Latest Reviews
Review Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - A Series High Point, Just Not For Performance
Zed's dead, dood. Zed's dead.
Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny feels like an oddly topical title for Nippon Ichi Software. About two years ago, the company effectively ran out of money following a catastrophic mobile game launch, and it certainly appeared for a while that Nippon Ichi was going to go under. Somehow, the publisher managed to weather the...
Mini Review DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part One - Rip, Tear, Repeat
Ah Hell, here we go again
It’s been eight months since the first expansion DLC for Doom Eternal launched on other systems and now it’s finally here on Switch. If that feels like a long time, consider that the main game took nine months to come to Switch: if anything, things are getting better! Sort of. The Ancient Gods Part One is a standalone...
Review Mario Golf: Super Rush - A Solid Swing, But Par For The Course
Don't worry, not a fore out of ten
Camelot is a studio that has, for many years, dutifully churned out mascot sports games for Nintendo. Players often go back to the retro days when pinpointing the company's best efforts, though if you go by most recent form — Mario Tennis Aces — the studio is still doing good work. After serving up court-based...
Review Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 - A Rock Solid Switch Port For A Pair Of Pros
Vertuous Mission
If there's ever been a pair of videogames that need little to no introduction, whose glowing reputations proceed them to the extent that everyone from tired old pros to fresh-faced newcomers has surely heard of them by this point, it's the genre-defining Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and its sublime sequel. The first two entries in a...
Review Legend of Mana - The Best Way To Play A 21-Year-Old RPG Experiment
Confusing, but charming
It’s interesting to see how the Mana series has been treated over the years, both by Square and the general public. Secret of Mana was widely considered one of the best RPGs of its time and even today carries quite a bit of clout, but many of the other titles either didn’t get localized or arrived overseas years after...
Review LEGO Builder's Journey - A Chill, Beautiful Building Experience
New kid on the block
As an adult, LEGO usually means a busy Sunday afternoon spent with a chunky manual, tons of tiny plastic bags, and liberal use of the brick separator tool, because you accidentally skipped ten steps and now the thing is stuck to the other thing and you tried to pry it off but your nails are too short and maybe you need to take a...
Review Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX - Vintage Sega Hero In Mediocre Remake
Putting the sham in Roshambo
We know we're risking the ire of several hundred very cross Sega Master System fans by saying this, but we have to be blunt — the original Alex Kidd in Miracle World, while inarguably an important and formative classic, is and always has been an exceptionally flawed game. Don't get us wrong, there's plenty to like and...
Review Overboard! - Get Away With Murder In This Thrilling 'Youdunnit'
Murderer's Mask
Veronica Villensey is many things: a former actress, a wife to a wealthy husband, and now, her biggest role of all: a murderer. But, to be fair, the bastard deserved it. When Veronica pitches her dear husband Malcolm over the side of the cruise ship, she sets in motion events that she could neither have predicted nor evaded —...
Review Beautiful Desolation - Good Ideas Lost Down Obscure Pathways
Possibly the most aptly-named game ever
At first, we assumed that Beautiful Desolation was some kind of lost late-nineties PC game. Its isometric perspective and visually spectacular pre-rendered scenes immediately called the likes of the original Fallout and Planescape: Torment to mind, and this comparison was cemented with the user interface,...
Mini Review Alba: A Wildlife Adventure - A Relaxing, Off-Rails Pokémon Snap-Alike
A natural beauty
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure started its life as an Apple Arcade exclusive back in 2020 and launched to much critical acclaim. UsTwo's game tells the story of Alba, a curious young girl with a love for animals and nature. Vacationing with her grandparents on an idyllic island full of diverse wildlife, Alba and her best friend suddenly...
Review Winds of Change - A Polished, Absorbing, Animal-Filled Visual Novel
Do you hear that?
Shall we get this out of the way up front? This game features 'furry' characters. If you're already heading to the comments to issue a humorous barb, please re-examine your life. Winds of Change is an accomplished, heartfelt and enjoyable visual novel that does not deserve to be held up against the invented, ludicrous stigma of...
Mini Review Super Soccer Blast: America VS Europe - Simple But Sloppy Soccer
Boot it
The heavily delayed Euro 2020 tournament is just around the corner, and football fever is once again permeating the homes of countries worldwide. The Switch has several decent football games, but with EA launching frankly embarrassing yearly 'legacy' updates to its FIFA series on Switch, there are certainly gaps in the field for a midfield...
Review Mundaun - A Rich, Sepia-Toned First-Person Horror Show
There's evil resident in this village
Take our advice: if you ever receive a suspiciously detail-light missive informing you that a loved one has passed away and urging you not to return to your home village, trust us on this one – just let it lie as advised. Let them lie, we suppose, because no good has ever come from going to a village, as...
Review Game Builder Garage - A Toolbox Of Terrifying Potential
Make your own damned games
Game Builder Garage is a game where you make games yourself rather than letting trained developers do it for you. If that sounds like a lot of hard work then Game Builder Garage probably isn’t going to be your flavour of choice. But if that sounds like a lot of hard work that you’d actually like to have a pop at, the...
Review Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection - Ryu Hayabusa Deserves Better Than This
Ninja Gaiden Whack
Whether you prefer Ninja Gaiden Sigma over Ninja Gaiden Black, or 'vanilla' part two over its enhanced edition, or don’t really care either way and just wanna get on with slicing and dicing everything in your path, the prospect of enjoying Team Ninja’s legendary action series on Switch is a pretty tantalising one. Here is a...
