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I Am The Hero is aesthetically pleasing, and its pixel art characters would have been at home on the SNES. The soundtrack also keeps you pumped, with a steady beat that compliments the fast combo-building pace. There are occasional lag issues sprinkled around when enemies start to swarm the screen, and particularly when you knock multiple foes into a wall. This is especially evident in co-op multiplayer, which only doubles the amount of chaos on the screen. However, this is a minor fault in an effective beat em’ up with layers of depth. While some may find it a tad on the easy side and lacking in story, the unlockables, great visuals, and just plain fun combo-building make it a good time.
While not a revolution in the point-and-click adventure genre, the crude humour and amusing story keep Demetrios feeling fresh and fun. While it won’t be to everyone’s tastes, if you’re a fan of cynical commentary and games that self-satirise, then you won’t go far wrong here.
Screencheat is highly recommended and will provide hours and hours of multiplayer fun. The matches might start off basic, but you’ll be itching to unlock more and more content to dial the crazy factor up to 11. This is a great concept with smooth gameplay that culminates in really enjoyable multiplayer pandemonium, although the lack of online play in this Switch version (the 'Unplugged' of the title), does limit things to local-only multiplayer, unfortunately.
Overall, Storm Boy is a compelling emotional tale that has a phenomenal soundtrack that will get even the stoniest-hearted player tearing up. It’s gorgeously presented and is a wonderful piece of interactive art, but its length severely diminishes its value. If you rush through, you can finish the game within ten minutes. However, writing it off entirely would be doing a disservice to its brilliant atmosphere and immersive plot. If you’re a fan of story-driven experiences and gorgeous soundtracks, then you may wish to check it out.
If you're interested in a three-hour narrative adventure in the vein of Gone Home and Tacoma, and you can justify the current price, then there's a memorable-enough time to be had with Open Roads. There's not a wasted detail in the game's storytelling and there's a lot to appreciate in the subtle and skilful way it leads you through its tale. We enjoyed the little moments of character growth that came from Opal and Tess throughout. By the end, we felt as if we knew them. The game's ending also, genuinely, surprised us, which is an impressive feat. There's a heartfelt originality to Open Roads. But, yes, the gameplay is also limited. The 'pick up an object, have a conversation' repetition only has a temporary appeal. Whether the game is for you or not depends entirely on how you feel about the genre as a whole.
NES enthusiasts, parents looking for an approachable retro game for their kids, and anyone with nostalgic sentiments toward Felix the Cat will find something to enjoy here – all the better if it's on sale. This relatively sparse package boasts little else than two versions of the same hour-long, three-decade-old game, making it hard to justify at its full price point.
Pepper Grinder is a wonderfully inventive and fun platformer that no fan of the genre will want to miss out on. It may have a runtime that feels a little too short, but this is ultimately a deeply enjoyable, challenging, and highly replayable game with lots of personality. If you think you'd be interested, we'd suggest you pick up Pepper Grinder at the next opportunity (and there's a even downloadable demo if you're on the fence).
All in all, Oxto is a solid recommendation if you’re a fan of Hotline Miami and are after something to scratch a similar itch. Ultimately, its roguelike structure hinders the experience rather than enhances it, but if all you want to do is shoot a few bad guys, then you can’t really go wrong.
The irony is that Aspyr has done a nice job with remastering the visuals in both games and we enjoyed seeing the results. But the reality is that these games often feel old, they're extremely buggy, and the online play is hit-and-miss. This should have been a slam dunk. Instead, playing Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection made us feel sad. If Aspyr can fix the slew of technical issues, this might one day be worth picking up on Switch. Until that happens, though, the Force isn't with this one.
South Park: Snow Day! has a lot of potential with some of its roguelike-inspired mechanics but ultimately fails to deliver an engaging experience whether you're playing it solo or in co-op. Combat feels unresponsive, the technical issues are numerous (on Switch at least), and the writing is some of the weakest in the series.
Princess Peach: Showtime! sees Nintendo finally give everyone's favourite imaginary princess the rollicking adventure she deserves. We had expected a rather throwaway offering here, a bunch of minigames and Mario-lite platforming maybe, but what we've got is one of the better kid-focused games on Switch. There's creativity, style, and fun to spare here, with levels packed full of secrets, cool outfits, and enough new mechanics to ensure nothing ever outstays its welcome. Come for the fashion, stay for the boss battles, slo-mo bullet dodges, and cardboard horse chases. Besides a few niggling performance issues, this is Nintendo on rather cracking form. Encore!
