Plug In Digital Game Reviews
Review Star Overdrive (Switch) - Uneven But Ambitious Open-World Hoverboarding
The boards do work on water
In much the same way that modern society pines for the flying cars they have always been promised, the modern gamer yearns for hoverboards in their open-world adventures… or they should - because it’s a lot of fun. Last year’s Gori: Cuddly Carnage featured a floating board as both transport and weapon, and now...
Review Spirit Mancer (Switch) - An Ambitious Mix Of Mega Man Zero And Pokémon That's Spread Too Thin
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak
Spirit Mancer, the inaugural release from Sunny Syrup Studio, is an ambitious game that flies a little too close to the sun. It’s a hack ‘n’ slash, an action platformer, an RPG, a monster catcher, and a deckbuilder, all rolled into one. If that sounds like too many ideas to cram into one game…...
Mini Review Bury Me, My Love (Switch) - A Tough But Well-Written Text Message Tale
Nour is typing...
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. An intensely personal and deeply moving...
Review Astria Ascending (Switch) - A Solid JRPG Salvaged With The Help Of Final Fantasy Veterans
Second time's the charm
In late 2015, a new game came to iOS called Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey, offering up a reasonably high-quality classic JRPG experience. Though it was originally slated to arrive in some form on the PlayStation consoles of the time, this console project never got off the ground and was subsequently cancelled. Now, that project has...
Review Before I Forget (Switch) - A Poignant Portrayal Of Dementia
Full of colour and emotion
It's not often that a game with a high profile tackles a particularly difficult and emotive illness, though when they get it right they're rightly lauded for bringing these topics into the gaming medium. Before I Forget earned attention and headlines - with some notable award nominations - for its portrayal of dementia,...
Review Astrologaster (Switch) - An Expert Mix Of Historical Drama And Shakespearean Comedy
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Well, thou art running a fever of 38C
Was it not Shakespeare who said: "fie! I have the plague, and my armpits do weep with pus-filled boils like mustard from a Big Mac"? Well, if you liked that quote, you're in excellent company with Astrologaster, a bawdy comedy-musical game from Nyamyam that combines the...
Review ScourgeBringer (Switch) - A Gripping, Tough-As-Nails Roguelite For Dead Cells Fans
Bring the Pain
Do you love a properly hard challenge? Do you thrive in hostile and punishing game environments where constant death is an expected and necessary part of the cycle? Well then, Flying Oak Games' ScourgeBringer might just be right up your street. Here we have a tough as nails roguelite that funnels its players through a never-ending...
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...
Review Dead In Vinland: True Viking Edition (Switch) - The Sims Meets Don’t Starve
Norse of the border
Back in 2015, French developer CCCP served up Dead in Bermuda, a tantalising dish that mixed survival elements and people management into one unusual experience. This Lost-style adventure looked casual, but that was just the tip of a challenging tropical iceberg. Three years later and it’s reworked the same formula for a new...
Go away
On paper, roguelike game design sounds like a fantastic idea. Most small developers don’t have access to the finances or resources of big studios, so it takes considerably more time to produce a quality, lengthy video game. The shortcut, then, is that smaller developers can utilize procedural generation to make a little bit go a lot...
Review Hover (Switch) - The Closest You'll Get To Jet Set Radio On Switch
Jet, Set, go!
It’s telling that French indie studios Fusty Game and Midgard dropped the Revolt of Gamers subtitle for Hover. For all its attempts at coolness and swaggery, nothing screams ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’ like the use of the word ‘gamer’. It’s a term this game uses a lot in its story to denote a team of young rebels hoping...
Review White Night (Switch eShop)
Are you afraid of the dark?
The year is 1938; the economic tsunami that is the Great Depression is sweeping over America and late one night a man finds himself driving home from a local bar, located on the outskirts of Boston. As he crosses over a bridge at a steady pace in his automobile, a ghostly silhouette of a girl walks out, leaving the man...
