Evan Rowe's Reviews
With Spyro Reignited Trilogy, you have the rare chance to plunge back into a world you may have spent countless hours exploring as a kid, with all the fit and finish of a present-day title. It’s sure to please longtime fans of the series, and newcomers will find plenty here to enjoy. There’s never been a better time (or a better way) to play Spyro.
They really don’t make games like this one anymore. The game immediately connects you to another era, and gives you the chance to experience something that just doesn’t exist in today’s market. In doing so though, it serves as a demonstration of why games have moved away from so many of the design principles on display in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD. For some, this will be a fun and convenient way to revisit a beloved old game. For most though, the best case on offer is an auto-retrospective experience, unflinchingly showing you all of its best and most mediocre parts.
Killer Queen Black is more or less everything you'd hope it to be. It's a faithful adaptation of the original arcade release, properly scaled for home play and with all of the tools necessary to play it and find your match ups however you want.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a truly beautiful game that plays amazingly, features an excellent musical score, and is fine-tuned down to the absolute tiniest details. It's a masterclass in game design, and its presence on Switch in the form of Definitive Edition only adds to the long list of compelling reasons to buy into the platform. If this is any indication of Microsoft's plans for releasing any of its first-party back catalog on Switch, then the future looks extremely bright.
AER: Memories of Old makes a strong first impression with its lovely art style and lofty goals, but the experience often has its wings clipped by a shallow premise, serious performance issues, and not enough content in the areas at which it excels.
Creature in the Well’s genre-blending experiment is conducted within a well-worn framework, so that the risky parts are contained, which is part of what empowers it to be successful more often than not. It falters from time to time, and there are moments where the pinball conceit makes some of the challenges more difficult than they really ought to be, but for the majority of the experience everything works well and feels good, which is more than enough reason to take the plunge.
Somehow, peering into the world of SUPERHOT‘s text terminals and stark environments through my Switch’s LCD screen feels very correct, as though it was always meant to be this way. In a probably accidental but happy parallel, it feels like I have gotten my hands on some kind of special prototype that I’m not supposed to see. SUPERHOT almost works too well on Switch, and being able to play it on a system that fits in my hands with near-perfect accuracy is an almost magical experience.
I’m not really sure whether the Switch port of Friday the 13th was a good idea given the player economics of niche titles, but perhaps the strength of the movie franchise and the game’s promise (if not its execution) is enough to garner sufficient interest. In fact, it clearly must be, as I have been able to find lobbies to play in (albeit with wait times of up to 1-2 minutes), and they’re usually full, so if this is where you want to play this game, you can definitely do so. That being said, Friday the 13th on Switch has the deck stacked against it for a host of reasons. Yes, it is the same game as the one on PC, and yes it “works,” and yes, most of the charm and authenticity that makes the game feel like a proper homage to a much-beloved horror series remains intact (sh-sh-sh-ah-ah-ah!). Unfortunately, much of the magic is lost in the compromises made to get the game running on the Switch hardware, and playing it feels more akin to controlling a lumbering corpse than a spry teenager.
There are only so many ways I can say that I love this game. It has so much to offer and executes so well on all of its ideas, and while it may borrow heavily from some heavy hitters from the last several years, it does so skillfully and respectfully, and it is simply not an experience you can afford to miss. Go, play this game, see for yourself how much fun it is.
It’s a strange thing to be able to return to both Hotline Miami games on the Switch, of all systems. Nintendo’s colorful handheld isn’t exactly the system that comes to mind when you think of grimy game worlds and graphic violence. On the plus side, these are extremely faithful conversions that run perfectly on Switch and bring another classic franchise to its ever-expanding library of indies. This package isn’t for everybody; it’s hard as hell and is over the top with its violence, but there’s no denying the importance of Hotline Miami as a touchstone within gaming culture. If the Switch is a platform for collecting as many games from as many generations as possible, Hotline Miami and its sequel feel like essential additions to its catalog.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an excellent game in so many ways. It delivers on its promises and sets the stage for what I hope is more content to come in this new incarnation of Igarashi’s masterpiece formula. There has been a lot of outcry about the Switch version of the game, and it definitely isn’t perfect, but it’s playable for the most part. Would I recommend it over other platforms? Probably not, unless being able to play on the go is a priority for you. If Switch is your only system, then you should still absolutely play Bloodstained, but set your expectations accordingly. If anything, Bloodstained is a strong enough game that it is still worthwhile despite the technical issues it has on Switch, which is a testament to the highs it can achieve.
