Young Souls combines two genres, beat 'em ups and RPGs, beautifully. The story is intriguing, and the artwork is stunning. Mix in a bunch of equipment that you can upgrade and explore, and you have a well-built game. It takes a lot for a game to break into my all-time favorite list for this genre, but Young Souls did just that.
Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator offers quite a bit. With the different modes, there is plenty here to keep you busy. While the story is certainly the primary focus of the game, I found I learned more by playing the endless mode. That being said, I wish there was more to the tutorial to help you understand what you need to do to grow your winery. If you enjoy in-depth simulators, Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator will not disappoint.
Splotches feels like a game geared towards a younger audience. Mixing colors to cause explosions and solve puzzles is appealing to kids. However, I found the puzzles to be one-sided, just figuring out what the designer wanted you to do to solve them. A good puzzle game should allow me to be creative and feel like I solved the board because of my ingenuity. Unfortunately, I never got that with Splotches.
Retro Bowl certainly gets close to scratching that itch for a retro-style football game. The game is addictive, and you can play many games in one sitting. Including scenarios between games requiring you to choose options that affect the players' morale is fun. There is a bit of smoke and mirrors when you start to look under the hood, though. You can only play offense, and the defense is played out via text messages on the screen. Player career stats are only tracked as long as you coach that team. And the scenarios tend to repeat themselves after a while. However, the game is affordable. And with the amount of time I spent playing Retro Bowl, I certainly got my money's worth and then some.
Action Arcade Wrestling is a beautiful and smooth game that's very attractively priced. Easy to pick up and play, it boasts a deep (but separate) creator's tool with plenty of community-created wrestlers to download. What it does, it does well. But it's missing features to make it a great game, specifically a career or federation mode. The framework is there, so hopefully, we will see that in the future.
I want to like Egglia. The writing and characters are fun, the village building aspect is an enjoyable twist, and the art is beautiful. Unfortunately, the game feels too stripped down to be enjoyable. Grinding and not knowing what level you need to challenge a boss is frustrating. I think this works as a mobile game where you might play in short bursts, but for a console game, it just feels off.
The Company Man is a competent platformer with beautifully hand-drawn artwork. The character designs are impressive. The boss battles are genuine, and each boss is unique in its design. However, the game suffers from some design flaws, mainly around the inability to aim projectiles and duck. This will require you to rethink how you may handle some of the more challenging bosses. In addition, the story isn't intriguing, and it's disappointing that the story didn't match the beauty of the game's art.
Lacuna is a surprise gem. It's a game where your choices matter. It will require some deep thinking and quite a bit of reading. But that's what makes it an excellent detective game. If you're up for a challenge, you shouldn't pass up Lacuna.
Forgotten Hill Disillusion loses itself trying to be a challenging click-and-point puzzle game. While some of the puzzles are well-designed, the ones that don't provide enough context outweigh the better riddles and thus make for a frustrating experience. The game does offer a help option, but often it feels like you have to rely on the help all too often to figure out the solution.
Word Forward is a good palette cleanser between games or when you are looking for a brain teaser. You most likely won't be playing it for several hours in a row (although with the number of puzzles, you certainly can). The puzzles are short, and unlike other word puzzles out on the Switch, it doesn't incorporate any story or gimmicks. Instead, it's a straightforward puzzle game that will provide you with plenty of challenges.
While the races are thrilling, the lack of any features found in other racers, such as sliding or braking, prevents you from building skills to master the game. Most times, it feels like you win on sheer luck. Coupled with the fact that the tracks all feel relatively the same, the experience gets stale fairly quickly.
The Legend of Tianding is a beautiful sidescrolling beat 'em up that deserves to receive more attention than it's getting. Its comic book art style carries through from the story to the gameplay. The action is fast-paced, the level designs well thought out, and the boss battles are challenging but fun. If you're a fan of kung fu movies, you need to add The Legend of Tianding to your library.
I respect the idea that Circa Infinity is going for; a unique puzzle arcade game that will attract speedrunners and those looking for a challenge. If you enjoy punishing titles and can handle motion sickness, then this release may be for you. However, a game's supposed to be fun. With the brain-breaking movement scheme, flashing lights, and constant moving images, I felt sick playing it.
Hermitage: Strange Case Files does many things right, with well-written characters, interesting cases, and incorporating gameplay that affects the story's outcome. If you are looking for a very good visual novel and enjoy creepy mysteries with a twist of supernatural to solve, Hermitage: Strange Case Files is a solid choice.
It's too bad Takorita Meets Fries isn't good. As there are few hero quest stories with female protagonists, Takorita could've been great for a younger audience. Unfortunately, Takorita Meets Fries struggles with its identity and who the intended audience is supposed to be. The simplistic story, lack of gameplay, and cartoon artwork might appeal to a much younger crowd. But the crude humor takes away that option.