Latest Reviews
Review Tetris Forever (Switch) - The Best Breakdown Of A Legendary Franchise
The building blocks of history
How many times do you think we can say the word ‘Tetris’ in a single review? Well, since Tetris Forever contains a total of 18 games based on the original 1985 title, you’d best strap yourselves in, because we’re going to be saying it a lot. Well, okay, we might mix things up a bit with the odd sprinkling of...
Review Angel At Dusk (Switch) - A Magnificent, Grotesque Gateway To An Entire Genre
A universal horror
Indie developer Akiragoya doesn’t just want you to get better at their latest shmup Angel at Dusk. They want to improve your prospects across the entire genre. Though taking a glance at the new Switch port of their distinctly grotesque work, you’d be forgiven for thinking the opposite is true. Set deep in a future where...
Review Vengeance Hunters (Switch) - A Decent Swing At A Neo-Neo Geo Beat 'Em Up
Combos of industry
With the belt-scrolling beat 'em up undergoing something of a renaissance of late, it feels like a new title enters the fray every other week. While some efforts utilise IPs like Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to garner attention, others are rekindling the genre’s magic with original ideas. Enter Nuala Studio...
Let battle commence
With the release of The First Console War, the second DLC expansion for Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, developer Digital Eclipse has seemingly completed its mission to present the most comprehensive interactive documentary on Atari possible. Much like the previous expansion, this latest release lacks some of the cohesion...
Review Metal Slug Tactics (Switch) - A Good Shot At Trying Something New
Tactically at odds with itself
Metal Slug Tactics has felt like it has taken way too long to finally release. More than three years after its initial reveal, the game is finally here and it’s a bold but confused take on the tactics genre that has some big strengths. But, those are counterbalanced with a number of roadblocks and obstacles that...
Review Broken Sword - Shadow Of The Templars: Reforged (Switch) - A Classic Adventure Returns Intact
If it ain’t Broken…
Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars is a big deal in the world of graphic adventures. Ever since its release on PC in 1996, it has jostled for the top spot on best-ever lists around the internet. It’s landed on consoles and early mobile platforms, including a Director’s Cut that reached Wii and DS. Now, nearly three...
Mini Review STALKER: Clear Sky (Switch) - Tighter Shooting But Less Atmosphere
Faction Wars
Despite releasing just a year after its predecessor, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky makes significant changes to the formula of GSC Game World’s venerable series. There are tweaked visuals, improved shooting, and some added systems crammed into this prequel. As a result, it feels markedly different to Shadow of Chornobyl, but not always in...
Mini Review STALKER: Shadow Of Chornobyl (Switch) - Legendary Series Stalks Switch With A Solid Port
In the Zone
Lauded on its original 2007 release, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Chornobyl dropped players into a stark world, filled with effective horror and precision combat. It spawned two sequels, both of which refined and improved on the model of their predecessor. Ukraine-based GSC Game World’s Legends Of The Zone bundle squeezes all three...
Mini Review Vampire Survivors: Ode To Castlevania (Switch) - Divine DLC Is Absolutely Essential
Finally, some vampire killers
Ode to Castlevania is a full-circle moment for Vampire Survivors. Heavily inspired by the franchise, and originally built with assets influenced by Konami’s whip-cracking series, Luca Galante and Poncle have blown all of their other excellent DLC out of the water. If your jaw isn’t on the floor by the time you roll...
Review Clock Tower: Rewind (Switch) - Pre-RE Survival Horror That's Elevated By Extras
Snip, snip
Video game preservation still has a long way to go, but it’s difficult to imagine a re-release of Human Entertainment’s Clock Tower ten, or even five years ago. Yet thanks to rapidly growing interest in retro gaming and the resulting explosion of compilations and re-releases over the last few years, this curious SNES survival horror...
Review Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) - Easily The Best Mario & Luigi RPG Yet
Gonna get yourself connected
As the very first Mario & Luigi RPG to be released on a full-fat home console, we've been champing at the bit to discover whether or not Nintendo would capitalise on the extra grunt of the Switch to serve us up the biggest and best turn-based Bros. romp yet in the form of Mario & Luigi: Brothership. We had some...
Slay, bestie!
Saving a princess has to be the most overused trope in the fantasy playbook. If pixelated plumbers and heroes clad in green tunics have taught us anything, it’s that princesses need rescuing – right? Not if Slay the Princess has anything to say about it. In this psychological horror visual novel, you're tasked with killing a...
Review Farmagia (Switch) - A Lighthearted Anime-Style Romp With Monster Crops
Guess how many days take to grow a dragon in your farm?
When Marvelous revealed Farmagia during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, we saw a familiar concept wrapped in an intriguing package: an action RPG with farm sim elements, like those so fundamental in two of the publisher's biggest series, Rune Factory and Story of Seasons, but wrapped up in a...
Review Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (Mobile) - A Breezy, Beautiful Take On TCG, Gacha Aside
Ironically, no trading allowed
Digital card games like Marvel Snap have seen a lot of success in recent years with short, satisfying matches that you can finish in a few minutes. The mobile release of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket almost seems like a direct answer to this trend. From uncomplicated card text to simplified rules, it axes much of...
Can open, worms... nowhere?
