Switch eShop, Switch Game Reviews scoring 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6/10
Review Witcheye - A Fun Platformer That Sadly Can't Shake Off Its Smartphone Origins
Magic eye
There's some kind of witchcraft going on with Witcheye, and we're not just talking about the title character. Here's a 2D platformer that doesn't involve any jumping whatsoever. Spooky. At the outset of the game, you take control of a witch who turns herself into a free-flying eyeball – because witches – in order to chase down a...
Review Adventures of Pip - An Interesting Social Message Undermind By Bland Action
An average platformer starring an average hero
One of the biggest crimes a game can commit is being perfectly average. While, for the most part, there is nothing technically wrong with some games, there is nothing that makes them stand out from the crowd. This is the unfortunate middle ground where Adventures of Pip lies. While the game is a...
Review Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars - Great Ideas Attached To A Rather Humdrum Game
Lacking bite
Palindrome Interactive has hit upon a number of pretty clever ideas with Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars. This pleasingly hammy/gothic foray into the world of turn-based strategy streamlines and simplifies a lot of the busywork of similar titles and adds a nifty card game mechanic that enlivens proceedings as you maraud around its map and...
Review Bounty Battle - A Reprehensible Indie-Infused Take On Super Smash Bros.
Indie Bin
Dark Screen Games' Bounty Battle is such a great idea. "The ultimate indie fighting game." Super Smash Bros. with a roster of pugilists from the cream of the underground scene over the past few years. The protagonists here hail from classics such as Dead Cells, Blasphemous, Axiom Verge,
Review Gleamlight - An Appalling Bad Hollow Knight Clone
Twilight's Last Gleaming
Contrary to how it may seem, it's not very fun reviewing bad games. Sure, there's a degree of enjoyment in being mean, but the shocking secret of criticising games that aren't enjoyable? We still have to play them. Picking up the Switch and knowing we had to play more Gleamlight made the system feel ten times heavier...
Mini Review Ary And The Secret Of Seasons - A Cut-Price Zelda With A Unique Mechanic
Not to be confused with Ori
Jumping into Ary and the Secret of Seasons – an action-adventure title – we’re immediately reminded of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. We’re introduced to our heroine Ary, who, by playing with her toy figures, recounts an ancient story of an evil mage vanquished by a legendary warrior. Before too long, Ary is...
Review Manifold Garden - A Remarkable Spectacle Undermined By Benign Puzzles
Escher wonderful life
First-person puzzle games are not a fresh, new concept. The likes of RealMyst, The Talos Principle and Superliminal (amongst many others) represent the genre on Nintendo's venerable hybrid console, and they're a high bar to clear. We don't feel as though Manifold Garden quite reaches those highs, but it's a game with a lot to
Review Jump Force Deluxe Edition - A Textbook Example Of Style Over Substance
Jump Farce
Spike Chunsoft's Jump Force arrives on Switch more than a full year after its release on other platforms and it is, as it was then, a very mixed bag of anime nuts. Jump Force Deluxe Edition is an easy to learn, easy to master button-mashing brawler with a huge roster of over fifty characters from the illustrious archives of Shonen Jump...
Mini Review Best Friend Forever - A Hybrid Dating Sim That Doesn't Quite Work
Ruff around the edges
The dating scene can be an unpredictable, anxiety-inducing beast. What better way to alleviate this, then, than by introducing one of the most cheerful, loveable creatures on the planet to the mix: the beloved doggo. Best Friend Forever is effectively a hybrid game, splitting your duties between looking after your own pet dog...
Review Struggling - One Of The Most Aptly-Named Video Games We've Ever Played
Bringing frustration to a head
Struggling marks an important milestone in gaming. This reviewer has been playing games for more than three decades, but this is the closest we’ve come to physically launching our controller at the wall. You play as Troy, a gruesome two-headed mutant blob thing with two heads and two arms. If you’ve ever seen the...
Review Takeshi & Hiroshi - A Short And Shallow Adventure Which Looks Better Than It Plays
Pleasant puppets, poor product
Originally released on Apple Arcade last fall, Takeshi & Hiroshi is one of the many smartphone games making their first jump to home console. The question remains, does an artistic experience designed for mobile gamers work on the Nintendo Switch? The answer is not as simple as one may think, as Takeshi &...
Review Linn: Path Of Orchards - Unfair Gameplay And Spotty Controls Ruin A Visually Striking Game
We can't put a spin on this one
It's obvious and often jarring when you realise that a game you're playing on your Switch is clearly designed for the simple taps and swipes of a mobile phone. Nintendo's handheld does have touch screen support, yes, but it's so underused (with exceptions, such as Anthill) that when a game like Linn: Path of Orchards...
Review Nexomon: Extinction - An Interesting Pokémon Clone That Doesn't Quite Stick The Landing
Almost the very best
Let's get one thing straight before we begin: we're going to go into this entire review without comparing Nexomon: Extinction to Pokémon. This is a very original RPG with items that have original names such as “Super Potion” and “Max Revive”…actually, who are we trying to kid? We will compare it to Pokémon, because...
Review Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition - A Weak RPG Enlivened By Nostalgia
"Do you have a link cable?"
Nostalgia can be a potent drug, often muddling our actual memories of an experience in favour of how it made us feel, and such a phenomenon positively fuels a large portion of the game industry. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is an excellent example of this. Players want to recapture that feeling of...
Review No Straight Roads - An Inventive Musical Brawler That Hits One Too Many Bum Notes
A hit single?
In the modern gaming industry, new game releases are largely put into one of two groups: Indies and AAA games. This, however, wasn’t always the case. Just a few generations ago, prior to indie games taking the spotlight, you had a lot of games that were often referred to as “AA” games. Such releases didn’t have the production...
