Tag: Reviews - Page 13
Review Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires (Switch) - A Disappointing, Dialled-Back Downgrade
Under Siege
Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series has followed much the same rhythm of releases since way back in the early noughties, with each mainline entry in the franchise since 2003's Dynasty Warriors 4 followed by both an Xtreme and Empires spin-off, the latter of which adds a little bit of strategic tinkering to the usual Musou mix. It's...
Review EarthBound Beginnings - A Charming Curio That Mother Fans Will Cherish
Everybody's gotta start somewhere
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of EarthBound Beginnings in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. If you were an early adopter of EarthBound fanaticism in the West, you likely caught wind of a previous title made for the Famicom. Translated...
Review PowerSlave Exhumed (Switch) - An Old-School FPS That's Absolutely Worth Digging Up
We're not doing an Iron Maiden reference. Way too obvious.
Not content with finally getting seminal Build engine classic Blood back on digital storefronts (Switch port, please!), as well as the first two Turoks, Doom 64, Quake and Shadow Man, Nightdive Studios have finally got Ancient Egyptian FPS Powerslave (known in the UK as Exhumed) out of its...
Review GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon (Switch) - A Dead Ringer From Konami That Struggles To Succeed
Packed with potential — and not much else
It takes mere moments to notice that GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon, the welcome revival of Konami's Famicom-exclusive action/RPG hybrid GetsuFumaDen, is the once-respected publisher's uncomfortably close take on Dead Cells' excellent 'action roguelite' gameplay. There's the opening room containing a visual...
Review EarthBound - A Quirky, Cosmic Adventure Bound To Warm Your Heart
Mother!
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of Earthbound in the Nintendo Switch Online Super NES library. Fuzzy pickles! Back in 1995, this second instalment of Shigesato Itoi's much-loved Mother series (as it's known in Japan) only received a western release in North America, where...
Review Infernax (Switch) - A Great, Gory Throwback That's More Ninja Gaiden Than Castlevania
Bloody. Good. Game.
We'd be lying like filthy, filthy little devils if we claimed that there was any shortage of Castlevania-alikes on the Switch. The likes of Odallus, Aggelos and most prominently the Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon duology are all right there on the eShop to cater for starved fans of Konami's apparently-defunct series - not to...
Review EGGLIA Rebirth (Switch) - Legend Of Mana Creators Deliver An RPG Worth Cracking Open
A cracking good time
Dedicated Nintendo fans may be familiar with the studio Brownie Brown, which was started by ex-Square staff members with credits on the Mana series and has titles like Fantasy Life and Mother 3 to its name. In 2013, Nintendo restructured Brownie Brown into a support studio, which led to its founder Shinichi Kameoka exiting and...
Review Maglam Lord (Switch) - Great Characters And Writing, But Grindy, Repetitive Combat
Raising a little hell in search of love
It is a long tradition in JRPGs to have the main character attempt to kill the gods that rule over them, but very rarely does this happen in the opening moments of the game. This is the case for Maglam Lord, which has now landed in the West. In Maglam Lord, players take control of a demon lord with the...
Review Swords & Bones (Switch) - Ghosts 'N Goblins-Style Indie Action, With A Dash Of Castlevania
Independent sacrifice
Firing up Swords & Bones, we were taken with a sudden sentimentality for the days of the bedroom coder, when newsagents held a revolving rack of Commodore or Spectrum cassette tape games emblazoned with wonderful cover art. This nostalgia smack could partly be down to the game’s intro sequence illustrations looking like...
Review OlliOlli World (Switch) - A Radical Departure And A Must-Play
It's an Olli, Olli, Olli, Olli World
A little over 8 years ago, Roll7 first introduced the world to OlliOlli, a fun little take on a 2D platformer that centered around skating. Barely a year later, the studio then released OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood, which built on the mechanics and scope of the original in nearly every way. With that last...
The Sign of the Eight (Out of Ten)
With an apologetic tip of the long, fancy hat to original author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, we think it's fair to say that Sherlock Holmes' many adaptations have supplanted the original text in terms of prominence. Most luridly, of course, there is Steven Moffat's Sherlock, as well as similarly contemporary take...
Review The Artful Escape (Switch) - A Thrilling Audiovisual Journey From Annapurna
Space jam
The Artful Escape hit Windows and Xbox in 2021, published by Annapurna Interactive. Over Annapurna’s brief 5-year history, its preferred flavour of stylish, quirky, thoughtful games has become well-understood, as has the “triple-I” production and publicity push that sets Indie Devs™ apart from other independent developers. Coming...
