There is no denying that Botany Manor transports you to a bygone era. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time digging around to find the growing conditions of the forgotten flora, ensuring my herbarium blossomed in completeness and unearthing Arabella Greene’s life.
I was delighted to find that Surmount was more than just a platforming adventure of climbing a single mountain. The side expeditions, storyline and humorous interactions with other climbers make it a joyful experience, even for those of us whose climbing skills are lacking. The coordination needed to control your little climber grabbing the rock face and flinging them in the right direction is harder than it looks and makes this a challenging adventure. The option of a local co-op is a great addition and makes Surmount a fun game to share. Unfortunately, my co-op player and I glitched a few too many times to give Surmount a Two Thumbs Up (our initial thoughts). But it made us smile and laugh, especially with low gravity, so it’s a:
Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a delicious party game, without the need for a party. Making it ideal for younger players and offline play. The controls are simple and the graphics mouthwatering. It is unlikely to keep you consumed for hours, but definitely one to have a nibble with and would be entertaining with online or local friends. Do watch out on your next shopping trip though, a rather large, gooey, chocolate cake somehow made its way into my trolley!
Once Upon a Jester is a great little game. It is well constructed, packed with jokes, and words of wisdom and has a feel-good vibe. The music is a highlight, with great beats and catchy tunes. I wish there was more replayability, as creating your own mini-play is excellent, but the story and jokes get a bit repetitive after the first couple of run-throughs
Package Inc is a simple management simulation game which works well on a handheld Nintendo Switch. It’s great for whiling away some spare time – not overly taxing, but it’s complicated enough to require concentration.
Cubic Light is a delightful minimalistic puzzle game. Although not overly challenging, it is satisfying to complete.
Although the controls are slightly awkward, Railway Islands – Puzzle is a fun little puzzle game. There are a few challenging levels to test your puzzle-solving skills, but every level, regardless of complexity, gives an air of satisfaction when completed.
Garden Simulator is a great gardening game, balancing the strategy of unlocking all the items with the simple pleasure of creative design. Unfortunately, the size of the text reduced my overall enjoyment.
Skye Tales is a beautifully crafted and carefully thought-out game. There is a wide-ranging selection of puzzles with varying degrees of difficulty. There is much to delight the casual gamer!
In its style and presentation, Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island is aimed at a young princess-type gamer. I don’t fit that description, but I still enjoyed my time on Carrot Isle. It’s a stress-free dip in and out of the game, which is bright, colourful and full of sweetness.
I don’t get the same warm, fuzzy feeling playing Zoo Park Story as I have with other Kairosoft games. It shares a similar style, and the pixelated animals are adorable especially the baby ones. I enjoyed building my zoo and collecting all the animals. However, it isn’t as addictive to watch and too time-consuming clicking through the numerous on-screen messages.
Manic Mechanics is motor mayhem in every sense. In each neighbourhood, there are different vehicles and different challenges. Sometimes the levels were really enjoyable with a feel-good factor. At other points, they were too frustrating, and it took willpower to battle through. It’s a bit soulless for one to play, but it is definitely better with friends.
Alchemy Garden is a pleasant life sim, with growing flowers and making potions as the source of income to buy decorations for your house, shop and garden. At the moment, it’s more decorating than farming, but I hope the developers continue to invest time and passion in the game to expand its repertoire. Unfortunately, the port to the Nintendo Switch isn’t as smooth as it could be, which has lowered my final verdict
Hamster on Rails definitely has some momentum behind it. The beautiful dioramas are a joy to look at. There is a good balance between challenging and straightforward levels, with many techniques to learn and apply. There is also the added bonus of customising your hamster explorer.
Sharing a style similar to all the Kairosoft management simulation games, TV Studio Story is reassuringly familiar with bright colours and cute pixelated characters. However, I wish there had been more opportunity to see the adorable characters wander around, but the pop-up messages got in the way. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the same satisfaction in playing TV Studio Story as I have with similar games. The allocation of TV show stats was a bit too random for my liking, and although selecting the best genre, theme, and set combination was a fun challenge, it didn’t have the same appeal once I’d completed all the viewer requests.
I really wanted to like Yum Yum Cookstar. I enjoyed the bright colours, some of the recipes were inspiring and the music was fun, but overall the game failed to keep me engaged. Learning the techniques was repetitive and took the joy out of making the recipes. There was a distinct lack of balance between the number of actions per mini-game and number of mini-games per recipe. The long loading time between each recipe step just made the whole process tedious. This was a game that promised so much but failed to deliver
TEMPUS has moments of brilliance, some of the puzzles are cleverly constructed and satisfying to complete. However, the console controls for moving the on-screen cursor are too frustrating to make the overall experience pleasurable.
Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch has taken me on an emotional rollercoaster. At times, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing it – galloping around the wide and varied landscape (the scenery is stunning), planning and building my estate. At other times, I’ve plummeted into an abyss of despair, dangling in mid-air with no option but to reset, and losing hours of gameplay as the autosave didn’t work properly. This is a brilliant game but it needs a lot of improvement to reach its potential. The publishers said that all versions are going to receive additional development to improve quality and fix some bugs. However, at the time of publishing this review, it’s not clear when that content will be released and what will be fixed. So until then, I can’t give this game any thumbs up.
Memorrha is a game of two halves. A fantastic start, with a steady flow of puzzles (which can be solved with logic or trial and error). In addition, there are some amazing locations to travel through and enjoy. The second part, still featuring marvellous graphics and clever puzzles become a little too repetitive.That, combined with performance issues, didn’t make it enjoyable. I wish Memorrha had ended at the hidden sanctum and left me wanting more. Instead, it continued and fell short of my expectation.
Has Digimon World: Next Order made me a Digimon fan? No. I’ve got a love/hate relationship with Digimon World: Next Order. I love the strategy involved in Digivolution, the auto-battling suits my gaming style, and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the vast map. However, I found the unpredictability of death slightly distressing, the relentless cycle of caring for and retraining my Digimon frustrating and the unbalanced questing disappointing.