Tag: Mini Reviews - Page 4
Mini Review Party Hard 2 - This Stripped-Down Hitman Clone Is A Fun Time
Let’s get a party going
Remember parties? Before 2020, these loud, obnoxious gatherings used to happen quite a lot. Back in the day, we loved a good party, but as the years go by, the prospect of sitting under the lampshade with a stiff drink and a good book is much more enticing. Party Hard 2 stars a poor chap who just wants to get a good night's...
Mini Review Minoria - 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...
Mini Review MO:Astray - A Grim And Gory Game Which Deserves A Look
Please sir, can I have some mo’?
If you’re not familiar with MO:Astray beyond its utterly weird name, then it's high time you start paying attention. Originally released on Steam back in October 2019 to little fanfare, MO:Astray is a 2D puzzle-platformer boasting unique gameplay mechanics, meticulously designed environments, and gorgeous...
Mini Review Paradise Killer - A Murder-Mystery Case You'll Definitely Want To Crack
Paradise Is You
Much has been previously written about Paradise, a promised land supposedly filled with luxury and personal fulfilment. Everyone pictures it differently, but like many stories before, trouble has once again reared its ugly head inside it. Developed by Kaizen Game Works, Paradise Killer brings us a murder-mystery with a gorgeous...
Mini Review OkunoKA Madness - A Fine Rival To Super Meat Boy
A meaty alternative
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, chances are you’ll be quite familiar with Super Meat Boy, even if you haven’t necessarily played it. Renowned for its slick controls and brutally difficult gameplay, it was one of the most prominent games to be released on the Xbox Live Arcade back in 2010, and...
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...
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...
Mini Review Boomerang Fu - Light-Hearted Chaos That's Great With Friends
Throwing sticks shouldn’t be this fun
The Switch is home to a lot of party games. This seemed like a given when the very first trailer for the console dropped nearly four years ago, and indeed it can often feel a bit overwhelming trying to find a decent party game in such a crowded space. Thankfully, then, we can heartily recommend Boomerang Fu if...
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...
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,...
Hammerwatch on steroids
Back in 2017, Hammerwatch released on Switch, and we thought it was pretty darn good. It delivered accessible combat and progression that anybody could jump into whilst also catering to those who were after a bit more of a challenge. Heroes of Hammerwatch is set in the same universe, and sees you scale the Forsaken Spire,...
Mini Review Monster Prom: XXL - A Silly, Knockabout Experience That's Perfect For Parties
John Hughes' worst nightmare
While going back to school is certainly not a desirable concept, it would certainly hold more appeal to find it populated by literal monsters, rather than the lousy figurative ones who made school life so difficult. Thankfully, Monster Prom: XXL offers a welcome opportunity to right those wrongs and ask a fantasy...
Mini Review Neversong - A Lovingly-Crafted Metroidvania Which Sadly Ends Too Soon
Nightmares and dreamscapes
Neversong is an atmospheric adventure game from developers Atmos Games and Serenity Forge, in which a young boy by the name of Peet is searching for his kidnapped girlfriend, Wren. Set in various mysterious locales, the game is primarily a Metroidvania in design, but one which strikes a nice balance between narrative and...
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...
Mini Review kuso - An Accessible Yet Challenging eShop Gem
The least appropriately-named game of all time?
The sheer purity of kuso is almost disconcerting. A simple 2D platformer with no major traversal mechanics besides running and jumping, it's quite a difficult sell to the seasoned platform veteran. You have the ability to drop checkpoints instantly (a little like Ori and the Blind Forest), which means...
Mini Review Superliminal - A Mind-Bending Visual Puzzler With A Powerful Message
Well seasoned perspective
Ever since Valve’s iconic puzzler Portal launched back in 2007, we’ve seen a number of developers put their own spin on the genre, including ChromaGun, The Witness, and The Talos Principle. Superliminal is one of the more successful efforts; a mind-bending jaunt into a mysterious facility that turns out
Mini Review The Almost Gone - An Abstract Experience You Won't Be Able To Put Down
When life flashes before your eyes
The Almost Gone is a point-and-click puzzle game in which you investigate a variety of different locations presented as miniature dioramas. The story plays out as you piece together clues and examine objects, and it’s one that doesn’t shy away from tough subjects, such as alcoholism. It’s an abstract...
