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  1. From developer Double Dutch Games and publisher tinyBuild Games comes SpeedRunners, a fast-paced racing game that combines platformer elements with the chaos of multiplayer for one wild competition. Easy to pick up after a practice race or two, SpeedRunners is a charmingly frantic take on racing games, one that seems tailor made for a friendly (or competitive) party atmosphere. SpeedRunners is clearly a game built around multiplayer, but there is a short story mode that can help you practice leaving the competition in the dust. You play as Speed Runner, a sort of super hero, though his somewhat careless antics while saving the day seems to draw the ire of other costumed heroes, prompting them to challenge you to a variety of races. As far as storytelling is concerned this is incredibly short and basic, though the comic book presentation of backstories (unlocked after finishing each section of the story mode) does add some charm. The gameplay seems to pull inspiration from a number of directions, and the end result is surprisingly original and engaging. Up to four players race each other around a 2D side-scrolling arena where some precision is required to slip through narrow paths or leap over hazards, but more importantly you have to maintain your momentum and keep moving. Rather than simply racing to cross the finish line first, the goal is to continuously outpace your opponents as the screen's focus follows the player at the front of the pack and anyone lagging behind is in danger of getting knocked out. The stage continues to loop seamlessly until only one racer remains, at which point the eliminated players are brought back and the race begins again right from where it left off, which helps give SpeedRunners a feeling of always being in motion. To further put the pressure on (and ensure races don't last ridiculously long), the size of the screen will start to shrink as players are eliminated, pushing the players behind to move a little faster but also reducing visibility for the racer in the front. It's a clever way of ensuring the competition remains intense without unfairly punishing the players lagging behind, which also ensures there's always a chance for an upset win. Races are fairly short and snappy, which makes SpeedRunners a perfect party game. The controls are relatively easy to pick up—though fully mastering them can be a bit more of a challenge than it initially seems—and the quick, chaotic nature of the game makes it easy for everyone on the couch to get in on the action. Though if you do want to play more competitively, there's also enough depth to the gameplay to make serious races satisfying. SpeedRunners is really all about maintaining your momentum, even when you have to change direction rapidly, and mastering this takes some serious skill if the "unfair" difficulty setting is anything to go by. Aside from merely jumping or sliding to avoid obstacles, you'll need to master swinging on a grappling hook to maintain speed, which can be tricky in narrow spaces. There's also a speed burst ability that can be charged by passing over boosters in the stage, and saving these bursts of speed for strategically valuable moments takes some forethought. So although SpeedRunners functions excellently as a slightly wacky party game, serious racing game fans will find some depth to enjoy as well. And speaking of wacky party game elements, SpeedRunners also features items which, as all Mario Kart fans know, bring with them a delightful (and sometimes not so delightful) element of chaos. The items in this game feel pretty well balanced though—the hazards that other players will throw at you can all be dodged with careful timing, so it feels less like a random penalty and more like a punishment for not keeping an eye on the competition. Each item blends well with SpeedRunners' focus on momentum and precision, and of course they also make for some satisfying upsets even when the lead player is far ahead. The wild races of Speed Runner and his competitors take them through a variety of colorful locations, though ultimately the presentation of SpeedRunners is decidedly minimalist. The scenery has some detail but for the walls and floors are always jet black, which allows the characters and hazards to stand out nicely. It's ultimately a case of function over form, and although more detailed visuals might have been nice, there's no denying that the graphics help keep the gameplay clear and readable even at the most hectic of times. The soundtrack also errs on the side of simplicity—there are some good songs but a stark lack of variety which makes the background music a little disappointingly repetitive. As mentioned the story mode is pretty short, so naturally the game's real value comes from multiplayer. SpeedRunners features both offline and online multiplayer so you can enjoy the frantic action even if you don't have anyone close by to play with. The online connection works well, though the game is still so new that you might not find opponents quickly. Besides, the charm of the game works better with friends gathered around the couch. There are also several DLC items available for purchase on the eShop, but these represent only cosmetic additions, not changes to the gameplay. It's a bit disappointing that these add-ons are still being sold separately instead of bundled with the main game considering the game originally launched on other systems several years ago, but of course the DLC is entirely optional and you'll be at no disadvantage while playing if you don't want to pay for more character costumes. What SpeedRunners lacks in depth it makes up for in sheer replay value. The game's simplicity ends up being one of its most charming and defining features, making the game comfortably accessible to new players and ideal for a quick party setting. There's enough depth to keep things interesting after the initial honeymoon period as well, which makes SpeedRunners ideal for racing game fans that love perfecting their skills with handling the chaos of items and competitors. Rating: 8 out of 10 Runners Review copy provided by publisher SpeedRunners is available now on the Switch eShop for $14.99.
  2. It took its time, but finally, just a few months ago, the 3D-collectathon-platformer-inspired game A Hat in Time released on a Nintendo system. Originally Kickstarted back in 2013, the game released on other systems in 2017, though sadly did not launch on the Switch at that time and, quite understandably, skipped over the Wii U entirely. But now Nintendo fans have a chance to play a game that so clearly wears its Banjo-Kazooie/Donkey Kong 64/Super Mario 64 inspiration on its sleeve—or hat, as it were. Sadly, Switch owners will have to settle for an undeniably worse version of the game. You play as Hat Kid, a space-traveling girl who uses Time Pieces to fuel her spaceship. When the hull is breached and the precious Time Pieces are scattered across a nearby planet, she sets out to recover them before their time-manipulating power is abused by any ne'er-do-wells. The game ups the stakes a bit when you meet one such ne'er-do-well and have to race to collect the Time Pieces first, but the story is still light in A Hat in Time. It pretty much just sets up your motivation and then lets you loose in the game. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially since the environments and side characters have plenty of goofy, cartoony charm (edging on obnoxious at times, granted) but it does mean that the final battle of the game has fairly low stakes. Anyone that grew up playing 3D platformers on the N64 will no doubt be instantly transported to that time after starting up this game. You've got multiple worlds to explore, each with a number of Time Pieces to collect, and in order to unlock new worlds you need to meet a certain threshold of Time Pieces. Some worlds allow you to freely roam and uncover secrets on your own while others are more linear or stage-based, but the feel of a classic 3D platformer is perfectly preserved, albeit on a much smaller scale since A Hat in Time only has forty Time Pieces to collect instead of the hundreds of stars, moons, or other MacGuffins littering other games. The result is a shorter but more satisfyingly contained experience, one that still lasts several hours but never drags. And completionists will be pleased to know there are optional collectibles as well if you just can't get enough of uncovering secrets. The game also maintains a brisk pace thanks to Hat Kid's quick, fluid movements. There aren't too many moves to learn here but the ones you have make traversing these elaborate 3D environments pretty simple, and it's relatively easy to correct mistakes thanks to the double jump. Hat Kid is also able to craft and equip different hats to gain new abilities, such as sprinting or lobbing an explosive concoction. In order to make a hat you'll need to collect yarn, including yarn of the hat's specific type, but thankfully yarn is pretty plentiful as you explore. You can also equip badges to further augment your abilities. Most of these are merely optional, helpful boosts, but they're great for customizing your playstyle a bit, or adding some challenge with the one-hit-point-only badge. And although the game is relatively short for its genre, there are a lot of great 3D platforming challenges here and a lot of variety in level design. In only the second world things start to get unique with a rivalry plot that puts you in smaller, enclosed levels that test precision more than pure exploration. That said, A Hat in Time is still quite easy overall, partly just thanks to the lack of a lives/continues system. Recovery orbs are plentiful and if you do die you'll find that checkpoints are pretty plentiful too. The only thing that really makes the game difficult is dealing with a finnicky camera system. It's been decades since those N64 platformers were released, and yet the camera in A Hat in Time is distressingly reminiscent of those problematic times, zooming in too close to you so you can't clearly see around you or locking into obnoxious angles that make jumps more difficult than they need to be, especially when you're jumping to a narrow wire or rope and can barely see Hat Kid's shadow below you. Tight corridors can be extremely annoying to navigate as the camera zooms in and obstructs your view. The game overall is still pretty easy, but missing jumps thanks to an uncooperative camera is frustrating. As I hinted to earlier, A Hat in Time has some technical troubles on the Switch. Loading times are noticeably long, which is annoying but not a huge issue by itself since many games suffer from the same problem. What's disappointing is that even with those long load times the game is terribly optimized for the Switch with occasional frame rate dips in well-populated stages, lots of pop-in visuals, jaggy visuals, and frequent textures that don't fully load or even worse are just plain low-res. The images accompanying this review are not at all indicative of my experience with the game as the visuals were never this clear or smooth. It's a real shame since clearly A Hat in Time has some fun, cute visual design, even if it can be somewhat repetitive, but on the Switch you'll barely be able to enjoy the graphics in the first place. The soundtrack is at least pretty well preserved in this version of the game, and there are a lot of good songs that could go toe to toe with some of the greats of the platformer music world. A Hat in Time is a charming take on the 3D collectathon platformer genre, perhaps all the more impressive for being made by an indie studio, but it's hard to ignore the rampant technical issues that the game suffers on the Switch. You really can't help but feel like you're playing an inferior version of the game when the textures are so muddy and the environments so jaggy. If you're willing to overlook these faults though, A Hat in Time offers a short and cute adventure into charming 3D environments begging to be explored. Rating: 6 out of 10 Hats
  3. Developer Playtonic's follow up to their throwback to 3D collectathons takes a step even further back, this time to side-scrolling platformers. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair draws clear inspiration from the Donkey Kong Country games on the SNES, but like the first Yooka-Laylee the game never feels derivative. A unique final level mechanic and two sides to every level gives The Impossible Lair enough character to stand out in the crowd of side-scrolling platformers on the Switch. In this game Yooka and Laylee are once again fighting against the nefarious Capital B, who has captured Queen Phoebee's Royal Beettalion Guard in order to control the Royal Stingdom. You'll need to rescue Beettalion Guards in each level in order to help you tackle the fiendishly difficult Impossible Lair where Capital B is hiding. Like the first game there is a clear love of puns at work here, which gives The Impossible Lair a classic sense of cartoony charm. The gameplay has a classic appeal as well thanks to traditional side-scrolling platformer mechanics. Yooka serves as the main character while Laylee provides support abilities—Yooka can run, jump, and roll into enemies to defeat them, and with Laylee's help Yooka can also twirl in the air for a little extra distance or ground pound through weak obstacles in the floor. The rolling mechanic in particular has a familiar Donkey Kong Country feel to it, especially when you're rolling off of a ledge to gain a bit more momentum so you can reach a distant cannon. What makes The Impossible Lair unique comes down to how hit points work. If you're hit while Yooka and Laylee are teamed up, Laylee will fly off of Yooka's head and flutter about in a panic, not unlike Baby Mario floating away when hit in Yoshi's Island. If you're able to grab Laylee before she flies off for good, you'll essentially "recover" your HP and, more importantly, retain the aforementioned abilities that Laylee provides—Yooka on his own feels comparatively weak. Trying to catch Laylee when she's flapping about is somewhat obnoxious but if you're good at it you basically have an unending ability to take damage and recover immediately (there are also Laylee bells scattered through each level that allow you to recover your bat friend). It certainly helps keep the action of the gameplay moving more than hunting down a mushroom or a handful of rings, and it doesn't make the game too easy since there are still plenty of ways to die and fall back to the last checkpoint. The main levels of the game are admittedly on the easy side of things though, which is what makes the titular final level, the Impossible Lair, so confounding. The bulk of the game is a pretty forgiving take on platformers with plenty of checkpoints and opportunities to skip levels if you're having trouble, but the final level is an unforgiving gauntlet of precise platforming challenges that quickly grows discouraging. The Impossible Lair throws you into various fast-paced platforming sequences as well as several boss fights against Capital B, all of which has to be completed in one run (dying sends you back to the very beginning). To mitigate the challenge somewhat you need to collect the Beettalion Guards from each level, each of whom acts as a hit point inside the Impossible Lair—instead of losing Laylee when hit you lose a guard, and you'll even lose a guard when falling into a pit instead of dying completely. So to be as well equipped as possible to handle the Impossible Lair, you'll want to rescue all 48 Beettalion Guards, though even with a full roster the final level can be maddeningly difficult. It's surprising to see such a jump in difficulty, especially one that can be so tedious since you'll need to trek through the early parts of the level again and again if you die near the end of the lair. Finally, the overworld actually plays a significant part in The Impossible Lair. Instead of merely a map to connect various levels, the overworld is kind of a level unto itself with various puzzles and challenges that you'll need to overcome in order to fully explore the map. Additionally, each level of the game actually has two paths, and to unlock the second path you'll need to solve some kind of puzzle in the overworld, such as flooding an area to turn a normal level into a water level, or literally turning the level upside down. The changes within the levels are significant, and figuring out how to trigger them in the overworld is a fun challenge that gives a lot more depth to the overworld than a typical platformer hub. Your play time with The Impossible Lair could vary wildly depending on how you play. Like Breath of the Wild you're actually able to jump straight to the final level immediately. It is, like the title suggests, a nearly impossible task to complete without the benefit of the Beettalion Guards, but the challenge is there if you want to test your skills. More likely you'll spend 10 to 12 hours completing every level to collect all Beettalions, and truly dedicated players will take the extra time to collect all coins and tonics in the game. Coins are needed to unlock gates in the overworld so you'll have to grab a percentage of them, but tonics are strictly for the benefit of augmenting the experience with buffs or new challenges. The inclusion of tonics is novel but the limited use of a vast majority of them makes collecting them a fairly underwhelming pursuit. Yooka-Laylee's colorful and cartoony art style translates well to the 2.5D setting of The Impossible Lair. There aren't many truly interesting visual designs in the game, but nor is there anything lackluster about them. Plus the game runs at a nice smooth frame rate, though the trade off seems to be some tediously long load times, especially when you first boot up the game. Still, a bit of waiting is far preferable to choppy graphics. The soundtrack meanwhile is undoubtedly a highlight of the game—not surprising with the likes of David Wise and Grant Kirkhope involved—and certainly does most of the heavy lifting to give The Impossible Lair a charming sense of personality. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair puts a unique hook on classic side-scrolling platformer gameplay, and even though that hook can be a little tedious thanks to a surprising spike in difficulty, the overall experience still captures the fun and charm of old-school platforming. A small set of abilities for Yooka and Laylee provides a wide variety of platformer challenges, all of which is buoyed by the addictive nature of exploring an in-depth overworld full of secrets to uncover. Even though it's such a change of pace from the first game, The Impossible Lair is a strong continuation of the Yooka-Laylee series. Rating: 7 out of 10 Beettalion Guards
