Animal Crossing: New HorizonsThe best Animal Crossing I've played. I think the franchise, as something that relies on people coming back day after day yet has limited content in-game, will always be limited unless it goes full live-service. Nonetheless, aided by offline friends and family playing it too, I enjoyed this for months more than other games in the series.
150h play time[Astral Chain]Fun action combined with mediocre detective-ing and hammy plot. Not my sort of thing, sadly.
Astral Pain[Baba Is You]Brilliant little puzzler that's tremendously clever and brutally hard. When it clicks you feel like a genius. Sadly some of the later levels took hours before they clicked,
if they clicked; and eventually it frightened me away.
Score is Eight[Bastion]I probably only played half an hour of adequate action, annoyingly narrated. Supergiant Games definitely improved on this.
5/10Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night *A pretty standard Metroidvania that's brought down by technical issues on Switch, this is still good fun. I've never played a proper Castlevania and this, with upbeat music, campy dialogue, an enjoyable arsenal, and varied (occasionally silly) foes, is what I imagine they're like. Was it worth
backing, mind you? ...eh, ask me when I've finished it properly.
6/10Bravely Default 2 *The '2' should be in inverted commas: this is 1 with shinier graphics so far. There's nothing wrong with that, in the same way there's nothing wrong with the odd McDonald's hamburger between proper meals. Even if it feels factory-made and looks horrible in your hands, it's simple and comforting; and, unlike some other old-feeling JRPGs I'll mention, it doesn't pretend to be anything but the greasy yet good heart-attack-in-a-bun it is. The very good job system is the chips and drink.
I'm likin' it/10[Bug Fables: the Everlasting Sapling]Really wants to be TTYD, but doesn't have the creative flair or enjoyable writing. Any game that features pushing ice blocks as a first dungeon puzzle needs to have a word with itself.
5/10Cat Quest 2A punny lighthearted co-op action game. It never felt like a word-beater, but we had a good time with this, and other co-op games on Switch have all too often put its quality into perspective.
6/10 7/10Creaks *What the
Machinarium bods (see below) did next, this is a challenging-but-not-brutal puzzler with a comic-creepy wordless plot that I've got a lot of time for.
7/10[Crypt of the Necrodancer: Cadence of Hyrule (or is it the other way around?)]My attempt to break into the world of roguelikes and lites ended, predictably, in failure. I didn't really get my head around the combat (which isn't the procgen's fault, granted), and disliked the few dungeons I started.
Roguedislike[Death Squared]A puzzler where the first puzzle for each level is, 'What random way will my next step kill me in?' Probably a lot more fun in co-op: then multiple people can discuss the trying-to-be-funny narrator and his cybernetic companion. You're not GLaDOS mate.
1.73/3.16 SquaredDigimon Cyber SleuthWith their branching evolutionary trees and ever-changing appearances, Digimon are harder to get attached to than Pokémon. Luckily the story and trappings (DigiFarm etc.) are strong enough to ride this out. A strong RPG.
7/10[Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age]Imagine that you fired up
Super Mario Odyssey for the first time. Imagine that the intro and Bonneton played much as they actually do: gorgeous, spectacular, heralding a magical adventure. Now imagine that instead of the Cascade Kingdom, you landed in a made-over version of
Gex: Enter the Gecko. That's DQXI: a beautiful façade that papers over the tired unoriginal skeleton of a decades-old RPG. The most disappointing game I've played so far on Switch.
III/X S[Felix the Reaper]Poor Patrick Stewart, made to narrate this absolute horse's arse of a puzzle game. The trappings are very good, but the puzzling itself is a fundamentally terrible idea. Might be worth buying at bargain prices and using a walkthrough for the whole thing, just to see the story.
4/10[Guacamelee 2] ~I fell off the
Guac 2 wagon after last time's thunderous applause. Stuck outside one of the harder platforming challenges, necessary to get the good ending, I lost my desire to continue. Still a good game, but the devilish platforming doesn't quite have the appeal of a
Celeste or a DKCTF that it needs to really pull it off.
Luchaaaaaaa.../LUCHAAAAAAAAAAA Hat in TimeThe best non-Mario 3D platformer I've played, AHiT is an absolute delight that will have something for everyone. Maybe better played off Switch; still excellent on Switch.
Hats OffHorace *Long cut-scenes have given way to a rather ugly platformer starring a clunky-feeling robot. The mechanics are interesting, especially the boots, but the game needs to start doing more with them soon.
0101/1010[Hyper Light Drifter] ~Sadly I couldn't get into this after last time's optimistic view. Smooth combat and nice visuals were counteracted by an overwhelming feel of...
oppression, I think. Oppressive, bleak difficulty, and an oppressive, bleak feel to the world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it did mean I dropped it for cheerier games. Plus I graded it 'Jaster/10' last time and then Jas didn't like it that much.