Review Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Storm Ground - Ruined By Roguelike Repetition
Flawhammer
Games Workshop – where nobody has a nice time. Okay, let us clarify; it’s entirely possible to have a nice time playing their games or painting their models or – heck – even chatting to their legendarily helpful and inclusive staff. But pick a world, pick a game and we’d be hard-pressed to say that any character is having a...
Review DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power - A Kid-Friendly Alternative To Grimdark DC
These girls just wanna have fun
These days, when the average person thinks of DC, they tend to picture the dark, ‘gritty’ tone of the DCEU movies (along with the infamous ‘Martha’ scene, of course). Despite attempts to break away from this with the mildly enjoyable Shazam! and the frankly dire theatrical cut of Justice League, miserable...
Review World's End Club - A Real Looker Spoiled By Hit-And-Miss Storytelling
"I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard."
Zero Escape and Danganronpa are two of the most notable names in the visual novel space, so fans were understandably excited when the creators of these two juggernauts were revealed to be teaming up for a new project: World’s End Club. After a soft launch on Apple Arcade,...
Mini Review Mighty Goose - Have A Gander At This Stylish Run 'N' Gunner
Come with us now, on a journey through time and space
Geese are really going from strength to strength, aren’t they? After conquering the indie scene in House House's Untitled Goose Game, the species is now taking to the sky with Mighty Goose, a side-scrolling shooter that offers a flavour of games like Metal Slug and Mercenary Kings. With minimal...
Mini Review Astalon: Tears of the Earth - Likeable, High Fantasy Metroidvania Action
The Three Musketeers
Astalon: Tears of the Earth is yet another retro-inspired action platformer on Switch eShop, with a sprinkling of light RPG elements. It tells the tale of an unspecified planet that falls into chaos after an endless battle between its many kingdoms. After decades of surviving in the wasteland, a band of three heroes journey into...
Review Fighting EX Layer: Another Dash - A Solid Street Fighter EX Spin-Off For Connoisseurs
Layer scrape
Back in the mid-1990s, when Capcom was feeling pressure from 3D fighters like Tekken and Virtua Fighter, they published their own 3D version of Street Fighter called Street Fighter EX. It was actually outsourced to a company called Arika, founded by ex-Capcom employee Akira Nishitani, who had previously worked as a designer on Street...
Review Super Bomberman R Online - A Battle Royale Blast Defused By Long Waits And F2P Frippery
Bombs Away! ...Eventually
With an influx of incredible modern takes on classic titles such as Tetris 99, Pac-Man 99, and the short-lived Super Mario Bros. 35, Super Bomberman R Online feels like the video game equivalent of a kid picked last for the sports team; an altogether scrappier, less elegant battle royale title than its peers, but one that...
Review Sludge Life - A Crude, Delightfully Disposable First-Person Graffiti-'Em-Up
Basic sludgeanomics
Thug life. Slug life. Thudge life. Sludge Life. It’s a pretty simple A-to-B transition when you really look at it. Okay, it’s not. At all. But you try and open a review for a game like this... and what is there to say? Sludge Life is a game where you do stuff. Exist at your own pace. In this game, you — as Marge Simpson...
Review Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - A Punishing But Pleasurable Vintage Dungeon Crawler
Baldur? Well, it has been twenty years...
It's been twenty long, long years since this Gamecube classic thrilled us all with its quasi top-down hack-and-slash dungeon crawling action. And time has not been kind... to us. This game is really hard! Have we been spoiled by much friendlier, less aggressive takes on the genre that have proliferated in...
Review Pathway - Competent XCOM-Style Combat, But Is That Enough?
It belongs in a museum
Every now and then, you play one of those games that just feels a little bit too late. It’s not that a game in this category is bad or doesn’t have good ideas, but sometimes it’s just a victim of the current gaming landscape. How many Metroidvanias have you played by now? What about roguelites or 2D
Mini Review Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 - 16-Bit Sports With Super Powers
Serious simulation, honest
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! With a name like Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, you might expect a hardcore sports game.
Mini Review Spanky's Quest - Surprisingly Charming Monkey Business
Bubbles from Natsume
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! In the late 1980s, a simian named Jiro was one of the most popular monkeys in Japan, becoming famous for his 'reflection' pose. He also...
Mini Review Magical Drop II - Fun And Colourful Puzzle Action
Grab, toss, and match three
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! Magical Drop is Data East's take on the competitive puzzle game, but with a major twist - instead of fallin
Mini Review Joe & Mac - A Comical But Flawed Prehistoric Platformer
No third character called Cheese, amazingly
With five new additions to Nintendo Switch Online's catalogue of NES and SNES games arriving today, we decided to review these new/old releases to help you decide which to play first. Enjoy! There was a period in the early 1990s when the video game industry was in love with caveman characters - after...
Review Maneater - You're Gonna Need A Better Combat System
Calamity Island?
Tripwire Interactive’s Maneater really does have itself a pretty killer premise. Letting players loose on its open world setting of Port Clovis as a deeply scarred bull shark in search of revenge, it’s an unashamedly silly, hyper violent and completely throwaway experience that should make for a pretty great videogame. It...
