Game Reviews scoring 9/10
Review City Of Brass (Switch) - An Action-Packed Roguelike That's Worth Its Weight In Gold
A diamond in the rough
City of Brass is all about greed. Naturally, you love pilfering shiny and sparkling trinkets, but just how close will you tread into the unknown to sate your desire for wealth? Will your avarice help break an age-old curse and claim limitless riches, or condemn you to an eternity of torment? It's an intriguing premise, and one...
Review Etrian Odyssey Nexus (3DS) - A Stellar Send-Off For A Beloved RPG Series
And for the 3DS itself?
Long before games existed as we know them now, ‘video games’ consisted of text-based adventures that demanded just as much imagination from the players as they did input. Dungeon crawlers were a popular genre at the time, one in which you guided a protagonist room by room through sprawling, confusing castles guided only...
Review Downwell (Switch) - The Ultimate Version Of Everyone's Favourite Potholing Roguelike Shooter
Get down and TATE
Imagine for a moment that you’re taking a stroll in the countryside and you happen upon an old well – what do you do? At the very least, you wander up and take a peek; you might drop a pebble down there, or even a cheeky loogie if nobody’s around. Why? It’s tough to say exactly, but Downwell taps into that human fascination...
Review Wargroove (Switch) - A Turn-Based Strategy Classic That Intelligent Systems Would Be Proud Of
Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war
Intelligent Systems has always been known for its strategy game IP, with Fire Emblem naturally being the most popular, but that esteemed series might never have made it West were it not for the more colourful and militaristic antics of the Advance Wars franchise. Unfortunately – despite its similarities to...
Tummy trouble
When the Switch came out nearly two years ago, few would've expected that Nintendo would still be supporting the ageing 3DS with new first-party software as far as 2019, yet here we are. Picking up the ball that the Paper Mario series has long since dropped, the Mario & Luigi series of RPGs has been a celebrated mainstay of...
Review SEGA AGES Out Run (Switch) - A Fantastic Update Of One Of Arcade Gaming's True Greats
The allure of the open road
Out Run is the greatest, most influential arcade racing game ever made. There, we said it. Yes, there have been other classics over the years: Daytona USA, Ridge Racer, Virtua Racing, Let’s Go! Jungle and the like. (Okay, maybe not that last one.) But no game has meant as much to the genre as Out Run. Back in 2015,...
Review Firewatch (Switch) - There's No Smoke Without Fire In This Essential Indie Hit
If you go down to the woods today…
During the early days of Firewatch’s development, Washington-based indie studio Campo Santo made a point of speaking to real fire lookouts to get a sense of what it’s like to be stationed for months on the end, deep in a North American forest. “Why would you make a game out of this job?” some of their...
The colour of magic
The capture button is one of our favourite things about the Switch. Any time you see something impressive in a game, the ability to snatch that image and freeze it in time forever is sitting right there next to your thumb. In most games, it’s only used every now and then, but by the time we’d finished Gris our screenshot...
Review Katamari Damacy REROLL (Switch) - A Timely Remaster Of A True Modern Classic
Keep rollin'
Games are often at their best when they embrace the truly weird and wonderful. In an era where so much emphasis is placed on gritty realism, life-like character models and terrifyingly accurate simulations, it’s nice to punctuate that authenticity with oddity or two. Thankfully, the peculiar world of Katamari has returned in the form...
Review Yo-Kai Watch 3 (3DS) - The Perfect Swansong For The Series On Nintendo 3DS
A charming addition to the tribe
While it’s never quite reached the levels of superstardom enjoyed by Pokémon and other Japanese-centric monster-collecting RPGs (well, not consistently anyway), the Yo-Kai Watch series has remained one of the best handheld franchises to ever grace the seemingly immortal Nintendo 3DS. Of course, we western fans...
Is it any Wonder?
The hand-drawn 2D platformer has become such a common occurrence over the past couple of years that it might as well be a genre of its own. Since its launch, the Switch has seen its fair share of these, from Hollow Knight to Toki (the latter of which was released this week). One of the most notable examples of this was last...
Breathtaking
Journey changed the game when it released back in 2012, bringing a distinctly serene experience to PlayStation owners that championed the experience of play, rather than the goal of conquering challenges. Journey generated all sorts of acclaim for its atmosphere and pace, so it comes as no surprise that Matt Nava – Journey’s art...
Review Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch) - A Worthy Successor To Sega's Out Run
Blue sky thinking
There are many gamers out there – this writer included – who would kill for a modern-day version of Out Run. Not literally, mind you, but we could probably stretch to petty crime if need be. While fans of Sega’s definitive arcade racer will be pleased to hear it’s coming to the Switch soon as part of the Sega AGES series,...
Review Sid Meier's Civilization VI (Switch) - Conquer The World On The Move In This Superb Port
Civ on the streets, Civ in the sheets
The world’s premiere 4X strategy game has finally landed on Switch! It promises the real deal – the full Civilization VI experience – distilled to handheld form, and it’s a relief to report that Aspyr has done a fine job squeezing Firaxis’ game onto the hybrid console. Beyond a few small issues, it...
Dead and loving it
Somehow, somehow, Grim Fandango is 20 years old this year. Twenty years! For some of you reading this review, the following game might look just like any other title from the transformative PC gaming days of the ’90s. A relic of an era where polygons were blocky, textures lacked detail and aspect ratios were square at best. But...
