Latest Reviews
Review Dredge (Switch) - A Haunting Lovecraftian Fishing Sim That Reels You In
There’s no plaice like home
New Zealand indie studio Black Salt’s Dredge surfaced in a highly mysterious trailer in 2022. All we saw was a small boat chugging around torrid seas, terrorised by Lovecraftian looming skies and giant, tentacled monsters. A later trailer showed a fisherman catching ever larger fish, selling them for ever larger...
Review Assault Suits Valken Declassified (Switch) - A Great Treatment Of A Mecha Classic
Assaulting the senses
Within a few steps into the world of Assault Suits Valken Declassified, it is immediately apparent that something distinct is going on. That’s because the steps themselves feel different. Compared to traditional run ‘n’ guns such as Metal Slug, for example, the movement in the Assault Suits Valken remaster is...
Review Blade Assault (Switch) - A Competent 2D Roguelite In Desperate Need Of Sharpening
To be blunt
It must be tough being a developer in the roguelite space these days. The absolute explosion of popularity this genre has enjoyed over the past several years has led to an impressive number of innovative new titles that find cool ways to create new play experiences or reinterpret old ones, but competition has never been higher and the...
Going out on a thigh note
Gust's long-running Atelier series has come on leaps and bounds over the past few years. Its various recent appearances on Switch in particular display a steely determination on the part of the Japanese developer to step up with its JRPG franchise and make a concerted effort to rub shoulders with the big guns. In Atelier...
Mini Review Storyteller (Switch) - A Clever, Funny Little Puzzler From Annapurna
We want more!
Whether it’s the eye-popping The Artful Escape or the music-driven masterpiece Sayonara Wild Hearts, Annapurna Interactive has put out more than a few must-play titles on the Nintendo Switch, so when we heard the publisher's next project was a little puzzle game called Storyteller, you can bet we wanted to check it out immediately...
Review Backbeat (Switch) - A Unique, Virtuoso Puzzler Steeped In Funk And '90s Cool
Sax, lies, and videotape
When you think “music game”, you probably think “rhythm action”. Well, Stockholm-based indie team Ichigoichie is here to confound your expectations with Backbeat, a funkily fiendish puzzle game about the intricacies of playing in a band. Ichigoichie’s first game was 2019’s Hexagroove, where they were already...
Cel of the century
Foolish is the person who looks at a tie-in game aimed mainly at younger players and instantly dismisses it as a load of old bums. Of course, most of the time they’re completely right – we still have occasional nightmares of that time we played Hotel for Dogs on the Wii – but every now and then a licensed game will go above...
Review Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And The Lost Demon (Switch) - A Placid Prequel For Platinum's Star
A Kind of Magic
If you happened to read our Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon preview a few weeks back you'll know that after the first five chapters of the game, we were pretty excited to continue our adventures through PlatinumGames' bewitching spin-off from the main Bayonetta series. We were impressed with its mix of gameplay mechanics...
Have at you!
Few games have enjoyed post-launch support as robust and high-quality as Dead Cells has received for the past six(!) years. Motion Twin has produced wave after wave of updates, some free and some paid, which have packed the already awesome base game with a dizzying amount of new biomes, weapons, cosmetics, and more. And all of it feels...
More blessing than curse
If you’ve not heard of Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, then don’t worry. Although this curious visual novel is receiving a worldwide release on the Switch eShop, its reveal was specifically earmarked for the Japanese Nintendo Direct back in February. So while we were undoubtedly smitten over Metroid Prime...
Review Figment 2: Creed Valley - Charming Action Puzzling, But Sluggish On Switch
Sleep well
In 2017, Bedtime Digital Games released Figment, a cute and dreamlike action puzzle game that aimed to be a little more ambitious and expansive than their debut release, Back to Bed. We enjoyed it, and evidently plenty of other people did, too, as the studio has now brought us Figment 2: Creed Valley. Though Figment 2 feels like more of...
Review Mato Anomalies (Switch) - Ambitious Detective RPG Is Overstuffed And Unengaging
Shanghai Surprise?
Arrowiz, the Shanghai-based development team behind 2021's Hermitage: Strange Case Files, returns to Nintendo Switch with a determined attempt to replicate the general rhythm and vibe of Atlus' all-conquering Persona series in the form of Mato Anomalies. This is an RPG that throws a whole bunch of ideas and gameplay mechanics at...
Review The Last Spell - An Extremely Fun, Dark Roguelite With A Clumsy Switch Port
Spells trouble
Even in a magical fantasy setting, nothing good comes from war. The Last Spell, a roguelite that mixes tactical RPG and tower defense elements, is set in a world that has already been destroyed by mankind’s thirst for destruction. With this unique blend of genres, the game offers up some fun and engaging gameplay mechanics, but...
The best wave yet
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is back with Wave 4 (of six) of the Booster Course Pass tracks, this time covering the Fruit Cup and Boomerang Cup. Now that we’re over the halfway point, it really feels like Nintendo is starting to kick things into high gear with not only a stellar set of new and returning tracks but also an extra character...
Review Metroid Fusion - An Infectious, Portable Pleasure
SA-Xcellent
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's GBA library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Released a full eight years after its phenomenal Super Nintendo predecessor, Super Metroid, 2002's Metroid Fusion is a well-paced, tense, atmospheric game and...
