It's enjoyable, quirky, awkward, and frustrating: sometimes the price of being unique is alienation. If it was Live A Live that allowed Takashi Tokita and his work on Chrono Trigger to soar, then of course it was worth it. In this present day chapter, for my money, I'm looking ahead to the next Square remake.
All in all, Cloud Gardens is definitely a title that leans more towards experience than game, but its classification matters much less than how it feels to play around with its tools or the positive message it espouses. By focusing on creating and elevating green spaces, we can return our world to one where nature is in harmony and a balance is struck between humanity's footprint and mother nature's embrace. Spending a few minutes or even a few hours experimenting with Cloud Gardens feels like a worthwhile endeavor.
Here's the full list of Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium games:
A bit more time in the editing room would be a worthwhile prison sentence for Binko and the rest of the cast. While there's not much in the way of unlockable content, you can replay any shooter stage you've cleared in the story and earn your place on the online leaderboards. Without a doubt, Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is a much more bold and ambitious title than World's End Club, also from IzanagiGames, and I look forward to whatever dark tale they choose to weave next.
There's certainly nothing wrong with the gameplay, which remains just as enjoyable now as it did almost 30 years ago, but Reshrined feels like a missed opportunity to add in new elements or mechanics. While the inclusion of an online leaderboard is welcome, the lengthy, poorly-localized cutscenes are not. If you go in not expecting anymore more than what the Super Nintendo games did and can tolerate some odd design choices, then busting these ghosts might make you feel good. Otherwise, wait for a sale or light some incense in hopes that one of the original Pocky & Rocky games shows up on NSO.
With three difficulty modes, 28 in-game achievements, and individual challenges for each stage, there's no shortage of reasons to pick up a bo staff, hockey stick, or microphone and dive back in again and again. Only having a single save file for story mode is a bit of a drag, but the Arcade mode with online leaderboards offers another tantalizing avenue for further playtime. In short, if you're a TMNT fan or love beat-'em-ups, you'll surely dig the colorful and upbeat Shredder's Revenge, especially if you can find a few other ninjas to kick back with.
There are some unique sidequests that had me questioning my decisions as I made my way from the sewers, to the catacombs, and the castle gardens, and even all my prior preparation didn't stop the final area of the game from being a stout challenge. Lost Ruins' focus on being careful and adaptable rather than headstrong and immutable makes it a soft but welcome departure from other metroidvanias. With a story and map that don't force you to backtrack either, you can explore as much or as little as you want. For my money, I was glad to have picked up everything that wasn't tied down, and I can easily recommend you do the same with Lost Ruins on Switch.
Biomotor is simply mired in repetitive gameplay that just isn't paid off by any enjoyable story or character moments. While it isn't broken or unplayable, it's mediocre and frustrating in equal measure. Best to steer clear from these outdated robot wars or at least wait for a steep discount.
Even though it doesn't bring much to the table in terms of innovation or surprise, Anuchard remains a solid and exceedingly colorful adventure that offers a fun, if fleeting, experience. The chapter-based structure lends itself well to the light and optional farm-building elements and the main narrative of bringing life back to the world and its inhabitants. If you're looking for a fairly charming action RPG that's more familiar than fresh, Anuchard might be just what the doctor ordered.
Dungeons of Dreadrock makes an admirable leap to Nintendo's hybrid device. During shorter play sessions, the game shines and offers a challenging but fair puzzle-centered experience. The story is familiar yet enjoyable, and the basic controls translate well enough to the console space. It might not Dreadrock your world, but these Dungeons offer a pretty satisfying romp all the same.
The too-frequent backtracking, mind-numbing side quests, and overall lack of variety make for an experience that is tough to recommend. An unlockable hard mode, 50 in-game achievements, and the promise that Rising saved data will yield bonuses in Hundred Heroes are feathers in its cap, but Rising on its own is just too much of a slog. Here's hoping that Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes lives up to the success of being the number one video game Kickstarter of 2020 because its prequel certainly does not.
That said, there isn't much in the way of permanent stat growth outside of consumable metro tickets you can activate before a run, so it'll take patience, skill, and perseverance to make it all the way through the clocktower, and then again at higher difficulty levels. To make that goal more approachable, though, you can adjust the setting to reduce enemy damage or slow down time. Nonetheless, it will take many hours and many deaths to find every hidden secret and discover all that these darkened subway stops have to offer.
Even in the six years between the earliest release and the latest of these 10 games, you can see a massive difference in quality and performance. While the lack of extra features and presentation is a tough pill to swallow, the online leaderboards for each title add excellent replay value to games that are all about chasing high scores. Going into these offerings and not expecting stone-cold classics is sure to be a refreshing and educational experience, and you might even find a few old-school arcade titles to keep on rotation.
The lack of online leaderboards is unfortunate, but the core gameplay and the interesting ways in which the stages scroll and enemies weave in and out, often appearing in the background first as a warning, makes for a satisfying way to spend a few hours. With a tough boss rush, three difficulty options, and a couple other secrets to unlock, it's fairly easy to recommend this one to those who enjoy a good side-scrolling shooter, with yours truly sitting firmly in that camp. It may not be revolutionary, but Andro Dunos II plays well enough and seems a worthy successor to its original iteration.
That said, I found it a nice palette cleanser between longer and more involved games given its approachable design and simple puzzles, so if that's what your in the mood for, Kraken Academy might be worth a campus visit. A free demo on the eShop is also available for anyone on the fence. Ultimately, it's nowhere near a failing grade, but the only A I'd give is for effort.
These foul-mouthed twins had me cracking up on multiple occasions, but the software closing unexpectedly had me cursing just as often. There's definitely potential with this one, but it's probably worth exploring other platform options if you have them. Even though you can see the heart and charm that goes along with these two souls, a bit more polish would have gone a long way.
However you choose to play it, the ability to alter the challenge at will makes Will You Snail eminently approachable. You'll probably grow to hate Squid pretty early on, but that just makes it all the more satisfying to shut it down. I've Snailed and lived to tell the tale, and it's absolutely worth playing through, just not at a snail's pace.
The grid-style, turn-based combat lives up to the best of its predecessors, and while it may lack the customizability of a job system, the cavalcade of recruitable party members is a worthy replacement. Whether you're in it for the story, the gameplay, or the aesthetics, the total package is one for the ages, and from any angle the strategy is clear: add Triangle Strategy to your Switch library. Maybe tell friends and family to end their turn; you're going to be busy for a while.
Dividing the focus into multiple smaller stories may have hurt the overarching narrative, but this is still an RPG worth playing, with secrets and replay value for intrepid card sharks. I'll be interested to see how, and how quickly, Square Enix follows up with another Voice of Cards title. It seems like this series won't soon be silenced, and that's a good thing.
undefined.SOL CRESTA is an intense and deep vertical shooter entry on Switch, and genre enthusiasts would be doing themselves a favor by adding it to their libraries. In-game achievements unlock new content, such as Caravan Mode, online leaderboards, and the aforementioned Sound Test. Even finishing the final stage on normal difficulty is a steep challenge that requires a fair measure of skill, particularly with swapping formations and the slowing of time that this ability grants. If this is the level of quality we can expect from future arcade-style shooters courtesy of PlatinumGames, I'll be demanding as many as we can get, until Kamiya-san blocks me on Twitter.