Game Reviews scoring 8, 9 or 10/10
Review SteamWorld Build (Switch) - A Brilliantly Realised Melding Of Sim Genres
Choo-choo choose me
We live in a blinking lovely time right now. Gone is the notion that genres like real-time strategy (RTS) and management sims can’t be controlled with a standard controller, and we have the likes of Two Point Campus and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition on Switch to prove it. Joining that field is SteamWorld Build, the...
Review In Stars And Time (Switch) - A Tricky, Story-Driven RPG With Echoes Of EarthBound
Let’s do the Time Warp again…
If we had to choose two words to describe In Stars and Time, we’d pick 'beautiful' and 'strange'. This story-driven RPG is ideal for fans of titles like Undertale and EarthBound. Don’t take that comparison to mean that it is identical to these games, though — it’s still its own experience. Right off the...
Review Worldless (Switch) - A Dreamy Metroidvania With Challenging Turn-Based Combat
You're a star
Worldless opens with a battle of opposing stars; they cascade towards each other in what seems like an endless battle. From that epic scene-setter, we follow the journey of one such celestial body, who gains sentience and treks across an alien landscape to find…purpose? The central mystery at the heart of this gorgeous platformer...
Review Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass - A Great Big Track Pack For Switch's Best Racer
Double-Dashed
It was a long time coming, but the ambitious Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC expansion is finally complete, roughly 20 months after the launch of the first wave. Available as a separate purchase or as part of the Switch Online + Expansion Pack service, this DLC contains an additional 48 tracks, eight new playable...
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 Astral Ascent (Switch) - Probably The Best Roguelite Since Hades
There's always room for one more good one
In 2019, a small French studio called Hibernian Workshop released a game called Dark Devotion, a promising 2D soulslike that was met with mixed reviews, but managed to garner a passionate fanbase. A couple of years later, the team returned with a Kickstarter pitch for a new roguelite called Astral Ascent,...
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 9 Years Of Shadows (Switch) - Unique Ideas Elevate This Scrappy Metroidvania
Dark crystals
The hallowed Metroidvania has gone from an original, curiously enticing one-off concept, to a highly consumable once-monthly product fit for devouring at speed. If you’re now, as we are, extremely seasoned in the format pioneered by Symphony of the Night in 1997, you’ll likely rip through 9 Years of Shadows like a '46 Ford through...
Review World Of Horror - One Of The Most Unique Roguelites On Switch
"I am a horror maniac who prefers to stay at home"
These days, it feels like every other indie game released is a roguelite of some kind, and while there are a lot of good ideas brought to the table, the barrage of releases can feel like they start to blend together. Not so with World of Horror. This is a roguelite RPG styled after the basic...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Still Outstanding On Switch
What a thrill
Originally released in 2004, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is widely considered to be the finest entry in Hideo Kojima’s Magnum Opus. And almost 20 years later, it’s still easy to see why, even though some aspects of the game haven’t aged particularly gracefully. For Switch owners who have never delved into the Metal Gear...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid - A Faithful Switch Debut For An All-Time Great
Kept you waiting, huh?
Going back to Metal Gear Solid in 2023, it’s undoubtedly clear why the game created so much fuss when it originally launched on the PS1 back in 1998. What’s also obvious, however, is how much the title has aged in the decades since. For its release on the Switch, Konami has opted to retain as much of the original’s...
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...
Review The Mysterious Murasame Castle - The Legend Of Zelda's Action-Focused Sibling
The mystery is why this took so long to be released outside Japan
This review was originally published in June 2014. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. Although not originally released outside Japan, chances are that longtime Nintendo fans in the West have noticed nostalgic...
Walking in a winter wonderland
It’s been a busy year for Riot’s new Forge publishing arm, aimed at expanding its League of Legends Runeterra universe in games beyond the popular MOBA. In April, we got The Mageseeker, a hi-bit brawler set in the austere kingdom of Demacia, and in June, we got Convergence, a traditional Metroidvania set in the...
Review Dave The Diver (Switch) - One Of The Best Games In A Year Of Greats
If nautical nonsense is something you wish
Dave the Diver is a game about a diver named Dave. It's also about a restauranteur, archaeologist, marine researcher, and social media genius — also Dave. Poor ol' Dave has to wear all these hats in Dave the Diver, and living out his toilsome existence makes for one of the best games of the year and...
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 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 COCOON (Switch) – A Unique, Worlds-Within-Worlds Puzzler That Left Us Buzzing
Into the hive mind
2023 has swarmed us with quality games. So many that there aren’t enough hours in the day to play them all — and now, Cocoon has crept onto our screens to buzzing acclaim. Fortunately, if you’re busy as a bee, and can’t dedicate time to a marathon game, this is a nice quick one. Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplay designer of...
Review EA Sports FC 24 (Switch) - The Best Football Game On Any Nintendo System, Finally
We Kanté believe they finally did it
Long-time Nintendo Life readers will be aware of the love-hate (mainly hate) relationship we’ve had with the FIFA series over the course of the Switch’s life. The first Switch entry, FIFA 18, was considered a positive start, even though it felt feature-light compared to other consoles and was clearly based...
Mini Review Afterdream (Switch) - Beautifully Haunting Pixel Art Horror With Perfect Puzzles
Say cheese
Afterdream is a pixel art horror title that puts atmosphere and puzzle-solving above all else. Taking place within the psyche of our protagonist as she recounts her vivid dreams, this format allows Afterdream to make liberal use of weird imagery to tell an intriguing and engaging story. Drawing inspiration from classic survival horror...
Review Wargroove 2 (Switch) - A Must-Play Tactical RPG And A Worthy Successor To Advance Wars
Warfare has never been this cozy
2023 has been a good year for tactics games on the Switch. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot marked the return of two classic GBA games while Fire Emblem Engage brought the series's focus to its strategic roots. Chucklefish and Robotality's Wargroove 2 is the next SRPG joining the fray, and while its adorable pixel-art...
Review Disgaea 7: Vows Of The Virtueless (Switch) - Superb, Supersized Strategy RPG Is A Series Best
A vibrant and violent volume
A few years ago, Nippon Ichi produced Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny, a new entry in the long-running series that aimed to shake up series conventions by introducing auto-battling and transitioning to a 3D art style. Not all the changes it brought were positively received, but fortunately, the game sold well enough to...
Review Trombone Champ (Switch) - A Hilarious Party Game That Blows A Big Raspberry At Perfection
Night bird
The 17th-century German rationalist philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz wrote that “Perfection is the harmony of things.” If that’s the case then our discordant parping in Trombone Champ is far from perfect – despite the multipliers received on maxing out our 'Champ' gauge. But you don’t need to achieve perfection to enjoy...
Review F-Zero 99 (Switch) - A Brilliant Battle-Royale Revival That Plays To The Series' Strengths
Got 99 problems, but F-Zero ain't one
What do you get when you take the first entry in one of Nintendo's most overlooked franchises and cram it with battle royale mechanics after nearly 20 years of dormancy? You might expect a shambling Frankenstein's monster of a game held together by nostalgia-baiting stagnancy. Instead, F-Zero 99 is a clever...
Review Gunbrella (Switch) - Witty, Winsome Action-Platforming With A Great Hook
Rain 'n' gun
Gunbrella opens, as so many noirs do, with a murder. Our protagonist, who goes unnamed until the second act of the game, sees his house aflame while he’s on his way back from gathering mushrooms. He rushes home to a gruesome, albeit pixelated, scene: his wife dead in a shock of blood. From there, we jump right into our hero’s...
