Switch eShop, Switch Game Reviews scoring 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6/10
Review Dusk Diver - Enjoyable Combat Can't Fully Atone For The Problems Elsewhere
Interdimensional Express
JFI Games’ Dusk Diver is a Musou-style hack-and-slash affair that tells the story of Yuma, an innocent high school student thrown into the middle of an interdimensional battle between the ancient animal Gods of Kunlun. Taking place between an impressively detailed recreation of the Ximending district of Taipei and its...
Review Arcade Archives VS. Castlevania - Fixes Some Sins, But The Original Remains Superior
Fangs, but no fangs
The original NES Castlevania has seen its fair share of re-releases over the years, but the same can’t be said for its alternative arcade version. VS. Castlevania was originally released for the Nintendo VS. System of arcade hardware, which for the most part offered tweaked versions of NES games designed to focus more on...
Review Beast Quest - Don't Be A Hero, Stick With The Books
Positively beastly
If you’re of a certain age, the Beast Quest books were likely a staple of your childhood. Having first launched in 2007 with Ferno the Fire Dragon, the series has been going strong for twelve years and shows no signs of slowing down. Including the first four books scheduled for publication next year, there are currently an...
Not exactly a whole new world
Movie tie-in games can be notoriously hit-or-miss in their quality. Often, the games seem to be something of an afterthought or simply advertisement fodder for the film they're based on, but every now and then, tie-ins can surprise with how well they stand on their own. Back in the day, the video game adaptations of...
Review Close To The Sun - A Poor Imitation Of BioShock That Looks Worse On Switch
Getting a bit too warm there, Icarus
It’s perhaps almost parody at this point for eager Switch fans to tweet their longing desire for a game to be released on the system. "Is it coming to Switch?" remains a near-constant reminder to the social media marketing teams that there’s an entire console fanbase that wants their shiny new game replicated...
Review Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD - Improved Controls Ruined By Some Odd Design Choices
Gorillas in our mitts
The Wii Remote strap was allegedly added to stop controllers slipping from sweaty palms. But could it be that someone at Nintendo had actually played Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz – a Wii launch game – and predicted a wave of fury-induced Remote tossings? Back on Wii, Monkey Ball swapped its traditional analogue stick for...
Review Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers - A Slow-Paced Starting Point For Genre Newcomers
My First JRPG
Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is an RPG aimed primarily at younger players and those who perhaps haven’t dabbled in the genre before. Telling the story of Sherry, a young girl who’s whisked away on a time-travelling adventure after time itself is frozen during a New Year’s countdown in her hometown of Clocknee, it’s a...
Review AeternoBlade II - A Host Of Good Ideas Wiped Out By Shoddy Execution
Aeternoff
The central problem with AeternoBlade II is that it tries too hard to fit too many elements into its gameplay and, in doing so, ensures that pretty much nothing it attempts works as well as it should. Just like its 2014 predecessor, this is a title that squeezes in time manipulation puzzles, side-scrolling hack-and-slash action,...
Review Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip - Undead, Unfunny And Unnecessary
Braindead
High Voltage Software’s Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip keeps alive the great video game tradition of absolutely terrible, overpriced movie tie-ins. With a campaign that clocks in at around about the two-hour mark, extremely basic twin-stick shooting action, bland graphics, inexplicably long loading times, rotten narrative segments...
Review Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure - You'd Have To Be Off Your Nut To Play This
Glacial disaster
Wow, there’s just no stopping Ice Age, is there? Just like The Pleistocene, 20th Century Fox’s (or Disney’s now, we guess) animated juggernaut has been relentless since the release of the first movie back in 2002, with a total of five cinematic releases, a host of short films and TV shows, and a plethora of console and online...
A whole load of puff-puff
Dragon Quest II has a reputation. Not only is it the sophomore entry into the juggernaut JRPG franchise, the second of Dragon Quest’s Erdrick Trilogy, but it’s also known as one of the most difficult, unbalanced JRPGs to this day. News of its re-release on Switch is great news for series purists who want to take a...
Review BDSM: Big Drunk Satanic Massacre - Hellishly Good Fun That Needs More Polish
Raise Hell
Just one look at the logo and key artwork for BDSM: Big Drunk Satanic Massacre, and it’s clear that this isn’t a game to be taken seriously. Everything from its logo and key artwork to the way it insults you upon death is designed to elicit a chuckle. But if you’re easily offended by colourful language, innuendos, or over-the-top...
Review Into the Dead 2 - An Overpriced Zombie Shooter That Should Have Stayed Dead
World War $$$
Into the Dead 2 is an auto-run zombie survival game which originally launched back in 2017 on iOS and Android as a free-to-play title laden with the usual mobile microtransactions. The aim of proceedings here is to make your way through gauntlet after gauntlet of shambling, braindead zombie attackers as your player character moves...
Dead men crop no farms
There are few things in life as relaxing as a farming simulator. From the likes of Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley and, well, Farming Simulator, it’s a genre that has crept into the mainstream as mellow experiences that can be tackled at your own pace. The joy of them, of course, is that feeling of accomplishment when you...
Review Dragon Quest - A Classic JRPG Marred By Odd Choices And Technical Issues
An oozy remake of a JPRG goo-reat
Originally released in the west as Dragon Warrior on the NES in 1986, Dragon Quest’s latest rerelease on the Switch eShop is a throwback to retro JRPG design, and features a few new tricks up its sleeve that makes it a bit more palatable for modern audiences. There are brand-new bells and whistles including a...
Review Mable & The Wood - A Metroidvania That Sadly Fails To Excite
It’s morphin’ time!
