Latest Reviews
Review Klonoa: Empire Of Dreams (GBA) - One Of The System's Best Still Plays Like A Dream
Wahoo!
This review was originally published in May 2014. We're updating and republishing it in honour of the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Classics GBA lineup. Starting life on the PlayStation in 1997, at a time when Super Mario 64 had just brought the gaming world triple-jumping headlong into the era of 3D platforming, Namco's...
Review Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac (Switch 2) - Short, Sweet, Prettified, And Not For Everyone
Waka Waka Waka 2: Much Prettier
I admit it. When this review came along, my gaming patience was being tested to its limit by Silksong’s brutal difficulty. So I rolled pretty enthusiastically towards an alternative I hoped would be more relaxing. (I genuinely regret the hours I spent defeating The Last Judge.) Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac seemed the...
Review Hades 2 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - A Bewitching Sequel That's A Spell Off Perfect
Time's (not) up
“Can time not be stopped?” That’s the question Hades II asks you every time you clear a run. The stakes are bigger in Supergiant Games’ first-ever sequel: This is no longer just about family drama, it’s about a dysfunctional family defending all they have against the clutches of the Titan of Time. It’s a story of tragedy,...
A dark night for Onion Knight fans?
Final Fantasy Tactics is probably, all things considered, my favourite Final Fantasy. As someone who isn't really a huge video game lore person at the best of times, as in I forget most of it because my brain needs the storage space for memories of food, in my eyes it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the...
Pyramid scheme
Isn’t it comforting to settle in with a good book that you already know? Microids certainly seem to hope so, as their Studio Lyon is snuggling yet another Christie classic right into your Switch. A follow-up to 2023’s Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile may not be as big as that choo-choo colossus, but it nearly is...
Review EA SPORTS FC 26 (Switch 2) - A Fantastic Football Game, Once You're Used To The Frame Rate
Well worth a Lewandownload
EA’s football series has had a turbulent time on modern Nintendo consoles, as any long-time Nintendo Life reader will doubtless already know. When the Switch got its first entry in the form of FIFA 18, this very reviewer pointed out that it was essentially a port of the Legacy Edition on Xbox 360 and PS3 at the time,...
Review Earthion (Switch) - A New 16-Bit Shooter That's Bold, Inventive & Hugely Enjoyable
It means the world
While not entirely dormant for the last 30 years, Yuzo Koshiro’s Ancient Corp — responsible for Streets of Rage II, Story of Thor, and the Master System’s superb Sonic the Hedgehog — is finally back in the public eye with the release of Earthion. What’s significant for the small studio is a return to the console that...
Review LEGO Voyagers (Switch 2) - A Beautiful But Very Short & Simple Co-Op Adventure
Birds of a feather, brick together
If you asked me what sort of game genre I think makes the best use of the Lego brick-building format, I’m not sure I’d answer with a two-player co-op adventure game. But here we are with LEGO Voyagers, a touching co-op title from Light Brick Studio (LEGO Builder's Journey) that uses the brick-based gameplay to...
Mini Review Gloomy Eyes (Switch) - If Captain Toad Were A Cosy Horror Game
Zom-besties
Growing up, I absolutely loved MediEvil on the PS1. The spooky yet lighthearted aesthetic really spoke to me as a child and would ultimately help foster a lifelong passion for the horror genre. So when I saw trailers for Gloomy Eyes from developer Fishing Cactus, I was instantly enamoured with the Tim Burton-esque vibes. Drawing...
Ore and Awe?
I've become so used to Nintendo taking its sweet time with DLC rollouts I assumed there was no way we'd get first-party add-ons within the first year of Switch 2. Happy Home Paradise, the Booster Course Pass and Side Order were all pleasantly surprising, not because of their packed bonus content (though that was a welcome factor), but...
Review Hollow Knight: Silksong - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - Woven To Brutal Perfection
Pain and pleasure
Hollow Knight: Silksong didn’t need to do much; it just needed to be 'more Hollow Knight'. That’s a huge task in itself; a slightly bigger, slightly better version of an already amazing, genre-defining game. But it’s clear that, after seven years of refining and perfecting and toiling, Team Cherry wanted more than just 'more...
Review Strange Antiquities (Switch) – A Wicked Good Occult Puzzler & Sequel
Little antique shop of horrors
In 2022’s Strange Horticulture, you ran a little shop of horrors, dealing plants with an occult edge to the inhabitants of a mysterious dark town. Now, Bad Viking and Iceberg Interactive’s follow-up, Strange Antiquities, takes us back to Undermere. Again, something strange is afoot. Again, you hear residents’...
Mini Review Dead Reset (Switch) - A Gory, Sci-Fi Take On Groundhog Day
What if there were no tomorrow?
Developer Wales Interactive is back with another FMV game, this time joining forces with movie studio Dark Rift Horror to present an Alien-inspired sci-fi romp with Dead Reset. Much like previous titles such as The Bunker and Five Dates, this latest effort has you make key choices at frequent intervals to influence...
Review Bubsy In: The Purrfect Collection (Switch) - Limited Run Cleans Out The Kitty Litter
What could possibly go right?
When the Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection was announced, the news received hundreds of thousands of shares and millions of cumulative views. This, friends, is a stark reminder of the strength of nostalgia, an evocative sensation that can stir the heart and cloud the memory. Let’s be clear: Bubsy the Bobcat has never...
Review NBA 2K26 (Switch 2) - Brilliant B-Ball Has A Disappointing Debut On Switch 2
Hoops!...they did it again
As much as I can understand the derision from some quarters regarding NBA 2K26, FC 26, Madden — any of these big sports' games in their yearly, money-grubbing modern forms — I have, unfortunately, got a few of them to thank for several things that I enjoy in life these days. One of which is the old basketballs. For...
