[Review] Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – Deluxe Edition
Posted on 5 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.
[Rapid Review] Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
Posted on 5 months ago by Ethan in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: July 18, 2024
Developer: Nintendo / indieszero
Publisher: Nintendo
Nintendo World Championships NES Edition was revealed by surprise a few months back, and now it’s finally available. In a way, this game is a kind of spiritual successor to the NES Remix games on Wii U and 3DS – they’re all made by the same developer, in fact. This time around, though, the game focuses on taking a more competitive approach to the genre. In doing so, it makes itself accessible to both casual and hardcore gamers, as well as introducing a bunch of classic NES games to a brand-new audience. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was made with a wide audience in mind, so there’s something here for everyone.
[Review] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate
Posted on 5 months ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: July 17, 2024
Developer: Super Evil Megacorp
Publisher: Super Evil Megacorp
Since their debut in the 1980s, it feels as though the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always been around in some form or another, undergoing a complete visual reboot every few years to appeal to a new audience. Despite this, the franchise as a whole has remained remarkably consistent in terms of characterization, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is another iteration of the four iconic brothers. As a roguelite, it is also an interesting pivot away from the arcade and beat ’em up titles that they typically star in.
[Rapid Review] Tchia
Posted on 5 months ago by Elias in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 27, 2024
Developer: Awaceb
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Colorful islands surrounded by the vast open sea make up the archipelago explored in Tchia. Based on South Pacific island nation of New Caledonia, known for its palm-lined beaches and marine-life-rich lagoon, the world immediately shows the passion the developers hold for their homeland, and in an open-world approach that illustrates the complexity and diversity of nature unique to island life. Taking control of the title character, what sort of adventure will we find ourselves on here in the beautiful windswept islands an d across the vast open sea?
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[Review] Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon
Posted on 5 months ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 27, 2024
Developer: Type-Moon
Publisher: Aniplex
The overwhelming success of Fate/Grand Order in recent years has significantly enhanced Type-Moon’s reputation, and as a long-time fan of their work I couldn’t be happier about it, as it has resulted in a lot of their less mainstream work reaching us overseas. With the surprise Western release of Witch on the Holy Night in 2022, and the release of the critically acclaimed Fate/Stay Night confirmed for Switch in the near future, it’s a welcome surprise that Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon arrives to fill the gap between the two. This also marks the first time the game has been released to western audiences, and although it’s an incomplete package by itself, it’s another exemplary work from the developer that is definitely worth a look.
[Review] Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD
Posted on 5 months ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 27, 2024
Developer: Next Level Games / Tantalus
Publisher: Nintendo
When it was first released on the 3DS, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon never really felt like a sequel to the Gamecube title to me, and it wasn’t until the release of Luigi’s Mansion 3 on Switch that its significance really hit home. But the game simply felt too ambitious for its own good at the time and felt like it would have been a better fit for the ailing Wii U, which was better equipped to deal with its increased scope, visual style, and was also in desperate need of more games, which the 3DS never had any shortage of. But with its release on the Switch, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD feels as though it has finally been given some long overdue and much-needed room to breathe.
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[Review] Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble
Posted on 6 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.
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[Review] Moonstone Island
Posted on 6 months ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 19, 2024
Developer: Studio Supersoft
Publisher: Raw Fury
It’s always refreshing when developers make an effort to shake up a genre by injecting something new into it. It often yields unexpected surprises, or at the very least a different experience, which is equally as valuable in an overcrowded genre. Moonstone Island is another game that has taken the bold and ambitious move of throwing half a dozen different gameplay mechanics from assorted genres into a blender to see what comes out. The result is nowhere near as messy as that implies, but more care could have been taken with what was included nonetheless.
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[Rapid Review] Monster Hunter Stories for Switch
Posted on 6 months ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 14, 2024
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Monster Hunter Stories was easily one of my favorite titles on the system. The franchise lent itself surprisingly well to the monster taming genre, with a solid (albeit somewhat cliche) story behind it, an accessible rock-paper-scissors style of combat, and a gene system that added an unexpected amount of depth. But it was something of a sleeper hit, and most likely didn’t experience the franchise until the sequel, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, arrived on the Switch nearly four years later. Now, just in time for the franchise’s anniversary, Capcom has finally brought the original to the Switch. But is it too little, too late?
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[Review] Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
Posted on 6 months ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 14, 2024
Developer: Atlus
Publisher: SEGA
It took almost five years for Shin Megami Tensei V to release after it was first revealed and now, less than three years later, Atlus are re-releasing it as Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. It’s an extremely bad habit the company has maintained over the years with both the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series in particular, but it’s difficult to be angry when the amount of additional content added, combined with the quality-of-life changes, transform the game to feel like a completely different title. Any ill will I felt towards Atlus for doing this yet again evaporated within the first half hour, as Vengeance proved to be yet another case of fixing something I didn’t even realize was broken.
