Game Reviews scoring 8, 9 or 10/10
Review Super Meat Boy 3D (Switch 2) - Not The Finest Cut, But Still Tasty
A real meat grinder
In many ways, the gaming landscape was radically different in 2010, and one difference was a relative lack of indie releases. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for games like Balatro or Hollow Knight: Silksong to have equal sales, attention, and excitement behind them as major AAA releases, and it can be easy to forget that such...
Spirited away
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an easy game, but it has two near insurmountable difficulty spikes. The first is the compulsion to constantly sit with your companion critters and make them dance around you or kiss you on the cheek, which brings the game to a screeching halt. The second is an overwhelming urge to use the game’s photo mode...
REVOlutionary?
It feels like Virtua Fighter 5 has been around for bloomin’ ages, and that’s because it has. Originally released in 2006, it’s been updated several times, remastered by RGG Studios with the Dragon Engine, received the highly-requested rollback netcode, and finally ported to current platforms, including the Switch 2. If I were...
Ride on!
Well, folks, it’s finally here. After working through remasters of all the most popular Mega Man sub-series, the remaining question was whether Capcom would then go on to bring back some of the Blue Bomber's less successful major adventures. While our hearts still go out to fans of Mega Man Legends (any day now...), Mega Man Star Force:...
Would you like to know more?
While titles like the upcoming Sprawl Zero may herald the dawn of the 'millennial shooter' on other platforms, Switch remains a comfortable home for the retro stylings of the boomer shooter. Games like Boltgun, Dusk, and Ion Fury make for enjoyable '90s throwbacks, while the titles that inspired them, including DOOM,...
Hey. Nice sneakers.
Back in 2023, Mimimi Games, the Munich-based indie studio that almost single-handedly reinvigorated the real-time tactical genre over the previous decade, released its very best game to date. And then it shut down for good. Of all the indie studio closures we'd had up to that point, this one felt like it got to me the most upon...
To the gurney
Following a handful of Star Trek games on Switch over the last few years, a couple of which have been rather good, Switch 2 now has its own entry in the Trek library courtesy of German devs GameXcite, and this is probably the best one yet - IF (big if) you've got the stones for a long, arduous journey. It's worth emphasising up front...
Ganon fire
I’ve seen lots of games try to emulate top-down Zelda over the years; some to great success and others, well… not so much. Minishoot’ Adventures - NIntendo Switch 2 Edition falls into the first camp, and although it’s not as grand in scale as your average Hyrulian quest these days, it nevertheless nails the feel of a great Zelda...
It's a Monstie world
It’s fair to say that, at the time of writing, Capcom is on an absolute roll with Nintendo Switch 2. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection arrives against that backdrop, but also as a continuation of a franchise spin-off that began as a 3DS exclusive. Nintendo systems have benefited from plenty of Monster Hunter games...
Review Blue Prince (Switch 2) - A Masterful Mystery, And One Of The Best Puzzlers Ever
Homes Under The Planner
Herbert Sinclair, the baron of Reddington's Mount Holly Estate, is dead. In his will, he leaves the estate, its grounds, and his title to you, his grandnephew, Simon. There is one condition: to prove yourself worthy of the gift, you have to find the mysterious 46th room in the 45-room manor, the location of which has never...
Review Tales Of Berseria Remastered (Switch) - QoL Tweaks Make A Brilliant Game Even Better
Redemption is here
2015 marked a low point for the Tales series. Tales of Zestiria was an underwhelming entry despite its exciting battle system. With a boring plot and mostly unimpressive characters, it wasn’t exactly an entry to write home about, at least for me. However, the follow-up entry, 2017’s Tales of Berseria, was nothing short of a...
Review Planet Of Lana 2: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - A Charming Trek Through A Fantastic World
Mui and me
Planet of Lana released in 2023 to strong reviews, but flew under the radar. Wishfully Game's short and sweet indie platform puzzler was a real treat, with its painterly style and cute central partnership at its centre. While the original is still well worth seeking out, the story is quickly recapped in the opening moments of Planet of...
Review Scott Pilgrim EX (Switch 2) - A Gloriously Entertaining, Fan-Service-Filled Retro Brawler
Sweet! More coins!
Riding the cult success of Edgar Wright’s cinematic adaptation while keeping the aesthetic and charm of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s source material, Ubisoft's Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World game was a smash hit at launch. This gloriously retro co-op brawler still holds up today; its 16-bit charms remain well worth your time,...
Review Pokémon Pokopia (Switch 2) - One Of The Most Enticing Pokémon Games Ever
I'm gonna reconstruct block by block
We've now spent some time with Pokémon Pokopia's multiplayer modes, and they're the perfect companion to the creative single-player experience. Check out our thoughts at the bottom of this review. I feel like I’ve been rebuilding my relationship with Pokémon over the past decade. It’s been a weird...
Let's have a rave-up
There's part of me that still can't quite believe I'm playing Rave Racer on a home console. Namco's 1995 sequel to Ridge Racer never made it out of the arcades back in the day, despite promises that it would be ported to PC as part of NEC's push for its PowerVR graphics processor. For years, the game's legacy has been having...
