Game Reviews scoring 8, 9 or 10/10
Review No Man's Sky (Switch) - Right Up There With The Very Best Switch Ports
Galaxy Quest
This article was originally published as an in-progress review without a score prior to the arrival of the 4.0 Waypoint update, which brought a raft of new features in the days after launch. It has now been updated with our impressions of Waypoint and awarded an overall score. It's been a long old road for Hello Games' No Man's Sky...
Review Chaos;Head Noah (Switch) - A Great Localisation Of The First 'Science Adventure' VN
Dive into the delusions of the ultimate otaku
There are two ways that life goes for visual novel protagonists. Either they wake up in a world where all their classmates are beautiful anime girls who want to jump their bones, or they find themselves in a twisted supernatural murder mystery. Unfortunately for Takumi Nishijou, the protagonist of...
Review NieR:Automata The End of YoRHa Edition (Switch) - A Modern Classic Shines On Switch
NieR-ly perfect
NieR:Automata is perhaps a story of the power of word of mouth. A sequel in an IP with a devoted but modest following by Square Enix standards, it became a notable sales success over time as initial fans convinced neutrals that something special had arrived. Director Yoko Taro was also clever in his approach to storytelling - playing...
Mini Review Picross S8 (Switch) - Four-Player Picross? It's Absolute Madness!
"You get used to it, I don't even see the code"
In a series as focused on multiplayer as Picross S, it’s always seemed odd that Nintendo and Jupiter haven't allowed more than two players to be playing at the same time. We’ve lost track of how many times we’ve played Picross on our Switch during a major social event and could only have one...
Review Let's Sing ABBA (Switch) - La Question C'est Voulez-Vous
ABBA-go hero
Let's start with a question: Why are you here? Of all the many games launching in the latter third of 2022, this is perhaps the most dependably, dryly predictable in form and function: a Let's Sing game featuring songs by Abba. Sure, you might be curious about the playlist or the various modes in this particular entry of the...
Review Let's Build A Zoo (Switch) - A Creative, Cartoonish Tycoon Sim With A Sinister Twist
Create new and exciting affronts to the natural order
We’ve all walked around a zoo and wondered just how hard it could be to run one. After all, you just need to get the animals in one place and keep them from escaping, right? However, if the plethora of zoo management sims on the market is anything to go by, there is a lot more to it. While many...
Review Tunic (Switch) - Old-School Adventuring With Nods To Zelda, Unforgiving And Ingenious
Surprisingly, the fox isn’t saving a princess from a pig-man
The opening moments of Tunic fooled us into thinking we were in for a derivative Zelda-like adventure. A diminutive fox-like character wearing a green tunic reminiscent of a certain hero wakes up on a beach. From an isometric camera angle, this fox (known as the Ruin Seeker) finds a...
Review Return To Monkey Island (Switch) - An Impeccable Encore For An Adventure Gaming Icon
Look behind you! A three-game series!
In 1990, Ron Gilbert created the seminal point-and-click adventure The Secret of Monkey Island. It grabbed hearts and hasn’t let go for 32 years. In 1991, he concluded Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge on a bombshell cliffhanger. In 1992, he departed Lucasarts, and the secret third part of his trilogy went...
Review Easy Come Easy Golf (Switch) - Everybody's Golf Spiritual Successor Scores A Birdie On Switch
Finally, golf for everybody (with a Switch)
Clap Hanz is a studio closely linked with PlayStation, producing hugely popular titles Everybody's Golf / Hot Shots Golf across multiple generations (over the course of 20 years+). Recently it loosened up its swing and went another way, however, releasing Clap Hanz Golf on Apple Arcade. It's that title...
Review Shovel Knight Dig (Switch) - A Finely Formed Roguelite That Strikes 16-Bit Gold
"Now dig on this"
Since the last 8-bit-style game came out, Shovel Knight has been branching out more into other genres as developer and publisher Yacht Club charts a course for where its eponymous nobleman will go next. In December, we got the wonderful Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, which smartly blended falling block puzzle mechanics with...
Mini Review OneShot: World Machine Edition (Switch) - A Brilliant And Bittersweet Indie Darling
You've only got OneShot
A cat-like child named Niko wakes up in a decrepit house, locked in a room with a bookshelf, a password-locked computer, and a TV remote control on the floor. It’s too dark to read the books and there’s no sign of a password anywhere – it's up to you to find a way out. Not long after, Niko stumbles upon a massive...
It's more than zero
We don't blame you if you’re intimidated by Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails series. This massive saga is now up to its twelfth mainline game in Japan, with the West falling behind at an alarming rate. However, one piece of the puzzle has been missing for years – Crossbell. After years of begging, fans are finally...
I choose you!
Fun fact: at this time last year, we had only just learned of the existence of Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars. Not only has that game and its sequel—Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden—come out since then, but we’ve now received yet another sequel in Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden. As you’d probably expect, this...
Review Radiant Silvergun (Switch) - A Superb Shmup That's Still One Of The Very Best
No refuge
Making it business to boycott sensible business practices, Treasure’s commitment to dying consoles once cemented it as Japan’s most revered boutique developer. A practice that gave rise to some of gaming’s most significant works, Radiant Silvergun is a product of both spectacular overachievement and unapologetic showboating. Once...
Review Jack Move (Switch) - A Short, Sharp, And Utterly Gripping Cyberpunk RPG
In bird culture, this is considered a Jack Move
It feels like most JRPGs these days don’t really tread much into hard science fiction. Sure, big franchises like Final Fantasy or Xenoblade aren’t afraid to mix in some tech alongside their magic, but it’s rare that you’ll see developers fully commit to a world that’s all robots and...