Mini Review Across The Grooves - A Time-Travelling Tale That's All About Relationships
Time after time
Across the Grooves is an interactive graphic novel that puts you in the shoes of Alice. Having lived a relatively normal existence thus far, Alice’s life is turned upside down when she receives an odd package from her ex, Ulysse. A vinyl record is contained within, and when Alice plays it, she’s launched back into the past to...
Get it locked in
Taking inspiration from the likes of Eighting's Soukyugurentai and Taiti's 'Storm' series of shooters, Missile Dancer is a vertically-scrolling shmup with simple yet addictive mechanics; holding down your shot button causes a targeting circle to expand around your craft, and any enemies caught in this circle will be considered...
Mini Review Darius Cozmic Collection Console - A Surprisingly Varied Selection Of Home Ports
Thou shalt blast a fishy on your little Switchy
Having covered the coin-operated portion of the acclaimed Darius series of shmups (with the exception of G-Darius and Dariusburst, which are on the upcoming Darius Cozmic Revelation), we now come to the console side of the franchise, which is represented almost completely here. Unfortunately, that...
Mini Review Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade - Coin-Op Highlights From Taito's Seminal Shooter Series
The REAL sushi striker
Taito's beloved Darius series took its sweet game to appear in a dedicated compilation. Until now, only 2006's jam-packed Taito Legends 2 package represented the series with the latter titles Darius Gaiden and G-Darius, but with the release of Darius Cozmic Collection, we finally have a near-complete museum of this venerable...
Mini Review Behold The Kickmen - A Gloriously Silly Take On The Beautiful Game
"What a big lovely match!"
Behold The Kickmen is a football (or soccer, if you prefer) simulation for everyone who hates the sport, or, at the very least, remains totally clueless to its global appeal. Created by Dan Marshall of The Swindle fame – who readily admits he knows nothing about football and thought it would be fun to see what kind of...
Mini Review Jump Rope Challenge - A Noble Attempt To Get Switch Owners Active
Jump up in lockdown
Reviewing and putting a score on a free game that’s been created in a limited environment with the sole purpose of helping the public improve their physical well being during a global pandemic is… well, it’s a tough one. Do you critically analyse it and pick apart its faults and limitations? Or do you simply view it for...
Mini Review Pokémon Smile - You've Gotta Brush 'Em All
"Mee-outh, that's white"
Brushing your teeth is boring. It’s dull when you’re an adult and it’s even worse when you’re a kid, because you’d really rather be playing with your Thunderbirds toys or Cabbage Patch Dolls, or whatever cross-media property young people are into these days (look, we don’t know, we haven’t been kids for a...
Mini Review Poopdie - Chapter One - Like Poop, Butts And PewDiePie? Then You're In Luck!
Everyone else, not so much...
At first glance, Poopdie - Chapter One is an enormous rip-off. Every aspect of its presentation calls to mind Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl's seminal roguelike The Binding of Isaac. Taking a step back, we gave it a second glance, and yep – this game wants to bite Isaac's style so hard it's on the verge of drawing...
Mini Review Super Toy Cars 2 - A Cute Racer Saddled With Technical And Balancing Problems
Diminutive returns
Racing around everyday domestic environments in dinky toy cars isn't a fresh concept for Switch owners. Not only have we already had the original Super Toy Cars, but Table Top Racing: World Tour - Nitro Edition, too. Super Toy Cars 2 doesn't exactly have novelty on its side, then. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an awful lot else...
Mini Review Awesome Pea 2 - Old-School Challenge With Vintage Visuals To Match
Tricky petit pois
Awesome Pea 2 is a simple game. In an effort to pay homage to retro titles, it’s a 2D platformer from developer Pigeon Dev Games that completely lacks any semblance of plot, but more than makes up for this with immediately engaging, addictive gameplay and fun visual effects. You play as, well… a pea, and must navigate a series...
Mini Review Potata: Fairy Flower - A Welcome Change Of Puzzle-Platforming Pace
Potato, Potata
Potata: Fairy Flower is a whimsical platformer in which you take on the role of a novice witch who must venture away from the safety of her home and into the dangerous surrounding woods. There, you’ll encounter creatures big and small, procure weapons, fruit, and keys, and solve a variety of different puzzles as you explore...