  4. Both 2D adventure games and roguelikes are a dime a dozen, so maybe the best way to stand out from the crowd is to combine the two into one experience, complete with pixel art and a charming soundtrack. Sparklite draws solid ideas from both genres, but the final result could have used a more unique spin to keep things engaging. In the land of Geodia, everything is powered by Sparklite, a glowing blue ore that serves as the lifeblood of the planet. But an evil overlord named the Baron has been hoarding Sparklite to power his war machines, and the pollution is causing plants and animals to mutate into dangerous monsters. Our hero Ada crash lands in Geodia and quickly sets off on an adventure to stop the Baron before his plans destroy the planet itself. It's a classic hero adventure, complete with a silent protagonist with a helpful assistant (in this case, a robot, not a fairy). The story is pretty bare-boned but there's a lot of charm in the side characters you meet, not least of which is a musician that asks you to help her rescue small birds that have gone missing in Geodia. Sparklite's writing may not stand out but what little there is is endearing. The gameplay feels like a mid-point between a traditional adventure game and a roguelike. The map is procedurally generated every time you leave your base of operations, but you don't lose equipment or story progress when you die (aside from minor consumable items which are usually easily replaced). This makes Sparklite much less punishing than a typical roguelike; even though you have to explore the map again every time you set out, the map is conveniently divided into five sections and each area isn't too large. It's also worth taking the time to explore since you'll be able to collect Sparklite which is the game's currency for everything, including valuable upgrades. Even if you reach a boss and die, the Sparklite you collected on the way will stay with you, helping you fuel future attempts. The downside is that the cost of upgrades is pretty high, and a typical journey to the surface of Geodia will probably only yield enough Sparklite for one or two upgrades. This is where the game's exploration gameplay loop comes into play, but it can't help but feel like padding out the game's short length. Exploration is fun the first few times, but when you need to do it over and over just to be able to afford to increase your health it feels like busywork. It doesn't help that the procedurally generated map drains some of the character from the environment—you can't have unique set pieces when everything needs to be able to fit together randomly. The combat in Sparklite also leaves something to be desired. Ada can use her wrench to smack enemies, and that's basically all there is to it. Attack, dodge away when the enemy winds up their own attack, repeat. There's little depth or excitement to the battle system, though you can unlock items like a crossbow or floating bombs to change things up a little. The only problem is that these items are so slow to use that they aren't very effective in the heat of combat. And with recovery items being surprisingly rare, it's usually not worth taking the risk to whip out a fancy item or gadget. Boss fights unfortunately aren't much better. They're certainly flashier but they're even more beholden to the basic pattern of attack and dodge, just with larger and more predictable attacks from the enemy. The game is at its best when it leans a little more toward a traditional adventure game. Scattered throughout the map you'll find vaults that are filled with simple puzzles and reward you with a new item (though you have to spend Sparklite to actually unlock it) and you'll occasionally find monster lairs filled with enemies or other challenges. Once again the randomly generated design of the game hurts the overall experience—these vaults and lairs are fun but feel disappointingly basic. Perhaps if the game wasn't randomly generated there would have been more opportunity to better flesh these out. One area where the game does not disappoint though is the presentation. There is some beautiful pixel artwork here, notably when it comes to the charming side characters you meet or the massive, imposing boss battles. The retro look may be old hat by now but it still looks fantastic. The music is also excellent with a lot of fun, lively songs that match the sense of adventure. Even if retreading randomly generated maps gets old, the soundtrack never does. Sparklite finds a comfortable niche between traditional 2D adventure games and roguelikes, but the end result might be less than the sum of its parts. The randomly generated elements of the game ultimately feel like padding while the classic sense of exploration and combat feels too basic. There's still an enjoyable adventure to be had in Geodia, but it doesn't quite live up to its potential. Rating: 7 out of 10 Sparks
  5. How much of an action-adventure game can you finish in sixty seconds? As it turns out, a whole lot! Minit takes classic 2D adventure gameplay and puts a unique time limit on the player: every sixty seconds, you'll die and have to restart from the last safe house. Simplicity and speed is the name of the game here, and rather than feel like a restriction, it proves to be a wonderfully inventive way of framing an adventure. The story begins with your character (some sort of duck, maybe?) waking up in his house and wandering down to the nearby beach where he picks up a cursed sword that causes the sixty second time restriction. From there your goal is to find a way to break the curse while also helping out any townsfolk you encounter. Minit is not a story rich game, and in fact the sixty-second restriction can be a real hindrance to story-telling since it limits your ability to really soak in the plot or lore of the environment. Regardless, Minit doesn't offer much plot anyway, and instead has plenty of personality and charm from your brief interactions with other characters, most of which offer short, goofy bits of dialogue as well as helpful hints. Minit's sixty-second lifespan might sound a lot more confounding than it actually is. The truth is, you can get quite a lot done in sixty seconds when you don't dawdle, and obviously the game is built around the limitation as well, so there's very little fluff to waste your time. You might end up wandering a bit as you look for your next objective, but that's really the core appeal of Minit: see how much you can get done before you're pulled back to the last safe house and have to start over. You're given only vague directions on what to do next, so exploration is the real core of the game Plus, there are several safe houses over the extremely short length of the game, so you're never too far from your last checkpoint. It's also important to note that anything you accomplish is saved when you're revived—you don't need to grab key items again, they'll stay with you. The exceptions are monsters or breakable/moveable objects, such as cutting down bushes, but that's no different from a normal adventure game anyway. And as mentioned, Minit is designed to let you make the most of your minute, with the only truly tricky, multi-part puzzle being the final approach to the end boss. The developers clearly know their adventure game formulas—there's something familiar about the kinds of tasks you accomplish in Minit, but the time limit lets you see them in a fresh, challenging light. The result is a uniquely addictive adventure: every time you restart you'll want to make the most of the brief time you have. It's no surprise that Minit would employ a fairly minimal, simple visual style as well. The black and white visuals are striking, and also serve a valuable gameplay purpose—everything on screen is so clearly laid out that your eyes never have to hunt for what to interact with or focus on in any given area. It's another clever way of cutting out the fluff of game design to let the player focus on the most crucial elements. And on top of all that, Minit still manages to have a cute, quirky art style thanks to the odd little creatures that inhabit this world. The music is excellent as well. Thankfully it's not quite as minimalist as the visual design, and the handful of songs found in the game are delightfully catchy. The one area Minit might be lacking is in sheer amount of content. Sure it makes sense that the overall length of the adventure would be fairly short given the sixty-second time restriction, but it's still shocking just how quickly you can finish Minit—easily under two hours. However, the game is filled with little secrets to uncover, and you'll likely finish the game the first time with well under 100% completion, so players that enjoy seeing everything a game has to offer will still get plenty of replay value out of Minit. There's also a second quest mode that adds even harder restrictions—including just forty seconds per life instead of sixty—so there's at least a modest amount of replay value to enjoy. Minit cleverly distills the adventure formula down to its most essential parts, and puts pressure on the player to make the most of his or her time. The result is an extremely addictive experience—like any game where dying/retrying is common, you'll be eager to try again every time the clock restarts in order to explore a little further, see what else you can find under the time limit, and progress just that much farther into the adventure. Perhaps by its very nature the game is disappointingly brief, but that short time spent with the game is awfully unique and clever. Rating: 8 out of 10 Minutes
  6. After hitting the ground running with a stellar first year, the Swtich seems to have become port central, with tons of games originally released on other platforms getting a fresh start on Nintendo's hybrid system. A lot of these ports are high-profile titles, but every now and then a surprising little game will slip in as well—though in this case, the game also had the benefit of extensive screen time on Nintendo's E3 Treehouse stream! New Super Lucky's Tale from developer Playful Studios draws clear inspiration from the classic 3D platformers of yesteryear with colorful critter characters, tons of collectibles, and plenty of platforming challenges. It's a gameplay style that still feels timeless, though Lucky may not be bringing many new ideas to the table. You play as Lucky, a brave young fox who is assisting his older sister protect the Book of Ages, a powerful magical artifact. When a nefarious cat named Jinx attempts to steal the book, Lucky is pulled into the universe of the book and must traverse various worlds to collect missing pages before Jinx's gang, the Kitty Litter, is able to get their hands on them. It's a classic good guy/bad guy adventure, and even if it feels a bit cliché it should be perfect for the kid-friendly audience that the game is clearly geared toward—kids will certainly love the simple, silly puns and humor as much as we all did in games like Donkey Kong 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. As already mentioned, Lucky's Tale is structured in pretty much classic 3D platformer fashion—across multiple worlds you'll jump into individual levels with the main goal of reaching the end, plus three side goals which will earn you additional pages. There's some great level variety at work here: some levels are fully 3D and let you explore at your pace, some are side-scrolling, and a few operate under unique control schemes, including bonus levels where you might need to solve sliding block puzzles or navigate a maze by tilting the scenery. What Lucky's Tale definitely does well is keeping things compact. There's a lot to see in each world but it never feels overwhelming or drawn out—the levels are just long enough to keep things engaging and varied without overdoing it. There are also some fun challenges created around Lucky's limited moveset, which notably includes burrowing through the ground to uncover hidden objects or slip under fences. The mix of 3D and side-scrolling levels also helps to keep each level feeling fresh, even if the core gameplay is still clearly built around the typical tropes and challenges of 3D platforming. This is also a fairly short game, or at the very least it's not the same kind of experience as huge collect-a-thon platformers. There are just five worlds (plus a bonus post-game world) and you don't even need to complete every level in a world in order to unlock the boss fight and progress. If you wanted to zip right through the adventure, it's only a few hours long. Of course, this type of game is made for 100% completion players, so you can expect a decent six or eight hours to collect everything the game offers. That still feels a little on the short side but the trade-off is few levels of fluff or padding. That said, Lucky's Tale also has a few problematic quirks. Camera angles can be a little funky at times, notably during boss fights when it's even more important to ensure you have a clear perspective on where you're moving and jumping to avoid attacks. Lucky's moves in the side-scrolling levels can be a little tricky as well. These stages generally require a bit more precision than their 3D cousins, but Lucky's double jump and particularly his burrowing movement can feel a little imprecise. Thankfully extra lives are pretty plentiful in Lucky's Tale so you're unlikely to run out completely. In fact, even with these small control quirks the game is quite easy—again, clearly aiming at a younger crowd—so a few awkward deaths thanks to the controls isn't terrible, but it is annoying. Lucky's Tale also has some slight performance issues on the Switch. For one thing, load times are just a bit too long for comfort, particularly on the short puzzle levels that can be completed in under 30 seconds but then you have to sit through a lengthy load screen before and after. The game's frame rate is also not quite as smooth as it should be. Frame rate dips aren't too common though, and thankfully never interfered with the gameplay, but they were noticeable. Even if the game has some technical hiccups, the actual art style of the game is delightful. In the same way that the gameplay doesn't necessarily push the medium of 3D platformers forward, the visuals don't seem to be doing anything particularly new or unique. That's okay though, 'cause Lucky and his friends are still pretty adorable, as is the Kitty Litter gang. And although there are few stand out moments or scenes, the background design for each stage is still pretty fun. The music isn't half bad either, and definitely captures the vibe of late 90s/early 00s 3D platformers, though, again, there aren't likely any tracks you'll keep humming after the game is over. New Super Lucky's Tale relies upon some tried and true platforming mechanics to deliver a charming, pleasant little adventure. The game clearly skews toward a young audience which means there are few truly engaging challenges and it may not have the same depth as similar 3D platformers, but that doesn't make Lucky's adventure any less enjoyable. Anyone looking for a quick, light, cute platformer should be well satisfied with New Super Lucky's Tale. Rating: 7 out of 10 Tales
  7. A combination of The Legend of Zelda and Crypt of the NecroDancer is a mash-up I absolutely did not know that I wanted until I saw it revealed in the Nintendo Direct earlier this year, but seeing both Link and Zelda exploring Hyrule in the rhythmic pattern of Crypt immediately sold me on the premise. I hadn't realized how smoothly the two franchises would blend together though, drawing the best ideas of both into a game that is instantly familiar yet delightfully unique. Cadence of Hyrule is a game that might initially perplex Zelda fans with its rhythm-based gameplay but should win over new fans for Crypt of the NecroDancer. As is so often the case, something is amiss in the land of Hyrule. A man named Octavo has used a magical lute to put Link, Zelda, and other prominent individuals into a deep slumber, but Cadence is mysteriously transported to Hyrule where she helps the heroes put things right while looking for a way back to her own world. It's a solid if relatively by-the-numbers storyline, though the recently released free DLC focusing on Octavo might help add some depth to the plot. Regardless, it's fun to see these characters meet and set the stage for an unusual adventure through Hyrule. The game starts with a quick tutorial on how the gameplay of Crypt of the NecroDancer works, which is particularly helpful for new players because it does take some time to get used to it. In Cadence of Hyrule (and Crypt), the environment is divided into a grid and everything moves to the beat of the music, including you. There's a helpful visual along the bottom of the screen to show you the rhythm which is useful initially, but after a bit of practice you'll be able to feel the rhythm without keeping an eye on the bottom of the screen. So the challenge of the game is maintaining the rhythm while still moving and attacking enemies. You attack by standing next to an enemy and moving into them, but you have to be careful that you don't get hit yourself by enemies moving into you. Each enemy has different attack patterns, so for example a basic Bokoblin will simply move into you from an adjacent square, but a Tektite will attack diagonally, and some enemies have long range attacks. You have to move carefully to dodge attacks and get your own hits in all while keeping to the rhythm of the music. It sounds far more confusing than it is, and although you might struggle at first, the sense of flow and rhythm in the game quickly becomes second nature—getting into the groove of things is awfully satisfying. Cadence of Hyrule is also the type of game that becomes much easier the longer you play. Once you know each enemy's attack pattern, it becomes easier to avoid them. Once you've made a bit of progress and picked up some pieces of heart to increase your health, you won't be as worried about making a mistake and taking a hit or two. Once you have better weapons (including my personal favorite, a spear that allows you to attack from two squares away instead of just one) the game feels much more manageable. This is all to say: don't be discouraged by the early parts of the game. Like Crypt, Cadence of Hyrule has a steep learning curve initially, and the fact that you lose some items upon dying might seem frustrating. However, Cadence of Hyrule is actually much easier and more forgiving than Crypt—the majority of items you actually keep even after dying, including all of the most important things like weapons and classic Zelda items. I should also mention that if the rhythmic movement really isn't your thing there is Fixed Beat mode where nothing moves until you do, giving you ample time to plan your movements and attacks. It's definitely a crutch, but one that many players might find helpful, at least until they've mastered some of the basics. And once you're in the groove of things, the game is incredibly addictive. It makes sense since it follows the basic structure of a Zelda game—explore, collect items, complete dungeons—but the inherent rhythmic structure of the game really makes it hard to put down. Exploring every little cave and clearing enemies from one screen after another while keeping your rhythm the entire time has an almost hypnotic appeal. It's also great to see how much of Cadence of Hyrule is a Zelda experience just with a unique control scheme. The items are a blast to use and have some clever uses that work within the context of this rhythm adventure. That said, I would have preferred even more focus on items since they really are an iconic part of Zelda. It makes sense since the rhythmic nature of Cadence of Hyrule makes it hard to incorporate item puzzles—even just using them without losing the beat can be tricky—but it still would have been nice to see some of them in dungeons. Another aspect of Crypt that has carried over here is the infinite replayability of Cadence of Hyrule. The world map and dungeon layouts are randomly generated, so every time you start a new game you're faced with a fresh challenge. You can also choose to play as either Link or Zelda who each have some unique attacks—Link can use his classic spin attack while Zelda can use magic—which further incentivizes multiple playthroughs. There's also drop-in/drop-out co-op if you want to get another player into the mix, and finally there is the recently released free update to add another playable character. It's great that there are so many reasons to journey through the game repeatedly especially since one playthrough can actually be pretty short—just five hours or so, depending on how often you die. Where would a rhythmic adventure game be without a stellar soundtrack? Composer Danny Baranowsky did an amazing job of blending classic Zelda tunes with the high energy melodies of Crypt, and the resulting soundtrack is truly delightful. It has the clear rhythm and beats you'd want for the gameplay structure while also providing some fantastically catchy tunes while you're exploring. And if this game introduces more players to the glory of the Shopkeeper's dulcet tones, all the better. The game's visuals find a perfect blend between the styles of the two games as well, combining the charming animation of Crypt enemies with the familiar looks of Bokoblins, Moblins, Darknuts, and more. It's an ideal merging of form and function as their attack patterns become clearly recognizable while still retaining the style of Zelda's visual design. Cadence of Hyrule may draw some confused reactions from fans of only Zelda, but it is absolutely worth giving this game a spin, even if you aren't already familiar with Crypt of the NecroDancer. The developers have done an amazing job of bridging the gap between these two franchises to create a unique, fresh adventure in the land of Hyrule, something that only could have come from this unique partnership between Nintendo and developer Brace Yourself Games. Cadence of Hyrule is a fantastically hypnotic, rhythmic adventure, one that will keep you moving to the beat for hours. Rating: 9 out of 10 Beats
