Latest Reviews
Mini Review Picross S6 (Switch) - A Bold New Direction? A Fresh Take? Eat Your Picross, Son
Here we go again!
Let’s get one thing out of the way upfront: Picross S6 is just more Picross. No unique bells or whistles, no interesting gameplay hooks or gimmicks to make this sequel ‘different’, no bold new direction for the franchise. It is simply a new collection of almost 500(!) puzzles for you to solve, all of which are completed in...
Review Smelter (Switch) - Strong Mega Man X-Style Platforming Forged With Extract Of ActRaiser
Would you Adam and Eve it!?
Now you’re talking. Indie games have been imitating classics of the past for years and years now, and it’s about time that one of them had the cajones to take a run at the seminal ActRaiser, Quintet’s 1990 genre-melding masterpiece. To be fair, SolSeraph had a crack at combining top-down elements with platforming,...
Review SaGa Frontier Remastered (Switch) - A Cracking Update Of An Infuriating Cult Classic
Only For The Hardcore Frontier Raver
SaGa Frontier, Square Enix’s idiosyncratic JRPG classic, arrives on Nintendo Switch in a lovingly crafted remaster that gives long-time fans plenty to get excited about whilst fully retaining the ability to absolutely infuriate and bewilder anyone who isn’t au fait with its many, many eccentricities. This is...
Mini Review Toree 3D (Switch) - Low Poly, Pint-Sized Platforming For Pennies
Nostalgic 3D platforming? Balan Wonderworld, take note
Say what you like about fancy level design and clever mechanics that turn everything you know about the genre on its head, but when it comes to 3D platformers there's really only one reason we return to our favourites again and again: throwing Mario around a course feels fun on an instinctual,...
Mini Review Angry Golf (Switch) - Novelty Arcade Golfing That Lives Up To Its Name
Triple-bogey
Angry Golf is perhaps the most apt title for a video game ever. This isn’t because the main character has a permanently furrowed brow, but rather for how the game makes you feel while you’re playing it. It’s one of the most poorly designed, unfinished games we've played on the Switch, and the golf gameplay feels like it’s almost...
Mini Review Kingdom Of Arcadia (Switch) - A Pleasant Little Not-Quite-Metroidvania
Metroidvania-lite
Kingdom of Arcadia’s premise should be familiar to everyone who loves gaming. Admit it, we’ve all imagined being sucked into one of our favourite gaming worlds at one point or another. That’s exactly what happens to Sam, a normal boy who is suddenly pulled inside his father’s arcade cabinet. Now stuck inside the Kingdom of...
Mini Review Future Aero Racing S Ultra (Switch) - Clever Ideas, But FAR From A New F-Zero
We want to WipEout its music from our memory, too
It’s not exactly the best time for fans of futuristic racing. With no new F-Zero on the horizon and the WipEout series seemingly dead, too, fans have to turn to the independent scene in the hope that something almost as good will do the trick. The Switch has a couple of decent options already...
Review Stitchy In Tooki Trouble (Switch) - Pretty But Painfully Average DKC-Inspired Platforming
Sure to cause a straw man argument
A scarecrow is a creation built to deceive. A visual signifier of something greater. A simulacrum intended to impress, but when approached, the illusion shatters. Conveniently, Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is much the same. At first glance, it’s a rather attractive pillaging of Donkey Kong Country Returns, borrowing...
Review FEZ (Switch) - A Mind And World-Bending Puzzle Platformer That Deserves A Second Look
Like an oblong in a rhombus, like a cube within a cube
One of the original indie darlings in the eyes of many, FEZ is a game steeped in a whole bucket’s worth of history and intrigue. Nine years after its initial release and no sign of a sequel (as promised by its creator before getting abruptly cancelled), can FEZ still dazzle the new generation...
Review Godstrike (Switch) - A Frustrating Time Mechanic Scuppers This Twin Stick Shooter
Not quite god-tier
A little over a year ago, a new bullet hell game called Profane released on the eShop and was swept away almost immediately in the constant stream of other new titles. Due to disputes with the publisher, Overpowered Team decided to have the game taken off the eShop a few months later, while it worked on re-releasing a new version...
