Latest Reviews
Review Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit - A Joyful Fusion Of Reality And Fiction
Built it and they will come
Nintendo products have always had a certain magic about them. From the earliest examples, such as the simplistic-yet-addictive Game & Watch handhelds, to more recent offerings like the motion-driven Wii, touch-focused DS or cardboard-based Labo, the Japanese veteran has a genuine knack for creating toys which raise a...
Review I Am Dead - A Quirky Adventure That's Pleasantly Rewarding, Despite Its Faults
Dead good
I am dead. I am dead. I am dead. At the risk of getting a bit dark, that has quite a ring to it, doesn’t it? A lovely little get-out for those unwanted conversations, invitations and generally being approached by anyone at all. “What do you think of this political climate?” “I am dead.” “Oh, sorry mate. Didn’t realise. Never...
Mini Review Space Crew - Bomber Crew's Sequel Takes Us To The Future
Aiming For The Stars
It’s been two years since Bomber Crew landed on Switch and at the time, we thought quite highly of it. Developed by Runner Duck, it successfully mixed a real-time management simulation with strategy, taking place in a World War 2 setting. It was quite surprising then to see a sequel putting us in charge of an intergalactic...
Review Projection: First Light - A Brilliant Game Cruelly Betrayed By Poor Mechanics
Meant for Greta things
Oh, what a heartbreaker Projection: First Light is. It starts off so well. The opening sequence is a marvellous showcase of intelligently-crafted, dialogue-free storytelling, utilising the game's striking shadow puppetry art style to brilliant effect as your heroine, Greta, chases an effervescently glowing butterfly through...
Review AVICII Invector Encore Edition - A Fitting Tribute To A Much-Missed Musical Talent
Nintendo SVICII
The music of sadly-deceased electronic musician Avicii didn’t initially strike us as a great match for a rhythm action game. The marriage of a single contemporary artist with the medium of video games gives us PTSD flashbacks to The Black Eyed Peas Experience. Thankfully, unlike Will.I.Am and Fergie’s barely-listenable dreck,...
Review Ikenfell - A Magical Little Turn-Based RPG Adventure With Charm To Spare
Bewitched
There's certainly no shortage of turn-based RPGs available on Switch these days and an even greater number of retro-pixel indie efforts that present their strategic adventures in an increasingly overused 8 or 16-Bit graphical style. Honestly, we love them really but it can definitely feel a little wearisome at times prepping yourself to...
Review UnderHero - A Solid Anti-RPG Platformer With An Eye For Undertale
Zero to Hero
Five years ago, the indie gaming scene was changed forever with the release of Undertale, a sort of ‘Anti-RPG’ that focused on mocking traditional RPG tropes as much as it did celebrating them. Suffice to say, it resonated with a lot of people and it’s clear that the uniquely unconventional design had no small effect on UnderHero...
Review FIFA 21 - EA Insults Switch Owners Yet Again With This Half-Baked Effort
Don't spend your Mané on this
Okay, enough's enough. Ever since EA first brought the FIFA series to the Switch with FIFA 18, Nintendo fans have been given a lesser version of the game seen on other systems. At first, we gave EA the benefit of the doubt and put it down to the challenges of porting a game to a less powerful system with a user base...
Review Let's Sing Queen - Makes The Rockin' World Go 'Round
Play The Game
When Freddie Mercury first penned Bohemian Rhapsody back in 1975, there's no way he could possibly have known the monumental challenge he was laying at the feet of Let's Sing Queen players some forty-five years down the timeline. Fair enough, the first half of the song isn't so bad – and let's face it, we've all cranked out "I...
Mini Review Falcon Age - The Closest Most Of Us Will Get To Owning A Pet Falcon
Spread your wings and fly away
We can all agree that falcons are pretty cool. What’s even cooler is the notion that certain folks out there can utilise these majestic creatures for hunting purposes, coaxing the bird into their hand with just a simple whistle. If you happen to see someone with a falcon attached to their hand and rocking a tweed...
