Switch eShop Game Reviews
Review BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites (Switch) - Sheer Bloody Style Atones For Poor Platforming
Bloody re-vamp
The customer is always right, so the saying goes. But when BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites presents to you its wares, it’s not quite ready to concede that much. If the customer thinks there’s actually a few too many monsters on screen, well, they’re wrong. If they think those platforms are a bit too narrow, that’s also...
Mini Review The Magnificent Trufflepigs (Switch) - A Metal-Detecting Sim Short On Magnificence
beep beep beep BEEBEEBEEBEEP
From day one, The Magnificent Trufflepigs — a game about metal-detecting and romance — came out swinging for the fences with prestige TV powerhouse AMC (of Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad fame) as publishers. But is it the equivalent of a stash of rare Roman coins, or just another rusty bottlecap? The story...
Review Baldo: The Guardian Owls (Switch) - Exquisite Ghibli-Esque Art Can't Hide Tortuous Gameplay
You Died
Since this review was originally published, patches and updates have reportedly addressed or improved one or more of the issues cited. Unfortunately, cannot revisit games on an individual basis, but it should be noted that the updated game may offer an improved experience over the one detailed below. Excruciating. It's not a word you...
Mini Review Necrobarista: Final Pour (Switch) - Decaf On Switch, But Still A Potent Blend
Could be robusta, but has strong notes
While video games often provide a very different storytelling experience to books and of course TV / cinema, the continual growth in the popularity of visual novels demonstrates that different mediums can blend to excellent effect. Necrobarista: Final Pour is another welcome entry in the genre on Switch, and it...
Review Dodgeball Academia (Switch) - Impressive Presentation, But Lacks Depth On Court
A True Underdog Story
It's very difficult to make school appealing. Persona gave it a go, and Lego Harry Potter took its best shot, but in general we just don't want to go to school ever. Dodgeball Academia is up against it from the off, but compelling gameplay could have brought it back from the brink of enforced educational apathy. Sadly, it's...
Mini Review Golf Club: Wasteland (Switch) - Surprisingly Engaging Post-Apocalyptic Putt Putt
Not a birdie in sight
If the world were to become a wasteland, chances are your main priorities will be obtaining food, water, shelter, and perhaps an abandoned Game Boy to pass the time (because you know those puppies can last for decades). It’s unlikely that playing golf would be at the top of your bucket list at that point, so it’s a good...
Mini Review Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins (Switch) - The Best Doctor Who Game Ever Made
You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.
Have you ever wanted to receive text messages from the Doctor Who universe? No, us neither. That’s not to diminish the long-running sci-fi telecast as a whole; more of a sad acknowledgement that its current incarnation perhaps doesn’t represent the programme at its best. We were surprised, then, to find...
Review Super Animal Royale (Switch) - Fortnite X Animal Crossing + Skunk Gas = What's Not To Like?
Mortal wombat
Super Animal Royale is an animal-based, free-to-play, 2D, top-down, 64-player, crossplay battle royale with premium cosmetics. That’s a lot of concepts piled up on top of each other – and it shows how our gaming vocabulary has expanded over the last decade or so. There are notions here that you would have had to explain in detail...
Review Secret Neighbor (Switch) - An Intriguing Premise, But Unbalanced And Tedious
If it weren’t for those meddling kids...
Of all the indie games released over the last decade, you’d be forgiven for thinking of stealth horror game Hello Neighbor is one of the lesser-known creations, one which was engulfed in the flood of — let’s face it — better games. Yet despite the poor critical reception, Hello Neighbor found its...
Mini Review Mayhem Brawler (Switch) - A Surprisingly Accomplished Beat 'Em Up
In it for the long brawl
It may seem uncharitable to begin a review this way, but Mayhem Brawler is a terrible title for a game. It may as well be 'Fast Driver' or 'High Jumper'. It honestly makes it sound like the laziest, perpetually 89p-in-an-eShop-sale shovelware rubbish. It also does the game a vast disservice, because Mayhem Brawler is a...
