Once again, Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re:Mind on Switch is impossible to recommend without caveats as long as Cloud gaming relies on an erratic, unreliable provision of service. When it does work, it's a joy; every bit as good as any given title in the series, a dream to explore and thrilling in its spectacle. But then it falters, the input lag kicks in, and the illusion is taken away in a matter of moments. Buy this game and you are effectively renting an imperfect version for the duration of the Cloud service's lifespan. Want to play Kingdom Hearts on handheld? Well, there's always the Steam Deck, we suppose.
What we have here remains a fine collection of games and an interesting demonstration of the first decade of the Kingdom Hearts series. If you have a reliable enough internet connection, this is almost as good a way to play Kingdom Hearts as any other. If you don't, absolutely leave it on the digital shelf. We'd like to score Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMix on the assumption that you can run it, but that's not necessarily an accurate representation of what many people's experience is going to be, and our experience - with robust and rapid internet - was patchy. If you have any other way at all of playing these games, we recommend you do so. Ultimately, this is a great package delivered in the worst possible way.
While it's a fun time for fans, Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp is a total grindfest and plays almost the exact same way every time. With gameplay that's both luck-based and uninspiring, it's an incredibly tough recommendation to anyone but devoted series obsessives. This writer found it compelling - games don't take that long - but it is repetitive to a fault, and by design. Bizarrely, there are some ways in which it's less interesting and compelling than the equivalent unlockable feature in V3 and that was a free post-game bonus. Ask yourself if you really need to spend money to see the characters in swimsuits and make your decision from there.
We can't lie - we hated The Longing. We hated every second of playing it for review. Is it a resounding success at presenting all of its themes? Is it thought-provoking in a way that few games manage? Is it an exhausting slog we wouldn't wish on our worst enemies? The answer to all these questions is yes. But, with all that said, you cannot help but respect the developer's audacity and unwavering commitment to their principles. What the game sets out to do it accomplishes with flying colours, and it's filled with clever ideas and meditations.Ultimately, The Longing is one of those video games that defies traditional scoring metrics. What kind of score would you give a game that succeeds so triumphantly at being utterly, utterly tedious? A one? A ten? It feels inadequate and somewhat trite to split the difference, but here we are.
Here's the thing, and it's a bit of a kick in the pants. Genesis Noir is a very cool, very interesting and exceptionally well-presented game. It tells its esoteric story in an effective, exciting way with a litany of memorable visuals, fantastic artwork and a genuinely brilliant soundtrack. And, unfortunately, we simply can't recommend playing this compromised, ill-fitting, arduous and glitchy Switch port in the slightest. Maybe it's just us, but knowing we could be experiencing the spectacle of this clearly brilliant piece of art in a much higher resolution, at much greater fidelity, and with an order of magnitude less frantically wriggling the left analogue stick because we're convinced the game has broken is just a sobering reason to ask why we would even bother if this version isn't your only option. Even if you do only have a Switch, we'd recommend waiting until you have something else. This is a game that deserves better.
Neoverse Trinity Edition succeeds at being an enjoyable deck builder, but it does so in a way that's seemingly desperate to highlight its limitations. It runs embarrassingly poorly at times, and does almost nothing to ingratiate the player to its many systems, all of which must be puzzled out more or less from scratch. While this is far from ideal, it's not enough to totally kill the game's appeal. Robust strategy is both possible and necessary in order to progress much beyond even the second boss. If you vibe with Neoverse Trinity Edition, it'll last you a while. It's just very, very difficult to get to grips with this bizarre, confusing game.
Serious Sam Collection is two-thirds amazing, but the final third is a real technical mess; Serious Sam 3: BFE is one of the least impressive Switch ports we've ever seen. It's playable, but surely the machine that can push out an acceptable version of Doom can manage this? There's the potential for early patches to improve matters, but the way it is now, we can only recommend The Serious Sam Collection as a great way to play the First and Second Encounters. That's not what's advertised, though, and as a result, we can only give this package a cautious recommendation. A three-game collection should be a three-game collection; not two games and the faintest suggestion of one.
If we've made this game sound thoroughly generic, that's because it is. But it's not a disaster - Operation Blackout has plenty to do, with unlockable skins and modifiers to mess around with if you get into it, and there's love for the G.I Joe property here, so fans of the toys may get a kick out of it. For everyone else, though, it's a very difficult game to recommend. If you want a third-person shooter on Switch, Rebellion's Rogue Trooper or Zombie Army Trilogy are both better buys. And now you know. And knowing is half the- actually, no, forget it. We're not even going to finish the thought. We're better than that.
