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It’s been a good while since I’ve played Donkey Kong Country Returns and this HD upgrade has been a delightful reminder of just how much fun Retro Studios’ first stab at the platforming series was. As far as new additions go, this definitely ranks near the bottom when it comes to Nintendo’s Switch porting efforts. That being said, the visual update is certainly pleasant on the eye and it’s hard to argue the game’s sustained quality in level design. If you missed out on the game the first time around, then bump the score up a point. Returning players, meanwhile, will still find a brilliant time awaits, one far more impactful, the longer the gap since your last Donkey Kong Island visit.
Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- is easily the best-looking visual novel I’ve ever seen, and I’m excited to see where they go next with the second part of the remake. Even if that takes ages, or somehow never sees the light of day, I still view this part of the remake as a perfect experience. I tend to love the works that contrast the horrors of existence and the evils of man with the small moments of genuine bliss, and Tsukihime gets that. That we can make time to appreciate the gentle kindness hidden around us as long as we look for it. It was probably the most life-affirming piece of art I got to experience in such a mentally exhausting year for me.
Fantasian Neo Dimension won’t work for everyone, but for the handful it does click for they’re likely going to find a new all-time favorite. It mostly worked wonders for this reviewer, but the Nintendo Switch port’s issues detracted more from the experience than I had hoped. If you do love classic RPGs or specifically classic Final Fantasy, this modern evolution of those knocks it out of the park. In the last year, there have been a lot of throwbacks to the ’90s era of RPG to bank on nostalgia, but Fantasian has a lasting and timeless appeal most of them lack. It knows who it looks to appeal to and makes a game just for them.
Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed is a decent update of one of the Wii’s much-beloved adventures. As a Disney fan, playing through with my son was an absolute delight, smiling with glee as we registered rides from the theme parks and leaping off the sofa whenever we crossed paths with a well-known face. As a gamer though, my experience was – as much as I hate to say it – good but not great filled with intriguing worlds to explore and dated tasks to accomplish. Still, I had a great time overall and Rebrushed is easily the best way to experience Disney’s weirdly wonderful adventure.
As a fan of the genre dating back to the 90s, even though I completely understand why titles such as Crow Country aren’t being made by the Capcoms of this world anymore, I do miss this style. While it has clearly been inspired by the early Resident Evil games, the modernisations and quality of life additions go a long way to ensure that this isn’t just a carbon copy of something that has gone before. If old-school survival horror is what you want in 2024, put Crow Country right at the top of your list.
Nintendo games are at their best when they’re approachable and polished to a sheen, and Mario and Luigi Brothership is great at both of these. This is a sizeable RPG that contextualizes classic turn-based mechanics in a platformer framework. This isn’t anything new, but it shows that this current run of Mario RPG remakes wasn’t a fluke. The mechanics are strong, and even as someone who doesn’t usually like RPGs like this, I had a pretty great time. Brothership might be a bit on the longer side, but I think this is a fantastic game to give to a younger gamer looking to understand the appeal of the genre. There’s a ton of personality on display that I think will make people of any age smile, and the systems are flexible enough to keep most of your time enjoyable.
It’s hard not to come away from Ys X Nordics loving it, even if I have my qualms on the overall package. The game largely feels like an experiment, to push the series forward without fully abandoning the fans it gathered with the Party System Ys games. This is by far the best combat I’ve seen from any of the games, and it absolutely carries the experience. If we can get a sequel that builds all these concepts, fleshes them out further and adds a lot more visual variety, I think we could have the best Ys game ever made. We have a pretty good one with Ys X, and that’s still impressive. This is a step in the right direction for this new gameplay system, and there are so many great ideas here. I sincerely hope this manages to capture the hearts of new fans just like VIII did with me all those years ago.
We had a lot of fun with The Jackbox Survey Scramble. Sure, it’s not as complex or wacky as the sorts of ideas you’d see in the Jackbox Party Packs, but its brevity and simplicity make it perfect to fill an evening with friends or family. What it may lack in laughs, it makes up for with genuine intrigue, offering a glimpse into how the minds of others operate… for better or worse that is.
The Nintendo Switch port of Yakuza Kiwami is an interesting beast. Sure, you could play it anywhere else to get a better experience. Getting to play one of the most addictive Yakuza games on the go is a treat though, and playing it docked looked solid on my 4K TV. If you’ve never played the Yakuza series, this is a solid entry point. It kind of assumes familiarity with Yakuza 0, as Kiwami takes the original game and tries to retrofit it to be a sequel, but you won’t be punished without 0. I certainly wasn’t back when I first played Kiwami. With an impressive portable experience that doesn’t cut back on too much of what makes Yakuza Kiwami special, this is a compelling offer. And if you want to re-experience the PS3 Yakuza games of the previous decade, you’re going to absolutely love this Switch conversion.
If you’re looking for a version of these classic Marvel fighting games to whip out during a party of 20-30-somethings who would know about these games, this is a great port you should look into. Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is genuinely great if you value the history of 2D fighters, and I’m really happy I have a chance to play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 again. I always beat myself up for missing out on the HD remaster way back in the day, so having this game accessible is a treat. This collection for me is just a way to get MVC2 back in its arcade-accurate glory, but I’m glad it pushed me towards several other fascinating additions to Capcom’s fighting game lineage.