Review Cronos: The New Dawn (Switch 2) - Strong Story Elevates Otherwise Safe Survival Horror
Horror homage
In the run-up to the launch of Bloober Team’s new IP, Cronos: The New Dawn, chances are you saw one or two (or ten) comparisons to EA’s Dead Space series. And yes, while there are definitely some similarities between the two, I’d feel more comfortable describing Cronos as an amalgamation of nearly every major survival horror game...
Review BOKURA: Planet (Switch 2) - A Little GameChat Gem That Nobody's Talking About
Twin peeks
BOKURA: planet is a two-player, two-device-only co-op game that launched on Switch and Switch 2 on 7th August. A follow-up to 2023's BOKURA, indie developer tokoronyori says of the first game that he "kept wondering what scenery I might have seen if I'd gone in the complete opposite direction...In the end, I couldn't hold back. I ran the...
Review Star Wars Outlaws (Switch 2) - An Underrated Adventure, A Super-Solid Port
Your lack of faith is disturbing
I find myself in a bit of an unusual position with Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2 in that, having already played through the entire thing and reviewed it for our sister site Pure Xbox in 2024, I feel like I'm getting a quick second chance to see if my 8/10 score was justified. Spoiler alert: it was absolutely...
Not all songs are silky
Spare a thought for Adventure of Samsara, Atari’s newest retro-styled Metroidvania. Developed for over a decade by the Brazilian studio Ilex Games, it has the unlucky distinction of releasing on the very same day as ultra-anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, which is bound to take all the oxygen out of the room among the...
A good walk spoiled
Fans of Everybody’s Golf have had to twiddle their one-gloved thumbs for a while now, waiting since 2017 for a new official entry in the series. Mashing together the series’ previously regionally distinct names (Everybody’s Golf and Hot Shots Golf), Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots has finally stepped up to the tee. Have series...
Review SHINOBI: Art Of Vengeance (Switch) - A Beautifully Crafted Return For Joe Musashi
Knives out
Regarding modern augmentations, SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound — released not even a month apart — have a lot of overlap. Yet, after 45 minutes of play, I was convinced that Art of Vengeance is one of the finest 2D Ninja action games ever made. Perhaps the finest; and such praise doesn’t come lightly. After...
Review Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion (Switch 2) - Decently Deep Mech Combat, But Clunky In Parts
Mecha for robot-fighting fans?
Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion arrives at an interesting time in these early months after the release of Switch 2. There haven't been many AAA-styled heavy-hitters to push this system so far, certainly not in terms of action games, at least. And so, Titanic Scion feels like it should give us a reasonable idea of how...
Review Operation Night Strikers (Switch) - M2 Does It Again With This Taito-Themed Collection
Wolf pack
Taito may be famous for creating the likes of Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble, but for a brief period at the close of the 1980s, it became the hottest name in arcades thanks to the release of Operation Wolf, a Rambo-inspired military shooter with a realistic Uzi strapped to its cabinet. Ported to pretty much every home system of the era,...
Mini Review The Exit 8 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - Unnerving Horror Loop Is Worth The Budget Price
Loop de loop
To celebrate the newly released movie adaptation of The Exit 8, the Switch version has received a minor, yet welcome upgrade for the Switch 2. If you're unaware of the premise, The Exit 8 takes place in a looping corridor within a Japanese metro station. Your job is to escape, but to do so, you’ll need to keep an eye on your...
Review SHUTEN ORDER (Switch) - An Audacious Swing That Doesn't Quite Connect
Aw, shoot
Leave it up to Kazutaka Kodaka to come up with one of the weirdest stories in gaming, huh? Following on from the outrageously ambitious The Hundred Line - Last Defense Academy, the creator has now joined forces with developer Neilo on the new visual novel Shuten Order. I say ‘visual novel’, and that’s absolutely the overarching...
Once more, with gear-mouth feeling!
Recently, I was back reading over my original Kirby and the Forgotten Land review to get a quick reminder of how I found the base game when it released in 2022 (what is time?) and, yeah, it seems I fairly enjoyed that one, now that I've rebooted my brain a little bit. I jest, of course, I fully remember the...
Review Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution (Switch) - A Cool Time Capsule Of A Game
Better late than never
Though Shantae has become well-established today as a recognisable indie gaming icon, there was once a time when the purple-haired half-genie hero struggled to find an audience. The original Shantae released for the GBC in 2002 and suffered poor sales, which led to publishers being unwilling to pick up the tab for funding the...
Review Roadwarden (Switch) - A Fascinating And Quite Special Text-Based RPG
And I'll take the low road
Cast your minds back, if you're still able, to the year of our lord 2022 and the release of Moral Anxiety Studio's tremendous Roadwarden. Yes, you know the one, that PC game you may not have played but certainly heard plenty about, as it garnered a whole bunch of Very Nice Reviews™. And here, to be blunt, is another for...
Review Story Of Seasons: Grand Bazaar - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - The Series' Best Remake Yet
This bazaar adventure is a real diamond
Sometimes the lines between remaster and remake can be blurred. Metroid Prime Remastered seems much more like a full remake, and a few games called remakes don’t quite live up to expectations. For Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar - based on Harvest Moon DS: Grand Bazaar - even the term remake doesn’t quite...
Review Herdling (Switch) - A Serene, Soothing Animal Trek With Some Rough Edges
Have you herd?
The last time I tried shepherding an unruly beast, I wasn’t exactly a fan. It was midnight, I was exhausted, and my dog simply refused to come back inside. Typical. Thankfully, Herdling offers a much cosier alternative, replacing a stubborn pup with fantastical beasties that actually listen to me. Developed by Okomotive, the studio...
