Switch eShop, Switch Game Reviews scoring 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6/10
Review Venture Kid - A Workmanlike And Forgettable Mega Man Clone
You're not gonna go far, kid
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; if that is indeed the case, then few games are more overtly flattering to the classic Mega Man series than Venture Kid. This new release from FDG Entertainment isn’t shy when it apes the concept of Capcom’s legendary series, and while it does a reasonably...
Review Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut - A Cool Premise Hobbled By Poor Execution
Zero to hero?
Originally kickstarted into life on PC back in 2013, Born Ready’s Strike Suit Zero was released to somewhat mixed reviews which most commonly cited problems with terrible checkpointing during missions, dumb squad AI and the late stage at which you get your hands on the eponymous suit itself. A Director’s Cut addressing these issues...
Review Sniper Elite V2 Remastered - The Ball-Busting Shooter Is Back, Warts And All
Reich on target?
It's 1945. The Second World War is drawing to a close as Hitler's Reich is forced further into retreat. The streets of Berlin have become a warzone with Allied and Nazi forces wrestling for control of the city. But the Germans have one last card to play. The V2 rocket program is one of the most advanced weapon systems of its time,...
Review Meow Motors - A Pleasant, If Unremarkable, Drive
Feline fine enough
The cynical amongst us might look at a third-party kart racer on a Nintendo system and wonder: really, what's the point? With Mario Kart 8 in its Deluxe form on Switch arguably the pinnacle of the plumber's long-running racing series, you'd be forgiven for thinking any developer putting a kart racer on a Nintendo platform has some...
Review Shakedown: Hawaii - A Promising Game Buried Beneath Tedious Busywork
I want the world, I want the whole world!
VBlank Entertainment’s Retro City Rampage was a remarkable indie jab at video game giant Grand Theft Auto. Featuring everything from high-octane action to time-travelling shenanigans, it was a game that got everything right. It was smart, funny, gorgeous... in short, pretty much everything you’d want in...
Review Bird Game + - A Colourless Effort That Never Truly Takes Off
Even the name is winging it
Whatever the platform, whatever the medium, modern digital content stores are busy places. What makes your game stand out from the crowd on a place like the Switch eShop is a complex equation, though there are shortcuts. While Bird Game + isn’t going to draw anyone in with its title, the game’s commitment to...
Review Panty Party – Nothing To Get Your Knickers In A Twist Over
Sheer nonsense
“Warning!” NO HENTAI contents in this game! All you get is funny and stupid panties! This is the warning on Nintendo’s game page and it’s worth bearing in mind. The page features the word ‘panty’ or ‘panties’ no fewer than 19 times, but also reiterates what you’re getting. ‘A story of nonsense and fools brought to...
Review Table Top Racing: World Tour - Nitro Edition - A Likeable Racer, But Beware The Switch Tax
Shrink my ride
The concept of miniature cars driving around dinky tracks is nothing new: ‘90s gamers were treated to the Micro Machines series back in the day and they were generally well received. Despite the obvious novelty factor though, modern takes on the idea are few and far between, meaning any time a new one rears its head it instantly...
Review Beyond Enemy Lines: Covert Operations - A Tragic FPS That's Beyond Hope
Bullet to the head
The heart feels a slight flutter every time a new FPS hits the eShop. Is this it? Could this be the game that firmly cements the genre on Nintendo Switch? We’ve had some impressive attempts thus far (Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and DOOM), some decent offerings (Payday 2 and Paladins) and some average at
Review Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection - Perfectly Functional, But Not Much Else
Shoot past the castle
Not content with sitting back and watching the likes of Sega, Capcom, Nintendo et al releasing retro compilations, Konami’s decided to get in on the act too. To celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, the big K is launching a trio of anniversary collections. The Castlevania and Contra collections will be coming in the...
Review The Friends Of Ringo Ishikawa - This Wayward Youth Has Unexpected Facets
Youth of the nation
The friends of Ringo Ishikawa has plenty of beat-’em-up DNA in its makeup. You’ll often get into scraps while roaming the streets of its Japan-inspired setting. You’ll throw rival gang members over you shoulder, deliver roundhouse kicks to the face and land jab after bloody jab. But those little skirmishes are only one...
Review The Padre - A Clunky But Scary Survival Horror Offering
Daddy issues
If there's one genre that truly feels at home in the interactive world of videogames, its horror. Reading a spooky tale from Edgar Allen Poe or sitting down to watch something from the ingenious mind of Jordan Peele might get your senses on edge, but feeling intrinsically part of that terror is something else entirely. It's a unique...
Review Shadow Blade: Reload - Fast-Paced Ninja Action, But There Are Better Versions Elsewhere
The quick and the dead
Shadow Blade: Reload has no time for the weak or the slow. It’s an action-platformer that demands you move at lightning speed, leaping from platforms, collecting items and dealing out ninja-themed death like a cracked whip. There’s a clock ticking away at the top of the screen, urging you to run faster, bounce off walls...
Review Cel Damage HD - A Flawed Cult Classic That Only Comes Alive When Played With Friends
Soft Cel
When it comes to causing carnage and unleashing violence, few things fit the bill as well as vehicular combat. From the heyday of Destruction Derby to the headline-baiting prime of Carmageddon, using a car to smash your friends/foes to bits is so satisfying it’s almost primal. Hell, there was even a Star Wars game back on PlayStation...
Review Shadowgate - A Faithful And Tricky Remake Most Suited To Retro Fans
Warlock and key
A good 30 years ago, first-person point and click games were a very different beast. These progenitors were brutal and merciless not just in their difficulty, but how they often forced you to study every room to pick out hard-to-miss items while juggling timed puzzles that would sooner kill you than let you waste time dithering on...