Review BAFL - Brakes Are For Losers (Switch eShop)
"You ain’t outta control, you ain’t in control"
Picture the nightmarish scenes on a race track if the cars didn’t have brakes. Chaos would most certainly ensue. This is the basis of the Switch eShop title, Brakes Are For Losers. It’s a classic top-down arcade racer for up to eight people featuring cars that obviously don’t have any brakes...
Review Burly Men at Sea (Switch eShop)
Tales don’t tell themselves
Burly Men at Sea wants to tell you a story. Well, actually, it wants you to tell its story, guiding three sea-faring brothers as they sail the sea in search of adventures worthy of the telling. You’ll encounter all sorts of weird and wonderful characters as your turn its virtual pages, plotting points on a...
Review Bombslinger (Switch eShop)
Bombing the Wild West
We were big fans of Super Bomberman R upon the launch of Nintendo Switch. Its continued focus on multiplayer brought players together to enjoy a franchise that had laid dormant on Nintendo hardware for nearly ten years. However, its single-player campaign that left a little bit to be desired, and it’s here where developer...
Review Super Rocket Shootout (Switch eShop)
Oh no no no, I'm a rocket man… with a shotgun.
Nintendo Switch certainly isn't lacking when it comes to multiplayer-focused games. It's already becoming a bit of a hassle to distinguish between great party games and cheap cash-ins trying to ride Switch's popularity wave. So which category does Super Rocket Shootout land in? Strap on your...
Review Steredenn: Binary Stars (Switch eShop)
My god, it's full of stars!
In October of 2015, a French studio called Pixelnest released a space shooter arcade game called Steredenn, which blended classic shmup action with roguelike elements. The final product received high praise across the board, but Pixelnest wasn’t content to simply stop there. Over the last year, the studio has been...
Review A Normal Lost Phone (Switch eShop)
No signal
There’s something to be said about the power of telling a story through the environment, utilising details and objects to portray a simple narrative in a more tactile way than simple text or dialogue. What would it be like, then, if this kind of storytelling was attempted in a digital environment? Using pictures and smartphone apps to...
Review The Next Penelope (Switch eShop)
Hit or myth?
One of the most famous Greek myths of all time might not seem like an ideal starting point for an intense, top-down combat racer, but the setup for The Next Penelope feels perfect. You assume the role of the titular heroine, wife of the long-absent Odysseus who is famed for her undying loyalty despite the advances of many persistent...
Review Transcripted (Switch eShop)
Fusing genres
Transcripted, developed by Alkemi, is a new take on two well established game types: the twin stick shooter and the match three puzzle game. Both have seen much popularity recently amongst indie game developers. However, Transcripted has managed to take these elements and blend them together into a thoroughly enjoyable experience...
Review Splasher (Switch eShop)
Stay fresh!
There’s no shortage of platformers on the Switch eShop nowadays, but that certainly hasn’t done anything to deter Splasher from carving out its own niche in the library. Created by some staff that worked on the likes Rayman Legends and Rayman Origins, Splasher works as a brilliant callback to that style of twitch platforming while...
Review Yono And The Celestial Elephants (Switch eShop)
An Elephant's Solstice
Yono and the Celestial Elephants is an intriguing game from a design standpoint. While it looks the part of an educational cartoon meant for toddlers, within it hides a tale with a deep context meant for adults. The action feels like it belongs somewhere in-between these conflicting ideals. But does it work as a whole? Yono...
Dream on
If you could only pick one genre that Nintendo systems have nailed down during their history, it would probably be the platformer. With the hat flinging, overall wearing mascot going on his own three dimensional odyssey at the end of this month, the Nintendo Switch has had a slew of top drawer 2D side scrollers to keep fans jumping for joy,...
Review NeuroVoider (Switch eShop)
Bye, robot
For all the genre tags liberally flung at the influx of indie games over the last few years, it could be assumed that a select few terms might have become faux pas, or even derogatory. Despite splintering off into many branches of sub category since its inception, uttering words like 'roguelike' or 'permadeath' can immediately engage as...
