Latest Reviews
Review Wobbly Life (Switch) - Kid-Friendly Open-World Sandbox Is Frustrating Fun
It's a wobbly life
Editor's note: What's this? A non-Switch 2 game?!? Variety, my friends, is the spice of Nintendo Life... A goofy life sim set in a physics-based sandbox, Wobbly Life by RubberBandGames is an entertaining amalgam of open-world adventure and indie party games. With its cartoonish tone and compulsive gameplay, it's clearly...
Cleanliness is next to godliness
If you want to put your Switch 2 through its paces, there’s no shortage of options in its generous launch lineup. Whether it’s the candy-colored charm of Mario Kart World or the neon-drenched cityscape of Cyberpunk 2077, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to visual powerhouses. With such major titles on...
Tri-forced new content
Editor's Note: As this is our first 'Nintendo Switch 2 Edition' review (and with many more to come, potentially), we want to outline their focus from the off. Our existing reviews — in this case for Breath of the Wild, both the Wii U and Switch versions, and the DLC — are still live and relevant. If you're coming to this...
Review Yakuza 0: Director's Cut (Switch 2) - A Series Highlight That's Never Looked Or Played Better
I'll be damned, the punk kid's finally turned into a true yakuza
Yakuza 0 was the first Yakuza game — after many, many attempts on my part — that finally and fully opened my eyes to the magic of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's long-running (and entirely bats**t) franchise. This was the one that finally did me in. And from the moment its incredible...
Review Fast Fusion (Switch 2) - The Most Accomplished Entry Yet, And A Visual Showcase
Fuuuuusion, haah!
Some of my favourite memories from the Switch 1 came from those opening few weeks following the launch in March 2017. Like everyone else, I was utterly glued to Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but I also poured a huge amount of time into Shin’en Multimedia’s Fast RMX. It was the game to showcase what the console was capable of in...
Names are for friends, so I don't need one
Since this review was originally published, a patch has been released addressing various issues and adding a 'Frame Rate' option, which caps gameplay at 30fps. While we unfortunately cannot revisit games on an individual basis, it should still be noted that the updated game may offer an improved experience...
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...
Review Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (Switch 2) - A Superb Port Of An Incredible RPG
Here comes the choom-choom train
It’s more often than not these days that a game released in an underwhelming state is left abandoned in a pool of its own minor updates. On occasion, though, we have a redemption arc like that belonging to 2020's Cyberpunk 2077. Originally released in a state that was barely functional and riddled with more bugs...
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,...
Review Pipistrello And The Cursed Yoyo (Switch) - A Masterclass In Retro, Zelda-Style Game Design
Check out this next trick
Though the latest 3D Zelda releases have unmistakably taken the already popular series to all-new heights, there are still some fans who miss the ‘old’ way Nintendo used to design its popular green-hatted protagonist’s adventures. Such fans will want to pay attention to Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo from...
Larger than (Fantasy) Life
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time knows which side its bread is buttered. The original Fantasy Life on 3DS is a cult favourite, but not a bestseller by any means — yet its dedicated fanbase has been proselytising about the game for well over a decade, and it's those fans that have been hoping for this sequel for...
Real steamy
Steam-Heart’s is a most curious Saturn Tribute release, for two significant reasons: Firstly, it was conceived many moons ago as hardcore hentai erotica; and secondly, it was never particularly great. It first appeared in all its grammatically incorrect glory on the NEC PC-98 home computer in 1994. Compared to the console market,...
Review Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma (Switch) - A Bold Reinvention That Pays Off
It'd be rune not to
Rune Factory’s first entry arrived to a welcoming fanbase almost 20 years ago, and players have signed on for the adventures of a string of amnesiac protagonists, equal parts fighter and farmer, ever since. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma delivers on the promise of the series with another hero mysteriously connected to the...
Review Old Skies (Switch) - A Slow But Satisfying Time-Hopping Adventure
Nozzotalgia
If you're a point-and-click fan — particularly of the '90s LucasArts-y variety — then you're likely familiar with Wadjet Eye Games. This is the team that brought us back to the genre's golden age with the likes of Unavowed and The Excavation Of Hob's Barrow (on which it served as publisher), and its latest slice of nostalgia pie is...
