Ryan Craddock

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Apr 11, 2018

Critic80/100

Agreement—

The Adventure Pals is a truly wonderful experience that had us grinning from the moment we launched the game, right up until the credits. The platforming is tight and precise, yet relatively relaxed and easy-going on the whole, and the game's perfect cast of bonkers characters provides humour, wit, and a genuinely loveable world to explore. A couple of little niggles stop the game from hitting the true heights that it deserves to reach, but we'd urge you to look past these and dive into the fun. If you're a fan of platformers and cute things, you need to play this game.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Apr 6, 2018

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Atelier Lydie & Suelle is a rather standard entry to the Atelier series. Content with relying on a pretty standard setup, the game doesn't innovate or move forwards, although fans of the series will no doubt be interested in the new story alone. It's a pretty interesting take on the ridiculously wide genre of RPGs, with a much heavier focus being given to its deep crafting system, but that might not be enough to convince new players on its own.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 29, 2018

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Penny-Punching Princess offers a great twist on the classic RPG formula, adding a new bribing system that takes your opponents out of the game to use for your own advantage. You'll find many hours' worth of content available here, and learning how to best use your magic calculator abilities for maximum success is highly enjoyable.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 13, 2018

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Combining crazy physics and an even crazier story scenario, Coffin Dodgers has managed to do just enough to stand out from the crowd, offering a decent little kart-racer that should generate a laugh or two. A slight lack of content and a less-than-perfect overall quality prevent it from being something worth shouting about, however, so you might want to consider your options before jumping in with an immediate purchase.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 10, 2018

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Guilt Battle Arena is a lot of fun while it lasts with frantic, fast-paced action that forces players to act quickly in the heat of battle. Our main issue, however, is that everything that the game has to offer can be seen very quickly, and the desire to keep picking up the game, again and again, isn't as strong as we'd initially hoped. Fun in quick bursts, but lacking slightly in gameplay content, we'd urge you to place this one on your ‘maybe' list.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 7, 2018

Critic50/100

Agreement—

Packet Queen # features a new, enjoyable type of puzzle gameplay that has you making fast decisions on the fly, and can start to feel pleasingly addictive, but a lack of content and a completely unnecessary story mode that ends in disappointment make the title fall short of greatness. For its relatively low price the game isn't a bad option for passing the time, but the puzzle gameplay itself needs to be placed within a much better overall package than it is currently to truly impress.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 2, 2018

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Mulaka offers a truly intriguing insight into the culture and mythology of the Tarahumara people, but is let down by some frustrating gameplay issues. Exploring and puzzle solving is a simple but enjoyable affair, and there are elements of the combat system that show real promise, but some oversights surrounding the game's pacing and controls leave quite a lot to be desired. If you're interested enough in learning about the topic it wouldn't be unwise to give the game a go despite its flaws, but players looking purely for great gameplay might want to ponder over it a little longer.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Feb 21, 2018

Critic90/100

Agreement—

SteamWorld Dig 2 is a wonderful sequel to the already impressive SteamWorld Dig, and this 3DS port of last year's Switch release does not disappoint. Taking everything that was great from the original, and improving it even further, SWD2 can stand proudly near the top of the list of 'must play' titles on the Nintendo eShop.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Feb 15, 2018

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Mercenaries Saga Chronicles offers an awful lot of tactical turn-based strategy content for the asking price, but the dull storylines, repetitive gameplay, and absolutely identical nature of all three titles make us question the reasoning behind packaging them all together as a bundle. In their own right, each game will provide you with hours of well-designed battles, but we doubt many players will genuinely want to sit through all three games as they would be effectively playing the same game three times.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Feb 12, 2018

Critic90/100

Agreement—

Owlboy is a three-pronged attack of success: the gameplay is tight, satisfying, and remains fresh throughout; the game's world is visually stunning thanks to some truly masterful pixel art; and you'll find yourself really caring about the cast of characters and the world surrounding them thanks to a compelling storyline and background lore. The game could be improved with the inclusion of map to aid exploration, but when that is the only real thing we can pick at as a negative point it is clear that we're on to a winner.This is a game that is absolutely worth your time; if anything we've mentioned above has you even remotely intrigued by this game, we urge you to consider giving it a go.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Feb 6, 2018

Critic80/100

Agreement—

The Longest Five Minutes uses a truly gripping concept, throwing the classic RPG formula on its head by having you put the pieces of an already existing story together as you go. While the combat and general gameplay are almost too easy-going, the story, characters, and overall aesthetic had us always wanting more, never wanting to put the game down. The asking price is perhaps a little steep for the amount of content available, and the strange take on a usually well-understood genre may throw some players off, but there is an indescribable charm that is worth exploring here.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jan 26, 2018

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Tales Of The Tiny Planet is charming, colourful, and deceptively fun. The single-button approach to the game's levels means that it is accessible for all players, yet still presents a decent amount of challenge for the more experienced puzzle fan.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jan 23, 2018

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Of Mice and Sand -Revised- does a lot of things right; a mixture of quests, resource management, and a necessity for clever thinking result in a decent experience for the most dedicated fans of the genre. Unfortunately, though, a lack of clear direction and a tricky-to-master workflow mean that it likely won't quite click with everyone else; these games work best when you find yourself addicted to their menial tasks and, this time around, that sadly wasn't always the case. Not a bad option to consider for fans of tactical management, then, but be wary of our warnings if you do choose to give it a go.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jan 16, 2018

Critic60/100

Agreement—

InnerSpace is a really intriguing title that we wish we didn't want to ever put down; the game's worlds give such a strong sense of amazement that you will want to spend every second flying through them. Unfortunately, you'll likely be left too frustrated by the sometimes near-impossible-to-find story progression tasks to keep going. We really want to love this game, and we very nearly did, but we just can't quite manage it.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jan 15, 2018

Critic70/100

Agreement—

World To The West is a nicely put-together adventure game, making use of a good roster of characters with different abilities to provide the player with enjoyable puzzles and combat. Some pacing issues and the odd niggle here and there prevent this game from being truly special but, if you are a fan of 3D adventure games full of humour and exploration-based puzzles, you'll definitely have some fun here.