Latest Reviews
Review Labyrinth Of Galleria: The Moon Society (Switch) - A Deep, Dense, Devastating Dungeon Crawler
Moon's haunted
Though the JRPG has remained the de facto king of the RPG space for the last few decades, one could argue that the popular genre would never have existed were it not for DRPGs. What started in eons past with titles like Ultima and aimed to translate a traditional D&D gameplay experience to the screen has given way to more...
Spinning bird click
BROK the InvestiGator gets right to the point: you begin the game in a burning room. You naturally start pointing and clicking to solve a simple puzzle. This leads to another puzzle: Alligator PI Brok urgently exclaims, “I need to get past that door!” Before your grey matter cogs can even get a-whirring, a dialogue box tells...
Review Redemption Reapers (Switch) - An Uneven Tactical RPG With A Fantastic Soundtrack
Fails to live up to its hype
When we first loaded up Redemption Reapers, we were in love with the aesthetic of the game. A dark and gritty tactical RPG with surprisingly good-looking cutscenes and haunting music was exactly the palate cleanser we needed after playing through Fire Emblem Engage. While those strong points never get old during this...
Review Meg's Monster (Switch) - A One-Of-A-Kind Adventure That Hits You In The Feels
Trust me, bro. You’re gonna cry.
There are a lot of forgettable little indie RPGs floating around on the Nintendo Switch eShop, but it’d be a mistake to lump developer Odencat’s Meg’s Monster in with them. In fact, despite appearances of turn-based battles and an underworld filled with monsters to battle, we’d argue that Meg’s Monster...
Review Digimon World: Next Order (Switch) - A Repetitive, Open-World Grind For Die-Hard Fans Only
The only way is Easy Mode
Just like any franchise that’s been going as long as it has, Digimon video games have had plenty of ups and downs. Digimon World: Next Order was first released in 2016 for the PlayStation Vita, with a PlayStation 4 release making its way to the West the following year. Since then, it has enjoyed enough of a cult following...
Review Clive 'N' Wrench (Switch) - A Banjo-Kazooie-Style Throwback That Hits All The Wrong Notes
Monkey see, monkey don’t
There is little argument that Switch has become one of the premier consoles for 3D platformers. From a host of classics from the 'Golden Age', such as Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64, to incredible brand new experiences, like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and brilliant indies such as Lunistice, there is a 3D platformer...
Review Grim Guardians: Demon Purge (Switch) - A Creative, Character-Swapping Ode To Castlevania
Double Switch
From Inti Creates, developers of the critically acclaimed Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon duo and the Mega Man Zero/ZX series, comes a new Metroidvania rendered in a 16-bit graphical style, utilising modern hardware for various special effects, animation, and sprite creation. And it’s a fine-looking game, overall. While some areas...
Dream Weaver
If you’ve had a gander at our list of the Best Kirby Games Of All Time lately (or read our original 9/10 review from back in the day, more to the point) you’ll know that we hold Kirby’s Return to Dream Land in high regard around these parts. A return to classic Kirby action after a few less successful deviations from the norm...
Review Akka Arrh (Switch) - A Scrapped Atari Shooter Gets A Psychedelic Llamasoft Refurb
A bomb in hand is worth two in the bathroom
Jeff Minter, international man of gaming mystery, is back in action. If you’ve never heard of him, the 60-year-old has been in game coding and development, and seemingly happily off his rocker since 1979. Going by the moniker ‘Yak’, Minter cut his teeth on the Sinclair ZX60 in the early '80s, going...
Review Octopath Traveler II - A Confident Follow-Up And One Of Switch's Finest RPGs
Eight roads diverged in a wood, and I... well, I took them all!
A year after the Switch released, Team Asano—who made its name on the Bravely Default games on 3DS—released Octopath Traveler for the Switch. The fascinating HD-2D art style immediately grabbed people’s attention, while the clever implementation of classic JRPG gameplay quickly...
Gore-trait Of Ruin
The genre blend of Metroidvania and Soulslike is a tried and true combination. And it makes sense; two styles of game with a deep focus on exploration and strict difficulty were bound to cross paths. Games like Salt and Sanctuary, Blasphemous, and — of course — Hollow Kn
Review Tales of Symphonia Remastered - A GameCube Classic That Shows Its Age On Switch
Dwarven Vow #108: Let sleeping dogs lie
Though it’s never quite had the popularity of the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest franchises, the Tales series has set a good reputation as the ‘other’ classic JRPG series that’s consistently maintained a decent quality for quite some time now. Back in 2004, Namco (no Bandai yet) was only on the fifth...
Review Blanc (Switch) - A Perfectly Pleasant Co-op Experience With Gorgeous Visuals
White plains
The notion of two disparate species of animals coming together to help one another is not particularly new in the world of storytelling. The trope goes all the way back to the likes of Peter Rabbit, in which our intrepid titular hero enlists the assistance of Squirrel Nutkin to help fend off the dastardly fox, Mr. Tod. It’s a concept...
Review Ten Dates (Switch) - A Surprise Second Date Where More Is Better
"What's yer name and where d'ya come from?"
Looking back on Wales Interactive’s Five Dates in 2023, more than two years after its debut, reveals a fascinating glimpse into what life was like during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a game that leans heavily into the idea that the dating world has migrated online, forcing singletons to...
Review Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (Switch) - A Magical Musical Romp Through Final Fantasy History
Feel the Theatrhyhm
If there’s one thing pretty much everyone can agree on, it’s that the Final Fantasy series has some incredible music. With a 35-year legacy and around 100 games bearing the Final Fantasy moniker, it’s not surprising that the music from the series is some of the most recognisable in video game history. Theatrhythm, then, is...
