[Review] Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom
Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: November 4, 2022
Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Over the last few years, life and farm sims have been steadily growing in popularity and, with critically acclaimed titles such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing: New Horizons also on Switch, standing out amongst the crowd is a difficult thing to do. If there is any franchise equipped to do this in modern times, however, it would be Story of Seasons – one of the oldest and largest farm sim series that has been around since the SNES, and has seen several installments as well as spin-offs such as Rune Factory over its lifetime. Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom is another such offshoot, taking the traditional Story of Seasons gameplay and blending it with the world of Doraemon, which is an extremely iconic franchise in Japan. But is this a match made in heaven?
[Review] Sonic Frontiers
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: November 8, 2022
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: SEGA
How can a game that is so messy, so bloated, and so technically inadequate be so much fun? That is the question that I’ve been wrestling with throughout my playthrough of Sonic Frontiers, SEGA’s latest attempt (of which there have been many) to try and revitalize the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and introduce the Blue Blur to both new and lapsed fans. It’s Sonic’s first true open world (or open zone) game, and with that comes a lot of interesting ideas to attempt to reinvent the structure of what a Sonic game can be. But while Frontiers can be a blast at times, it also constantly gets in its own way at almost every turn, hindered by poor visual performance, bloated mechanics and bland world design that lacks a unique identity.
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[Review] Bayonetta 3
Posted on 1 year ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: October 28, 2022
Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: Nintendo
The wait for Bayonetta 3 has been a long one as fans have been waiting since the reveal of its logo at The Game Awards in 2017. Though we’ve had the previous entries ported over to Switch to play, the latest addition to the series is finally here in what feels like a fever dream. Bayonetta has had long gaps in between each game, but each entry of gaming’s most powerful witch has been well worth the wait, with Bayonetta 3 being no different. The excellence in storytelling, gameplay, theatrics, and PlatinumGames’ signature hack-and-slash mastery improves with each, and while Bayonetta 3 is just under what Bayonetta 2 achieved in 2014, it’s still is a masterful title in a league of its own, held back only by the aging hardware it finds itself restricted to.
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[Review] Dragon Ball: The Breakers
Posted on 1 year ago by Elias in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: October 14, 2022
Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Series fans are usually excited about all things Dragon Ball, and with Bandai Namco’s latest game Dragon Ball: The Breakers, we’ve been looking forward to frantic gameplay and multiplayer fun. With mechanics not unlike Dead By Daylight, players are pitted against powerful Dragon Ball menaces with limited resources at their disposal no real means of fighting back. Standing alongside favorite characters like Trunks and Bulma, will we be able to escape with our lives?
[Review] Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: October 20, 2022
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Conceptually, there was really no good reason why a game as bizarre and audacious as 2017’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle should have worked – but it did. Not only did it somehow make a crossover between Nintendo’s most iconic cast of characters and Ubisoft’s most – er, divisive – not feel completely bonkers, but it also introduced an accessible and creative take on turn-based tactics to a console that, at that point, was light on quality options. I enjoyed Kingdom Battle so thoroughly that initially, I couldn’t fathom why a sequel would need to exist. But after spending over 30 hours exploring sprawling planets and battling every foe I’ve crossed paths with, I don’t feel like it’s an exaggeration to call Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope one of Mario’s finest outings to date.
[Review] NieR: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition
Posted on 1 year ago by Amit Dhindsa(@Agnezenn) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: October 6, 2022
Developer: PlatinumGames
Publisher: Square Enix
NieR: Automata has always shared something of a connection with Switch. When asked by Famitsu what his thoughts were on the system and its reveal presentation in January 2017, director Yoko Taro simply stated his memories vanished once he found out the console, along with Breath of the Wild, were releasing just one week after his game. Launching alongside such a titanic duo didn’t end up holding NieR: Automata back in the end, however, as it was both a critical and commercial success, leading to it becoming one of the most requested Switch ports of the last generation. More than five years later, the game has finally arrived on Nintendo’s platform, and this gripping tale of android vs. machine was certainly worth the wait.
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[Review] Persona 5 Royal
Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: October 21, 2022
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus / SEGA
2022 has been a year heavily laden with JRPGs for Switch, but while most of the releases we’ve seen this year are all new offerings, Persona 5 Royal is a bit late to the party with the original Persona 5 launching back in 2016 for PS3/PS4 and Royal following in 2019 specifically for PS4. While a Switch port was widely hoped for, the first taste Switch owners would get of anything related to Shin Megami Tensei would be the port of the Wii U’s Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Although the mainline series did make its way over soon enough, this is the first round of Persona on Nintendo’s hybrid console. After all these years, though, is it really worth the wait and the port-begging?
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[Review] Tunic
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicolas in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: September 27, 2022
Developer: Tunic Team
Publisher:Finji
The gaming industry has certainly experienced a rise in the popularity of indie games within the last several years. From Shovel Knight to Undertale, Celeste, or Hades, these games have made a huge splash in the scene, and have coincidentally all made their way onto Switch. Indeed, the platform has found itself to be quite the reliable indie game machine, and as such it feels only fitting that Tunic, a little indie marvel that landed on Xbox earlier this year, would find its way here. It certainly feels right at home on the system, and I definitely enjoyed my time with it; the concept of an indie Zelda-like 2D adventure game remains novel and captivating, and I welcome more entries in the genre. Tunic is definitely a solid little title with some neat ideas, but it doesn’t quite break the mold in the way that the indie classics I mentioned earlier might have.
[Review] Chaos;Head Noah / Chaos;Child Double Pack
Posted on 1 year ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: October 7, 2022
Developer: Mages
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
The Science Adventure series by Mages has long been a popular series thanks to the explosive Steins;Gate that captivated audiences over a decade ago, but outside of Japan, it has always seen spotty launch schedules and with entries that aren’t necessarily in chronological order. Though this hasn’t been entirely problematic due to the mostly standalone nature of every entry, one of the most highly requested for some time was the game that began it all: Chaos;Head. With the Double Pack on Switch, we’re now finally seeing Chaos;Head localized for the first time with its updated Chaos;Head Noah version seen in 2009 packaged in with Chaos;Child which had been previously released in the west on PS Vita. As masters of the visual novel genre, Mages has once again provided a package that is must-have for fans of the Science Adventure series, and for those that have yet to play any of them, what better place to drop in than with the original games that started it all?
[Review] The DioField Chronicle
Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release Date: September 22, 2022
Developer: Square Enix / Lancarse
Publisher: Square Enix
To say that Square Enix has had a busy year would be an understatement. Between high profile new IPs and the return of older games that few will have heard of and fewer still would have played the first time around, it was easy to overlook The DioField Chronicle, which was given somewhat muted fanfare despite the big names attached to it: co-developed by Lancarse (who recently co-developed Monark, but are perhaps better known for their work on Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey with Atlus), music by Ramin Djawadi and Brandon Campbell (of Game of Thrones fame), and with artwork by Isamu Kamikokuryo (Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII), it seemed as though this would be one of Square Enix’s hits for the year. But is this a chronicle for the ages, or better left on the shelf?
