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Last reviewed: eFootball Kick-Off! · today
Animal Crossing: New Horizons takes Animal Crossing and not only drags it back onto home consoles, but improves upon every single facet imaginable.
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.
Mixtape's greatest accomplishment is that it more than lives up to its name. This is a thoughtfully curated collection of music, sure, but before that, it's an exciting, sentimental, funny game. Rather than simply twiddling your thumbs while the licensed music plays, you're living life with a soundtrack – the only way Stacey Rockford would have you do it.
Tethergeist is a great precision platformer. A flat narrative and some small visual bugs somewhat muddy the waters, but it's filled with fresh ideas. The tether mechanic at its core tests your reflexes and brains in equal measure, and I found myself always on the hunt for the Atropa Blossoms. Between those levels, I found a lot of fun in interacting with villagers across the world.Perfectly paced, no one mechanic overstays its welcome, and it felt like it ended at the perfect time, around 10 hours in length. I'm not a completionist, but I can definitely see myself picking away at some collectibles. And if they ever drop a challenge level pack, testing my knowledge of all the tethers? I'll be there day one.
R-Type DX: Music Encore is an oddity in that it resurfaces a lesser-known R-Type release and treats it with love and attention. A Game Boy Color shoot 'em up that's been vastly remodelled from the arcade original may not have widespread appeal, but those who enjoyed Aleste 3 for Game Gear or SNK's Neo Geo Pocket collections will find a lot to love in it. It's because of, and not in spite of, the fact that Bits Studios largely created an original R-Type experience that the game works. It has all the nuance of its arcade brethren, but makes it pint-sized, curious, and somewhat cute.The frame rate and giant ship size are a learning curve, and there are certain sections that will have you cursing if you forego use of the rewind function, but for series fans this audio-polished revisit is the best version money can buy. And, unlike most shoot 'em ups, this one works wonderfully well in the Switch's handheld format. If you're a die-hard R-Type fan or just out to experience all the genre has to offer, it's well worth the price.
Constance craving. The idea of an indie Metroidvania exploring mental illness has become a bit of a cliche. The past decade has seen successes in the genre like the Hollow Knight and Ori games, as well as titles like Celeste that manifest their main character’s mental journey…
With a patch or two, this one could be worth investigating, but for now, maybe stick to other platforms.
Much like the breeding and fusion system at the heart of its teambuilding, Monster Crown: Sin Eater is a satisfyingly iterative improvement over its predecessor, refining the systems and strengths it introduced while tossing the things that held it back from being great. Deep party customisation, a surprisingly in-depth story, beautiful GBC-esque visuals, and a killer soundtrack all combine to make this one worth a punt, even if some growing pains with the open-ended design can sometimes drag it down a bit.I'd give this one a recommendation if you're looking for something to ease your pain after the Pokémon Champions launch. Sin Eater was made with lots of love and hopefully will form the basis of more adventures in this fascinating world.
Initially, I wasn't sure how well the mixture of influences and styles was working, but it's a testament to the attention to detail and polish that's gone into the whole production that Mouse: P.I. for Hire achieves such a high score. The story takes a bit of time to become truly gripping, but it does so at the exact same time as the combat and style reach new levels of quality, and I couldn't help but be impressed.While I can't say I am stunned or in awe of the clue-collecting, I very much enjoyed my playthrough. Mouse: PI for Hire feels fresh and fun, and I only have praise for the whole team who produced it. This animated noir mystery is a great achievement. It takes risks, it's challenging, it strives to be bold - and it works.
Sigono has proven once again that it understands powerful emotional storytelling with OPUS: Prism Peak, a game about self-reflection, acknowledging what's come before, and moving on. It's the most Studio Ghibli-like game I've ever played, in a way that goes beyond aesthetics.If you're not careful, it's easy to miss some crucial unlockables and some of the game's best moments; a second run-through might be quicker, but it still requires you to play at a particular pace. And the Switch 2 isn't the best way to play at the time of writing, but once it's fully developed, there are few better story and character-driven experiences on the console than this.
Anytime, anywhere. The Alien series has had a surprisingly decent streak on consoles since the release of Isolation back in 2014. I can only imagine the sheer disaster of Colonial Marines gave the higher-ups at 20th Century Studios the kick up the bum they sorely needed, but…
The star of the show, of course, is the music. Naturally, it leans heavily into typical ‘80s-themed synth tracks, but they all work wonderfully well, and I started bopping my head immediately. If you’re a fan of rhythm games in general, I’d urge you to give this a shot, but just be mindful that it can be pretty brutal, so be prepared to hit ‘continue’ a lot.
More memorable adventures await. The older games in the Ys series have been slowly working their way to Switch in the form of Ys Memoire ports like last year’s Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. This year, we have Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta. While the plot isn’t as good…
Heavy metal fantasy. “Zone Profile Fantasy”? “Zoom Port Focus”? Nobody knows whether ZPF is an acronym or not, except perhaps the three-man development team behind it: Perry Sessions, Mikael Tillander, and Jamie Vance. Prior to ZPF, Sessions and Vance created a contra-style NES…
If you're going to create a deckbuilder out of Vampire Survivors, I think Vampire Crawlers is pretty much exactly the result you'd hope for – minus some bugs. It combines all of the weapons and power-ups from the first game with clever fusions and twists on traditional deckbuilding tentpoles.Even things that are annoying - not being able to check your deck when selecting upgrade and, hard to track damage numbers - feel like quirks of the franchise. It scratches my brain in a familiar way, and the euphoric feeling of creating a broken build still feels great.
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.
With a strong relationship at its core, a striking sci-fi aesthetic, and an addictive puzzle combat loop, Pragmata is the full package. The adventures of Hugh and Diana stands as another excellent Switch 2 port from Capcom, and hopefully marks the beginning of a new blockbuster franchise.