Game Reviews scoring 8/10
Review Arcade Archives 2: Ridge Racer (Switch 2) - Still A Thrill, More Than 30 Years Later
Are you all set?
I can appreciate that it's a thoroughly annoying thing to say to anyone under the age of 30, but you really had to be there with games like Namco's Ridge Racer. The original 1993 arcade release was nothing short of breathtaking—so much so that when EDGE magazine put a screenshot on its cover, I remember thinking it simply couldn't...
Concrete schoolyard
Capcom's Street Fighter V (an incredibly good fighter, eventually,) launched in a famously sorry state back in 2016, with no single-player content of note, janky multiplayer, and a roster of fighters that took an age (and lots more money up front) to grow into something that felt fully complete. It was still very good in the end,...
Mini Review Duck Detective: The Ghost Of Glamping (Switch) - A Quacking Little Mystery
I suspect fowl play
A duck stands in a fedora and a trench coat, delivering a noir-style monologue about how his recent divorce has fueled his bread addiction. If this image doesn't tickle you, then you'd better give Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping a miss. If it does, oh boy, do we have the recommendation for you. Much like developer Happy...
Blade of glory
When Onimusha: Warlords launched for Switch all the way back in 2019, we had optimistically assumed that its sequel would be right around the corner. How naïve. A bit of patience has been required, but now, more than six years later, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny has finally been given the same remaster treatment. We can’t be too...
Review Labyrinth Of The Demon King (Switch) - FromSoft & Horror Vibes Straight Out Of '97
Not for the faint of heart
Retro-inspired games have reigned supreme for some time now in the indie scene, but one niche that’s been getting increasingly more attention in recent years is modern projects that aim to replicate the primitive 3D games of the fifth console generation. There’s something distinctly appealing about the roughness of...
Mini Review Please, Touch The Artwork 2 (Switch) - Another Absurd Little Art Exhibit
Touch, I remember touch
The first Please, Touch The Artwork was a stylish puzzler inspired by Piet Mondrian and De Styjl, the Dutch abstract art movement that reached its height around a century ago. We enjoyed Belgian dev Thomas Waterzooi's cracking little curio immensely back in 2022, and this follow-up (which has been available elsewhere since...
Review I, Robot (Switch) - Another Psychedelic Success For Llamasoft & Atari
Proper bangin'
If you looked at the title of Atari’s latest release and thought, 'The Will Smith movie?', don’t worry. I, Robot has nothing to do with the 2004 sci-fi film, nor the original Isaac Asimov short stories upon which it was based. Instead, this is a Llamasoft-developed remake of the 1984 arcade title I, Robot from Dave Theurer...
Good time Gals
Inti Creates is a fascinating development house that has spent the past few years crafting throwbacks to beloved genre archetypes. The team tends to take a specific model and iterate on it across several titles. Aside from Comcept's infamous Mighty No. 9, Inti has a strong history with the Mega Man series, and another beloved template...
Review SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered (Switch) - A Solid Port Of A Great JRPG
It's about family
Families, huh? They can cause us all manner of headaches. Sometimes they invade your personal space or take your favourite shirt without asking, and sometimes they get banished as a child and return home to try to take their rightful place on the throne. Between all of the turn-based combat and extended cutscenes, SaGa Frontier 2...
Review Rift Of The NecroDancer (Switch) - Imagine If Guitar Hero & Ikaruga Made A Baby
Slimes to the left of me, zombies to the right
Canadian developer Brace Yourself Games first hit the spotlight with Crypt of the NecroDancer, a rhythm-based roguelike, all the way back in 2015. Dungeon crawling to a relentless beat became the new dance craze sweeping the nation, and it was warmly welcomed into the Switch indie canon with the 2019...
Mini Review Breakout Beyond (Switch) - A Thrilling Iteration On An Arcade Classic
Breaking the mould
Breakout Beyond comes from Bit.Trip developer Choice Provisions and sees you paddle your way through a total of 72 levels (plus an unlockable ‘Infinite Mode’), most of which are based on iconic Atari developers or IP, like ‘NOHLENN’ (Nolan Bushnell) and ‘RAH-BAHNET’ (Warren Robinett). With plentiful neon and a gentle,...
Read the rune, Konami
Few RPGs, or video games, deal with war and hope in the face of tyranny like the Suikoden series. Konami’s prime RPG series, created by the late, great Yoshitaka Muriyama, is beloved by those who have played them – particularly the first two. They’re about the underdogs, about those who want better for their country, and...
Review Sid Meier's Civilization 7 (Switch) - An Incredible Game That's Not Quite Ready
Short of Civilliant
Most games with numbered sequels tend to iterate and grow on their previous instalments. After all, you don’t want to alienate your audience by upending key systems and creating a substantially different experience from what they’re used to, it just makes sound economic sense. Change things just enough so that it rides that...
Review Wario Land 4 (GBA) - A Boisterous But Impeccably Designed Platformer
Quality over quantity
This review was originally published in May 2014. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack GBA library. Although Wario's core platforming series has been overshadowed for years by the surrealist microgames of WarioWare, his excellent platformers have the sort...
Review Turbo Overkill (Switch) - Ridiculous, Relentless Boomer Shooter Gets A Solid Port
The name's Turbo. Johnny Turbo.
Ask any "boomer shooter" aficionado what their favourite modern examples of the genre are, and Trigger Happy Interactive's sublime Turbo Overkill will most likely make the top three, alongside Dusk and Ultrakill, if they want to be our actual pals. Yep, this is a highly-regarded retro-style FPS and, once you've spent...
