ilikeike

This was a delightfully brutal review and a sadistically enjoyable read.

It's apparently super popular and award-winning, so it must be good. Here's hoping that it functions decently on console.

This game is utterly fantastic. I played it at SXSW and had a lengthy chat with the developers - it's easily the best game I played at the show and I can't wait to pick it up later today. If you can find any enjoyment in rhythm games then this one is absolutely for you. The puzzles and music sync together so well, it's a crazy experience to play. It almost feels more like you're playing an instrument instead of a game. It's amazing!

Looks pretty great! Awesome pixel art and I'm intrigued by the story potential. I definitely want to see more.

On the one hand this sounds impossible. Then again, DOOM and Mortal Kombat 11 sounded impossible, so I guess anything is possible with the Switch!

Honestly this makes me even more hyped for the E3 Direct. With all the big news on Pokemon and Mario Maker out of the way ahead of time, we'll have more time to focus on new announcements. Astral Chain, Link's Awakening, Dragon Quest, Animal Crossing...the list goes on, and I can't wait!

I'll be sipping into my free copy of Mana Spark this weekend - thanks Nuntendo Life and Qubic! Asked from that, I'll continue plugging away at Final Fantasy X qnd probably see if I can endure any more of Team Sonic Racing's abysmal online to get a few races in.

All I can say is...thank god. Also, I really hope that the hashtag is accurate and that no visual artists die from any excessive crunch.

Unfortunately Hollow Realization is digital-only in North America, while Europe gets a physical edition. Time to import, y'all.

The visuals definitely look fine, but compared to the absolutely gorgeous look of the previous Wonder Boy remake, it's hard not to be underwhelmed.

@JaxonH Absolutely agree! It's not Mario Kart but it's still an excellent racer in its own right. The team mechanics are surprisingly intuitive and exciting, the visuals are gorgeous, and performance is rock solid.
I don't know about you, but as a lifelong Sonic fan, this game is absolutely incredible with its fanservice. Playing the Boo's House stage with the ghosts from Adventure 2 and music from Sonic 3...man, this game's given me goosebumps so many times with its tributes to the series.
Not to mention the music. Good lord. Crush 40, Jun Senuoe, and Tee Lopes all working on a single soundtrack? Man, the remixes are absolutely phenomenal. Not to mention that hearing Crush 40 do an original theme song again is absolutely phenomenal.

It makes sense that Sega would want to conserve space, but that still doesn't explain why they didn't add it in via the Day 1 Patch. It was so anticlimactic to boot up the game yesterday and not be greeted with any sort of opening cinematic. It would have been nice to hear that god-tier theme music at least one time before starting the game.

This looks fantastic. As a Zelda fan, I feel like I'm being spoiled lately with the Link's Awakening remake, Cadence of Hyrule, and now this. Can't wait!

If essentially none of the Remastered elements are present, why do they even bother calling this a Remaster? It's deceptive marketing for what basically seems to be a port of the last-gen version.

This is great! Bless you Iizuka-san.

Well I can't say I expected to see scores like this based on my own experience! I thought the game was boring, bloated, bland, insanely repetitive, and lacked anything to keep it engaging beyond the first ten minutes. The chaotic visuals make it impossible to have any real understanding of what's going on and make it even harder to strategize. The complete repetition of level maps was what sealed the deal for me - it just felt so cheap, as if the developers outright gave up on designing levels halfway through. If the game were half the length and focused on creating interesting levels and unique combat experiences then I think that that would have done it a great service. I enjoy Warriors games and even I found Lapis x Labyrinth's repetition to be mind-numbing.

All that said, I'm glad that Stephanie had a better experience than I did! At the end of the day, reviews are matters of personal experience, so I understand that not everyone may have been as maddened with this game as I was.

I played this at SXSW and it's absolutely amazing. Anyone who's ever enjoyed a rhythm game owes it to themselves to play this! The developers are also super nice people as well. I'll pick this up day one!

@Fake-E-Lee Just doing my job!

Graphics look awesome, but framerate is a serious issue. In something as fast-paced as a racing game, a high framerate is practically a necessity.

Easily my favorite game of the year so far. I just beat the secret final boss last night, and let me tell you - this game does not need a hard mode! However, for those who are more skilled than I am, I'm sure that this is a welcome addition.

Also, being able to pet the cat has easily made this a 10/10 game for me now.

@Fake-E-Lee Unfortunately yeah, it's super underwhelming. It's absurdly repetitive - if you've played the first ten minutes then you've already played the first ten hours. If you enjoy simple grindy beat em ups then you might find some fun here, but even by bear em up standards it's crazy monotonous. Not to mention that the difficulty is really unbalanced and performance can be rough on Switch as well.

I'll continue torturing myself with Lapis x Labyrinth for review. It's among the most blandly repetitive games I've ever played. Once I'm finished with that, I'll cleanse my pallet with Final Fantasy X.

This is pretty heckin' adorable. Unfortunately my gaming schedule is already completely booked for July with God Eater 3, Kill la Kill, and Fire Emblem, but I'll keep an eye on it to be sure.