It’s hard to say much else about the game without giving away some fun story beats, but overall Mainlining is a fun game with great, consistent art direction and some very clever (and mostly faithful) old style hacking mechanics. While it almost certainly plays best elsewhere, the Switch version is impressively competent and it’s a great themed adventure that is both challenging and satisfying.
MORDHAU is brutal; it is frantic; it is blood and guts and severed limbs. Above all, MORDHAU is the medieval hack and slash combat game you’ve been waiting to lose your head over.
Overall, Rock of Ages 2 is a solid strategy game wrapped in a lighthearted package with a well-tuned sense of humor and some very well thought-out ideas. Whether you played the first game and are hungry for more, or are just getting into the series for the first time, Rock of Ages 2 will keep both your brain and your funny bone tickled.
If there is one primary take-away you should have, it’s that Image & Form’s attention to detail in their game design is exquisite, as it is hugely evident that they set out to create an RPG that focuses on the fun aspects of the genre and thoroughly eliminates the tedium which can so easily bog it down. Your time spent with SteamWorld Quest is time actually playing the game; doing battles, collecting loot, and advancing the story. The fun is all there, easy to access and unhindered in its execution. You have only to pick up your Switch and press start to experience it.
It’s such a rare thing for that perfect package of art, presentation, music and gameplay to come together and create something not just great, but truly special and imminently memorable. Cuphead is without a doubt a contemporary classic, sure to be heralded for decades to come, and it feels right at home on Switch. Make no mistake, this is the full-fat Cuphead experience, with no compromises or corners cut. It’s an incredibly impressive release of an already amazing game, and it’s a fantastic addition to your Switch library.
This is possibly the greatest trick X-Morph: Defense has up it’s sleeve; it can be very challenging at times, but it gives you all of the tools you need to exert utter dominance over the incoming threat if you can pay the time and attention to plan correctly, and to adapt to the changes that each wave brings. Flexibility and change are the big elements that set X-Morph’s brand of tower defense apart from the rest, requiring you to always be on your toes and to be equally skilled in being proactive and reactive.
There is no shortage of puzzle platformers in this day and age, but there is certainly a shortage of games in this genre which are actually good. The advent of lower barriers to entry on various game marketplaces has allowed for many indie success stories, but also for a greatly increased amount of shovelware to wade through. Octahedron: Transfixed Edition is luckily a solid game with a strong, consistent visual style and a thumping soundtrack that helps to complete the sense of “being there” as well as any other component of the game. If you’re looking for a new platformer on the Switch to fill your time, look no further.
Rain World shows up to the table with a lot of good ideas but fails to execute successfully on many of them. What should probably be a challenging but enjoyable game feels more like a directionless, unintuitive slog that, while mostly pretty to look at, is confusing and possibly overly difficult for the sake of being difficult. I can see a situation where just a few tweaks to character movement (namely improved speed and agility) would go a long way toward making this game feel like a properly balanced challenge. It’s entirely possible that the point of the game is to be really hard, but if so I find the controls, mobility and systems design is at odds with that intention, because as a player I never felt empowered to deal with the challenges laid before me so much as at the mercy of the whims of whomever is pulling the strings.
The Swindle is an enjoyable enough game which I would probably rate higher on other platforms, but the additional shortcomings with the Switch version in handheld mode make it a little more difficult for me to recommend. If the technical issues aren’t deal breakers for you, and if you’re looking for something you can play in short bursts and which will let you progress quickly, this is a fine enough choice. If you can play it on another platform, I’d suggest going that route instead.