Rudy Lavaux's Reviews
Guacamelee! 2 feels just as good as its predecessor overall. Some of the hardest sections can be even more frustrating than the hardest challenges found in the original, but this is somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that it does streamline a lot of things that were more complicated than they really needed to be. The adventure has the potential for replay value, especially with DLC, achievement and multiplayer for up to four players thrown into the mix. The Mexiverse certainly feels worthy of being saved, despite the sometimes infuriating challenge proposed by Guacamelee! 2, and fans of the Metroidvania genre in general, but fans of the original, in particular, should definitely check this one out.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses can best be summed up as a carefully crafted mix of old and new that feels comfortable to pick up, though perhaps its new mechanics take a while to get accustomed to.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is simply everything that its predecessor was and then some, with some improved mechanics, more block types to choose from and a new and more interesting story.
Sega Ages Space Harrier is a perfect port of a great classic that remains a milestone in video gaming technology to this day, perfectly preserved for both home and portable play in its Switch incarnation.
Star Wars Pinball is packed full with content, and offered at a more than reasonable price given all the goodness found therein, even for owners of the same game on 3DS and Wii U which both only received a fraction of what is on offer here. Moreover, this one brings the same level of graphical fidelity found on the base versions of competitors' consoles, with HD rumble, TATE mode, and portability added on top for good measure. This is a serious contender for best pinball game of all time right here, especially for fans of the Star Wars universe.
The "definitive" adjective in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition is not just for show. The amount of extra work that went into making this the most refined version of the original available is staggering and worthy of praise.
Without any of the technical issues that plagued it on other systems it got released on, Alien: Isolation was, and remains, one of the best survival horror games ever made.
In many aspects, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 reiterates all the good things of the first instalment, and goes beyond just enough to justify its existence. All qualities of its predecessor are in place, with an extra dose of wackiness and originality on top. The classic Castlevania 3-inspired recipe works just as well now, and the retro-stiff but tight and satisfying controls are a joy to experience for any fans of the genre. Inti Creates did it again!
Chicken Police - Paint it Red! is a total good surprise. It hits every nail squarely on the head and leaves the player with a satisfying sense of accomplishment, while being a ruddy good time all the way through. Yes, the English written script leaves something to be desired and should totally be fixed as soon as possible, meaning it's not perfect in that sense. It is also somewhat short for the price but this is something we can more easily let it slide when a game is just consistently enjoyable all the way through like it is here. Lovers of animals, film noir, adult humour, police mysteries and point n' click adventures... all of the above are likely to find a lot to be liked about this piece of software.
It's not often that you find a Metroidvania that actually measures up to its models, while still managing to put its own attractive spin on the old formula. Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth- absolutely delivers and manages to capture the Symphony of the Night look and feel brilliantly, while still being its own title. There are only two real drawbacks that keep the experience from being perfect: performance can have dips, manifested with slowdown rather than dropped frames, but only in circumstances where it doesn't affect gameplay at all. Then, newcomers to the Record of Lodoss War universe will be left completely lost as to who the characters are, and how they relate to one another, making the story tough to care for. Everything else however feels perfect and proved memorable in a way that Konami's eponymous franchise always managed to deliver with its 2D incarnations.
Star Wars Pinball: the Heroes Within is the best pack of DLC tables released so far. It features possibly the best tables yet in the Star Wars Pinball series, including some of the most stunningly looking ones too, but also offering more content for the same price than the previously released Balance of the Force pack. Granted there are not many packs to compare this one to, but it's clearly the kind of DLC that makes you wish these tables had been the main game right from the start, and that the base pack had been made DLC instead. Indeed, one must still purchase the base three tables on Wii U in order to experience these four new ones, bringing the overall price to experience these on Nintendo's console to higher than it would be on some other devices where it is possible to purchase tables one by one. That's not to say that the base Star Wars Pinball pack isn't worth purchasing anyway, as its original review will show. That one really impressed with its quality content and exploitation of the franchise for pinball purposes, back in 2013. This new pack builds on what was already a great piece of software for both Star Wars and pinball fans. This new pack is a must-have on the eShop as each table offers lots of fun, looks great, and sounds awesome.
NES Remix takes most of the NES' early library of first party games, and fractions them into small tasks that help to revisit the most satisfying moments of each, as well as "remixes" some into new types of gameplay involving all sorts of cool and surprising elements. Whether one has already tried these games, or even still owns them to this day, he or she may well find that this new way of revisiting them might just be more fun than the games themselves. Playing NES Remix allows players to discover alternative methods to enjoy these classics in ways that they would not have otherwise found themselves by playing their original cartridges or Virtual Console releases. On the other hand, those who never tasted some of these titles, some of which are perhaps not anymore amongst the most well-known of Nintendo's back catalogue of NES classics, may well find that they want to experience them for themselves in the way they were meant to be played, after they try NES Remix. Indeed, NES Remix sheds new light on those classics to make them more relevant even to this day. Although, with that being said, there will always be players who will simply have a hard time getting into older software on the premise that they look, sound, and play "old", and, other than in the visual department to a small extent, NES Remix does very little to change this.
Riptide GP: Renegade on Switch turns to be a faithful port of other home console versions of the same game, complete with the same qualities but also a slightly regrettable lack of two features that could have been possible: gyro/touchscreen controls, as well as support for local wireless or LAN multiplayer. It does add, however, an excellent implementation of single Joy-Con support, ensuring wonderful two-player sessions on the go in split-screen or simply allowing a player with few available controllers to invite friends to participate in the fun when playing in the comfort of their home.
Hey! Pikmin feels more like a completely original piece of entertainment that just happens to stage the titular critters rather being than a true Pikmin title.
All of it perhaps doesn't truly amount to enough for the price that is asked, but this is still better value for money than the previous three DLC packs. Now, all that remains is the upcoming package of exclusive playable characters from the Fire Emblem Cipher trading card game, to be made available at an as-of-yet undisclosed date.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a hilarious, fun, and attractive looking title, despite some technical flaws here and there that are quickly overlooked due to all of its intrinsic qualities. If anything, this is perhaps the one Rabbid game that will truly push the critters into the realm of mainstream on a worldwide level, more so than they have ever been so far, simply because they are such a perfect fit with Mario in that universe, in a way that nobody would have ever expected. It's challenging, for sure, so fans of Mario who are wary of strategy games beware. If even ever so slightly interested in strategy, though, and willing to sit through it all, persevering as much as it takes to see it through to the end is a complete blast. Well worth checking out.
Despite some hiccups in performance that are perfectly understandable given the scope, limited budget, and the engine used, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles in its Nintendo Switch incarnation retains all of its charm. It is not a Triple-A product, and yet what it manages to achieve is a wonder to behold.
Coming relatively cheap and offering interesting new characters to play as, and most of them being good units, too, the Cipher Companions Pack is arguably the best DLC pack to be made available for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. It took a bit longer to come out, but the wait was well worth it, and this ends the onslaught of DLC for this latest Fire Emblem game on a high note.
While this is obviously not Red Dead Redemption or anything of the sort, West of Loathing proves to be truly entertaining for what it is.
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is neither a better nor a worse game than its predecessor.