Justin Nation's Reviews
All in all I was very pleasantly surprised by de Blob and its light style and creative play. Even though I wouldn’t consider the vast majority of it challenging, making it pretty ideal for kids, everything still felt fresh and fun along the journey. While I’m hoping the sequel, which I suspect will make it to Switch as well, is able to address some of my relatively minor concerns I’d still consider it a platformer well worth checking out for gamers of all ages and skill levels.
All in all the somewhat light and silly tone of the game, its puzzles, and characters make for an entertaining few hours and the stage seems to be set well for the rest of the story to unfold. I wouldn’t say it is the best example of the genre on the Switch, and people who typically don’t enjoy these sorts of games would be unlikely to find this one to be any different. However, if you’re looking for some humor, some oddball puzzles, and the start of what could be a light but interesting story The Journey Down: Chapter One seems to get things off to a promising start overall.
As an exploration of artistic expression Lost in Harmony is a gorgeous and fascinating feast for your senses, blending great music with visual flourishes throughout. I suppose you could find the story of Kaito and Aya to be a touching one but it’s also only used as a vehicle for driving Kaito’s dreams and not much more for the most part. If you’re someone who really wants to master levels and nail their execution, or even tend to get frustrated by unfair or sloppy sequences it’s the controls that will absolutely grate on your nerves. I appreciate what they’re trying to do but the controls simply don’t hold up to the action on the screen. You can work through it and progress but there’s no denying they’re aggravating. All of this makes Lost in Harmony tough to recommend over better-executed genre titles, though there’s nothing else quite like it on the system so that does make it novel.
Overall, if you’re down for some very challenging play and an absolute avalanche of tracks to play through MUSYNX is a fair choice. It’s greatest strength is going a more traditional route and nailing the implementation, but if you’re looking for something a little different it may disappoint. Regardless, it is a well-implemented and polished title that will offer hours of enjoyment to music and rhythm game lovers.
Without a doubt Lanota was a massive surprise for me, as its unassuming presentation and opening levels completely gave me a different impression of what to expect than what was delivered. Keep in mind, I’m considering that a very good thing though as the gameplay is refreshingly different and sometimes hectic, with the playfield exhibiting a somewhat crazy mind of its own at times moving around the screen and making your life even more challenging keeping up with what it’s throwing at you. If you’ve been feeling like the genre’s in a bit of a rut and are willing to overlook its weaknesses Lanota is a fabulous rhythm game worth checking out.
With the exception of the issues with control INK provides a great combination of platforming and puzzling to a degree, offering a fair amount of content for a pretty reasonable price. It isn’t an incredible game but it knows what it wanted to accomplish and, for the most part, executes it well outside of the somewhat wonky controls. If you’ve been looking for something a little different that you can play for a few minutes to clear a new level and then put down for a while it’s not a bad fit.
Unfortunately, even with its provisions for variety in the nature of the battles you’ll engage in and the opportunity to discover over 180 different skills, it all ultimately feels about the same so the core loop really needs to be appealing to you to keep grinding through. I give credit to the developer for finding a new way to utilize the base alchemy game model and apply a new concept to it, all with some very cute animations and cool discoveries along the way, but even when you change up the battle modes with some variety their somewhat slow and methodical pacing can feel slow. Granted, there are times when you need to carefully consider what to deploy after your cooldown has expired to try to either defend yourself or try to get a leg up on your opponent, but on the whole the head-to-head portions end up involving quite a bit of waiting. However, if you don’t mind the very casual pace and enjoy relatively light strategy mixed with periodic opportunities for discovery you may find it appealing.
Overall, if you’ve been searching for a terrific game to play with a non-gaming partner Pode may be among the best options on the system. For people who aren’t hardcore gamers the more casual pace will probably be welcome and as long as one person has at least moderate gaming skills the ability to shift control back and forth will come in handy. Certainly aesthetically it’s delightful, the sense of discovery is a consistent joy, and the generally fair but challenging puzzles have some air of originality to them that’s welcome. Pode is a wonderful game for couples and general puzzle fans alike.
Given the extremely budget-friendly pricing Hexologic is a satisfying way to spend a few hours if you’re a big puzzle fan. I enjoyed the fact that there were multiple methods to make the puzzles more challenging used in different cases. Certainly sheer scale can be intimidating but having the grid broken into multiple pieces and more than one set of shared spaces kept things from feeling too repetitive throughout. I’d love to see even more variations and further substantial puzzles in the future, if the ability to lock space/lines were added I’d be all the happier. Highly recommended for puzzle fans!
Another one of the titles I didn't originally review for the system, this is another one of those games that would be criminal not to include on top lists, especially given its difficult-but-addictive nature...
