn-Based City Builders
A simplified quest for world domination
We all have big dreams of world domination, but not everyone wants the full Civilization experience. Sometimes, we just want to take over the planet without having to try too hard! For those times, there is The Battle of Polytopia, a scaled-back version of the usual 4X gameplay that we’ve all grown to know...
Review Chaos;Child (Switch) - A Stand Out 'Science Adventure' VN That's Compelling And Gruesome
Find the truth behind a whole new set of grizzly murders
The Science Adventure series of visual novels usually don’t share much in common aside from a shared universe and an unusual naming convention, but Chaos;Child is the most direct sequel the series has seen so far. Set six years after the events of Chaos;Head Noah, this game offers a similar...
Review Moonscars (Switch) - A Brutal, Beautiful Soulslike In Need Of A Performance Patch
Clayfighter
Everybody up for yet another Soulslike? Yeah, we thought as much. However, Black Mermaid's Moonscars has been turning heads since it was first announced due to its rather exquisitely detailed pixel art style. This is a deliciously dark 2D slasher with Metroidvania elements that reminds us a little of Motion Twin's dazzling Dead Ce
Review Chaos;Head Noah (Switch) - A Great Localisation Of The First 'Science Adventure' VN
Dive into the delusions of the ultimate otaku
There are two ways that life goes for visual novel protagonists. Either they wake up in a world where all their classmates are beautiful anime girls who want to jump their bones, or they find themselves in a twisted supernatural murder mystery. Unfortunately for Takumi Nishijou, the protagonist of...
Review Overwatch 2 (Switch) - Solid F2P Shooting That Doesn't Yet Justify The '2'
You're powered up, get in there!
The recent release of Splatoon 3 spawned an interesting discussion over what justifies a sequel. Considering that Splatoon 2 is still playable on the Switch and maintains a healthy player base, its follow-up was viewed by some as an unnecessary iteration that failed to meaningfully innovate. Blizzard’s recent...
Review Railgrade (Switch) - An Entertaining Management Sim That Runs Out Of Steam
All aboard the capitalism train!
There is something deeply appealing about playing with trains. They go exactly where you tell them to, yet can still behave in unexpected ways to keep things interesting. Railgrade from developer Minakata Dynamics is a great railway management sim game with some fun quirks. While it doesn’t go as deep into its...
In need of a re-remaster
When a studio looks to remaster an older title from its repertoire, the absolute minimum expectation is that the new version looks and perhaps plays better than the original, making the most of modern hardware and, where appropriate, integrating new features to align with modern gameplay sensibilities. Granted, the results...
Mini Review Picross S8 (Switch) - Four-Player Picross? It's Absolute Madness!
"You get used to it, I don't even see the code"
In a series as focused on multiplayer as Picross S, it’s always seemed odd that Nintendo and Jupiter haven't allowed more than two players to be playing at the same time. We’ve lost track of how many times we’ve played Picross on our Switch during a major social event and could only have one...
Review Various Daylife (Switch) - A Simple Yet Repetitive JRPG Best For Bite-Sized Sessions
Another day in the life
At this point, it seems almost certain that Square Enix is using an AI to randomly generate new titles in its “Underlined Serif Title” RPG series. Triangle Strategy already felt like it was pushing the limits, but we’ve now been graced with the delightful Various Daylife. After an initial exclusive launch on the Apple...
Review Voodoo Detective (Switch) - Stylish And Low-Stress Monkey Island-Inspired Adventuring
Voodoo you think you are?
You may have heard of a little game releasing on Switch this month – a point-and-click graphic adventure featuring Voodoo mysticism, set in the Caribbean and with music by Peter McConnell, composer on Monkey Island 2? That’s right! It’s Voodoo Detective, the magical, mystical debut from Short Sleeve Studio, hot on the...
Review Tunic (Switch) - Old-School Adventuring With Nods To Zelda, Unforgiving And Ingenious
Surprisingly, the fox isn’t saving a princess from a pig-man
The opening moments of Tunic fooled us into thinking we were in for a derivative Zelda-like adventure. A diminutive fox-like character wearing a green tunic reminiscent of a certain hero wakes up on a beach. From an isometric camera angle, this fox (known as the Ruin Seeker) finds a...
Mini Review Penko Park (Switch) - A Worthy Spiritual Successor To Pokémon Snap
“We’re going to make a fortune with this place”
There has never been a better time to be a Pokémon Snap fan than during the Switch era. From the excellent New Pokémon Snap delivering a sequel over 20 years in the making to the long-awaited rerelease of the original Pokémon Snap on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, it seems like the...
Review Return To Monkey Island (Switch) - An Impeccable Encore For An Adventure Gaming Icon
Look behind you! A three-game series!
In 1990, Ron Gilbert created the seminal point-and-click adventure The Secret of Monkey Island. It grabbed hearts and hasn’t let go for 32 years. In 1991, he concluded Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge on a bombshell cliffhanger. In 1992, he departed Lucasarts, and the secret third part of his trilogy went...
Review Easy Come Easy Golf (Switch) - Everybody's Golf Spiritual Successor Scores A Birdie On Switch
Finally, golf for everybody (with a Switch)
Clap Hanz is a studio closely linked with PlayStation, producing hugely popular titles Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf across multiple generations (over the course of 20 years+). Recently it loosened up its swing and went another way, however, releasing Clap Hanz Golf on Apple Arcade. It's that title...