Review Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2 (Switch) - More Of The Same Short-But-Sweetness
That's pronounced "icks", not nine
A couple of years ago, Inti Creates put out Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX—an interesting spinoff featuring one of the most popular characters from the Azure Striker Gunvolt series. It may have been a bit on the short side, but Copen’s inaugural adventure in a starring role showed that his unique take...
Review Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) - One Of The Greatest Pokémon Games Ever Made
We all live in a Pokémon world
A century before it became the land of Sinnoh, the Hisui region was a dangerous place where humans and Pokémon didn’t share the close bond they have today. In fact, Pokémon were treated like dangerous creatures to be avoided, and in Pokémon Legends: Arceus it’s up to you and the Galaxy Expedition Team to...
Review Vagante (Switch) - A Roguelike Too Empty To Make An Impact
A class below the rest
Over the past decade, few genres have boomed as much as the roguelike. Indie games like The Binding of Isaac, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Dead Cells and Hades have brought attention to a genre once thought to be far too punishing for a mainstream audience, even if the core run-based gameplay is tweaked slightly into a -lite or a...
Review Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel (Switch) - A F2P Card-Battler With Potential, But Noobs Beware
I summon Pot of Greed to draw three additional cards from my deck!
Back in the late '90s and early 2000s, it felt like Yu-Gi-Oh! was seen on the playground as the game only played by the kids who wouldn’t play Pokémon. Nonetheless, the franchise has persisted for nearly as long as those popular pocket monsters, and has always maintained a...
Review Eschatos (Switch) - A Boldly Unique And Historical Shmup Package
Here comes the judgement
M-KAI began his game development life on the MSX with RPG Izumic Ballade, before moving into the shoot-em-up arena with Kanzen Kouryaku Kyokugen and Pleasure Hearts. The distinct design hallmarks of these early works — leaning toward lightweight, unpretentious fun — have remained present throughout his commitment to the...
Review Blackwind (Switch) - Hack 'N' Slash Mech Mayhem That Misses The Mark
Not much wind in these sails
Once upon a time in an unfortunate culinary incident, this writer managed to accidentally create a bowl of literally flavorless Jell-O. The Jell-O (that's jelly to you UK folk) was cold, completely clear, chewy, and somehow managed to leave a massive impression, solely because of how its flavor left absolutely no...
Review Banjo-Kazooie - Peerless Platforming Perfection, And Now Available On Switch
Kazooie, we're home
This review originally went live in 2009, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the long-awaited return of Banjo-Kazooie to a Nintendo console, available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack N64 library. Back in the days of the N64’s prime, there was one firm that managed to stand out from the rest:...
Review Windjammers 2 (Switch) - Sweaty, Strategic, And Better Than The Near Perfect Original
We hope you like jammin' too
Update: We've now managed to play some Windjammers 2's online since the game went live yesterday and, we're pleased to say, it all seems to be working fine and dandy on Nintendo Switch, with a solid connection maintained during matches which we were able to jump into instantly. Good news, as this one really is all about...
Review Megaton Musashi (Switch) - Level-5's Import-Only Mecha Monster Deserves A Localisation
Domo arigatou, Mr. Roboto
It’s been a while since renowned Japanese developer Level-5 launched an IP that didn’t come complete with accompanying merchandise lines, manga, and anime to complement its latest game property. Professor Layton, Ni No Kuni, Inazuma Eleven, Snack World, and of course,
Review Cotton Fantasy (Switch) - A Joyful, Mischievous, And Incredibly Varied Shmup
Any Witch Way
When it comes to the cute-’em-up sub-genre, the characterful witch Cotton and the series to which she lends her name are effectively royalty. There are other games that have been important in defining a niche where shmups’ staple fighter craft, tanks and laser turrets are replaced with kittens, candy canes and cuddly toys, of...
Review Radirgy Swag (Switch) - Legwork Needed To Enjoy This Quirky Shmup
Radio for help
Merriam-Webster defines ‘Swag’, in urban slang terms, as referring to "stylish confidence”, although the origin of the word actually comes from the Scandinavian ‘svagga’, meaning to “rock unsteadily or to lurch”. Radirgy Swag, with its unusual direction and somewhat confusing properties, probably has more in common with...
Review SNK VS. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash (Switch) - An Utterly Essential Card-Battler
Now this is a Brucie bonus
It's a result we had previously only dared to hope for. When SNK Vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium dropped on Switch almost a year ago, the fruits of the two fighting game companies' all-too-brief alliance were once again deemed "potentially in play". But when the labelled "Volume 1" of the wonderful Neo Geo Pocket Color...
