Street Fighter 6 review for Nintendo Switch 2
Posted on 6 hours ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch 2 | 0 comments
System: Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
When Nintendo revealed Switch 2 earlier this year, of all the games announced to be releasing alongside the system on launch day, it was Street Fighter 6 that had me the most excited. The original Nintendo Switch missed out on so many major releases in the fighting game genre; outside of Smash Bros. Ultimate and some iffy Mortal Kombat ports, the pickings were slim for those seeking a big, modern, flashy fighting game (although we did get what felt like roughly a thousand retro fighting game collections.) These titles have always felt like such a natural fit for handheld play to me, so when Street Fighter 6 released to near universal critical acclaim on other platforms a few years ago, I was eager to someday play it on a console where I could hone my skills at home or on the go. Fortunately, while Street Fighter 6 had to make a few compromises to make it onto Nintendo Switch 2, for the most part this is an excellent way to enjoy Capcom’s premier current-gen fighting game.
More: Capcom, highlight, Street Fighter 6, top
Nintendo Switch 2 hardware review
Posted on 2 days ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch 2 | 0 comments
When the original Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, it shook up the very notion of what a gaming console could be, offering unprecedented versatility by allowing players to experience true console-quality gaming both at-home and on the go. Eight years later, the experiment has proven a success. Switch is one of the best-selling gaming systems of all time, boasting a staggering library of both first and third-party games, so it makes sense that Nintendo would choose to iterate on the platform rather than reinvent the wheel for its next console. Enter the Nintendo Switch 2, which finally landed in the hands of players nearly eight years after the launch of its predecessor, boasting more power, a bigger screen, and a few quirky new features.
Fruitbus preview: a comedy food truck adventure I didn’t know I wanted
Posted on 2 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Switch | 0 comments
As much as I enjoy cooking in real life, cooking in video games often is either so simple (i.e. combining ingredients in a menu) or so complex (i.e. Cooking Simulator) that it can struggle to truly feel fun. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for me to fall in love with Fruitbus, an upcoming first person adventure game that tasks the player with running a food truck business in a playful world. I had a blast demoing the game, and I can’t wait to spend more time exploring the game’s tropical paradise, hunting for exotic ingredients, and cooking up a storm for the locals.
More: Fruitbus, highlight, Krillbite Studio, top
Tetris Forever review for Nintendo Switch
Posted on 7 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 12, 2024
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Publisher: Digital Eclipse
It’s easy to take Tetris for granted. Tetris games have been released on, apparently, over 65 different devices. Many have described it as the perfect puzzle game. Very smart scientists have even performed psychological studies about how Tetris affects the human brain. It has, incredibly, been about 40 years since the release of the very first Tetris title. To help celebrate such a monumental anniversary, the historians at developer and publisher Digital Eclipse are releasing Tetris Forever, a package that’s as much a digital museum as it is a compilation of retro Tetris games. While it’s hard to argue with the core quality of the experiences available in the package, overall I found the focus of Tetris Forever to be narrower than I had hoped – not just in terms of the history being shared, but the games themselves. It’s a good glimpse into the origins of this massive franchise, but not quite the definitive Tetris package it could have been.
More: Digital Eclipse, highlight, Tetris Forever, top
Super Mario Party Jamboree review
Posted on 7 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: October 17, 2024
Developer: NDcube
Publisher: Nintendo
Like clockwork, roughly about every three years, Nintendo releases a new Mario Party game. That may seem like a lot, but it’s easy to forget that that for most of the series’ life these titles were getting cranked out on an annual basis. Nowadays though, Nintendo is spending more time and resources on these games than ever before – and it shows. While 2021’s Mario Party Superstars felt like a refreshing trip down memory lane, Super Mario Party Jamboree raises the bar for the series on multiple levels, from its clever and dynamic game boards to its robust suite of online options and modes. My nostalgia for the older entries aside, this one represents easily some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a Mario Party game, and it’s secured a spot as my new go-to title for multiplayer madness on the. Switch Lite players will want to pause before picking this game up – but everyone else has a lot to look forward to.