A greedy price tag, poor performance and an incredibly short campaign make Goosebumps: Dead of Night more likely to be dead on arrival. It's a shame, because it's a well-constructed and entertaining lite survival horror adventure that's probably perfect for kids. Even then, we'd recommend either waiting for a deep, deep sale, or simply renting the excellent 2015 movie. There's a lot to like here, but unfortunately, it's buried under a lot of ugliness. Much like, say... a scary ghoul! Wooooo! Or something.
Road to Guangdong is a tough one to score, because what it does right – the character interaction and small-scale personal dramas – are engaging enough to be worth praise. It's just that the mechanical glue holding it all together is close to disastrous at times. As a result, we can't give it a recommendation without enough caveats to make it sound like a warning. You might like Road to Guangdong, but even if you do, you'll like it despite it doing its level best to push you away.
Even on this second go-around, Battle Princess Madelyn Royal Edition is not up to scratch.
Performance issues could be (at least, partially) ironed over with likeable, interesting characters and a compelling mystery, but Dread Nautical just doesn't deliver one.
It's a tentative "yes", then, to this fascinating and flawed stealth game with an impressive sense of place; some will bounce off it harder than our Switch bounced off the wall when we got caught by yet another guard, but many will find it atmospheric, challenging and compelling. Definitely worth your attention, even if it's just to find out you don't like it.
Antonball Deluxe is, overall, a tricky game to review. As a solo game it's an easy pass, but on multiplayer we can see it clicking with the right group. It didn't set our world alight, but its simple charms may just work for you and your mates.
Dodgeball Academia does admittedly come together in a rather compelling way, but we're critical of the independent elements that make up this package. You might find yourself caught up in the storyline, which could potentially make up for its other shortcomings, but we found it a little disposable. It's clear that love has been poured into this adventure and it's absolutely superb to look at and listen to - we just wish the central sport was a more enjoyable to play and the dialogue wasn't so interminable. You might dig this game more if you get hooked into the grind, so to speak - battles are over quickly and levelling up is always fun - but overall, if you're not willing to get by on sheer aesthetics, you might want to dodge this one.
A game as good as Zombies Ate My Neighbors deserves a stronger package than this one, which feels in parts like a bit of a hack job. We're sure it isn't, but the lack of extras or even meaningful settings to change (again, you can't remap the controls) are a huge bummer. We could complain about the lack of the Mega Drive version, as while most favour the SNES game there is something to be said for the Sega port's always-visible status screen, but overall we still recommend this package to anyone who simply wants a slightly inferior version of a bloomin' brilliant game on their Switch, plus its much worse, but kind of okay sequel. This is - shockingly - probably the worst way to play Zombies Ate My Neighbors ever, but it's still a way to play Zombies Ate My Neighbors. So it gets the slightest of thumbs-ups.
There's something just a tiny bit cynical about the "please like me!!" cutesiness of Rain On Your Parade, but despite our best efforts we ended up doing so. Just. It coasts on "what will they do next?" novelty rather than any kind of meaty, significant gameplay, but sometimes that's okay. It's something new, which is appealing, and the toybox feel of the proceedings lends itself to a broad appeal – we can see young kids and people who vibe with its twee presentation getting a kick out of it. If you've had your fill of 'cutesy', though, you might find yourself hoping for a break in the clouds.
Despite a somewhat lacking narrative and a fairly short length – we saw the (beautiful) credits in less than four hours – Sea of Solitude is fun to play while it lasts. It looks superb and there's plenty of variety in the locales even in its brief running time. Sadly, though, it's not a standout – it wasn't on its original release and it still isn't here on the Switch. It's no walking simulator, but in trying to marry its story with somewhat rudimentary platforming gameplay, neither are entirely satisfactory. Of course, your mileage may vary in what the various heavier themes mean to you, but we found them pretty leaden and uninteresting takes on what are admittedly quite universal issues.
While it's a compelling package, Citizens Unite!: Earth x Space doesn't excel as an RPG in either of its halves. There's fun to be had, but it's obfuscated to some extent by technical issues and a lack of balance to its gameplay. That said, a lot of love has obviously been poured into this title and if you like your games with a bit of a unique personality, that's very much in evidence here. If you've already played these RPGs before, there's not enough here to draw you back for a repeat play, but new players might find this worthy of their hard-earned cash – if they're willing to put up with some rough edges.
It's disappointing that Golden Force falls down in the areas that it does, because without these fixable issues it would be an easy recommendation – level design is mostly strong, the boss battles marry spectacle with varied and fun-to-learn attack strings nicely, and it feels good to get stronger and play better. Unfortunately, some rookie errors come close to spoiling the fun altogether, but if you're bloody-minded enough to muscle through these frustrations there is undoubtedly a lot to appreciate about Golden Force. Which is a shame, in a sense, because "Golden Farce" would have been a perfect tagline for this review. The one we've had to opt for is rubbish, by comparison. (It's not as easy as you might think, this game-reviewing lark.)