Justin Nation's Reviews
Starting with the music the game’s soundtrack, featuring tunes from the fighting series BlazBlue, is both varied and uniformly superb...
In the end I had an absolute blast with Slayaway Camp and would heartily recommend it to anyone who is either a fan of great puzzle games or 80s horror movies… if you like both you’re truly in for a treat. The violence in voxel form is utterly comical, the callbacks to horror icons and some of their great kills are wonderful, and the puzzles themselves are thoroughly challenging. Since it also includes every bit of content released for the game to date, all in one, on every level it is a killer deal.
The slow and steady progression in difficulty is managed well and typically new swimmer or obstacle types are introduced in a less threatening manner at first so you understand them before the challenges involving them are dialed up...
I’m sorry if this review is somewhat evasive but I don’t wish to do anything to ruin the outstanding story in the game concerning love, loss, and even sacrifice for the sake of others. There’s no getting around the somewhat repetitive nature of the core gameplay as you relive the same events multiple times and try to affect different outcomes. There were also a few times where I wasn’t 100% sure what I was expected to do but the thing is, if you are a sucker for a great story, Last Day of June will absolutely suck you in and help prove that games have an amazing power to connect you to a meaningful story.
Overall, if you’re down for a pretty touching story of people under stress but doing their best in an admittedly horrible situation it makes for a compelling handful of hours. Any expectations of the gameplay itself being satisfying should be checked at the door, for the most part it is just exploration with the job of helping advance the narrative. Despite that fact I still found the game’s story compelling enough to see me through to the end and appreciated everything it was trying to convey.
While there’s no doubt that Clustertruck can be an extremely aggravating experience at times the good news is that while failure often comes quickly you’ll also then be right back in the action. I think if there were a longer delay as everything reset itself the frustration would kick in much harder but since you’re pretty well immediately back in place to take another shot the game doesn’t give you much time to sulk. Then, when you finally do manage to pull off an insane series of jumps and moves, the feeling of accomplishment is quite exhilarating and not quite like anything else I’ve played on the system. If you’re down for something a bit unorthodox and fresh I easily would recommend giving it a chance.
Looking at the general state of things the key to whether you should invest in Disc Jam or not comes down to your tastes and whether you either have friends to play with or can put up with online play being hit or miss in terms of opponent availability. Playing against the CPU does have some variation but always feels quite different from a live adversary. Throw in the pretty blatant attempt to extract more money from people who’ve bought in and it isn’t a game without merit but it struggles to stand out as a game that’s suitable for everyone.
All in all Neonwall is an interesting bite of inventiveness that may be over a bit too soon but also doesn’t overstay its welcome. Its slow and consistent slope of added difficulty, with new elements being introduced consistently throughout the majority of the game, manages to keep you engaged and in a “just one more try” kind of way. More than just its cool aesthetics, it delivers a gameplay experience I’m interested to see more takes on in the future.
While Spiral Splatter is hardly going to take the Switch by storm that isn’t to say it’s a bad game. While I’d consider its appeal likely to be niche everything looks good, the level design is sound, and though it is humble everything works quite well. If you like testing your core skills and can deal with some aggravation it may not be a bad bet. At the low, low cost of admission it might be a good game to kick around to cleanse the palate between other meatier titles.
On top of the somewhat anemic gameplay there are just so many things in the game that same half-baked...
Of course there’s the classic mode, where everyone has a card and can take a reasonable amount of time to identify whether or not they have the number that has been called on their card...
While I enjoyed playing through Coffin Dodgers to a degree even against the other somewhat lackluster kart racers that have already released on the Switch it fails to differentiate itself significantly. The best hope would be that you and some friends could get some silly enjoyment out of the local multiplayer but that will come down to people’s tastes. While it is good for kicking around and having some fun with for a while aside from the multiplayer angle it won’t likely hold your attention for very long.
Overall, as the first pure bullet-hell shooter on the platform, Danmaku Unlimited 3 hits the Switch with a firm level of difficulty and style to spare. While you’ll often end up cursing it as you get so close to getting further there’s a quality in it that I couldn’t ever put it down for long before taking another crack at it. With a gorgeous look, intense gameplay, and plenty of room for technique if you’re a genre fan you shouldn’t hesitate to pick it up!
I’ve deliberately been vague about the game’s story as some of what happens is much more interesting and mysterious the less you know about it. I appreciate the lore and the way revelations about what has happened reveal themselves to you, though at times it can also be disorienting as you try to understand what is going on. Though the ultimate finale to the game might not be as satisfying as I would have hoped KONA has a story to tell and uses a unique means to do so, making it a terrific addition to the diverse Switch indie library.
All said I’m a big fan of Spy Chameleon and its fresh take on stealth action puzzling. Never settling in for too long each mission feels just about the right length before the game throws some new things at you to get the hang of. Later in the game the puzzle element really begins to kick in as you’ll need to work carefully and methodically to avoid detection in a variety of ways. If you love creative action Spy Chameleon could just sneak its way into your list of favorites.
All in all Earthlock is a solid JRPG experience that should be quite welcome on the platform since it is currently a bit lacking in the genre. While it’s hardly revolutionary it does a fairly good job of delivering on what’s most important in terms of combat mechanics and fun. While it may be priced a bit high for an indie title for the most part it’s a reasonably-good investment.
The developers additionally threw in provisions for co-op and even some 4-player battle modes as well but while these add some value the core experience is what defines the game for good or ill. As a platformer it has over 100 varied and increasingly challenging levels, some with just a simple time limit and some that the screen will stay on the move, forcing you to keep up. If the game had just focused on that it would be a reasonably good, if forgettable, experience. Unfortunately with the extra layer of menus, screens, and complexity to sort through it trips over itself while ultimately offering very little benefit for the investment. While Turtle Pop has some good ideas and novel gameplay, it is also a bit of a mess.
As a total package for roguelike fans Flinthook is among the most satisfying and challenging I’ve played in the genre. I love the flow and the variety of enemies, rooms, and traps you’ll need to learn to contend with. Getting good in this game requires some real investment and effort, the fact that there’s a system for progression sitting on top of the individual runs is just good design. Throw in a distinctive sense of visual style and a memorable soundtrack and you’ve got a terrific game that it right at home on the Switch.
All things considered for the pretty low asking price Midnight Deluxe isn’t too bad a game if this sort of experience is what you’re looking for. It will certainly take some time to get through all of the game’s 70 levels, and if you choose to go back and be efficient to earn 3 stars on every level (though I don’t see where that would be appealing), you could obviously extend its life further. Considering the previous iteration of Midnight on the Switch this is a far better implemented and polished, even if a bit bland.
Starting with the story itself, I’m afraid “ruining it” would take little more than two sentences...