Discounty is a solid addition to the Switch's healthy stable of cosy sims. These games feel right at home on a console you can take anywhere, with a bite-sized day cycle that works just as well for long sessions as it does for quick breaks. Growing your supermarket is a deep and satisfying experience, but getting involved in your customers lives can be a bit shallow. But, most importantly, Discounty manages the impossible task of making retail work fun and relaxing, and that's a feat in itself.
Farming Simulator arrives on Switch 2 in a familiar state for returning fans. While newcomers will face an early spike of confusion before eventually settling into the addictive routine of virtual agriculture, veterans will immediately feel at home. Unfortunately, technical issues with the port will blight the careers of both camps.
Should you buy Megadimension Neptunia VII? Well, that depends on a few major factors. Can you stomach shamelessly pervy leerings at the bodies of the many females featured in the story? Are you okay with playing a poorly-optimized game that's not very graphically impressive to begin with? If yes, then you just may be surprised at the quality of the gameplay that lies at the heart of this RPG. Despite its shortcomings, Megadimension Neptunia VII can be a fun game to play, and though there are plenty of better RPG's to pick up on the eShop today, it's impossible to deny the niche value being offered here. We'd lightly recommend this one, but with the important caveat that this is the kind of game that's ideal fodder for buying on a big sale in the future.
A full-featured multiplayer effort, Swimsanity! excels in its frantic competitive gameplay, with a co-op experience that we found critically lacking in enjoyment. Skip the adventure mode and dive straight into Orb Rush with three friends for a good, fun time. The package holds together well despite some blandness to the visuals, and there's certainly plenty to do if it gets its (fish) hooks into you. Swimsanity! holds up well in a crowded market and we truly hope to see it succeed.
The Samurai Shodown games are among the best in the fighting genre: the seven games on offer here are perfect examples of this, and the exceptional Museum mode will keep you busy for hours. Its online may be a non-starter and it may have offered even more titles if it had lifted its self-imposed Neo Geo-only restrictions, but that doesn't take away from what's an otherwise strong collection of brilliant fighting games.
Skully isn't an entirely lost cause. There's an entertaining enough puzzle platformer hidden underneath its myriad visual flaws. It may be uglier than sin and you may be accompanied by an irritating voiceover throughout, but you'll still have some fun playing through it and the plot does resolve itself in a nice way by the end. You'll just need to be able to roll with a lot of annoyances to get there.
At the end of the day, Fairy Tail is not a great RPG. Shortcomings in storytelling, pacing, difficulty, and performance all add up to make for a less than stellar experience which consistently seems to waste its potential. The well-made combat system and the adherence to the tone and content of the source material give occasional glimpses of the much greater RPG that Fairy Tail could be, but alas, it's never really given the chance to spread its wings. We wouldn't recommend you pick this one up, especially given the wealth of excellent RPGs available on the eShop right now, but we say that with the caveat that fans of the franchise will get a lot more out of this game than newcomers. If you happen to be a fan, Fairy Tail might be worth the punt if it's on sale someday, but otherwise, we'd encourage you to look into other games.
Rock of Ages 3 failed to impress us on almost any level. It's definitely a game with character, and it could feasibly work its charms on you, but in its drive to be different and unusual it seems to have neglected to be fun. Still, it certainly has an audience; broadly speaking, you don't get to a second sequel without your game mattering to someone. If you can muscle through the frustrations, you might be able to roll with Rock of Ages 3, but with so many other worthy titles on Switch, we can't say we'd recommend it.
Carrion is a special thing in many ways, but its actual meat and potatoes structure is as formulaic as the genre gets. Thankfully, its core gameplay of tearing room after room of people into wet chunks of corpse never, ever gets old, and sustains the experience throughout. It looks superb, sounds great and is plenty of fun to play, despite some minor issues which just hold Carrion back from the upper echelons of the Switch library.
Ageless is the sort of game that could best be described as a great concept that almost nails the execution. The sombre narrative, cerebral gameplay, and distinct presentation are all great in their own regard, but each is plagued with enough inconsistencies and caveats to hold back the overall experience from true greatness.
Fans of clever puzzles and masterfully told dark fairytales will delight in Creaks. Bursting with atmosphere and quirky style, Amanita's latest is full of clever puzzles and wordless storytelling. Its distinctive flavour won't be to everyone's taste, but this is an impeccably told fairytale that will also give your brain a thorough workout.
The content that’s here really is a joy to experience, and we’re of course conscious that artificially lengthening the game would no doubt diminish its value, but we can’t deny a certain level of disappointment after completing it in just a few short hours.
Some will find Monster Prom: XXL rubs them the wrong way – the outcome of the game often feels quite random – but it's about the journey and sharing its eccentricity with your friends. It doesn't rival the Jackbox series, but it captures a similar and very welcome vibe which could turn it into a monster hit.
As we said, it's hard to review Lost Wing, because it's exactly what it looks like – a score attack-style game with ever-increasing difficulty and numerous extra tracks and game variations to unlock. Given how well it does almost every aspect of its core gameplay, it's unfortunate that this review reads like a litany of criticisms. Lost Wing is very good, but the presence of a number of issues – a couple being fairly major – mean that it could have been even better.