Review Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder (Switch) - Stunning Visuals Can't Disguise Its Shortcomings
We're on the highway to Hell
Taking a trip to Hell has never looked quite so good as in Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder. The stunning visuals are enough to pull you in, while the card mechanics take seconds to learn yet provide a constant challenge. There are a lot of solid points to Nadir, but technical shortcomings and some bizarre design decisions...
Review Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch) - A Long-Awaited And Stunning Return Of A Legend
Prime example
It’s difficult to believe now, but there was once a time when the notion of a first-person Metroid game seemed unfathomable. Prior to the release of Metroid Prime back in 2002, the franchise had been confined to the 2D realm, with complex environments full of secrets and hidden equipment that bolstered your abilities and combat...
Review Colossal Cave (Switch) - An Obtuse, Outdated, Unfriendly Reimagining Of A Fascinating Text
Horrible history
“You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.” Those are the opening sentences of the foundational 1976 text game Colossal Cave Adventure. Originally created by Will Crowther and extended by Don Woods, it ran on a...
Review The Pathless - Slick, Open-World Traversal Transitions To Switch Solidly
A Link to the Path
Having hit it out of the (water) park with its debut ABZÛ in 2016, Giant Squid landed The Pathless on PS5 just as the console launched in November 2020. The game provided the kind of audiovisual spectacle that would satisfy early adopters hankering after something to show off their next-gen kit, so you’d be forgiven for...
Mini Review PowerWash Simulator - Scrubs Up Well On Switch
Hashtag satisfying
In 1998, The Simpsons made a throwaway gag about Bart refusing to perform yard work at home for his mother, then demanding she let him join the queue for the yard work simulator at a local fairground. It’s funny because who would develop a virtual experience of a chore? Moreover, who would want to actually play it? So anyway,...
Review OddBallers (Switch) - Ballsy And Chaotic Co-op Fun, Though The Online Is DOA
If you can dodge a ball, you can dodge a...lawnmower?
Game Swing's OddBallers, a raucous top-down dodgeball party game, has been doing the rounds for quite some time now, having languished in various unreleased forms since it was first announced as "coming soon" a fair old while ago. Now it's suddenly dropped onto Nintendo Switch and, far from the...
Review Fashion Police Squad (Switch) - A Stylish Romp That Gives 'DOOM Clones' A Fabulous Makeover
Oooh! Suits you, sir
Feel like you've played one too many dull Doom clones in your time to really be bothered trying another? Well, may we suggest you get your glad rags on and give Mopeful Games' Fashion Police Squad a whirl, it's absolutely fabulous, darling! Sashaying onto Switch in a very silly burst of colour and humour, this is a quirky...
Review Life Is Strange 2 - A Solid Switch Port For This Thrilling Second Story
Highway to hell?
Given the critical and commercial success enjoyed by Life is Strange back in 2015, creating a compelling direct sequel can’t have been easy for developer Dontnod. Yet just three years later, players were surprised with a brand new story that was every bit as emotionally affecting as the first, if not more so. It boasts a plot that...
Mini Review Trek To Yomi (Switch) - Arrestingly Cinematic, But A Trek All The Same
Slog to the Nether Regions
Years in the making, Trek to Yomi is the vision of indie developer Leonard Menchiari, backed by Polish studio Flying Wild Hog and publisher Devolver Digital. Essentially a side-on slash 'em up, its hook is its spectacular aesthetic: feudal Japan and the samurai code recreated through cinematic camerawork in striking black...
Review SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (Switch) - The Best SpongeBob Platformer Yet
Across the Spongeverse
A few years ago, Purple Lamp Studios released SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, a solid revival of a 3D platforming classic from decades past. Sales for that remaster were evidently robust enough to justify development of an all-new sequel, as SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake was announced a...
Review Drainus (Switch) - A Spectacular, Showboating Tour De Force For Sci-Fi Shmup Fans
Drain the core
Drainus. Whether a ham-fisted portmanteau of Darius and Gradius, or relating to the game’s core mechanic, it’s a silly name any way you look at it. Japan-based developer Team Ladybug, more recently known for the rather good Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, has had the Switch shooting game hardcore waiting eight...
Mini Review Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection (Switch) - A Great But Gouging, Exploitative Package
It really makes you wonder
Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection gets a lot right. It features six great titles in the series, with complete region variations and all their alternate console ports, from arcade to SG-1000, to Master System, Mega Drive, and Game Gear — 21 titles in total. It has a bevy of in-game options for finely tweaking the image...
Review GoldenEye 007 - Aged And Flawed, But Still A Masterpiece Of Game Design
Gold-tinted specs?
Highly revered by countless N64 owners, GoldenEye 007 is often credited with kick-starting the first-person shooter craze on consoles. It not only showed that a good first-person shooter could be crafted for a machine other than a high-spec PC, but arguably also created the multiplayer FPS phenomenon on consoles. In fact, if it...
Indy Jones bar t’at
‘Ey up, adventure fans! Are you hankering for a grave-robbing escapade reminiscent of Indiana Jones? But do you wish it were set in Yorkshire, trading jaw-dropping Incan ziggurats for drizzly moors? Well, have we got t’ game for you! The Excavation of Hob's Barrow puts your clicking finger in the shoes of one Thomasina...
Review Onion Assault (Switch) - A Bold, Breezy Homage To Super Mario Bros. 2
A game with layers?
If you’ve played Bertil Hörberg’s Gunman Clive and its direct sequel on 3DS, Wii U, or Switch, then the developer’s latest effort, Onion Assault, will look immediately familiar to you. But while the former two titles were undoubtedly inspired by the Mega Man franchise, Onion Assault instead feels like an homage to...
