Latest Reviews
Go tell Aunt Rhody
Just in case you need yet another reminder of how old you’re getting, Capcom first revealed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard all the way back in June 2016 – almost a decade ago. Following its release in 2017 and a rather unsavoury cloud port on the Switch in 2021, Nintendo fans can finally experience Capcom’s soft reboot on Switch...
Review Love Eternal (Switch) - Disturbing, Devilish Platformer Flips A Few Too Many Times
Flipping fun?
Published by Ysbryd Games and developed by brlka, Love Eternal is an arduous platformer presented primarily in a retro 4:3 aspect ratio. It follows a teenage girl named Maya as she wends her way through a lonesome, though artfully-depicted, castle and the surreal, twisted memories that haunt it. The game begins as many platformers do:...
Review BlazBlue Entropy Effect X (Switch) - A Remarkably Over-Ambitious Roguelike That Goes Deep
He fights for the Users
Entropy, a scientific concept defined by randomness and disorder, is a fitting name for a roguelike. Since BlazBlue began as a fighting game series it’s seen a multitude of spin-offs, now finding itself in the realm of 2D platform action and roguelike principles. Its whopping assembly of eighteen-playable-characters helm...
The bomb
One of the most pleasant surprises of this month’s Partner Direct was the reveal and shadow drop of the Super Bomberman Collection, a compilation of some of the eponymous hero’s earliest games with some extra goodies thrown in. Though it’s ultimately little more than the sum of its parts, Super Bomberman Collection does a great job of...
Mini Review Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse (Switch) - Plenty To Plunder In This Solid Sequel
Part of your world
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo was one of the most delightful surprises for the Switch; a visual novel that broke the fourth wall in unique ways while telling a compelling story laced with horror. The sequel, Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, is more of the same, and that’s a good thing. If Square Enix wants...
Review Ys X: Proud Nordics (Switch 2) - The Definitive Version Of Adol Christin's Seafaring Saga
Such is the Norman way
It feels like just yesterday that Ys X: Nordics slashed its way onto the Switch to deliver another one of the series’ action-packed adventures for the ages — and, really, that’s not too far off the mark. The 10th mainline entry in NIS’ seminal RPG franchise made its way westward back in late 2024, which is still plenty...
Mini Review Console Archives Cool Boarders (Switch 2) - Not Up There With 1080, But Still Pretty Rad
'90s snow-back
Hamster Corporation is on something of a winning streak, with the fantastic Arcade Archives series continually dusting off and polishing hundreds of notable games from the annals of history. Well, those wizards are back with the fresh Console Archives brand, and the now 30-year-old ‘radical’ PlayStation sports game
Once upon a time...
While we continue to wait for a true RPG sequel to the early Paper Mario games, many indie developers have attempted to fill the void, and while nobody has quite managed to recapture their magic, Escape from Ever After feels like the closest anyone has gotten yet. It’s got some quirks, but it does a great job of offering an...
Review I Hate This Place (Switch) - A Messy Monster, But With A Certain Charm
A strong word
The way I see it, there are three different versions of I Hate This Place. First, there’s the game as promised in the trailers: a survival horror with some general emphasis on resource management and gunplay, all elevated with some nice-looking cinematic storytelling. Sweeping cameras slowly reveal the ominous presence of creepily...
Review Reanimal (Switch 2) - Little Nightmares Team Delivers Its Darkest, Boldest Vision Yet
Not your average farm sim
If you’re a horror fan and you own a Switch 2, you should play Reanimal. From the moment it pulls you into its bleak, nightmarish world, it’s clear that developer Tarsier Studios is building on everything it learned from the Little Nightmares series while pushing its signature horror sensibilities to unnerving new...
Review Mario Tennis Fever (Switch 2) - Slim For Singles, But An Addictive Core Gives It Online Legs
Nadal it's cracked up to be?
Having never been any sort of tennis fan for my entire childhood — Wimbledon always seemed a bit posh to me — I fell completely and utterly in love with the sport in my teenage years through the medium of video games. Yes. Video games. They're a whole thing! And just as has been the case with American football,...
Death Race 2026
In a cruel twist of irony, those of us who remember the breakneck mayhem of the original Carmageddon are creeping ever closer to our senior citizen bus pass. This will allow us to ride a slow-moving passenger vehicle that gains no extra points for mulching pedestrians. Released in 1997, this classic of vehicular combat arrived with...
Review Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties (Switch 2) - Maybe It's Time To Take A Break
Daddy issues
I’m of the opinion that there are no bad Yakuza games. Although the series has definitely fluctuated in quality over the years, they always offer up something to keep me engaged and satisfied. Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is still a decent entry, but it’s also bloated, poorly paced, and marred in controversy surrounding the recasting...
Review Hollow Knight (Switch) - One Of The Finest Metroidvanias That's Not A Metroid Or 'Vania
Bugs now available on Switch 2
This review was originally published in June 2018 when Hollow Knight launched on the Switch 1. To celebrate the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, we're republishing it along with some brief impressions of the free upgrade, which is available to download now. The Switch isn't exactly lacking for quirky...
