Latest Reviews
Review Vampire Survivors (Switch) - Kiss Healthy Sleep Goodbye With This Must-Play Roguelike
Something to sink your teeth into
Vampire Survivors is a singular game. Kind of a roguelike, kind of an arcade game, kind of a bullet hell, but at the same time nothing like what you probably think of when those genres come to mind. After all, there's a reason it captured the hearts and minds of gamers and won handfuls of awards on other platforms...
Mini Review Flutter Away (Switch) - An Ephemeral Indie With A Dash Of Pokémon Snap
Flutter bye
Over the past few years, there’s been a rise in ‘cozy’ games popping up in the indie space, offering an alternative to the typically achievement-based design of pretty much everything else. While these games do require a different mindset due to their generally short nature and simplistic gameplay, there’s something to be said...
Review Moving Out 2 (Switch) - More Creative Couch-Throwing From Your Favourite F.A.R.T.s
#VanLife
Moving Out built a solid foundation with its barmy physics and multiplayer teamwork. While the original co-op moving sim had huge potential, like an empty house awaiting its owner’s belongings, a renovation was clearly in order for players to truly feel at home. Fortunately, SMG’s sequel has stepped up the Packmore property ladder, its...
Hell Wing
M2’s garage doors are open for business again, continuing to pay homage, and in fastidious attention to detail, to the shoot 'em ups of yesteryear. Zero Fire, a portmanteau of collected titles Zero Wing (1989) and Hellfire (1989) represents Toaplan during the height of its glorious arcade tenure. Although released just four months...
Review Quake II (Switch) - Another Truly Outstanding Remaster Of An FPS Icon
Can't find a Bitterman
Look, we already went and slapped a big fat 10/10 on Quake Remastered when it dropped almost exactly two years ago, calling it “a stellar port of one gaming's true greats and an essential addition to your Switch library.” So what on Stroggos are we meant to say about this absolutely cracking remaster of its absolutely...
Mini Review Marble It Up! Ultra (Switch) - A Fun Spin On A Super Monkey Ball-Style Platformer
Roll 'em
Marble It Up! spun onto our Switch screens back in 2018, and the updated
Mini Review Koa And The Five Pirates Of Mara (Switch) - A Cute Island-Hopping Platformer
A Koality sequel
Back in 2020, Chibig released Summer in Mara, a slice-of-life farm sim game set in a tropical world and… well, for our money, it really wasn’t very good. It evidently sold well enough for Chibig to justify continuing the IP, but rather than make a sequel that built on the strengths and fixed the flaws of the original, the studio...
Review Legend Bowl (Switch) - Shows A Love Of Football But Falls Short Of A First Down
A game of inches
While the Nintendo Switch doesn't get graced with all of the major sports titles, or occasionally gets extremely underwhelming / feature-lite versions, it's not lacking for smaller indie takes that are full of heart. The little system has a lot of little sports games, and one that shows plenty of ambition is the latest take on...
Review Pokémon Stadium 2 - A Sequel Of Gold (& Silver) Standard
Second gen magic
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack N64 library. After all the groundbreaking success that Pokémon's first generation had, it would've only been wise for the powers that be to capitalise on the franchise. How was...
Review Pokémon Trading Card Game - A Cracking Adaptation That Still Holds Up
A rare source of fun or just an uncommon?
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. It’s almost surreal nowadays to think that there was ever a time when portable gaming didn’t have Pokémon. When Red and Blue...
Review Adore (Switch) - Thrilling Monster-Catching Combat, But Switch Performance Falters
Quite the catch
Pokémon made waves when it debuted on the Game Boy back in the '90s, introducing audiences to a new type of RPG that went on to become a global phenomenon. Since then, many have tried and failed to capture that same kind of experience, though it seems there’s been a renewed push in the last few years for indie developers to try...
Review Tiny Thor (Switch) - A Neo-Retro Delight That Feels Like A Lost Genesis Game
"Are you tiny Thor, god of tiny hammers?"
Tiny Thor from Asylum Square has been a long time coming. After one of its lead developers came up with a rough cut of its concept in a 48-hour game jam in 2012, its development proceeded in fits and starts for a little over a decade before it finally saw release this past June. Games that spend that long in...
Review Venba (Switch) – A Narrative Cooking Game That Goes Down A Treat
A stirring story
Here’s a recipe for a good game: a meaty cross-cultural story, a dash of delicious food, and a dollop of fun, cosy gameplay. Those are the ingredients of Venba, and mixed together – and topped with a reference to Ratatouille – they form a wonderful narrative-led game that had us wanting seconds. Visai Studios has dished up a...
Review The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Ages - An Engrossing Tale And True Series Classic
A song for the ages
This review originally went live in 2013, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. Ever since The Legend of Zelda released on the NES, Nintendo has played the franchise relatively close to its chest. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto has had...
Review The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons - An Underappreciated Old-School Adventure
Battle seasoned
This review originally went live in 2013, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. The combat of The Legend of Zelda series has seen several iterations over the decades. The classic top-down gameplay of the original was morphed into a faster,...
