Game Reviews scoring 8/10
Review XCOM 2 Collection (Switch) - Firaxis' Stone-Cold Classic Makes The Leap To Switch Intact
Welcome Back, Commander
2K Games really has gifted Switch owners a smorgasbord of truly excellent games from their back catalogue lately, with the publisher's Borderlands, BioShock and XCOM franchises all exploding onto the eShop in unison. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how successfully they've managed to deal with the technical task...
Review Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling (Switch) - A Lovely Indie Tribute To Paper Mario
Fly paper
It's no huge revelation that Nintendo's refusal to return the Paper Mario series to its RPG roots has alienated a lot of players. The exploration and puzzle-solving of the latest entries Sticker Star and Colour Splash is an acquired taste, and many gamers lament the fact that the big N chose this direction for the franchise. Consequently...
Review Liberated (Switch) - An Atmospheric Comic Book Take On Grim Dystopia
Liberated, rated
Imagine a world in which a totalitarian government exploits our reliance on social media to take control of every aspect of our lives. It's not a particularly radical thing to conceive of, is it? You could even be forgiven for calling it a fairly clichéd premise. But as Liberated demonstrates, there's a reason why clichés become...
Review Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Switch) - You Won't Get 'Board' Of These Games Easily
Warning: things get a bit dicey
With much of the world still in some form of lockdown at the time of writing this review, many have resorted to board games or playing cards to keep themselves occupied and help while away the hours. It could be argued, then, that Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (or 51 Worldwide Games if you're outside of North...
Review The TakeOver (Switch) - A Worthy Companion Piece To Streets Of Rage 4
This town IS big enough for the both of us, actually
Scrolling fighting games on Switch are clearly like buses; you wait years for a decent one to arrive and two come along at once. We've recently been blessed with the long-awaited Streets of Rage 4, an officially-sanctioned sequel created by DotEmu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush Games, and just a...
Review Journey To The Savage Planet (Switch) - No Man's Sky Meets Metroidvania
Kindred Spirits
Typhoon Studios' Journey to the Savage Planet was very well received when it originally released back in January of this year on PC and consoles; it's a genuinely funny and supremely well designed title that combines Metroidvania elements with No Man's Sky-style procuring of resources on a bizarre alien planet filled with slick...
Review Super Mega Baseball 3 (Switch) - Step Up To The Plate In This Slugfest Sequel
Hitting it out of the park
For the initiated, baseball is the great American pastime. From the pang of a freshly struck home run to the smell of hot dogs wafting down from the stands, it’s the quintessential U.S. sport. Much like gridiron and basketball, the sport’s recent video game recreations have also become more focused on hyper-accurate...
Sweet Devil
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix sees the world's most famous virtual Vocaloid pop idol finally arrive on Nintendo Switch in an excellent portable version of the hit rhythm game series that includes a brand new Switch-exclusive art style, motion-control Mix Mode and touchscreen options that give players more ways than ever to bash...
Review SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC (Switch) - Another Sega Rarity Comes To Switch
AC what they did there
In the early ‘90s, it was believed by many Mega Drive / Genesis fans that Thunder Force II, III and IV were the best examples of the shoot ‘em up genre on their system. It was hard to argue with them: the Thunder Force games delivered an awesome combination of constant action, impressive graphical trickery, ridiculous...
Xeroxmorph
The idea of taking a game that's been originally designed as an all-encompassing virtual reality experience and expecting it to stand tall when unplugged from that impressive virtual realm – played instead on the Nintendo Switch's dinky little portable screen or a bog-standard telly – isn't one that really fills us with much...
Review Shmup Collection (Switch) - A Solid Collection Of Modern 2D Shooters
Astro Port's maestro ports
It's one of gaming's greatest myths that graphics aren't as important as gameplay. Without the right kind of graphics, it's possible to depth-charge the potential of an otherwise enjoyable experience. Visuals are a crucial part of a game's feel, and a mismatch between what you're doing and how it all looks is a major...
Review Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto (Switch) - Naruto Fans Will Lap It Up
Storm warning
Like most ports of Japanese origin, the Nintendo Switch version of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road to Boruto has taken its time to go handheld – the original launched back in 2016, and its anime film tie-in expansion a year later – but with three different story modes, and a frighteningly large number of playable...
Review The Wonderful 101: Remastered (Switch) - Kamiya's Comeback Kid Lives Up To The Hype
Is it any wonder?
No game captures the ebb and flow of a titanic battle between the forces of good and evil quite like The Wonderful 101. There are dozens of almighty scraps in PlatinumGames’ idiosyncratic action game, against enemies so colossal that even your 100-strong squad feels hopelessly outmatched. And the best moment in each of them is...
Review Void Bastards (Switch) - In Space, No One Can Hear You Chuckle
Into the Void
There's certainly no shortage of excellent roguelike titles doing the rounds on Switch just now – with the likes of Dead Cells, Enter the Gungeon, Slay the Spire and the recently released Fury Unleashed just a few examples of the very best of the genre currently available on Nintendo's console – and Bl
Mini Review Jet Lancer (Switch) - Outrageously Enjoyable Aerial Combat Action
I thought the only lonely place was on the moon
There's no denying the incredible impact Japanese developers have made on the shoot 'em up genre, from the foundation laid down by Space Invaders right up to more recent examples, such as the superb Rolling Gunner. The influence of Japanese design can be felt keenly in the western-developed Jet Lancer,...
