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Horizon Shift '81 is simple, stellar fun. The arcade shooter inspired gameplay puts a fun twist on the classic genre that provides hours of pure, flashy entertainment. Boss fights bring a fun, modern twist to the game, but could have used some sound effects in order to make them even stronger. Overall, if you've got a Switch and have the itch for some old-school arcade blast-em-up fun, Horizon Shift '81 is a great way to feed that craving.
Warplanes: WW2 Dogfight is a pretty decent aerial combat title with engaging battles and a bit of variety, but it also becomes repetitive quickly and the grinding nature when it comes to unlocking new planes is a bit too impeding. Perfect for those short bursts of gaming when you have little time.
The Occupation has a premise that is really intriguing in theory. Trying to spy on a powerful entity and taking them to task with your questioning is the kind of experience that can be great in the game, and taking inspiration from current affairs makes it feel much more authentic. It's a shame that various bugs, even when updated to the most recent build, can make the experience feel lacklustre, and at times a frustration to play.
Oniken does a few things right, but flounders when it comes to the most important parts of the experience. The visuals and audio of the game are a faithful and accurate tribute to the style of classic NES action games, sure. All of the artistic flair in the world can't help a game that simply isn't fun to play, though. Action in Oniken is consistently stiff and frustrating, and while boss encounters can provide brief moments of gratifying gameplay, only the most dedicated of action platformer fans will have the patience to reach those encounters.
The simplistic set up helps to distill Space Pirate Trainer's essence as a score attack shooter. Later waves are certainly frenetic, but even with powerups, explosions and shields it doesn't result in complete sensory overload, allowing you to concentrate on besting your previous effort. Topping your best scores is addictive stuff, let me tell you! At one point I managed to get the 31st best arcade score in the world. It's dropped and I now linger in the 70s, but I'll get it back. I've nearly finished my training.
Dead or Alive 6 is an objectively great fighting game that's likely to be hampered by its continued objectification of women.
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is a hard sell.
There's a great deal to like about Fimbul, from its luxuriant vector inspired visuals to the solid combat and an interesting interpretation of Norse Mythology. Whilst the delivery of the plot in a comic book format disappoints, it is the failure of the frame rate that provides Fimbul's fatal and final blow. Without this issue being remedied, despite the many reasons I like the game, Fimbul is difficult to recommend.
Arcade Spirits is a successful experiment in creating an inclusive and immersive visual novel experience, it just needs to nail the "novel" part of that experience. Yet, for as flawed as the line-to-line writing of Arcade Spirits can be, I still found myself really enjoying the overall story of the game. Arcade Spirits already won a lot of points with me for being a relatively bite-sized adventure, but I also loved the cast of characters and the casual nature of the entire experience. Unfortunately, a lot of rough writing and dialogue in the game keeps me from truly loving it.
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is a throwback to the bad old days of movie tie-ins, this uninspired and dull reskin of LEGO Worlds takes all the good parts of the LEGO games and tosses them in the bin. This is the game that President Business would have designed, full of static environments and boring construction. Everything is far from awesome with The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame.
Singularity 5 is one of those rare games that looks so good it shouldn't play well, but still does. It's an incredibly aggressive piece of interactive art, one that you can only fully experience if you're willing to don a VR headset and fight through hordes of robots with great feeling weapons. I don't know if this is a must-play game, but it's definitely a must see game. It's the kind of world that you'd happily get stuck in. Well, if it weren't for the angry robots.
Trials Rising takes us back to basics with the real world inspiring a long series of new and inventive trials, but losing none of the challenge or RedLynx's dark sense of humour. The menus are a bit messy, the loot boxes pointless, and it doesn't really advance the series, but when you get into it this is the series back to its addictive, infuriating, "one more go!" best.
Just as Codemaster's competitors were starting to creep towards the digital rallying crown, Dirt Rally 2.0 puts them firmly back in the rear-view mirror. Utterly convincing, enthralling and punishing, Dirt Rally 2 is an exquisite racing sim.
Fight of Gods was bad on PC and it's still bad on the Switch. It looks horrific on and off the dock, controls terribly and lacks any variety in modes to keep you interested. There are a lot of good fighters already available on Switch, and this has no place among them. It's just a bad game and there's not much more to be said than that. Do yourself a favour and save your pennies. Avoid at all costs.
Compile Heart set out to prove they could do something different by making Death end re;Quest, and they absolutely succeeded. Unfortunately, the interesting ideas at the heart of the game are undone by the groan-inducing and lengthy dialogue that often tries too hard to be taken seriously. Edgy writing aside, Death end re;Quest has marvellous gameplay that kept me glued to my controller. It's a strong package for JRPG fans, but you might end up wanting to use that skip button during cutscenes.
Crossover games are nothing new to Bandai Namco or Shonen Jump, so it surprises and disappoints me to see that none of the good aspects or successful mechanics of these previous games made their way into Jump Force at all. Jump Force is a visual mess, It lacks the fun and charm that a wild crossover like this should embrace, and It's just a technical mess from top to bottom. Jump Force is a huge celebration of some of the most iconic manga in history, but it fails to do any of them justice.
Crackdown 3 manages to escape its troubled development in style, offering up a somewhat safe return to the superhero cop action of its predecessors in a bright and unpretentious campaign. It feels like the perfect antidote to some of the more bloated open world experiences of recent years. You can also briefly revel in the Wrecking Zone's glorious destruction, even if all that fancy cloud tech simply leaves you hungry for what the game could have been.
Metro Exodus provides an immersive FPS experience that marks a new milestone for the franchise. Its survival-horror, sandbox and shooter elements are remarkably well balanced, constituting an engaging and thrilling game that’ll leave you no stranger to a good jump scare
The astute Civ player can shape the history of their nation and craft a story for the ages with with pinpoint accuracy. The Gathering Storm enriches this experience by giving you more ways to add subtle realism to how the world evolves around you and how you can directly affect it. With so many new and returning features, it’s hard not to recommend this expansion to Civ fans, turning an already great game into one for the literal ages.
God Eater 3 boasts fantastic monster hunting combat and the best visuals we've seen from the series, but hangs onto too many of the previous game's hang-ups.