Digimon Survive is one of the best visual novels to come out so far this year, with plenty of heart and tension to carry you through to the final act. Fans looking for an engaging story with well-written and presented characters that deal with life-and-death situations will enjoy the ride, while players focused on the combat will probably find that the game comes up short. Despite its sluggish, padded start, Digimon Survive is well worth the long wait.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the strangest thing you'll play from Nintendo, bringing with it laughs and creativity in abundance. But even with improvements over the 3DS game, it follows a familiar structure that isn't always enthralling or hilarious.Tomodachi fans will certainly be living the dream with this new entry, but I'm not desperate to keep coming back to my island. A little more variety would've been welcome, but the customisation, and the thought of my cat being best friends with DMC's Dante, will have me peep in every so often for a little pick-me-up.
Archvale is a triumphant bullet-hell/RPG genre mashup. Although you could argue its similarity to one or two recent releases, it trumps the competition with incredibly slick combat, simple and satisfying progression, and varied environments and enemies. The difficulty ramps up heavily as you progress to the later levels, so the inability to change difficulty on-the-fly may prove a bit of an issue for some players. Push through, however, and you'll find Archvale to be one of the most satisfying twin-stick games available right now.
Nonetheless, Beyond a Steel Sky magically brings its 1994 ancestor back to life. The style, the humour, the chirpy dystopia are all revived. However, a lot has happened since that first golden age of adventures, and if you want a creative addition to the indie-fuelled inventiveness of the modern genre then you should look elsewhere. This is a game that remembers exactly how great things were in 1994, but isn’t much interested in how great they were last week.
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is a fun little romp which doesn't have ideas above its station and presents its brain-teasers in a more lighthearted, rowdier manner than Dr. Kawashima's friendly but sterile style. This isn't the kind of marriage between gameplay and (for lack of a better term) 'work' that you'll find in Ring Fit Adventure, but it's a greatly enjoyable and budget-friendly way to keep up the little pitter-patter of grey matter for all ages.
Clockwork Aquario has been a long time coming, but it was definitely worth the wait. An obvious labour of love, this ill-fated arcade gem has been improbably recovered, restored, and reassembled, and it never feels like anything less than a carefully unearthed treasure that's been polished until it shines. It won't take long to beat - and it shouldn't, because a good 30-year-old arcade platformer is supposed to be short and sweet - but what the game lacks in length it more than makes up for in entertainment and raw creativity, with stages pitting you against everything from mechanical flying fish to a gigantic egg-dropping robo-penguin. It's the sort of game you come back to again and again because you want to rather than have to, and we feel lucky to have it.
It's difficult to get across exactly why Danganronpa V3 is so good without spoiling vast swathes of it, so we'll keep it simple. You'll come into the game baffled as to what the writers were thinking with some of these characters, and walk away loving each and every one of them. There isn't a single moment of slack throughout the whole 40-hour playtime, it has the most extensive post-game of any title in the series, and one of the best endings to any game ever made. Go in blind and we promise you'll be in for the ride of your life.
While it's a fun time for fans, Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp is a total grindfest and plays almost the exact same way every time. With gameplay that's both luck-based and uninspiring, it's an incredibly tough recommendation to anyone but devoted series obsessives. This writer found it compelling - games don't take that long - but it is repetitive to a fault, and by design. Bizarrely, there are some ways in which it's less interesting and compelling than the equivalent unlockable feature in V3 and that was a free post-game bonus. Ask yourself if you really need to spend money to see the characters in swimsuits and make your decision from there.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc offers a memorable Killing Game with fantastic, iconic characters, a genuinely funny and smart script, and some superior twists and turns along the way with well-earned emotional hooks and at times shocking violence. It's funny, it's dramatic and it's very problematic, so exercise some caution - this is resolutely not a game for kids, but even adults will struggle with some of its less savoury or more overtly brash, thoughtless content. It's not enough to mark the game down in any way, but readers should be aware that this is not a tactful piece of software, which for some will ward them away but we suspect for others is a major selling point. We urge you to check the game out for yourself, as it is, quite frankly, a classic in the visual novel genre.
Ultimately, Real Boxing 2’s gameplay falls way too short of the standard expected on a console like the Switch. Without the option to use the touch screen, attacking with the analogue stick feels clunky, with no weight behind the attacks. It makes the fights feel boring and a bit of a chore to get through. In addition, while the visuals look perfectly fine on smaller screens, pop your Switch into docked mode and it really highlights how janky some of the models and animations look.
The Wild at Heart borrows several of its mechanics from Nintendo IP, there's no question about that. This could have presented a bit of a problem had it not been for the exquisite visual style and presentation, not to mention Moonlight Kids' excellent execution of those mechanics. With a story that's equal parts amusing, intriguing, and emotional, alongside genuinely stunning 2D visuals, you'll be sucked into this world in no time. Minor frustrations with combat and loading times aside, this is an adventure you'll be glad you embarked on.
Even if you don't want anything to do with League, we would highly recommend that you give Ruined King a shot; this is a spectacular JRPG that consistently demonstrates mastery of all the ingredients needed to make a great entry in the genre. The core campaign is just long enough to feel satisfying, there are dizzying amounts of character customization, and the combat system is one of the finest we've encountered in a turn-based RPG in a long time. If you're a fan of RPGs, you'd be doing yourself a great disservice to pass on Ruined King. Even if you're a newcomer to the genre we'd still absolutely encourage you to give this a punt; it's an excellent effort.
Unsighted combines some very familiar ideas: it's a top-down, roguelite, sci-fi Metroidvania with a strong 16-bit aesthetic. Its time-is-ticking, post-apocalyptic scenario is brought to life by the enchanting palettes of its pixel art, making a world you want to explore, full of characters you want to know. Far from punishing, it leans more on the 'lite' than the 'rogue', letting fun prevail – as it will, thanks to the addictive rhythm of the controls, backed by punchy sounds. The cooperative multiplayer is icing on top of an already well-iced cake. Combining flavours of Super Nintendo classics with modern playability, Unsighted is the game 1995 desperately wanted to make but just didn't know how.
Though Klang 2 has its issues, we feel that it still offers up a satisfying and unique enough take on the rhythm genre to at least be worth your consideration. This isn’t necessarily a title that we’d recommend to anyone looking to get their feet wet with rhythm games, but fans will likely find enough to love here that it’s at least worth the relatively low price of admission.
Epic Chef is heaped with charm and humour that will undoubtedly put a smile on your face as you start your life as Ambrosia's hottest chef. Unfortunately, while the cooking and farming mechanics are simple enough to grasp, the bloated nature of the game makes every task feel more arduous than it needs to be. Add to this the needlessly lengthy dialogue and bizarre limitations around the save function, and Epic Chef feels like a game that can't quite match up with the other life sims available on the Switch. It's not unenjoyable, just more Little Chef than MasterChef.