Review Session: Skate Sim - A Valiant Attempt That Doesn't Quite Land On Switch
A grind
What instantly springs to mind when you consider skateboarding video games? If it’s effortlessly pulling off super cool tricks, grinding rails at high speed, doing flashy spins off the top of huge vert ramps and putting together sick combos for rad scores, then you may need to pump the brakes on that board of yours a little before deciding...
I ain't afraid o' no ghost
In the original 1998 Ring movie from director Hideo Nakata, the entire film's premise revolves around a vengeful spirit called Sadako, whose internal rage gave birth to a video tape curse via a phenomenon known as ‘thoughtography’. While Sadako is ultimately the driving force behind the film’s narrative, it’s only...
They're good dogs, Bront
These days, it feels like it takes a lot more for a Metroidvania to stand out from the pack, especially when there are so many excellent titles that have already shown impressively creative takes on the genre standards. Pronty from Taiwanese indie developer 18Light makes its bid for your attention by plopping players in a...
Review The Legend Of Heroes: Trails To Azure (Switch) - Crossbell's Conclusion Is A Cracking RPG
Blue-sky thinking
The release of the Crossbell Saga in English has been a long time coming for fans of the Trails series. And with The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero’s cracking debut last September, the wait for Trails to Azure has had us salivating. And finally, the missing gap in the series has been filled, and the conclusion of the...
Review Fitness Boxing Fist Of The North Star (Switch) - A Fun Crossover That Delivers Basic Beats
HD Rumble in the jungle
Despite what you may initially think, combining a fitness game with much-loved manga and anime series Fist of the North Star isn’t the completely left-field crossover it appears to be. In fact, it’s not even the first game based on the IP that makes the player swing actual punches. Many years ago, this writer used to...
Review Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society (Switch) - A Deep, Dense, Devastating Dungeon Crawler
Moon's haunted
Though the JRPG has remained the de facto king of the RPG space for the last few decades, one could argue that the popular genre would never have existed were it not for DRPGs. What started in eons past with titles like Ultima and aimed to translate a traditional D&D gameplay experience to the screen has given way to more...
Spinning bird click
BROK the InvestiGator gets right to the point: you begin the game in a burning room. You naturally start pointing and clicking to solve a simple puzzle. This leads to another puzzle: Alligator PI Brok urgently exclaims, “I need to get past that door!” Before your grey matter cogs can even get a-whirring, a dialogue box tells...
Review Redemption Reapers (Switch) - An Uneven Tactical RPG With A Fantastic Soundtrack
Fails to live up to its hype
When we first loaded up Redemption Reapers, we were in love with the aesthetic of the game. A dark and gritty tactical RPG with surprisingly good-looking cutscenes and haunting music was exactly the palate cleanser we needed after playing through Fire Emblem Engage. While those strong points never get old during this...
Review Meg's Monster (Switch) - A One-Of-A-Kind Adventure That Hits You In The Feels
Trust me, bro. You’re gonna cry.
There are a lot of forgettable little indie RPGs floating around on the Nintendo Switch eShop, but it’d be a mistake to lump developer Odencat’s Meg’s Monster in with them. In fact, despite appearances of turn-based battles and an underworld filled with monsters to battle, we’d argue that Meg’s Monster...
Review Digimon World: Next Order (Switch) - A Repetitive, Open-World Grind For Die-Hard Fans Only
The only way is Easy Mode
Just like any franchise that’s been going as long as it has, Digimon video games have had plenty of ups and downs. Digimon World: Next Order was first released in 2016 for the PlayStation Vita, with a PlayStation 4 release making its way to the West the following year. Since then, it has enjoyed enough of a cult following...
Review Clive 'N' Wrench (Switch) - A Banjo-Kazooie-Style Throwback That Hits All The Wrong Notes
Monkey see, monkey don’t
There is little argument that Switch has become one of the premier consoles for 3D platformers. From a host of classics from the 'Golden Age', such as Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64, to incredible brand new experiences, like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and brilliant indies such as Lunistice, there is a 3D platformer...
Review Grim Guardians: Demon Purge (Switch) - A Creative, Character-Swapping Ode To Castlevania
Double Switch
From Inti Creates, developers of the critically acclaimed Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon duo and the Mega Man Zero/ZX series, comes a new Metroidvania rendered in a 16-bit graphical style, utilising modern hardware for various special effects, animation, and sprite creation. And it’s a fine-looking game, overall. While some areas...
Dream Weaver
If you’ve had a gander at our list of the Best Kirby Games Of All Time lately (or read our original 9/10 review from back in the day, more to the point) you’ll know that we hold Kirby’s Return to Dream Land in high regard around these parts. A return to classic Kirby action after a few less successful deviations from the norm...
Review Akka Arrh (Switch) - A Scrapped Atari Shooter Gets A Psychedelic Llamasoft Refurb
A bomb in hand is worth two in the bathroom
Jeff Minter, international man of gaming mystery, is back in action. If you’ve never heard of him, the 60-year-old has been in game coding and development, and seemingly happily off his rocker since 1979. Going by the moniker ‘Yak’, Minter cut his teeth on the Sinclair ZX60 in the early '80s, going...
Review Octopath Traveler II - A Confident Follow-Up And One Of Switch's Finest RPGs
Eight roads diverged in a wood, and I... well, I took them all!
A year after the Switch released, Team Asano—who made its name on the Bravely Default games on 3DS—released Octopath Traveler for the Switch. The fascinating HD-2D art style immediately grabbed people’s attention, while the clever implementation of classic JRPG gameplay quickly...
