Latest Reviews
Review The Garden Path (Switch) - A Green-Thumbed Ode To Animal Crossing That Needs Tending
In the thick of it
This article originally went live as an in-progress, unscored review. Having now experienced all four seasons of an in-game year, we've updated the text and assigned a score. Anyone who's tried to cultivate a garden knows it's hard work. You can't just plant some flowers, water them once a week, and leave it at that. Every...
Review The Lullaby Of Life (Switch) - A Kaleidoscopic Puzzler With Plenty Of Bite
White noise
If you’re a puzzle fan who wants something unique to add to your library, you’re in for a treat. The Lullaby of Life is a sound-based puzzle experience which places you in the blobby shoes of a particle with the ability to create music, exploring the origins of the universe. At first glance, this game is striking. The aesthetic is...
Review Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (GBA) - Robust Roguelike Rescuing
Pokécrawler: Red
This review was originally published in February 2016. We're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack GBA library. It's also worth noting that a 2020 Switch remake of Red/Blue Rescue Team exists: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. As well as the regular series...
Review Bare Butt Boxing (Switch) - Cheeky But Featherweight Fare
Rear-end reservations
Bare Butt Boxing from publisher and developer Tuatara Games makes a good first impression with its quirky character avatars, colorful maps, and cheeky premise. Though the title delivers knockabout fun and floaty arena combat chaos, the overall experience is a rather shallow one and not exactly the ‘Punch-Out!! With Your Arse...
Review Trinity Fusion (Switch) - A Roguelite Fusion Of Ideas That’s Worth Your Time
Across the multiverse
We had high hopes for Trinity Fusion after playing it at PAX East two years ago, and we’re happy to say, it doesn’t disappoint. The concept is great. A human-made multiverse — made up of Prime, the Overworld, the Underworld, and the Hyperworld — is collapsing, and the only way to fix it is to merge all of the different...
Review Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid (Switch) - A Pleasant Vacation, If You're Patient
A great vacation, or Natsu much?
In a world where problems and frustrations seem to be around every corner, you might find yourself wanting to escape from it all. Maybe you dream of taking in the Japanese countryside, strolling around in a field of sunflowers, catching some bugs, fishing, all without a worry in sight. Well, if that’s what you’re...
Review One Piece Odyssey (Switch) - A Safe But Solid Caper For The Straw Hats
Here be dragons
A couple of years ago, it was notable when the Switch remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were developed not in-house by Game Freak, but by a smaller Japanese support studio called ILCA. That remake project was actually ILCA’s first crack at being the lead developer on a game, and it soon followed this up early last year with One...
Review Cat Quest III (Switch) - A Pretty Much Purrfect Pirate Adventure
Pi-rats of the Purribean
Cat Quest has been a beloved series for close to a decade now. From offering a unique world in the first game to adding co-op in the second, it has always tried to shake things up for the action-RPG genre. Cat Quest III feels like another switch-up for the series, taking what felt great about previous games and seeking to...
Review Volgarr The Viking II (Switch) - One Of The Switch's Best 2D Action Platformers
Entry to Valhalla secured
Since the release of Volgar the Viking in 2013, fans have been itching for a full sequel to the Rastan-inspired action platformer for over a decade at this point. Now the time has finally arrived. Thanks to a partnership between developer Crazy Viking Studios and retro specialist Digital Eclipse, we can step back into the...
Review World Of Goo 2 (Switch) - A Superb Sequel With A Few Sticking Points
World of Good
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a few weeks shy of 16 years since the original World of Goo barged its way onto Wii and PC back in 2008. Its wacky physics and endearing presentation stole the hearts of practically everyone who played it, and a re-release on Nintendo Switch back in 2017 reaffirmed its lofty status, but can its...
Mini Review MARS 2120 (Switch) - A Mediocre Ode To Metroid Dread
This Mars has no bite
When Nintendo launched Metroid Dread in 2021, there was no doubt in our minds that it would inspire more fast-paced, gritty Metroidvanias later down the road. MARS 2120 is one such title; a sci-fi romp that attempts to capture the same magic that made Dread so special, but ultimately falls at almost every hurdle. It starts off...
Review SNK Vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos (Switch) - A Great-Looking But Painfully Average Fighter
So Very Common
Sometimes it's very difficult, no matter how you try to frame it in your head, to get excited for re-releases of certain retro fighting games. It's a genre that's ripe for the picking, absolutely stuffed full of crackers to be revisited but, for every delightful return to the likes of Samurai Shodown 2, Guilty Gear, or Street Fighter,...
Review Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (Switch) - A Faithful Remaster For Jango Fett, Warts And All
Mandabore
In the early 2000s, the Star Wars universe was expanding. While the prequel trilogy was setting its sights on Anakin Skywalker's epic arc from good to evil (or from 'Yippee’-ing child actor to underappreciated grown-up actor, depending on your point of view), LucasArts turned to the video game scene to provide some 'wider reading' for...
Review Thank Goodness You're Here! (Switch) - A Face-Achingly Funny British Romp
A Grand Day Out
You don’t know who you are, you don’t know fully why you’re going where you’re going, and everyone around you just assumes you’re the solution to all their problems. You could argue that this idea describes an unusually vast number of games, but Thank Goodness You’re Here! takes that notion to its logical conclusion. You...
Review The New Denpa Men (Switch) - A Simple, Goofy RPG With The Usual F2P Irritations
A winner is you
Back in the days of the Nintendo 3DS eShop, some of you may remember the Denpa Men trilogy, which offered a series of cheap and approachable RPG adventures that felt like a great fit for the portable. However, there was a fourth title released only in Japan in 2014 which experimented with a free-to-play structure that proved...
