Nindie Spotlight
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The major difference is the theming, this time working with anime characters from Kemono Friends...
Who knew that having played a number of horror-esque games on the Switch that the one that would be the most consistent and compelling to play would really be a casual title...
Starting with the building and management aspect of the game the biggest issue is that this isn’t any sort of sandbox situation, what you’re ultimately doing is just filling in some blanks as you progress with little room for flair or meaningful decisions beyond a minor focus in your stat modifiers...
If you’re a shooting fan who is up to some crazy battles where you’ll need to use your brains as much as your reflexes Rise & Shine is a pretty good match. It won’t coddle you hardly at all, which will be either a positive or a negative depending on the type of gamer you are. I don’t recall ever having played a shooter that has had puzzle elements to it like this, so that does help it stand out from the crowd. Just keep in mind the caveats that come along for the ride when you decide whether to check it out.
As exciting the title itself may sound, Dungeon Rushers lacks a fast pace or even a great deal of excitement. It’s a pretty safe experience with a fair art style, a decent sense of humor, and satisfying though generic combat. Probably best for playing lazily while doing something else it may have an audience but there are simply better options on the platform than this.
While Oh My Godheads is generally well-implemented, and the presentation is reasonably good, I also can’t say it made a very deep impression on myself or my family as we played through the modes and put it through its paces. While it had no glaring faults it also failed to generate much excitement or enthusiasm, though like any game it has its moments particularly early on when there were still some things we hadn’t seen yet. Once repetition set in it began to dull a bit. Just a very lukewarm takeaway in the end, it isn’t bad but it also didn’t thrill.
On the whole This is the Police II puts obvious effort into being a better and more interesting game than its predecessor. While the development team obviously set their sights pretty high the results are likely heavily open to interpretation. People who thoroughly enjoy the challenge of managing their resources and struggling to keep it all together may thoroughly enjoy the experience, aggravations and all. However, if you’re just looking for something to start up and begin enjoying this sequel is a bit of a step back from even the original, becoming more cumbersome with the weight of its ambitions that don’t all work out.
To some degree there’s an almost tranquil quality to these sorts of games as they require next to no thinking or even skill. While I can’t imagine banging in the same spot on your touchscreen would have been a great idea the lack of support for using touch controls, combined with the pretty small buttons on the joycon, make playing in handheld mode a bit impractical. Even with a Pro Controller after a while I started to have some small concerns about wearing out the button from playing this excessively. The unfortunate thing is that the rewards are so slow in coming when you mix that with the general lack of skill or structure here it really falls apart as a compelling experience. While there aren’t technical flaws per se with Chicken Assassin: Reloaded I can’t say it makes a lot of sense on this platform and the general novelty of the genre it represents I think has passed its prime as well.
To help raise the stakes and challenge a bit the game does include a Rogue mode, which will challenge you to beat the game without dying. Especially in single-player that comes off as a bit too extreme, just the alternative is the Pussycat mode, which moves things as far away as possible in the opposite direction, essentially giving you unlimited revives at periodic checkpoints. Playing with some friends certainly helps things feel a bit more balanced and can take on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kind of multiplayer feel to a degree, but going it solo makes the gap between your two options pretty massive, feeling like with both you lose something. Rounding it all out there’s also an Arena mode where you’ll take on waves of enemies, but the mechanics and ultimate lack of variety are consistently what holds the game back. There’s some fun to be had here, especially if you’re a genre fan who has some friends to play with, but it simply doesn’t compare very well to multiple titles already on the Switch.
What makes Epic Loon stand out, and work at all, is that the various screens you end up in that are tied to each movie are so utterly odd and creative. There’s a real method to the madness in this game and for me the element of the unexpected and the legitimate challenges in making effective use of such limited controls pays off. It’s absolutely not a game that will work for everyone, and if you’re only going to play solo it may not be a great match, but if you’ve got a bunch of geeky friends who love iconic movies and weirdness Epic Loon may just provide for some really unexpected entertainment while you’re all trying to prove who’s the best.
The baseline key to games of this kind is to get the physics and feel of it right and they’ve absolutely nailed it...
You’ll play as either Jack or Jill, with your goal of saving your friend by making your way through 7 different worlds with 20 levels apiece...
It’s more when you get rolling that the problems begin to materialize...
Let me say very clearly that I’ve never been a Dragon Ball Z fan, so I won’t be able to comment on any of the nuance for the characters themselves...
Elena, searching for some answers to the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her father, learns early on that an amulet in her possession will allow her to take on a ghostly spiritual form...
Another adventure game that takes its own path when it comes to resolving conflicts in this title you'll play as a bard who ends up using his vocal talents to try to help save the day...
Each major set of levels includes 10 total stages and in order to unlock additional ones you’ll need to complete the majority of those you’ve unlocked with gold medal ranks...
Starting out with a pretty thorough and helpful tutorial you’ll have the core understanding you’ll need to get started but this is definitely an experience that reveals itself to you in waves...
In the end if you don’t mind the wonky controls and get into the different stages, and the variety they offer, A Gummy’s Life may not be a bad fit. Unfortunately, I’d say there are simply better-implemented games of this kind out there, even if they may lack the variety in stages or even the number of simultaneous players. The flaws here feel very core and fundamental and I’m not positive they can even be patched away, my family and I just didn’t find much joy or excitement in the experience.
As a whole Retimed does a good job of hitting the targets it was aiming for and providing a pretty unique experience, unfortunately it’s impossible to not also note that the whole package is a bit thin. Most critical is that without online or bot support the opportunities to enjoy the game can be a bit limited, relying on the availability of family or friends to play it at all. While I really like the art direction it’s also a bit disappointing that there just aren’t that many stages or even character options to work with. If you regularly have some people available who are down for some multiplayer fun, and you can overlook the somewhat skimpy overall content it provides, Retimed can be an absolute blast and shows off some clever ideas. It’s just hard not to note that it has some real limitations all the same.