Mini Review Slayin 2 (Switch) - An Engaging Action-RPG Romp
The pain in Slayin falls mainly on the lanes
The original Slayin was a mobile marvel of simplicity; a lovely little bite-sized twitchy RPG-ish thing where you effectively just moved left and right putting holes in enemies and using their dropped loot to improve your stuff. It was a familiar rogue-lite approach that worked brilliantly for a few...
Review Fury Unleashed (Switch) - A Gloriously Compelling Cross Between Dead Cells And Contra
The Filth and the Fury
Awesome Games' Fury Unleashed combines the ruthlessly addictive gameplay loops of the likes of Dead Cells and Enter the Gungeon with old-school, run-and-gun action platforming in the vein of the classic Contra series, resulting in one of the very best examples of the roguelite genre that's currently available on Nintendo...
Gal power
Fighting games have always had a welcome home on handhelds – even if the genre has served up a fair share of turkeys over the decades – and 20 years ago, Japanese powerhouse SNK was doing wonders with its plucky little Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color systems. One of those little gems was SNK Gals’ Fighters, a pint-size...
Review ITTA (Switch) - Beautifully-Designed Bullet-Hell Brilliance
What a rush!
ITTA is the kind of game that will make you scream with frustration as much as it’ll make you’ll whoop with joy. One of those interactive experiences that gets your adrenaline pumping like a shot of epinephrine to the heart, while simultaneously putting your Nintendo Switch at risk of being smashed to smithereens. That, of course,...
Review Shovel Knight: Shovel Of Hope (Switch) - Seven Years On, This Action Platformer Still Dazzles
Strike the earth!
About seven years ago, a small indie studio comprised of some ex-Wayforward staff began the Kickstarter campaign for Shovel Knight, a delightful love letter to fans of 8-bit gaming. The project was a fairly big deal at the time, but few could have guessed just how much staying power it would prove to have. Several spinoffs and...
Review Ministry Of Broadcast (Switch) - A Grim But Enjoyable Cinematic Platformer
"I'm not into politics. I'm into survival"
Charm goes a long way in our illustrious hobby. A game with – let's be generous – difficult mechanics can be forgiven quite a lot of sins if it's got plenty of character. Ministry of Broadcast most certainly has difficult mechanics, but it positively oozes charm. Almost every screen is interesting, the...
Review Telling Lies (Switch) - Sam Barlow's FMV Detective Thriller Translates Smoothly To Switch
Virtual desktop
Chances are that the very screen you're reading this review on has a camera either built into the shell or sitting in close proximity, and its the notion that government agencies are capturing our every action through the devices we use everyday that gives Sam Barlow's Telling Lies its central conceit. Following the static,...
Review MotoGP 20 (Switch) - Tremendous Two-Wheeled Racing Action On Your Switch
Hello, Moto
With over 25 years of experience in the racing game development scene, it’s safe to say Italian studio Milestone has cemented its place as one of its most prevalent developers. Outside of the official F1 and WRC games, it’s established a foothold in almost every facet of modern motorsport and while double-A budgets haven’t always...
Review Picross S4 (Switch) - More Of The Same, But That's Fine
The strongest entry yet
The Picross series has become a rather expected staple of Nintendo’s digital release schedule by now. Every few months, you can reasonably expect another mainline entry or spin-off to show up, and you more or less know exactly what that next new entry will be offering: a substantial new set of nonagram puzzles for you to...
Review Trials Of Mana (Switch) - Old And New Combine To Create A Fine RPG Adventure
A potent blend
It seems that Square’s cult favourite Mana series has been enjoying something of a renaissance of late, and the latest product of this resurgence is a new remake of Trials of Mana. Seiken Densetsu 3 – as it’s known in Japan – never saw a release in the west when it first debuted in the ’90s, and only got introduced to...
Mini Review Anodyne (Switch) - A Unique Zelda-Style Adventure That Keeps You Guessing
High-rule
We recently asked if there were any Switch games we'd missed which you thought were worthy of a review. Anodyne was one of the most-requested games, so there we are! Anodyne may at first glance look like just another retro dungeon crawler; a Legend of Zelda tribute act designed to scratch a particular old-school itch, however, getting to...
Mini Review Songbird Symphony (Switch) - Platforming And Music Take Flight Together
Cheep thrills
Songbird Symphony is an indie rhythm-action platformer by three-person team Joysteak Studios. You play as Birb, an adopted chick in search of its birth parents. Birb runs, jumps and floats around a more or less coherent, Metroidvania-lite platform world covering the realms of various bird species. The rhythm action comes in at the boss...
Mini Review Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche (Switch) - A Surprisingly Fun Shooter
You want fries with that?
Boasting what is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous titles ever, Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche actually started life as an April Fool’s joke back in 2013. Skip ahead seven years, and it’s now an actual, tangible game; a really good one at that. It’s a shoot-em-up at heart, but its gameplay is also...
Review Shinsekai: Into The Depths (Switch) - A Watery Twist On The Metroidvania Format
Unsplashy adventure with hidden depths
We shouldn't be surprised any longer when a mobile-to-Switch port turns out to be decent. There are far too many examples to list here, but just recently both Exit The Gungeon and Oddmar have acquitted themselves admirably. Even so, we're as surprised as you are to note that the latest must-have Metroidvania...
Review Operencia: The Stolen Sun (Switch) - A Rich And Satisfying Dungeon Crawler
Dungeon Master
Zen Studios' Operencia: The Stolen Sun doesn't really get off to the brightest of starts on Nintendo Switch. Opening with a prologue that sees you assume control of King Attila and his wife Reka as they attempt to close a portal between their land and the underworld, things kick off here with a ten-minute introduction that highlights...
