Game Reviews scoring 9 or 10/10
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 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...
Review Yoku's Island Express (Switch eShop)
A pinball-metroidvania that really delivers
It's safe to say that Yoku's Island Express is the first pinball-Metroidvania game we've ever played. We sincerely hope it's not the last. Swedish indie studio Villa Gorilla has produced an improbable mash-up that succeeds through an uncommon combination of charm and inventiveness. Beyond all that, though,...
Review Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (Switch)
Handsome fighters never lose battles
Street Fighter may have been surpassed by the likes of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter in Capcom's enviable stable of IP, but for gamers of a certain age, the merest mention of the name itself is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention. In the early '90s, Street Fighter was...
“Even though the ideal is high, I never give in”
Upon first release on Sega NAOMI-powered arcades back in 2001, Ikaruga polarised audiences. While it most certainly was a vertical scrolling shmup like one would expect from the spiritual sequel to Radiant Silvergun, it played nothing like it. In fact, it played like no shmup before it and even...
Review Mega Man Legacy Collection (Switch eShop)
A legacy to be proud of
Until recently, it seemed that Capcom wasn’t all too interested in the Mega Man series, which understandably upset a lot of fans who grew up alongside the Blue Bomber. Though Mega Man has starred in a lot of games, it’s the original NES releases that arguably stand as the most iconic, which makes Mega Man Legacy...
Review Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch)
Bogus, or bodacious?
Platformers aren’t quite what they once were; whether they’re 3D or 2D we’ve had a bit of a mini-renaissance with them in recent years, but they hold nowhere near the draw that they did in the '80s and '90s. What a shame then that one of the best and most polished games of the genre happened to not only launch after these...
Review Wild Guns Reloaded (Switch)
Welcome to Westworld!
Back in 1994, Natsume delivered the definitive ‘shooting gallery’ shmup made famous in previous years by the likes of Neo Geo NAM-1975 and TAD’s Cabal. Sadly, a limited number of copies coupled with being a late generation SNES game meant that a lot of people missed out on this slice of space western action. Add in some...
Review Sky Rogue (Switch eShop)
"You don't own that plane! The taxpayers do!"
There once was a time when the 3D combat flight simulator was the genre of choice for seasoned players; during the 16-bit revolution, home computers like the Amiga and Atari ST played host to the likes of Falcon 3.0, F-15 Strike Eagle and Starglider, all of which used very basic filled polygon visuals to...
Review Sengoku 3 (Switch eShop / Neo Geo)
Third time's a charm
SNK’s first two Sengoku games put players in control of a sword-swinging hero, with the neat ability to switch to a different character during play should they wish. Coupled with a variety of enemies to bash they were not essential titles, but could still provide some decent fighting fun. The second game built on the first,...
Review Rogue Aces (Switch eShop)
Nice plane you’re flying there. I’ll take it
In 1987, Brøderbund released Wings of Fury, a thinking-man’s scrolling shmup that borrowed Defender’s free-roaming gameplay but was otherwise an original concept. Thirty-one years later, can Infinite State’s Rogue Aces be the dream sequel you never knew you needed? Throttle up and lets find...
Review Dragon Blaze (Switch eShop)
Imagine dragons
By the year 2000, Psikyo’s TATE shmup design was already established as the de facto template for the genre and with several hits already under its belt, it's hard to imagine many more gimmicks could be added to the tried and tested formula. So what if it added a few dragons into the mix? The Demon King has risen. The Sun and the...
The only way is shmup, baby
From the western title you might not be immediately aware that Tengai’s full Japanese title is Sengoku Blade: Sengoku Ace Episode II. This is, in fact, the sequel to Psikyo’s very first game, the brilliant Samurai Aces. But with only a few familiar faces returning and a complete change of shmup orientation style, did...
Review The Alliance Alive (3DS)
Alive and well
In 2015, Atlus published The Legend of Legacy, a 3DS JRPG produced by a dream team of veteran developers with credits on classics like SaGa, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger. The game was met with mostly positive reviews, but at the time, another game was in development from the same team. This game came to be The Alliance Alive,...
Review Shantae And The Pirate's Curse (Switch eShop)
It hasn't aged a day
Back in 2014, Shantae And The Pirate's Curse graced Wii U and 3DS, and many hailed it as the best Shantae release yet. Since then, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero saw a release, and while that was met with similar acclaim, some fans were displeased with the slightly more linear direction taken by the gameplay. Now, WayForward has opted...
Review Steredenn: Binary Stars (Switch eShop)
My god, it's full of stars!
In October of 2015, a French studio called Pixelnest released a space shooter arcade game called Steredenn, which blended classic shmup action with roguelike elements. The final product received high praise across the board, but Pixelnest wasn’t content to simply stop there. Over the last year, the studio has been...
Review Danmaku Unlimited 3 (Switch eShop)
Dodge this!
With each passing day Nintendo Switch is becoming the go-to current generation console for shmup enthusiasts. Already offering plenty of old and new titles in the current library, plus the bonus of proper TATE mode being at a distance of a quick Switch flip, perhaps the time has come to turn things up a notch. Does Danmaku Unlimited 3...
Review Magical Drop III (Switch eShop / Neo Geo)
Simple, frantic fun with balloons
The lineup of retro offerings on Switch may largely be comprised of fighting games and shmups, but other genres feature too, such as platformers, sports titles and - in the case of Magical Drop III - a highly enjoyable puzzle games. With the second game in the series already receiving the ACA Neo Geo treatment,...
Review Subsurface Circular (Switch eShop)
Illustrious train riding
A little less conversation, a little more action, please. Lyrics don’t get more popular than that, and yet it’s this Elvis Presley quote that Subsurface Circular flies directly in the face of. From the mind behind Thomas Was Alone, Mike Bithell’s latest outing is all about the spoken interaction, and it makes for one...
