Tag: Mini Reviews - Page 3
Mini Review Alba: A Wildlife Adventure - A Relaxing, Off-Rails Pokémon Snap-Alike
A natural beauty
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure started its life as an Apple Arcade exclusive back in 2020 and launched to much critical acclaim. UsTwo's game tells the story of Alba, a curious young girl with a love for animals and nature. Vacationing with her grandparents on an idyllic island full of diverse wildlife, Alba and her best friend suddenly...
Mini Review Super Soccer Blast: America VS Europe - Simple But Sloppy Soccer
Boot it
The heavily delayed Euro 2020 tournament is just around the corner, and football fever is once again permeating the homes of countries worldwide. The Switch has several decent football games, but with EA launching frankly embarrassing yearly 'legacy' updates to its FIFA series on Switch, there are certainly gaps in the field for a midfield...
Mini Review Mighty Goose - Have A Gander At This Stylish Run 'N' Gunner
Come with us now, on a journey through time and space
Geese are really going from strength to strength, aren’t they? After conquering the indie scene in House House's Untitled Goose Game, the species is now taking to the sky with Mighty Goose, a side-scrolling shooter that offers a flavour of games like Metal Slug and Mercenary Kings. With minimal...
Mini Review Subnautica: Below Zero - A Rather Cool Sequel
Deep Blue Sequel
In Subnautica: Below Zero, the sequel to Unknown World's superlative Subnautica, you're once again back on planet 4546B, crash-landing rather spectacularly on the frozen far side of the alien world this time around where you're immediately thrown into a mystery surrounding the fate of your missing sister, Sam. It may have a slightly...
Mini Review Subnautica - A Wondrous Trip Under The Sea
The Life Aquatic
Subnautica really is one of the great indie early access success stories, a game honed to near perfection during a long gestation period on PC, with lots of input from avid fans helping to shape the core experience as it exists today. As a result what we've got here is a confident and constantly thrilling marriage of addictive...
Mini Review Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - Witty Zelda-Inspired Top-Down Tax Avoidance
Vegan-friendly
No one likes paying taxes. Unfortunately, it’s something we all have to do and wilfully committing tax evasion is not something we would ever encourage anyone to do. Isn’t it wonderful, then, that you can evade as much tax as you like in Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, an action-RPG from developer Snoozy Kazoo. It may well be one...
Mini Review Picross S6 - A Bold New Direction? A Fresh Take? Eat Your Picross, Son
Here we go again!
Let’s get one thing out of the way upfront: Picross S6 is just more Picross. No unique bells or whistles, no interesting gameplay hooks or gimmicks to make this sequel ‘different’, no bold new direction for the franchise. It is simply a new collection of almost 500(!) puzzles for you to solve, all of which are completed in...
Mini Review Toree 3D - Low Poly, Pint-Sized Platforming For Pennies
Nostalgic 3D platforming? Balan Wonderworld, take note
Say what you like about fancy level design and clever mechanics that turn everything you know about the genre on its head, but when it comes to 3D platformers there's really only one reason we return to our favourites again and again: throwing Mario around a course feels fun on an instinctual,...
Mini Review Angry Golf - Novelty Arcade Golfing That Lives Up To Its Name
Triple-bogey
Angry Golf is perhaps the most apt title for a video game ever. This isn’t because the main character has a permanently furrowed brow, but rather for how the game makes you feel while you’re playing it. It’s one of the most poorly designed, unfinished games we've played on the Switch, and the golf gameplay feels like it’s almost...
Mini Review Kingdom of Arcadia - A Pleasant Little Not-Quite-Metroidvania
Metroidvania-lite
Kingdom of Arcadia’s premise should be familiar to everyone who loves gaming. Admit it, we’ve all imagined being sucked into one of our favourite gaming worlds at one point or another. That’s exactly what happens to Sam, a normal boy who is suddenly pulled inside his father’s arcade cabinet. Now stuck inside the Kingdom of...