Mini Review Townscaper (Switch) - A Peaceful, Pretty, City-Building Plaything
If you build it, they will come
They say only the boring are ever bored. Back in the day you’d have been lucky to have a wooden stick to play with – unless it was sunny, in which case you could have the shadow as well. Kids these days with their mobile phones… where’s the imagination? It’s here! In Townscaper, a game which publisher Raw...
Mini Review Spelunky (Switch) - An Indie Icon And Roguelite Royalty, Finally On Switch
"I am a man of fortune, and I must seek my fortune."
These days, it feels like every other indie game released is some take on the roguelite genre, but it wasn’t always like that. At one point it was even considered a relatively fresh take on game design, and one of the games to blaze the trail in this regard was Spelunky. After receiving an...
Review Spelunky 2 (Switch) - A Masterclass In Great Roguelite Game Design
"I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed."
It’s sometimes tough to decide what you want out of a sequel of a beloved game. On one hand, you want something fresh and new that builds on and surpasses what came before. On the other, you kind of want things to stay mostly the same, because you liked what you already...
Mini Review Hoa (Switch) - A Gentle Platformer With Stunning Studio Ghibli-Esque Art
Lovely Ghibli
Those of us who played Super Mario Bros. as kids had our minds blown the first time someone pointed out that World 1-1 taught you how to play the game. The Goomba comes along and makes you jump; you’re likely to bump your head and discover a mushroom; the pipe helps you jump onto the blocks and so on. Who’d have thought there was...
Review Quake (Switch) - The Definitive Version Of An Iconic, Flawless FPS
Gothic Revival
What is there left to say about Quake at this stage really? Arriving on the FPS scene some 25 years ago as a successor to iD Software's phenomenal DOOM, it single-handedly revolutionised a genre with its real-time 3D rendering ushering in a new era of immersion that left its storied predecessor feeling resolutely old-school by...
Review Garden Story (Switch) - A Flawed But Charming RPG In Farm Sim's Clothing
Role Playing Grape
Games are often about escapism, and Garden Story offers yet another way to lose yourself in the virtual world: the hero protagonist is a grape, burdened with great purpose. Concord (see what they did there) is but a youngling, wrenched from the Kindergarden to fulfil the role of Guardian after their predecessor decides to leave...
Review Love Esquire (Switch) - A Fantastic Voice Cast Elevates This Seductive Romp
Looking for love in all the right places
Visual novels and dating sims used to be hard to come by here in the West, especially on consoles. However, the Switch, with its portability and vibrant screen, has enjoyed a wealth of games in these genres over the years. One of the latest to make its way to the console is Love Esquire from publisher Mama...
Mini Review Rush Rally Origins (Switch) - An Easygoing, Accessible Rallying Remake
Rushing back to the start
With each iteration of Rush Rally, the series has assuredly improved with more detailed cars and environments, sharper controls, and an overall cleaner experience. In hindsight, then, the original Rush Rally can seem a tad dated in comparison to later entries, so developer Brownmaster has gone back and effectively remade...
Review Boyfriend Dungeon (Switch) - A Fun But Ultimately Shallow 'Dating Crawler'
Knee deep in dunj
Sometimes you come across a game that really makes you curious what the developers were thinking when they were first drafting it. Boyfriend Dungeon is one such game. It’s a dungeon crawler, rather like Hades or Diablo, with the twist that your character is probably dating the weapon they’re using to kill baddies. As ridiculous...
Mini Review art of rally (Switch) - Stylish Driving With Plenty Of Substance
Vincent van Go Go Go
Funselektor Labs’ art of rally looks like it should be the most accessible rally sim of all time. Its bright colours and abstract environments almost create a false sense of security, distracting from an otherwise remarkably deep and challenging rally title. It retains the same authentic gameplay from its original PC release,...