Review Prinny 1•2: Exploded and Reloaded - Masochistic Platforming That's Rough Around The Edges
The dood abides?
The best thing about Prinny 1•2: Exploded and Reloaded, a collection of Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? and Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!, is that game reviewers are paid by the word. Just that opening sentence has earned enough to buy several Wispa Golds, or your comfort food of choice. And you’ll need comforting...
Mini Review Macbat 64 - A Pitifully Weak Clone Of Those N64 Platformers You Know And Love
An utterly mediocre journey
Nostalgia is a powerful motivator in gaming. Providing a sense of comfort and familiarity, developers often target this feeling through sequels and remakes, but in the last decade, we’ve seen a greater rise in spiritual successors and that’s been particularly prominent for early 3D platformers, Yooka-Laylee and A Hat...
Mini Review This Is The Zodiac Speaking - A Murder Mystery Riddled With Technical Hiccups
Gaming can be murder
If you’re not overly familiar with the case of the Zodiac Killer, then chances are you’ve at least heard of it. The titular killer’s identity was never uncovered, and as such has been the focal point of many books, TV shows, and movies ever since. This is the Zodiac Speaking joins a growing list of games to tackle the...
Review Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix - A Massive Improvement On The Terrible Original
Happy Happy Joy-Con Joy-Con
We’re afraid we've got some bad news for you. If you opened this review expecting a typically sarcastic put-down of the latest half-hearted karting game with a cartoon licence cynically slapped onto it, you’re going to be deeply disappointed. Turns out this one's actually quite good. To be fair, you'd be forgiven for...
Review Warsaw - A Brutal Experience Which Proves War Is Hell
Wojna to piekło
Waaaaarsaaaaaw. Lovely woody word, Warsaw. Almost worth a point or two by itself. It's a shame that such an enjoyable word to say has been attached to such a downer of a game as this. Don't get us wrong, that's not a knock on Warsaw's (Waaaarsaaaaw's) quality; it's a polished production through and through, and its component parts...
Review Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! - An Odd Change Of Direction For A Classic Series
Kawase Kawa-sah Ba-ba-zoo-ka
Stumbling across the original Umihara Kawase for Super Famicom many years ago, we never thought it was the sort of thing that would become such a recurring series. Following traditional entries on PlayStation and 3DS (as well as a clutch of reissues and appearances in Blade Strangers and Crystal Crisis), you’d be...
Review CastleStorm II - A Legitimately Great Game Hobbled By Poor Execution
Storm's coming
Zen Studios has always had a bit of an issue with being typecast as ‘that pinball studio’. To be fair, the studio has done a tremendous job in designing the dozens of tables in its Pinball FX line, but that’s far from the only thing the team works on. The most notable of these ‘other’ projects is Castlestorm, a fusion...
Review Lost Ember - An Artistic Experience That Fails To Live Up To Its Potential
More aggravating than art
To different people, video games can represent different things. Some play games for their challenges, others play them for a good time, and some play it for an emotional experience. Lost Ember attempts to cater to an audience looking for an artistic, story-driven game, yet unfortunately fails to create an engaging piece of...
Review Rivals of Aether - A Surprisingly Complex Alternative To Smash Bros.
Earth, wind and fire (and water)
After diving into the unmitigated disaster that is Bounty Battle just recently, we can't say we were particularly enamoured with the idea of slogging our way through yet another Smash Bros.-esque indie fighting effort quite so soon. However, Rivals of Aether is an experience that's just about as far removed from that...
Review Goosebumps Dead Of Night - Survival Horror For Kids That's Far Too Short
Reader beware, you're in for a meh
It's embarrassing to admit this, but Goosebumps Dead of Night can be – on the rare occasion – a touch frightening. Given that the books and films (upon which this game is based) were about as scary as rocket salad, we were rather surprised to find this outing to be genuinely – whisper it – quite atmospheric...