@Tokiwa Dang it, we already knew about local wireless since it was in the announcement trailer, so I was hoping this was something new. Oh well, I'm still hyped for the game nonetheless!

Local co-op? As in, on a single Switch? Man, that's awesome. Really looking forward to July!

You should play Hyper Light Drifter regardless of whether you've finished Zelda or not. It's a masterpiece, pure and simple.

The only thing I have to say is just...why? Are they at least going to release it on current-gen hardware? It seems pointless to put time and effort into creating an entirely new game and only putting it on a console that almost nobody but the most serious collectors play anymore.

It's most likely an official announcement of SteamWorld Quest's release on other platforms. Which is probably good, since it doesn't seem to be performing too well in the eShop charts at the moment.

Well, it's Finals Week for me, so I'll be playing with my textbooks more than anything else. However, I recently got a review code for Lapis x Labyrinth, so I'll see if I can find the time to dip into that at all over the weekend!

Super happy for Qubic games! Always a pleasure to see smaller publishers find success. Good luck to everyone who entered!

In the words of Patrick Star, "Who are you people?!?!"

Aside from that, this was actually a neat video with an especially lovely intro. Nice job Zion, looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.

Good god. I'd always regarded Mortal Kombat's violence as essentially cartoon violence with more blood and gore...but no one should be subjected to watching such hideous violence in real life, especially in a work environment as toxic as the games industry. My heart goes out to this individual.

@yourmom wut

Katana Zero far exceeds every other game on the list. It's an absolute masterpiece that does everything right - story, visuals, gameplay, everything. Can't recommend it enough!

@roadrunner343 Personally, I found the whole experience to be incredibly repetitive. Environments all looked beautiful but blended together since they shared the same basic hallway design with little to break it up. Battles were frequent, fairly long, and boiled down to the same strategy over and over again. The story squandered its potential - the characters are cool but have basically no development, the big story twist was obvious from a mile away, etc. It's still a worthwhile game in some ways - again, it's really beautiful, and it has some charming writing - I just dont think it's an exemplary RPG, especially when there's so many better offerings on Switch. Also, turn-based RPGs are my probably my favorite genre, so I guess I could just be a bit pickier too!

This is a cool video and they seem like a great team - makes me wish that SteamWorld Quest was a better game.

Nice to see Cuphead doing so well, but disappointed not to see Katana Zero anywhere on that list. I know it's already selling well in other markets, but I wish it all the success it can get in every region. It's a marvelous game.

If there's any Forza game that has a chance of coming to Switch, it's this one.

Sonic looks like a naked furry man who jumped into a bucket of blue paint and runs around in red nikes.

As someone who's grown up with the Sonic franchise, I have to ask--why does the universe want to make it so hard for me to actually like this series?? Why?!?!

Childhood trauma aside, thanks for the excellent read, Gavin. Fantastic writing as always.

@Quarth I definitely agree, there's still some quality content here on NL (especially with Gavin Lane being a more active writer lately, every one of his features has been pretty fantastic imo). It's absolutely an improvement compared to this time last year - I swear, most of NL was damn near unreadable at that time, by far some of the worst "journalism" I've ever encountered.

I guess the thing that bothers me most is that it takes NL ages to report on anything - sometimes they report a story days after it's broken, even though NL is a pretty huge site that definitely has the manpower for a 24-hour news cycle. Meanwhile, significantly smaller sites like Nintendo Everything report on everything almost instantly, unlike NL - and without clickbaity headlines, to boot.

Anyway, that's enough ranting for one night. If NL can keep up with the quality features and maybe speed up their reporting, then I think that'd be great! Features are what they do best.

@Quarth I'd like to see NL put more effort into the site in general. Ever since Tom Whitehead left, the site's been in a constant spiral of mediocrity.

Well, this comment section has been an unexpected wild ride.

So long for good, Gay Bowser.

@RandomLeo00 Is there any English support for that? I don't speak Japanese, so that would be a problem for an RPG.

One day I'll give Atelier a shot. I've heard so many good things about them from those who've actually played them that I can't ignore them much longer.

Absolutely fantastic game, it deserves all the success it's had. Not many games can provide an experience where the story and gameplay are equally engaging, but Katana Zero pulls it off with style. Can't recommend it enough!

It's definitely a decent game, but I found it to be way too repetitious. Also, the very nature of it being card based really hurt the game's chances of being really strategic. I'm sure there's plenty for SteamWorld fans to enjoy, but personally there were too many issues for me to give it a full recommendation.

Even though I've already played through it extensively for review, I'll continue slicing and dicing in Katana Zero. That game is an utter masterpiece.
I'll also be working through Final Fantasy X on Switch. Wonderful to have that RPG paragon on Nintendo.

I've been burned by speculation about Retro's next project for too long now. I won't let myself be hurt again by getting hyped over a glimpse of a mechanical hand in a picture.

This is cool, but sheesh is it massively overpriced. The Genesis Mini gives you 40 games for $80. SNES Mini Classic gets you 21 classics for $70. And then Capcom tries to sell you 16 old arcade games for more than $200? Madness.