Game Reviews scoring 8, 9 or 10/10
Review Two Point Campus (Switch) - A Beautifully Balanced Sim That's More 'Friend' Than 'Fiscal'
Putting the 'U-need' in 'Uneedversity'
After the excellent Two Point Hospital released on Switch moments before the world was rocked by a global pandemic, Two Point Studios are at it yet again with Two Point Campus. If the name hadn’t made it clear already, rather than running a hospital for money, Two Point Campus has you running a university...
Review Strange Horticulture (Switch) - An Odd Occult Puzzler That Blossoms Into A Fantastic Mystery
It’s a grower
Strange Horticulture takes on some big challenges. It’s a carefully authored story that wants to be driven by interaction, and it’s a single-scene play space that wants to create immersion in a whole world. It’s such a tricky line to walk between structured gameplay that’s interactive but dry and a carefully managed story...
Mini Review Hindsight (Switch) - Another Beautifully Moving Hit For Annapurna
Don’t look back in anger
If you played the excellent Neon White recently and were surprised to learn it was published by Annapurna Interactive, brace yourself to be completely unsurprised with this one: they don’t come much more Annapurna-y than this. Hindsight is a story that plays out through gentle interactions, with no complex objectives or...
Review Digimon Survive (Switch) - This Champion Visual Novel Proves The Wait Has Been Worth It
DigiDestined for greatness
The long wait for Digimon Survive is finally over, with players at last able to dive into this unusual entry in the series. Fans expecting the usual fare from a Digimon game might be understandably disappointed, but for those with an appetite for visual novels and tactical RPG combat, there is plenty to get your teeth sunk...
Review Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 (Switch) - Another Cracking Mega Man Zero-Alike
Capturing lightning in a bottle again
Way back in 2014, Inti Creates—of Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX fame—made waves in the action platforming space when it released Azure Striker Gunvolt, a clear successor to its previous work on the Blue Bomber. Though that initial release was kinda similar to older Mega Man games, this franchise has evolved...
Review Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch) - An Epic, Emotionally-Charged Masterpiece
From Here to Eternity
The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 key art promises a hell of a lot. You know the shot, that jaw-dropping vista with its deep blue skies and lush green fields, this time joined by an impossible rock formation looming large on the horizon as the silhouettes of a band of heroes you've yet to meet look on. It's an image that exudes the...
Mini Review Severed Steel (Switch) - A Heart-Pounding FPS That Makes You Feel Like John Wick
Get equipped with: Time Stopper
Following movies like The Raid and John Wick, the genre of ‘solo badass fighting endless amounts of enemies’ has skyrocketed in popularity. Almost parallel to that style of film, the genre has also become prevalent in games thanks to the likes of Sifu and Superhot with their intense trial and error gameplay; where...
Review Omori (Switch) - An Emotional, EarthBound-Inspired RPG That's Not Afraid To Shock
"Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here."
It’s been a long journey for Omori — the first video game from OMOCAT — on its way to the land of Nintendo. After a successful Kickstarter campaign all the way back in 2014, the game was originally slated for release on the 3DS, though this was later cancelled as development wore on and...
Review Live A Live (Switch) - A Brilliantly Faithful Remake Of A Unique And Influential JRPG
Living our best lives
Early on in Square Enix’s remake of Live A Live, it’s plain to see the influences the game had on Chrono Trigger. From spanning multiple timelines to the inventive area of effect skills, and right down to the simple, sometimes deep story, director Takashi Tokita clearly used 1994’s Live A Live as a springboard for his...
Review Pokémon Puzzle League - A Thrilling Puzzler And A Heavy Nostalgia Hit
Panel de Pokémon
This review originally went live in 2008, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. For those who have dabbled with Puzzle League, this is obvious information, but please bear with us. Tetris Attack, the SNES game, was a westernized version of...
Review Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium (Switch) - Captures That Arcade Magic In A Quality Package
Insert coin
Since there’s little 'wrong' with Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, what’s right with it will depend on the sensibilities and interests of the player. The second of Capcom’s superbly curated compilations following on from Capcom Arcade Stadium, its 32 arcade titles (one of which is free) now feature a greater emphasis on action and...
Review Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series (Switch) - A Classic Platforming Pair Worth Catching Again
Dream a little dream of me
The fifth console generation represented arguably the greatest shift in game design the industry has ever seen, as developers all over the world wrestled with how to transition 2D tenets into the 3D realm. There was lots of experimentation, and while platformers like Super Mario 64 and Spyro dived head-first into the new...
Review Little Noah: Scion Of Paradise (Switch) - A Fun, Formulaic Roguelite In The Dead Cells Vein
Size isn't everything
Cygames may be known for its success in the mobile space with titles like Granblue Fantasy, Shadowverse, and Dragalia Lost (with which the developer partnered with Nintendo) but the company seems like it has an interest in translating these IPs into more traditional console games. Last year’s excellent Shadowverse: Champion's...
Review Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course (Switch) - Short, Sweet, And Utterly Essential
You'd be a mug to ignore it
There’s a section near the end of one of the new stages in Cuphead’s DLC that made us shout a four-letter word at the screen extremely loudly, and that word wasn’t ‘cups’. Being the level-headed types we are, it’s very rare for a game to make us resort to such outbursts, but there we were, bellowing the sort...
Review Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak (Switch) - A Deliciously Difficult, Must-Have Expansion
An expansion with bite
Monster Hunter Rise has proven to be a welcome continuation of the IP's global growth in popularity, following the breakout mainstream success of 2018's Monster Hunter: World and its Iceborne expansion on non-Nintendo platforms. Rise itself brought some interesting evolutions from World, retaining more of the quirky charm we...