Mini Review Astro Aqua Kitty (Switch) - A Visually Sumptuous Shmup Sequel
Fur-miliar shoot-em-up gameplay
Astro Aqua Kitty is the direct sequel to the enjoyable arcade shoot-em-up Aqua Kitty UDX, featuring immediately familiar gameplay and mechanics, albeit presented in a far more ambitious package. Where Aqua Kitty UDX had your feisty felines battling underwater creatures in small, looping spaces, Astro Aqua Kitty breaks...
Review Poison Control (Switch) - Entertaining To A Point, But Lacking Where It Counts
To Hell and back
Sometimes the only way to get to Heaven is to go to Hell. At least, that’s the case in Poison Control, the newest game from Nippon Ichi Software to make it to western shores. This single-player action-RPG/shooter has a lot of charm and characters with real personality, though they are a bit cliché at points. Poison Control...
Review TY The Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue HD (Switch) - An Enjoyably Old-School Aussie Romp
Da doo rang rang rang, da doo rang rang
We have to admit, it’s been something of a surprise to us that Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, of all franchises, has sustained the limelight for so very long. That the series made it to six (six!!) games was a shock in the first place – three main GameCube entries, a fourth game for PC and two excellent GBA...
Review Moorhuhn Kart 2 (Switch) - A Poultry Offering
Needs to offer moor than this
Metroid Prime Trilogy? Garbage. Super Mario Galaxy 2? Forget it. There’s only one Switch remaster this world needed, and that’s Moorhuhn Kart 2. And when we say “this world”, we clearly mean Bizarro World, where cats chase dogs, cows milk humans and seventeen-year-old PC racing games get ported to Switch for...
Review Cozy Grove (Switch) - A Great-Looking But Flawed Animal Crossing-Alike, With Ghosts
Animal Crossing over to the other side
Back in the Wii and DS era, Nintendo tried something new: telling its players to take breaks. We're no strangers to the Animal Crossing all-nighter, and it seemed like Nintendo was finally starting to worry about our health, but very few people actually heeded the gentle warning. You're not our mum, Nintendo...
Review RetroMania Wrestling (Switch) - A Faithful But Limited NostalgiaFest
Here comes the plain
The search for a truly wonderful wrestling game on Switch has been one fraught with disappointments, and one that’s still yet to result in an absolute gem. WWE 2K18 was such a shocking, glitch-riddled port that 2K Sports declined to bring the 2019 and 2020 offerings to Nintendo’s console. Its arcade-style spin-off WWE 2K...
Review PAC-MAN 99 (Switch) - The BR Formula Freshens Up Another Timeless Classic
Waka waka eh eh
The crusade to make all of gaming's tentpole titles into battle royales continues and following Tetris and Super Mario Bros., what classic game is more iconic than PAC-MAN? Perhaps we should have seen this one coming. What makes the "99" series ingenious is it takes the foundation of games that have proven their timelessness over...
Mini Review Moon Raider (Switch) - Cute Visuals Mask A Mediocre Metroidvania
Lara Croft goes ‘Jason X’
Another day, another attempt to replicate the Metroidvania titles of yore. Moon Raider is an attractive, yet wholly unremarkable game with barely a sliver of originality. Taking place on, well, the moon, you take on the role of Ava, whose mother has fallen ill. In a brief, rather poorly constructed introductory cutscene...
Review Star Wars: Republic Commando (Switch) - Not An Elegant Weapon, But Still A Blast
Super Troopers
A long time ago...well, in 2005, LucasArts took a bit of a risk and threw us all a curveball with a Star Wars offering that eschewed Jedis and lightsabers, the Force, epic dogfights and much of the fantastical heroics that fans expect from the series, in favour of a dark and gritty tactical take on everyone's favourite space opera...
Review Genesis Noir (Switch) - This Indie Gem Deserves A Better Switch Port
Shouldn't that be Mega Drive Noir?
The Switch is a truly marvellous machine. The first ever hybrid console, it's the handheld capability of the system that makes it so irresistible. Its versatility and convenience are such that even when a game is technically better on the more powerful home consoles, we'll often wait for the Switch version just to...
