Nintendo Insider
HomepageNintendo Insider's Reviews
And, that’s it. It is a shame to see Astro Bears Party score success with its manic gameplay, huggable characters, and minimalistic art direction, only to leave players without enough of a reason to return to orbit their nearest planetoid. It suits Nintendo Switch with its local multiplayer, but a lack of variety makes it hard to recommend – especially with the Nintendo eShop becoming an ever-increasingly competitive place to be.
That’s why Caveman Warriors is best played with others, muffled laughter carrying you through the experience as you rally around to topple Undine, Lodrack, Cavernator v2.0, and the game’s many other bosses. There are still moments that can entertain like riding atop a triceratops as you helplessly shoot enemies that are chasing you and when you are transported into the future, but the game largely feels underbaked and leans too heavily on its inspirations rather than looking to make its own mark on the Nintendo eShop. For that reason, it’s a little too prehistoric for its own good and perhaps belongs in a museum.
Morphite does a lot of things right. It’s just a shame that it also does a lot of things wrong too. It does a good job in giving the impression that you are visiting many different worlds, but sometimes these areas feel quite empty which is something that has been said many times for a game of this type. My biggest gripe is the combat and aiming system and if that’s something that you can get over, then you will find a surprisingly deep and enjoyable game here.
Ultimately, Don’t Knock Twice is the type of game that the Switch does not currently have a lot of, and for that alone, some might be inclined to try it out. It’s cheap to buy and it takes less than two hours to complete, so for those that enjoyed the movie then this can be a decent companion. For everybody else, I feel there is far too little to fully enjoy the experience. There is little to no replay value, once you’ve finished the game, there is no reason to go back. If you need a horror game to play in time for Halloween, unfortunately for Switch owners, this is currently one of only a few options.
It’s tough to believe that Sonic Team has managed to take the enjoyable gameplay blueprint of Sonic Generations and turn it into this clunky mess of a sequel – a lazily told story, poor level design, and gameplay that lacks any real excitement the biggest offenders here. Sonic Mania managed to steer the hedgehog back on track and it’s disheartening to see Sonic Forces potentially undo that so soon. The game isn’t unplayable like others have been in the past, but it’s certainly clear Sonic Team are capable of better. Much better.
If you are the type of person who could be locked in a room for twelve hours, content with nothing more than a fidget spinner and a bucket then you will love Phantom Trigger. It’s amazing. For everyone else, you will probably get very little satisfaction from this extremely repetitive and frustratingly boring dungeon brawler.
It is inconsistency and imbalance that cripple Boost Beast the most, which is a shame considering that it has some clever ideas. But, it squanders that potential, leaving it best to consider other puzzle fixes on the Nintendo eShop.
Despite its visual and audio charm, Ultra Hyperball lacks any real depth and variety to make this a title worth remembering. The multiplayer modes can be fun, but it is a shallow experience that will wade out pretty quickly.
Where Revenant Saga summons strength in the ideas for its combat systems, it falls short in nearly every other regard. It’s never pleasant to have to rag on a game, but there’s a lack of care with the whole experience more than anything. And, if the developer doesn’t care enough, then the general impression that the player is left with leaves them not caring as much about the world that they are placed in. And that is a worrying flaw to have.
New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers kickstarts a genre's presence on Nintendo Switch that I would like to see plenty more of. Shallow in execution and with little to keep you returning once you have built up your town from scratch, this largely average city builder needs to re-examine its foundations.
Jack of all trades but master of none, Mario Sports Superstars impresses more on paper than when exploring what each sport has to offer. The idea is sound, but, whatever the reason, the result soon meanders away from the road to superstardom.
Vaccine could have been great in all honesty and I really wanted it to be. It just, unfortunately, falls some way off. Some may say it’s basically a rip-off but I see it more that the game was made for a bit of fan service for those that love the old Resident Evil games and, because of that, I can’t see it appealing to anybody else in all honesty. It is a shame that in order to see the game at its best, you need to have a bit of luck and hope that you get a good mansion layout. When I got a good layout, I actually enjoyed the experience.
An original look and a decent amount of challenging puzzles with some replay value are sadly let down with poor controls that turn this into a frustrating experience rather than a fun one. Maybe swap this one for a game more worth your time.
Wheels of Aurelia is about the road trip not the destination, we’re told. Santa Ragione should feel proud of their efforts to bring to light stories and events in Italy’s history, in educating a generation that may well be less aware of them. I’m just not certain that this was the best way to impart what they learned.
There is some satisfaction to be found in slaughtering the alien forces that are hellbent on attacking Earth in Xenoraid, but the experience fails to ever be more than distinctly average. Even throwing in the chance for friends to fly alongside you as wingmen seems a flawed move, a couch co-op experience that comes at the cost of removing the best idea that the game has going for it. There are better games in the genre to spend your time with on Nintendo Switch, then – meaning that it’s best to leave someone else to defend mankind in this one.
NORTH carries an important message that it wants to impart, but whether it manages to successfully convey it to the player is debatable. The cyberpunk atmosphere helps it to stand apart from other games on the Nintendo eShop. But, with the developer having exerted more effort to create unpredictable and trippy scenes, you soon come to the realization that it is reading the letters sent from brother to sister that beat at the heart of the experience. In comparison, everything else feels meaningless.
Multiple save files will let you experiment with each hero, which can be traded with others through StreetPass. But your quest to defeat Oda Nobunaga is a muddled one, which excels in its artistic direction but lacks in combining that with gameplay that can entertain for even its short duration.
Yes, this last point would occur on any touchscreen system, but here it feels even more ludicrous because the Switch is a system that has sticks and buttons. The developer could have experimented with implementing these controls into the game, rather than just shoehorning the Red Game Without A Great Name onto the system. It’s a real shame as the premise itself is appealing and the art style is sumptuous and brooding. But, beauty is only skin deep, after all.
There’s not really much more to be said about SkyScrappers other than that having a vertical Tate Mode is always a nice feature if you happen to own a stand to support it. I suppose the benefit of such an addition along with multiple Joy-Con controllers at the ready does make this particular game somewhat suited for Nintendo Switch. It’s just a shame that there isn’t enough here to keep you coming back for more.
Ice Cream Surfer won’t surprise you nor will it amaze you. What it delivers is a fairly average shoot ‘em up experience wrapped in a cutesy exterior. And with the Switch already having received examples of this genre including the recently released, and excellent, Ikaruga, Ice Cream Surfer has a hard time standing tall against its competition.