Review Jimmy And The Pulsating Mass (Switch) - The Best EarthBound-Like You've Never Heard Of
Jimmy Dreams World
Early on in Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, the young protagonist confronts a possessed frog statue in a house surrounded by a bloody lake. The possessor turns out to be a rotten Jack O’Lantern, capable of dangerous fire magic but with a goofy, cheerful grin. Defeating it, Jimmy stands where it used to be, and immediately...
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
The Metroidvania revival (did it ever really go away?) keeps rolling, and here comes another stylised combat-platformer where a strange little hero gets lost in a dark, labyrinthine fantasy world. This time, our protagonist is John, who stumbles into a bizarre realm full of somnambulist weirdos and giant babies. Studio...
Review Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined (Switch 2) - A Fantastic Makeover & The Best-Looking DQ Ever
Let's do the time warp again
Ready to feel old? It’s been about 13 years since the launch of the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII, which itself was released about 13 years after the original on the PSX. That means that it’s time for yet another remake of the storied classic, which has been dubbed Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined this time around. This...
May contain nuts
As a big old superhero nerd and a fan of Telltale's narrative adventure games of old, it's fair to say that Dispatch piqued my interest when it made its episodic arrival on PC and PS5 last year. Still, I took a punt and held back on purchasing because it simply had to be coming to Switch at some point in the future. Well, Jim of the...
Vroom, shake the room?
For serious petrolheads, the Switch 1 wasn't exactly a (Burnout) paradise platform. In fact, given the size of the console's library, there's surprisingly little in the way of even semi-serious racing sims for those looking for more than kart racing, smaller-scale experiences that hone in on one aspect and expand (such as the...
Everybody's living in a Materia world
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gawked at the opening sequence to Final Fantasy VII over the years. From a three-year-old, gazing up at the intro for the first time from the carpet of my living room, to watching the camera zoom out and pan across Midgar in Final Fantasy VII Remake back in 2020, I’ve...
Lost in memory
Team Cherry set a new genre standard with Hollow Knight. That legacy has recently been reaffirmed by the long-awaited Silksong, a release that developers and publishers alike are now clamouring to match. These are beautifully animated combat platformers, built around tight controls and striking art direction. Players explore...
Review Dynasty Warriors: Origins (Switch 2) - A Super-Solid Port Of A Fantastic Reboot
Okay, you can pursue Lu Bu
Wading into Dynasty Warriors: Origins on Switch 2, I'm keenly aware that there's been a lot of conversation about the game's frame rate on Nintendo's console in the run-up to release. Yes, it's not a super-sweet 60fps as on some other platforms, and yes, that is a shame. However! Anyone who fancies a little Musou madness...
You could just save your bells
It’s tough to consider that Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out almost six years ago, and even tougher to get over just how good it looks on Nintendo’s first hybrid system. Switch 2 hasn’t been left behind, though - now it’s got its own version of the game, but if I’m being honest, it's not really bringing...
Review Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - An Approachable And Addictive Masterpiece
The shores of Bell
Over four years since Update 2.0.0 — which was billed as the "last major free content" — Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update 3.0.0 has arrived, alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. Given the wealth of additions, we're republishing our review with an extra
Review Cassette Boy (Switch) - A Dimension-Flipping Zelda-like With A Unique Hook
Let’s twist again
While it presents itself as a chilled-out ode to Legend of Zelda–style adventuring and the Game Boy aesthetic, Cassette Boy is more than meets the eye. It opens with an ominous dream in which your protagonist is told, “If it can’t be seen, it does not exist.” From there, the game drops you into a very familiar scenario...
The path to a radiant dawn awaits
Did you know that the Japanese version of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance has a 'Maniac' difficulty mode? You did? And did you know that this mode sort of fixes my biggest problem with the game? You did? Can I do the review anyway? Thanks. Jumping back into Path of Radiance, the first home console FE, for the first...
Mini Review Stardew Valley: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - Almost The Cream Of The Crop
A farm where you'll want a mouse
I’ve spent close to 300 hours with Stardew Valley since it landed on Switch in 2018. That feels like rookie numbers compared to other people, but even with the portability, the Switch version has always been slightly behind other versions in the multiplayer department, which is where ConcernedApe’s surprise...
Review The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Beyond The Horizon (Switch 2) - A Step Up From Daybreak II
One small step for man
The long-running Trails series needs little introduction, as Falcom has been chipping away at this JRPG narrative for the better part of two decades across a variety of arcs and perspectives spread over more than a dozen interconnected games. While newcomers have traditionally been discouraged by the mountain of homework...
A load of pollocks, or did they krill it?
Cast n Chill is one of those games that, the instant I clapped eyes on it, and even with other people telling me that it's real good, I got the feeling I'd just never get around to it. That's not to say fishing isn't for me or anything. I have fished in real life. Oh yes. My dad used to take me when I was a...
Mini Review Layers Of Fear: Final Masterpiece Edition (Switch 2) - Handsome But Humdrum Horror
Tormented souls
Switch owners already have access to Layers of Fear: Legacy and its sequel, but Bloober Team is back with a new port for Switch 2. Utilising Unreal Engine 5 to achieve some truly impressive visuals, Layers of Fear: The Final Masterpiece Edition is neither a sequel nor a remake, but rather the definitive vision of the series so far,...
