Justin Nation's Reviews
While it won’t win points for its complex and challenging story or trying to push boundaries Crimsonland is a thoroughly satisfying arcade-style twin-stick shooter that I will likely return to periodically for quite some time. While it isn’t graphically very impressive and the sound is relatively limited there’s no denying the power of its gameplay. It is adrenaline-fueled, brutally challenging, over-the-top, and should be considered a must-have for shooter fans!
Ginger: Beyond the Crystal isn’t necessarily a bad game, it just struggles to work very well in most areas. In general it is all light-hearted and fun, it just feels like it needed a bit more time and expertise to help fully realize its potential. If you come in understanding its shortcomings it should be a reasonably enjoyable experience though.
Kid Tripp isn’t a game that will likely stick with you for long but that isn’t to say it can’t be a fun and light distraction for a reasonable price of admission. Its light style and classic gameplay are a welcome departure from much more serious fare on the Switch and yet once you get into the groove it tends to suck you in while it has you with a “I know I can get it on the next run” hook. As long as you understand the game’s limits it is a solid bargain of a budget title on the eShop.
If you’re looking for something very different to just dive into for a great time and some laughs for several hours there’s nothing on the platform that delivers quite like Stick it to the Man. Full of quirky charm, unexpected situations, and truly bizarre characters it’s just a breath of fresh air and not quite like anything I’ve played in quite some time. While the puzzles generally aren’t very complex they do show a great deal of creativity and can have you chuckling along the way, it is definitely a game far more about the experience than the solutions and accomplishes what it set out to do superbly.
With all of this in mind I’m pleased to say that Letter Quest Remastered does a pretty fine job of carving out a place for itself in the lineup of Switch gamers looking for something more casual. If you like to get out your thesaurus and flex your vocabulary while having to contend with the obstacles your enemies love to throw in your path it does a fine job. What helps distinguish it is the level of strategy you’ll be able to employ while doing so.
While I had high hopes for Battle Chef Brigade what stands out for me is how much they’ve exceeded my expectations on pretty well every level. I came in hoping for something in a true indie spirit that was fresh, quirky, and utterly unique. What I got was a lengthy and well-made story complete with some great characters, challenging and varied gameplay, and a strategic component that forces you to make some tough decisions in how you want to approach your battles. If you either have any affinity at all for great Match-3 play or have an open mind to trying something completely odd but that works very very well in execution I have few reservations with recommending it.
Overall I really have enjoyed my time with Cat Quest and am impressed that the humor and theming is simply icing on the cake and not a replacement for solid gameplay. While it isn’t a hardcore game by any means I think its light action is pretty compelling and very well-suited to the portability of the Switch. If you’re in search of a very light action RPG that has a plentiful amount of charm Cat Quest is quite satisfying.
I am absolutely in love with this game even though until I reviewed it I had heard almost nothing about it and that’s simply criminal. While I’ve played quite a number of modern arcade-style shooters I don’t think as a total package any of them have impressed me as much as Squadron has. Every aspect of the game feels like it was put in place with both skill and love and I’d say if you have ever enjoyed arcade shooters at all Aces of the Luftwaffe Squadron is well worth picking up! I think it has earned its place at the top of the genre and serves as the bar other arcade-style shooters will be measured by.
For me the proposition in Rive is pretty straight-forward, you either enjoy being challenged and wanting to throw your controller or you don’t. With repetition, experience, and some luck you can absolutely master the levels the game throws at you, it just isn’t a game you’ll be conquering too quickly as there are many sections that required some trial and error to understand and the action simply doesn’t often let up. Fortunately the checkpoints seem to be well placed and spaced, though in a few cases the way the checkpoints are essentially a snapshot of what was happening at the time you passed through it didn’t work out so well. All in all it’s very much a game with its own rules and style though and if you just haven’t been feeling pushed with your shooters it will happily fill that role for you.
