Game Reviews scoring 8, 9 or 10/10
Review Chained Echoes (Switch) - One Of The Very Best RPGs Of The Year
Breaking the chains of mediocrity
About seven years ago, a solo indie developer named Matthias Linda began working on an idea he had for a new RPG, itself likely the product of many years of producing fan games based on his genre favorites in RPG Maker. After a successful Kickstarter in 2019 and who knows how many hours of painstaking iteration,...
Review Lil Gator Game (Switch) - An Incredibly Charming Adventure With A Deep Message
Chomping at the bit for a good time
There is something to be said for trying to recapture one’s childhood. Nostalgia is (and always has been) a popular tool employed by game designers, and it is something that many modern games use to try and recapture childhood wonder. And yet, for the first time in recent memory, a new release has tried a...
ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE
In the mid-2000s, Nintendo may have easily dominated the handheld gaming space with the DS and its incredible lineup, but never let it be said that the PSP didn’t have its fair share of absolute bangers. One of the most memorable PSP titles was Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, a prequel to one of the greatest games Square’s...
Review Dragon Quest Treasures (Switch) - A Trove Of JRPG Goodness, Perfect For Beginners
Taking the JRPG formula back to basics
The Dragon Quest series is a staple in the JRPG community, continually churning out games of varying quality for more than 35 years. The latest entry in this seminal franchise is Dragon Quest Treasures, a spin-off from the mainline series, with many of the standard Dragon Quest tropes packaged into one of the...
Review The Rumble Fish 2 (Switch) - A Cult Classic Fighter Gets A Great Port
Big Fish
Despite its title being ostensibly plucked from the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same name, publisher Sammy’s The Rumble Fish series bears zero resemblance bar the odd bout of fisticuffs. Or, in this case, bout upon bout of fisticuffs, with a cast of colourful and interestingly designed characters. The Rumble Fish series’...
Mini Review Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 3 (Switch) - The Best Set Of Tracks Yet
This is more like it!
Nintendo is back with another wave of eight courses for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass, bringing us to the halfway point of its overall road map. Now we're up to a total of 24 new tracks over six unique cups, but so far, the output has been a bit mixed: we’ve had some bonafide classics like Coconut Mall and...
Review Inscryption (Switch) - This Ingeniously Devilish Deckbuilder Is Still Ace On Switch
Going off-scrypt
The delight of Daniel Mullins’ games is the way they obliterate expectations. If there’s a problem with having such a distinctive creative voice, though, is that we've been trained by his previous games to expect the unexpected. And that's why Inscryption's arrival on Switch is such a treat: as the first of Mullins' games to hit...
Mini Review Railbound (Switch) - A Cute Locomotive Puzzler On The Perfect Platform
You have to draw the line somewhere
Railbound, the latest title from Polish studio Afterburner, makers of Golf Peaks and inbento, is a super-cute puzzler of polished presentation and deceptively monstrous difficulty. It starts ever so innocently, asking for a little railway line to connect a carriage to its engine, and sings with toots and chuffs as...
Review Finding Paradise (Switch) - A Wonderful Sequel That Will Linger Long In Your Memory
To the moon and back
The sequel to Freebird Games' superlative To The Moon, Finding Paradise is a game we weren't sure we really wanted or even needed when it first released back in 2017. How on earth could anything be expected to live up to the power and emotion of Kao Gan's wonderful 2011 adventure? Surely any attempt to return to this world and...
Review Retro Goal (Switch) - An Addictive Slice Of Club Football With A Side Of Management
Or Soccer, if you insist
Back in February we had Retro Bowl, a simple but fantastic take on American Football, right in time for the Super Bowl. It was an accomplished port by New Star Games, which had originally enjoyed success with the release on mobile, and now we get Retro Goal in time for the football/soccer World Cup. Once again it's a light...
Classic horror reborn
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil 2 was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi and wired ethernet cable, along with a 5G mobile connection. Capcom is marching on with its plan to release its modern Resident Evil titles as cloud versions on Switch with Resident Evil 2, and while we approach every streaming-only version...
Mini Review A Little To The Left (Switch) - An Evocative, Imaginative Tidy 'Em Up
How’s it hanging?
Trailers, screenshots, and previews of A Little to the Left paint a picture of a tidying game about making things neat – and a cat interferes and cats are nice. That’s not inaccurate, but there’s a lot more going on in Max Inferno’s first game. Presenting you with one-screen scenes of real-life objects like books,...
Review Rogue Legacy 2 (Switch) - A Roguelike Legend Returns In Fine Form
Don't Rogue Your Legacy
While not the first roguelike by any means. 2013’s Rogue Legacy — alongside classics like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac — had a hand in making the now-plentiful genre the huge deal it has become. Nearly a decade later (not counting two years of early access), Cellar Door Games has finally followed up on their...
Mini Review Windosill (Switch) - A Cult Classic Puzzler Gets A Dreamy Switch Port
Flashback
Well, isn't this a nice surprise. Some 13 years after it first released as a Flash game on web browsers, Patrick Smith's delightful Windosill has arrived on Switch, giving players a fresh chance to experience this breezy, playful, and rather magical little journey through a series of enchanting puzzles. Windosill's unique aesthetic has...
Review Lunistice (Switch) - A 32-Bit Platforming Dream That Gives Sonic A Serious Run For His Money
Frontier justice?
Ever since game fans collectively realised that crunchy polygons were worth getting nostalgic over, PS1-core indie games have been growing into the new pixel art. With Lunistice, one-person shop A Grumpy Fox has delivered a shining example of this modernised lo-fi aesthetic. Sparkling in chaotic but coordinated palettes of...