  8. Developer Simogo labels their latest title a "pop album video game" and I'm not sure there's any more perfect description of Sayonara Wild Hearts. It reflects the game's rhythm-focused gameplay of course, as well as its stylish, eye-catching visual style, but referencing pop music is also particularly apt for the game's emotional resonance. Everyone has that one album that they just can't get enough of—every time you put it on you get swept up in the music and lyrics and feel transported to another world. Music, in particular, has that effect, and Sayonara Wild Hearts is a game built upon its soundtrack's ability to sweep you off your feet. The story follows a heartbroken young woman who is transformed, with the help of a diamond butterfly, into a new version of herself called The Fool who then battles other Tarot-card-inspired characters through psychedelic environments. There's no need to get too bogged down dissecting the literal events of the game—Sayonara Wild Hearts is clearly open to interpretation, which is just another part of its charm as it allows you to focus on the emotion and artistry of the visuals and audio. To that end, it's hard not to drawn in to the emotional journey that is aptly summed up in the final level of the game. By that point, Sayonara Wild Hearts will have firmly embedded itself in your psyche. Obviously, a huge part of the game's appeal is its visual style and soundtrack. Screenshots don't even begin to capture how stunning the game looks in motion thanks to silky smooth animation even when roadways and obstacles are hurtling past you at incredible speeds. The generally simple shapes and consistent, vivid color palette allow your eyes to focus more on the surreal landscapes that seamlessly transform from one incredible scene to another. Sayonara Wild Hearts is an insane feast for the eyes, one that is truly mesmerizing to play. The only thing more important than stylish visuals is a soundtrack that you can lose yourself in, and the electro-pop music on Sayonara Wild Hearts is phenomenal. It treads a fine line between being emotive—especially around the theme of heart break—and still being fun to play, but the composers and singer nailed it. It's a soundtrack that sticks with you in a beautiful way, and it's a soundtrack that absolutely bears listening to again and again. The actual gameplay of Sayonara Wild Hearts is pretty simple: it's a rhythm game, so as you're speeding through brightly colorful landscapes your goal is to collect hearts to increase your score and avoid obstacles. Each level moves at breakneck speeds, and there's a wonderful variety to the types of settings you'll be riding or flying through. The scenery is consistently surprising and always engaging. The game doesn't explicitly tell you this, but picking up hearts builds up your score chain, and hitting obstacles resets the chain, so earning a high score requires careful play—not easy when you're careening through surreal landscapes on a motorcycle before leaping off to fly through a canyon. What's great about Sayonara Wild Hearts though is how forgiving it actually is when it comes to gameplay challenges. There are frequent checkpoints within each level, so even if you're not earning the highest score possible you can still make it through a level with several mistakes. It's even possible to earn a gold rank with one or two mistakes, assuming you're still able to maintain a long score chain for the majority of the level. There's no limit on dying/retrying, and in fact the game will even ask you, should you die repeatedly in one section, if you want to skip it and just move on. Sayonara Wild Hearts has the makeup of a rhythm game but it's really about the journey here, not just score chasing. Anyone can—and should—experience the musical journey on display here, regardless of video game skills. On the other hand, to really get the most out of the game, you probably want to perfect your skills and chase those high scores, because the one problem with this game is how short it actually is. A single playthrough of Sayonara Wild Hearts can be as short as an hour, which is a real shame because the gameplay, visuals, and music absolutely do not get old in that time frame. It can also be a little disappointing when you realize just how short most of the levels in the game are—just when you're getting into the groove of a song the stage ends. It's a testament though to the wonderfully inventive variety of level designs that no part of the game feels tedious or repetitive. So to really make the most out of your time with Sayonara Wild Hearts, you'll probably want to take the time to master each level and earn a gold rank, as well as collect the big diamonds within each level. And for anyone that really can't get enough of the game, there is a kind of achievement system with the cryptic zodiac riddles in the game's main menu that can point you toward additional challenges. A normal playthrough probably won't yield any of these achievements, so pursuing them might be a good way to spend even more time in this world. Sayonara Wild Hearts is an experience. The gameplay may not be as meticulously nuanced as other rhythm games, but that's not what the game is going for anyway. This is a musical journey through emotions, represented in surreal landscapes popping with beautifully vibrant colors and an enchanting, dreamlike sense of movement. And of course, this is all topped off with a truly phenomenal pop soundtrack. Your time with Sayonara Wild Hearts may be brief, but it will absolutely leave a lasting impact. Rating: 9 out of 10 Wild Hearts
  9. Pokémon Sword and Shield are landmark games in the franchise. No, not because of the controversy surrounding the fact that the total number of Pokémon has been significantly pared down (though that is an important change for the franchise, considering the series is inching closer and closer to Pokémon number 1,000). Generation VIII is the first time a core Pokémon game has graced an HD home console—and yeah, despite its dual nature the Switch counts as a home console. Presumably, unless Nintendo surprises us all with the Nintendo 4DS, this will be the new standard going forward for the series, so Sword and Shield represent the start of a new era of Pokémon. How does that new era look so far? Well, an awful lot like the past twenty years. I'm not going to pretend like Pokémon has ever been a series that's too concerned with storytelling, but even by the standards of the franchise the plot of Sword and Shield feels a bit simple. You've got your quest to become the new Pokémon Champion, your rival following alongside you every step of the way, and a bothersome team of ne'er-do-wells—in this case, Team Yell—popping up along your journey, but it feels like the stakes of the story are lower than ever before. It honestly feels like the developers simply felt obliged to include these familiar elements out of habit, especially since the best parts of the game's story is the way the quest to become Champion has been revamped. The entire Gym Challenge is presented as more of a professional sports event, with Gym Leader battles taking place in stadiums packed full of cheering fans. It may not seem like a huge change from past games but it truly gives the whole concept of Pokémon battling a more grand and social vibe—in Galar these battles are an event, a facet of society, and the energy and excitement that comes with that is infectious. If the story/writing of Sword and Shield shows anything, it's that the future of Pokémon needs to move away from the tropes that have defined past generations and find new, novel hooks for future games. Similarly, the gameplay is a mix of the familiar and the new. After your initial choice of a grass-, fire-, or water-type starter (in my case, the water-type Sobble) you're let loose on the Galar region to catch, train, and battle every Pokémon you come across. The loop this represents is as addictive and entertaining as ever—it's always particularly satisfying to watch a weak Pokémon grow into its much more powerful evolved form. The major addition in Sword and Shield is the Wild Area, an expansive region in the middle of Galar that operates a little differently than the typical routes. You can find Pokémon in the tall grass like usual, but you'll also see them wandering around freely along the paths (these are generally more powerful, evolved Pokémon). Being able to see the Pokémon just wandering around is a fun change in and of itself, but having the freedom to find such a wide variety of Pokémon, including evolved forms, adds a real novelty to the experience. You're not just seeing the same monsters over and over along one narrow route (though, incidentally, there's a lot of that in Sword and Shield as well). The Wild Area feels more organic, especially because of the way the selection of Pokémon changes with the weather, which makes it a much more interesting place to explore and revisit throughout the game. It also makes the task of catching 'em all a little bit easier since so many monsters are collected into one area, which is great for anyone hoping to find a particular favorite. The Wild Area represents such a welcome change for the Pokémon franchise that it's kind of a shame that it's only one part of Galar, and the rest of the game still has you exploring traditional, linear routes. Additionally, there are also special dens in the Wild Area where you can take on a Max Raid Battle either solo (with AI companions) or with friends online. Raids put you up against a single, powerful Dynamaxed Pokémon, which is a pretty fun way of adding a social, co-operative element to traditional Pokémon battles. Dynamax is essentially Sword and Shield's version of Mega Evolution, though Dynamax lasts only three turns and turns all of a Pokémon's abilities into more powerful versions, often with special effects like changing the weather or affecting stats (though the attacks also lose any special effects that they originally had, such as status ailments, duration, etc.). Sure, in some ways Dynamaxing is just the latest flavor of Mega Evolution—kind of like how Z-moves were in Sun and Moon—but it's undeniably fun to watch your Pokémon grow to a humongous size and dish out extra-powerful attacks. Dynamaxing during Gym Leader battles is pretty much always a thrilling moment in the match—as mentioned above, it adds a feeling of spectacle and excitement that perfectly encapsulates what it feels like to play Pokémon as a kid. Sword and Shield also includes a variety of small additions and adjustments, most of which are welcome improvements. For example, you're now able to access your Pokémon Boxes from anywhere, which is such an obvious convenience that it's almost surprising that it wasn't added to an earlier game. Similarly, you can now make Pokémon forget/remember attacks from any Pokémon Center for free—another welcome quality of life change that makes experimentation so much easier. A slight negative for Sword and Shield though is the fact that Experience Share is now always active. It doesn't really make sense to make something that was once optional now mandatory, especially since this generation is pretty easy to begin with. There's also a new side mode for interacting with your Pokémon called Pokémon Camp that lets you set up a tent and play with the critters in your active party. You can even cook curry for them in a short mini-game. It's cute and silly, though cooking does have a valuable benefit—eating will restore a portion of every Pokémon's health, and even grant some extra experience points. Players that enjoy connecting with the Pokémon will find camping a cute pastime. The main adventure in Sword and Shield feels a bit shorter compared to past generations, but you can still expect around twenty hours or so on your journey to become the Pokémon Champion. There is of course plenty of post-game content as well, including battling and trading online, or just catching 'em all in the Galar region. Finally, I feel like I should address the National Dex controversy that has plagued discussion of Sword and Shield for the past few months. Several hundred Pokémon have been cut from the roster, for 400 creatures in total (including 81 new Pokémon and 13 regional variants). Personally I don't have a dog in this race, as completing the National Dex has never been a priority for my Pokémon adventures, so I can only say that the smaller number of Pokémon in Sword and Shield in no way affected my experience or enjoyment of the main adventure. The selection of monsters feels perfectly fine as is, with a balanced selection of interesting Pokémon and useful type combinations. With the HD fidelity of the Switch, Pokémon looks bigger and better than ever. Okay, it's still Pokémon, and the familiar art style of the series isn't exactly pushing the limits of the console's hardware, but Sword and Shield really do look great—the visual of a packed stadium watching a Pokémon Dynamax into an enormous size is exciting every time it happens. The game's frame rate does lag at times, notably in the Wild Area, but overall the game runs well. The soundtrack, however, is never disappointing. There are a ton of fantastic songs here, but my highlight has to be the Gym Leader battle music. When the crowd gets amped up and starts chanting and cheering—it's enough to give any Pokémon trainer chills. (Seriously it's worth just listening to it right here) Putting aside all of the controversies surrounding Pokémon Sword and Shield, at the end of the day it's still the Pokémon game we know and love. That's both the upside and downside here. Catching, training, and battling pocket monsters is as fun as its ever been, but anyone looking for a drastic change thanks to the leap to a home console will be a little disappointed. Aside from some new bells and whistles, most notably the Wild Area, this is simply another Pokémon game—for many aspiring Pokémon Masters that will be enough, but anyone hoping for a significant leap forward for the franchise may be disappointed. Still, Sword and Shield may ultimately be a step in the right direction for the Pokémon series, but time will tell. Rating: 8 out of 10 Dynamax Pokémon
  10. Sometimes it feels like the "save the world" scenario has been done to death in video games—how many more ways can a plucky hero save the planet from global destruction? Well, how about an old man and a young girl teaming up to liberate the earth from an invasion of space dragons? EarthNight from developer Cleaversoft puts this wonderfully surreal premise to good use, combining it with meticulously painted artwork and endlessly replayable autorunning gameplay thanks to its roguelike mechanics. It's one of the most unique games to hit the Switch this year, and it's also hypnotically addictive. In the story of EarthNight, the planet has already been conquered by massive space dragons. The human race has been subjugated, but an old man named Stanley and a young girl named Sydney refuse to take this lying down, and instead fight back by skydiving from their orbital space ship to defeat dragons in the atmosphere and sky before reaching the big boss near the surface of the earth. It's such a delightfully bizarre premise that you can't help but be charmed by it—it's truly imaginative. Outside of the game's opening cutscene, storytelling isn't much of a priority in EarthNight, but there's still some personality and humor in the character of the (mad?) scientist who assists you on your dives by creating and upgrading power-ups. It's not much, but it keeps the game's off-kilter sense of personality alive when you're diving into the atmosphere again and again. EarthNight is an endless runner, so you only have control over a few actions. When you're on the back of a dragon you can hold left on the control stick to slow down a bit or push right to speed up, but either way you're always moving forward. More importantly you can also jump, which is pretty key since you defeat enemies by bouncing on their heads and you're able to reach platforms and other hidden paths to collect power-ups or junk items. Your ultimate goal is to reach the head of the dragon to slay it, but along the way you can pick up junk which will be converted to valuable water on your ship or grab temporary power-ups that grant things like a double jump or speed boost. Overall, the premise of the game is pretty simple: you're always moving, so avoid damage and reach the end of the dragon in one piece. However, EarthNight doesn't make that so easy on you. Like most roguelike games you're expected to fail and retry for a while until you master the basics, which will let you get a little farther before you die, which will help you get better little by little, over and over. It's a simple but addictive formula, one that EarthNight manages well by making the gameplay feel challenging but still surmountable. This game doesn't have the discouraging sense of failure that other roguelikes sometimes get stuck in, and even though you do end up dying over and over the game always feels engaging. There are a couple of important aspects at play here. For one, a full run-through of EarthNight is actually pretty short. If you're able to survive it, less than thirty minutes will see you through the enitre journey, so dying halfway and losing fifteen minutes of progress doesn't feel like a huge loss. For two, the power-up system and the ability to upgrade power-ups by using valuable items picked up from each type of dragon means there's always a sort of side quest in the back of your mind while you're playing. So even if you failed to reach the end, you might have been able to collect the three red dragon eggs you needed to upgrade your double jump boots, so the run-through still feels like a win. Breadcrumb goals can be pretty important in keeping a roguelike engaging from one attempt to the next, so it's great that EarthNight keeps the player invested. And the fact that each level is procedurally generated, changing the placements of platforms, power-ups, and valuable items like dragon eggs, means you always have to focus on what's ahead of you—you can't be too complacent while playing. The sense of discovery in finding new platform paths—even shortcuts to later levels and other secret areas—does wonders for keeping EarthNight engaging after dozens of attempts. Finally there's also the fact that Stanley and Sydney play differently. Stanley has a basic jump as well as a long jump, while Sydney can double jump or dash forward horizontally or at a downward angle—helpful for dodging hazards. They may not seem like huge differences but they're enough to change the way you approach each run-through and give the game further replay value. One minor complaint though is the way the loading screen tips work. You'll randomly see a tip or explanation of controls when loading a new run-through, but I'd highly recommend checking out all of the tips in the settings menu first, since there were some important details that I didn't see until after several run-throughs. It took me a while to realize that chaining bounces on enemies can actually heal you (before learning that I often prioritzed survival by avoiding enemies as much as possible), or that collecting dragon eggs will increase your damage when you attempt to kill the dragon's head. Definitely stuff worth knowing right off the bat. What should be immediately clear from the screenshots is how uniquely striking EarthNight's art style is. It's vividly colorful, totally surreal, and makes you want to just watch someone else play so you can focus on the visuals instead of worrying about survival. There is, obviously, a fair bit of repetition since the nature of the game is in replaying it over and over, but the crazy graphics are fun to see time and time again. The only issue is that the game has some trouble keeping things running smoothly, and it's particularly disappointing to see frame rate hiccups in such a beautiful game. It's not a constant issue, but when there's a lot happening on screen you might see some stuttering, which is also pretty frustrating from a gameplay standpoint. The music, however, is solid all the way through. The soundtrack isn't huge but there are a lot of great songs that match the energetic, frenetic pacing of the gameplay. It's also fun to see that the game includes both a normal soundtrack and a chiptune soundtrack that you can switch between—you're even able to put the music selection on random so you don't know which version you'll get. It's a fun way of making the most of a catchy soundtrack. EarthNight draws you in with it's bizarre premise and striking visuals, but you'll stay for the addictive, frantic gameplay that keeps you engaged one run-through after another. The simple formula may feel repetitive at times, but the procedurally generated levels and challenge of collecting materials to craft and upgrade equipment keeps the energy high as you dive through swarms of dragons. The frame rate hiccups are a definite disappointment, but otherwise EarthNight is a uniquely compelling autorunner. Rating: 8 out of 10 Dragons Review copy provided by publisher EarthNight is available now on the Switch eShop for $14.99.