Review Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (Switch) - Surprisingly Charming Licensed Kart Racing
Well, there's Norway we saw this coming
Look, we know everyone has already collected all the Pinchcliffe Grand Prix memorabilia there is to collect. We're sure that as you read this you’re sitting there in your Pinchcliffe Grand Prix pyjamas and shaking with fear at the prospect of buying another piece of Pinchcliffe merchandise, because your...
Review Astroneer (Switch) - Plenty Of Genial Jank In This Addictive, Scrappy Sandbox
In space, no one can hear you scrap
The story of Astroneer is a remarkable one, and one this reviewer (hello!) has been following since the very beginning. Back in 2015, this charming little teaser trailer was released, showing a spaceman traversing lonely, low-poly alien landscapes. It wasn't fully clear what the game was, but it was instantly...
Review Hollow 2 (Switch) - A Sequel That Shoots Itself In The Foot
Game over, man, game over!
Sequels are supposed to be better than their predecessors. Although such a statement doesn’t always ring true (plenty will have a lot to say about which of the Metroid Prime games is their favourite) the intention behind a sequel is to learn from and improve upon previous works - that’s the theory, at least. When...
Review Dungeon Munchies (Switch) - Not Without Potential, But Also Serious Early Access Issues
Undercooked
There’s a lot of debate these days about what constitutes a ‘complete’ game. Is a game complete when it launches, or does it only cross that threshold when the developer finally stops updating it? If it’s neither of those, how many updates or how much content have to be added until it is done? What about when a game is ‘content...
Is it worth the hype?
Well, here we are. Eight months after The House In Fata Morgana's release, and six months since our first diary entry of "the game better than Breath of the Wild", it's finally time to actually, finally review it. Fata Morgana is an subject of bafflement, a tantalising enigma, and a frequent point of mockery, all because its...
Review Chicory: A Colorful Tale (Switch) - A Masterful Marriage Of Mechanics, Themes And Visuals
Available handheld or Chicory dickory docked
There are few things more personal than art. That is, the art produced by an artist. Obviously. Even in its most commercial, populist form — including when it’s a small part of a much larger product — the work of an individual artist is ultimately recognisable, whether from obvious sweeping traits...
Review Wytchwood (Switch) - A Striking And Addictive Crafting Adventure
It's wytchcraft
Let’s start this off with just one word, shall we: crafting. There you go, now you know whether or not you’re going to enjoy Wytchwood; thanks for stopping by! In all seriousness, crafting has become such a prevalent mechanic in modern gaming, and it’s one that people rarely sit on the fence with. You either love it or you...
Review Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection (Switch) - An Incomplete Compilation Of Cult Classics
Not so fantasmic
You’d struggle to find a set of games better suited to a convenient retro compilation than Valis: The Phantasm Soldier. The late '80s/early '90s platform-shooter Castlevania-ish hybrid series spans at least half a dozen formats from esoteric Japanese computers to the Mega Drive, each release — even when they’re supposed to be...
Deed-lightful
Team Ladybug has something of a reputation of turning famous licensed properties into compelling Metroidvanias. After the opening PC-exclusive freebie Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue starring series mascot Jack Frost came Touhou Luna Nights, another ‘exploration action’ title featuring the endlessly popular Gensokyo...
Review Deathsmiles I & II (Switch) - A Visually Impressive Panoramic Slice Of Bullet Hell
Chips, dips, chains, whips
Originally marketed in Japan with bottles of tea labeled as “Windia’s Delicious Urine” — the ostensible excreta of Deathsmiles’ central protagonist — one has to wonder what exactly Cave’s aspirations were for this entry in their shoot-em-up canon. A 2009 bullet hell shoot-em-up (or ‘shmup’), Deathsmiles...
Review Let's Sing 2022 (Switch) - Reliable Karaoke Fun That Could Do With More Variety
More reissue than brand new
There are some things in life that are so predictably reliable, any change to the equilibrium would cause catastrophic disruption. Like the changing of the seasons, the annual holidays, and EA Sports’ insistence on screwing over Switch owners, Let’s Sing continues its annual releases with another set of both new and...
Review Doctor Who: The Edge Of Reality (Switch) - A Fair Adventure With Serious Performance Issues
Flux, but no capacity
It seems as though the key to making a good Doctor Who game is... to not let the player take control of The Doctor. Developer Maze Theory's recent (and rather excellent) Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins was a compelling realisation of this concept, and now Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality is a somewhat more traditional take on...
