Game Reviews scoring 9/10
Review Bastion (Switch) - A Captivating Indie Gem That Hasn't Been Dulled By The Passage Of Time
You've done good, Kid
The debate over whether or not video games should be considered an artform will likely never reach a firm conclusion, but that doesn’t stop developers from trying to show how a game can be something more meaningful and touching than mere disposable entertainment. Enter Bastion, the debut release from Supergiant Games, which...
Review Gone Home (Switch) - A Peerless Masterclass In Interactive Storytelling Comes To Switch
Family values
We’re all happy at how well Nintendo Switch is performing - not just because we’re obvious Ninty fans, but because such success has opened the door to a much wider and diverse range of titles than any other platform in the Big N’s history. So it’s fitting that something as niche and avant-garde as the 'walking simulator' is...
The beginning of the end
It’s almost frightening to think it’s been almost six and a half years since Telltale first brought The Walking Dead to life in a new and exciting interpretation; the game that finally took its choice-driven narrative template and made those consequences truly consequential in a world where a single decision could...
Review Planet Alpha (Switch) - A Truly Mesmerising Puzzle-Platformer That You Should Download Now
An odyssey to another world
There are so many games out there that wear their inspirations proudly, pinned to their breast like a badge of the highest honour. For some, it ends up showing just how lacking their imitation ultimately is (take Fall of Light: Darkest Edition’s love for Dark Souls, for instance), but for a select few that obvious love...
Review Into The Breach (Switch) - The Turn-Based Pacific Rim Simulator You've Always Wanted
Right at home on Switch
"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness. That is life.” That nugget of wisdom comes not from Confucius or Machiavelli, but from Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It’s difficult to think of a game that exemplifies this sentiment better than Into The Breach. This...
Review Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition (Switch eShop)
A modern classic, updated
Two years on from its original release, Hyper Light Drifter might not feel quite as unique in both its art style and the relentless difficulty of its combat - especially in the company of Dead Cells and so many other pixel art indies - but that doesn’t mean this acclaimed hack ‘n’ slash odyssey has lost any of its...
Review The Messenger (Switch eShop)
Go, ninja, go!
Twenty-five years ago, a bright-eyed elementary school student whiled away time in class doodling crude pictures of ninjas in his notebook, completely unaware that such pictures would grow into a lifelong passion project. Indeed, The Messenger is the culmination of decades of daydreaming and prototyping, slowly being refined down into...
Review Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch)
Let the hunt begin, again!
Everything changed for Capcom’s Monster Hunter series in January 2018, which saw the successful release of Monster Hunter: World on the PlayStation 4. Not only did the series change platforms from Nintendo’s family to that of Sony’s (a reversal of the situation that took place only a few years beforehand, when it...
Review Bad North (Switch eShop)
Heathen chemistry
If the recent releases of Jotun: Valhalla Edition and The Banner Saga Trilogy have taught us anything, it’s this: the Vikings make for the most bloodthirsty of heroes. But what if the tables were turned, and it was you defending against the reaving Norsemen? The sound of a ghostly war horn roaring in the distance. Longships...
Review Okami HD (Switch eShop)
They're good dogs, Brent
Nowadays, Platinum Games is one of the most respected names in gaming when it comes to action titles, but long before the studio was founded, many of its staff members were part of a Capcom subsidiary called Clover Studio. Clover made its name on producing interesting new IP instead of sequels, and its magnum opus was the...
Review Flipping Death (Switch)
Grave concerns
Penny might not consider herself a goth, but the fact she dresses up as a demon and works at a funeral parlour has the rest of Flatwood Peaks thinking otherwise. When her over-the-top antics get her fired, she reacts just like any other person would - and drives to a local cemetery to hang out in a crypt with her boyfriend. You know,...
"...and with strange aeons, even death may die"
When it comes to genres that the indie scene is absolutely enamoured with, few would rank higher than the roguelike and Metroidvania genres. It’d be easy to dismiss Dead Cells, then, as low-effort pandering to a current industry trend, another forgettable release in a marketplace rife with better...
Review Iconoclasts (Switch eShop)
Praise be
Though it may not initially seem so, video game production is an extremely demanding task, requiring equal amounts of ambition, creativity, and attention to detail to produce something memorable - and that’s not even accounting for the long shadow cast by countless other games that have garnered mass acclaim and popularity. The act of...
The golden touch
After five years, a new WarioWare is finally upon us. Well, mostly new, anyway. Warioware Gold is a mashup of some of the best microgames the series has had to offer, along with a few new ones. Most 'best of' collections include a creator's hits; those tracks you can't help but play over and over, despite knowing every single...
Review Hand of Fate 2 (Switch eShop)
All hands on deck
We’ve seen plenty of genres successfully spliced together during Nintendo Switch’s lifetime - including the exploration and fisticuffs of Pato Box and the RPG/base-building magic of Dragon Quest Builders - but nothing quite like Defiant Development’s long-awaited sequel. Fusing the basic premise of a deck-building card game...