Mable & The Wood is yet another example of a game with huge potential that’s somehow been mostly squandered thanks to poor execution. It takes the tried-and-tested idea of shape-shifting (famously utilised in games like Altered Beast and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and runs with it, moulding its exploration...
Review Call Of Cthulhu - Oppressive Cosmic Horror That's Plagued By Problems
Don't heed the call
Focus Home Interactive’s reputation for creating daring tie-ins to lapsed license continues. This time we’re taking a peek into the unknowable with Call of Cthulhu, which is based more off of the pen-and-paper RPG of the same name than the original work written by notable author H.P. Lovecraft, who once referred to people of...
Review The Bradwell Conspiracy - More Style Than Substance
Keep your theories to yourself
It should be a day for celebration. Bradwell Electronics, a seemingly benign British conglomerate, has piqued the world’s attention with the announcement of its groundbreaking ‘Clean Water Initiative’. Gathering the greatest minds from the scientific community within the confines of its Stonehenge Museum,...
Review A Knight's Quest - A Pale Imitation Of Zelda, But At Least It Has A Sense Of Humour
Open mic Knight
Ever wondered what happens when you’re the adventurous son of a Mayor and accidentally set in motion the end of the world? Welcome to A Knight’s Quest, a charming if flawed action-adventure from Sky9 Games. You play as Rusty, a brave (if clumsy) protagonist tasked with putting right his rather substantial mistake of setting free...
Review Valfaris - Heavy Metal Mayhem That's Rough Around The Edges
Headbangers brawl
The concept of subtlety doesn’t exist in the world of Valfaris, a grimdark sci-fi realm where a grizzled warrior crashes his ship onto an alien world, shooting, slashing and headbanging everything that dares move in the name of vengeance and violence. You’ll shotgun bugs into red mist, collect guns obsessively named around the...
Review BurgerTime Party! - Too Many Cooks Spoil The Burger
Overcooked, or a rare treat?
You can tell BurgerTime originated in 1982 from the state of the burgers you’re building. Nothing fancy: a flat bap, a patty, a limp bit of lettuce and maybe a tomato or cheese slice in the more exotic levels. A true 2019 update should deliver ludicrous towers of buttermilk chicken, smashed avocado and chipotle sauce...
Review Dead By Daylight - Fun Online Horror Action That's Ugly And Expensive On Switch
Daylight Robbery?
Dead By Daylight is an asymmetrical, online-only survival horror game that has been pitting teams of survivors against crazed killers since 2016. The story sees innocent bystanders pulled into the world of the Entity, a supernatural being awakened from its slumber by the horrific actions of the cast of killers you get to play as...
Revisiting a visual novel trendsetter
Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World might not be a catchy title for a Japanese visual novel, but this remake of the beloved PC-98 classic is an important watershed for the genre as a whole. Originally released in 1996, Yu-No tells the tale of Takuya, revealing the nature of his father’s...
Review FIFA 20 - A Shamelessly Cynical Attempt To Swindle Switch-Owning Footy Fans
This can't Coutinho happening
When EA released FIFA 18 on the Switch, it was missing a number of modes and features. Given that the game was being handled by another studio in Bucharest – and given that one of the game’s producers gave the (rather fishy) excuse that they didn’t want to overwhelm Switch players with every option at once – we...
Mini Review Button Button Up! - A Perfectly Fine Platformer, And That's It
Stitch-em-up
Button Button Up! is one of those platformer games that can be described as being just ‘fine’. It’s not going to compete with some of the more accomplished games on the Switch like Celeste or Super Mario Maker 2, but nor should it be completely glossed over. It’s a perfectly serviceable platformer with cute visuals and fun...
Review Devil May Cry 2 - The Series Nadir Isn't Worth Bothering With On Switch
Dante's Inferno
By now we all know the story of how Devil May Cry 2 was subject to a rather troubled and fast-tracked development. Hideki Kamiya, the director of the first game, was not involved and his replacement – whom, to this day, has remained unnamed – was dismissed deep into development, replaced by Hideaki Itsuno for the remaining few...
Review Contra: Rogue Corps - An Ugly And Unfocused Mess That Shames The Contra Name
A very shattered soldier
Contra: Rogue Corps sets itself some seven years after the cataclysmic events of 1992’s Contra III: The Alien Wars, one of the very best entries in the franchise. It’s certainly a bold move to tie yourself so directly to such a beloved game; a sign of supreme confidence, you might think. Well, if it was confidence, it...
Review Habroxia - An Old-School Shmup That Fails To Excite Or Entertain
Er-Type
Developed by Lillymo Games and published by EastAsiaSoft, Habroxia is an old-school shmup that sees you face off against waves of alien invaders across fifteen short levels, hoovering up various pickups in time-honoured shoot-em-up fashion and grabbing credits which can then be used to purchase a variety of upgrades for your ship. Levels see...
Review Paper Dolls Original - A Horror Wannabe That Fails To Raise A Scare
Yōkai Botch
Ever since Amnesia: The Dark Descent first gave gamers the heebie-jeebies back in 2010, we’ve seen a number of games try to imitate its success. Some, like Outlast and Alien: Isolation, have been remarkably well-received, whilst others, like Slender: The Eight Pages, haven’t been quite so successful. The latest attempt to meld...
Patience you must have
The Switch is finally getting itself some Star Wars games! With last week’s release of the rather excellent Star Wars Pinball being very quickly followed by this, a barebones port of 2002’s Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Quite rightly regarded as one of the very best Star Wars games – certainly in terms of its...