  11. Clearly the business of spiritual pest control is booming with not one but two Switch games centered around cleaning up rooms full of ghosts. Dead End Job from developer Ant Workshop and publisher Headup Games may seem to share thematic similarities to a certain high profile Nintendo title released this year, but the 90s cartoon aesthetic and endlessly replayable rogue-like structure give this game a style all its own. You play as Hector Plasm, a paranormal pest control expert at Ghoul-B-Gone. As the game explains in a charmingly 90s intro theme song, Hector's partner Beryl dies one night, and now it's up to him to save her soul from an eternity as a ghost herself. The writing is unabashedly silly, which pairs well with the game's outrageous 90s cartoon aesthetic. It's the kind of humor that will make you smile, though perhaps not necessarily laugh out loud. Ultimately there isn't too much text in the game—there are a handful of cutscenes as well as descriptions for the random items you'll find—but when it does come up there's plenty of puns or self-aware jokes to enjoy. Dead End Job is a rogue-like twin-sticks shooter—in simpler terms, the game's level design is procedurally generated (including random items in each level) and you move and shoot with the two control sticks. It's a simple formula but one that offers near infinite replay value thanks to the randomly-generated content. In each level your goal is to rescue the humans trapped by malevolent ghosts, and ultimately your goal is to earn money by completing jobs in order to save up enough cash to fund a Beryl rescue operation. The humans' positions on the map is random, so you'll need to search each room to find them, and every room you enter has a variety of ghosts blocking your way. In order to rid each room of ghosts you need to shoot them with plasma until they're stunned, then suck them up into your vacuum. It is, ultimately, a fairly simple gameplay formula, but one that can also be fun in a somewhat mindless way. It's inherently repetitive—and the rogue-like formula only makes it moreso since there are no custom-crafted challenges, only building block pieces that can easily be put together—but even so it can be oddly satisfying to finish one room after another. There are at least a couple of ways to shake up the gameplay formula though. For one thing, you'll gain ability upgrades every time you level up (or, in the game's terms, earn a promotion). These bonuses can be as simple as increasing the power of your plasma shots—I say simple but that's actually incredibly useful—to more unique features like making your shots spread out in a wide fan pattern. The promotion bonuses aren't wildly different but they're enough to make you approach ghost-bustin' in a slightly unique way each time you earn one. Dead End Job also features random items scattered throughout each level. You never know what the items actually do until you pick one up and use it, so early on it can be a fun game of experimentation. You can only hold two items at once though—and that includes healing items—so to make the most out of them you might as well use them up whenever you can. Items add some much needed variety to shooting and capturing ghosts, and the good news is there's a wide variety of them. Dead End Job also features drop-in/drop-out asymmetric co-op. A second player can join in at any time to play as Beryl's spirit. Beryl can't shoot ghosts with a plasma gun or vacuum them up like Hector, but she can spray ectoplasmic goo to slow down and stun ghosts long enough for Hector to clean them up. What makes things tricky though is that the goo also slows down Hector's movement, so you have to be careful where you're spraying it. It's great to see another game embrace the idea of asymmetric co-op, but it's a little disappointing that player 2 has so little to do in this scenario. Beryl is only there for support and even then she has to be particularly careful not to inhibit Hector's movements. It's nice that you can get another player involved, but it would have been even better if they had more to do. The controls in the game work pretty smoothly aside from one little quirk that can be a little annoying. The game auto-targets ghosts when you're firing in the right general direction, but this can be annoying when two ghosts are close together, or even when one is right next to you and the other is far away. It's too easy for the auto-aim to get locked onto the one further away even though you clearly want to hit the one that's close by. The game is still easy enough overall that this won't lead to too many frustrating deaths, but it's still a bit annoying to deal with. Dead End Job is also a pretty short game, all things considered—just a few hours will see you through the entire adventure. Of course, there's plenty of replay value thanks to the procedurally generated levels, various promotions, and random item selection, but maybe not enough variety to keep you occupied for terribly long. This game takes clear inspiration from 90s cartoons—specifically the bizarre era of animation that gave life to things like Ren & Stimpy or Rocko's Modern Life. That means particularly wacky and occasionally somewhat gross-out character design and animation. Don't worry though, Dead End Job doesn't get too outrageous. Instead the character design is charmingly colorful and weird, and that includes the ghosts you encounter. In fact, it's a shame that the visuals are ultimately fairly repetitive, since there's a lot of great design on display here, but seeing the same ghost designs one level after another makes the art style wear a bit thin. The soundtrack is similarly repetitive, but it does have some fun, peppy tunes, as well as that great intro theme song. Dead End Job's simple gameplay loop offers a nicely rewarding sense of progression, though the low sense of difficulty makes the loop a little more repetitive than it needs to be. The spot-on 90s cartoon aesthetic certainly keeps the adventure feeling lively though, and anyone looking for a bit of mindless fun will enjoy making money and bustin' ghosts in Dead End Job. Rating: 7 out of 10 Ghosts Review copy provided by publisher Dead End Job will be available on the Switch eShop on December 13 for $16.99.
  12. Some franchises get great revivals that manage to capture the charm of the original game while modernizing the gameplay in an appropriate way, and some franchises get Contra: Rogue Corps. In a seemingly wild mishmash of ideas, Rogue Corps combines just a hint of the classic run and gun series with twin-stick shooter gameplay, an emphasis on multiplayer modes, and a needlessly complex upgrade system. What is truly impressive is just how badly every single aspect of the game plays. The story picks up several years after the events of Contra III: The Alien Wars where you, as a member of Rogue Corps, explore the Damned City and basically just blow up anything in your path. Let's be honest though, this isn't the kind of game you play for plot. There are things that need shooting, that's all you really need to know. To that end, you have a few options with how you approach shooting everything in sight. There are four playable characters, though their differences are almost nonexistent—they start with different weapons, but beyond that everyone controls pretty much the same. Rogue Corps uses a mostly top-down perspective, which gives the gameplay a twin-stick shooter feel—move with the left stick, aim with the right, etc. This is a pretty simple gameplay system, yet somehow the developers have managed to make the controls feel as awkward and imprecise as possible. Instead of smooth 360 degrees of aiming, the game limits you to oddly stiff shooting angles, which just feels wrong for anyone that has ever played a twin-stick shooter. It is, at the very least, clumsy for the standard machine gun weapons, but if you try to use a laser weapon which shoots out a large continuous beam of energy, it makes hitting enemies feel almost impossible. Smooth aiming controls is paramount in a twin-stick shooter set-up, yet Rogue Corps manages to make the most basic element of its gameplay clumsy and frustrating. Sadly the game doesn't get any better from there. The top-down perspective sometimes shifts slightly to take advantage of 3D environments and light platforming, like hopping across a broken bridge, but Super Mario this is not. Jumping feels just as imprecise as shooting, and trying to grab collectibles on high ledges ends up being more trouble than its worth. When you're actually able to hit them, mowing down waves of monstrous baddies can be pretty satisfying, but Rogue Corps doesn't have the depth or charm needed to assuage the mindless repetition of shooting one group of enemies after the next. In fact, the game almost seems to encourage the tedium, with boss fights that aren't hard but take so long to complete thanks to bosses with massive, bullet sponge levels of health. It's not challenging, it's just boring. And although you don't have to worry about ammo, your weapons will over heat if you fire them for too long, which doesn't seem to mesh well with the twin-stick shooter vibe of "shoot everything you see because there are hordes of enemies charging at you." It ends up slowing down the gameplay even more, making it even more mindlessly dull. The game seems to want you to play through these levels over and over, because of the weapon and character upgrade systems that rely upon random drops from enemies as well as experience gained from fighting. Progress is pretty slow, but upgrading is vital to keep the bullet sponge monotony to as low a level as possible. It also doesn't help that upgrading and customizing weapons seems needlessly complicated—at the very least the UI could have used some cleaning up to make it easier to tell what's useful and what isn't. All of the game's tedious repetition begins to make a bit of sense when you see the multiplayer options. Presumably, playing with some friends would help speed up the action and make the gameplay flow a little better. The downside is that the online community is nonexistent, and the couch co-op is limited to exploration mode so you can't play through the campaign together. Though even playing with friends wouldn't fully salvage the uninspired gameplay and clunky controls. Not that the game needed it, but the visuals are the final nail in the coffin for Rogue Corps. The art direction seems straight out of a 90s teenage boy's imagination, from the muscular badass protagonist to the grotesque creatures. If the game had a stronger sense of personality or charm—or better yet if the game played off this look as knowingly ironic—then the style might have worked, but instead it just comes off as silly. It doesn't help that the environment graphics are terribly bland, and the game's textures and details just aren't very sharp on the Switch. Contra: Rogue Corps feels like a rough draft of ideas that somehow got pushed out the door as a final product. It's almost impressive how badly they managed to screw up the twin-stick shooter formula, from the clunky aiming system to the hordes of enemies and bosses that are little more than bullet sponges. The gameplay is just such a grind, without any of the charm or depth that makes similar grindy games worth playing, which only leaves you with the tedious, repetitive gunplay. At least Contra fans still have the Contra Anniversary Collection to get their fix of frantic and engaging shoot 'em up gameplay. Rating: 3 out of 10 Corps
  13. If Platinum Games is tired of creating flashy, stylish action games, it doesn't show at all. Astral Chain features the developer's trademark penchant for visually stunning combat sequences with tight, precise controls, though this time you are essentially playing as two characters at once. Platinum Games fans will find everything they love about the developer on full display in Astral Chain. You play as one of two twins who are the newest additions to an elite police department named Neuron. Your objective is to battle against Chimeras, transdimensional beings from the Astral Plane, who have been ravaging the Earth and corrupting humans for decades at this point. In order to fight back, you use Chimeras of your own who have been chained to be under your control (when you use them, Chimeras are called Legions). Astral Chain establishes a great futuristic/cyberpunk setting, though the story doesn't fully capitalize on it. Somehow the story ends up feeling a bit rushed, with plenty of characters that don't feel well fleshed out—including the main antagonists—which also makes many interactions and cutscenes feel disappointingly cliché. The final result is a story that isn't necessarily bad, but one that definitely feels like wasted potential. The focus of the gameplay is on the unique two-character combat system as you fight alongside your Legion while the two of you are attached by a chain. Like all Platinum titles the combat is delightfully energetic and flashy—with the aid of your Legion you're able to leap across the battlefield, delivering a kick into the face of a Chimera, before wrapping it up in your chain to temporarily subdue it, opening it up to a string of combo sync attacks between yourself and your Legion. Easily one of the most satisfying attacks in the game is catching a charging enemy in your chain like a clothesline and flinging them back. There's an almost graceful sense of flow to combat—when you're performing well at least. Battles can, admittedly, be a bit punishing when you make a mistake and fail to dodge away from an enemy attack in time, but the good news is Astral Chain has a few difficulty options so you can find the right pace for you. Plus healing items are abundant so actually dying or getting a game over should be an incredibly rare experience. As you progress through the game you'll also add more Legions to your chain of command, allowing you to rapidly switch mid-combat to adjust to the situation. For example, the arrow Legion is great for dealing with distant enemies, while the arms Legion's heavy attacks are great for pummeling enemies into stunned submission. Swapping Legions can feel a little clumsy at times, partly just because it sometimes feels like there are more actions than buttons on your controller. Attacking, summoning Legions, using items, swapping weapons—at the very least there's a small learning curve to getting the hang of doing everything quickly in the heat of battle. It might have been nice if the game made swapping Legions and swapping targets a little smoother, but it's still perfectly doable as is. Astral Chain also has a significant amount of gameplay outside of combat. As a member of the police force you also take part in investigations, which involves gathering details from witnesses or using your Legion to spot clues invisible to the naked eye. It may seem like an odd change of pace from fighting but it offers a nice break, and investigating can be charming even if it's not particularly difficult. In a similar vein, Astral Chain also has a wide variety of side quests, ranging from finding a missing person (who has been taken by Chimeras) to rescuing stray cats. At times the game feels a bit bloated with these busywork oddjobs, but then again they are side quests, so if you get tired of them you can just ignore them. One aspect that does feel a little clumsy though is the small amount of platforming you'll have to do while exploring the Astral Plane. Your movements and camera work feel well suited to combat, but that sense of flow and precision isn't quite the same while exploring, especially when it comes to platforming sections, i.e. hopping from one small platform to another with the aid of your Legion. At times it felt like I was losing far more health from missing jumps than from taking damage in battle. As you can probably tell from the screenshots, Astral Chain is one stylish looking game, with colorful neon graphics and a cyberpunk vibe. What you may not be aware of is just how great it looks in motion. The animation is beautiful, and sure sometimes the screen is a bit overwrought with flashing effects in the heat of battle, but even so the game's visuals are just stunning. The character designs may feel a bit too anime cliché at times, and some of the repeated environments lack verve, but the overall aesthetic of Astral Chain is satisfyingly stylish. Part of that also comes from the high-energy soundtrack that pumps a lifeblood of headbanging tunes throughout every battle, as well as softer, catchier songs while investigating or at the Neuron base. The game clocks in at a respectable 20 hours or so, which can easily be further extended if you really take your time with all of the side quest content. Like a lot of Platinum games there's also a real appeal to replaying the entire game to perfect your skills, or at least to tackle a higher difficulty. In addition, Astral Chain features some post-game content to keep you chaining and comboing Legions for even longer. Astral Chain is another worthy link in the chain of Platinum Games titles, one that captures the developer's signature sense of stylish combat with a fresh perspective. The unique combat tools at your disposal make battles fast, fluid, and rewarding, and like so many action games there's a satisfying layer of complexity and depth underneath the initial impulse to button mash your way through every encounter. Some minor wrinkles in the writing or pacing of the gameplay don't diminish the fun of whipping through enemies with the aid of your Legions. Rating: 8 out of 10 Chains
