I enjoyed my hours with the game, but a lot of it is more fleeting, especially whenever I played it with the muddy portable visuals. Exploration is fine here, but a minor lack of ingenuity in puzzles and combat all coalesce into making this a satisfactory but not very memorable adventure. If you can play on your TV the whole time, the visuals can overwrite those ills, but if you play mostly on the go, problems will abound.
That layer of protection circles back to the feeling of being comforted by a blanket while rolling through the variety of cozy levels and cute touches. Yoshi's Crafted World is a stable, enjoyable adventure that brings enough of a twist to the expected Yoshi adventure to make it stand apart in a way no Yoshi platformer has done in years. It has a few blemishes along the way, but just break out the duct tape and stick that cardboard back up so you can romp your way through this delightful easy-going platformer.
Overall, I'm impressed by Super Kickers League. It's a fundamentally sound arcade soccer game, which is harder to nail than you'd think. .
Overall, it's an enjoyable action-focused romp, but everything feels a little scattershot. This is a game that packs in a lot but doesn't stick the landing on all that much. The Princess Guide offers up a pleasant little brawler that overcomplicates at every turn and is never truly satisfying.
Even with that in mind, Golf Peaks is an excellent bite-sized puzzle game for the Switch. It was a nice, serene, and challenging way to wind down and after playing through it, I'll be keeping eye for new stylish puzzle games from this developer as they clearly understand how to make these things fun.
But all of those bothersome traits wash away the moment you solve a tough task. Logic puzzles don't come more clever or rewarding than Baba Is You, and with that in mind, this is one of the best of its kind in recent memory. It just might stump you a lot.
Don't take yourself out with this crowd. For unenjoyable baseball video games, maybe it should be one, two, three strikes, you're out. I don't care if it ever gets back.
I desperately want to love Treasure Stack, but as it is right now, it's a colorful sketch of a video game at best. Simply, there just isn't much of anything to do and a frustrating interface and a seemingly absent online landscape (including crossplay with Xbox One and PC) makes the future for this heavily online-focused game look bleak. Maybe someday this could be a richer, fuller experience, but it isn't right now.
The sublime style drips with funk, and the cadence of roaming through floors using my presents to try to avoid failure and find my ship parts is one that made for a charming experience. It didn't matter if I saw some of the same things several times over my multiple playthroughs. The whole thing is spectacularly goofy and weird, even if I eventually do figure out why the hell the yeti has a pencil.
Even with a few issues, Trials Rising is an excellent experience on Switch, filled with a slew of creative levels and a lot of reasons to replay and tweak your experience. Sure, the version on Switch might not be as pretty as other versions, but it's just as playable, aside from a few handheld framerate problems. Steady your hand and get to navigating the peaks and valleys of the world of Trials. Just make sure you're connected online.
If you can make hay out of the physics and not run into the maddening frustration that dominated my playtime, then Pumped BMX Pro might just stick the landing. But if you want something that's more freeing and interesting, you're better off checking out any one of the other similar games hitting Switch in 2019.
Taken as a whole, Evoland: Legendary Edition should probably be viewed as just including Evoland 2, since that game is, for the most part, totally alright. I'd look at the first game as a nonessential bonus. It's a solid gag, but that's about it. The second game also veers into that humorous minefield, but at least it can precariously hang with decent action-RPG elements and amusing writing.
The brief length can make it feel a little less ambitious, but I can't say I was let down by this whimsical short story of a video game. Lovely art, a cute story, and solid puzzle platforming help make The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince a pleasant ride.
Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a thoroughly abnormal game that triumphs when its oddities all click. When you're rolling out there switching between your little boy, robot bounty hunter, and drunk wizard and blazing through battles against colorful foes, it's excellent, but when the repetitive areas and roguelite malaise starts to creep in, it falters. If all works out, by the time you hit that point, you'll be rolling the credits.
undefined.We have multiple reviews of Swords & Soldiers, all positive, including Chuck Jose's take on the WiiWare release in 2009 and Zach Miller's equally charmed screed on the HD release on Wii U in 2014. I don't have much more to add that Chuck and Zach haven't already covered aside from I think Swords & Soldiers shows its age more. The spirit of it is wonderful, but if you want to check the series out, I'd more recommend you wait for the sequel to come out in March.
The references don't hinder the fun and this game stands on its own strongly. Etrian Odyssey Nexus is an elegant farewell to a series and a system. If this is the last we see of the Etrian series, this is a high note to go out on.
Some elements of these mystery dungeon-type games will always be inscrutable, but Tangledeep does the best job I've seen at making it playable for everyone. The Switch version might not be ideal thanks to the clumsy interface, but it's worth figuring it out because underneath the difficulty and few crusty layers lies a beautiful game with a ton of enjoyable RPG variety.
After years of hearing how cool Downwell is, it's great to see just how fantastic it really is. It's a straightforward, no-nonsense masterclass in design where it's super easy to sit down with the intention of playing for five minutes and walk away a dozen runs and more than an hour later. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some gun boots to fire off so I can get to the bottom of this well.
Gabbuchi has its issues, primarily due to the character’s floaty jump and frustrating hitbox, but the puzzles nearly break through the problems thanks to their thoughtful challenge and clever design. It falls short of the engrossing majesty of similar puzzlers, but I hope h.a.n.d. makes more interesting games such as this. It’d be nice to see what they’ve learned after years of working with other company’s creations.
It captured me for a while though, as I tried to go through many runs to learn the ins and outs of these villagers as I planned out my sacrifices strategically to keep them all in the dark of the true machinations of my charlatan cult leader's goals. That is, if the cult leader is lying. I mean, the Chernabog isn't real, right? Right?.