Review Metagal - A Mega Man Clone That Comes With A Mega Problem
A Wily attempt at mimicking a classic
There’s an old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, yet while there’s certainly something to be gained through being inspired by a previously existing work, a new work generally must add something to the mix to keep things fresh and interesting. If the new work fails to add anything...
Review SEGA AGES Gain Ground - A Commendable Failure, But A Failure Nonetheless
No gains to be made
For some unfathomable reason, Gain Ground has something of a cult following with Sega fans. Originally released in arcades in 1988, it gained notoriety largely down to the fact that it was quite unlike anything that had appeared before; while it looked like Atari's Gauntlet, the gameplay was actually totally different, requiring...
Review Super Kickers League - A Second Division Arcade Football Game
Misses the target
Over the decades it's been possible to track a small but beloved lineage of arcade football games that don't take the sport too seriously. From SNK's Soccer Brawl through Sega Soccer Slam and on to Mario Strikers Charged, the best of these games embellish the footy basics with fantastical settings and improbable special moves...
Review GODS Remastered - A Timely Update That Sticks Too Closely To The Original
A classic odyssey
Remasters are fickle little things. They've given new players a chance to experience the great games of yore, but the quality of the original product doesn't always stack up to modern expectations. Even games from a couple of generations ago can often enter the contemporary realm with archaic mechanics and creaky concepts that were...
Review Xenon Racer - A Spluttering Speed-Fest That Lags Well Behind Its PS4 And Xbox One Siblings
Stalled effort
By now, we're all pretty smart to the realities of porting a game from other consoles to Nintendo Switch – especially when that game has arrived within the last year or so. Unless you're working with a particular art style or setup that's purposefully easy to render, most Triple-A games are going to take a knock to both performance...
Review Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet - A Sun-Soaked Romp That Loses Its Appeal Too Soon
Leer, there and everywhere
Welcome, one and all, to this beautiful tropical retreat – a place where weary people come to unwind with a host of activities including ball sports, endurance races, knocking opponents off platforms or simply relaxing on the beach. Oh yes, you can do all this and more on wonderful Wuhu Island... Hang on, that’s not...
Review Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid - A Promising Fighter Undone By Publisher Greed
Power trip
Power Rangers is one of those franchises that simply refuses to die. There's a good chance you were into it as a kid, whether that was back in the '90s heyday when everyone – and we mean everyone – was Rangers crazy or anytime throughout the last 25 years of Morphin' Time. And it's still going strong, with new series' of increasingly...
Review Azure Saga: Pathfinder Deluxe Edition - A Largely Forgettable JRPG Romp
Off the beaten path
If there’s one thing Nintendo Switch already has in abundance, it’s JRPGs. There are classics from yesteryear, Triple-A odysseys from some of the biggest developers in the word and a healthy smattering of independently-made offerings. As Switch owners, we’re spoiled for choice, so if you’re bringing a Japanese-style...
Review R.B.I. Baseball 19 - An Improved Showing, But Still Sadly Lacking In So Many Areas
Batter up!
It’s been a quiet baseball off-season this past Winter. A few players went here, some went there. Then it went quiet. Nothing much happened. Then Manny Machado signed for a lowly $300million to go to the San Diego Padres. The once damp squib of a Hot Stove was now absolutely napalmic. Not wishing to be undone, and desperate to smash the...
Review The Princess Guide - A Rewarding Action Title Ruined By Obtuse Mechanics And Poor Design
"Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited"
Should you scold your warrior-princess because she keeps turning her subordinates into frogs and you think it is a bit extreme as far as disciplinary measures go, or should you praise her because she just survived being double-teamed by enemy mechs without any squad support? This...
Review Awesome Pea - A Retro Platformer That Lacks Colour In More Ways Than One
A little mushy
Awesome Pea is described as "a classic run-and-jump platformer," which is about as plain and simple as the game itself. Here indeed is a platformer that looks like an old Game Boy game, and that features a whole lot of running and jumping – and precious little else. At this point, we suspect the developer would like nothing more...
Review Hell Warders - A Hellish Experience That Really Needs To Be Played With Friends
To Hell with this
While the Tower Defence genre might not be quite as big as it once was, there’s still room for more additions if a developer can bring something new and innovative to the mix. Or, at the very least, do the job competently enough to represent its compatriots on Nintendo Switch. Hell Warders, from Hong Kong-based developer...
Review Rad Rodgers Radical Edition - Fun, Foul-Mouthed And Forgettable
Not so radical
Rad Rodgers is a walking, talking ’90s cliche. A wisecracking kid who clashes with his parents while boasting a love of video games so deep it’s burgeoning on a clinical addiction. He’s perpetually glued to the CRT TV in his room and the blocky grey console (called ‘Dusty’, naturally) sits beneath it. Then, one day, the TV...
Review Fimbul - An Atmospheric But Unforgivably Flaky Norse Adventure
Hitting a Thor spot
It might sound like the name of a cute character from a generic platformer, but Fimbul is actually the final, brutal winter before Ragnarök – AKA: Norse Armageddon. Which tells you an awful lot about Fimbul the game, both in terms of its icy northern European setting and its grim, violent gameplay. You play the part of...
Review Modern Combat Blackout - Call Of Duty Has Little To Worry About
Out for the count
By now, we emphatically know that first-person shooters can work on Nintendo Switch. The console’s positioning as a semi-handheld platform – and the realistic limitations of its hardware – simply aren’t an issue when an FPS is developed in the right way. Heck, even PS Vita got a great shooter in the form of Killzone:...