Drifting AwayJackbox Party Pack 5I acquired this in 2019, mostly to bring some life to my 30th birthday party. I got drunk, made my tape recorder robot rap out a really insensitive rhyme, and was roundly chastised.
Also the games aren't as good as 3 or 7.
6/10Jackbox Party Pack 7That's more like it. Pretty much replaces 3, with Quiplash still being Quiplash and Champ'd Up being a straight improvement on Tee K.O. Blather Round and Talking Points seem decent too.
8/10Just Shapes and BeatsBullet hell isn't my genre, but this charmed me with its aesthetics enough for me to see it through. The music was a mixed bag, but I had fun overall.
Just Sixes and Tens[Katamari Damacy Reroll]A lovely quirky game with a lovely quirky story and a lovely quirky control scheme... so why didn't I press on with it? I'm not really sure in retrospect. It's a high score challenge, at its core; and the levels went on for a bit too long. Ultimately it was probably just a victim of a crowded 2019. Maybe I'll come back to it and restore Rum's faith in me.
My, Switch really is full of games.[Lapis x Labyrinth]A 2D anime action game that I got during a lull in games releases in 2019 because Jim Sterling liked it. The pretty colours and flashing lights were fun, for a while; but the same applies to a slot machine. In either case, at the end of the day the experience is a bit underwhelming and I'm out of pocket.
5/10The Legend of Zelda: Link's AwakeningBeautiful visuals couldn't quite hide the clunky Game Boy heart of this game. Merely a good action adventure by modern standards, not a great one. Also some of the dungeons were shi-
(jumped on by our resident GRcadian)(8 bits - 1)/10[Light Fall] (
)
I think this should actually have featured in the last list, but I forgot it. That's because it's forgettable. Purple platformer that I think I played once. It wasn't bad, just completely unremarkable.
/ 10[Lost Sphear] (
)
This one definitely should have been in the last list, but honestly, can you blame me for forgetting this? In the brief bit I played, this was a by-the-numbers RPG with a nondescript art style and a plot that Kemco might have been proud of. So no. No you can't.
3/10Luigi's Mansion 3Almost a truly excellent game. If they'd joined up the floors a bit more, and made it all feel a bit more exploratory, this could have been an all-timer. As it was, we 'merely' had a fun romp around a very tactile hotel, while Luigi and his ghostly co-stars charmed the pants off us.
8/10MachinariumCzech point-and-click game. Mostly light-hearted fun, with a story told entirely without words, broken up by the odd real teeth-gritter of a puzzle.
7/10[Mechstermination Force]Why, Gunman Clive creator Bertil Hörberg? Why did you do this to us!? From two beautiful-looking beautiful-sounding fun cowboy shooty-platformers on 3DS, Hörberg went on to make this, a series of slogs against bastard hard and comparatively charmless mechanoids. I rage quit at around boss four, having not enjoyed much of it up to that point. What a fall from grace...
Mechstermination 4sMonster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
'Monster Boy, fighting for a future full of love and joy, all that good and evil's trying to destroy...' No honestly it's better than it reads. The game's good too, a solid Metroidvania that’s fun to play. A little on the generic side at times, but very polished and thoroughly enjoyable.
8/10[Monster Hunter Rise Demo]I can't really give my opinion on this because my co-op partner chose a hard weapon to use, couldn't use it, and refused to go back to the thing before its timing expired. I'm not sure
why the timing had to expire: you'd have to be pretty strange to continue to play this for months rather than picking up the full game. Regardless, I liked the movement and the level was pretty, but if I can't undo the damage this demo. has done I'm going to be down one hunter come the end of the month.
7/10 for me, 3/10 for The LadyMurder by NumbersThe dire Picross E and S series have shown that picross needs to evolve to survive, apparently by developing an Ace Attorney-like narrative. Fortunately the writing and characters are great, at least up until the final villain who might as well be kicking puppies down the stairs. The two game styles don't always merge perfectly, but that's to be expected, and the rest of the game's good enough that it can be forgiven. Really enjoyed this.
4 4/3 1 6New Super Lucky's TaleHURBLE DURBLE WURBLE DURVISH. Passable platformer hindered by duff loading times and moments so saccharine they'd make Kirby throw up.
6/10Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White WitchSuper-cute super-pretty monster-catching RPG, featuring one of the best two Welsh voice performances on the system. Somehow manages to make dull and difficult dungeons and overworld fetch quests fun, endearing, and satisfying.
Get to it Ollie-boy![Nippon Marathon]Ah look, I've dunked on this enough. It was really kind for Mas to find a game inside the GNSS budget he thought I'd get a laugh out of, and get a laugh out of it I did. That's how I'm going to score it.
