DANGEN Entertainment Game Reviews
Mini Review Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (Switch) - Another Marvellous Metroidvania
Moonlight serenade
This game was originally covered as part of our Nindie Round Up series that sought to give coverage to a wider breadth of Switch eShop games beyond our standard reviews. In an effort to make our impressions easier to find, we're presenting the original text below in our mini-review format. The fourth in this series of 2D...
Mini Review OneShot: World Machine Edition (Switch) - A Brilliant And Bittersweet Indie Darling
You've only got OneShot
A cat-like child named Niko wakes up in a decrepit house, locked in a room with a bookshelf, a password-locked computer, and a TV remote control on the floor. It’s too dark to read the books and there’s no sign of a password anywhere – it's up to you to find a way out. Not long after, Niko stumbles upon a massive...
Review Lost Ruins (Switch) - A Survival-Focused Metroidvania With Fantastic Pixel Art
Pixel punishment
In anime, there is a popular genre called isekai, which means “another world” and is characterised by the protagonist travelling from their normal, boring world into one filled with magic and monsters. Normally, it is a light-hearted affair, with the main character settling into their new life and eventually managing to save...
Mini Review Evertried (Switch) - An Engaging Roguelite, Half Tactics, Half Puzzler
Try, try again
Some games just cut right to the chase. No set up, no indulgent intro, just a fast cutscene and you’re tossed in the deep end. Evertried is one of those games. Here you’re placed in the role of a cute little undead creature with a scythe who has to climb “The Tower”. See, in this world, lost souls that haven’t proven...
Review Ultra Age (Switch) - Surprisingly Satisfying Devil May Cry-Style Hack-And-Slash Action
Devil May Try
Fans of hack-and-slash games in the Devil May Cry / Bayonetta mould don't have a particularly large library of titles to choose from on Switch, although with both of these famous franchises, plus the excellent Astral Chain and a (two-thirds dodgy) Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection port on the console, the quality of what is available is...
Mini Review Astalon: Tears Of The Earth (Switch) - Likeable, High Fantasy Metroidvania Action
The Three Musketeers
Astalon: Tears of the Earth is yet another retro-inspired action platformer on Switch eShop, with a sprinkling of light RPG elements. It tells the tale of an unspecified planet that falls into chaos after an endless battle between its many kingdoms. After decades of surviving in the wasteland, a band of three heroes journey into...
Review Smelter (Switch) - Strong Mega Man X-Style Platforming Forged With Extract Of ActRaiser
Would you Adam and Eve it!?
Now you’re talking. Indie games have been imitating classics of the past for years and years now, and it’s about time that one of them had the cajones to take a run at the seminal ActRaiser, Quintet’s 1990 genre-melding masterpiece. To be fair, SolSeraph had a crack at combining top-down elements with platforming,...
Mini Review Minoria (Switch) - A Short But Sweet Metroidvania With Great Combat
Sister Act
Coming off the back of its previous game, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, Bombservice’s Minoria feels like a natural evolution in many ways. It’s a fast-paced Metroidvania with a sharp focus on aggressive combat, but also contains many staple tropes of the genre, including collectable items, hidden passageways, and unlockable...
Review Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling (Switch) - A Lovely Indie Tribute To Paper Mario
Fly paper
It's no huge revelation that Nintendo's refusal to return the Paper Mario series to its RPG roots has alienated a lot of players. The exploration and puzzle-solving of the latest entries Sticker Star and Colour Splash is an acquired taste, and many gamers lament the fact that the big N chose this direction for the franchise. Consequently...
Review Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition (Switch) - A Gorgeous Love Letter To JRPGs Which Just Falls Short
Ara Fell, not awful
There's a comforting familiarity to Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition that lends the whole game a veneer of nostalgia. That's not just in terms of its debt to classic JRPGs – which, naturally, it has in spades – but also in its character writing, which conjures up memories of old-school webcomics, fanfiction and English-translated...
The devil is in the detail
Long before 'bullet hell' shooters became the flavour of the month, Technosoft's Thunder Force series took an almost perverse delight in humiliating players who foolishly believed they had the skills to beat even the toughest shmup challenge. Titles like Thunder Force III, IV and V were the pinnacle of 2D shooting...
Review Super Sportmatchen (Switch eShop)
On your mark, get set, go!
If you’ve ever played Konami’s Track & Field series (also known as Hyper Olympic in Japan), you’ll no doubt remember the intense competitive aspects of these titles. Super Sportmatchen channels the spirit of these classics and has a slightly less serious tone. This is a single and multiplayer game focused on...