Mini Review Game Tengoku CruisinMix Special - Jaleco's Answer To Parodius Flies Again
Mix and match
Jaleco might not be as well-known as the likes of Capcom and Konami with today's gamers, but it was big enough company back in the '90s to create its own parody shooter, taking inspiration from the likes of Parodius and Star Parodier. The result was Game Tengoku – or Game Paradise, as it's also known – which hit arcades back in...
Mini Review Indiecalypse - A Deeply Unpleasant Game About Games
That joke isn't funny any more
Humour is highly subjective, so we're quite willing to concede that you might – might – find Indiecalypse hilarious. We only wish we could say that you'll find it fun to play with the same level of confidence. This bawdy adventure sees you taking control of three nerds as they bid to make a video game. It's a...
Mini Review Fly Punch Boom! - A Fantastically Frantic Fighter That Barely Gives You Time To Think
Superpowered Smash Bros.
You're not ready for Fly Punch Boom. No really, you're not. You might think you were born to play a game that essentially throws you into an anime royal rumble, but neither your eyes nor your reactions are up to the task. Not yet. It's going to take time to acclimatise to Fly Punch Boom's level of madcap hyper-kinetic...
Mini Review Pushy And Pully In Blockland - Cute Block-Based Action, If Somewhat Forgettable
Ah, push it, push it (quite) good
Pushing blocks in video games feels as though it shouldn't be an act of aggression. The likes of Sokoban and the many games it inspired do not exactly encourage acts of crate-based violence. Much of the time if you see a box, it's probably got something useful inside. Of course, there are outliers, and Pushy and...
Mini Review Jet Lancer - Outrageously Enjoyable Aerial Combat Action
I thought the only lonely place was on the moon
There's no denying the incredible impact Japanese developers have made on the shoot 'em up genre, from the foundation laid down by Space Invaders right up to more recent examples, such as the superb Rolling Gunner. The influence of Japanese design can be felt keenly in the western-developed Jet Lancer,...
Mini Review Slayin 2 - An Engaging Action RPG Romp
The pain in Slayin falls mainly on the lanes
The original Slayin was a mobile marvel of simplicity; a lovely little bite-sized twitchy RPG-ish thing where you effectively just moved left and right putting holes in enemies and using their dropped loot to improve your stuff. It was a familiar rogue-lite approach that worked brilliantly for a few...
Mini Review Spirit of the North - Minimalistic Mystery Mired By Myriad Mistakes
The fox and the... other fox
Since the release of the hugely popular Journey, many other games have gone down the route of minimal storytelling, focusing primarily on visuals and music to evoke emotions within the player. Spirit of the North leans heavily into this, tasking you with a very simple objective; explore the environment and solve puzzles...
Mini Review Fledgling Heroes - A Fun And Fleeting Flappy Bird-Alike
Flappy fun
Cast your mind back to May 2013. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, chances are that a certain mobile game called Flappy Bird entered your life at some point after its launch. Its insanely addictive nature and the ensuing mania ultimately resulted in its removal from mobile stores, but there’s no denying that its simple...
Mini Review Later Daters - A Poignant Dating Sim That's Over Far Too Quickly
A short-lived romance
Later Daters argues that it's never too late to find love. From developer Bloom Digital Media, you take on the role of an ageing pensioner settling into life at Ye Olde Retirement Community, where the prospect of romance fills the air. The game plays out as a visual novel, presenting you with a vast array of choices and...
Mini Review Anodyne - A Unique Zelda-Style Adventure That Keeps You Guessing
High-rule
We recently asked if there were any Switch games we'd missed which you thought were worthy of a review. Anodyne was one of the most-requested games, so there we are! Anodyne may at first glance look like just another retro dungeon crawler; a Legend of Zelda tribute act designed to scratch a particular old-school itch, however, getting to...
Mini Review Songbird Symphony - Platforming And Music Take Flight Together
Cheep thrills
We recently asked if there were any Switch games we'd missed which you thought were worthy of a review. Songbird Symphony was one of the most-requested games. Songbird Symphony is an indie rhythm-action platformer by three-person team Joysteak Studios. You play as Birb, an adopted chick in search of its birth paren
Mini Review Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche - A Surprisingly Fun Shooter
You want fries with that?