  14. A wisecracking duck and a taciturn boar traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape while scavenging supplies for one of the last populated settlements on Earth—well, there are stranger premises for a game. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Deluxe Edition it a tough-as-nails tactical-RPG, one that regularly puts your small band of mutants against overwhelming enemy forces and expects you to work out the best strategy for taking each enemy down without overextending your meager resources. The gameplay can be wonderfully tense and engaging, though the game's performance on the Switch leaves much to be desired. At the beginning of the game you play as Dux and Bromin (the aforementioned mutant duck and boar, respectively) though you eventually gain a few more allies along the way. The mutant pair are Stalkers, elite scavengers able to brave the hazards of the mutated landscape and bring back supplies to the Ark, the home of the remaining survivors. The post-apocalyptic setting admittedly feels a little cliché here (seen one post-apocalyptic hellscape seen 'em all, am I right?) but the writing in Mutant Year Zero still manages to shine thanks to the personalities of the playable characters and their small interactions. In fact, one of the best reasons to replay the game—aside from the gameplay—might be to hear all of the various dialogue possibilities depending on who is currently in your party. Mutant Year Zero is a turn-based tactical shooter RPG in the vein of XCOM or Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. On your turn, you move your characters around a grid-based battlefield—ideally keeping them hidden behind cover—and attack enemies with a small variety of guns or special mutant powers. Each character only has two actions per turn (move, heal, reload, attack, etc.) and attacking always ends that character's turn, so you have to plan your actions carefully. Like other games in this genre Mutant Year Zero can feel punishingly difficult at times. In terms of sheer numbers and firepower you're pretty much always at a disadvantage compared to the enemy, and any little mistake on your part can and will be punished. The key to survival is scouting out the map and planning your approach to each battle carefully—if you charge in blindly you're never going to get anywhere in this game. It's a genre that truly rewards patience and forethought, which also makes it incredibly satisfying when things go well and you survive a fight without a single scratch. For as difficult as it can be, Mutant Year Zero is also awfully addictive: it feels pretty great when you efficiently sweep through an enemy force with just your motley band of mutants. The game also highly encourages stealthy attacks in order to pare down the enemy's numbers before a full-fledged firefight begins. You're able to see each enemy's field of vision and you have a small selection of silenced weapons to allow you to pick off weaker, isolated targets. Of course, there are always some enemies that are too closely clumped together or are simply too strong to be killed before they can alert their friends, but having a chance at stealthily eliminating targets is not only hugely helpful for survival but awfully fun as well—the only thing better than executing a well-planned attack is doing it in stealth so the enemy doesn't even have a chance to react. And ultimately there is a decent amount of variety in how you approach each fight. You'll eventually have five playable characters at your disposal (though you can only bring three into any fight) and each character has his or her own skill tree of mutations. This is essentially how you level up throughout the game. In addition to some passive bonuses like increased health or movement range, you can equip mutations that allow for special attacks in battle, such as stunning an enemy with a powerful charge or shooting twice in one turn. Some are almost comically unbalanced with how much more useful they are compared to others, but regardless, your selection of mutations is the perfect way to customize your play style, or even just adjust how you approach a specific fight. Are there a lot of robotic enemies on the map? Try using mutations that can stun robots with EMP attacks. One extra-powerful enemy giving you trouble? Try brainwashing him to make him fight for you for a few turns. Mutant Year Zero provides just enough variety to let you try new things or encourage a second playthrough without overwhelming you with options. The game isn't without its problems, though. For a game that encourages scavenging the battlefield, it can be a little tedious just how slowly your characters move. When you're sneaking around it makes sense to move slowly and carefully, but when the battle is over it would be nice if they could pick up the pace. Mutant Year Zero also suffers from some technical issues, which is particularly disappointing since the load times aren't exactly short either. I ran into a few problematic bugs while playing, including a battle where an enemy fell through the floor, meaning I wasn't able to shoot him and had to restart the whole fight. It's a shame these issues haven't been addressed as of this writing. Mutant Year Zero also takes a noticeable hit in the graphics department with this Switch port. The frame rate can be rather inconsistent, which doesn't inhibit the gameplay but is still bothersome. The quality of the resolution also takes a notable dive in handheld mode. It's too bad since there's clearly a cool aesthetic at work here, but it doesn't feel like it lives up to its maximum potential on the Switch. On the audio side of things, the music is solid—moody, atmospheric—and the voice acting is well done, but my one minor quibble is wishing I could fast-forward through dialogue at times just to speed up some cutscenes. The base game can last a good twelve hours or so, with a small amount of side quests and optional areas that you can tackle. As mentioned there is also plenty of replay value thanks to varied mutations or trying a higher level of difficulty (though normal is plenty challenging on its own). Additionally, since this is a Deluxe Edition, it also includes the Seed of Evil DLC, which adds an entire short campaign as well as another playable character. This edition also includes the Stalker Trials mode which gives you challenging fights and lets you compare your score to others online. The base campaign may only be a modest length but there is plenty of additional content and replay value here. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Deluxe Edition offers some excellent tactical-RPG gameplay wrapped up in a stylish post-apocalyptic world of mutants and mutations. Strategy fans will love the high challenges available here, though less experienced players should be warned the game doesn't pull any punches. Sadly Mutant Year Zero has some pervasive technical issues on the Switch, but if you're willing to overlook them you'll find a richly rewarding and addictive tactical-RPG. Rating: 8 out of 10 Mutants
  15. A balletic murderer teams up with a floating psychic banana—honestly sounds par for the course for publisher Devolver Digital. My Friend Pedro sets players on a path of acrobatic destruction as you gracefully leap, spin, and shoot your way through side-scrolling levels of bloody mayhem. The game's stylish combination of shooting and platforming has its rough spots, though. As the game begins, the player character wakes up with no recollection of what is happening, but a friendly banana (imaginary? Hallucinatory? It's unclear) tells you to start shooting people, so that's what you do. It's totally absurd, in a good way, and to the game's credit it doesn't try to be much more than that. The game never bogs down the player with lengthy explanations of what is happening. At most, each level begins with a few odd, funny comments from your friend Pedro the banana, and then it's time to get into the ballet of carnage. My Friend Pedro puts a distinctly acrobatic spin on the side-scrolling shooter genre. Each level has you careening through a stage, shooting down enemies while diving through the air, ricocheting bullets off of frying pans, and pirouetting to dodge enemy fire. The basic goal is to reach the end of the level, but more importantly you want to do it with style and earn a high score by maintaining a chain of kills. In concept, My Friend Pedro is a delightfully energetic and stylish side-scrolling shooter. The execution, however, leaves something to be desired. For a game that is fundamentally built around smooth, acrobatic movements, the controls are surprisingly awkward. Your movements are far from graceful when just leaping over a small obstacle feels clumsy, which is only exacerbated in the platforming-heavy sections of the game. For some reason the default control scheme also just doesn't feel quite comfortable—I felt my fingers tripping over themselves to smoothly fire, reload, dodge, and activate slow motion with any sense of fluidity. At the very least, My Friend Pedro carries a high difficulty curve when you first start out. The first few levels—in fact, really the whole first half of the game—might leave you feeling like you just can't get the hang of what the game clearly wants you to do. The good news though is that each level is quite short, so a bit of trial and error isn't too time-consuming. The bad news is that the game is fundamentally quite repetitive. There's some variety in the kinds of enemies and hazards thrown at you, but overall the levels blend together in a pretty repetitive pattern, so taking the time to replay each level to perfection will likely only appeal to the most dedicated players. Though at least you can show off your skills with the online leaderboard. The game's presentation can be fairly repetitive as well, unfortunately. Your simple yellow outfit does have a nice way of popping against the more drab, industrial scenery, but after several levels of just that, the visuals can feel bland. Aside from one brief section in the middle of the game, My Friend Pedro surprisingly doesn't play up its surreal aspects. The music is in a similar mixed-bag position. The soundtrack, on it's own, has some great energetic tunes, but while you're playing it's hard to pay attention to any of it over the constant sound of gunfire. My Friend Pedro puts a stylish spin on side-scrolling shooters, but the result may only appeal to the most dedicated high-score-chasing players. Considering the short length of the game it's a shame how long it takes for the controls to feel comfortable, and even once you've got the basics down the challenge of actually earning a decent score might dissuade most players. My Friend Pedro is a unique experience, but ultimately a little too niche. Rating: 7 out of 10 Bananas
  16. Why is it that Dragon Quest has never reached quite the same popularity in the West as it has in Japan? For over thirty years the franchise has been a titan in the gaming industry, though the vast majority of that influence and importance comes from Japanese sales. Perhaps it's because the series has never been one to stray too far from its classic RPG roots. The mainline games have always had a unifying similarity, one that harkens back to more text-based RPG adventures. Like its predecessors, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age doesn't try to reinvent itself, instead relying on familiar design elements and classic gameplay. And the result is one of the best experiences you can have on the Switch. In XI S you play as the Luminary, a hero marked from birth, destined to defeat the Dark One and save the world. Upon setting out on your adventure you encounter all manner of hardship as every town you visit seems to be suffering from some problem that you'll need to help fix, and of course you'll find plenty of allies on the journey as well. The story in XI S doesn't try to be anything too fancy, and it really doesn't need to. Even across the long play time of the game the adventure never really flags thanks to the wide assortment of side characters you meet and help. More importantly, you can't help but be charmed by the playable characters. The main hero might be a typical silent protagonist, but getting to know the other characters and helping them on their personal journeys more than makes up for a few clichés along the way. XI S is all about classic DQ action. Familiar weapon/item names, memorable monster designs from over the years, and classic turn-based battles make the gameplay instantly familiar to anyone that has played a DQ title before. There are a few minor new frills, such as the pep system that gives a character a temporary power boost and access to special combo abilities with teammates currently in the battle. For the most part though, XI S follows the formula set by past games in the series, and it works beautifully. It may not be particularly new, but there's something to be said for just doing the classic formula so well. This is quintessential RPG action, and fans of the genre will love seeing the familiar mechanics at play in a game that is so vast and engaging. Because even if the basic gameplay feels standard, it is no less enthralling than any other modern RPG. XI S pulls you into the adventure with not just charming characters but a richly customizable combat experience that allows you to customize your characters' skills as they level up. Every character has an elaborate skill tree that allows you to build them as you like. Each character can use a couple of different weapons, but in the interest of using your skill points wisely you'll probably focus on one weapon for each character so you can reach the highest skills. It's a simple bit of customization but highly addictive, especially when you see a particularly powerful skill just out of reach, pushing you to level grind a little. And don't worry, you can easily reset you skill points at any save point/priest, so the game doesn't punish you for experimenting a little before finding the ideal set-up. It also helps that, on the game's standard difficulty setting, XI S is never very challenging. That doesn't mean you can totally drop your guard while playing, but this isn't the kind of RPG that requires heavy level grinding or sticking to one specific strategy to overcome bosses. You're pretty free to cook up whatever party composition or strategy you want, even swapping characters in battle at will. The overarching format of the game is classic linear RPG, but it has none of the rigidity that characterizes those games—you even recover all HP and MP every time you level up! Ultimately it feels like the best of both worlds. One final note on the game's customization options and ease of difficulty: early in the adventure you pick up an item called the Fun-Sized Forge, which allows you to craft weapons and armor with materials collected from monsters or found while exploring. Unlike games with similar crafting mechanics, this one is incredibly convenient and easy to use. For one thing, you can use the forge anywhere. Whether you're at a campsite or standing in the middle of a monster-infested dungeon, you can whip out the forge and craft new equipment, which is almost ridiculously convenient. You're also able to re-forge almost any of the equipment you already have, so even if you find a better sword than the one you've crafted previously, you can still spruce it up a little. Finally, if you're missing an ingredient you can purchase it right there in the forging menu—no need to find the right merchant who carries that specific item. Some materials can't be bought like this—generally the most rare materials in the game—but still, it's incredibly handy, especially since spending some gold on materials is pretty much always cheaper than buying new equipment outright. The forging process is also a mini-game where you try to temper the item to just the right quality which is actually pretty fun. And, perhaps not surprisingly, there's very little penalty for failing—you still get the item and can just re-forge it to try again. The Fun-Sized Forge is perhaps the best encapsulation of the game's sense of difficulty: incredibly lenient on the player, yet still charming and engaging. And it's particularly impressive that XI S maintains that charm and engagement throughout the entirety of its length. At minimum you can expect around sixty hours of play time out of this game, not to mention the various side quests you can tackle, including the Tickington quests that allow you to revisit the previous ten DQ games, which is a particularly fun feature for fans of the series that can recognize the key characters and locations of past adventures. On top of all of this, XI S also has a fairly extensive post-game with additional tasks for your party to accomplish. Suffice it to say you're getting your money's worth with this one. Another aspect of DQ that has never wavered over the years is the delightful artwork of Akira Toriyama. His style is so distinctly recognizable: it's always bright, colorful, and elegantly simple—even the monster designs have a goofy charm to them, notably the iconic Slime mascot. The recognizable artwork helps drive home the sense of DQ as an enduring, familiar pillar of gaming, a dependable friend for hours of classic RPG fun. And Toriyama's art style manages to stay just as charming with 3D character designs, though one of the coolest features in XI S is the ability to swap to 2D graphics, in case you want to really capture that classic RPG vibe. The best part is that every aspect of the game has a more traditional style as well while in 2D mode, e.g. battles play out more like old school RPGs where you select every character's action first then they play out depending on each character's speed. However, swapping between 3D and 2D can be a little inconvenient since you have to start from the beginning of a chapter/checkpoint, which means that if you decide to swap while in the middle of a chapter you'll lose all of your progress up to that point. It would have been great to be able to swap without that restriction in place. Like the visuals, the music also has plenty of familiar beats to it—longtime fans will no doubt feel a swell of nostalgia when the series fanfare first kicks in. There are plenty of great songs to enjoy in XI S, and like swapping between 3D and 2D you have two options at play. The original game was released with MIDI audio, which is one option here, or you can opt for the full orchestral arrangement for every song in the game, which is simply fantastic. This version of the game is also fully voiced, which adds a fun layer of personality to all of the silly dialogue found throughout the adventure. Plus you're able to choose between English and Japanese voices if you're the type to stick to the original audio as closely as possible. Dragon Quest has never been as flashy as other RPGs, but at this point I doubt fans would have it any other way. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age has the same sense of heartwarming charm, classic battle system, and sprawling amount of content as past games, making it an old school RPG fan's dream. There's something to be said for taking a classic formula and executing it so perfectly, and that's really the best description of Dragon Quest XI S that there is. It may not have wild surprises for longtime RPG or Dragon Quest aficionados, but it's hard to worry about that while enjoying a sprawling, beautifully designed adventure. Rating: 9 out of 10 Slimes