If you give yourself over to Warhorse's muddy opus, it will reward you with a hundred hours of grueling and enjoyable trial and error. It's buggy and rough around the edges on Switch, but Kingdom Come Deliverance is a singular RPG experience. The pacing and constant juggling of mechanics is not for everyone, but invest the time and you'll experience an engrossing, grounded adventure.
Although certainly designed to be disorienting in terms of its visuals, Krimson’s levels can be a tad too difficult to parse at times, with safe platforms and deadly obstacles often blending into one another. This is exacerbated by the swirling, gooey textures on every surface, along with strobe effects that briefly come into play upon death. It’s a lot to take in and the game never lets up, so we often found ourselves wanting to put it down for a little while just so our senses could have a little break. We appreciate the artistic intent, but some accessibility features to perhaps tone down the effects or better highlight certain platforms would be most welcome.
Rebel Transmute is probably the best Metroidvania you've never heard of. Though its visuals are just okay, its skillful blend of high difficulty, obscure narrative, and rewarding exploration all make for a thoroughly great entry that no genre fan should miss out on. New Metroidvanias are certainly a dime a dozen, but releases like Rebel Transmute demonstrate that there's always room for one more good one. We'd recommend you pick this game up if you're a big fan of the genre, particularly if you want something that scratches that Hollow Knight itch-Rebel Transmute has got it where it counts and is certainly worth your time and attention.
The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered is a decent, though unspectacular, dungeon crawler that does a good job of defying some traditional RPG tropes. Mechanics like the elemental system and the randomized character progression help this stand out from the pack, while its simple dungeon-crawling format carries the basic, but satisfying gameplay for dozens of hours. Still, it doesn't take very long for this one to feel like it's overstaying its welcome, and more could've been done to sand its rougher edges. Legend of Legacy may not be the best example of this genre, but it's still an enjoyable release for the dungeon-crawling cognoscenti.
Like Atari 50 and The Making of Karateka before it, Digital Eclipse's latest interactive documentary is a wonderful glimpse into the mind of one of gaming's most fascinating figures. Even if you've got no prior knowledge of Minter or his games, the selection of videos, image galleries, quotes, and playable games included here will provide you with a newfound respect for this niche yet immensely important segment of gaming history. Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is another triumph for Digital Eclipse, and we can't wait to see what the studio tackles next with its Gold Master Series.
WayForward has done god's work in design and execution, and in rekindling the feel of Konami's blistering run-and-gun IP. It's all expertly assembled: an adrenaline-fuelled bullet ballet that knows exactly what Contra is and should be, borrowing key elements from the series' back catalogue and elevating the action with an original moveset that feels fresh, fun, and exciting to toy with. It's this undeniable accomplishment that makes the Switch version somewhat deflating. There's a great game here, and yes, it is playable, it is fun, and it can be learned. But it's damaged by so many technical setbacks that one weeps for what should have been. Unity-coded titles on the Switch don't have a great track record, but WayForward can't really blame the tools and should have ironed it out considerably. Contra: Operation Galuga stands tall amongst its peers - just not this version. If you're a serious Contra fan, we're going to drop something utterly perverse for a Nintendo-focused publication, lay down a suppressing fire, and tell you to head straight over to Steam.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley opens with a goodbye. As an outsider, Snufkin doesn't hibernate with the Moomins and must wander lonelily through the ice. The prospect of a reunion in the spring sets up a bittersweet mood, sews a seed of hope that grows throughout the game, and kicks off a quest to restore everything to its rightful place. Accomplished gameplay design and magical sounds and visuals make the whole adventure a delight.
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game arrives on Switch in a port that does a surprisingly decent job of delivering the goods without getting utterly bogged down by issues en route. This is a big game, a modern, physics-heavy beast, and while there's a blurriness to the visuals which detracts from the overall atmosphere, and some frame rate bumps along the way to boot, the core experience has arrived intact. It's not perfect, but it's a reasonably decent place from (s)which to start for a game that absolutely deserves your time and patience.
Even amidst a huge strategy RPG boom, Unicorn Overlord stands out. It's a smorgasbord of visual delights, intricate systems, and addictive gameplay loops that all come together to create a delightfully thrilling and deep tactical RPG. It's so easy to get absorbed into everything the game offers, and we lapped it all up. Vanillaware has long been known for creating beautiful-looking games with unique twists on genres, but with 13 Sentinels and now Unicorn Overlord, this developer should be on absolutely everyone's radar.