Switch eShop Game Reviews
Review The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Switch) - A Bewitching Narrative Deckbuilder
Shuffle the hand of Fate
Note: The review text below makes only very brief mention of this game's heavy themes without going into detail, but please note that this game contains references to suicide and self-harm. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is the latest gem from Deconstructeam (The Red Strings Club) and it’s a spellbinding narrative...
Review Vampire Survivors (Switch) - Kiss Healthy Sleep Goodbye With This Must-Play Roguelike
Something to sink your teeth into
Vampire Survivors is a singular game. Kind of a roguelike, kind of an arcade game, kind of a bullet hell, but at the same time nothing like what you probably think of when those genres come to mind. After all, there's a reason it captured the hearts and minds of gamers and won handfuls of awards on other platforms...
Mini Review Flutter Away (Switch) - An Ephemeral Indie With A Dash Of Pokémon Snap
Flutter bye
Over the past few years, there’s been a rise in ‘cozy’ games popping up in the indie space, offering an alternative to the typically achievement-based design of pretty much everything else. While these games do require a different mindset due to their generally short nature and simplistic gameplay, there’s something to be said...
Review Quake II (Switch) - Another Truly Outstanding Remaster Of An FPS Icon
Can't find a Bitterman
Look, we already went and slapped a big fat 10/10 on Quake Remastered when it dropped almost exactly two years ago, calling it “a stellar port of one gaming's true greats and an essential addition to your Switch library.” So what on Stroggos are we meant to say about this absolutely cracking remaster of its absolutely...
Mini Review Marble It Up! Ultra (Switch) - A Fun Spin On A Super Monkey Ball-Style Platformer
Roll 'em
Marble It Up! spun onto our Switch screens back in 2018, and the updated
Mini Review Koa And The Five Pirates Of Mara (Switch) - A Cute Island-Hopping Platformer
A Koality sequel
Back in 2020, Chibig released Summer in Mara, a slice-of-life farm sim game set in a tropical world and… well, for our money, it really wasn’t very good. It evidently sold well enough for Chibig to justify continuing the IP, but rather than make a sequel that built on the strengths and fixed the flaws of the original, the studio...
Review Legend Bowl (Switch) - Shows A Love Of Football But Falls Short Of A First Down
A game of inches
While the Nintendo Switch doesn't get graced with all of the major sports titles, or occasionally gets extremely underwhelming / feature-lite versions, it's not lacking for smaller indie takes that are full of heart. The little system has a lot of little sports games, and one that shows plenty of ambition is the latest take on...
Review Adore (Switch) - Thrilling Monster-Catching Combat, But Switch Performance Falters
Quite the catch
Pokémon made waves when it debuted on the Game Boy back in the '90s, introducing audiences to a new type of RPG that went on to become a global phenomenon. Since then, many have tried and failed to capture that same kind of experience, though it seems there’s been a renewed push in the last few years for indie developers to try...
Review Tiny Thor (Switch) - A Neo-Retro Delight That Feels Like A Lost Genesis Game
"Are you tiny Thor, god of tiny hammers?"
Tiny Thor from Asylum Square has been a long time coming. After one of its lead developers came up with a rough cut of its concept in a 48-hour game jam in 2012, its development proceeded in fits and starts for a little over a decade before it finally saw release this past June. Games that spend that long in...
Review Venba (Switch) – A Narrative Cooking Game That Goes Down A Treat
A stirring story
Here’s a recipe for a good game: a meaty cross-cultural story, a dash of delicious food, and a dollop of fun, cosy gameplay. Those are the ingredients of Venba, and mixed together – and topped with a reference to Ratatouille – they form a wonderful narrative-led game that had us wanting seconds. Visai Studios has dished up a...
Review PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe (Switch) - A Unique Brawler Littered With Multiplayer Greatness
Not exactly scrap
Q-Games’ PixelJunk series, essentially an umbrella name for their indie game output, is now in its second chapter. With little to no correlating factors, each game is largely a standalone work, with PixelJunk Racers, for example, being a Micro Machines-style overhead racing title, while PixelJunk Shooter is a subterranean search...
Mini Review Patrick's Parabox (Switch) - An Exemplary Puzzler That Thinks Outside The Box
Boxed in
Patrick's Parabox is the kind of game you have to play to truly understand. This brain-bending puzzler deftly reinvents itself dozens of times over without deviating from its very simple, programmatic rules revolving around infinitude and recursion. Chances are, you've heard of this premise before: push an object around a grid-like playing...
It's a kinda magic
The Might and Magic series is about as ‘old-school RPG’ as it gets—it’s been around since the distant, ancient days of the 1980s. As the series has changed hands a couple of times over the decades, plenty of spin-offs have been generated, with Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes being the one Nintendo fans are likely most...
Review Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening - Rich, Addictive Strategy That Scrapes By On Switch
A united Japan is within your grasp
The Sengoku period of Japanese history is as fascinating and dramatic as any soap opera. There was treachery, romance, and conflict in every corner of the nation; even historical accounts of the period read like a dramatised version of events. Few series let you dive into this fascinating period of Japanese...
Bidet boost
Gosh, the end is actually in sight now, huh? Yes, Wave 5 for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass is finally here, bringing us one step closer to the grand finale with another batch of new and remade Mario Kart content. In addition to the usual mix of revamped courses from Mario Kart games of yore, Wave 5 introduces a brand new...
Turning lead into gold
The Atelier series has expanded at an impressive rate over the past couple of decades. The most recent game — Atelier Ryza 3 — is the 24th mainline entry in a series that has had a new release almost every year since 1997. However, due to the franchise's more niche appeal, not every entry has made it out of Japan due to...