Mini Review ISLANDERS Console Edition (Switch) - Serene, Superb, And More 'Tetris' Than 'SimCity'
There can be only one
What’s the meaning of a game? Is it the essentially human nature of interaction? The intricacies of the universe’s fundamental laws? What does it mean to be human? What is the universe? What’s the meaning of life? These are the questions Islanders Console Edition came to us to answer. Woah. In Islanders, you build mellow...
Review Axiom Verge 2 (Switch) - A Fantastic Follow-Up To A Classic Metroidvania
Gone without a Trace
In the comparatively dark days of the Wii U, we often had to focus more on indie games to get us through the worst of the months-long droughts between major first-party releases. Fortunately, various smaller studios stepped up and one such gem was Axiom Verge, an absolutely incredible Metroidvania that was produced in its...
Review Fire Tonight (Switch) - Inspired By A Song, This Puzzler Is A '90s Nostalgia Trip
Video flames
Well, there's a hot wind blowing tonight in the east And I heard that the park is filled tonight with police On the radio there's nothing but a man saying to stay inside Well, I remember what you said on the telephone That you didn't feel like it was safe to stay alone And you would get yourself to me if you could find a way across the...
Mini Review Last Stop (Switch) - Touching Tales Of London Life In Annapurna's Latest
The Tube is out there
As a storyteller, gaming has several personalities. Sometimes we go story-game-story-game with cutscene 'movies', or we pick through branching prose with interspersed decisions, or we read out comic book narratives interrupted by puzzle breaks. Sometimes the action is the story, like Breath of the Wild’s millions of private...
Review Haven Park (Switch) - A Lovely Country Walk With A Few Stinging Nettles
A brief trek
Exploration is a big ol’ deal in some video games; you only have to look at something like Breath of the Wild or A Short Hike in order to see that. Haven Park leans heavily into that idea, and shares some DNA with the latter game we mentioned. Not least of all because you play as a bird. Haven Park sees you controlling Flint, a young...
Mini Review Ayo The Clown (Switch) - A Breezy Platformer That Yoshi Fans Will Enjoy
We all float down here
Ayo the Clown is something of a rarity; a pure 2.5D platform game set across bite sized linear stages. It owes a lot of its core gameplay ideas to classic Mario titles — and quite explicitly takes inspiration from various entries in the Yoshi series — with cute character design, levels that promote exploration and...
Review PICROSS S GENESIS & Master System Edition (Switch) - Picross X SEGA Could Have Been More
SAY-GUH
It’s rather impressive how much mileage Nintendo and Jupiter Corporation have managed to get out of the Picross franchise. The beloved number puzzle series has been going for a couple decades now, while the core gameplay all along the way has remained almost completely stagnant. Though the ‘main’ games have been entertaining enough in...
Review Skydrift Infinity (Switch) - Arcade-Style Sky Racing That's Short But Sweet
Just good fun, plane and simple
One of the most irritating things anyone can say online is: “Nobody asked for this.” It’s a cocky, unfairly harsh way of shutting down any new game that isn’t on a person’s own specific wishlist, and not only is it generally disrespectful, it can also be totally meaningless. After all, a game doesn’t have...
Mini Review Trigger Witch (Switch) - Guns And Witchcraft Of A Different Type
Fly me to the moon
Ever found yourself wishing that games like The Legend of Zelda featured a boatload of badass guns in addition to its staple Master Sword? Well, no, neither have we, if we're being honest. But there's clearly a market for such a game, as eastasiasoft's Trigger Witch proves. Part adventure RPG, part twin-stick shooter, this...
Mini Review Unbound: Worlds Apart (Switch) - All The Portals You Need
Is this cake a lie..?
Portals have always been cool, right? Valve's own genre-defining Portal remains to this day one of the greatest FPS games of all time, and we're sure even the most firm critic of the MCU can't watch the Endgame portal scene without feeling just a little bit emotional. Unbound: Worlds Apart makes smart use of portals as a...