Review Under Defeat (Switch) - A Boldly Hardcore, Cult-Classic Shoot 'Em Up
About 15 pounds per square inch at sea level
Developer G.Rev may not be all that familiar to those who weren’t fully immersed in the shoot-'em-up scene of the early noughties. A boutique independent, it was assembled by former Taito employees who previously contributed to the likes of RayStorm and G-Darius. G.Rev’s most famous work, and the one...
New Fur-izons
Hello Kitty Island Adventure released on Apple Arcade in July 2023 to generally positive reviews. A year and a half later, the Switch release brings a charming cast of Sanrio characters and their island resort to a wider audience—an audience ultimately in for a good time. Hello Kitty Island Adventure opens on a plane en route to a...
Review Tales Of Graces f Remastered (Switch) - The Characters Steal The Show In This JRPG Classic
f yeah
The Tales series is one of those JRPGs that sometimes flies under the radar. It doesn’t typically get the same hype as Final Fantasy or Persona, but Bandai Namco has been consistently putting out solid Tales games for 30 years. Tales of Graces f Remaster continues that tradition, bringing one of the best entries in this franchise to modern...
Review Guilty Gear -Strive- Nintendo Switch Edition (Switch) - A Fine Port & A Bold New Step
Smell of the game
Since Guilty Gear first arrived on Sony’s PlayStation in 1998, singeing the air with furious guitar shredding, it’s always been a head turner. While graphically, its goth-rock anime stylings have dazzled with each iteration, Arc System Works’ foremost achievement is in managing to differentiate itself from Capcom’s heavily...
Review Antonblast (Switch) - Channels Wario Land’s Madcap Energy To Great Effect
A genuine blast
Since this review was originally published patches have addressed or improved one or more of the issues cited. While we unfortunately cannot revisit games on an individual basis, it should still be noted that the updated game may offer an improved experience over the one detailed below. A few months ago, the Switch finally received...
Review Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind (Switch) - The Mightiest Morphin Ever
What is it with you hero types? Always the same line
Being from the UK, the name 'Rita' never quite sat right with us for Power Rangers. It sounds too much like Rita from down the chip shop, who might ask if you want salt and vinegar with that; or Rita from round the corner, who may or may not be a juvenile delinquent wearing altogether too much...
Soul survivor
The blood-soaked jewels in the crown of a storied cult franchise, Soul Reaver and its sequel were praised on release for original gameplay and stellar visuals. Gorgeous gothic fantasies, co-written and directed by industry luminary Amy Hennig, they followed the exploits of vampire lord Kain’s fallen lieutenant, Raziel. These games...
"I don't want to get off Mr Sawyer's Wild Ride"
The king of theme park management sims is here. It’s not some godawful spin-off that bears the name but none of the fun, it’s not the great-but-not-as-good-as-the-first-two RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, this is the first and second games in the series stitched together and bundled with some modern...
Mini Review Inops (Switch) - A Cute & Creative Puzzle-Platformer
Inops-rative
This game was originally covered as part of our Nindie Round Up series that sought to give coverage to a wider breadth of Switch eShop games beyond our standard reviews. In an effort to make our impressions easier to find, we're presenting the original text below in our mini-review format. Note. This game has, unfortunately, been...
Review Nine Sols (Switch) - An Intense Metroidvania That's Still A Treat On Switch
Sublime Switch combat
Scroll through the eShop any week, and under the new releases section, you are bound to find a Metroidvania, if not several. The genre is packed with so many games that few manage to break out. However, Red Candle Games' Nine Sols did manage to make a name for itself earlier this year on PC, and now that it has come to Switch,...
Review Loco Motive (Switch) - A Stunning Whodunnit With Impeccable LucasArts Vibes
Murder on the Point-and-Click Express
It's a story you've probably heard before: there's a detective, a rich, old heiress with an amended will, and an assembled group of people all hoping to benefit from it. And then, as these stories usually do, it ends in murder. On a train! But don't be fooled by the plentiful Agatha Christie-isms: this work of...
Keeping the Flame burning
A couple of years ago, a little puzzle game came to the Switch eShop called Dungeons of Dreadrock, which smartly mixed the vibe of 1980s first-person adventure games with simple puzzle mechanics. Though Dungeons of Dreadrock was enjoyable enough as a standalone experience, it was recently revealed that there will be a...
Mini Review Carpathian Night Starring Bela Lugosi (Switch) - Nails That Classic Castlevania Feel
Dead good
Going into Carpathian Night Starring Bela Lugosi, there was an undeniable fear that this would be a cheap, throwaway knock-off of Konami’s Castlevania series; one that we’d rinse in a single sitting before casting it aside for the real deal. Instead, we were treated to an incredibly well-crafted game that can easily stand toe-to-toe...
Review Stray (Switch) – A Brilliant Game Lands On Its Feet With A Solid Switch Port
Feline fine
Nintendo Switch players have been waiting a while to get their hands on 2022’s Stray, the critically acclaimed puzzle-platforming adventure from developer BlueTwelve Studio and one-time PlayStation console exclusive that lets you explore an A.I.-populated cyberpunk world through the perspective of an adorable feline protagonist. While...
Time to rewrite history
Running a budding kingdom is hard, but it is made even more difficult by being surrounded on all sides by a host of potential enemies, all vying for land, resources, and power. Few video games have managed to recreate that pressure as well as Koei Tecmo’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, with Romance of the Three...
