So, where to begin with Hokko Life? Let’s start with the similarities to a well known game from Nintendo: Animal Crossing. Both games have resource management, building a community from scratch and crafting various tools to assist in your endeavours. See, everything about Hokko Life screams Animal Crossing, right down to the beginning of the game, where we see our young villager taking a short train ride to a quiet run-down village in the middle of nowhere.
Upon starting Wildcat Gun Machine, you’re thrown straight into the deep end without any real context on why you’re here or what your main goal is. While some people may enjoy not sitting through a five-minute-long cut-scene to explain the story or the character’s motivations, I found it a little strange and a bit rushed. I normally like to get to know the character a little more and the reasons for why we’re here and doing the things we’re doing. Sadly it’s never explained, and why our main character is always surrounded by ghost cats is another detail that is never touched upon. The game doesn’t want to waste your time with any sort of introduction or fluff, it wants you to familiarise yourself with the combat and the controls through actually playing it.
Claw is back, up to their old tricks again, causing havoc across the globe with new technologies to cause panic and unrest. Thankfully our new agent has been given the green light to intercept our enemies head-on in his high-tech vehicle called the sceptre. It has the ability to transform into several different configurations allowing it to travel on sea, air and land. While your driving skills will be at the front of each mission you’ll never be outgunned as you’ll able to pick up new weapon attachments and blast your enemies away with precision shots!
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon is a slow-paced rogue-like that sees a samurai fighting through limbo and defeating hordes of monstrosities that live in the depths of hell. Using sharp blades, spears and multiple other armaments you will be slaying, upgrading your arsenal and fighting huge bosses while navigating through a maze searching for a away out. If you die, however, your soul is reincarnated into a new body, losing everything you’ve gathered. You’ll need to start afresh and fight your way back to the top again. A typical formula for any good rogue-like, this is no exception.
Sam & Max are back to their old tricks again with a brand new adventure across five unique and exciting episodes. You might end up talking to aliens, defending against a zombie apocalypse, or trying to summon a demon from the beyond to scare a crazed Santa with an uzi – there’s never a dull moment.
Embr is a brand new co-operative firefighting game that is now available on the Nintendo Switch. Will it ignite your passion to put out blazes and save civilians from towering infernos? Or will you watch it all burn? Let’s take a look into the world of Embr and how it plays on the Switch.
Secret Neighbor has come to Nintendo switch bringing a unique horror, multiplayer, online experience. Set in the world of the Hello Neighbour universe, things will be familiar to people who have previously played games in series. Though this time around your goals are all about team work. You select one of six kids and work together with the other members in your team to find key cards that are scattered around one of two houses, and locate all of the six keys to open the basement door locks and escape. All the while being pursued by an evil neighbour who is amongst your party in a disguise, waiting to strike.
Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt is at heart a hunting simulation. It sees the hunter, i.e you, entering multiple ecosystems while hunting one of the many different dinosaurs to take down and claim as your trophy. In the process you earn gems, which is one of main currencies in the game. This will allow you to purchase guns, upgrades and perks. Each environment is slightly different from the last. Some take place at different times of the day with some slightly different effects, like fog for example.
Very very valet is unique blend of quick decision making and even quicker reflexes as you strive to deliver parked cars to a parking lot and then back to your customers again once they decide to leave – as quickly and as efficiently as possible in this mad-cap parking experience.
The story in Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is about a small little farm that is ransacked by a stampede of Tooki’s who steal all the corn from the farm for some reason. By some sort of magic a lone scarecrow is brought to life and immediately gives chase to retrieve what’s been taken. The story is very bare bones but sets the scene for the adventure ahead. It has a very similar premise to the Donkey Kong Country Returns plot that sees a strange group of Tiki’s stealing all of Donkey Kong’s bananas.
At beginning of the game you meet Anobi who will appear with a pink gem and summon you into the world of Glyph, telling you to find the lost temple of AARU… Here you’ll be taken through a series of tutorial stages to learn the basics of movement and your unique abilities.
The story in Slayin 2 is about a kingdom under siege. After the king has been kidnapped, the kingdom falls and inevitably becomes overrun with monsters. It’s now your job to rid the world of these foul beasts and save the kingdom. While it’s not hugely original, it gives you a purpose to go on a monster-hunting spree.
Welcome to the world of MX vs ATV All Out on the Nintendo Switch, where players get to ride a variety of off-road vehicles such as ATVs, bikes and UTVs across multiple open environments and indoor arenas.
Rivals of Aether is a brand new indie fighter which is set in a world ravaged by war, with the forces of nature summoning the power of fire, wind, water and earth to fight back forces of darkness.
The story in Lost Ember is one about a lone wolf and a curious spirit trying to remember what they have forgotten about their past lives in a journey across a beautiful world where past stories are re-told and truths are revealed.
In the near future, an economic crash caused by under-population and pollution leads to huge food shortages and starvation across the world. A reprieve from these desperate times is granted in the form of a unique device called ‘Bionodes’ which when implanted in a Human allows them to eat anything. However this device has side effects of its own which turned most of the population into mutants and are known as “ghoulification”.
Mini Motor was released in 2011 on Android, and I remember it well… After purchasing a new phone I was looking for a little racer to download, and I came across Mini Motor which reminded me so much of Micro Machines. Fast forward to the present day; I noticed a few weeks ago that it had appeared on the Nintendo Switch eShop with a new name and fresh coat of paint, so I needed to check it out again!
The story in Ben 10: Power Trip! sees Ben, Grandpa Max, Gwen on vacation in Strudelbek. After a quick pit-stop in the National Park, a chance encounter occurs. Ben comes face to face with his old nemesis, HEX, who plans on stealing the 4 magical Crystals. He plans to use the power of the crystals to manipulate the real world, summon his rift monsters and cause chaos!
From what I can tell from the excellently animated introduction, Bounty Battle brings a whole host of iconic Indie stars into battle. A strange portal appears in each of their worlds, dragging our heroes into a void and bringing them to another world entirely. There, a bounty is placed on each of their heads, and each character must fight to claim the bounties on each other.
Playing CARRION on the Nintendo switch reminded me so much of one of my favourite science fiction horror films from the ’80s by John carpenter: The Thing. Crawling about and feeding on the human population in a military facility, all while searching for bio-capsules to gain new abilities which allow you to gain access to new areas and lay siege to them is engaging and fun, albeit with a frustrating omission of the map screen which makes navigation difficult at times. Let’ take a trip into the twisted world of CARRION to see if this is a title worth owning.