  17. Microsoft's unprecedented partnership with Nintendo recently has given Nintendo fans access to some outstanding games, not least of which is the 2017 critical and commercial darling, Cuphead. With classic run and gun gameplay, punishingly difficult boss fights, and a visual style inspired by 1930s cartoons, Cuphead is easily one of the most uniquely charming, challenging, and creative games released in the last few years. The game's opening cutscene sets the stage: Cuphead and his brother Mugman were on a hot win streak at the Devil's Casino, until the Devil offered them one last roll of the dice. Win, and they'd walk out with all of the Devil's riches in tow. Lose, and they'd sign over their souls. Of course, there's no beating the Devil at a game of chance, but the brothers manage to stave off damnation for at least a little longer by agreeing to help the Devil collect souls from debtors that haven't given the Devil his due. From there the game is mostly one boss fight after another as you battle all manner of creatures to bring their souls to the big man downstairs. It's not a complex plot, but Cuphead's aesthetics are more than capable of bringing tons of charm and personality to these characters. In classic cartoon fashion, the development of events or characters isn't the focus, it's just the fun of watching these characters face all manner of challenges and obstacles. And oh boy are there obstacles in Cuphead. The game's unrelenting difficulty is well known at this point, but players may not know that the game is essentially a series of boss fights. In fact, Cuphead kind of follows an inverse pattern as most games: each island of the game includes just two standard run-and-gun levels (i.e., reach the exit) but includes several boss fights. It's an interesting approach, one that puts more emphasis on the big, showy boss fights and highlights the gorgeous animation. Though still, it would've been great to see a few more run-and-gun levels, if only to give a little break from the demanding boss battles. This is the kind of game that has little patience for mistakes. Cuphead has only three hit points and no means of recovering mid-battle, so just a few mistakes will see you flung back to the beginning of the fight. At times the screen fills with enemy attacks being hurled at you, bullet-hell-shooter style, and it's all you can do to weave through the hazards and keep shooting at the boss. What makes Cuphead work so well though is that, while it is incredibly difficult, it never feels tedious or unfair. Like a lot of super-difficult games, the key here is learning bosses' attack patterns to know when you have an opportunity to attack and when you need to be a little more defensive. The only way to learn that is trial and error, but since boss fights are generally only a couple of minutes long the penalty for retrying is never too harsh. You'll definitely be white-knuckled throughout the battle, but failure only elicits a determined "one more try," never frustration. It also helps that Cuphead's controls are sharp, responsive, and pretty easy to grasp. The only slightly tricky bit is learning how to parry effectively, but since parrying not only helps you charge your special attack meter but helps you avoid damage, it's the kind of thing you'll quickly devote time to mastering. Plus you're able to customize Cuphead's abilities slightly to help you adjust your strategy for each boss. Maybe you're having trouble finding good openings for attacks, so instead of Cuphead's basic peashooter you use a homing weapon so you can just hold down the attack button and instead focus on dodging. Every weapon and ability is well balanced, so it's up to you to find what combination works best in any given situation. Trying out different weapon combinations can be a good way of extending the length of the game too, since Cuphead isn't a very long game. Granted, you'll likely spend a lot of time dying and retrying against each and every boss, but even so, there aren't hundreds of boss fights, so replaying them with different weapon set-ups can add a nice bit of replay value. You're also given a grade on your performance for every level/boss fight, and earning high marks is no easy task—oftentimes just finishing the fight is difficult enough, much less finishing with full health and in record time. Completionists and perfectionists should enjoy the extra challenge of earning top grades throughout the adventure. And of course, you can always bring a friend along for the ride in local co-op to watch each other's backs, or just commiserate on how difficult the dragon boss is. I'm not sure I can overstate just how perfectly Cuphead captures the look and sound of 1930s animation. It's truly stunning in motion—even the few gifs in this review can't fully capture the charm that exudes from every moment with the game. The developers nailed the hand-drawn animation look, even down to the scratchy or blurry imperfections of classic animation, and the result is one of the most unique and gorgeous games to be released in the past several years. And, rather importantly for a game that relies so much on precise gameplay, the frame rate and controls are perfectly responsive, so no gameplay quality is lost for the sake of these delightful visuals. Cuphead's music is every bit as incredible as its visuals thanks to a fantastic big-band jazz soundtrack that is, again, just the perfect combination of classic 1930s vibes. It's exactly the kind of fast, frenetic music you'd expect from an intense side-scrolling shooter. In fact, it'd be well worth the time to just watch someone else play the game so you can drink in the music and visuals without panicking about dodging an onslaught of attacks. Cuphead's enormous success probably speaks for itself, but in case you needed another voice to vouch for it: Cuphead is an utterly brilliant piece of gaming. From its charming visuals and audio to its challenging but addictive gameplay, this is a gem of a game, one that, granted, may not appeal to everyone thanks to its focus on difficult boss fights, but one that is undeniably magnetic. That Switch owners have a chance to play it is a real treat, and provides the perfect opportunity to hone your skills before the Delicious Last Course DLC comes out in 2020. Rating: 9 out of 10 Cups
  18. Originally released to widespread acclaim on the PS4 and PC back in 2017, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice seems like an awfully unlikely candidate for a Switch port. For one thing, its dark subject matter—including a realistic portrayal of psychosis—doesn't quite seem on-brand for Nintendo, though to be fair the big N has branched out on its genre focus quite a lot over the last few years. Perhaps more importantly though, Hellblade is a bit of a technical marvel, boasting detailed motion-captured animation and a unique audio style to truly make the experience immersive. The Switch may not be up to par with other systems on a hardware tech scale, but the good news is a few cut corners doesn't diminish the impact of Hellblade. You play as Senua, a Pict warrior in the 8th century who has traveled to the gates of Helheim (Norse realm of the dead) to recover the soul of her dead lover Dillion. It is, not surprisingly, a creepy, eerie journey. The first moments of the game waste no time in establishing a horrific scene of impaled bodies in a desolate landscape as you slowly progress further and further into the foreboding area. Senua also suffers from psychosis, causing her to hear and see things that aren't there, though in her 8th century mindset she takes this to mean she's been cursed by the gods. Like most horror games you really have to give yourself over to the setting and allow yourself to be immersed in it, and once you do Hellblade is an incredibly tense and unsettling experience. The psychosis elements are handled fantastically. Throughout the game you're constantly hearing whispering voices (what Senua believes to be the Furies) who comment on your actions and nudge you on. They'll even provide hints as to what to do next, but just as often their mix of voices is contradictory and confusing, which is perfect for putting you in the mindset of someone who isn't able to trust her own thoughts. The game also features binaural audio, which makes the voices seem to come from 3D space around you. You can sort of get the feeling of being surrounded by voices just with your TV's speakers, but for the full effect the game recommends headphones, and it truly takes the eerie immersion of the game to another level. As seen in the game's making-of documentary, the developers took great care in how Senua's psychosis is presented, and not only is it highly accurate of real-world conditions, but it makes for incredible, unnerving gameplay, and truly unique to Hellblade. The story is presented in a slow, methodical, and measured way, so it makes sense that the gameplay reflects this approach as well. Aside from light exploration (the game is fairly linear) the action of Hellblade mostly comes down to solving simple puzzles in order to progress, punctuated by occasional combat scenarios that have you fighting off wraith-like warriors. The puzzles in the game mainly involve just looking around the environment to find specific runes to unlock a door. These runes are hidden in the scenery—i.e. a pair of crossed branches might make a "t" rune—and all you're really doing is walking around to find the right spot to see these runes. Sometimes there are some variations thrown in, such as when you're being pursued by a nameless monster so you have to move quickly, but for the most part the puzzle solving in Hellblade can feel a little basic. On the other hand, slowly scouring the environment while the voices whisper in your ear does make for great ambiance. Combat is a little more engaging, though it has minor drawbacks as well. Combat only triggers in specific battle arenas—you'll start to recognize the open, circular area pretty quickly—and is based around smooth but intense sword fights. Senua is plenty agile so you aren't limited by slow, weighty attacks. Instead battles tend to be fierce and a little frantic with a small selection of simple but satisfying combos. These make the combat fast, fluid, and precise—smoothly dodging around massive enemies and executing a quick sword combo is wonderfully satisfying in Hellblade. Defense is also vital though as just a hit or two from an enemy can knock Senua off balance, which can be especially dangerous when there is more than one enemy on the field. Senua's attacks are really made for one-on-one fights, so getting surrounded adds a great sense of tension. Most importantly, there's a phantom sword hanging over your head as you play since, if you die too many times, Senua might succumb to the curse of Helheim and it'll be permanent game over. Hellblade hardly needed another reason to make the game feel tense and a little harrowing, but this adds just the right degree of stress to the adventure. The only downside to the combat is that it can get a little repetitive. There are a handful of different enemy types and as satisfying as it is to cut down one deadly wraith after another, battles can feel pretty samey after a few hours. Something to keep the combat feeling fresh throughout the entire game would have been nice. And speaking of the game's length, Hellblade clocks in at a respectable seven or eight hours. That may sound a little on the short side but the game doesn't feel too short or too long while you're playing—it does a great job of making the most of the time it has. There also aren't any real side quests to speak of (though there are optional rune stones that add to the game's Norse mythology lore) but then again wandering around on a side quest wouldn't suit the rich atmosphere that Hellblade establishes. And the game's presentation does a phenomenal job of creating a grim, vividly unsettling environment alongside an impressively animated Senua. Sure the Switch version of the game is less powerful—there are some noticeably fuzzy/muddy textures at times and unmistakable pop-in—but the game's aesthetic is still wonderfully atmospheric. Senua herself is impressively expressive thanks to the extensive motion capture animation the developers used. Her facial expressions and movements may be a bit exaggerated at times, but the emotions conveyed, both subtle and overt, are fantastic. And of course, as already mentioned, the voice work is the real icing on the cake for making Hellblade such an immersive and unsettling game. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a singular video game experience. Arguably its weakest parts are its core gameplay mechanics—combat that is satisfying but somewhat repetitive, and puzzle solving that is fairly basic and limited by the size of the game's environments—but the overall experience of getting into Senua's head and following her journey is brilliantly immersive and unique. Gaming, as a medium, rarely gets to take a chance on more unusual areas of design and theme, and even more rarely is that chance executed as well as Hellblade. Rating: 9 out of 10 Sacrifices
