Ryan Craddock

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jul 12, 2017

Critic80/100

Agreement—

De Mambo does exactly what it is meant to do by taking over your living room and providing you and your family or friends with utter chaos and fun. The core gameplay works a treat and its simplistic control method and ideology suit the game perfectly, resulting in a competitive title that is easy to learn, yet hard to master.For solo players, being unable to play what is essentially the heart of De Mambo in its main mode makes it impossible to justify a purchase. For people who want to grab some friends and have something to pass the time however, this is a suitable option, even if it maybe won't keep your attention for hundreds of rounds. The gameplay does eventually get repetitive, although great strides have been taken to ensure this doesn't happen too quickly and there is definitely much fun to be had here.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jul 6, 2017

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Bulb Boy won't stay in your memories forever; it is a relatively small game that shouldn't take too long to complete, but whilst it lasts it offers nicely designed puzzles and an underlying humour that offers a different experience. It is clearly lovingly put-together and refreshingly manages to make horror cute and fun, rather than taking itself seriously. Bulb Boy didn't take our breath away and isn't revolutionary, but its appeal comes in the form of its characters, craziness and toilet humour – a deadly combination that deserves to be played.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jun 29, 2017

Critic80/100

Agreement—

If a list were to be created of games available on Switch that make you say “oh, just one more go” for approximately four hours, this would sit right on top. An addictive, beautifully presented experience that will bring you hours of joy/frustration, GoNNER seems a perfect match for the Nintendo Switch console – offering a gameplay style suited to both quick bursts of play and longer, dedicated sessions.Possibly too tricky for some players, this game requires a lot of determination, offering little respite - expect to be thrown back to the start countless times as you try to progress. If you're the type who enjoys a serious challenge we recommend giving this title a go; it is one that will reward those who stick with it the most.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·May 12, 2017

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical is a great idea on paper; the combat-based rhythm action is a nice change to the norm of the genre but is never pulled off to its full potential. There are fleeting, promising moments – the game's art is as attractive as the series has always been and some sections of music flow along with your button presses in a very tight, satisfying way, but ultimately when judged against other rhythm action games it falls short.We're not saying this is a bad game, it's just rather underwhelming, and with other stronger rhythm action games already available on Nintendo Switch - such as VOEZ - this feels like a game that might appeal more to the fans of the series rather than the genre.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 10, 2017

Critic30/100

Agreement—

Vroom in the night sky offers so little content and such poor communication that it is hard to think of any reasons to recommend this to anyone. Technically the game works – there are no major bugs or glitches, levels and items unlock as you'd expect and pressing accelerate makes your bike go forwards – but that doesn't make it enjoyable.Steer clear of this one and save your hard-earned cash for other titles that deserve your attention.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Mar 6, 2017

Critic80/100

Agreement—

VOEZ is a beautiful rhythm game with a generous supply of songs and gorgeous artwork that makes you want to keep going back for more. The rhythm gameplay feels accurate and fits the songs nicely for the most part, particularly in harder difficulties, with a nicely designed learning curve to allow players to get into the swing of things.The soundtrack can start to feel quite repetitive at times, with a number of songs blending together to create what feels like filler content, and the quality of sound could be a little better with some songs sounding quite compressed, but overall this doesn't dampen the enjoyment of the game too heavily. Overall, VOEZ is a very good entry to the rhythm genre and one to consider for portable, tap-along loveliness.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Nov 2, 2016

Critic70/100

Agreement—

Slapping a score or a definitive verdict on a title like this is a particularly tough challenge. Does the Just Dance series deserve high praise? Yes. This particular entry? Maybe. Is the series innovative? Yes. This entry? Not really…Just Dance is brilliant at what it does – serving as a surprisingly jam-packed offering for solo players as well as being a great addition to parties, sleep-overs and gatherings of friends. Naturally, Just Dance 2017 is perhaps the best of the lot – simply because it offers the most diverse library of songs (when including Just Dance Unlimited) and an almost perfected offering of modes, but doesn't really feel like an essential upgrade if you have an entry from the past couple of years. If you are new to the series or are a diehard fan, willing to splash out for the extra features, then Just Dance 2017 is definitely the way to go. If you're happy with older versions of the game however, there is no need to rush into another purchase just yet.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Apr 15, 2016

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Sometimes you want to go on a journey to vast, fantasy worlds, sometimes you want to fight your way through hordes of terrifying enemies and sometimes you want to just sit down with some friends and laugh for hours. Chompy Chomp Chomp Party can only offer you one of these – the latter of course – but it does a great job of it. The addition of one or two more modes would have helped to make this game even better – eventually you will start to feel like you've had enough and move on to doing something else – but there's a lot of fun that can be had in the modes that already exist.Grab some friends, grab some controllers and give this colourful, chompy craziness a try.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Jan 18, 2016

Critic60/100

Agreement—

Kung Fu Panda: SLL has many strong qualities, including a great amount of loyalty to the franchise and real thought for how the characters would fight and move, but suffers from an overall lack of gameplay content. The fact that it draws so heavily from the Super Smash Bros. series is both a blessing and a curse. It would be easy to think of this as a negative; if you want to play a fighting game of this type then there is no reason to choose this over Super Smash Bros. itself. But Kung Fu Panda: SLL isn't trying to compete with a genre defining game – it's bringing that style of play to a brand new audience. Fans of the film franchise that want this game purely because it has their favourite panda in it will be treated to an experience way beyond what is usually expected for a movie tie-in, and one that can provide a fun time.

Nintendo Life

Ryan Craddock·Nov 9, 2015

Critic80/100

Agreement—

Just Dance is the sort of title that most players will already have feelings about. For some, this game is their worst nightmare, being the centre of attention and dancing in front of a room full of people is a very different experience to sitting down for a night of snacks and shooting things. But this game isn't aimed towards that audience.It may not have ground-breaking graphics or a heart-string tugging storyline, but that doesn't matter. It achieves its purpose extremely well, allowing people to spend a night in together and have a great time. The soundtrack and the new features introduced this time around make Just Dance 2016 the definitive version of the series so far, meaning that it would be a great time for newcomers to the franchise to jump aboard, and also worth it for serious players from last year to upgrade.The Just Dance Unlimited Premium package seems a little stingy compared to other recent music releases such as FreeStyleGames' Guitar Hero Live, which doesn't force you to spend a penny, but other than that this is a very strong party game which does the job of being fun.