Switch eShop Game Reviews scoring 9 or 10/10
Review Astral Ascent (Switch) - Probably The Best Roguelite Since Hades
There's always room for one more good one
In 2019, a small French studio called Hibernian Workshop released a game called Dark Devotion, a promising 2D soulslike that was met with mixed reviews, but managed to garner a passionate fanbase. A couple of years later, the team returned with a Kickstarter pitch for a new roguelite called Astral Ascent,...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Still Outstanding On Switch
What a thrill
Originally released in 2004, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is widely considered to be the finest entry in Hideo Kojima’s Magnum Opus. And almost 20 years later, it’s still easy to see why, even though some aspects of the game haven’t aged particularly gracefully. For Switch owners who have never delved into the Metal Gear...
Review Dave The Diver (Switch) - One Of The Best Games In A Year Of Greats
If nautical nonsense is something you wish
Dave the Diver is a game about a diver named Dave. It's also about a restauranteur, archaeologist, marine researcher, and social media genius — also Dave. Poor ol' Dave has to wear all these hats in Dave the Diver, and living out his toilsome existence makes for one of the best games of the year and...
Review Wargroove 2 (Switch) - A Must-Play Tactical RPG And A Worthy Successor To Advance Wars
Warfare has never been this cozy
2023 has been a good year for tactics games on the Switch. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot marked the return of two classic GBA games while Fire Emblem Engage brought the series's focus to its strategic roots. Chucklefish and Robotality's Wargroove 2 is the next SRPG joining the fray, and while its adorable pixel-art...
Review F-Zero 99 (Switch) - A Brilliant Battle-Royale Revival That Plays To The Series' Strengths
Got 99 problems, but F-Zero ain't one
What do you get when you take the first entry in one of Nintendo's most overlooked franchises and cram it with battle royale mechanics after nearly 20 years of dormancy? You might expect a shambling Frankenstein's monster of a game held together by nostalgia-baiting stagnancy. Instead, F-Zero 99 is a clever...
Review Sea Of Stars (Switch) - An Instant Classic, So Much More Than A Chrono Trigger Throwback
Your wish is granted
About five years ago, a no-name studio called Sabotage wowed audiences when it put out The Messenger, a creative and innovative action platformer that quickly set itself apart from the deluge of similar retro-flavored titles releasing in the indie space. Empowered by that game’s deserved success, the team then began work on...
Review Blasphemous 2 (Switch) - Bloody, Brutal, And Even More Brilliant Than Its Predecessor
A right rollicking resurrection
We're big fans of 2019's Blasphemous, The Game Kitchen's exquisitely dark and gory action-platformer that saw players assume the role of The Penitent One as he faced off against the eternally damned Denizens of Cvstodia. With top-notch hack-and-slash action, grotesque bosses, an intricately animated pixel art style...
Review The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (Switch) - A Bewitching Narrative Deckbuilder
Shuffle the hand of Fate
Note: The review text below makes only very brief mention of this game's heavy themes without going into detail, but please note that this game contains references to suicide and self-harm. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is the latest gem from Deconstructeam (The Red Strings Club) and it’s a spellbinding narrative...
Review Vampire Survivors (Switch) - Kiss Healthy Sleep Goodbye With This Must-Play Roguelike
Something to sink your teeth into
Vampire Survivors is a singular game. Kind of a roguelike, kind of an arcade game, kind of a bullet hell, but at the same time nothing like what you probably think of when those genres come to mind. After all, there's a reason it captured the hearts and minds of gamers and won handfuls of awards on other platforms...
Review Quake II (Switch) - Another Truly Outstanding Remaster Of An FPS Icon
Can't find a Bitterman
Look, we already went and slapped a big fat 10/10 on Quake Remastered when it dropped almost exactly two years ago, calling it “a stellar port of one gaming's true greats and an essential addition to your Switch library.” So what on Stroggos are we meant to say about this absolutely cracking remaster of its absolutely...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube845k
Mini Review Patrick's Parabox (Switch) - An Exemplary Puzzler That Thinks Outside The Box
Boxed in
Patrick's Parabox is the kind of game you have to play to truly understand. This brain-bending puzzler deftly reinvents itself dozens of times over without deviating from its very simple, programmatic rules revolving around infinitude and recursion. Chances are, you've heard of this premise before: push an object around a grid-like playing...
Review Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (Switch) - Even Better Than The Essential Original
Tuned to perfection?
Playing through Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s experienced the original. Developer Night School Studio hasn’t gone out of its way here to create anything wildly different to its debut title, but has wisely opted to implement everything it's learned over the past seven years or so to...
Review Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Switch) - A DS All-Timer Returns In Stunning Form
Trick time!
Is there such a thing as a perfect game? Yes, and it's this one. Listen, you are going to get to the end of this review and think to yourself, "Isn't a 10/10 score, like, Zelda: Breath of the Wild? How can this 12-15 hour game that doesn't even have Hestu in it possibly match up?" You are thinking that because you have not played Ghost...
Review We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie (Switch) - Yes, We Still Do
It's hard not to!
We Love Katamari might be the perfect video game sequel. Dialing just about every beloved mechanic and detail from the first game up to 11, all while ditching some of Katamari Damacy’s less beloved aspects, it’s no surprise that this entry is the fan favorite. For better and worse, its re-release, We Love Katamari REROLL +...
Review Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (Switch) - A Stunning Denouement, Utterly Essential
We're really feeling it
Nine months on from the release of the stunning Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and, true to form, Monolith Soft has once again delivered a hefty chunk of story-based DLC for fans to sink their teeth into, this time in the shape of Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed. We’ve already had a bunch of fun new heroes and an all-new...
