Game Reviews scoring 8/10
Review 9 Years Of Shadows (Switch) - Unique Ideas Elevate This Scrappy Metroidvania
Dark crystals
The hallowed Metroidvania has gone from an original, curiously enticing one-off concept, to a highly consumable once-monthly product fit for devouring at speed. If you’re now, as we are, extremely seasoned in the format pioneered by Symphony of the Night in 1997, you’ll likely rip through 9 Years of Shadows like a '46 Ford through...
Review World Of Horror - One Of The Most Unique Roguelites On Switch
"I am a horror maniac who prefers to stay at home"
These days, it feels like every other indie game released is a roguelite of some kind, and while there are a lot of good ideas brought to the table, the barrage of releases can feel like they start to blend together. Not so with World of Horror. This is a roguelite RPG styled after the basic...
Mini Review Metal Gear Solid - A Faithful Switch Debut For An All-Time Great
Kept you waiting, huh?
Going back to Metal Gear Solid in 2023, it’s undoubtedly clear why the game created so much fuss when it originally launched on the PS1 back in 1998. What’s also obvious, however, is how much the title has aged in the decades since. For its release on the Switch, Konami has opted to retain as much of the original’s...
Review WarioWare: Move It! (Switch) - A Fine Return For Wario's Wii-Era, Motion-Based Mayhem
Good Form
As much as we loved 2021's WarioWare: Get It Together!, it's definitely an entry in this barmy franchise that's ended up dividing opinion over time. With little in the way of truly engaging multiplayer options, no real core gimmick, or any significant attempt to utilise the Switch's unique control opportunities, some folks (not us, mind)...
Review The Mysterious Murasame Castle - The Legend Of Zelda's Action-Focused Sibling
The mystery is why this took so long to be released outside Japan
This review was originally published in June 2014. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. Although not originally released outside Japan, chances are that longtime Nintendo fans in the West have noticed nostalgic...
Walking in a winter wonderland
It’s been a busy year for Riot’s new Forge publishing arm, aimed at expanding its League of Legends Runeterra universe in games beyond the popular MOBA. In April, we got The Mageseeker, a hi-bit brawler set in the austere kingdom of Demacia, and in June, we got Convergence, a traditional Metroidvania set in the...
Review Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Ecto Edition (Switch) - Dripping In Nostalgic 4v1 Fun
Be the one who answers the call
If you’re a child of a certain age, you absolutely grew up wanting to strap on a Proton Pack and go bust some ghosts with your friends. There have been plenty of attempts to tap into the nostalgia for Ghostbusters over the years, and, while Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed isn’t the best of the bunch, it is a...
Review Agatha Christie - Murder On The Orient Express (Switch) - A Clever New Spin On An Old Mystery
Train of thought
When a mystery story has been told millions of times before, how can it still be a mystery? This is the challenge faced by anyone adapting Agatha Christie’s phenomenally widely-read 1934 novel, Murder on the Orient Express. And just in case anyone missed out on the book, decades of film adaptations have also solved the case again...
Review Sonic Superstars - A Fine, Authentic-Feeling Return That Runs Great On Switch
Speed up, superstar
If you’d have told us that two of gaming’s most iconic rivals, Mario and Sonic, would be going head-to-head with two brand-new platformers in the space of a week, we’d have said you were probably off your rocker. What’s more, if you’d have said that Sega’s latest entry, Sonic Superstars, would turn out to provide one...
Burning rubber
Hot Wheels, man. We remember those. In the '90s almost every Saturday morning ad break featured a Hot Wheels commercial braying out superlative adjectives over thrashy rock solos. Invariably, two pearly-toothed, spiky-haired kids would grin as their miniature cars jostled for pole position, giving each other a thumbs-up after a...
Review Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition - Makes The Jump To Switch Almost Entirely Intact
"Do you hear screaming, or am I having another one of my episodes?"
A little less than ten years ago, a port of Borderlands 2 famously launched for Sony’s ailing PS Vita to middling reception. The fact that a then-current game could run at all on a portable was remarkable, but the flat visuals, crashing, and consistently sub 30 FPS performance...
Review COCOON (Switch) – A Unique, Worlds-Within-Worlds Puzzler That Left Us Buzzing
Into the hive mind
2023 has swarmed us with quality games. So many that there aren’t enough hours in the day to play them all — and now, Cocoon has crept onto our screens to buzzing acclaim. Fortunately, if you’re busy as a bee, and can’t dedicate time to a marathon game, this is a nice quick one. Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplay designer of...
Review EA Sports FC 24 (Switch) - The Best Football Game On Any Nintendo System, Finally
We Kanté believe they finally did it
Long-time Nintendo Life readers will be aware of the love-hate (mainly hate) relationship we’ve had with the FIFA series over the course of the Switch’s life. The first Switch entry, FIFA 18, was considered a positive start, even though it felt feature-light compared to other consoles and was clearly based...
Mini Review Afterdream (Switch) - Beautifully Haunting Pixel Art Horror With Perfect Puzzles
Say cheese
Afterdream is a pixel art horror title that puts atmosphere and puzzle-solving above all else. Taking place within the psyche of our protagonist as she recounts her vivid dreams, this format allows Afterdream to make liberal use of weird imagery to tell an intriguing and engaging story. Drawing inspiration from classic survival horror...
Review Trombone Champ (Switch) - A Hilarious Party Game That Blows A Big Raspberry At Perfection
Night bird
The 17th-century German rationalist philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz wrote that “Perfection is the harmony of things.” If that’s the case then our discordant parping in Trombone Champ is far from perfect – despite the multipliers received on maxing out our 'Champ' gauge. But you don’t need to achieve perfection to enjoy...
