Dark Souls Remastered on Nintendo Switch may be lacking in the same bells and whistles as its current gen counterparts, but that is hardly a bad thing. As a result of the Switch port taking a more reserved approach, due to technical limitations or otherwise, Dark Souls' visual identity has been kept intact. Audio compression does plague the port, but the main game itself is virtually untouched. While this may not result in a definitive version, the Switch port makes for an excellent return, or even first visit, to Lordran. Dark Souls remains a magnificently designed title with a strong visual and narrative sense of self. There was no reason to fix what wasn't broken, and Dark Souls Remastered on Switch understands that perfectly.
With gameplay best suited for a mouse and keyboard, a frankly unflattering aesthetic, and truly dreadful presentation, Unexplored: Unlocked Edition comes off mostly unengaging. To put it bluntly, the core gameplay loop simply isn't strong enough to carry a procedurally generated adventure. On top of that, the procedural generation, while fairly extensive and capable of leading to genuinely unique sessions with each playthrough, isn't enough to make up for how lacklustre Unexplored feels overall.
What Adventure of a Lifetime lacks in excitement, it makes up for in a well-paced plot framed through a rather introspective lens. Hiroki isn't a particularly engaging protagonist, but he's not so bland as to detract from the story or lacks in an arc, and both Chisa and Emily, the visual novel's co-leads, feature plenty of characterisation to move the story along. Where Adventure of a Lifetime really shines, however, is in its sound design. The entire read is scored by a nautical sound that genuinely brings the Ogasawara Islands to life. Adventure of a Lifetime could have done with a tighter script, but it nonetheless makes for a solid, if a bit light, read with just enough to take away.
A mediocre remaster of a great game, it is critically important to recognise that Final Remix is in no way whatsoever the definitive release of The World Ends with You. Presentation wise, the Switch remaster both looks and sounds great, improving upon the original mobile remaster wherever it can, but the gameplay is severely neutered when compared to the original Nintendo DS release. Combat will never be as smooth with the Joy-Con setup as it is with touch controls, and the modifications made to the partner system in order to make gameplay work on one single screen remove a great deal of the original battle system's charm. Final Remix is a good game as it is still, at its core, The World Ends with You, but it is a deeply flawed, deeply disappointing reimagining of the DS classic.
Although quite rough around the edges, the sheer amount of love and care present in Detective Gallo warrants at least one playthrough. With a surprisingly strong voice cast, coupled with an appropriately moody atmosphere, with a jazzy soundtrack and cartoony visuals, the point-and-click adventure is able to craft an identity all of its own, even if it isn't particularly unique in regards to its genre. The adventure does fall on the short side with puzzles that are not always particularly engaging, but Detective Gallo nonetheless makes for an interesting playthrough even if it does ultimately fail to live up to its potential.
Mega Man 11 not only marks a return to form for the franchise, it serves as a natural evolution of Mega Man's foundation, finally allowing the series to progress into the next generation. On an aesthetic and gameplay level, the series has taken some much needed, and welcome, steps. The art style has an appropriate level of charm and polish, while still evoking a more old school aesthetic, while the new Double Gear system pairs wonderfully with the platformer's tight level design. Mega Man 11 is a magnificent blend of old and new, honouring what came before, while never forgetting to look towards the future.
At its best, Victor Vran is an addictive action RPG with a great sense of progression and a strong visual identity of its own. At its worst, Overkill Edition muddies up a solid foundation with poor sound mixing, an unintuitive UI, and a choppy frame-rate, coupled with slowdown.
La-Mulana 2 doesn't reinvent compared to its predecessor, but it doesn't have to. The foundation left behind by the original La-Mulana is strong enough to justify a sequel that, on the whole, follows the same beats as the original. Exploration is deeply satisfying as Eg-Lana is one of the finest crafted worlds in a Metroidvania; puzzles require genuine use of critical thinking more than not; and, while the curve perhaps isn't as refined as in the original, the difficulty provides a consistent challenge from start to finish. La-Mulana 2 is more of the same, in the best way possible.
