Cubed3's Reviews
Without a doubt KEMCO seems to have created its best JRPG ever in Chroma Quaternion. From start to finish it is a solid experience which never gets dull. Exploring all the eye-catching areas is a joy, the character dynamics coupled with an intriguing storyline, and easy to use, hard to master job system, makes the game's end the only true drawback.
This Is the President grows more tedious with each multiple-choice dialogue sequence, and there many of those here. The tactical aspect is almost nowhere to be found, with your choices barely affecting the game, the narrative/writing is mediocre, and the characters/story forgettable. As for the political satire on offer, it's very, very weak, as it avoids saying anything more thought provoking than "politicians suck!"
The stunning watercolour style combined with unexpected story twists and plentiful humour makes Lynn, The Girl Drawn on Puzzles utterly delightful to play. Despite an initial lack of direction on how to access the helpful advice available for each chapter, once understood it is relatively easy to work out the new mechanics introduced in each chapter. Working on obtaining all the fox orbs in order to unlock the interesting extra contact means there is more to this than simply completing the main story. It feels a perfect fit on Switch with the portability making it easy to fit in a puzzle on the go, or playing docked to appreciate the beauty of Lynn's world on a large screen.
Post-apocalyptic settings can be many things, but boring should never be one of them, and The Uncertain: Light at the End is unfortunately exactly that, with its mediocre to bad writing, forgettable world and characters, and okay-ish to lacklustre puzzles. Even the best thing on offer, which is the design of each area, fails to leave an impact. The graphics are nice, but visual appeal and atmosphere are almost non-existent.
It is a case of same old story for FIFA 22 unfortunately. Without any hint of a change in the way the Switch ports are approached, there is very little to recommend. Purchasing this would only add to the EA mentality that a 'Legacy Edition' is a perfectly acceptable option in today's market. If you've never owned a football game on a console, this is probably the way to go, gameplay is thankfully passable and there is not another out there with such fully comprehensive licensing domination. For everyone else however, until the whole mentality of EA changes in regards to showing respect to what fans deserve if gaming on the so called 'lesser' consoles, this is a clear own goal.
Geared primarily towards the series' fans Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of The Throne is also the perfect match for newcomers to enter Suburu's world without being overwhelmed on where to start. The action parts are more infrequent than anticipated, and may not be enjoyed by all, but this excels in the visual novel elements. In the future it would be good to see the original visual novels brought to Nintendo Switch, until then this instalment of the series exploring Suburu's unusual ability and how it helps Emelia be a royal candidate will more than suffice.
Yes, Decay of Logos is that bad. Underneath a generally good-looking bonnet, lies a pile of half-broken machinery, leaking tubes, and tangled circuitry. This soulslike has a lack of balance, is not very fun to play, and most importantly, is broken. The fact that almost three whole years after its initial release have passed, and the developer still hasn't fixed its many bugs, says a lot about the quality of this bad attempt at a budget Dark Souls.
Overall, there isn't particularly much to say about Centipede: Recharged. For the most part, it succeeds in what it sets out to do, remastering an old Atari classic with a few neat bells and whistles attached. Items, co-op, challenges, and widescreen are all appreciated additions, but they aren't exactly thrilling, either. There's no big 'sexy' hook for this rerelease-it's Centipede, but better. Nothing more, nothing less. That isn't inherently a bad thing, though. It may not be reviving the IP on a huge scale or drawing in new audiences, but hey, Centipede is fun. A recharged version of it with a few minor upgrades is fun, too.
OlliOlli World is one of the finest skateboarding games around. The gameplay is fun, intuitive and simple enough for newcomers to enjoy while having complex layers that will have skate veterans everywhere grinding to master. With plenty of items to unlock the incentive to replay levels goes beyond beating a high score. The multiplayer modes are simple but highly effective, keeping skaters busy long after beating the game, which will be no easy feat thanks to in-level quests and score challenges. Even when the story begins to drag as the game goes on it barely takes away from how incredible OlliOlli World is. Riding through Radlandia is a trip well worth taking.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is a stellar product, one that has a magnificent soundtrack, superb voice acting, wonderful graphics, and a battle system that is totally moreish. The plot is initially quite zany, but stick with it, and the characters and events certainly do grow to be one of the finer video game stories developed. On PlayStation 5 it loads incredibly fast, almost wiping out any load times at all, and having gameplay look so good at 60fps will delight many. The path that is trodden feels incredibly linear, at points repetitive and reused, not that this is a crime. It is easy to spend over 50 hours on the first run, including the DLC, and this isn't even the entirety of the original game which shows a great value. Fans who already played through the PlayStation 4 version may not get too much out of this experience, but for newcomers this is certainly a must play.