  19. Originally released in 1993 as the first Zelda game on a handheld, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening had some big shoes to fill. Just two years prior A Link to the Past was released on the SNES and brought some significant upgrades to Zelda's adventure formula, and now Link's Awakening tried to recreate that magic on the Game Boy's modest hardware while still establishing its own distinct sense of style. As most Zelda fans will attest to, the game was a complete success in that regard. Link's Awakening has stood the test of time as one of Link's most charming adventures, and this Switch remake has perfectly retained all of that personality while adding some invaluable quality of life changes. The adventure begins with Link's simple boat being destroyed in a storm, and the hero washes up on Koholint Island where he is quickly taken in by the kind-hearted girl Marin. From there Link's quest is to explore the island to uncover its secrets and find a way back to his original journey. This game may take place entirely on an island but that doesn't diminish the sense of adventure and exploration that the Zelda franchise is known for. More importantly, Koholint is just a delightful place to explore. Marin and the rest of the residents of Mabe Village are adorable, and the quiet charm that pervades the game is only improved by the Switch remake's updated visuals. There may not be a ton of text or dialogue in the game, but Link's Awakening does a great job of endearing you to the island's humble inhabitants, making Link's quest of departure all the more bittersweet. For anyone not familiar with Link's Awakening, the gameplay is pretty classic Zelda: explore the island to find dungeons, complete dungeons to earn new items, use items to explore Koholint further. It's an immensely satisfying gameplay loop and one that Link's Awakening does particularly well thanks to the relatively small size of Koholint. It's big enough that there are a lot of corners to poke around in and secrets to uncover, but small enough that it feels quite manageable and it's not too difficult to keep the map in your mind and remember what points of interest to return to. That makes this game particularly addictive and so easy to just lose yourself in. The Switch remake takes things one step further with a handy map system that allows you put down markers to remind yourself to come back later when you have more items at your disposal. Like other recent Zelda games this is a fantastic way of helping the player keep track of things without making it too easy. Arguably the most valuable addition to this version of the game though is simply having a controller with more than two buttons. The original Game Boy version required pretty frequent swapping of items—including Link's sword and shield—which was, granted, simply a limitation of the Game Boy's hardware, but could also really bog down the experience. Now, however, the sword, shield, pegasus boots, and power bracelet are permanently equipped, which is a huge boost to the game's sense of flow. Anyone that played the original will be delighted by this seemingly simple but invaluable change. The game features a handful of other minor improvements and touches, all of which add up to making Link's Awakening feel like a much smoother, modern adventure. None of this betrays the original game's sense of charm, nor the relatively low sense of difficulty—that's not a bad thing, as Link's Awakening is still an eminently enjoyable adventure, just don't expect anything too complex or challenging. The Switch remake has also boosted the length of the game a bit by adding more collectibles, such as heart pieces and secret seashells. Some of the shells can be tricky to find, but any excuse to spend more time on Koholint Island feels worthwhile. The other big addition to this new edition of Link's Awakening is Dampe the gravedigger and his Chamber Dungeon creator. Taking a page from Super Mario Maker, this feature allows players to make their own Zelda dungeons using pre-made rooms and arranging them in a tile grid. The rooms are taken from the dungeons you've already completed, so there's never anything too surprising at hand, but being able to rearrange these rooms as you see fit is a fun side venture. Sadly there isn't nearly as much creative freedom as Super Mario Maker, but given the fact that Zelda game design is far more complicated than a side-scrolling platformer, it makes sense that the game would have some limits on what you can do, and of course the game warns you if you've built too many locked doors with not enough treasure chests to hold keys. Chamber Dungeons aren't likely to hold your attention for too long compared to the main game, but they're still a neat addition to the world of Zelda, and may hopefully lead to a more robust system in the future. The visuals of Link's Awakening are almost entirely too adorable. Obviously a modern Switch game is a significant upgrade over the monochrome Game Boy original, and the toy box aesthetic is put to great use as every inch of Koholint is just utterly charming. Link's Awakening is already filled with some pretty cute critters (as well as transplants from the world of Mario) and this art style just makes them cuter. Link, Marin, and the rest of the cast are surprisingly expressive as well, which really layers on the adorable charm of the game. The technical side of things does leave something to be desired, though. There are noticeable frame rate drops when there is a lot happening on screen, i.e. parts of the overworld that are well populated by monsters, or when you transition from one area to another (there aren't strict screen breaks but the frame rate drop creates a sort of pseudo one). Did these frame rate issues ever inhibit my gameplay? No. But they're still bothersome to see, especially in a beloved core Nintendo franchise. For a game about collecting musical instruments, it's no surprise that Link's Awakening has a pretty phenomenal soundtrack. The original game's music has stood the test of time well—even the Game Boy's basic chiptune audio couldn't diminish the catchy melodies throughout the game. And like the visual design, the new audio style is just delightful. It's bright and cheery, perfect for the overall tone of Link's Awakening, and does a great job of remixing songs to feel both fresh and familiar. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remains one of Link's most enjoyable adventures, and the adjustments made to this Switch version only improve the experience. Aside from the persistent but minor frame rate hiccups, this remake does a fantastic job of adding valuable modern touches while preserving the original gameplay and spirit of the Game Boy title, while the Chamber Dungeon feature provides a novel side adventure, one that may well see further expansion in future Zelda titles. In a franchise filled with one incredible game after another, Link's Awakening continues to shine as a uniquely heartfelt and accessible entry, one that no Zelda fan can miss. Rating: 9 out of 10 Secret Seashells
  20. With the release of Anthill on the Switch, Image & Form has nearly completed their invasion of Nintendo's hybrid console—only SteamWorld Tower Defense is not available on the Switch! But back to Anthill: this trail-blazing insect adventure, now published under the Thunderful banner, was originally released for smartphones back in 2011. As you might expect, the gameplay is based around touch screen controls, which is why Anthill on the Switch is playable only in handheld mode. Don't worry though: the touch controls and simple, addictive nature of the game make Anthill a delightful handheld experience. You play as a colony of ants with a simple goal in each level: defend the hill from enemy insects, gather food, and increase the size of the colony. There is some charmingly goofy dialogue at the beginning of most levels but otherwise there's no storytelling focus in Anthill. What makes the game unique though is its twist on traditional tower defense mechanics. Instead of placing stationary defenses around your hill you actually draw pheromone paths for your ants to follow (hence the touch controls). You can draw any number of pheromone trails, but each trail corresponds to only one type of ant. Basing the gameplay around these paths may not sound like a significant difference at first but it offers a fresh, challenging perspective on real-time strategy. For example, a large boss bug may be scuttling his way toward your hill, so you draw a path for your soldier ants to attack it. It'll take time for the soldiers to actually walk that path though, so some basic preemptive defenses are a good idea, such as spitter ants that can attack from a distance. Your hill may be attacked from any angle, so you have to be prepared on all fronts while still ensuring your worker ants are collecting food to produce more ants. Drawing on the touch screen ensures speed and a decent amount of precision, and thankfully the ants are smart enough to go a little off the trail if there's something they need to pick up or attack nearby. There are only four types of ants at your disposal (the last type is bomber ants that can be sent to a specific part of the map with a tap on the screen) so the gameplay doesn't get too complicated, but there's still enough depth to keep you fully engaged as your colony grows. And like many tower defense games, Anthill can be wonderfully addictive. With real-time strategy gameplay there's never a moment to rest on your laurels, so you'll constantly be scanning the battlefield for places to shore up your defenses or opportunities to collect more food from defeated bugs. Some levels throw curve balls at you, such as limiting the number of ants you can deploy, and there's a decent amount of variety in the types of enemy bugs, including spitters and bombers of their own. Your attention can't help but be glued to the game, and then once you've got the basics down and know how to protect your hill while still collecting food, you'll start to become addicted to getting a high score on each level. Just finishing a level may not be too difficult, but earning a high score is a definite challenge by the second half of the game, and there's nothing more satisfying than seeing your horde of ants efficiently rack up points. You're also awarded stars based upon your score in each level, and stars can be used to permanently upgrade your ants, so there's a real incentive to earn top marks. This Switch version of Anthill includes all of the DLC levels that were added to the original game over time, which adds up to a decent sized game. It'll take several hours just to play through every level, but earning a high score on each will bump up your play time even further. Anthill also includes a few endless mode levels that let you flex your colony management skills and keep playing until your hill is overwhelmed, which can be a great way to just zone out and enjoy an afternoon. The only downside to the game's replay value is that it tracks how many stars you earn on each level but not your numerical score, which would have been even better for seeing how well you've perfected your strategy on each replay of a level. The visuals in Anthill aren't anywhere near as elaborate or eye-catching as Image & Form's more recent games, but they're cute for what they are. Aside from the few character designs that pop up when ants are talking, the majority of the game's graphics are utilitarian since you need to be able to take in any changes on the map at a glance and see what kinds of bugs are approaching. In that regard the graphics do a fine job, and since you can only play in handheld mode anyway there's little need for anything more elaborate. The soundtrack has been updated from the original smartphone release and sounds great—it's just the right amount of catchy rhythms that keep you in the zone while playing without distracting from any of the strategy gameplay happening on the screen. Anthill offers a fresh, fun take on the tower defense formula in a compact, handheld package. The restriction to handheld mode might disappoint anyone that strictly plays with the Switch docked, but the benefits of touch controls are simply too useful in this trail-drawing game. More importantly, the game's simple concept yet addictive nature ensures you'll be glued to the screen no matter what, whether you're tackling endless mode challenges or are just trying to earn a high score on every level. Rating: 8 out of 10 Ants Review copy provided by publisher Anthill will be available on the Switch eShop on October 24 for $9.99.
  21. Game Freak continues to branch out from its familiar Pokémon territory with a brand new RPG, Little Town Hero. Rather than catching monsters here you're fighting them, but instead of traditional battle mechanics Little Town Hero uses a unique system that relies heavily on strategy and coping with enemy attacks—as well as coping with luck of the draw. It's a quirky battle system, and one that proves plenty addictive for anyone that enjoys the challenge of crunching numbers and planning out actions thoughtfully. You play as Axe, a young boy who lives in an isolated village and dreams of being able to set out and see the world. His dreams for adventure suddenly become a reality though when a terrible monster appears in town and Axe steps up to defend his home. Soon Axe and his friends are pulled into the mystery of where the monsters are coming from, and how to stop them. As far as the writing is concerned, Game Freak doesn't stray too far from its Pokémon roots—Axe even has a rival friend who is constantly trying to prove himself against Axe in battle. The characters are cute but fairly simple as well, with plenty of saccharine messaging poured over the story. It's adorable and charming for what it is, but don't expect anything too deep. The title of the game certainly isn't a misdirect—the game takes place entirely within a small town with fairly limited opportunities to explore. You do get a chance to walk around and take on side quests, but Little Town Hero really condenses the RPG formula into a fairly narrow adventure. Not that this is entirely a bad thing—there may not be the traditional world exploration, but as a relatively short RPG Little Town Hero still has plenty of charm and depth. Even more than most RPGs, Little Town Hero is all about its battle system, mostly because it's a unique, richly strategic, and fairly complicated system that draws inspiration from card-based battle systems. During battle Axe is able to attack by pulling ideas from his head. Each turn you draw up to five ideas (called Izzits) from your headspace and hold them in your "hand." Then you need to activate an Izzit to turn it into a Dazzit, which can then be used to attack your opponent. Activating Izzits costs power points, so you need to think carefully about which Izzits you want to activate on a given turn. Once you have your Dazzits, you use them against the opponent's Dazzit, and the two ideas clash. Each idea has an attack value and a defense value: the attack value damages the defense, and if the defense reaches zero the Dazzit breaks. If you break all of your opponent's Dazzits in one turn you get the opportunity for a chance attack which attacks the opponent's HP directly. If this sounds at all confusing don't worry, the game provides a pretty detailed tutorial to walk you through these concepts. It may seem overwhelming at first but once you have a bit of practice with it Little Town Hero's battle system is pretty engaging. The core concept of it comes down to leveraging your Dazzits well so that you can break your opponent's Dazzits while protecting your own, so there's a rich sense of strategy at play here. Which Dazzits are you willing to sacrifice in order to break your enemy's? Which ones will you try to save for a more opportune time? You have to examine the situation in front of you and make strategic decisions, which can be challenging but is also extremely satisfying when things work out. Dazzits can also have special properties, such as gaining temporary boosts to attack or defense or even temporary invincibility when initially activated, so you really want to think carefully about which Dazzits to use up quickly and which to save. Like a card-based game, broken Dazzits are discarded until you "reshuffle" your ideas (either by taking damage or using special action points to refresh your ideas) so you have to keep in mind what Dazzits are still available to you, because your opponents never actually run out. Finally, at the end of each turn, you move around the field of battle in a board game-like map, where different spaces can have different special effects, such as allies you can call upon for assistance. It's another detail to remember but invaluable as these special effects and assists are often massively beneficial. With all of these little details you'll need to keep in mind while fighting, battles can be extremely slow, especially when you don't draw the Izzits you want and it feels like you have to spend a couple of turns just marking time. But Little Town Hero focuses on a relatively small number of battles that are more complex and involved—there are some short skirmish-type battles as well but the main story-related fights are generally pretty long. The game is meant to be a little slow, which affords you plenty of time to think about your next move. The downside is that some of these battles can be exhausting, especially when you aren't prepared for certain bosses' special abilities. It can be a little too easy for the tide of battle to kind of spiral out of your control, to your disadvantage, which is pretty discouraging. Thankfully restarting the battle isn't hard, but it can feel like wasted time. Occasionally the game gives you the opportunity to test out your strategy skills in short battles or even puzzle scenarios, such as breaking all of an enemy's Dazzits with only a couple specific Dazzits of your own. These puzzles are actually a ton of fun and I would have loved to see even more of them. As is, Little Town Hero is a little light on side quests and side content. It's still definitely worth pursuing every side quest you can though since they often reward you with Eureka points which can be used to level up your Izzits (somewhat surprisingly, you never collect new Izzits, you just level up the ones you have). And even if you do pursue just about all of the content that Little Town Hero has to offer, it's not too long of a game. Something around 15 to 20 hours will see you through the whole adventure, even if you take the time to tackle side quests. To match the cute, simple story Little Town Hero sports cute, simple graphics. The visuals are bright and colorful, especially among the human characters (though the recycled models for townsfolk is a little hilarious considering the tiny size of the town). The monsters designs are pretty great as well—they're massive and imaginative, and definitely give you something fun to watch during these long battles. The only problem with the game's presentation is that there isn't more of it. As mentioned the game takes place in a single town and there aren't that many monsters in the game, so there's not too much variety in the visual design. It would've been great to see an even wider assortment of monsters. The music is a lot of fun though, even if it can be similarly repetitive. But composer Toby Fox does an excellent job of giving the game a fun, engaging audio identity. Little Town Hero shows off some great ideas with its in-depth battle system that rewards careful strategic thinking. Occasionally the gameplay can feel like it gets mired in its own concept, but for the most part the challenge of keeping one step ahead of your opponent and adjusting to whatever Izzits you draw on each turn keeps the action engaging. A bit more variety in just about every aspect of the adventure would have done wonders for making the game feel more rich and energetic, but as it is Little Town Hero is a charming little adventure with a deceptively deep yet satisfying battle system. Rating: 8 out of 10 Dazzits Review copy provided by publisher Little Town Hero is available now on the Switch eShop for $24.99.