Review Resident Evil Requiem (Switch 2) - Action And Horror Combine In A Series Highlight
Blood, blood, gallons of the stuff
There’s a moment during Resident Evil Requiem — actually, no, several moments — in which I laid the controller on my lap and just stared at the screen in awe. Over the last decade, the series has reclaimed its throne as the king of the survival horror genre, but Requiem pushes the quality bar higher than...
Review The Disney Afternoon Collection (Switch 2) - A Delightful Yet Difficult '90s Throwback
Good afternoon
It’s been a long time coming — almost nine years, in fact — but Capcom’s The Disney Afternoon Collection is now finally heading to the Switch and Switch 2 under the stewardship of Atari and developer Digital Eclipse. Not to rub it in the faces of PlayStation and Xbox owners (except that’s exactly what I'm doing), but it’s...
Anything Qud happen
The legends of Caves of Qud stretch back into the ancient times, through mists of lore, to a moment of destiny. That’s right – all the way back to 2007, when American team Freehold Games began development on this ambitious roguelike RPG. After a 17-year journey to version 1.0 in 2024, gathering a devoted PC following, this...
Go tell Aunt Rhody
Just in case you need yet another reminder of how old you’re getting, Capcom first revealed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard all the way back in June 2016 – almost a decade ago. Following its release in 2017 and a rather unsavoury cloud port on the Switch in 2021, Nintendo fans can finally experience Capcom’s soft reboot on Switch...
The bomb
One of the most pleasant surprises of this month’s Partner Direct was the reveal and shadow drop of the Super Bomberman Collection, a compilation of some of the eponymous hero’s earliest games with some extra goodies thrown in. Though it’s ultimately little more than the sum of its parts, Super Bomberman Collection does a great job of...
Review Ys X: Proud Nordics (Switch 2) - The Definitive Version Of Adol Christin's Seafaring Saga
Such is the Norman way
It feels like just yesterday that Ys X: Nordics slashed its way onto the Switch to deliver another one of the series’ action-packed adventures for the ages — and, really, that’s not too far off the mark. The 10th mainline entry in NIS’ seminal RPG franchise made its way westward back in late 2024, which is still plenty...
Once upon a time...
While we continue to wait for a true RPG sequel to the early Paper Mario games, many indie developers have attempted to fill the void, and while nobody has quite managed to recapture their magic, Escape from Ever After feels like the closest anyone has gotten yet. It’s got some quirks, but it does a great job of offering an...
Review Reanimal (Switch 2) - Little Nightmares Team Delivers Its Darkest, Boldest Vision Yet
Not your average farm sim
If you’re a horror fan and you own a Switch 2, you should play Reanimal. From the moment it pulls you into its bleak, nightmarish world, it’s clear that developer Tarsier Studios is building on everything it learned from the Little Nightmares series while pushing its signature horror sensibilities to unnerving new...
Review Mario Tennis Fever (Switch 2) - Slim For Singles, But An Addictive Core Gives It Online Legs
Nadal it's cracked up to be?
Having never been any sort of tennis fan for my entire childhood — Wimbledon always seemed a bit posh to me — I fell completely and utterly in love with the sport in my teenage years through the medium of video games. Yes. Video games. They're a whole thing! And just as has been the case with American football,...
Review Hollow Knight (Switch) - One Of The Finest Metroidvanias That's Not A Metroid Or 'Vania
Bugs now available on Switch 2
This review was originally published in June 2018 when Hollow Knight launched on the Switch 1. To celebrate the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, we're republishing it along with some brief impressions of the free upgrade, which is available to download now. The Switch isn't exactly lacking for quirky...
Review Jimmy And The Pulsating Mass (Switch) - The Best EarthBound-Like You've Never Heard Of
Jimmy Dreams World
Early on in Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, the young protagonist confronts a possessed frog statue in a house surrounded by a bloody lake. The possessor turns out to be a rotten Jack O’Lantern, capable of dangerous fire magic but with a goofy, cheerful grin. Defeating it, Jimmy stands where it used to be, and immediately...
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
The Metroidvania revival (did it ever really go away?) keeps rolling, and here comes another stylised combat-platformer where a strange little hero gets lost in a dark, labyrinthine fantasy world. This time, our protagonist is John, who stumbles into a bizarre realm full of somnambulist weirdos and giant babies. Studio...
Review Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined (Switch 2) - A Fantastic Makeover & The Best-Looking DQ Ever
Let's do the time warp again
Ready to feel old? It’s been about 13 years since the launch of the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII, which itself was released about 13 years after the original on the PSX. That means that it’s time for yet another remake of the storied classic, which has been dubbed Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined this time around. This...
May contain nuts
As a big old superhero nerd and a fan of Telltale's narrative adventure games of old, it's fair to say that Dispatch piqued my interest when it made its episodic arrival on PC and PS5 last year. Still, I took a punt and held back on purchasing because it simply had to be coming to Switch at some point in the future. Well, Jim of the...
Vroom, shake the room?
For serious petrolheads, the Switch 1 wasn't exactly a (Burnout) paradise platform. In fact, given the size of the console's library, there's surprisingly little in the way of even semi-serious racing sims for those looking for more than kart racing, smaller-scale experiences that hone in on one aspect and expand (such as the...
