Justin Nation's Reviews
Each time you begin you’ll have the option to start at any of the stages that correspond to a caravan you’ve visited, just consider them to be checkpoints in that regard...
In the game you control a girl, Pi, who is paired with a small robotic cube and is trying to escape a series of mazes to get home...
With multiple skill levels available SteamWorld Heist is a game that anyone, from a tactical strategy newbie to a grizzled veteran, should be able to enjoy. Well-designed, looking fabulous on Switch, and thoroughly engaging it offers a rewarding combination of careful planning and then execution in aiming that I can’t get enough of. Pulling off a tricky ricochet shot from across the room is such a rush, just remember that when you inadvertently end up blowing up a crewmate a little later because you didn’t plan it out well. While battles can be aggravating at times the great news is that every time you try placements and layouts will tend to vary either a little or a lot so you may have just had a bad break. If you haven’t yet checked out SteamWorld Heist you owe it to yourself to give it a shot, it is unquestionably one of the best games on the Switch.
Overall, the hook of The Long Reach, the mystery, the horror elements, and the suspense, needs to be the primary thing you’re looking for in order for it to be a good fit. If you’re invested in that aspect of the experience I think there’s enough meat there to chew on for a few hours if you’re willing to be a bit patient and understanding. If what I’ve described of the story doesn’t sound very appealing unfortunately I’d say that the rest of the elements won’t be able to make it compelling.
All said, Tesla Vs. Lovecraft is probably the best 10 Tons game I’ve played to date from concept to execution. It puts everything they have on the table, looks incredible, plays smoothly, and is simply a hell of a lot of fun. I’m hoping to see just a little more come to the table to make the experience even better but if you’ve got a soft spot for some intense twin-stick shooting action you (and a friend if you’d like) really need to put this at the top of your list.
Put it all together and though there are a lot of ideas and interesting sequences in Castle of Heart, the execution is lacking in polish in key areas and that often makes the game more aggravating than fun unfortunately. It’s not outright broken, but it falls into the trap of getting in its own way with ideas that are actively fighting with the mechanics. Throw in control that’s not very tight and while the game does have a lot of heart, trying to do its best, it’s difficult to recommend heartily.
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.