Mini Review Future Aero Racing S Ultra - Clever Ideas, But FAR From A New F-Zero
We want to WipEout its music from our memory, too
It’s not exactly the best time for fans of futuristic racing. With no new F-Zero on the horizon and the WipEout series seemingly dead, too, fans have to turn to the independent scene in the hope that something almost as good will do the trick. The Switch has a couple of decent options already...
Mini Review Astro Aqua Kitty - A Visually Sumptuous Shmup Sequel
Fur-miliar shoot-em-up gameplay
Astro Aqua Kitty is the direct sequel to the enjoyable arcade shoot-em-up Aqua Kitty UDX, featuring immediately familiar gameplay and mechanics, albeit presented in a far more ambitious package. Where Aqua Kitty UDX had your feisty felines battling underwater creatures in small, looping spaces, Astro Aqua Kitty breaks...
Mini Review Moon Raider - Cute Visuals Mask A Mediocre Metroidvania
Lara Croft goes ‘Jason X’
Another day, another attempt to replicate the Metroidvania titles of yore. Moon Raider is an attractive, yet wholly unremarkable game with barely a sliver of originality. Taking place on, well, the moon, you take on the role of Ava, whose mother has fallen ill. In a brief, rather poorly constructed introductory cutscene...
Mini Review Densha de Go! Hashiro Yamanote Line - Yes, You Just Drive A Train
Come on, baby, do the locomotion
The eShop trailer for Densha de Go!! Hashirou Yamanote Sen (“Go by train! Drive the Yamanote line”) is just a guy singing “Densha de Go!” repeatedly while trains drive. For series fans, nothing else need be said. But let’s fill in the blanks. Densha de Go! is a Japanese train driving series that started in...
Mini Review Later Alligator - A Big Goof Of A Game That'll Make You Smile Like A Crocodile
Snappy comedy in a bite-sized package
What do you get when you mix Professor Layton with Adventure Time? The comparison doesn't even begin to do it justice, but that's vaguely what to expect from the brilliant Later Alligator, brought to you by the brains and pens that made Baman Piderman (as well as a couple of episodes of the aforementioned
Mini Review Can't Drive This - A Unique Co-Op Experience That Runs Out Of Gas Too Soon
It’s gonna be a bumpy ride
Backseat drivers are just the worst, aren’t they? Constantly berating you for your driving skills (or lack thereof, in their eyes), gripping their knees, and inhaling through their teeth at every speed bump and sharp turn. If you happen to be one of these people (and look, that’s okay, we’re all friends here), then...
Mini Review Kill It With Fire - Arachnophobes Need Not Apply
Itsy bitsy spider climbed up the burning spout
Spiders are truly wonderful creatures. They’re exceptionally clever and are able to create the most intricate, beautiful webs imaginable. They eat pests, thus preventing the spread of disease, and they happen to be the inspiration for one of the most beloved superheroes in modern culture. Yet for many...
Mini Review Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing - A Love Story That's Too Close To Reality
A quaran-teeny tiny game
The original Half Past Fate has been out on Switch for almost a year now, and our review praised it for its striking pixelated visuals and engaging dialogue, albeit with a few too many mini fetch quests. The same can be said for its follow-up, Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing, a short (really short) story in which two...
Mini Review NUTS - A Relaxing But Repetitive Way To Spend A Few Hours
Furry found footage
With its striking visuals, first-person perspective, and rural setting, you could easily mistake NUTS as a spin-off of the critically acclaimed narrative title Firewatch. Indeed, you spend much of your time free-roaming a woodland area, retreating back to the comfort of your caravan to sleep and chatting to a friendly colleague...
Mini Review PUSS! - Strangely Compelling Nightmare Fuel
A whisker away from sadism
Remember that scene in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where the tour group take a boat ride through a psychedelic tunnel? Remember how utterly terrifying it was (still is)? Now imagine such lunacy applied to an entire video game; that’s pretty much what you get with PUSS! Billed by developer...
