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Overall, Bleed does a great job of providing a balance between brains and brawn, finesse and firepower. Initially jarring to get to grips with, practice and persistence will reap reward. Being able to nimbly navigate platforms as well as take out groups of enemies darting around the screen without as much as a scratch is both a mountain to climb and a gratifying sight to behold. There are new characters to unlock and even an arcade/challenge mode for high score hunters determined to achieve that perfect run. Bleed might be light on content and rough around the edges, but when the gameplay is this tight - and there are this many neat ideas and varied, cool set-pieces - but it's still a sassy, funny ride that thoroughly respects your time and deserves your attention.
The Switch's eShop is starting to become saturated with bucket loads of high-quality content. This is great in one way, of course, but stumbling across hidden gems within it will get tougher as time goes on. Gorogoa is one such gem; a game quite unlike any other that deserves your attention. It is a little on the short side, but the creativity that has been put into its design, and the effect it will have on you during your time exploring its gorgeous world, is something that you'll want to experience. If you're looking for something new to try, this would be an excellent choice.
One More Dungeon is a loving tribute to the first person shooters and dungeon crawlers of the early '90s, but with the kind of longevity-boosting roguelike touches that will be familiar to modern gamers. Whether deliberate or not, some of its retro touches feel a little too clunky for their own good, particularly when it comes to the controls and interface. Still, there's no denying how absorbing an extended run through its randomised environments can be.
As short-lived as the story is, The Sexy Brutale is still a standout murder mystery title. The stimulating 3D puzzle and adventure elements makes it one of the best within its genre. The chosen theme and locale is also the exact type of setting you want for a title built on intrigue, murder and mystery. If you're more of a shoot first, ask questions later sort of player, this might not be for you, but for the type of person who enjoys a slower-paced but equally as rewarding game experience, this is a murder mystery worth looking into.
The inspiration behind Black The Fall should be enough to draw an audience. The problem is, if you were judging the game with no prior knowledge or understanding of communism, you may not enjoy it as much as someone who is informed about the themes dealt with – as obscure as the interpretation may be at times.The visual narrative throughout is all that's offered to help understand the game's universe; fortunately it does a satisfactory job shaping the world. The puzzle elements are not groundbreaking, but when mixed with the platforming provide a rewarding experience that is similar to the likes of LIMBO. The major blemish is the performance and reduced visuals. The sluggish performance ultimately makes this a far less enjoyable game to play on the Switch, and the below average visuals can make it tricky to distinguish what is going on at times. If you think you can tolerate this, what is on offer is a relatively short-lived title that will make you think in more ways than one.
Mom Hid My Game is as easy to adore as it is to dismiss.
Human Fall Flat recognises a simple truth - People falling down is hilarious, and when they're seemingly impervious to damage that's just an added guilt-free bonus. Playing as a wobbly, awkward avatar takes a lot of getting used to, and perhaps you never really get used to it at all, but the game leaves each level wide open to a variety of solutions to suit your own personal style. Tackling the five-to-six hour long adventure solo isn't entirely recommended, so if possible we'd definitely encourage getting a second player to join in on the fun, even if the game's performance takes a hit. While online multiplayer is sadly missing, we reckon that you and a fellow human might really fall for this little puzzler. Over and over and over again.
Dizzyingly stylish and crazy fun, Floor Kids is an absolute joy. Its DIY-dancing gameplay grants players a freedom seldom seem in rhythm games, and that gamble completely pays off; instead of tapping along to the beat, you're tapping into a sense of flow, creativity and fun to make your own moves, and that's both immensely satisfying and wholly unique. Whether you're a wannabe breaker or a music game guru looking to dance to a different drum, Floor Kids is a killer cut.
Enter The Gungeon is a brilliantly tactile, endlessly replayable twin-stick roguelike that sits right up there with the very best indie games on Nintendo Switch. With satisfying combat, random levels, and an endless supply of inventive weapons, items and secrets, it's always a total joy to play. Yet another modern indie classic has found a natural home on Nintendo's console.
