Cubed3's Reviews
Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition is a titan of a game to get to grips with on Switch 2, in both overall complexity and controls. That scale is both a blessing and a curse. For fans of the genre it has everything expected, and the historical depth of the Sengoku period means it brings a wealth of fun for those invested in this point in history. The strategic chops it boasts are well designed and do the job expected of putting the player into the shoes of developing and expanding their land. With that depth, however, the learning curve can be overwhelming, and frankly if this was released on the original Switch it would be hard to recommend simply due to the difficulty of actually navigating the controls. While not all those complications are inherently solved by mouse controls on Switch 2, the addition of them transforms this tricky console adaptation into something that at least rivals its PC counterpart and thus becomes a much more enticing proposition.
Dragon is Dead doesn’t exactly revolutionise the side-scrolling platformer, but between the vast skill trees, plethora of items and their effects, and different player classes, every run feels unique. Even different styles of the same character can feel like playing a completely different game, and the roguelite structure ensures players can pour countless hours into honing a playstyle they really like—or throw caution to the wind and let the RNG give them whatever it wants. A few visual bugs mar an otherwise beautiful game, and the core level design could stand to be less formulaic, but players will likely be too addicted to the gameplay loop to notice.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a good time but comes off as a bland cozy anime game. It’s got heart, a likeable cast, and a world to get lost in for a while. It’s not the series’ best, nor does it outshine its contemporaries like Harvestella. It’s a game that swings big by leaning into combat, lands some hits, and stumbles on others. Azuma is a Rune Factory side game that is seemingly made for those who don't care for the farm life and want to wail on yokai with a sword.
It is hoped a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Pinball FX is in the works because Tomb Raider Pinball suffers from the graphical downgrade when compared to its other system counterparts. Sadly, the tables themselves are disappointing, with Adventures of Lara Croft being a hugely frustrating pinball experience that can be difficult to get to grips with. Secrets of Croft Manor fares more positively, but for such an iconic franchise, this pack should have been much more than what it is.
One thing Blade Assault does right is that by the end players will feel sufficiently powerful with lightning and projectiles flying off of them at all sides. This alone would be redeeming, except powers are so limited that every run is going to end up nearly exactly the same. The general repetition in levels, power and challenge kill any long term enjoyment. It is fun for a quick romp, but hardly recommended in the growing field of roguelike games.
7 Days to Die previously needed a lot of work. It is now in a playable and downright fun state, with a strong crafting and scavenging element that often makes sense and keeps immersion in the survival setting. Zombies become more dangerous as time goes on, but so does the player, as long as they balance their survival with scavenging for better equipment and learning new skills, and 7 Days to Die does a better job staving off the difficulty plateau many survival games eventually succumb to. Following updates, the gameplay is sturdy and solid, built off of an already fun foundation.
Survival Kids is a charming co-op romp where players work together to escape island after island. Colourful, gentle and not at all punishing. It's an ideal adventure for a wide range of players, young and old. Survival Kids is a wholesome party tale that can whisk away friends/family for an afternoon of fun on these remote islands.
While its story rings a bit hollow, the extravagant imagery and art direction carries the emotional investment. The mouse-style controls are a fun and new way to play this underappreciated and novel title and improve the experience, though it does come at the cost of a spotty frame rate. It's disappointing that it couldn't have been locked down, especially in such a unique game that features a ton of action and quick thinking.
Simultaneously acting as a spiritual successor to Gone Home and a creative leap away from its past legacy (under the Fullbright name), Open Roads can’t avoid being a hodgepodge of conflicted identities. It’s a "walking sim" template with artificially-constrictive interactivity woven into a mother-daughter relationship that’s strapped of gripping drama. Improved production values can only paper over what is otherwise this team’s weakest outing to date.
Ruffy and the Riverside is an unbelievably fun and imaginative 3D adventure-puzzler. In some ways, it feels like it could have been a third Tomba! game due to its playful visual style that goes against the grain. Not everything works as intended, and it could use an extra pass of polish, but pound for pound, this is one of the more ingenious 3D platformers out there. If the developers can iron out some of the irregularities, Ruffy and the Riverside could be all it can be.