Mini Review Glyph - Takes Metroid Prime's Morph Ball Ability And Turns It Into An Entire Game
Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
One of the coolest aspects of the Metroid series – in particular the Prime trilogy – is the Morph Ball ability. Curling up into a literal ball and using its momentum to reach new places is a consistently unique and fun way to traverse the world. Glyph takes this concept and applies it to an entire...
Mini Review Disjunction - A Fine-Looking Homage To Konami's Classic Metal Gear Titles
Tactical Dystopian Action
Stealth games are pretty hard to come by these days. Good ones are even fewer and far between. The good news is that Disjunction feels like a breath of fresh air, then. Its gameplay is like a love letter to stealth games of yore, melding together tight, responsive gunplay with effective close-range combat, all wrapped up in...
Mini Review Colossus Down - A Neat Concept Squandered By Bland Gameplay
Titan-falls short of greatness
The idea of running amok in a giant mech is certainly a tantalising one, isn’t it? With Mango Protocol’s Colossus Down, this is exactly what seven-year-old child prodigy Nika decides to do. Following on directly from 2015’s short title MechaNika, Colossus Down is a 2D side-scrolling brawler in which you must...
Mini Review Timothy And The Mysterious Forest - Imitates Zelda's Visuals But Not Its Gameplay
In need of deforestation
Paying homage to retro titles can be a tricky thing. Do you stick to an established formula, or do you stray and carve out your own path? Timothy and the Mysterious Forest does a bit of both. One glance at Kibou Entertainment’s top-down adventure, and it’s clear that this game owes an awful lot to The Legend of Zelda:...
Mini Review Door Kickers - A Tough Tactical Take On That Old FPS Trope
Press 'X' to breach
Many modern FPS titles contain the obligatory ‘breach’ scene. You know the one; you blow a door off its hinges and suddenly everything goes into slow motion. You scan the room, and as luck would have it, all of your enemies are right in front of you, ready for the picking. It’s flashy, it’s cinematic, but it’s not...
Mini Review The Hong Kong Massacre - A Hotline Miami Clone That's A Little On The Tough Side
There is no spoon
One quick glance at The Hong Kong Massacre, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Hotline Miami has been given the Legend of Zelda Space World treatment. On face value, the two games are remarkably similar, with the same birds-eye viewpoint and absurdly over-the-top violence right from the start. The Hong Kong Massacre is a...
Mini Review Professor Lupo: Ocean - A Short But Sweet Puzzle Adventure
Making waves
If you haven’t played Professor Lupo and his Horrible Pets, then worry not. Its sequel, Professor Lupo: Ocean, carries on the core gameplay mechanics of its predecessor, but familiarity with the first game is not essential to enjoy this one. Taking place within a space station submerged in water, Professor Lupo: Ocean is a puzzle game...
We jammin'
Synthetik: Ultimate began its life on PC to high acclaim. Favouring realistic, methodical gun mechanics over high-speed action, it’s a relatively fresh take on the roguelite genre, albeit one that feels a tad unpolished at times. There’s no doubt that Synthetik: Ultimate has a mighty steep hill to climb when competing with the likes...
Mini Review Landflix Odyssey - Unoriginal But Engaging Netflix Parody Platforming
Landflix and chill
Coming up with original ideas can be tough. There’s a good reason why successful writers are always asked where they get their ideas from; no one else really has a clue. Sometimes, borrowing from others — if done in a respectful, subtle manner — can work out for the best as long as it’s executed well. Landflix Odyssey...
Mini Review Tanuki Justice - A Short And Sweet Homage To 8-Bit Run 'N' Gunners
Mega Raccoon
Don’t jump out of your seats too quickly here, folks — Tanuki Justice has nothing to do with Mario’s Tanooki suit. Developed by Wonderboy Bobi, this 2D run ‘n’ gun platformer actually shares a lot more in common with classic Mega Man games, albeit with slightly more frenetic gameplay. It’s a fun, challenging experience...