Poor performance mars what is otherwise a stellar Disgaea experience with some fantastic new 3D visuals. The new modes and features of Disgaea 6: Defiance of Justice paired with a nice new story and interesting characters puts this high on the SRPG recommendations for all fans of the genre; a great addition to the series and a decent Nintendo Switch implementation of the game.
Giraffe and Annika is not a good game, which is a sad thing, as it feels like there is something missing. It's very rough, and is reminiscent it is one of those Unreal Engine 4 demos made by students. There are some redeeming qualities, like the charming character design, and a unique battle system for bosses, but it's so overshadowed by technical bizarreness and a lack of cohesive feeling that it's simply impossible to recommend to anyone but the biggest fans of Annika's design.
Solomon's Key is undoubtedly one of the better action-puzzlers of the NES era, but sadly it lacks that extra… something that could turn it into something better than just a 'good' title to spend some evenings with. With that said, it's far from a bad experience. The way the action blends with the puzzle-solving is pretty neat, and there are usually multiple solutions to a problem, raising the replay value a bit. Just be ready for a very, very challenging ordeal. This won't show you a single ounce of mercy.
Can cute/sexy anime girls be mixed with the dark fantasy world of Dark Souls and the like? Sure… but that's no promise of a fine product. Now, there are many indies out there that try to sell through fanservice alone, but Lost Ruins is actually not one of those. Yes, it has waifu bosses with big bouncy assets, and they drop swimsuits as the reward, but to be perfectly honest this isn't the main thing here. Actual effort has been made during this title's creation, with the fanservice (or whatever you want to call it) being just the cherry on top of it all. It's just that the end result isn't really a good, or finely polished game, with the slow, cumbersome combat definitely taking the biscuit.
Aside from the relatively minor issues of movement, and how the various endings are discovered, The Kids We Were is a captivating nostalgic trip for those who lived in the '80s regardless of if that was spent in Japan, and a worthy education for those born in later years. The finely balanced mix of humour and seriousness of the issues explored, coupled with the cute style makes it feel at home on Nintendo Switch. Having collectables provide a reason to replay it for completionists, and the intricacy of the plot with the highly likeable characters make replaying it a strong possibility for others just to experience the heartfelt story once more.
Like a lot of the DLC packs for Total War: Three Kingdoms Fates Divided does not add anything that fundamentally changes things, rather it is a lot of smaller tweaks to gameplay and a few additions that add a touch of spice to the campaign. There is a new faction here, some new units there and a bundle of new mechanics and tools to strategise with. Some could be disappointed, but for £7.99 it feels like a fair price for what it includes.
The combination of an atmospheric musical score, eye-pleasing graphics, remaining true to the original novel and adding well timed humour and melodrama, makes MazM: The Phantom of the Opera a captivating puzzle adventure on Nintendo Switch. The ability to play it in handheld mode or on the TV makes it even easier to continue playing the at times nail-bitingly tense thriller, which is hard to put down once started.
A love letter to the Donkey Kong Country series, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair goes beyond a standard homage, and crafts something beautiful of its own. Fantastic challenging platforming, spanning across 40 imaginative levels, and a charming graphical art style. This is an essential 2D platformer that should not be missed, even more so by the fact that it is being sold for budget point.
Demon Turf scratches the collectathon itch, but very mildly. Apart from its somewhat unique, quirky art style and setting, this is mostly a mediocre-to-good 3D platformer, with nothing really special about it, and plenty of small (and thankfully not game-breaking) flaws that decrease the fun factor quite a bit. Try it out only if really, really thirsty for a game of its kind.
10tons has taken their titles to another level with Tesla vs Lovecraft by replicating the twin-stick shooter of their previous Tesla outing, and incorporating the roguelike elements has made this the ultimate Tesla & Lovecraftian crossover thus far. Plus, the addition of two characters, Mary Shelley and Marie Curie both bring their unique flavours with regards to playstyle, Tesla vs Lovecraft promises a lot of hours spent grinding out runs. The 'Doomsday Clock' keeps the AI a tricky beast to tame, as they slowly begin to climb in difficulty throughout the run, culminating in the end boss fight that differs in difficulty based on how quickly or slowly it took to get there. The visual display that is on show when the enemies become quite sporadic and overwhelming, only to then get destroyed by Tesla in a mech suit is one of the more exciting and riveting experiences that makes this adventure worth going back to.