At its best, The Lost Child knows how to engage its audience with a creative take on the monster catching format without leaning too heavily into its Shin Megami Tensei influences. Unfortunately, at its worst, and it is more often at its worst, The Lost Child drags the audience along with an incohesive story, lacklustre dungeon design, and a repetitive battle system. The title isn't entirely without merit as everything does tend to mesh well enough in small doses, but longer play sessions reveal the monotony of it all. The Lost Child is an interesting experience, but perhaps one best experienced at a severely reduced price.
Endearingly minimalistic and simple enough without compromising potential depth, Bad North works surprisingly well with its premise, but is ultimately held back by from reaching the greatness it easily could have attained. A roguelike RTT is an interesting concept, but the title does suffer from a lack of traditional level design once the difficulty curve begins to spike. On top of that, freezing can occur when returning to the world map after a mission. Autosave ensures progress is never lost, but it's nonetheless frustrating. Bad North is not a bad RTS by any means, offering a fairly strong first half, but a lack of cohesion between difficulty and level design makes its back half less palatable.
To say Guacamelee! 2 excels as a Metroidvania would be to sell it short. in recent memory.
Earthlock isn't going to go down as an essential JRPG, especially on the PlayStation 4 where RPGs aren't exactly uncommon, but it will go down as a charming, respectable title that pays tribute to the PSone era of the genre without forgetting to carve an identity of its own.
From its story, to its aesthetic, to its gameplay, War Tech Fighters feels like a traditional mecha anime brought to life.
Although conceptually sound with a fairly strong setting, This is the Police 2 struggles to say or do anything meaningful with its premise.
Although The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker does a decent enough job at building intrigue from act to act, its repetitive nature and random approach to the murder mystery format ultimately serve to diminish what could have been a highly enjoyable detective simulator. Not only do interrogations begin to lose their lustre rather quickly, with only a few standout patients maintaining their quality until the end, the killer being chosen at random at the start of each playthrough makes for an incohesive narrative that relies more on its gimmick than a genuine attention to the nuances of the mystery genre to pull off its story. To its credit, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker does work far better than it should given how much the randomness holds it back, but it could have been significantly better with a more focused storyline.
LEGO The Incredibles is a mediocre action-adventure brawler that fails to live up to the LEGO franchise's reputation. While it's certainly charming to see both films adapted into the LEGO format so succinctly, the whole experience is bogged down by tedious gameplay, technical issues, and sound design that's rough around the edges, at best. Along with a rather uninteresting roster and short play time, LEGO The Incredibles doesn't even come close to the comparatively high standards LEGO Star Wars set nearly a decade and a half ago.
A Rite from the Stars is worth playing through at least once, if only to appreciate how rich Makoan culture is, but it fails to improve upon the point-and-click genre in any substantial way.
From the tight controls to the charming aesthetic, there's very little holding SpiritSphere DX back from being one of the best multiplayer titles on Nintendo Switch.
Slow, methodical, and deliberate, Happy Birthdays is at times frustrating, but only because it's genuinely engaging premise demands an attention to detail and level of care. Its biggest fault is that much of the experience occurs at the player rather than with the player. With that said, watching evolution occur on a grand scale through one simple action is an impressive and exciting feat. Cubes do require interaction to keep evolution moving smoothly, as well, so it isn't as if everything can be auto-played, just that more interactivity would have benefitted the game overall. At its core, Happy Birthdays is a creation simulator and one that won't resonate with everyone, but those who do end up jiving with the title will certainly find something worthwhile to take away.
Although flawed and at times painfully inconsistent, Vampyr manages to offer relatively engaging gameplay in spite of a lack of overall polish. Combat is stiff and quite mindless, but Jonathan's progression deeper into Vampiredom is handled well and the abilities at his disposal go a long way towards masking some of the more mundane aspects of the battle system. It's more whether or not Jonathan decides to prey on the people of London, and its consequences, that keep the experience fresh. There's a trade off between making Jonathan and keeping districts stable, each one offering their own benefits. There are technical issues, and the performance is lacking on every front, but Vampyr has enough going for it conceptually that it's worth sinking some time into, if only to be a vampire in 20th century London.