Consideration score: 10/10Okami (replay) ~...eh. Don't get me wrong:
Okami is still even better now that it doesn't come with 'waggle to attack'. It's still a beautiful adventure, steeped in Japanese culture. It's still the finest Zelda game I've played that isn't Zelda. It's just, it's also a slow bastard of a game that I've already played through once.
Heavily recommended if you haven't played it before, mind.
9/10 for first-timers, 6/10 on replay[Ori and the Blind Forest]One of Matt Castle's top ten games of last generation. It's also one of my top ten games that are much less beautiful and fun than every bugger says they are.
6/10Overcooked 2Last time I did this I gave
Overcooked 1 7/10. Then we played through some more and I gave it 8/10. Then this came out and I gave it 7/10 again. Bigger, better, more - especially if you get the DLC (there's both free and paid-for options). My favourite co-op game on Switch.
Ate/10Pokémon ShieldBetter than
Digimon Cyber Sleuth? Worse? Better? Worse? Tough to call. A rushed Pokémon offering is still a good game, with lovely monster designs, new non-random encounters, a welcome return to traditional gyms (of a sort), and the tried-and-tested battle system. Heavily flawed but still fun. (The less said about the DLC the better.)
7/10[Puzzle Quest: The Legend Reborn]I played this for 15 hours.
15 hours. That may not sound like much, but I don't normally game for more than a couple of hours a day max, and I only had this for a week! Then I realised that I wasn't having any fun playing it during that week, with its dull luck-based combat and its generic fantasy stylings, and chucked it. 15 hours wasted.
4sooth/10[Raji: An Ancient Epic]As the first Indian-produced game I've played, I wanted to like this more than I did. Ultimately though, an action title with dodgy platforming and two narrators without a sense of humour between them
(breathe) was never going to be the game to make me a believer.
5/10Sakuna: Of Rice and RuinFrom Indian culture to Japanese culture, more fertile ground for me - pun very much intended. Action married to rice farming, I won't say too much about this here as I already gave it a gushing review on Gintendo. It's fab, unless you think it's not.
9/10 but with a laaaaaaaaarge
varianceSam and Max Save the World RemasteredMy first exposure to the crime-fighting duo and the best point-and-click I've played on Switch. I laughed, I cried (with laughter).
/10Sayonara Wild HeartsFor two-thirds of its short playtime, I loved this neon floaty rhythm 'experience'. I did find the last third of the game not as good, which seems to be just me. Regardless, a nice little game, and a great soundtrack.
Chariot/Wheel of Fortune[Scribblenauts Showdown]See the
Nippon Marathon comment above. Thanks to Cappa for putting the effort into finding this for me - good on you sir.
Consideration score: Dix/Dix (as in the French number, not as in Cappa's drawings)A Short HikeShort and sweet.
8/10[Spiritfarer]A slightly sad drop. I really like the graphical style, especially for the main character and her cat - they're really sweet. The game, however... I'm just not into resource management. As the ship grew, I got more stressed about keeping everybody fed and happy while managing the garden, gathering materials, cooking things etc. etc. So we've got another
Felix the Reaper situation, despite this being obviously the better game.
Not souled on itSteamworld Quest: Hand of GilgamechNobody talked about this. Why did nobody talk about this? I suppose I can understand: while it does what it sets out to do almost perfectly, what it sets out to do is quite limited, and there's not a lot that's special. It is, however, very polished. The deck-building combat is good fun, the art's vibrant, the characters are well written... Definitely worth a wishlist if you haven't played it yet.
8/10The Stretchers *The Nintendo-published game everyone forgot. Fast-paced co-op gameplay does a fair amount to make up for iffy aesthetics. Plus: sexy scientists.
5/10, 6 at a stretchSuperliminalAnother duff
Portal wannabe that doesn't make enough use of the good ideas it has.
4/10Super Mario 3D World (co-op replay, not got to Bowser's Fury yet) *It could be me. It could be my player 2. It could be the game. It could be the game viewed in the light of SMO being fresh in my memory. I don't know. What I
do know is, this is the worst 3D Mario on home consoles... which still means it's a decent game, of course.
8/10 for first-timers, 6/10 on co-op replay[Super Mario Maker 2]I was never going to dedicate hours to making my own levels, but fortunately this one has a campaign of sorts. It was fun enough! Never quite hung together, what with all the disparate styles, but better than
New Super Mario Bros. 2 anyway. One to get back to, someday, maybe.