Review Arcade Archives Haunted Castle (Switch) - The Worst Castlevania? Quite Possibly
Sucks to be you
Back in the early '90s, Castlevania was mostly known for being a console series, with three entries on the NES, three on the Game Boy, and four total across the 16-bit platforms (assuming, of course, you consider the PC Engine to be a true 16-bit system). But early in the series’ life, Konami released an arcade game, known as...
Mini Review Densha de Go! Hashiro Yamanote Line (Switch) - Yes, You Just Drive A Train
Come on, baby, do the locomotion
The eShop trailer for Densha de Go!! Hashirou Yamanote Sen (“Go by train! Drive the Yamanote line”) is just a guy singing “Densha de Go!” repeatedly while trains drive. For series fans, nothing else need be said. But let’s fill in the blanks. Densha de Go! is a Japanese train driving series that started in...
Review Doshin The Giant (GameCube) - A Chilled-Out Cult Classic That's Still Fresh
Sorry America
God simulators were a big deal back in the day, but it has to be said that in recent years they’ve not been as prevalent. That's not about to change with this game either, because Doshin the Giant is a GameCube game from the space year 2002 exclusively released everywhere except the US. As this rare and oft-forgotten game reaches its...
Review Bladed Fury (Switch) - A Pretty Yet Bland Hack-And-Slash Platformer That Lacks An Edge
Muramessy: The Demon Blade
NEXT Studios' Bladed Fury is a side-scrolling hack 'n slash platformer set in the Warring States period of ancient Chinese history, an era characterized by endless warfare and high political drama that's been nicely infused here with a hefty dose of mythology and the supernatural. This is a game with a few good ideas up...
Review BIG-Bobby-Car - The Big Race (Switch) - Chugs A Bit, But Fine For A First Little Runabout
Life in plastic, it's fantastic(ally average)
We’ve seen some odd licensed karting games in our time but the BIG Bobby Car is certainly one of the most left-field ones we’ve come across, even though it does make sense when you think about it. For those not in the know, the BIG Bobby Car is a plastic ride-on car for young children that’s been...
Review Tales From The Borderlands (Switch) - A Story Worth Telling That Thrives On Switch
I will name my first born, Loader Bot
The tragic demise of Telltale Games really is quite a bitter pill to swallow when you take a step back to fully consider the brilliance of its multi-award winning back catalogue of choice-based adventure games. From The Wolf Among Us to Batman: The Enemy Within, The Walking Dead to Guardians of the Galaxy, this...
Review Narita Boy (Switch) - Pay Homage To The '80s In This Marvellous Metroidvania
A digital utopia
It’s 2021, yet it somehow still feels like we’re in the 1980s. We’re at a point in time where those who were born or grew up in the ‘80s are now expressing their love for the decade through the arts, resulting in cultural behemoths like Stranger Things and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. Unfortunately, nostalgia has often...
Review Balan Wonderworld (Switch) - A Charmless, Confusing Fossil From The Creators Of Sonic
A relic of another age
Balan Wonderworld is a strange game. Mascot platformers were all the rage around the turn of the century, but that fad has long since died off. Yet here comes a brand-new seemingly high budget entry in the genre that feels straight out of 2001 (not in a good way) and it’s produced by Square Enix no less. Unfortunately, Balan...
Review Renzo Racer (Switch) - An Abysmal Mario Kart Clone That Should Be Avoided At All Costs
With Renzo like this, who needs enemies
When you first see Renzo Racers’ main menu, it’s clear that it makes no bones about the fact it’s taking on Mario Kart. The game’s logo is a shameless imitation of Mario Kart 8's, right down to the light blue ‘RR’ design that looks suspiciously like the 8. The problem is, by the time you’ve...
Review Root Film (Switch) - A Surprisingly Grown-Up Visual Novel
A murder mystery through a different lens
Like any good story, it starts with a death. We don’t know why someone is laying on the street or why people are taking pictures of them with their phones, but the world is dark and getting darker until it all fades to black. Root Film starts out grim and a little bit frightening, but the shock soon fades...