Game Reviews scoring 9 or 10/10
Review Super Mario Party Jamboree (Switch) - Only The Best Game In The Series
Family-friendly good times ahead
Listen! Nintendo has been doing a smashing job recently, in going back to some of its long-running franchises, stuff like Metroid and Pikmin, to bring us new entries that lean into the core strengths of what made us love them in the first place, instead of just continuing to bloat them with fluff and distractions...
Review Neva (Switch) - A Raw, Engrossing Platformer That Looks Incredible
Press 'X' to Neva
In the first couple years of the Switch, one of the standout indie games was an artsy little platformer called GRIS, which combined simple gameplay with incredible visuals to make for a memorable and touching experience. It feels fitting, then, that developer Nomada Studio has managed to produce and release a spiritual successor...
This is war
Note. In addition to the games discussed below, Team17 released a free "Backworms Compatible" update in June 2025, which added the GBC version of Worms Armageddon, the SNES and Mega Drive versions of Worms, and Worms World Party for GBA. Despite the sheer wealth of Worms titles over the years (most of which are, at the very least,...
Linking to the past
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom contains many great life lessons we should all take into consideration: get others to do all the work for you; talking to cats is worth your time; making friends with spiders is good; horses can smell carrots from hundreds of miles away. Oh, and beds solve all problems. Okay, in all...
Review Beyond Galaxyland (Switch) - A Lovingly Crafted, Nostalgia-Fuelled Space Adventure
A galaxy pretty far away
An ode to science fiction media and RPGs of the '90s, Beyond Galaxyland is a charming and beautifully presented adventure. It’s all the more impressive that it's the creation of a single developer. Sam Enright has crafted meticulous pixel worlds, a strong script, and a truly infectious musical score. He also made one of...
Review Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines (Switch) - A Purebreed Platformer & Fantastic Follow-Up
Old dog, new tricks
A couple years ago, a small studio called Medallion Games released a cute platformer called Grapple Dog, which as you could probably guess, is a platformer about a dog with a grappling hook. The simple premise played host to an impressively well-made and enjoyable adventure that felt like a meaningful homage to — and evolution...
Wanna take you for a ride
There was some deserved hype surrounding Capcom’s first Fighting Collection, preserving the best of Street Fighter and Darkstalkers, and including a delicious Red Earth bonus for good measure. The furore across the internet upon the announcement of the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, however, seemed...
Review Shogun Showdown (Switch) - A Turn-Based Roguelike Masterclass
To the left, to the right, slash em'up, dodge and cut, s'alright
Listen. If you're fed up with roguelikes, deckbuilders and the like, we feel you. In the indie sphere in particular, there are an awful lot of games in these genres right now, enough to have us auto-glaze over anytime we see the words mentioned, and even though there are plenty of good...
Review Pizza Tower (Switch) - An Ingenious Platformer That Beats Wario At His Own Game
Wario would be proud
Nintendo’s Wario Land series has always occupied a unique niche in the company’s extensive catalogue with its weird humour and unconventional approach to platforming tropes, which is why fans have been greatly let down by the fact that there hasn’t been a new entry in over 15 years. To fill the gap, an indie team called...
Mini Review Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (Switch) - Another Marvellous Metroidvania
Moonlight serenade
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. The fourth in this series of 2D...
Mini Review Can Of Wormholes (Switch) - A Very Worm Welcome For This Ingenious Puzzler
Roll tape
Greetings, worms! Finally, for all you readers who are worms, scouring Nintendo Life for worm-related content, here’s a game that puts annelids front and centre. Wiggling onto Switch from solo dev Munted Finger, Can of Wormholes dares to open that proverbial can and launch squiggly bird food – if we may call you that – straight at a...
Review Castlevania Dominus Collection (Switch) - The Strongest Konami Compilation Yet
Glyph I could turn back time ♫
Konami has been making waves this year with its upcoming duo of high-budget remakes of Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. For Castlevania fans, however, it’s been a bit of a quiet one, with seemingly no sign of any new entry in the long-running gothic franchise. Despite this, the publisher has been...
Review Cat Quest III (Switch) - A Pretty Much Purrfect Pirate Adventure
Pi-rats of the Purribean
Cat Quest has been a beloved series for close to a decade now. From offering a unique world in the first game to adding co-op in the second, it has always tried to shake things up for the action-RPG genre. Cat Quest III feels like another switch-up for the series, taking what felt great about previous games and seeking to...
Review Volgarr The Viking II (Switch) - One Of The Switch's Best 2D Action Platformers
Entry to Valhalla secured
Since the release of Volgar the Viking in 2013, fans have been itching for a full sequel to the Rastan-inspired action platformer for over a decade at this point. Now the time has finally arrived. Thanks to a partnership between developer Crazy Viking Studios and retro specialist Digital Eclipse, we can step back into the...
Review Thank Goodness You're Here! (Switch) - A Face-Achingly Funny British Romp
A Grand Day Out
You don’t know who you are, you don’t know fully why you’re going where you’re going, and everyone around you just assumes you’re the solution to all their problems. You could argue that this idea describes an unusually vast number of games, but Thank Goodness You’re Here! takes that notion to its logical conclusion. You...
In the Summer skies, flying high!