If you’ve ever wondered what a procedurally-generated roguelike Zelda could look like Songbringer takes a fair shot at it, just be warned that it can be a little rough around the edges. The option to up the stakes and play in Permadeath mode is an interesting one but should only be undertaken once you’ve taken some time to get used to how things work. Your ability to explore and get into areas that are a bit beyond your capabilities is exciting but could also make for frustration if death means having to start all over again before you’ve really gotten your feet wet. That said, it has a gift for the unexpected and you truly never know what you may encounter next.
What you’re left with, in the end, is an adequate brawler that tends to vary between too easy (while the enhanced Big Diesel and Shaq-tus modes are cute they’re not very challenging) to tough for the wrong reasons (control issues breaking out of stuns). Through each of the areas you visit enemies can be cosmetically different, and have some nuance, but they’re still a bit cookie cutter and all come from roughly the same 5 core types. This makes for finding patterns you’ll follow to success and, for the most part, there’s not much of a need for more than some basic strategies to stay alive until you get to the boss and need to figure out their patterns. The result is just a run-of-the-mill beat-em-up that seems to be using its “humor” to compensate. If that all sounds great to you, enjoy.
It’s actually been a struggle to figure out how to score this game because in general it has left me conflicted. On the one hand the acting is very good, the individual patients have some fascinating elements to their stories, and it turns out there’s even some solid motivation to play through more than once. One the other your main purpose, finding the murderer, may be one of the least interesting things to the experience and you can find yourself in a weird place where the prompts can almost make you feel like you’re on rails but at the same time trying to pose your own questions is often aggravating. If you’re down for a weird experience with some strange people, opportunities to explore some possibilities, and quite a bit of the unexpected it may be worth a shot. If not, I’d say the likes of The Bunker and Late Shift are better at being more traditional experiences.
A two or three-player match can be done but it is far more of a cat and mouse game followed by quick bursts of attacks until someone gets a kill. Only when you have a full roster do you have enough going on that you begin to see a wider variety of strategies in play and the game hitting its stride. A great option if you regularly have some friends or family around to play with though.
This is absolutely one of those games where I have to question who the target audience was meant to be. There’s no doubt it is friendly to newcomers since there’s very little to understand, but as an introduction to the fighting game genre it would also seem amazingly boring. It could be argued hardcore fighting fans could get a kick out of it, finding ways to eke out every bit of technique possible… but with no ability to be down and turn the tide or anything else exciting that is normally associated with competitive fighting games I can’t see that being likely either. Moreso than almost any other title I’ve reviewed One Strike simply is what it is… and that’s a one-dimensional, bare bones fighting game that offers little to thoroughly enjoy.
Every 10 levels you’ll then face a more formidable foe, and they’ll have unique attacks for you to deal with...
In the end I’d consider BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle a pretty impressive fighting game that will easily fill the void left by a lack of a Marvel Vs. Capcom action. If you’re looking to get your fight on and want something full of energy and excitement it handily delivers the goods, has an impressive roster, and is generally as n00b-friendly a fighter as I think I’ve ever played. I’d consider it a must-play for Switch fighting fans!
In the end there are some positives to be taken from Happy Birthdays but you really need to be in love with the concept and the core gameplay enough to dedicate yourself to getting over the hurdles it generally throws in its own way. In many ways the game feels unrefined and not quite fully-realized, more of a hodge podge of ideas thrown together and put on a shelf. Truthfully this does put it firmly with many other efforts in this genre, high-concept games that collapse a bit under their own ambition. While there’s enough here to be worthwhile it’s absolutely not going to be something just anyone will be compelled to thrown a ton of hours into.
Overall, it’s extremely hard for me not to smile while playing Just Shapes and Beats, even when some of the boss battles are absolutely kicking my butt. With some experience under your belt or simply some practice through remembering the major patterns in general all levels can be conquered, just some are definitely harder than others. An absolutely game-changing revelation I had while playing in Online mode, and would watch players who were obviously much more experience than I was, is that in many cases life can be easier simply staying still if you know the right spot in the right map. If done successfully this can mean simply hitting the button to dodge periodically rather than trying to move and keep track of everything going on around you. It takes some practice and discipline but there’s no arguing with the results they got. If you enjoy great music, a load of surprises, and just a bit of craziness Just Shapes and Beats is a unique and very worthwhile experience on Switch!
In the end if you’ve not experienced a game that plays with concepts like these ICEY has some added value. Being prompted to think about the game and how you interact with it differently is always a bit of fun and thought provoking. Of course if you don’t have a taste for the slashing action there will be other opportunities as well. If you enjoy the genre, and appreciate a little something extra to wrap your head around, ICEY is worth your time though.