Review Mega Man X Legacy Collection (Switch eShop)
Xcellent
After releasing six games in the classic Mega Man franchise, Capcom had a working formula for the Blue Bomber down to a science, but things were getting rather tired. Mega Man needed something more than a charge shot or a slide move to mix up the gameplay, but that core loop of action platforming and fighting robot masters didn’t need to...
Review West of Loathing (Switch eShop)
You got a perk: Stupidly Good
It takes a lot of courage to design, program, and release a game with an intentionally crude and simplistic art style, but when you’re basing it off a browser game from 2003, that’s just what you’ve got to do. West of Loathing is an almost entirely monochrome stick figure RPG that hides not only...
Review Octopath Traveler (Switch)
A direct path to RPG bliss
The Bravely Default games on the 3DS did a fantastic job of resurrecting the gameplay and feel of some of Square’s oldest games, employing a style that stayed true to genre roots while making modern changes wherever needed. When it was announced that the Bravely team would be tackling a new RPG on the Switch, fans were...
Review Sonic Mania Plus (Switch)
Faster than ever
Editor's note: This review is based on our original Sonic Mania review, as penned by our erstwhile editor Tom "Please no, not another terrible 3D Sonic game" Whitehead. It has been adapted and added to by Damien "Sonic 2 was the clearly the best" McFerran.In certain circles of chatty online gamers, Sonic the Hedgehog is often a hot...
Still absolutely heaven
Switch owners have been spoiled for moody, melancholic platformers of late. First, we got the Metroidvania masterpiece that was Hollow Knight, then the beautifully grim platform-puzzling of Inside and its equally downbeat older cousin, Limbo. We've already taken a look at Inside and recommended it wholeheartedly. But if you...
Playdead leaves us happy feeling sad
If Inside proves anything to Mario-obsessed Nintendo fans, it's that there's more than one way to skin a platforming cat. Which is a bizarrely grotesque image to contemplate. But then, Inside is full of bizarrely grotesque images. This is a thoughtful, masterfully-paced platform-puzzler with one of the most...
Review The Last Blade 2 (Switch eShop / Neo Geo)
Another contender for Switch fighting champion
There are lots of one-on-one fighters on Switch, many of which have been released as part of HAMSTER’s ACA Neo Geo series. The Last Blade 2 is another one, giving you a selection of fighters to pick from as you engage in a series of best of three-round fights en route to a showdown with an overpowered...
Review Lumines Remastered (Switch eShop)
A Shinin' luminary of its genre
Nintendo took the world by storm when it released the Game Boy back in the late '80s, but much of the device’s early success was owed to a little game called Tetris that came as a pack-in. Featuring simple block-dropping gameplay, Tetris would go on to define a whole new genre of puzzle action games that’s still...
Block Party
Note: This review is for the 'Nintendo Switch Edition' of the game which has since been discontinued and replaced with the more recent version (simply called Minecraft). This update uses the Bedrock engine and supports crossplay and cross-purchases with other platforms. Please bear in mind that while the text below gives a good idea of...
Review Hollow Knight (Switch) - One Of The Finest Metroidvanias That's Not A Metroid Or 'Vania
Much more than a solid achievement
The Switch isn't exactly lacking for quirky Metroidvanias, with the likes of Yoku's Island Express, Dandara and SteamWorld Dig 2 all stretching the genre in new and interesting directions.
Review Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
Ysy to love
Though Nihon Falcom’s Ys (pronounced 'ease') has been sending gamers off on action-RPG adventures since 1987, you’d be forgiven for not being familiar with the series, with the last mainline release on a Nintendo console being the Japan-exclusive Ys V in 1995. Since then, Ys has seen something of a renaissance on PlayStation...
Review Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion (Switch eShop)
Eights-a-poppin'
Since we first clapped eyes on the sucker-headed Octolings in 720p on the Wii U, Splatoon fans everywhere wanted to take control of these teenage tentaculars on the splattlefield. Octo Expansion promises just that and much more, but can such wondrous ideas truly be realised in a $20 DLC pack for Splatoon 2 on the Switch? Let’s...
Review Just Shapes & Beats (Switch eShop)
An A1, tip-top, clubbing jam fair
After years of remasters, re-releases and reboots, old-school graphics and tunes don’t quite quicken the pulse like they used to – it’s all been done and redone before. Just Shapes & Beats arrives on Switch ticking all the retro boxes. Chiptune soundtrack? Check. Stripped-back aesthetic evoking arcade...
Review BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle (Switch)
Ragna the Bloodedge, Yu Narukami and Hyde Kido walk into a pub…
It is hard to believe that Arc System Works’ Blazblue franchise is already turning a decade old. Even more baffling, it took those ten years for one of the series main entries to arrive on Nintendo hardware. Yet as you can probably gander from the title BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle is...
Review Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (3DS)
A Place Further Than the Universe
By now, ATLUS’ long-running Shin Megami Tensei series should be a familiar name for 3DS owners; from the Sega Saturn-remake of Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers to Shin Megami Tensei IV and its direct sequel Apocalypse, these darkly stylish, demon-collecting JRPGs have...