Graft from the past
Atari, and its exuberant founder Nolan Bushnell, were 1970s trailblazers who formed, established, and pioneered the video game industry. Brushing a near-century of mechanical coin-operated gaming aside and barging pinball into a dusty corner, Atari became the focal point of bars everywhere with Pong in 1972. It was the dawning of...
Review Sifu (Switch) - Sloclap's Kung-Fu Epic Revives Itself On Switch
Yes, it has a hallway scene
Sifu launched this past February on PlayStation and PC and quickly built up a passionate core following due to its hard-hitting action and interesting core 'ageing' mechanic. Now, nine months later, Sloclap’s martial arts brawler has arrived on the Switch with a solid port that doesn’t sacrifice anything that made the...
Review Prodeus (Switch) - An Excellent DOOM-Style Shooter For Old-School FPS Fans
"We will send unto them... only you."
It’s interesting to look back and see how first-person shooters have evolved since the days of Doom. What once used to be a genre focused more on the single-player experience of exploring levels and killing monsters slowly turned into something more focused on multiplayer experiences. In recent years, it feels...
Review It Takes Two (Switch) - Not Quite The Perfect Marriage, But A Satisfying Switch Port
Buckle my shoe
Marriage isn’t always perfect. Sometimes, as here, two presumably decent, hard-working parents, whose relationship you know nothing about and whom you can afford only the most general human empathy, find the joy of matrimony fades. So they must support their daughter as they carefully share their decision to separate. However, in It...
Review Mario Party 2 - Party Like It's 1999 With One Of The Best In The Series
Yes, we know most places got it in 2000
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's N64 library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Since 1998, the Mario Party series has entertained gamers by mixing the play of traditional board games with frantic minigame...
Review Signalis (Switch) - Brilliantly Tense And Surreal Sci-Fi Survival Horror
The signalis good
Survival horror games are tough to get right. Even giants of the genre like Resident Evil find themselves leaning harder into action or simple jump scares over time, but when it is at its best it is more tense than frightening. Signalis is one of the best survival horror games we’ve played and the perfect title for Switch owners...
Review Factorio (Switch) - A Most Engrossing Management Sim, Despite Some Issues
A factory sim that never seems to end
If you’ve ever wanted to harness the power of industrialisation, Factorio is certainly the game for you. Stranded on a strange alien world, you must find a way to survive and escape this place using the vestiges of technology left behind by whoever came here first, as well as your own innovations. This is a...
Review Beacon Pines (Switch) - An Endearing, Engrossing, Explorative Adventure
Gives you the warm fuzzies – and the chills
Playing Beacon Pines feels a bit like early winter nights, where you’re surprised by how quick the darkness creeps up – yet comfy and warm under a blanket. Coming from indie developer Hiding Spot, the setting might look like your usual cute woodsy town populated by anthropomorphic animals, but...
Review Bayonetta 3 (Switch) - A Stunning Return For An Icon, And The Best Game In The Series
Stone-cold sober, as a matter of fact
What's the greatest pure action game series of all time? Is it Ninja Gaiden? Max Payne? Devil May Cry or something else entirely? Whatever your own personal preferences in this regard, one certainty is that there are only a handful of franchises which have truly managed to knock it out of the park with regards...
Chomping at the bit
The craze now coined as “bronyism” — a heavily documented My Little Pony fandom that took root in 2010 — turned out to be more about inclusion than it did the show (Friendship is Magic) itself. Despite our attempts to get into it based on recommendations, we found its adult appeal largely overvalued. It acted as a conduit...
We promise the Rabbids’ antics aren’t too annoying
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle came about like a fever dream in 2017. Nintendo lending Ubisoft its poster child franchise? A Rabbid dressing up as Princess Peach? Mario wielding a gun? Madness. More surprising still, it turned out to be a ridiculously good strategy game – one of the best on...
Review Persona 5 Royal (Switch) - Finally On Switch, This Is The Very Definition Of Essential
Looking cool, Joker!
Well, all you lovely people, it finally happened. After literally years of pretending like it wasn’t sure there would be an audience, Atlus has brought Persona 5 to the Switch. And though this belated port hasn’t brought with it any major new upgrades or changes, we’re pleased to report that Persona 5 Royal is every bit as...
Mini Review Dorfromantik (Switch) - A Perfectly Peaceful Puzzler That Soothes The Soul
It means "village romanticization"
In an age where it feels like many big-budget projects are falling victim to 'FOMO mechanics' and stricter price schemes, it can be refreshing to play a game that focuses on simplicity, like Dorfromantik. Here you have a puzzle game that doesn't chase after complex mechanics, cutting-edge design, or intense action;...
Review Pilotwings 64 - A Real Gem, Sparkling In The Shadow Of Mario 64
Top flight
This review originally went live in 2013, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's N64 library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Releasing alongside Super Mario 64 when the Nintendo 64 launched back in 1996 (1997 if you're European), it was somewhat inevitable that Pilotwings 64 was...
Review Chaos;Child (Switch) - A Stand Out 'Science Adventure' VN That's Compelling And Gruesome
Find the truth behind a whole new set of grizzly murders
The Science Adventure series of visual novels usually don’t share much in common aside from a shared universe and an unusual naming convention, but Chaos;Child is the most direct sequel the series has seen so far. Set six years after the events of Chaos;Head Noah, this game offers a similar...