Mini Review Absolute Drift - Zen-Like Powersliding Plagued By Technical And Design Problems
A car crash in more ways than one
Drifting, when done right, can be absolutely thrilling. There’s nothing quite like tearing round a corner with razor-sharp precision, and everything from Mario Kart 8 to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit relies heavily on your ability to execute drifts successfully. Absolute Drift is all about drifting; you don’t race...
Mini Review Picross S5 - You Know The Drill By Now, Surely?
It's Picross, but now there's a '5' on the tin
There are plenty of excellent puzzle games on the Switch, but arguably the most ubiquitous franchise out there is Nintendo’s own Picross series, which has featured fairly frequently ever since the platform’s launch year. With the launch of Picross S5, we’re now looking at the sixth (!) entry in...
Mini Review The Alto Collection - A Breezy Pair Of Smartphone Classics On Your Switch
Cruise Control
Some of the best mobile games are often the most straightforward. By happy coincidence, this also means that they’re especially easy to port over to other systems. The Alto Collection takes two of mobile gaming’s most celebrated titles, Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey, and puts them together in one handy – albeit rather...
Mini Review Five Dates - An Amusing Dating Sim That Doesn't Seem To Know Its Audience
“Are you courting?”
Lockdown in 2020 has undoubtedly forced us – as a society – to rethink a few things. Gone are the simple pleasures of attending a concert or a sports game, and even the anxiety-inducing dating scene has largely migrated to the online world. With this in mind, Wales Interactive has concocted a surprisingly funny, authentic...
Mini Review Pure Pool - As Close To The Real Thing As You'll Get On Switch
A ball game right on cue
Pure Pool does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a pool game through and through, and a darn good one at that. Developer VooFoo Studios has wisely restrained from flooding Pure Pool with wacky flourishes and overblown physics, instead focusing on delivering an experience that’s as close to the real deal as you’re...
Mini Review Mad Rat Dead - A Delightful Mix Of Rhythm Action And Platforming
Rodent rave
There’s one thing that really stood out to us when we started getting to grips with Mad Rat Dead: this game is cool. Everything about it, from the stylish visuals to the sublime soundtrack, screams attitude, and the devs have done a remarkable job in conveying this feeling without going overboard. If you’re a sucker for rhythm games,...
Mini Review YesterMorrow - A Time-Travelling Novelty Which Grows Old, Fast
Great Scott!
On paper, YesterMorrow is a really neat concept for a game. A side-scrolling adventure, its main twist is the ability to jump between two separate timelines, spaced several years apart. You play as Yui, a young girl whose life is thrown into disrepair after her home is destroyed and her family kidnapped by ‘Shadows’ during the...
Mini Review TENS! - Immediately Accessible Puzzle Action
Get ready for sum fun
For many, maths (or math, for you folks over the pond) isn’t always the most therapeutic of exercises. It can be downright perplexing at times, and if you don’t have a natural aptitude for numbers (like this writer), then frustration can set in quickly. It’s good, then, that TENS! – from developer Kwalee – doesn’t...
Mini Review Touhou Spell Bubble - A Puzzle Bobble Sequel In All But Name
Taito hops onto the Touhou Project
The Touhou Project is one of the most noteworthy success stories of independent game development there has ever been. Since 1995, creator Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta has self-published 22 games in the series – and over the course of that period, there have been numerous spin-off games created by fans of the series who want...
Mini Review Vigil: The Longest Night - A Grim And Foreboding Metroidvania
They come at night
Developed by Taiwan studio Glass Heart Games and inspired by titles such as Salt & Sanctuary and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Vigil: The Longest Night is a gothic Metroidvania which places you in a grim, horror-filled fantasy world and expects you to unravel various mysteries in the role of Leila, a member of the...