The original Front Mission games were hard to get into, and when the third game came around, it marked a shift to make them user friendly. Front Mission 3: Remake is very faithful to its source material and improves a few gameplay mechanics subtly, which makes it a smoother experience. It's not the best strategy RPG since the RNG and the small party size can seem restrictive, and it also isn't the best remake, but it is the best Front Mission game so far.
A return to form for Street Fighter and, by extent, an excellent return to Nintendo platforms with the latest in Capcom’s fighting series. Street Fighter 6 comes with tons of modes that will satisfy the hardcore crowd and is equally the perfect entry for the casual fan or newbie, too, with a laidback RPG-lite mode that is ideal for handheld play, although may become tedious for others. Plenty of unique characters both old and new, featuring brilliant designs and styles, make this one of the most appealing entries in years, despite the lack of unlockable costumes. Street Fighter 6 may have some performance issues at times, but there are far more pros than cons with this portable edition of a top tier fighting game.
Upscaled graphics, quality of life gameplay improvements, and finally being able to enjoy the beautiful soundtrack in HD, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster scratches the itch so many fans have felt since the last 3DS title. The additional minigames may not add much to the story or gameplay, but come as a little extra to a remaster that deserves the hype. Here’s hoping for a Bravely Second remaster next!
Level-5 hits hard with Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. What the developer has created is a love story to the first game and its concept, but with a fantastic new narrative and world to explore. The breadth of content is staggering and mastering lives will provide hours of entertainment. This is a diamond in the rough that is well worth acquiring for any Nintendo Switch collection.
Not as robust as RPG Maker with unfinished translations to boot, Pixel Game Maker MV has a journey ahead of it to reach the capability of its sister series, but already accomplishes the bare bones of what it set out to do: provide a simple GUI-based tool for making video games. In a world where cheap or free game engines are on the rise, it’s unclear how the more restrictive licensing of Kadokawa’s engines will affect the number of games and users that stick around, but like RPG Maker before it, Pixel Game Maker MV is poised to be one of the better tools for learning basic game development concepts without taking classes on coding.
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is an excellent addition to the franchise that does what any budding Ghostbuster would hope: make you feel part of the team. With quick, frantic matches, it’s a pick-up that players will constantly return to and take pleasure in. Well worthy of the uniform.
Resident Evil Village tends to slip into a sort of “what if” zone where it could have been a lot of things, but what Capcom ended up making is a great game. The scares are present but often take a backseat to the action, and the plot is dark but campy in the way Resident Evil has set itself up to pull off time and again. More care could have been given to this story and its characters instead of trying to force it into the overall Resident Evil narrative, but what is here in RE7 and Village is still a touching story about family wrapped in a dual horror-action package. Capcom has shown it can take Resident Evil to a lot of different horizons, and time will tell where the franchise goes from here.
Like many games that are smaller budget, when a game has remotely fancy graphics, gameplay tends to almost always suffer. This is no exception, while the space survival idea is cool, from frustrations in the UI, to constantly glitches and freezes it’s hard to even see the game at its best when so many other things get in the way.
Deltarune is a subversive epic that defies conventions and keeps the laughs coming every minute of its lengthy runtime. The most staggering aspect of it is that this isn't even its final form. Purchasing Deltarune chapters 1-4 is a ticket for the eventual chapters 5-7, which will expand the scope of the story and surely take things in an unpredictable direction if the conclusion of chapter 4 is anything to go by. Undertale wasn't without its faults and neither is Deltarune, but once the story, gags, and characters unfold, it's the kind of game that lingers, leaving a powerful and unforgettable experience. It's the kind of lasting impression that supersedes flaws.
One of Sonic’s better games is wonderfully remastered in the shape of Sonic X Shadow Generations, and although there is some exhilarating gameplay here if the time is taken to master the stages, 3D portions still have that familiar inconsistency at times, while Shadow’s story is more of the same but improves on the controls. A huge wealth of unlockables make this the ideal game for series fans, but it is a shame the 3DS levels weren’t remastered to form a meatier compilation.