To put it mildly, It’s Spring Again is a complete waste of time. It doesn’t do anything new or different to teach children any better than what a good walk in the park or a picture book can provide.
On the bright side, Nickelodeon Kart Racers is the kind of game you can buy for a nephew that you can’t stand. Just think. On the surface, his parents will give you brownie points for such an appealing looking gift. The nephew, on the other hand, will know full well that you have completely screwed him over.
Needless to say, Castle Of Heart isn’t a good game. Its humdrum platforming mixed with shoddy animations and sluggish controls makes for a rather dopey gaming experience. While the game’s main gimmick of keeping your life afloat does have some potential, it’s never quite implemented well enough to stir up anything new or interesting.
Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition may very well gain a few new fans based solely on its narrative. Unfortunately, the tedious ordeal of having to traipse around the planet for half a dozen hours like a clumsy jelly baby just doesn’t make the plot strong enough to be worth the hassle. While it may not sound like it, I do appreciate the hard work and effort it takes to independently craft an environment of such scale. However, it really doesn’t excuse the fact that this is an incredibly poorly made game, regardless of how interesting its premise may be.
For the price that RXN -Raijin- costs, you could easily buy a handful of much better arcade shooters instead. While its eastern flavour attracts to some degree, it doesn’t substitute the sluggish performance and cheap presentation that this game provides. If you want a moderately easy arcade shooter with tiny levels that you can grind to death, then RXN -Raijin- may very well be something you’re looking for. Otherwise, you may be best saving your pennies.
At £7.19, Metropolis: Lux Obscura is affordable enough to land a quick fix should you desperately need one, although in comparison to the average mobile match-three puzzler it stands highly overpriced.
If you are the type of person who could be locked in a room for twelve hours, content with nothing more than a fidget spinner and a bucket then you will love Phantom Trigger. It’s amazing. For everyone else, you will probably get very little satisfaction from this extremely repetitive and frustratingly boring dungeon brawler.
Despite its visual and audio charm, Ultra Hyperball lacks any real depth and variety to make this a title worth remembering. The multiplayer modes can be fun, but it is a shallow experience that will wade out pretty quickly.
There’s not really much more to be said about SkyScrappers other than that having a vertical Tate Mode is always a nice feature if you happen to own a stand to support it. I suppose the benefit of such an addition along with multiple Joy-Con controllers at the ready does make this particular game somewhat suited for Nintendo Switch. It’s just a shame that there isn’t enough here to keep you coming back for more.
If you’re an avid anime fan that likes a bit of kooky comedy-drama with your spammy beatdowns then Code of Princess EX isn’t too bad a game to carry around in your backpack.
Iro Hero is a decent enough shooter that doesn’t want you to see how good it could be. The lack of continues or any aid in progression will leave newcomers to the genre feeling cold enough to probably put them off altogether.
All in all, Fox n Forests is a competent platformer that holds plenty of potential. Unfortunately, the game’s over-reliance on the season gimmick and heavy influence from the past makes it fall short of being anything more than average.
When it comes down to it, Agatha Knife takes an interesting topic that is rarely explored within the gaming world. The short, sharp, and witty narrative do provide a certain unapologetic personality that fits very well in this day and age. It's unfortunate that it all starts to become pretty stale quickly as the game's repetitive loop of generic point-and-click fetch quests rides alongside a script that is spread far too thin to retain your interest. There are some good ideas to be found here, but it's all spoilt by the lack of meat on the bone and not enough seasoning.
On the whole, Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion does just enough to allow you to interact with the world of Ooo. It’s more a shame that considering the series as a whole is coming to an end, there’s no true celebration here to close out the franchise with a potential classic.
In all honesty, I couldn’t help but feel that Urban Trial Playground is a blatant quick cash grab to release on Nintendo Switch when there isn’t any competition in the genre. Without the Ubisoft-published Trials series or even OlliOlli to compete against, it does seem like a half-baked attempt to sail a blue ocean. Sure, there’s fun to be had here, after all, these stunt bike racing games usually are. It’s just unfortunate that this latest effort is very bog standard and comes at an absurdly high price point for its content. If you want my advice, dust of that old Xbox 360 and bang on Trials Evolution. It’s a much better game by a country mile, and at least provides a level editor to mess around with.
Aperion Cyberstorm is a game that I really wished would work. It manages to tick the right boxes with its tight controls, bullet hell madness, plenty of weapon upgrades, and screens full of enemies to destroy. However, as we approach the Nintendo Switch’s first birthday we have had an army of similar arcade-style games hitting the Nintendo eShop, and some of which are, quite frankly, much better than what you get here and sit in a similar price range. While there is a lot of content to play around with here, there’s a certain magic that just doesn’t seem to be present on this occasion.
88 Heroes: 98 Heroes Edition is a hilariously fun, yet tough little title that will keep you entertained for a few hours at least. It has some great ideas at play here with a charming personality in its presentation. It’s also nice to see a few cameos appear from other rising star published games such as Rusty from SteamWorld Dig and the dodgy looking fella from Conga Master Party! to name a few. However, once the comedy and novelty start to wane so does it’s mediocre gameplay. Which may leave you pretty underwhelmed within a very short time, and £29.99 poorer.
Robonauts is a game that really does deserve to be good. It has a bunch of decent ideas loosely brainstormed across its brief campaign that ultimately turns an interesting concept into a short-lived gimmick, making the overall experience fun but somewhat a little short and disjointed.
While games such as Golden Axe and Final Fight lie fondly in many of our hearts, it’s hard to deny that unless it contains a killer feature, modern games trying to take on such a vintage genre may fall victim to the nostalgia that it’s trying to recreate. This is most certainly the case with Bloody Zombies. Despite the developer’s efforts to slightly extend the combat system from such arcade classics as these, the game’s overall repetitive nature just doesn’t bode well enough to be interesting in the modern day. I could imagine that even purest would easily rather play something like Cadillac and Dinosaurs over Bloody Zombies, and, to be brutally honest, I felt a bit like a bloody zombie playing it.
I really wanted to like De Mambo. It’s oozing with great ideas and potential. Add that to a mix of inspiration from several beloved genres and you should get a dish that tastes of a classic indie title. However, it does seem that the chefs at The Dangerous Kitchen wrote a recipe down with a certain ingredient and stubbornly tried to force it to work in hope of a new flavour. A trait that even legendary developers can sometimes fall victim to.