Review Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (Switch) - Even Better Than The Essential Original
Tuned to perfection?
Playing through Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s experienced the original. Developer Night School Studio hasn’t gone out of its way here to create anything wildly different to its debut title, but has wisely opted to implement everything it's learned over the past seven years or so to...
Mini Review Gimmick! Special Edition (Switch) - A Rare And Wonderful 8-Bit Gem
Shoot for the stars
Gimmick! is one of the most valuable after-market titles for the Famicom, and even more so for the NES, where it only received a limited release in Scandinavia as Mr. Gimmick. Sunsoft, the publisher, was an unsung hero of the 8 and 16-bit gaming eras, with titles like Batman, Gremlins 2, Panorama Cotton, and Waku Waku 7 to its...
Mini Review Crime O'Clock (Switch) - 'Where's Wally' With A Temporal Twist, Clever But Repetitive
Playing for time
Crime O’Clock is a stylish-looking, screen-searching detective game that was featured in Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase back in April. The latest game from Milan-based development team Bad Seed, it promises to blend time travel with crime solving across large, densely populated hand-drawn maps. A hidden object game with a...
Review Everdream Valley (Switch) – A Cute Yet Clunky Farm Sim That Tries To Till Differently
Things that go ‘baa’ in the night
Farming games are well-tilled territory. It’s near-impossible to play a new one without comparing it to the many predecessors on Switch. Everdream Valley knows this, and uses it to both its benefit and detriment. Released on PC and PlayStation last month from newbie developer Mooneaters and publisher Untold...
Review Ray'z Arcade Chronology (Switch) - M2 Delivers Fine Ports Of Taito's Trilogy
Confounded by the Rayz
The limited edition retailers are getting out of hand again. The Ray'z Arcade Chronology, originally released in Japan back in March, and published by Taito for Switch and PlayStation 4, is receiving a European release courtesy of ININ games. Bizarrely, ININ Games are releasing two different compilations: this, the Ray’z...
Review The Lara Croft Collection (Switch) - Two Well-Preserved Tomb-Raiding Treasures
Lara's back on our raiders
First announced back in 2021, and originally due to arrive as part of Tomb Raider's 25th-anniversary celebrations before being delayed, The Lara Croft Collection has finally rappelled its way onto Switch. This pair of spin-offs may not carry the main series' full moniker, but they are resolutely full-blooded Tomb Raider...
Review Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Switch) - A DS All-Timer Returns In Stunning Form
Trick time!
Is there such a thing as a perfect game? Yes, and it's this one. Listen, you are going to get to the end of this review and think to yourself, "Isn't a 10/10 score, like, Zelda: Breath of the Wild? How can this 12-15 hour game that doesn't even have Hestu in it possibly match up?" You are thinking that because you have not played Ghost...
Review Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope: The Last Spark Hunter (Switch) - Fun But Safe DLC Lacks Spark
Not enough reason to spend more time with Rabbids
To the surprise of pretty much everyone, the original Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle became one of the best tactics games on the Nintendo Switch. We loved its tight, puzzle-like missions and vibrant world that somehow presented Ubisoft’s Rabbids as less-than-annoying – even, dare we say,...
Review Fall Of Porcupine (Switch) – A Prickly Hospital Game That Needed A Little More Care
A test of patients
The past few years have reminded us that many countries’ healthcare systems are not in good shape. Even so, it’s hard to appreciate the challenges that healthcare workers face if you’re not one. Fall of Porcupine aims to do this in an approachable way by putting players in the scrubs of 2D animal doctors. Unfortunately, the...
Review Pikmin 2 (Switch) - Still A Sublime Time, Even Without The 7-Up Bottle Cap
Pik of the bunch
Not content with dropping an HD port of the original Pikmin during the June 2023 Nintendo Direct, the platform holder also saw fit to furnish us with this slightly revamped version of its sequel, the very excellent Pikmin 2. Hooray! Yes, Nintendo has planted us firmly in the Pikmin 4 hype zone prior to that game's launch and, if...
Review Pikmin 1 (Switch) - A Bare-Bones Port, But A Joyous Adventure
Pik it out
Nintendo gave Pikmin fans a couple of lovely surprises during the June 2023 Nintendo Direct, prepping players for Pikmin 4's debut by stealth-dropping the original Pikmin and its wonderful sequel in HD remastered form. Exciting! Yes, if you've played these two beauties before, you'll know they're among some of Nintendo's loveliest work,...
Review Dr. Fetus' Mean Meat Machine (Switch) - A Bit Of A Grind
Punishin' Puyo-like puzzlin'
Super Meat Boy changed the game when it released in 2010, as one of the first ‘big’ indie hits of the decade and one of the creators of a subgenre of hard platformers. One would think that such a legendary release would spawn a broader franchise, yet it never got a proper sequel, and Meat Boy only recently received...
Mini Review Skautfold: Usurper (Switch) - Doesn't Live Up To Its Castlevania-Inspired Key Art
We have Castlevania at home
If nothing else, you’ve got to give the Skautfold franchise credit for being unafraid to mix things up. After Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity introduced the series as a retro-style survival horror, its sequels went on to span the Metroidvania, shooter, and RPG genres. Skautfold: Usurper, the latest release in the series...
Mini Review Hatsune Miku - The Planet Of Wonder And Fragments Of Wishes (Switch) - Fragments Indeed
Turquoise tragedy
Hatsune Miku fans have been fairly well served on Switch, with the excellent Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix giving Vocaloid devotees a generous helping of over 100 super cool tracks to dig into in one of our favourite rhythm games on Nintendo's console. Seriously, listen to the absolutely nonsensical pop masterpiece 'PoPiPo'...