Did you know the F-16 first took flight 50 years ago a few months back? It is currently enjoying its Block 70 revision in case you were fearing that air forces around the world are still flying half-century-old technology. Meanwhile, Ace Combat is turning 30 next year and, much like an airplane block revision, it...
Review Tchia (Switch) - A Brilliantly Fun (And Surprisingly Adult) Animal-Hopping Adventure
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Tchia!
Tchia is incredible. If that's all you need to know, then good — this game is best played, in our opinion, completely blind. That's how we went into it, and it was all the better for it. Every strange, unexpected twist was a delight, and we never knew where the game would take us next. So, please, if...
Blood-meltingly beautiful
Tsukihime is responsible for a lot of things. Back in 2000, Type-Moon’s classic visual novel captivated audiences with a story crammed full of occult mystery, thrilling action, and heart-pounding character drama. Like jagged lines splintering out of a unified core, its success spread out in many different directions:...
Review Perfect Dark (Nintendo 64) - Perhaps Not Perfect, But Still A Remarkable Achievement
Suck it, Bond
This review was originally published in March 2010. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack N64 library. From its debut in 1997, developer Rare and the terrifying digital avatar of Pierce Brosnan ruled over the console shooter space with the Nintendo 64 tie-in of a...
Review Dicefolk (Switch) - An Incredibly Fresh-Feeling, Monster-Catching Roguelite
Want to be the very best, like no one ever was?
These days, roguelites and deckbuilders are a dime a dozen, but it seems like developers are finding ways to get creative with the genre mechanics to produce something that sticks out from the glut of releases these past several years. Dicefolk offers one such creative take on the roguelite formula,...
Unsung hero
‘Underrated’ is a term too often applied recklessly, but for Rocket Knight Adventures, a series that struggled to reach global stardom despite Konami’s three-pronged stab, it’s appropriate. Its initial entry resides in the upper echelons of everything 16-bit and is one of the finest titles on the Mega Drive. Yet, Sparkster,...
Review Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (Switch) - Even Better Than The Stellar Original
Another HEE-HOme Run
It’s been nearly three years now since the launch of the original Shin Megami Tensei V and as is tradition at Atlus, the obligatory enhanced re-release (complete with a new storyline centered around a new girl) has now come to all modern platforms in the form of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Boasting a full-length,...
Review Paper Trail (Switch) - A Storybook Puzzler That Folds Up Beautifully
Turn the Paige
Though plenty of Paper Mario fans are eagerly awaiting the return of one of the greatest games in the series at the time of writing, there’s another new game set in a papery world that we’d suggest you pay attention to. Newfangled Games’ Paper Trail is the debut release of the boutique London-based studio, and its smart mixture...
Review Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) - Still The King Of Mario RPGs
Paper, un-jammed
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has been held as the standard for Mario RPGs for 20 years. It, alongside its N64 predecessor, captured what fans wanted from their turn-based, plumber-starring adventures – silly humour, epic adventures, fantastic combat, and charm. Purists often view the GameCube original as the end of the...
Review Braid: Anniversary Edition (Switch) - Exquisite Commentary Elevates This Indie All-Timer
If I could turn back time
What is time? Does the future come into existence, become the present, then vanish into the past? Or are all times equally real, only our perspective on them changing as we travel towards our destinies? And while we’re on the subject, why is it taking so much time to get a “Switch 2”? Not to worry: Braid, Anniversary...
Review Animal Well (Switch) - An Exceptional Metroidvania That Stands Out From The Pack
Zoophoria
From the moment we got a glimpse of Animal Well during an Indie World Showcase last April, it sent tongues wagging with its unique premise and visual identity, becoming an easy add to plenty of ‘Most Anticipated’ lists. Its association with indie publishing label Bigmode, run by popular YouTuber Jason 'Dunkey' Gastrow, added to the...
Review Botany Manor (Switch) - Cosy Yet Challenging, This Puzzler Is Quite Beautiful
Bloomin' lovely
When cosy and wholesome games first stepped onto the scene, they were counter-culture — created in response and in resistance to an industry that churned out violence, conflict, and a particular type of masculinity that wasn't keen on things like emotions or intimacy. Some people were tired of this monolithic and exclusionary idea...
Review Freedom Planet 2 (Switch) - A Sonic-Style Platformer Exuding Passion & Quality
He better watch out
Back in 2014, a team of new developers calling themselves GalaxyTrail released Freedom Planet—a retro style platformer that captured the hearts of many classic-era Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Freedom Planet, in fact, started life as a Sonic fan game, though it established a unique identity for itself as development wore on, and...
Review Pepper Grinder (Switch) - A Cracking Platformer That Drills Down & Strikes Gold
All driller, no filler
Way back in the ancient days when the Game Boy Advance was Nintendo’s main handheld, Game Freak (yes, the Pokémon people) released a creative little platformer called Drill Dozer. Placing you in the role of a slightly crazed girl who tears through stages and foes alike with a powerful drill, it quickly established itself as...
Review Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (Switch) - A Dazzling Trip Into A (Gold) Master's Mind
Yak in time
With its efforts on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and The Making of Karateka, developer Digital Eclipse is cementing itself as a true pioneer in the interactive documentary space. Truth be told, it’s a niche that the studio completely owns at this point, and though we’re surprised other major players in the video game...