Boasting what is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous titles ever, Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche actually started life as an April Fool’s joke back in 2013. Skip ahead seven years, and it’s now an actual, tangible game; a really good one at that. It’s a shoot-em-up at heart, but its gameplay is also...
Mini Review Chapeau - Multiplayer Fun Ruined By Awkward Controls And Limited Scope
If you want to get ahead, get a hat
Chapeau is quite possibly one of the most bizarre multiplayer games we’ve played in a good while. Pitting up to four opponents against one another, you take control of a sentient hat, with the aim of the game being to ‘tag’ as many humans as possible by leaping onto their heads. It’s a chaotic game that...
Mini Review Snakeybus - All Aboard For Some Undemanding But Enjoyable Action
A lengthy bus journey
As vehicular nomenclature goes, 'Snakeybus' is just about as apt as 'Boaty McBoatface'. Your primary means of locomotion in Snakeybus is a bus that's well and truly snake-like. It's a snakey-bus. Not that it eats mice or hisses at you or anything. Rather, your physics-defying vehicle stretches out to improbable, city-enveloping...
Mini Review Ty the Tasmanian Tiger HD - A Competent Remaster That Lacks Bite
The real tiger king?
Two of the biggest trends in gaming right now are developers making use of Kickstarter campaigns and studios bringing back their classic, nostalgia-inducing properties. TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD is a product of both of these trends. Originally released in 2002 for GameCube, Xbox and PS2, TY the Tasmanian Tiger is a 3D mascot...
Mini Review HyperParasite - Proof That It's Fun To Be Bad
Host with the most
We’ve seen quite a lot of rogue-lite games in the past few years, but HyperParasite is quite a unique one. Taking place within a typical cyberpunk cityscape, an alien parasite has invaded the planet and is looking to leech onto every unfortunate soul that happens to get in its way. The twist here is that you get to play as the...
Mini Review Wandersong - This One Can Really Hold A Tune
Pitch perfect
We recently asked if there were any Switch games we'd missed which you thought were worthy of a review. Wandersong was one of the most-requested games, so there we are! They say that music heals the soul, but can it actually save the entire universe? Wandersong seems to think so. You take on the role of a passionate bard who uses his...
Mini Review Mekorama - It May Look Like Captain Toad, But Don’t Let That Fool You
Dior-iffic
Mekorama looks a lot like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. There’s no getting around this, but in the same way that Metroid Prime looks a lot like other FPS titles, it doesn’t quite play the same. In fact, Mekorama is played entirely on the Switch’s touch screen (or with an on-screen cursor, if you wish), and feels completely...
Mini Review Mystic Vale - Green-Fingered Players Take Note
A nice spot of cardening
It's all well and good to want to save and enrich the environment, but is gardening really good fodder for a deck-building card game? Most such games we've experienced are about legendary battles between blade and magick, not cultivating plum trees. But keep an open mind and you'll find plenty to enjoy in the digital version...
Mini Review Pooplers - We’re Not Kidding, This Game Really Is Poop
Flat-ulent gameplay
After the monumental success of the Splatoon franchise, many folks were quite rightly expecting some copycats to appear. Given the high accessibility of the games and their family-friendly nature, some – this writer included – even encouraged more of the same from other developers. But we’re not sure any of us were...
Review Wunderling - A Fun And Fresh New Take On The Typical 2D Platformer
Wunderfully addictive
Since the advent of platform gaming, the genre has come on leaps and bounds. Although some (this writer included) would argue that many titles overcomplicate their gameplay, introducing unnecessary additions that threaten to overwhelm younger gamers. Thankfully then, Wunderling is perhaps one of the most accessible platform...
Mini Review Talisman: Digital Edition - A Superb Adaptation Of A Board Game Classic
You won't be bored board gaming on the go
Talisman is a superb board game that conjures forth innumerable fond memories. The vast multitude of characters to choose from, each more unbalanced than the last. The hundreds upon hundreds of Adventure Cards offering something new to see on every play. Spellcasting battles leading to pure salt from the...