Mini Review ElecHead (Switch) - Smart, Surprisingly Deep, And Very Satisfying
Alone in electric dreams
Isolation is a weird thing; we’re all a little accustomed to it now, but having to figure out things on your own can be pretty daunting. Elechead revels in isolation; it was made by a sole developer, NamaTakahashi (Developer of 2019’s eShop game Battlloon), and during the course of the game all you have is yourself, and...
Review Portal: Companion Collection (Switch) - A Nintendo Debut For Two All-Time Greats
This was a triumph ♫
When it was announced that Portal and Portal 2 would be making their way to the Nintendo Switch as part of the Portal: Companion Collection, fans collectively choked on their cakes. Two of the best puzzle games of all time on the go, you say? Yes, please! Naturally, when certain games get ported to Nintendo’s hybrid system,...
Review Wreckfest (Switch) - An Absolute Banger (In A Good Way)
Wreck and ruin
On paper, Wreckfest is one of those games that should never really be possible on the Switch, at least not in a sufficiently playable state. When it came to PS4 and Xbox One in 2019, even though it was widely praised, many noted that it suffered from some technical issues and extremely long loading times. Surely if you’re bringing a...
Review Sonic Origins (Switch) - A Fine Collection For New Fans, Less So For The Hardcore Sonic Crowd
COPE
One particularly bright spot in Sonic's recent history was the release of Sonic Mania. One part sequel and one part reimagining of the 2D classics, that retro revival proved to be one of the best-rated and best-selling Sonic projects in recent years. In the (frankly baffling) absence of a true follow-up to Sonic Mania, Sega has instead opted to...
Review Steve Jackson's Sorcery! (Switch) - One Of Switch's Very Best Narrative Games
Steve Jackson will remember that
Way back in the day, long before video games were any good, the cool new narrative mechanic was Choose Your Own Adventure books. Wildly popular back in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, the CYOA genre died off sharpish with the invention of point-and-click games, text adventures, and video games with vast, sprawling...
Review AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative (Switch) - Another Very Fine Murder Mystery
An AI in your Eyeball
It is hard to beat a good murder mystery. The classic battle of wits between the detective and killer makes for perfect tension and AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative takes advantage of this established formula to give players a fun mystery with plenty of twists and turns, keeping them engaged through the closing...
Review Capcom Fighting Collection (Switch) - An Essential Buy For One-On-One Fighting Fans
It’s a Graveyard Smash
Capcom was a king of the nascent arcade industry back in the 1980s. An innovator, a game-changer, its invention within the fighting game genre remains unsurpassed. The company isn't new to releasing retro collections, with close to 30 compilations across various platforms. With newer hardware, however, there’s a more...
Review Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (Switch) - Musou Magic That Ranks Among The Best
Dynasty Worriers
With the success of the likes of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Persona 5 Strikers and, of course, 2017's Fire Emblem Warriors on Nintendo Switch, it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that Omega Force, the developer behind the long-running Warriors franchise, is intent on continuing to serve up more zany crossovers
Review Neon White (Switch) - A Thrilling, Hilarious Genre Hybrid That You Simply Must Check Out
Neon dreamin'
Ben Esposito has become somewhat of a star in the indie game scene over the last decade. From his work on Giant Sparrow’s The Unfinished Swan and What Remains of Edith Finch, to his part in Arkane Kids’ bizarro titles like Sonic Dreams Collection, you’ve likely come across him somewhere. However, Esposito is probably best known...
This is serious, so give me a quarter
The energy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of the biggest crazes of the '80s, has endured for 35 years. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s initially dark comic creations — later given a kid-friendly refashioning — spearheaded Turtlemania: a toxic-waste fusion of martial arts and mutant teen reptiles that...
Devilishly good
Though the manga only started in 2016, Demon Slayer has gone on to become one of the most successful media franchises in existence—even passing up the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft in raw sales. Despite this, Demon Slayer has had shockingly little presence in video games; aside from a Japan-only mobile game that still...
Review Mario Strikers: Battle League (Switch) - Simply The Best Sports Game On Switch
Violence is apparently the answer
Name a sport. Go on, name one. Now presumably you’ve chosen some obscure sport that Mario hasn't played because you saw where this bit was going, but that doesn’t change the fact that our red plumber chap has been in a hell of a lot of sports games. Mario Strikers: Battle League attempts to carry on the legacy...
Review Card Shark (Switch) - A Wonderfully Witty WarioWare-Esque Affair, With Cards
It's not about a shark
They say cheaters never prosper, but clearly they’ve never played Card Shark, a wonderfully tense, goofy little game that’s all about keeping your cool under tremendous pressure as you basically rob people blind. The act of pulling off the con is shockingly simple, but maintaining one’s composure to ensure that...
Review PAC-MAN MUSEUM+ (Switch) - A Gaming Legend's Best Collection Yet
Who let the ghosts out?
Pac-Man Museum+ follows Pac-Man Museum (2014), a collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This updated compilation includes some of the titles in the previous release, and adds several new ones, bringing the total count to 14 (although Pac-Man Arrangement is featured twice with arcade and home versions). It comprises...
Review OPUS: Echo Of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition (Switch) - Evocative And Shockingly Well-Realised
Blooming brilliant
OPUS: Echo of Starsong is intimidating. Not so much in terms of difficulty — there's very little of that in what's largely a visual novel-esque sort of business — but in terms of story, there's so much to take in. Even with the preceding two games (OPUS: The Day We Found Earth and OPUS: Rocket of Whispers) in your back pocket,...