Party Planet looks wonderful on the surface with a bright, colourful, and slick interface that suggests you have a top-quality game in your hands. Unfortunately, though, a series of mini-games that vary from being good to disappointing may well start to feel rather stale after a short time; everything is nice and interesting at first, but there's little reason to keep playing once you've seen each game a couple of times.If you're looking for a game that can successfully get the family gathered around the TV to play together, Party Planet will definitely be able to do that – how long for is another matter, however. We fear that this particular title isn't for life, it might just be for Christmas.
Vostok Inc's blend of money-generating ‘clicker' gameplay and frantic twin-stick shooter action works well; as you find yourself getting to grips with the necessary procedures and start to have a system in place, you'll find an increasing amount of fun in the game's upgrade systems, combat, and exploration.Unfortunately, this fun reaches a peak around halfway through your adventure as you realise that you're spending an awful lot of time doing the exact same things over and over again. Vostok Inc is a good game that will definitely provide you with several hours of enjoyment and, if you like the sound of its mixed genre, we'd encourage you to try it out – just make sure you're ready to follow similar tasks for a long time if you do.
With a variety of actions available, things to collect and different enemies to deal with, Super Putty Squad has potential. Unfortunately it's often underwhelming.
Poly Bridge is a great game because it can both be played in small chunks in between longer gaming sessions or for a quick pick-up-and-play experience but can also be the type of experience you can sink a lot of time and effort into and not get bored with. With an easy to use control scheme (so long as you stick to the touch screen), an appealing presentation and open-ended solutions, Poly Bridge is a game worth coming back to again and again.
All told, Yooka-Laylee is a worthy modern tribute to the collectathons of yore, and it is highly recommended for Switch owners. This feels like a game that belongs in 1996, but with all the quality improvements of a game made in 2017, making for an excellent blend of new and old. Though it can be a little uneven at times, the game as a whole manages to succesfully achieve its goals.Do yourself a favour and give this one a go; it may not have been too well received to begin with, but Playtonic has polished it up quite nicely; it is a worthy addition to the Switch library.
Despite its ongoing technical hiccups, along with the game having done the rounds for well over a decade, it's still a worthy sequel and a good addition to the genre on Switch.
The Next Penelope may be quite a short experience but it's one that will challenge your skills and dazzle you at the same time.
Riptide GP: Renegade boasts many of the qualities that you would hope for from a racing game; a rewarding career mode, a solid racing experience, and – delightfully – a rather different element in the way that the waves throw you around a little. There are some little niggles and difficulty spikes that keep it from sitting alongside the best of the genre, and there isn't quite enough fun in the racing alone for multiplayer to be particularly exciting, but if you're after a slightly different racing game to dip in and out of on the fly, this wouldn't be a bad choice, especially for the asking price.
If you would like to deliver some justice on the streets in a wacky anime world with appropriate modern touches in all the right places, this latest iteration of Phantom Breaker might be worth checking out.
There's no doubt about it - The End Is Nigh delivers excellent platforming. It's a manageable challenge from start to finish, and a game that becomes more and more enjoyable as you slowly adapt to its seemingly unforgiving design. At the same time you'll never feel completely unstoppable like you would in other notable platform titles. It keeps you on your toes from start to finish and has a balance few other games associated with this genre manage to achieve.Where The End Is Nigh falls short is the fact it doesn't expand a great deal on the initial foundations laid by Super Meat Boy many years ago. What we have here is a spiritual successor, but with the open-ended adventure elements not having as notable an impact on the game as you may expect. The main character and settings in this aren't quite as likable as Meat Boy and his own game world, either. In saying this, if you are a fan of the source material and happen to enjoy well-crafted and tough platform games, check this one out.
This rerelease of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is an interesting one because it doesn't really do anything that we didn't see when it originally came out 10 years ago, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Rather than of a rebuilt game with shiny bells and whistles that clutter up the core experience, we're instead treaded to a faithful rendition with updated visuals for a modern console generation. It's the easiest way to experience the game if you haven't before, and it's a great way to pay it another visit if you have. As its lifecycle crawls to a close, the Nintendo 3DS has become somewhat of an archive, collecting franchise favorites and housing them all in one place. With the rest of the mainline Ace Attorney series already available on the 3DS eShop, it was just a matter of time before Apollo Justice had his day in court.