If you're in it for the action or actual horror you'll very likely walk away disappointed. But if you like a slow burn of suspense, periodic things that will make you jump, and some stories that will reveal themselves to you slowly and through a variety of means as you wander an ever-changing house, it will offer several hours of enjoyment. I've never played a game quite like it, and there's something to be said for a title working earnestly to challenge gamers with something new, even if it may not have hit all of the marks it was likely aiming for.
Overall I have to say that I’m incredibly impressed with the total package Ben 10 brings to the table and I’m not even remotely a fan of the cartoon series. It has managed to do the best thing possible with a known license and that’s to pair it with a well-suited genre and then make full use of its potential to deliver a quality gaming experience. While it may not be the best beat-em-up on the market if you’re looking for something fun with a bit of variety Ben 10 is a solid choice!
I like Xenoraid and appreciate what it has set out to do, but at the same time I'm not blown away by it...
All said, VVVVVV is a very good game experience for the most part targeted at a very specific segment of the market...
While I can't emphasize the level of challenge Rive will present to you enough for people who relish the experience of dying and trying to do better the next time there's no question it delivers...
As with my review of DOOM before it you'll notice that to this point I haven't brought up the Switch itself in regards to the game and that's for good reason...
As with my review of DOOM before it you’ll notice that to this point I haven’t brought up the Switch itself in regards to the game and that’s for good reason. Aside from some unique features it brings to the game in the form of some Amiibo support (which awaits you roughly mid-game in a prominent area), motion controls that you may enjoy or not care for, and the ability to take the game anywhere there’s not a lot to say. The reason for that is in this equation the Switch only seems to have pluses and no discernable minuses. The conversion of Skyrim is, for all practical purposes, a flawless one from the time I’ve spent in the game. The details are crisp, the performance has no signs of hiccups or slowdown, and despite being run on a tablet-sized device with much more modest memory capacity than larger consoles or PCs there seem to be no compromises in sight. The only edge would go to the PC version for its readily-available mod support that can help you alter the game in some substantial ways, but in the case of the Switch the ability to play it anywhere in style more than offsets that sacrifice and even arguably makes it a superior version to the other consoles. Despite its age Skyrim is just as rich and robust a game experience as it ever was, and the fact that it can be played on a portable device is a technical achievement worthy of some praise. Congratulations to the team at Nintendo for making versatile hardware capable of this feat and to Bethesda for having both the vision and expertise to pull this off and to set the bar so high for the other major publishers.
It may just take some tweaks but collisions are inevitable in the game and can royally screw you up, more than I'd expect. This can detract from some of the fun of the tracks that overlap themselves and that's a shame. While there are some positives to be had in the game it's also quirky enough that it's tough to recommend.
The more you stick to the story, though shortening the experience, the more refined and finished Morphite feels. If you stray too far off the path the game makes a fine attempt to make play rewarding but unfortunately the rough edges also tend to take more definition. While it may not be fully realized if you walk in with modest expectations set and a desire for some exploration Morphite is a decent game to give a try.
In the end RiME is a game with lovely massive environments, a very appealing art style, and terrific music that together help build a strong base for an engaging experience. The implementation of the exploration and puzzles I would say is likely to boil down to taste, with some people appreciating the lack of a firm hand guiding you everywhere and others finding some elements needlessly confusing. While I appreciate the story the game set out to tell I’d say that it didn’t quite carry the impact it might have if I’d come to have a stronger connection to the main character, who generally doesn’t have a personality to latch onto. That all then ends up being mired in the game’s technical shortcomings as well. RiME is a game full of ambitions and promise, it just doesn’t quite deliver it all as well on the Switch as it might have. If you’re looking for an ambitious adventure I’d first recommend it on another platform but if you don’t have that option just understand the issues going in and you should still be able to thoroughly enjoy it.
What will likely either attract people to Octodad or scare them away will be its unorthodox control and style of play. If you’re looking for a serious challenge with tight controls and impeccable level design you will very much come away disappointed. If, however, you’re open to the experience and the humor of it all Octodad is an excellent representation of the genre as a whole and plays very well as a handheld game to boot. If you’re looking for a major change of pace on the Switch Octodad will be happy to help you out with that!