SCORE UNDER CONSTRUCTIONTales of Vesperia *What a difference a good main character makes! Or maybe it's the Japanese dub. Or maybe it's not having to play errand-boy. Regardless, I'm really enjoying my second Tales game. The combat takes a while to click but at least it's not turn-based, the game still looks nice all these years later, and the characters are fun to spend time with.
Better than Tales of the Abyss
/10Tangle TowerAnother game that nobody talked about when they really should have. Entertainingly voice-acted and genuinely witty,
Tangle Tower still feels like the closest thing to an Ace Attorney on the console. (
Murder by Numbers differentiates itself with the whole picross 'thing', and I haven't played
Paradise Killer.) A slightly duff ending aside, this is a top story and one I'd recommend to anyone who's holding out hope for some OBJECTIONS on Switch.
8/10Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE *This is what I imagine Cappa sees in his nightmares. It's a JPG with emphasis on the J, starring high-schoolers who fit traditional anime tropes, who fight their way through turn-based battles on their way to becoming pop stars. Weebish to a fault and creepy in places, I really like the second dungeon's design and the enemies you face. Could go either way, this.
Oni/ChanThe Touryst *It's a Shin'en game. That means style over substance. The style is really nice though, and the substance is enough to keep me playing.
6/10[Transistor]Another style over substance game, the substance in this was slower and the style didn't gel so well with me. Sorry Mas.
6/10 but not as muchUnravel 2Big corporations
can produce convincing indie-alike efforts: UbiSoft
(spits) did it with
Child of Light and
Grow Home. I don't know whether EA required more control over this end product than Ubi, or whether it was just a worse team to start with. Regardless, here's a soulless co-op platformer doing its best facsimile of having a soul - but a quick tug on the woolly façade and it starts to (yes) unravel.
4/10Untitled Goose GameLovely to look at, funny to play, and, when you think about it, really quite artistic. Now playable in co-op too! My top game since the last post.
HONK/HONKVroom in the night skyTerrible. Properly properly crap. In other words, it delivered exactly what I wanted from it when I bought it; so in a way it's better than
Dragon Quest XI, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and many others.
1/10 (and still better than DQXI)[Wandersong]Really sweet without being cloying, this game feels like it needs a core gameplay loop. Instead, as well as being (intentionally) almost without challenge, it seemed quite unfocussed. I didn't get on with the art style either: looked a bit Terrance and Phillip for my tastes. Still, the dialogue's lovely.
So-so (-la-ti-do)What The Golf?If
Steamworld Quest and
Tangle Tower should have been talked about more, this one deserved to be sung about from the rooftops. I think four of us played it? It felt like I was the only one at times. A superbly funny and anarchic game, where the vague rules of golf are put to a hundred different uses, and most of them will make you smile like a loony. Progressing through the hub was surprisingly fun too. The par challenges can and will be frustrating, but that's really the only flaw on something I reckon almost everyone would enjoy. Wishlist it today. Yes, you.
9/10Wheels of AureliaDisappointingly not-terrible. Still, that's about the only positive thing you can say about this slow-paced Italian driving visual novel. Its aspirations of artistry just can't compete with a honking goose, even if it’s not a honking game.
Clapped-Out Mini/PorscheYoku's Island Express ~Last time I called this 'the happiest game I've ever played on Switch'. Big words for a little beetle, but this is a joyous pinball-Metroidvania that, despite still being 'a great advocate for traditional movement systems in exploration-based games', fully delivered on that promise. Eventually. After I'd dropped it, picked it up again, and pretty much 100%ed it.
8/10[Yooka-Laylee] ~I dropped this at around the same time, and didn't pick it up again. In my previous post I gave this 7/10 and said that it had 'started well', and I stand by that... but everybody who'd played the game seemed to say that it went downhill from that first world. And it started
well, not
brilliantly. We're not talking
A Hat in Time here. From what I heard, it didn't sound like it would be worth carrying on with, so I didn't.
7/10 but with expectations of worseYooka-Laylee and the Impossible LairThis, on the other hand, was worth carrying on with. A slick 2D platformer combined with a decent 2D Zelda-like overworld, with an enjoyable gimmick in each world having an altered version, this was a noticeable improvement over its predecessor from the off. I never finished it because the Impossible Lair itself can shove a cactus up its bum, but the rest of the game is well worth a play.
8/10 (but 2/10 for the Lair)Yoshi's Crafted World ~'I have high hopes for this game; hopes that even if the gameplay isn't 8/10 levels, the cuteness will be.' That's about right, past me. Not the soundtrack though, that gets 0/10 and a smack on the head with a clown horn.
7/10 
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Topic: 
Sun 10 Mar 2024 - 17:53
Boldface is new this year, natch.
, and the plot requires a suspension of disbelief that the game hasn't been good enough to deserve; but buoyed by this surprising upturn, I'm giving it another go.