Right. There's a whole backstory — a whole mess of lore, as we like to call to it — with regards to Atooi's Hatch Tales. You can read about it in detail here or, TL;DR, it's six years late releasing and its Kickstarter backers have been rightly miffed, and more than a little concerned. Anyway, it's here now, and when
Review Core Keeper (Switch) - Mysterious, Addictive & Beautifully Presented Sandbox Survival
Creating core memories
About a decade ago, not long after Minecraft was discovered by mainstream audiences, it felt like every other week you’d see another new sandbox survival project from developers both large and small looking to cash in on the craze. Now that’s been replaced by new trends like deckbuilders and extraction shooters, though...
Review Sonic X Shadow Generations (Switch) - A Blistering Return To Form For Both Hedgehogs
The best 3D Sonic game..? Yes
Holy moly folks, Sega actually did it. After the disappointment of Sonic Forces, the glitchy mess of Sonic Colors Ultimate, and the divisive nature of Sonic Frontiers, the publisher has delivered what is undoubtedly the very best 3D Sonic game yet with Sonic X Shadow Generations. It gracefully revisits a beloved modern...
Review Raiden Nova (Switch) - A Fun But Limited Twin-Stick Twist On A Shooter Favourite
Nova say Nova Again
Some in the UK may know comedy TV personality Adam Buxton, who was once the counterpart of Joe Cornish in the Adam and Joe Show (1996-2001), and, as recently as 2020, was still guesting on popular Channel 4 panel shows. Nowadays, he's more well-known for The Adam Buxton Podcast, but in 1999 he walked into a London-based video...
Review Banjo-Tooie (Nintendo 64) - An Enormous Adventure With Charm Up The Kazoo
Can you bear second helpings?
This review was originally published in October 2009. We're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of the game in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack N64 library. <related ids="106839"> Banjo-Kazooie was a game that revolutionised platforming on the N64: Rare's off-the-wall-humour, creative...
Damned if ya do
When it was announced back in 2010, Shadows Of The Damned seemed too good to be true. A supergroup of creators teaming up to make a game in the genre they helped define. Shinji Mikami, father of the Resident Evil franchise, joining Suda51, one of Japanese game development's most unique voices. Akira Yamaoka, beloved composer of the...
Review Yakuza Kiwami (Switch) - A Decent Port Of An Ambitious, Frustrating Game
Like a drag-on
Open-world games have evolved a lot in the 19 years since the original Yakuza was released. Quirky fetch quests and meandering storytelling were often characteristics of the genre, as was the sense that the developers were gleefully mashing together ideas and holding everything together with an offbeat sense of humour. It’s a...
Review The Smurfs - Dreams (Switch) - Not Quite Smurf, But Surprisingly Smurf
Don't smurf on this one
We have a confession to make: we were almost certain we knew how this review was going to go before we even started playing The Smurfs - Dreams. After all, on paper it didn’t appear that anything special was on the cards. Publisher Microids is generally known for releasing solid enough games, but French developer Ocellus...
Two steps forward, one step back
Square Enix has been putting out some AA mid-tier entries for some of its forgotten franchises lately, including Visions of Mana (not on Switch) and not one, but two SaGa games in 2024. The first one was SaGa Emerald Beyond in April and now Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. As a remake of the original 1993...
Trolley dash
Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is based on the long-running manga and anime series, Crayon Shin-chan (Kureshin in Japanese), about a peculiar five-year-old named Shinnosuke (Shin-chan) and his family. The game follows up on the successful 2022 Western release of Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation - The Endless...
Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed (Switch) - Pleasingly Ambitious But Bloated
Secret of the Snooze
It has been a little over a year since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem arrived in cinemas, and a lot has changed for the heroes in a half-shell. Shredder's Revenge has welcomed not one, but two DLC packs, THQ Nordic has announced a Last Ronin adaptation and, in 2024 alone, the Switch has already landed a pair of new...
Review Nikoderiko: The Magical World (Switch) - A Gleeful DKC Tribute, But Light On New Ideas
Nik from the best
It’s now been over a decade since the last new Donkey Kong Country game released (yes, you’re that old), and while the world continues to wait for Nintendo to remember that its beloved ape used to star in a really good platforming series of his own, other developers have stepped up to try to fill the void. Indie releases such...
Review Fear The Spotlight (Switch) - A Retro-Styled, Narrative Horror Gem & A Must-Play
The spotlight fantastic
When Blumhouse Productions announced its venture into the video game industry with Blumhouse Games, it would have been all too easy for the company to lean on some of its most recognisable IPs for its first release. Franchises such as Insidious, The Purge, Sinister, and Paranormal Activity certainly have strong potential...
Reach out, touch faith
Fancy learning Latin? Well, you’re guaranteed to learn at least one word in the classical language by playing Faith: The Unholy Trinity: Mortis, or “death”, which flashes on screen every time you succumb. Facing off against legions of the damned armed with only a wooden crucifix and, well, your faith, it’s a given...
Review Killing Time: Resurrected (Switch) - Nightdive Revives A Weirdly Alluring 3DO Curio
Send in the Murder Clowns
Nightdive Studios’ quest to revive some of gaming’s most bizarre and long-forgotten treasures shows no signs of slowing down. With the release of PO’ed: Definitive Edition earlier this year, it was a clear-cut signal that the team is ready and willing to embrace titles that may not be the most recognisable in an...
Mini Review RetroRealms: Halloween (Switch) - A Fun & Faithful Slasher Romp
Everyone's entitled to one good scare
The Halloween franchise is a complicated beast. You’ve got the original timeline, the Thorn timeline, the H20 timeline, the Blumhouse timeline, the Rob Zombie remakes and, finally, the adorably weird loner that is Season of the Witch. It’s all a bit overwhelming at the best of times, so thankfully,...