Mini Review Super Blood Hockey - Violent Sports Action That Gets Tired Too Quickly
A Gordie Howe hat trick
What’s sport without a bit of blood, eh? Whether we want to admit it or not, we all feel a tad bit of satisfaction when some pansy footballer finally gets a bloody nose after taking one too many dives, or when a boxer gets so messed up his face becomes a physical embodiment of 2020. Hockey is undoubtedly one of the more...
Review The Long Dark - Just Like Real Life, Nature Is Your Enemy Here
I am just going outside and may be some time
Playing The Long Dark made us feel cold. Sure, the longer nights are slowly drawing in, but this ambitious port of Hinterlands' 2017 survival hit exudes such a frosty atmosphere that we were reaching for the blankets. The stylised visuals, muted use of colour and the sheer pitch-black oppression of the...
Mini Review Micro Pico Racers - Sadly Not In The Same League As Micro Machines
Drifting to sleep
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Micro Pico Racers is the second coming of the classic racing franchise Micro Machines. Indeed, with its colourful pixelated design (and the blatant fact that it has the word Micro in the title), the game is a clear homage to Codemasters’ series of arcade racers...
Review Super Mario Bros. 35 - A Six-Month Jolt Of Life For An Iconic Classic
The sweetest plumb
The original Super Mario Bros. has been officially re-released no fewer than 19 different times over its 35-year history. From graphical updates (Super Mario All-Stars) to handheld upgrades (Super Mario Bros. Deluxe), to various Virtual Console re-releases and most recently its inclusion in Switch Online’s NES catalogue, if...
Review Trollhunters: Defenders Of Arcadia - WayForward Take A Big Step WayBack
You're trolling us, surely?
Aliens: InfestationCall off the hunt, the trolls have been located. Somehow they have infiltrated WayFoward, usually purveyors of fine digital entertainment, and forced them to create this, the drabbest platformer in recent memory. Worse, it is cynically wrapped in the skin of a TV show that is, by all accounts,...
Review Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ - A Solid And Compelling Dungeon-Crawler
Dead ringer for love
It’s been a long road to release for Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~. The project first sought funding via Kickstarter back in 2015 and initially failed to meet its modest goal, but the ex-NIS America staff of developer Mr. Tired Media were convinced that there was an audience for this game and remained determined to see it...
Review Alwa's Legacy - One Of The Best Metroidvanias We've Seen On Switch So Far
A legacy to be proud of
A couple of years ago, Elden Pixels put out Alwa’s Awakening, a nice sort of throwback Metroidvania that built a quality experience around a few well-designed ideas. It didn’t exactly light up the charts, but Alwa’s Awakening still managed to amass a small following, one which Elden Pixels tapped last November went it...
Review Ys Origin - An Awesomely Accessible And Amiable Action RPG
Eesey peasy
Nihon Falcom's Ys (pronounced "eese") been around since the days of the PC-8800, but only now are we seeing this formative tale in the enormously popular saga. Well, technically, a lot of people already saw it in 2006 when it originally released, or 2012 when it was initially localised. Thankfully, now it's on the Switch we can see that...
Review Kirby Fighters 2 - A Brilliant Bite-Sized Alternative To Super Smash Bros.
Kirby sucks, but this doesn't
You don’t need us to tell you this, but Nintendo makes some strange decisions sometimes. The latest example of this is Kirby Fighters 2, a digital-only fighting game that was stealth-dropped onto the eShop without any warning, promoted with a couple of tweets then generally abandoned (at least at the time of writing)...
Review Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - Deliciously Daring Dogfighting In The Depths Of Space
You've got your mother in a whirl
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, Double Damage Games' prequel to 2015's Rebel Galaxy, brings a much-needed slice of old-school space sim action to Switch with swagger and style to spare. Following the fortunes of battle-hardened rebel Juno Markev, whose husband has been murdered and ship destroyed as she escapes an attempt on...
