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.
It would be one thing if Reynatis was a decent enough action RPG to turn your brain off to and enjoy some simplistic, button-mashy battles with. The problem is that the creators behind this title so obviously wanted it to be more than that, but it doesn't have the writing quality, the technical spectacle, or the mechanical depth to make it happen. Just like its co-lead Marin, Reynatis' single-minded ambition to reach greater heights unveils its greatest weaknesses - a sense of aimlessness and a general apathy toward its own fantastical world. If you believe you can still find some enjoyment in Reynatis despite its failings, it might be worth a shot. Unfortunately, the performance deficiencies of this Switch release make it a game that's best played on just about any other console you have available. With plenty of other great action RPGs out on the market, you have to wonder if it's worth the trouble.
Performance issues on Switch, at least at launch, bury an amazingly clever and charming adventure that we would wholeheartedly recommend otherwise. The Plucky Squire is certainly playable on the Nintendo Switch, but in no way can we recommend picking it up here if you have other means to play it. The fact that the Switch-branded trailers looked so great and that advance review copies weren't available on the platform - despite them being sent out for other systems - indicates that this version of The Plucky Squire needed much more time on the drawing board before release.
Loddlenaut is sort of a job sim where the job in question feels futile. Cleaned places need re-cleaning, fed loddles need re-feeding. Given that the project at hand is to purify a mega-corp-abused ocean, it's quite a downer that the game feels so unwinnable – but maybe that's the point, in a melancholy kind of way. In any case, if you don't overthink it, the environment is calm, the loddles are cute and the execution leaves few irritations. If this is a PowerWasher's fever dream, then it would be a shame to wake up.
The Jackbox Naughty Pack is a spicy but slight collection. The inconsistent NSFW-ness often detracts from the series' comedy value, and it's a shame there aren't more games to dive into, but those looking to heat up a grown-up game night will still find some good laughs to be had here.
In review, The Shrouded Isle is a great management sim that is let down purely by its choice of aesthetic. Somewhat akin to the ill-fated red and black visuals of the Virtual Boy, the palette is really nasty to stare at, but if you’re able to look past this, you’ll find a solid experience.
Overall, Bedtime Blues isn’t awful, but it lacks a lot of the depth and production value of the franchise it clearly emulates. It’s serviceable and might be nice for fans of survival horror looking for something to take on the go, but certainly isn’t ground-breaking.
Overall though, JackQuest: The Tale of the Sword is a charming platformer that revels in its own simplicity. The control is excellent, the visuals nostalgic, and the exploration elements engaging.
Overall, My Memory of Us is a solid platformer with decent puzzles, most of which are tied to the plot. It has great sound design (including exceptional celebrity voiceover work), but its main criticism is the sometimes-jarring tonal inconsistencies between creating a tangible threat from the mind of a child and the true horrors on which it is based. That said, the good absolutely outweighs the bad and the majority of the game is a delight to play through.
Overall, Apocalipsis: Harry at the End of the World is an odd game that succeeds in its creation of a sombre atmosphere through a well-told plot. It won’t please everyone, but if you’re looking for a story-driven adventure to suck you into its world, this might be worth a look.
Gimmick! 2 is an easy recommendation for fans of retro platformers and a no-brainer for lovers of the original. Its cutesy, feel-good vibes belie a trove of super-tough but cleverly crafted challenges that are surmountable with practice, precision, and patience. What's clear is the absolute reverence that developer Bitwave Games has for the source material. Dispel any notion of this being a retro cash grab; this is the sequel that the underappreciated and ahead-of-its-time NES classic has always deserved.
Elsie has few original ideas to call its own, instead relying on tried-and-tested roguelike mechanics as a foundation for its excellent Mega Man X-inspired gameplay. This is a fast and fluid experience bolstered by wonderful visuals and a killer soundtrack. A few minor performance issues do dampen the experience slightly, while we found the parry mechanic to be a bit, well, off, but these issues aside, Elsie is a remarkable achievement that will get its claws into you quickly and won't let go.
Blue Manchu delivered the goods with Void Bastards, but this follow-up is a disappointing effort that can't match its predecessor's atmosphere, charm, originality or strategic smarts. Instead, Wild Bastards is a strangely bland affair, melding boring top-down decision-making and dull first-person sections. The game never really picks up the pace or gives you anything surprising to work with. In a genre packed full of bangers, this one is pretty difficult to recommend on any level.
Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines is everything fans could hope for in a sequel, as it improves upon every aspect that made the first Grapple Dog so great. Strong level design, a fantastic soundtrack, high gameplay variety, and lots of replayability make this one an easy recommendation to anyone looking for an excellent, pure platformer to add to their Switch library. It's the most fun platformer we've played in quite a while.
Pared-back gameplay options, outdated visuals, and lengthy loads are par for the course for 2K on Switch, but the fact that NBA 2K25 feels like a lessened experience on even last year's disappointing entry is a real turnover for the series. Sound the buzzer and call for a substitution, it’s time we brought ‘Switch 2’ on.
Yars Rising is an ambitious interpretation of a classic Atari 2600 game that resoundingly succeeds in appealing to both newcomers and veterans alike. The Metroidvania structure is good enough on its own, but when combined with the awesome Yars' Revenge-inspired hacking minigames, you've got an experience that feels wholly unique while being great fun from start to finish. Some of the characters may prove to be a bit irritating, and the final boss is a massive letdown for us, but overall this is a great effort from WayForward.
