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.
The game holds itself well and is great fun, even if it lacks any real innovation. The unique weapon combinations can make each run different and interesting, but the repetitive nature of each level means that Kunai's replayability could be in doubt.
Speedway Racing is a mostly competent but ultimately unexceptional attempt to emulate the thrills and spills of Daytona USA – a courageous endeavour indeed. But like the many faux sponsorship advertisements dotted around this game’s speedways, closer inspection drops the curtain to reveal some hard-to-ignore shortcomings.
Vitamin Connection is a kaleidoscopic mishmash of influences and genres – part cutesy shooter, part mini-game collection. Not all of its ideas stick, and there are a couple of points of friction caused by its tilt controls, but when it's on song, this is a charming sugar rush of an experience – especially if you're after a new couch-co-op game.
Brief Battles is a raucous little game that provides another option for Switch players looking for some decent four player, local multiplayer party times. It's easy to pick up and - owing to that clever mix of pant-powers, environmental obstacles and unique style of traversal - has a level of depth that introduces a pleasing amount of tactics for dedicated players. It's also priced really reasonably so is well worth taking a punt on if you're regularly inundated with friends wanting to get some couch co-op action on the go.
Darksiders Genesis is, for us, the best entry in the series in terms of its mix of satisfyingly meaty hack-and-slash action and huge levels filled with secrets, puzzles and platforming. With its fully co-op campaign, unlockable arena mode and Apocalyptic difficulty feeding into that addictive Creature Core grinding, there's an absolute ton here for fans of the series – and newcomers alike – to get stuck into. This Switch version may suffer some slight blurriness and FPS hiccups in portable mode but, if you can make peace with these problems, this is a highly entertaining action game at a very reasonable price.
Warriors Orochi 4 was a solid, if uninspired, Musou game and this 'Ultimate' edition fleshes things out with some new characters and modes, significantly beefs up the story and tweaks the central gameplay here and there. However, the additions that have been made sometimes feel like the least amount of effort that was possible.
Tilt Pack deserves credit for offering the kind of instant arena brawler thrills that anyone can partake in. But that comes at the expense of any lasting appeal.
This collection could be recommended for those who want to casually drop a few credits in a Psikyo game here and there, and are not going to become too concerned about learning or clearing the game.
Snack World serves up a beautifully presented helping of dungeon crawling, garnished with generous amounts of humour and charm. Its character is also its saving grace, because it helps keep your interest when the actual mechanics start to feel repetitive. Or, to milk the food analogy further: its outer shell is so endearing that you'll still enjoy consuming it even when you can tell it's starting to get a little stale.
Despite its shortcomings, this is a solid two-wheeled racer that retains all the usual modes and extras and runs like a treat in handheld mode. Just don't expect it to feel massively different from the previous instalment.
Code Shifter is basically a playable version of an unenthusiastic sigh. There is platforming. There is fighting. There is a story. Each of these things is there, but all of them feel underdeveloped or underutilized in their own way, and never really come together all that well.
We were pleasantly surprised by EQQO. After a rather lacklustre opening segment, the majority of the game proves itself to be an engaging puzzle title with a surprisingly meaningful narrative to support it.