Super Mario Party Jamboree truly has something for everyone. Between its enjoyable smorgasbord of minigames, delightful lineup of traditional-style boards and exciting injection of fresh competitive and cooperative modes, this is a party you won’t want to miss out on. Biggest Mario Party? Absolutely. Best? After 30 hours and many laughter-filled evenings with friends, I’m thinking it’s very much in the conversation.
I miss the era of games Reynatis feels plucked fresh out of. The PlayStation Vita was my gaming awakening that defined my taste, and was a swan song of a particular era of Japanese portable games that were able to be experimental and weird on a low budget. The ambitions of the team far outshine the budget they were given, but there’s definitely something to like here. The combat is flashy and fun if not a bit simple, yet still outshines most other action games of this scope. The six playable characters are plenty customizable, and once you get into it there’s plenty of fun to be had. I respect Furyu continuing to fund creatives of all sizes with enough money to make their weird and cool games, and Reynatis is among their better titles. For those who are coming at this from an exclusively Square Enix fan perspective, however, I don’t know if you’ll be able to see past the blemishes. Maybe don’t play it on Nintendo Switch, though.
So, you see, it’s complicated. While we certainly had fun playing Jackbox Naughty Pack, its very existence at times feels questionable. For every laugh had at a sex-related question it left me wondering if we’d have just as much fun returning to the family-friendly entries. Plus, it certainly doesn’t help that Let Me Finish is a bad idea, crude or not. But then again Cookie Masterson does say the F-word… It’s tough but Jackbox Naughty Pack is… fine. While its implementation of crude ideas isn’t terrible by any means, I just hope the developer returns next year with Jackbox Party Pack 11.
After Princess Peach’s turn in the spotlight, Princess Zelda readily demonstrates that she is more than capable of saving her own kingdom. Grezzo should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved here, delivering a complete reinvention of what awaits us in a top-down adventure across the kingdom of Hyrule with an experience in which past and present collide that succeeds in repeatedly subverting your expectations.
While it might not reach the towering standards of other recent roguelikes like Balatro, I still had myself a ridiculously fun time and one I’m sure I’ll return to in order to again in the future for another cheeky run or two. Best of all is the fact that Peglin takes something familiar and gives it a unique and interesting spin, one that proves super successful making it an easy recommendation for Nintendo Switch owners looking for something to fill that Peggle void in their life.
The Castlevania Dominus Collection has made me realize that this specific era of Castlevania might be my favorite overall. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow used to be my favorite game in the series, but I’d be hard-pressed to recommend the other titles in that collection because they feel unfocused and unpolished. At the very least, there’s a pretty big gap in quality between them. Even if I’m not very fond of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, I think this collection has a lot of value in it. This is when this specific kind of Castlevania game started to really branch out and experiment, with most of those experiments being very successful. This is the definitive way to play three of the most interesting Castlevanias, better than I ever dreamed they would be. I think the Nintendo DS being such an experimental console encouraged the original developers to try a lot of fun things, and I hope the feedback to these games is strong enough to make Konami want to revisit this style.
This collection offers a fantastic value for fans of the mystery genre, and even more for Ace Attorney games. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit is one of the best games in this series, and worth playing the first just to get through. I probably won’t be revisiting the first game again, but I can’t stress how good its sequel is. So many presentation and visual improvements have been made to make these two Nintendo DS games feel modern, but they don’t feel lesser than their original versions. This is the definitive way to play these games in my eyes. I have a couple of issues, like how there’s no touch screen support for the Switch version, but outside of that, I think this is a must-play. We’re in a bit of a visual novel/adventure game renaissance right now, with a lot of old franchises coming back or receiving long-overdue localizations. Capcom gave these games the love they deserved, in a year where I’ve been primed to give them all the love I got.
I lost sleep over this game. I can’t stop thinking about it, and reminiscing about my favorite moments gives me chills. It’s haunting, funny, beautiful, tragic, and so very human. I did not know Nintendo was capable of publishing something like this, or funding it. This is one of the highest-budget adventure games I’ve ever played, and I’m saying this fully understanding that Type-Moon localized the Tsukihime remake months ago. I really liked the past two games, but this is a new favorite ADV game for me. If you are a fan of mystery stories and can put up with an interface many would call obtuse, this is a must-play. I know not everyone will think as strongly as I will, but I just need people to engage with this game. I need to talk long into the night with others about this game. I think it’s truly brilliant, I don’t think I’ll play anything quite like it for a long time. I’d love to be proven wrong, though. Prove me wrong, Nintendo.
As somebody who loves 2D Zelda, I am always searching to see what other games pop up of its type. Master Key wasn’t one that was initially on my radar. However, from the moment I picked it up, I instantly knew it was going to be one of the better ones. After rolling the credits, my initial impression turned out to be correct. With an unexpectedly dense map to explore, brilliant dungeons to conquer and secrets to be found, it scratches many itches. This is certainly not one to be slept on.
Despite a couple of gripes, I’d still say this is probably going to be the best version of Beyond Good & Evil. It at least has the strongest intersection between accessibility and quality. The game runs and looks quite good on the system, with the handful of framerate dips not really detracting from the overall experience. I’ll admit, the brilliant quality of Beyond Good & Evil is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. The remaster overall is quite good, with this Nintendo Switch version just being solid, I’d say. This is a good way to play one of the coolest games from the sixth gen, but there are definitely better places to play this version. If you’re used to concessions made with these kinds of ports though, you’ll probably have as great of a time as I did. While I’m sure Nintendo’s handheld won’t be able to run the second game whenever that resurfaces, I’m certainly a lot more interested in giving it a go than I was before.