Review Abathor (Switch) - Retro Fantasy Hack 'N' Slash Is Great Fun With Friends
Golden axiom
Pow Pixel Games slices its way onto the indie game scene with Abathor, an arcade-style throwback to fantasy belt scrollers of the '80s and '90s. It’s a pleasingly old-fashioned hack-'n'-slash platformer that will conjure memories of childhood couch co-op. Golden Axe is the obvious influence, despite the side-on perspective, but there...
Review Bō: Path Of The Teal Lotus (Switch) - Charm Meets Challenge In This Gorgeous Metroidvania
More tea, vicar?
Metroidvania fans seem to be living through a golden age. Hollow Knight and the Ori series, indie hits of the last decade, have established themselves as all-time classics, spurring on a horde of imitators, tributes, and new ideas. Even just 2024’s entries range from the imaginative, lo-fi hit Animal Well to the lavishly presented
Review The Star Named EOS (Switch) – A Sparkling Puzzler With A Sincere Story
Starry-eyed
Photos capture a moment in time with full objectivity. They can defy our version of events, and settle ‘that’s not how it happened’ arguments. In these cases, you could say fitting a photo into one’s memory becomes a…puzzle. For this review’s sake, please think about that metaphor, because it's the premise of The Star Named...
Slide it over
There isn’t another puzzle game like Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure. It makes sense that a game about celebrating the differences between humans and the world would be so different. With Arranger, Furniture & Mattress – the studio formed by the lead writer on Carto, the artist of Braid, and the puzzle designer on ETHEREAL...
Review SCHiM (Switch) - A Chill, Shadow-Hopping Platformer That Prioritises Aesthetics
It's Frogger, but emotional
Though 3D platformers often go down the collectathon route to varying success, it can be interesting to see new entries in the genre try something a little different. SCHiM is one such fresh title, eschewing a focus on cartoonish characters, wacky levels, and mountains of things to grab in favor of a semi-narratively...
Mini Review Toree's Panic Pack (Switch) - A Third Pop Of 99¢ Platforming Pleasure
The only moral Toree
Toree's Panic Pack costs 89p. 99¢. That’ll probably either perk up your ears, or make your face twist in reasonable scepticism. Luckily, as with all the previous Toree games, it’s absolutely worthy of the former and certainly not the latter. Previous games in the series of short and colourful 3D platformers have had a...
Mini Review Conscript (Switch) - A WWI-Themed Love Letter To Resident Evil, Minus The Scares
Atten-hut!
When you think of survival horror, chances are you think of zombies, monsters, ghosts, and other fantastical, supernatural creatures. Conscript tries something a bit different. Set during World War I, you’re faced with something more feasible and realistic than any of the aforementioned beasties: the horror of war. Yes, the enemies here...
Review Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Switch) - Speed-Focused And Slight, But Addictive
Speed demon
Remember NES Remix on the Wii U? We enjoyed it for what it was back in the day, and now Nintendo has seen fit to return to similar grounds with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, a game that aims to put you in the shoes of a competitor at the Nintendo World Championships! Ok, so maybe we're forcing the excitement just a little...
In the Summer skies, flying high!
Did you know the F-16 first took flight 50 years ago a few months back? It is currently enjoying its Block 70 revision in case you were fearing that air forces around the world are still flying half-century-old technology. Meanwhile, Ace Combat is turning 30 next year and, much like an airplane block revision, it...
Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (Switch) - Hades In A Half-Shell
Roguesteady
From the outside, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate looks a lot like Hades. The room-based gameplay, upgrade and power-up systems, approach to storytelling, and hack-and-slash combat will be no stranger to those who have played the award-winning god-like roguelike. But this is no bad thing. Imitation is the sincerest form of...
Review Hot Lap Racing (Switch) - An Enjoyable "Simcade" Racer That Still Falls Between Stools
Not about spilling coffee, sadly
Although the Switch is home to an abundance of arcade-style racing games, the same can’t be said for more realistic fare. This is most likely because the Switch’s hardware would struggle to handle the Gran Turismos and Forza Motorsports of this world, so developers tend to give Nintendo's system a miss when...
Review Let's School (Switch) - A Solid Management Sim In School Uniform, But Lacks Soul
Class is in session
Everyone’s school days were a gauntlet of different challenges. From exams to social drama to the occasional run-in with a schoolyard bully, everyone had a bit of a hard time, but spare a thought to the poor headteachers who had to keep a building full of hormonal teenagers from descending into utter chaos. Let’s School from...
Review Darkest Dungeon II (Switch) - An Uncompromising Sequel That Isn't Afraid To Try New Things
Prepare to die
Upon booting it up for the very first time, Darkest Dungeon 2 greets you with a message that plainly informs you that you’re going to fail… a lot… while trying to overcome its many challenges. It does this not to discourage you, but to set expectations. Keeping with the precedent set by the first Darkest Dungeon, this sequel is...
Review Princess Maker 2 Regeneration (Switch) - A Solid Return For Simulator Royalty
Needs more dad jokes
Before Super Mario Maker, there was Princess Maker. Yes, these two series have absolutely nothing in common beyond a shared naming convention and we’re definitely being more than a bit cheeky, but it’s technically a true statement. Back in the early ‘90s, Neon Genesis Evangelion anime studio Gainax took its biggest swing...
Review Fading Afternoon (Switch) - An Ambitious, Absorbing 'Yakuza' In Kunio-kun's Clothing
The gang's all here
Technos’ Kunio-kun titles, a 42-strong series dabbling in various genres, began in 1986 as a simple arena brawler. Its most popular entries, however, were those that incorporated non-linear role-playing elements based around soap operatic high school thuggery. Anyone familiar with those titles, specifically on Famicom, Super...