Review Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon (Switch) - A Super Addictive, Combat-Driven Puzzler
Diggin' it
Sometimes just before his boss battle, Specter Knight will warn you, “All who play Pocket Dungeon’s deadly game will be consumed by it.” He’s certainly right. Yacht Club’s newest spin-off of its critically lauded Shovel Knight franchise is, in a word, addictive. It’s easy to look at Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon and think...
Review Paper Mario (N64) - A Well-Crafted Creation That Stands Up Beautifully
Historical document
This review originally went live in 2017, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the addition of Paper Mario to the other N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Can we take a moment to appreciate just how gloriously wacky it is that a game like Paper Mario exists in the first place? This is an idea that followed in the...
Review Loop Hero (Switch) - A Creative And Incredibly Addictive Distillation Of An RPG
You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
When you get right down to it, almost every game consists of a very simple loop. For example, every Mario 2D platformer ultimately is nothing more than having the famed plumber jump over obstacles and run to the right. We’re rarely focused on the repetition, however, because it’s the new things that...
I know how you feel
It’s hard to believe that we’re now on the fourth Life is Strange game in just six years (fifth if you include the short introductory installment for Life is Strange 2). That’s a lot of content within a relatively short space of time, so there’s an undeniable danger of the series running out of steam. Thankfully, however,...
Review Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX (Switch) - All Monsters Go To Heaven In Tecmo's Cult Classic
Breeding virtual monsters to fight for fun and profit
Name the first classic game series that centres around collecting, training, and battling monsters against other trainers around the continent that comes into your head. No, we’re not talking about Pokémon — instead we’re looking at Monster Rancher, a series which started in 1997 on the...
Dream home in a dream land
Since Disney now owns a vast selection of major pop culture properties, many of which permeate our lives on a near daily basis, it can be easy to forget the characters that make up the heart of Disney. We’re talking Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy — remember those? In recent years, such characters have...
Review BloodRayne 2 ReVamped (Switch) - A Definite Improvement, But Dante Won't Lose Any Sleep
Second time's the charm
Sometimes it takes a few tries for a developer to properly execute their vision for a game. Just look at the original Metroid and then think of how it led to Super Metroid. It’s not that the original was bad, but it was a rudimentary initial take on what Yoshio Sakamoto really had in mind from the beginning. The same...
Review BloodRayne ReVamped (Switch) - A Joyless, Frustrating Port That Shows How Far We've Come
Dhampir squib
These days, it feels like every other ‘new’ game being released is a remake or a remaster of some old game. There’s value in this, however, as it’s wonderful to have great games that were previously locked to old platforms brought onto modern devices with improvements and additions. But, just because a game is retro, doesn’t...
Review Archvale (Switch) - A Bruisingly Brilliant RPG And Bullet-Hell Blend
With a dash of Zelda for good measure
It really feels like we’re in somewhat of an extended ‘bullet hell’ renaissance, doesn’t it? As soon as developers realised that the sub-genre didn’t need to be confined to linear vertically scrolling shmups, we’ve seen fresh takes that inject new life into other genres. Archvale is a mashup of a...
Review Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (Switch) - A Fun-Filled, Budget-Friendly Party Plaything
This is big brain time
Nintendo is far from alone in its pursuit of games – or applications if you prefer – that are designed to give that cauliflower-looking organ within your skull a good thrashing, but the company has often done better with that software than most. Now we have the Big Brain Academy series (which began life on Nintendo DS in...
Review Danganronpa Decadence (Switch) - A Twisted, Vulgar, Breathtaking Package
Absolute Decadence
The Danganronpa franchise is a twisted, vulgar little thing. Rife with problematic politics, egregious erotic fanservice and some truly breathtakingly ill-judged swings at far heavier themes than it really has any right to tackle, it is in many ways a reprehensible, amoral and quite appalling series of games. And it’s bloody...
Review Clockwork Aquario (Switch) - A Short And Oh-So-Sweet Arcade Platformer Rescued From Oblivion
Definitely better late than never
Back in the early '90s Westone, best known as the creators of the Wonder Boy / Monster World series, were supposed to release a cute and colourful arcade game — Clockwork Aquario. Unfortunately for them the cutting edge polygonal thrills of Virtua Racing were busy setting the arcade world alight at the time,...
Review Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp (Switch) - Fanservice Aplenty, But A Total Grindfest
A Killing Game for your wallet
As we've established previously, Danganronpa is pretty skeevy in its narrative. Thankfully, though, it has managed to avoid bringing said skeev outside of its world, outside of the fictional space that makes it somewhat more palatable. Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, unfortunately, rather breaks that promise. The...
A real Class act
Everything was leading up to this. Danganronpa. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. The anime Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School. Even the god-awful, mercifully not re-released for Switch Ultra Despair Girls. It has all lead to Danganron