Cubed3's Reviews
This is clearly a true labour of love, with CyberConnect2 clearly caring and being invested in Toriyama's legendary tale.
As in the past games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is rich with culture, community, humour and charm. There's a reason why the series has such a dedicated fan base - and with such hype, there's always the worry that the expectations may not match reality. However, New Horizons exceeds expectations in every way! The perfect gateway game for many people and with added touches of magic, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the perfect for players old and new!
Giraffe and Annika doesn't quite excel when it comes to its adventuring side - a pity considering how much time it ends up taking - but a charming, comic-esque presentation, and rhythm game boss fights at least make it interesting.
Endlessly delightful, with a keen eye for creative puzzle design and brisk pacing, ibb & obb is a must play for all co-op lovers out there.
Thief of Thieves has a gratingly sassy heroine, and a completely forgettable storyline. The stealth gameplay is like in those forced, half-baked stealth sessions in other games, as the mechanics as clunky... and then some. Finally, this port is actually the weakest version of it, as it's technically broken, with loading times that can put you to tears. Don't wait for Season Two.
In summary, The Sims 4: Tiny Living Stuff Pack is not totally disappointing, but also not very interesting.
With a plot that is equally interesting and hilarious, as well as the rewarding nature of items and new options being thrown in at a rapid pace, invest in this and everything is sure to be fine and dandy.
Doom II, or Doom II (Classic) as Nerve Software's version for the Switch is called, is basically the port of Doom (1993) all over again: highly enjoyable, very cheap (at least for the moment) but far from a perfect version of the game. Just make sure to lower your expectations a bit, because in terms of level design this is the inferior sibling.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a potentially great RPG, trapped under a less-than-stellar console port.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a mixed bag. While it's great to see the series return, the fresh coat of paint isn't enough to hide the myriad fundamental flaws with it that have since been addressed in later entries. It is fun in short bursts, the new style looks lovely, and Poké-fans will be happy just to step back into the world. Best of all, this may point towards the other entries receiving Switch upscales, and perhaps even a whole new entry.
Doom's arrival on the wonderful system that is the Nintendo Switch is the perfect opportunity to be reminded of why it's such a fantastic experience despite its age. It's old-school FPS fun at its finest, and now you can carry it's dark corridors and hellish landscapes on the smallest of backpacks. Sadly, while the gameplay has been left intact, this version is far from the perfect port that it could be, due to a couple of odd omissions and changes - but at least it is super cheap (as it should).
It's fair to say that Zombie Army 4: Dead War won't be winning an award for originality any time soon, but it's hard to deny the simplistic joys of placing a well aimed explosive bullet into the crusty cranium of a distant, slow-moving cannibal corpse.
Technically competent, and surprisingly well done, the simple lack of depth prevents this from doing any better. It can actually be completed in a few hours at max. Having a friend or playing online can extend the fun, yet the lack of content becomes obvious fairly quickly. The developer has promised more updates, which will hopefully come through, as the game has a good base to work with.
The core of the game is a very old-school RPG/dungeon crawling experience, for all its positives and mostly negatives. Unless not having a map and spending hours trying to re-roll viable characters sounds like fun, this one is better off left alone. The anime portraits look nice, but they are just dressing on a framework of something that simply does not stack up to better options in the genre.
The Fighters Pass not only brings five fantastic characters into the Smash universe, including some excellent surprises, but adds five stages with mostly unique features, as well as a shedload of music tracks.
If you have managed to hold out on getting into Street Fighter V and were waiting for the best time to dive in, well done! Champion Edition is the version to pick up.
Honestly the biggest surprise in a long time. Such a crazy and un-family friendly concept pulled into an extremely fun game package with loads of laugh-out-loud moments, sharp visuals, and endearing characters. Definitely not one for the living room, but if you have a modicum of interest in what you've read here, then it's definitely a recommendation. A unique adventure that oozes with charm and always has a tongue in its cheek that's only let down by virtue of it being a remake that still shows its portable routes.
Despite the DLC gripes and the heavy downgrade in visuals for this Switch port, Samurai Shodown really stands out from the crowd, and it's great to see the revival of a popular series return in such a good way on the gameplay front. It takes weapons-based combat and creates a smart system out of it, putting players on edge, and provides moments of pure bliss when bare knuckle comebacks are made. The strong Japanese style only adds to the appeal. It really could have done with a more fleshed out story mode, though.
Stylish, methodical, and encouraging attacking gameplay, this latest Under Night In-Birth title is as exciting as always, and Switch owners that have yet to try the series out are in for a treat, with plenty of modes, a lengthy visual novel chronicle, online play, and a varied cast of characters. Despite the array of balance and move tweaks, though, this just isn't enough of an improvement over the previous title, with only one extra character being introduced. This is still a top anime fighter, though, and a good alternative to BlazBlue.
My Big Sister is the adventure genre at its simplest form. The solution to each "puzzle" is so evident that the only challenge here will be the struggle to stay awake. The horror-esque plot, and mature themes explored could help a lot, but they are handled in a manner that the average player will be left scratching his/her head about whether this is a dry comedy with some darkness thrown in, or a dark fantasy story coupled with some low-key humour.