Review PixelJunk Scrappers Deluxe (Switch) - A Unique Brawler Littered With Multiplayer Greatness
Not exactly scrap
Q-Games’ PixelJunk series, essentially an umbrella name for their indie game output, is now in its second chapter. With little to no correlating factors, each game is largely a standalone work, with PixelJunk Racers, for example, being a Micro Machines-style overhead racing title, while PixelJunk Shooter is a subterranean search...
Review Disney Illusion Island (Switch) - Mickey Mouse's Metroidvania Is Magical
Hot dog!
Back in the days of the Sega Genesis, Disney games like Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion offered some of the best platforming action you could get your hands on that didn’t involve a very fast blue mammal. However, the Illusion series never continued beyond that console generation, and though Disney Illusion Island is technically...
Review Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons (Switch) - Likeable, But Lacks Its Peers' Punch
Streetlight people
When violence is the core vice of most video games, and in the case of Mortal Kombat, viscerally so, it’s worth exploring how it translates to sensory player feedback. Double Dragon Gaiden works well in terms of negotiating increasingly difficult enemy gangs with creative use of your expanding moveset, but, while the series'...
Mini Review Patrick's Parabox (Switch) - An Exemplary Puzzler That Thinks Outside The Box
Boxed in
Patrick's Parabox is the kind of game you have to play to truly understand. This brain-bending puzzler deftly reinvents itself dozens of times over without deviating from its very simple, programmatic rules revolving around infinitude and recursion. Chances are, you've heard of this premise before: push an object around a grid-like playing...
Review Pokémon Sleep - A Snore-Fest In Mostly The Right Ways
Is this a game to sleep on?
Pokémon Sleep has been a bit of an enigma ever since its reveal in 2019 and nobody quite knew what to make of it or even how it could possibly work. After years of silence, finally, in 2023, we have the game so we’ve fully got to grips with what's on offer, and it is definitely an interesting one. We’ve spent over a...
It's a kinda magic
The Might and Magic series is about as ‘old-school RPG’ as it gets—it’s been around since the distant, ancient days of the 1980s. As the series has changed hands a couple of times over the decades, plenty of spin-offs have been generated, with Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes being the one Nintendo fans are likely most...
Review Pikmin 4 (Switch) - Relaxed, Refined Real-Time Strategy, Ready To Crack The Mainstream
Dandori glory
Nintendo’s Pikmin franchise, as favourably as it’s always been received by the gaming media, and as much as it has a very passionate fanbase, has never quite managed to establish a proper foothold in what could be considered the mainstream gaming space. The original Pikmin adventure arrived perfectly formed on GameCube, serving up...
Review Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening - Rich, Addictive Strategy That Scrapes By On Switch
A united Japan is within your grasp
The Sengoku period of Japanese history is as fascinating and dramatic as any soap opera. There was treachery, romance, and conflict in every corner of the nation; even historical accounts of the period read like a dramatised version of events. Few series let you dive into this fascinating period of Japanese...
Bidet boost
Gosh, the end is actually in sight now, huh? Yes, Wave 5 for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass is finally here, bringing us one step closer to the grand finale with another batch of new and remade Mario Kart content. In addition to the usual mix of revamped courses from Mario Kart games of yore, Wave 5 introduces a brand new...
Turning lead into gold
The Atelier series has expanded at an impressive rate over the past couple of decades. The most recent game — Atelier Ryza 3 — is the 24th mainline entry in a series that has had a new release almost every year since 1997. However, due to the franchise's more niche appeal, not every entry has made it out of Japan due to...
Review Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (Switch) - Even Better Than The Essential Original
Tuned to perfection?
Playing through Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s experienced the original. Developer Night School Studio hasn’t gone out of its way here to create anything wildly different to its debut title, but has wisely opted to implement everything it's learned over the past seven years or so to...
Mini Review Gimmick! Special Edition (Switch) - A Rare And Wonderful 8-Bit Gem
Shoot for the stars
Gimmick! is one of the most valuable after-market titles for the Famicom, and even more so for the NES, where it only received a limited release in Scandinavia as Mr. Gimmick. Sunsoft, the publisher, was an unsung hero of the 8 and 16-bit gaming eras, with titles like Batman, Gremlins 2, Panorama Cotton, and Waku Waku 7 to its...
Mini Review Crime O'Clock (Switch) - 'Where's Wally' With A Temporal Twist, Clever But Repetitive
Playing for time
Crime O’Clock is a stylish-looking, screen-searching detective game that was featured in Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase back in April. The latest game from Milan-based development team Bad Seed, it promises to blend time travel with crime solving across large, densely populated hand-drawn maps. A hidden object game with a...
Review Everybody 1-2-Switch! - Family-Friendly Fun That Lacks Longevity
Horace the Horse is no prized pony
Many of us will have seen the meme format that goes "If I had a nickel for every time [X happened], I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?". It's a phrase that we could apply to a wide range of gaming scenarios, but having played Everybody 1-2-Switch!, the successor...
Review Everdream Valley (Switch) – A Cute Yet Clunky Farm Sim That Tries To Till Differently
Things that go ‘baa’ in the night
Farming games are well-tilled territory. It’s near-impossible to play a new one without comparing it to the many predecessors on Switch. Everdream Valley knows this, and uses it to both its benefit and detriment. Released on PC and PlayStation last month from newbie developer Mooneaters and publisher Untold...