Mini Review Double Pug Switch - Not The Greatest Runner, But Still A Good Boy
One for the dog lovers
Switch might be a natural home to platformers but outside of 2018’s excellent Runner3, and the less-excellent Bubsy: Paws On Fire!, we’ve seen little of the runner sub-genre. Targeting the dog lovers, Double Pug Switch from The Polygon Loft seeks to fill that niche. Bringing us a challenging platformer, you play as Otis,...
Mini Review Space Crew - Bomber Crew's Sequel Takes Us To The Future
Aiming For The Stars
It’s been two years since Bomber Crew landed on Switch and at the time, we thought quite highly of it. Developed by Runner Duck, it successfully mixed a real-time management simulation with strategy, taking place in a World War 2 setting. It was quite surprising then to see a sequel putting us in charge of an intergalactic...
Mini Review Falcon Age - The Closest Most Of Us Will Get To Owning A Pet Falcon
Spread your wings and fly away
We can all agree that falcons are pretty cool. What’s even cooler is the notion that certain folks out there can utilise these majestic creatures for hunting purposes, coaxing the bird into their hand with just a simple whistle. If you happen to see someone with a falcon attached to their hand and rocking a tweed...
Mini Review Macbat 64 - A Pitifully Weak Clone Of Those N64 Platformers You Know And Love
An utterly mediocre journey
Nostalgia is a powerful motivator in gaming. Providing a sense of comfort and familiarity, developers often target this feeling through sequels and remakes, but in the last decade, we’ve seen a greater rise in spiritual successors and that’s been particularly prominent for early 3D platformers, Yooka-Laylee and A Hat...
Mini Review This Is The Zodiac Speaking - A Murder Mystery Riddled With Technical Hiccups
Gaming can be murder
If you’re not overly familiar with the case of the Zodiac Killer, then chances are you’ve at least heard of it. The titular killer’s identity was never uncovered, and as such has been the focal point of many books, TV shows, and movies ever since. This is the Zodiac Speaking joins a growing list of games to tackle the...
Mini Review Super Blood Hockey - Violent Sports Action That Gets Tired Too Quickly
A Gordie Howe hat trick
What’s sport without a bit of blood, eh? Whether we want to admit it or not, we all feel a tad bit of satisfaction when some pansy footballer finally gets a bloody nose after taking one too many dives, or when a boxer gets so messed up his face becomes a physical embodiment of 2020. Hockey is undoubtedly one of the more...
Mini Review Micro Pico Racers - Sadly Not In The Same League As Micro Machines
Drifting to sleep
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Micro Pico Racers is the second coming of the classic racing franchise Micro Machines. Indeed, with its colourful pixelated design (and the blatant fact that it has the word Micro in the title), the game is a clear homage to Codemasters’ series of arcade racers...
Mini Review Unrailed! - Take To The Tracks With Friends If At All Possible
A light carriage
We’ve seen numerous co-op survival games before, but keeping your train alive is certainly a new one. Having seen an early release last year on PC, Unrailed now jumps to Switch for full release. Developed by Indoor Astronaut, it offers a simple premise and you must stop your train from crashing, guiding it to a nearby station...
Mini Review Mini Motor Racing X - A Bite-Sized Appetiser Between Rounds Of Mario Kart
Mini by name, mini by nature
It takes an awful lot for a racing game to stand out from the crowd these days. With so many options available, from realistic sims like GRID Autosport to, well, Mario Kart, there’s pretty much something for everyone. Mini Motor Racing X is a fine arcade racer with smooth gameplay and decent graphics, but it just...
Mini Review Kingdom Rush Origins - You're Probably Better Off Playing This On Your Phone
Taking the ‘rush’ out of Kingdom Rush
The Kingdom Rush series is no stranger to the Switch, though it’s certainly more popular on mobile devices. Kingdom Rush Origins follows the footsteps of its predecessors, delivering straightforward, accessible tower-defence gameplay with pleasant visuals to boot. It’s surprisingly engaging once you get...