*spooking intensifies*
It’s remarkable how easy it can be to see the effects of developers' genuine passion when playing a video game. In Kraino Origins—the product of one man, Angel Dorantes—you can just feel how much appreciation the dev has for classic retro platformers. Better yet, it turns out that he clearly understands what made the...
Have at you!
Few games have enjoyed post-launch support as robust and high-quality as Dead Cells has received for the past six(!) years. Motion Twin has produced wave after wave of updates, some free and some paid, which have packed the already awesome base game with a dizzying amount of new biomes, weapons, cosmetics, and more. And all of it feels...
More blessing than curse
If you’ve not heard of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, then don’t worry. Although this curious visual novel is receiving a worldwide release on the Switch eShop, its reveal was specifically earmarked for the Japanese Nintendo Direct back in February. So while we were undoubtedly smitten over Metroid Prime...
The best wave yet
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is back with Wave 4 (of six) of the Booster Course Pass tracks, this time covering the Fruit Cup and Boomerang Cup. Now that we’re over the halfway point, it really feels like Nintendo is starting to kick things into high gear with not only a stellar set of new and returning tracks but also an extra character...
Review Persona 4 Golden (Switch) - A Must-Buy Classic That's Stood The Test Of Time
"Heartbreak, heartbreak, you tell me goomba"
Although Shin Megami Tensei is technically the flagship RPG franchise over at Atlus, its spin-off Persona series has made huge strides in finding mainstream appeal in recent years. While Persona 5 may have done most of the heavy lifting, Persona 4 Golden (P4G)—the enhanced re-release of the PS2...
Review Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (Switch) - Drop-Dead Gorgeous, Neo-Retro Action Platforming
Stepping back in time
Making any video game is exceptionally hard work. But creating a retro-style experience that feels 100% authentic to the source inspiration adds a whole extra layer of difficulty. Implementing pixel art visuals and calling it a day just doesn't cut it, but what developer JoyMasher has done with Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is...
Review Please, Touch The Artwork (Switch) - And We Saw That It Was Good, Very Good
Stijl AND substance
To know whether you'll enjoy Please, Touch The Artwork, all you need do is glance at your bookshelf. If you have any art books whatsoever sitting there, we can pretty much guarantee you'll have a great time with this delightfully entertaining, thought-provoking, and unpretentious puzzler. Likewise, if you've ever taken yourself...
Review Chained Echoes (Switch) - One Of The Very Best RPGs Of The Year
Breaking the chains of mediocrity
About seven years ago, a solo indie developer named Matthias Linda began working on an idea he had for a new RPG, itself likely the product of many years of producing fan games based on his genre favorites in RPG Maker. After a successful Kickstarter in 2019 and who knows how many hours of painstaking iteration,...
Review Rogue Legacy 2 (Switch) - A Roguelike Legend Returns In Fine Form
Don't Rogue Your Legacy
While not the first roguelike by any means. 2013’s Rogue Legacy — alongside classics like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac — had a hand in making the now-plentiful genre the huge deal it has become. Nearly a decade later (not counting two years of early access), Cellar Door Games has finally followed up on their...
Mini Review Windosill (Switch) - A Cult Classic Puzzler Gets A Dreamy Switch Port
Flashback
Well, isn't this a nice surprise. Some 13 years after it first released as a Flash game on web browsers, Patrick Smith's delightful Windosill has arrived on Switch, giving players a fresh chance to experience this breezy, playful, and rather magical little journey through a series of enchanting puzzles. Windosill's unique aesthetic has...
Review Lunistice (Switch) - A 32-Bit Platforming Dream That Gives Sonic A Serious Run For His Money
Frontier justice?
Ever since game fans collectively realised that crunchy polygons were worth getting nostalgic over, PS1-core indie games have been growing into the new pixel art. With Lunistice, one-person shop A Grumpy Fox has delivered a shining example of this modernised lo-fi aesthetic. Sparkling in chaotic but coordinated palettes of...
Review Signalis (Switch) - Brilliantly Tense And Surreal Sci-Fi Survival Horror
The signalis good
Survival horror games are tough to get right. Even giants of the genre like Resident Evil find themselves leaning harder into action or simple jump scares over time, but when it is at its best it is more tense than frightening. Signalis is one of the best survival horror games we’ve played and the perfect title for Switch owners...
Review Return To Monkey Island (Switch) - An Impeccable Encore For An Adventure Gaming Icon
Look behind you! A three-game series!
In 1990, Ron Gilbert created the seminal point-and-click adventure The Secret of Monkey Island. It grabbed hearts and hasn’t let go for 32 years. In 1991, he concluded Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge on a bombshell cliffhanger. In 1992, he departed Lucasarts, and the secret third part of his trilogy went...
Review Shovel Knight Dig (Switch) - A Finely Formed Roguelite That Strikes 16-Bit Gold
"Now dig on this"
Since the last 8-bit-style game came out, Shovel Knight has been branching out more into other genres as developer and publisher Yacht Club charts a course for where its eponymous nobleman will go next. In December, we got the wonderful Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, which smartly blended falling block puzzle mechanics with...
Mini Review OneShot: World Machine Edition (Switch) - A Brilliant And Bittersweet Indie Darling
You've only got OneShot
A cat-like child named Niko wakes up in a decrepit house, locked in a room with a bookshelf, a password-locked computer, and a TV remote control on the floor. It’s too dark to read the books and there’s no sign of a password anywhere – it's up to you to find a way out. Not long after, Niko stumbles upon a massive...