Review SoulCalibur II (GameCube) - One Of The Best Fighters Ever, Playable Oh-So-Soon On Switch 2
If you're eager to die, then that's fine by me!
With Nintendo Switch 2 bringing a selection of GameCube classics to Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers very soon, we looked into our back catalogue of retro reviews and found we didn't have one for one of the best fighting games ever created...until now. Enjoy! Soulcalibur II, of all...
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 Arcade Archives NebulasRay (Switch) - A CGI Deep-Cut After Decades Of Waiting
Namco's 1994 shmup has never been ported previously
Namco's 1994 shmup NebulasRay is one of those games which arrived at an odd point in the history of arcade gaming. Launching many months before Rare stunned the world with the CGI sprites of Donkey Kong Country, it was one of the earliest examples of a 2D video game built around pre-rendered...
Review Into The Restless Ruins (Switch) - A Marvellous Meld Of Dungeons, Deckbuilding & Auto-Combat
Celtic connections
It's possibly becoming a bit of a hard sell these days, the old roguelike dungeon-crawling adventure, replete with retro/pixel visuals. We know it. However, as busy and as overstuffed with pale imitators to the greats as this genre is, it's still well worth keeping an eye out for the odd gem. And here we have an example of said...
Review Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (Switch) - A Cracking Collection Of Top-Class Arcade Fighters
A Dream(cast) collection
We love Capcom Fighting Collection 2! There, that's the review done. Seriously though, this is a particularly strong lineup of actual arcade Bangers (yes, with a capital B), that doesn't have anything approaching a full-on weak spot across a stellar roster of classic titles, so it's not really a surprise, is it? Indeed,...
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 Dunk Dunk (Switch) - An Affordable, Enjoyable, But Flawed Twist On Basketball
Not quite a slam dunk
Remember when local, arcade party games were a dime a dozen? The late 2000s and early 2010s were filled with bite-sized, fun, and digestible experiences you could hop in and out of or sit down to play with friends. Well, Dunk Dunk revitalises that spirit in 2025 with a fun local co-op, action-platforming twist on basketball...
Review 1000xRESIST (Switch) - A Sci-Fi Narrative Masterpiece, Hair To Hair
You can (not) Resist
We know. We’re pretty late with this one, but this bears talking about. Cast your mind back to 9th May 2024 and "Indie Game Day", with multiple outstanding games dropping simultaneously, demonstrating the variety, beauty, and necessity of independently-owned game studios. We covered several of them
Review Shotgun Cop Man (Switch) - Move Over, Meat Boy, There's A New Sheriff In Town
Devilishly good
Gun recoil (or kickback) has often been viewed as a negative in gaming; something that, through the application of unlockable perks, can be lessened or even eliminated entirely. Yet with Shotgun Cop Man, recoil is fundamental to both combat and traversal. Created by Swedish developer DeadToast Entertainment (Victor Ågren), Shotgun...
Review Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA) - The Series' Second Western Release Still Hits Hard
Worth fighting for
This review was originally published in March 2015. We're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of the game in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library. While Fire Emblem is a franchise with a long history in Japan, its track record in the West is far more condensed; in fact, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones...
Sirei-iously good
Back in 2018, a new studio called Too Kyo Games was formed, with the main creatives behind it being Kazutaka Kodaka (the creator of Danganronpa) and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the director of the Zero Escape games. Four projects were unveiled as part of the studio’s reveal, and while three of them saw release over the following years,...
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...
Review Rusty Rabbit (Switch) - A Hop, Skip & Some Junk Away From Greatness
More rabbit than Sainsbury′s
We always find it a bit trite to start a review with comparisons, but humour us. Rusty Rabbit is a bit like SteamWorld Dig 2 mixed with Sylvanian Families. Or, it’s somewhere between Drill Dozer and Star Fox. Umm, Dig Dug mixed with Conker’s Bad Fur Day? We might be losing steam here… From developer SoFun,
A Lunar landing
Love and miracles. These are two words that get thrown around a lot when talking about video games, particularly our childhood favourites. But with the Lunar Remastered Collection, these are two words that feel more than appropriate. A combination of rights disagreements between co-developers Studio Alex and Game Arts and the...