More: highlight, NDCube, Super Mario Party Jamboree, top
[Review] Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered
Posted on 8 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: October 31, 2024
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture / Engine Software
Publisher: NetEase
When a game is given the label of “cult classic,” in my experience, this is typically due to one of two possible scenarios occurring. The first is that the game itself was generally deemed above average in terms of quality, but for business or marketing reasons never found a huge audience; this is the optimistic perspective. The second, more cynical perspective is that the game itself ended up as a middling experience due to creative or technical decisions, but managed to find a small fanbase in spite of these issues. Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered boldly labels itself as “a cult classic born from the most creative minds in the industry” on its store pages, so it begs the question: exactly what type of cult classic is this 2011 third-person shooter, and how does it hold up 13 years after its initial release?
[Review] Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
Posted on 9 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: September 24, 2024
Developer: Purple Lamp
Publisher: THQ Nordic
I’ve had a 2010 Wii copy of Epic Mickey sitting on my shelf for years, and as much as I had intended to experience Warren Spector’s twisted Mickey Mouse tale well before this point, for one reason or another I’ve just never gotten around to it. In this case, my patience definitely paid off. Developer Purple Lamp – who is quickly garnering a positive reputation for their work in the 3D platforming space – has invested considerable effort to free this ambitious game from the Wii’s limitations and make it accessible to modern audiences. While the Switch version of Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed has some disappointing performance issues here and there, overall, this remake is a stunning effort that deserves to be experienced by fans of both Disney and platformers alike.
More: Epic Mickey, highlight, Purple Lamp, THQ Nordic, top
[Review] Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
Posted on 9 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: August 29, 2024
Developer: Mages / Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
I like it when Nintendo gets weird. It’s usually at about this point in their consoles’ lifespans, well after they’ve sold roughly a bajillion Mario and Zelda titles, when we see them start to resurrect dormant franchises and experiment in genres that other platform holders are ignoring. So, here we are – it’s 2024, and Nintendo decided now is the perfect time to release a new entry in in the Famicom Detective Club series of visual novels, which hasn’t seen a new entry in 27 years. Emio – The Smiling Man has some compelling ideas driving its core mystery about a serial killer with an unsettling modus operandi, and initially, it had hooked. Unfortunately, this story’s lethargic pacing, tedious writing, and general lack of meaningful character development fails to live up to the high bar set by earlier entries in the series.
[Review] Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – Deluxe Edition
Posted on 11 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: July 11, 2024
Developer: Project Aces / Future Tech Lab
Publisher: Bandai Namco
While the Switch may be feeling a bit long in the tooth these days, leave it to Bandai Namco to swing for the fences with an incredibly ambitious port in the tail end of the console’s life. There’s nothing quite like Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown on the platform – dogfighting games are a rare breed in general, these days – and Ace Combat has always been a singular experience, melding fast and frenetic aerial gunplay with schlocky, yet surprisingly captivating storytelling. I’m a fan of the genre as a whole, so I was excited to see how the game would play on the Switch in what Bandai Namco is calling the game’s Deluxe Edition. While this version of Ace Combat 7 certainly is held back by the raw power of the Switch, it’s also an impressive port that retains the white-knuckle gameplay of the original release, and it captivated and challenged me from start to finish.
[Review] Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble
Posted on 12 months ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 25, 2024
Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios
Publisher: SEGA
Considering it’s been twelve years since the last original Super Monkey Ball game released, I half-expected that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble might try and and take some big risks, maybe try and swing for the fences with some crazy new single-player modes or some sort of other significant mechanical shakeup. Instead of reinventing the wheel – or indeed, the ball – Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is more focused on just being a really well-crafted Super Monkey Ball game, one that seems to understand the importance of executing its few core gameplay modes as tightly as possible while cutting out most of the extraneous distractions from other games in the series. With a robust and challenging single-player Adventure Mode, a smattering of simple yet well-designed Battle Mode activities, and robust multiplayer support across the whole package, Banana Rumble is exactly what I had hoped it would be: an a-peel-ing blast from start to finish.