Mini Review Bite The Bullet - Looks Delicious, But Lacks Fine Flavour
Hunger pains
If we’re being honest with ourselves, we’ve all overindulged in food at some point in our lives (heck, 2020 has done a number on this writer’s belly alone). But could you imagine being able to consume literally anything and everything? You could argue that Pac-Man got there first, but Bite the Bullet is a run-and-gun action game...
Review Arcade Archives Super Punch-Out!! - Hardly A Series Highlight, But Still A Welcome Bout
Return of the Mac
If you ask us, Hamster should be getting more praise for successfully releasing a steady stream of Nintendo games in its Arcade Archives series. No fewer than 18 of Nintendo’s vintage coin-op titles have now been released on the Switch to date, with practically all of them available to buy for the first time in their history...
Review Double Kick Heroes - Highly Original Rhythm Action Marred By Lacklustre Music And Gameplay
Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey
Rhythm games on Switch have some strong competition, what with the excellent likes of Thumper, Taiko no Tetsujin and, of course, the immortal presence of Hatsune Miku. That said, Double Kick Heroes features heavy use of firearms, something even the mighty Miku never indulged in. Oh wait, yes she...
Mini Review Spitlings - Great With Friends, But Not So Much Fun On Your Own
Teething difficulties
Spitting is a bit gross, isn’t it? Indeed, the notion of spitting in someone’s face is widely considered one of the most disrespectful and downright revolting things anybody could do. But could you imagine being able to spit out your teeth on demand? Most of us will only come close to such a scenario in our weirdest,...
Review Megadimension Neptunia VII - A Nice Enough JRPG, But Far From Essential
No, it's not pronounced as 'seven'
Any fan of the game industry is aware of the ‘console wars’ that have pretty much always been going on between hardware developers since gaming hardware has been available. Of course, no real wars are occurring, but imagine if the concept was taken literally. Compile Heart certainly liked the idea when it made...
Review Skully - More Than Bare-Bones, But Ugly As Sin On Switch
Rolling blunder
When it was originally announced, it was clear that Skully had the potential to be one of the top five greatest ‘reanimated rolling skull puzzle platformer’ games ever made. Sure enough, it manages to accomplish that (purely by existing, to be fair), but that’s not to say it isn’t without severe issues that will greatly...
Review Fairy Tail - A Disappointing RPG That's For Fans Of The Series Only
A passable adaptation of a beloved franchise
Every now and then, it’s nice to have a good cheeseburger. Just a good one. Not one of those fancy burgers that come with everything but the kitchen sink, or those made out of some specially treated beef, but just the bog-standard and no-frills patty that you can get at just about any fast food joint...
Review Rock Of Ages 3: Make & Break - Between A Rock And A Hard Place
Gathers an enormous amount of moss, sadly
Some games just aren't a good fit for the Switch. It's a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless. Rock Of Ages 3: Make & Break falls into that category, we're sorry to say. The most egregious problem to be found in this Nintendo Switch incarnation is, quite simply, a lack of suitability to the handheld...
Review 1993 Shenandoah - One For Hardcore Amiga Fans Only
27 years in the making
To own a Commodore Amiga in the late '80s / early '90s was to be part of something truly special. You might have been lucky and previously stumbled upon a ZX Spectrum or Commodore 64 at home, but you had to use your imagination to make those arcade home conversions look, sound and play anywhere near the real deal. The Amiga...
Review Vigor - Stealthy Scavenging Marred By Technical Issues
Bohemian Rhapsody?
Bohemia Interactive's Vigor, originally released on Xbox back in August of last year, finally arrives on Switch in this paid Founder's Pack edition - with a free to play version due sometime before the end of this year - and what we've got here is a pretty decent looter shooter premise with some good ideas thrown into the mix,...
Mini Review Rez Plz - Not Quite A Game To Die For
In need of a jolt
Searching for a dose of that old The Lost Vikings magic on your Nintendo Switch? We'd love to push Rez Plz forward as a blood-soaked candidate, but unfortunately there are just too many sore points for our liking. In this co-op puzzle-platformer, you'll find yourself guiding a pair of wizard twins through a SNES-era fantasy world...
Joe Hawk's Rising
If you've ever indulged in a little of Redlynx's Trials series, tried your hand at some Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or dabbled a little with Hello Games' Joe Danger on last-gen consoles, you'll have a good idea of what Urban Trial Tricky is attempting to aim towards. Tate Multimedia has created a messy mish-mash of all three here, with...
Review Outbuddies DX - Offers Lots To Love, But The Failings Of This Metroidvania Bring It Down
With buddies like these...
You can’t move for Metroidvania games these days, and given that a huge percentage of these are indie games with retro-style graphics, we propose a new subgenre called Retroidvania. Outbuddies DX fits rather nicely into this new pigeonhole we just created, and we can safely say that of all the Retroidvania games we’ve...
Review Star Wars Episode I: Racer - This N64 Cult Classic Doesn't Quite Make The Podium In 2020
The Race of Skywalker
A long time ago in, erm, this galaxy, a game called Star Wars Episode I: Racer was a smash hit, leading to dozens of enthusiastic magazine reviews with the byline "now this is podracing!" Unfortunately, the intervening years have been unkind to the Star Wars prequels, but does that hindsight extend to this thoroughly...
Review Blair Witch - A Decent Horror Romp That Doesn't Quite Live Up To Its Tantalising Premise
The Blair Switch Project
1999's The Blair Witch Project was something of a milestone in modern cinema history. An independent, low budget hit that made mega-profits at the box office, it was the first truly successful "found footage" movie (although not "the" first) as well as the first to cleverly employ the internet in a viral marketing campaign...