Girl power
Cellar Door Games put itself on the map with the release of Rogue Legacy, a critically lauded roguelike sidescroller that in some ways set a trend still being followed by indies today, but the studio later went on to release a new game, Full Metal Furies, to much less fanfare. There were plenty of factors that resulted in the studio's...
Review Rogue Legacy (Switch) - Generations Of Challenge Packaged Up In An Irresistible Roguelike
A legacy to look up to
Though the Castlevania series has had a rather inconsistent and confusing run over the years, the one thing tying it all together is the famed Belmont clan, with a member of the family showing up in just about every game released in the series so far. That age-old battle between the forces of good and evil has spawned all...
Review Transistor (Switch) - A Towering Achievement That Comes Highly Recommended On Switch
Process this
Supergiant Games made its name when it released Bastion in 2011, producing an unforgettable RPG with a strong art direction and compelling story that would go on to become an indie classic in later years. It was a tall order, then, for the studio to follow that act with something that could raise the quality bar again; it’s tough...
Review Dark Souls: Remastered (Switch) - Perfect Portable Punishment
Git gud on the go
The Nintendo Switch has played host to countless ports in the relatively brief 18 months it’s been on the market, but every so often one comes along that brings with it all the prestige and reverence that made it such a touchstone elsewhere. Last year, that game was arguably The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a port that was made all...
Review Mark Of The Ninja: Remastered (Switch) - A Stellar Stealth Hit That's Better Than Ever
Hello darkness, my old friend
In 2012, Klei Entertainment (which would later go on to produce Don’t Starve) debuted Mark of the Ninja on the Xbox Live Arcade, introducing a bold 2D take on the stealth genre. Boasting gorgeous hand-drawn visuals and tight, open-ended gameplay, this new platformer quickly developed a reputation for its quality,...
Review Starlink: Battle For Atlas (Switch) - A Shining Example Of Open-World Star Fox Done Right
Ubisoft’s new odyssey will have a Mass Effect
It takes guts to try and revive a dormant genre, especially one that burned bright in the zeitgeist before extinguishing itself just as fast. Activision and Harmonix tried such a feat with Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4 back in 2015, but their hopes of a resurgent rhythm-action craze never found the...
Review Dragon Ball FighterZ (Switch) - A Stunning Switch Port That Will Leave You Breathless
What you Super Saiyan?
Nine months after release on competing platforms, Dragon Ball FighterZ has finally made its way to Switch. Back in January, when our sister site Push Square reviewed the original release, they gave it a glowing 9/10 score, and for good reason. Even by PlayStation 4 standards, FighterZ is breathtaking. So, how does one of...
Review Mega Man 11 (Switch) - A Glorious Return To Form For One Of Gaming's Greatest Heroes
Return of the king
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Mega Man in action. 2010’s retro revival Mega Man 10 was the last time the Blue Bomber received a new release, with Capcom being seemingly hesitant to give the character a spotlight after the very public departure of Keiji Inafune, the iconic designer of the robotic hero. Since the...
Review TowerFall (Switch) - This Couch Co-Op Classic Is Perfectly Suited To Nintendo Switch
Towering over the competition
Back in 2012, the gaming world was taken by storm by the announcement of the OUYA, a crowdfunded attempt at creating a major console platform geared specifically towards indies. Though we could easily write a thesis on all the reasons why the OUYA ended up being an enormous failure, the hardware did have some saving...
Review Armello (Switch) - Anthropomorphic Antics In A Lush Board Game World
Crowning glory
Board games have long remained a physical alternative to the digital delights of video games, with their multi-coloured dice, cardboard pieces and overly-complicated rules, but the news that much-loved classics such as Carcassonne and Pandemic are Switch-bound means we're finally seeing the mediums united once and for all. However,...
Faster than greased lightning
In 1975, a Hungarian psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (try pronouncing that one out loud) coined the term 'flow', referring to a state of mind in which one becomes so enchanted or focused on something that all sense of space and time outside of that focus point essentially seems to disappear. The state of flow...
Review Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle (Switch) - Nirvana For Side-Scrolling Fighter Fans
Coins not required
While it can't take credit for creating the genre, Capcom is arguably one of the most important companies ever to work in the realm of side-scrolling beat 'em ups. Entries like Renegade, Double Dragon and Golden Axe may have established the template of the humble 'belt scroller', but it was Capcom's seminal 1989 effort Final Fight...
Review Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country (Switch) - So Much More Than Just DLC
Golden time
By the time Xenoblade Chronicles 2 launched in December 2017, Switch fans were near exhausted with content. Less than a year into its launch, Nintendo’s burgeoning new hardware had the best Zelda yet, the return of its most-lauded Mario Kart, the glorious multiplayer action of Splatoon 2
Review Undertale (Switch) - A Postmodern RPG Classic That Every Fan Of The Genre Should Play
"Aren't you happy?"
RPGs have been around for nearly as long as the modern gaming industry has, and though genre standards are constantly being raised through the generations, there tends to be a homogenous sameness that many RPGs inevitably fall victim into. Octopath Traveler, for example, is a fantastic game, but it’s about as firmly traditional...
Review NBA 2K19 (Switch) - Effortlessly The Best Basketball Sim On Nintendo Switch
Court is in session
It’s no coincidence that this NBA 2K19’s MyCareer story is called ‘The Way Back’. Following on from the issues that dogged last year’s entry on every platform - namely the heavy-reliance on microtransactions and glacial pace of progression for those not willing to sink extra money into it - developer Visual Concepts is...