Review Gunbrella (Switch) - Witty, Winsome Action-Platforming With A Great Hook
Rain 'n' gun
Gunbrella opens, as so many noirs do, with a murder. Our protagonist, who goes unnamed until the second act of the game, sees his house aflame while he’s on his way back from gathering mushrooms. He rushes home to a gruesome, albeit pixelated, scene: his wife dead in a shock of blood. From there, we jump right into our hero’s...
Review Super Bomberman R 2 (Switch) - A Feature-Rich Return With A Cracking New 'Castle' Mode
"Time to make a comeback!"
Those of you who picked up the Switch during its launch period in the distant early days of 2017 may remember that, believe it or not, there were other games available at launch besides Breath of the Wild. One of those games was Super Bomberman R, which at the time was the title that broke the longest dry spell (nearly a...
Review 30XX (Switch) - Excellent Mega Man X-Style Run 'N' Gunning, With A Roguelite Twist
Zero to hero
Though Capcom hasn’t necessarily abandoned the Mega Man brand as a whole, it’s indisputably reduced how often it produces new games in that celebrated franchise. For example, it’s been 19 years since the last new Mega Man X release (and let’s be real, X8 was a rough entry to end on), but that series now lives on in the efforts...
Review Fae Farm (Switch) - A Thoughtful, Utterly Gorgeous Farm Sim, But Avoid The NPCs
Farming, fishing, friendship... faeries?!
Let's cut to the chase. You're here because you've most likely got a hankering for another farming-type game in your life. In fact, you've probably played most of them already, from Stardew to Harvestella, and you've most likely been burned a few times by games that didn't quite scratch the itch. Now, you're...
(rock)Steady, this is another (be)bop
When we first got our hands on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge last year, we were by no means of the impression that the game was lacking in the content department — this is, after all, what we deemed to be "the best Turtles scrolling beat 'em up ever". A little over a year later, the game's...
Review The Making Of Karateka (Switch) - A Great Start For Digital Eclipse's Gold Master Series
Everybody Do The Kiba-Dachi
Digital Eclipse, following on from Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, is continuing its trend of going back to the past to rekindle the games that kicked ass. While the Cowabunga Collection was wrapped in comic book paraphernalia and finished with a lick of...
Review Rune Factory 3 Special (Switch) - The Same Great Farm Sim/RPG, Though 'Special' Is A Stretch
Another day of sun
Being a Rune Factory fan has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the past several years. After Rune Factory 4 launched in 2013, the games went on hiatus for nearly a decade, with the fate of the series itself being pretty up in the air for most of that wait. Against all odds, and after a change in development teams and rights...
Review ANONYMOUS;CODE (Switch) - A Spellbinding Sci-Fi Visual Novel In A Flashy Package
A game worth saving (and loading)
For much of the time that Science Adventure fans have known of its existence, Anonymous;Code has been more of a waiting game than, well, an actual game. First announced all the way back in 2016, this sci-fi-heavy visual novel was smacked with delay after delay until it finally saw a Japanese-exclusive release on...
Review Taito Milestones 2 (Switch) - A Better Selection With The Fabulous Triple-Screen Darius II
Score a point over
For the avid retro gamer, the Arcade Archives series has been one of the Switch’s greatest boons. Hamster Corporation has, to date, released 280 titles, and another 108 specific to the Neo Geo hardware, all with a commitment to emulating arcade originals at affordable prices. Taito Milestones 2 is a collection featuring 10...
Review Excitebike 64 - An Underrated Racer That Deserves To Ride With Its N64 Stablemates
Hold onto your handlebars
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Of the sports games in the N64 era, Excitebike 64 feels left out of conversation more often than siblings such as Wave Race 64 and 1080° Snowboarding...
Review Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (Switch) - A Series Best That Proves It Still Has The Magic
Not just another cog
Back when Trine 4 came out, it felt a bit like a hail-mary attempt to recapture the audience that was lost after the disappointment of Trine 3, and the future of the series seemed a bit up in the air. Luckily, that last title proved to be a strong return to form for the series, and after a DLC expansion (on PC) that was also...
Review Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate (Switch) - Chess With Guns? Definitely Worth A Shot
"We will send unto them... only you"
Chess is one of the most ancient games in existence, and while we continue to eagerly await the fabled release of the completely real Chess 2, it can be fun to see how modern game makers choose to iterate on the classic design. In Shotgun King, the latest release from Headbang Club and developer Punkcake...
Review Red Dead Redemption - A Fine But No-Frills Switch Port, For A Fistful Of Dollars
For a few dollars more
Cast your tired minds all the way back through the mists of time to the year 2010. It was a truly great 12 months for video games, with the likes of Super Mario Galaxy 2, the best Mass Effect – AKA Mass Effect 2 – and the juggernaut that is Xenoblade Chronicles all arriving on the scene. It was also the year that David...
Review Moving Out 2 (Switch) - More Creative Couch-Throwing From Your Favourite F.A.R.T.s
#VanLife
Moving Out built a solid foundation with its barmy physics and multiplayer teamwork. While the original co-op moving sim had huge potential, like an empty house awaiting its owner’s belongings, a renovation was clearly in order for players to truly feel at home. Fortunately, SMG’s sequel has stepped up the Packmore property ladder, its...
Review Pokémon Trading Card Game - A Cracking Adaptation That Still Holds Up
A rare source of fun or just an uncommon?
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. It’s almost surreal nowadays to think that there was ever a time when portable gaming didn’t have Pokémon. When Red and Blue...