  22. Despite a twenty year legacy, I had somehow managed to go all these years without ever having played a Spryo game. Granted, the original trilogy was on the PlayStation and at the time I was strictly a Nintendo man, but it's still curious, looking back on it, that I never got around to trying any of Spyro's adventures that did land on Nintendo systems. Perhaps its fitting then that my first introduction to the purple dragon's platforming adventures is with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, a remastering of the three original Spyro games that appeared on the PlayStation between 1998 and 2000. This makes for a great opportunity to see where Spyro's adventures began, though this remastering would have benefited from a more thorough remake of some finicky old-school platforming issues. The first three games in the franchise are available in this trilogy with no other bells or whistles attached—no extra features such as development art or a music jukebox are included—so let's jump right into the first game, Spyro the Dragon. What's immediately evident is that Spyro has a charming simplicity that still allows for a decent amount of gameplay content. Spyro really only has a few moves, and in the first game doesn't learn any extra abilities, so right out of the gate you have access to his entire repertoire and are able to play around with charging, gliding through the air, and breathing fire. It's not the most robust array of actions but overcoming obstacles with this basic set of skills has an easy-going appeal to it. Spyro's objective is to free his fellow dragons that have been turned to stone statues by the evil Gnasty Gnorc, and with that end goal in mind the game has a breezy pace thanks to its wide-open environments and somewhat non-linear progression. There are six hub worlds in the game and each hub contains a handful of levels (plus a boss fight) which simply task you with exploring 3D environments to find however many dragons each level contains. It is undeniably repetitive, though there is admittedly a kind of mindless charm to the gameplay—this is the kind of game where you can zone out and just enjoy the quest set before you. That's not to say the experience is perfect, though. Unfortunately, like many remastered games, the developers were perhaps a little too wary of changing anything about the beloved original, and the result is that the controls and camera can feel terribly dated. Spyro's movements can be pretty stiff, particularly when charging. What was most likely a limitation of tech twenty years ago just feels like sloppy game design today. More problematic though is the camera. Simply put, the camera never feels comfortable. For one thing, it's just a little too close to Spyro, making it hard to see what is around him, directly to the side and behind. With the somewhat stiff controls, this can lead to some needlessly clumsy enemy encounters. Secondly, the camera controls are an awkward mix of auto-correcting and free movement, and somehow the game ends up getting the worst of both. The game tries to auto-correct the camera's placement at times and the result is downright disorienting—in an age where every controller comes with two control sticks, this kind of camera movement is just plain unnecessary. But even when you do try to adjust the camera with the right stick, the movement feels slow and imprecise, which is particularly frustrating when you're trying to hit a fast enemy. Even by the end of the game you never quite shake off the feeling of fighting the camera controls to work smoothly. And finally, the frame rate chugs a bit at times, which is especially annoying given the long loading times for, well, just about everything in the game. Entering a level, exiting, even dying and respawning—everything seems to take twice as long to load as it should, which kind of eats away at the game's charm. Overall though, Spyro the Dragon has a simple appeal as a collect-a-thon 3D platformer from the heyday of the genre. The second game in the trilogy, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, ups the ante with a few tweaks to the gameplay formula, though fundamentally this is still very much the same gameplay experience. This time Spyro has been transported to the world of Avalar by a group desperate for his help in fighting Ripto, a diminutive warlock tyrant. In terms of gameplay, this plays out very similarly to the first game: within three hub worlds there are multiple levels where you'll need to collect orbs in order to progress. This time however they're not quite as easy to find, which makes the gameplay a little more involved and interesting. On the flip side, it can also make it more tedious, as some of the side quests or mini-games you need to play through are inventive but frustrating thanks to awkward control mechanics. The variety is nice, but a little more polish would have been even better. And unfortunately, the controls and camera issues from the first game are present here as well, which makes for a particularly horrendous boss fight mid-way through the game. But overall, Spyro 2 adds some welcome personality to the franchise, thanks to a wide variety of side characters—as well as cutscenes to make the adventure feel more alive and not just a checklist of collectibles—as well as new abilities for Spyro which help shake up the gameplay a tiny bit. Even if it doesn't fix all of the original's problems, Spyro 2 is a solid sequel. The third game, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, is a bit less of a leap in gameplay design but still adds enough new touches to keep the action feeling engaging. Now Spyro is tasked with recovering the dragon eggs that were stolen by an evil Sorceress—yeah it's pretty much the exact same collect-a-thon set-up once again. Sadly this game doesn't fix the camera issues either, but the problems feel less egregious this time—or maybe by the third game I was just used to dealing with spotty camera controls. What Year of the Dragon does add are entirely new characters to play as, limited to specific levels or small sections of levels. Like Spyro 2's addition of mini-game challenges this is a welcome chance to shake up the gameplay a bit, though these side characters are somewhat underwhelming—not bad, but not particularly exciting to play as either. And of course this game features even more mini-games and side pursuits for collecting dragon eggs, including a hilariously 90s skateboarding challenge. All three games sport updated graphics which, aside from the aforementioned occasional frame rate stutters, are lovely. The visuals are bright, colorful, and cartoonish, perfect for the late 90s mascot design of Spyro. The music isn't half bad either, though I'd recommend turning up the volume a bit to properly hear it. Whether you're an old fan or a new player like me, Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a charming return to late 90s platforming, despite some unfortunate wrinkles that haven't aged well. The developers have sadly fallen into the same trap that plagues many remastered games by retaining everything about the original game, both the good and the bad, which leads to some camera work that is spotty at best and downright frustrating at worst. Still, if you're able to cope with the camera and load times then Spyro Reignited Trilogy offers a solid selection of classic 3D collect-a-thon gameplay. Rating: 7 out of 10 Dragon Eggs
  23. Yomawari: The Long Night Collection brings together two creepy horror games in the tradition of Japanese ghost stories. Both games feature young girls that must navigate towns full of dangerous spirits, armed with little more than a flashlight and an ability to run and hide. Despite a promising grasp of horror game conventions and eerie Japanese ghost designs, neither game ever truly captures an engaging sense of survival tension. The first game, Night Alone, features a young girl whose dog goes missing in the night. Her older sister goes out to find it, but when the sister doesn't return, the little girl braves all manner of supernatural horrors to find her. It's a strong start to a horror game but the writing never quite finds the right balance to keep you hooked. The details about the protagonist and her sister end up feeling a little bland, while the broader story about why ghosts are plaguing the town is so hidden in the myriad collectibles you can find that it's never all that satisfying either. Night Alone offers a strong spooky set-up but never fully delivers on it. In Midnight Shadows, the personal story of the protagonists feels a little better realized. This time you're actually playing as two little girls, two best friends. When one goes missing the other sets off to find her, again dealing with a dangerous population of evil spirits in town. The story here does a better job of drawing you in, though it also fails to make the overarching mystery of this ghost infestation feel like anything more than set dressing. Still, the personal journey of the girls at least makes you more emotionally invested in the climax. Both games have fundamentally the same gameplay formula: you need to explore while avoiding ghosts, and your only option is to simply run away or hide from them. There's no way to fight back in this game—at best you can sometimes use an item as a way of distracting a ghost, but this is inconsistent enough that it's not really worthwhile most of the time. No, all you can really do is run away while keeping an eye on your limited stamina meter and hope you have enough to escape. This focus on escaping makes for a wonderfully tense exploration adventure—at least for the first hour or so. The problem is the gameplay just doesn't have enough variety to keep it interesting or even all that scary for too long. Soon enough you'll develop a habit of dodging ghosts, and the game's tension just kind of ebbs away. Midnight Shadows at least spices things up a tiny bit by having more challenging obstacles to dodge, but even that's not enough to really keep the experience engaging after a couple of hours. The larger size of the game world in Midnight Shadows also just makes the experience feel more tedious since you now have even more ground to cover while routinely dodging ghosts. And neither game does a great job with puzzles—generally it's just a quest to find a key in order to progress, that's all. In addition, both games have a very minor penalty for dying. If you're caught by an unfriendly ghost you're dropped back at the last place you saved or the last checkpoint, both of which are pretty frequent (you do need to spend a coin in order to save, but coins are so commonplace that saving them up isn't much of a concern). Oddly enough you'll keep whatever items you picked up before dying, so sometimes it's even advantageous to pick up a key item and simply die in order to return to an earlier location where it's needed. It's nice of the developers to keep the penalty for dying so light—some areas would definitely be annoyingly frustrating if you had to replay huge swaths of the game—but it also kills a lot of the tension and suspense, again only making the game feel like a fairly repetitive quest of just reaching one checkpoint after another. Both games use the same art style, which features an oddly cute sprite for the main character while all of the spirits are creepy and occasionally grotesque monsters. These are all set against shadow-heavy and somewhat more realistic-looking background art, and it's the incongruence of these elements that gives Yomawari a pretty unique and stylish look. At the very least, it's effective for making the game feel creepy and haunting. It is a little disappointing though that Midnight Shadows reuses a lot of assets from Night Alone, though some of the new ghosts certainly stand out. In both games the soundtrack is kept to a minimum to emphasize spooky sound effects, which is also plenty effective, even if a stronger original score would have been nice. Neither game is particularly long: Night Alone should only last about five hours, while Midnight Shadows is a little longer at seven or so. Of course, a big part of each game's length is going to depend upon how much you get lost while exploring, but an in-game map at least helps you keep your bearings a little. Both games also feature tons of optional collectibles, but the lack of payoff on them kind of makes them feel like pointless busywork. If you're going to have players go through the tedium of slow exploration to find all of these knick-knacks, a better reward would be appreciated. With an emphasis on exploration through creepy environments over more action-packed survival challenges, the Yomawari games take a slower, more contemplative approach to the horror genre. But that focus on exploration can only take a game so far, and when the thrills of dodging ghosts wears off in Yomawari you're left with two fairly repetitive adventures that kind of seem to be going in circles. Horror fans might appreciate the meandering gameplay anyway, but anyone that's not already a dedicated fan of Japanese ghost stories will likely lose interest here. Rating: 5 out of 10 Long Nights
  24. Nintendo continues to expand the Switch library into every genre they can, this time dipping a toe into the world of mechs with Daemon X Machina. Fast, frantic aerial mech combat with plenty of customization options feels like a must for the genre, but even if Daemon X Machina manages to nail that sense of action, it can't shake a sense of tedious repetition from its gameplay. Daemon X Machina takes place on a devastated Earth, where a chunk of the moon has crashed into the planet, causing not only destruction but somehow sparking all of the Earth's artificial intelligences to rebel against humanity. You play as an Outer, a mech pilot mercenary who takes on jobs to battle these rogue AIs (called Immortals in-game). You team up with various other mercenary groups to take on any quest the planet's corporate-states offer. Now, that's a relatively complex backstory, so you might think the game eases you into the setting by gradually and clearly explaining various elements of the story. Not quite. The game has a terrible habit of throwing you into the deep end, story-wise, which can make the plot a little hard to follow and, worse yet, just kind of boring. Despite having a fairly large cast of mercenaries, the game gives little opportunity for you to really get to know them, which is only exacerbated by the fact that some missions have you fighting other mercenary teams, so for the first half of the game you really don't know anyone's motivations. It's hard to care about characters when you don't know anything about them. Then when their backstories finally do get a little time in the limelight, they come off as two-dimensional and melodramatic. Sure it might seem silly to complain about poor storytelling in a game that's all about piloting a mech and blowing up robots, but it really makes any cutscene or dialogue sequence a real bore when you have overly dramatic characters that you just don't care about. The meat of the game is, of course, flying around in a customized mech and shooting everything in sight. There are plenty of great moments to be had: soaring through the air, blasting away with machine guns before swooping in for a close-range sword strike. But Daemon X Machina really makes you work for those moments, partly because there's a fairly tough learning curve to truly move and shoot efficiently, and partly because there are some horribly tedious parts to this game. The controls definitely take some time to get used to, but given the relative complexity of your mech's movements and attacks, the developers have done a decent job of making the controls feel smooth. Still, your early missions are going to feel pretty stiff and clumsy as you slowly master the art of flying and aiming, and even by the time you get the hang of things the game will start throwing super fast enemy mechs at you which can make many missions feel more like an endless chase than a battle. Shooting robots out of the sky is, not surprisingly, awfully satisfying, and Daemon X Machina features a fairly generous lock-on targeting system to help your aim. Sadly this doesn't mean you can lock onto an enemy and keep the screen aimed at them, which would have been vastly preferable to the current system that requires you to rapidly spin the camera to keep track of enemies that can move so fast they seem to be teleporting around the battlefield. Simply put, too much of the game is focused on these mech-on-mech battles that are disappointingly tedious—enemy mechs often feel like bullet sponges so all you can do is tick away at their health slowly but surely. In a way it's almost impressive that the developers could manage to make two mechs fighting each other feel so dull. Aside from fighting, the key feature of Daemon X Machina is customizing your mech with various weapons and armor pieces to craft just the right balance you prefer. This is pretty overwhelming at first since the game throws tons of details at you, like breaking down your weapon's efficiency into not just damage but fire rate, effective range, bullet velocity—a lot of these details honestly seem meaningless unless you meticulously take the time to compare each weapon's stats, but then again that might be what mech fans want in a game. Most other players will likely find the wall of text that is weapon stats overwhelming and just swap parts without getting into too much of the nitty gritty. You also have a variety of weapon types at your disposal (and can ultimately bring several into a mission) so there's a decent amount of room for experimentation. The selection of weapons actually feels pretty underwhelming though, or at least too much of it is hidden behind grinding for random drops from enemies. Halfway through the game the variety of weapons seems to drop off sharply, and I mostly saw repeats of weapons I already owned, with the only alternative being grinding battles in the hopes of earning new parts from random enemy drops. There's also a shop and a crafting system that allows you to make new parts, but Daemon X Machina simply makes it too inconvenient to compare parts quickly, or even see what parts might be scavenged/crafted. The whole structure of the game is also undeniably repetitive. Daemon X Machina is mission-based, so a little repetition is naturally unavoidable, but even so the game starts to feel monotonous pretty quickly as there aren't that many varieties of enemies to fight. That's a real shame considering rogue AI robots should provide near endless opportunities for coming up with creative enemies, but no, you mostly fight the same robots and mercenaries over and over. If solo play does get too repetitive though there's always co-op, both local and online, which can at least boost the game's longevity a bit, but even adding friends to the mix doesn't quite fix the inherent tedium of the game's mechanics. Whatever the issues with the story and gameplay, there's no denying that Daemon X Machina looks sharp. The anime character designs and bright, vivid color palette are gorgeous, and even in the heat of battle the art style doesn't lose any of its slick charm. The chaos of battle might be a little disorienting while you're flying around, but it at least looks great while you're doing it. The game also has a fairly solid action-oriented soundtrack, full of appropriately intense and dramatic tunes while you're engaged in an aerial mech dogfight. And even if the writing leaves much to be desired, there is at least plenty of solid voice work to enjoy. Daemon X Machina has a great shell of a mech-based action game, but fails to fully build up the experience with engaging challenges or interesting characters. Instead the game too often feels like a chore as you chase down enemy mechs over and over with only the small chance of a new weapon or armor piece as a reward. The balance of combat never feels quite right, whether it's the steep learning curve at the beginning or the rote mechanics once you do find the right weapon strategies for you. Ultimately, only die-hard fans of the genre will click with Daemon X Machina's flashy but tedious gameplay. Rating: 6 out of 10 Mechs
  25. When revivals of old IPs are all the rage, clearly some creative executives are scrapping the bottom of the barrel for anything 90s to repackage and sell to modern audiences. Cue Bubsy the bobcat, an anthropomorphic platformer mascot in the vein of Sonic the Hedgehog who first burst onto the scene with a couple of decently received games in the early-to-mid 90s before quickly spiraling into obscurity thanks to one underwhelming sequel after another. After an unexpected revival in 2017 though, he's back once again, this time in an auto-runner developed by masters of the genre Choice Provisions. But Bubsy: Paws on Fire isn't quite the revival that, presumably, anyone wanted. I'll preface this review by noting that I've never played a Bubsy game before, so there's no nostalgia factor at play here, either sincerely or ironically. Either way, the small amount of writing/personality in Paws on Fire feels awfully dated—Bubsy's quips aren't as clever or amusing as he seems to think they are. As for the actual plot, Bubsy's nemesis Oinker P. Hamm is stirring up trouble, prompting the alien Woolie to enlist Bubsy's and his friends Virgil and Arnold's help in stopping him. It's about as basic a story as you can get, and given the quality of the humor that's probably for the best. The gameplay here doesn't stray at all from Choice Provisions' bread and butter, the Bit.Trip Runner series. Paws on Fire is a rhythmic auto-runner, so instead of having free control of the character you just have to time your jumps and punches to handle obstacles in your path, all while collecting the 150 trinkets found in each stage. Unlike Bit.Trip there isn't much emphasis on the musical, rhythmic nature of the gameplay. There's some, certainly, since to collect every trinket you have to follow the level's specific pattern, but it lacks the satisfying sense of flow that defines the Runner games. It certainly doesn't help that the soundtrack is far from catchy. What does make Paws on Fire stand out is the fact that there are three playable characters and each one has different abilities. Bubsy is able to glide through the air to slow his descent as well as punch forward in a straight line. Virgil is able to double jump and slide under obstacles, and Woolie pilots a small flying saucer that shoots lasers and does have free range of movement—the screen still scrolls forward, but she can fly in any direction. There are also bonus levels as Arnold which play like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 bonus stages where you're rolling into the distance, collecting crystals. Approaching each level with a different set of skills is a great idea in theory, as it adds variety to the gameplay and even, potentially, lets you skirt difficult sections by instead using a different character. Except that's not quite how it works in Paws on Fire. You'll earn a medal for completing a level with each character, and you need a certain number of medals to unlock new levels, so inherently there is a lot of repetition in the game. Even with each character's unique skills this feels like a cheap way of extending the length of the game, and even feels like mindless repetition at times. It doesn't help that the level design in Paws on Fire just doesn't have the same inventive charm as Bit.Trip Runner games. In fact nothing in the game matches the sheer imaginative quirkiness of the Runner games, which is a real shame since Choice Provisions is clearly capable of much more, yet this game is so bland. And finally, Paws on Fire has a real issue with loading screens. I'm not sure what exactly is happening on the technical side of the game, but I don't see anything that justifies the 30+ second loading screens at the start of every level. These have a real way of draining the energy from the game and just making the whole experience dull. Fans will have to wait a little longer for Bubsy's triumphant return to the forefront of gaming, as Bubsy: Paws on Fire is, at best, a pretty bland auto-runner. It's a shame too since Choice Provisions is clearly capable of much more, but neither the cheesy 90s mascot nor the uninspired gameplay is able to inject any kind of life or energy into this experience. Paws on Fire might be decent for a bit of time-wasting action, but don't expect any degree of depth from this repetitive runner. Rating: 5 out of 10 Paws
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