Review Temtem (Switch) - An Innovative Pokémon-Like, With Depth And Grind In Equal Measure
Into Temtemtion
At the beginning of our Temtem adventure, we had every intention to review the Pokémon-inspired massively multiplayer game based on its own merit, steering clear of comparisons between the two as best we could. Developer Crema never shied away from where Temtem’s blueprints came from during its successful Kickstarter campaign and...
Review Tinykin (Switch) - A Wholesome Platforming Spin On Pikmin
Good things come in small packages
Splashteam, developer of the humourous 2D platformer Splasher, is back again but with a different cast of curious creatures in its newest project, Tinykin. It's an imaginative and very pleasant 3D platformer that challenges you to think outside the box and find a new purpose in everyday objects — especially since...
Review Splatoon 3 (Switch) - The Pinnacle Of The Series And Switch's Slickest Shooter
Peak squid performance
When the original Splatoon launched on the Wii U back in 2015, it was pretty groundbreaking. Nintendo making an online shooter? It sounded like a recipe for confusion, but as they so often do, Nintendo took a formula that had been refined to the point of parody and decided that it would be fun to be able to swim in bullets...
Review City Wars: Tokyo Reign (Switch) - A Deep Deckbuilder That Stands Out In The Crowd
The city that nevers sleeps
These days, it feels like deckbuilding elements are finding their way into all kinds of roguelikes, but it’s not too often that you see new releases purely built around card games. City Wars: Tokyo Reign is one of those rare releases, and we’re pleased to report that it presents an interesting and unique take on CCG...
Review ANNO: Mutationem (Switch) - An Impressive Cyberpunk Action RPG With Stunning Visuals
This game has a monkey in a lab coat
'Cyberpunk' has become a bit of a dirty word in games as of late after a certain game's widely-publicised rough launch. However, video games and the cyberpunk aesthetic have gone hand in hand for almost as long as the medium has existed. From SNES-era titles like Shadowrun and Hideo Kojima’s wildly...
Pizza dude's got 30 seconds
For gamers who weren't yet born in the 1980s, it may be surprising to learn that Konami’s pedigree was once second only to Nintendo’s first-party output. Undyingly creative and highly quality-driven, the innovative glow that earmarked their arcade years was never truly rekindled post-1994. Hot on the heels of...
Lost in plaaaaaaaay
Graphic adventures can’t seem to settle themselves. Most new games seem to have to start at first principles and decide on their own verbs, loops, control scheme, puzzle types, difficulty, hint system… and it feels like there are more misses than hits. Which makes it all the more impressive that developer Happy Juice Games...
Review Cursed To Golf (Switch) - A Spooky Roguelike That's More Than Up To Par
"You're not being the ball, Danny"
Halloween might still be a couple months away, but Chuhai Labs has seen fit to kick off the spooky season early with its latest release, Cursed to Golf. Starring a person who basically escapes from hell using nothing but their god-tier golf skills, it’s certainly a memorable adventure and we’re happy to say...
Review Islets (Switch) - A Wholesome, Hand-Painted Metroidvania That's Stunning To Look At
A tale of the small but mighty
Kyle Thompson, the creator of Sheepo, is back with another weird yet wonderful addition to the Metroidvania genre. Islets is a gorgeously hand-painted story of connection and adventure through a world quite literally torn apart. Taking on the role of a self-doubting mouse whose dream is to reconnect to the world and...
Mini Review RITE (Switch) - A Short And Very Sweet Precision Platformer
A platformer done Rite
Precision platformers—such as Slime-San, The End is Nigh, or Celeste—can be tough to pull off given their razor-sharp requirements. Make the game too frustrating, and most players won’t even try to overcome the devilish challenges laid out for them. Make the game too easy, and it’ll lose a lot of its ‘hardcore’...
Review Wave Race 64 - A Thrilling Racer That's Still Deeply Impressive
Splash wave
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Wave Race was not a well-known series prior to its arrival on the Nintendo 64. Actually, it wasn't a series at all, but rather a single release: a top-down racer on...
Review Kirby's Dream Buffet (Switch) - A Delicious Spread To Put You In The Party Mood
Waddle Dee-licious
What do you get when you take a generous helping of Fall Guys, add a pinch of Super Monkey Ball and then mix in a lovely big dollop of Kirby? Well, a great big dream buffet, that's what. Kirby's Dream Buffet is a bright and breezy party game that sees a whole field full of Kirby characters roll at speed down sweet treat-laden...
Review Cult Of The Lamb (Switch) - Animal Crossing Goes Bad In This Satisfyingly Stressful Sim
"Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"
Devolver Digital has always had an eye for some delightfully odd gaming experiences. Play as an ape escaping its captors while freeform jazz blasts in the background. Rob pretentious rich people as a con man in 18th century France. Eviscerate houses full of goons as a drug-addicted ninja with PTSD. The latest in...
The NeverEnding Story
If “Kureshin × Bokunatsu” a) makes sense and b) sounds appealing to you, and if c) you haven’t already bought this game in the year since it was released in Japan, then we can keep this review nice and tight: buy this game! For those not residing in that modest nub of the Venn diagram, let’s see if you’ve moved there...
Review Arcade Paradise (Switch) - An Addictive Arcade Management Sim That Proves Laundry Can Be Fun
Not a wash out
Have you ever wanted to turn your local laundromat into an arcade? For the three of you that have, boy do we have a game to recommend you. Created by Nosebleed Interactive, the same developer behind the well-received Vostok Inc., Arcade Paradise puts you in the role of Ashley, an inheritor to a run-down laundromat called King Wash...
