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We're doing the contest thing!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/76606/win-a-four-day-pass-to-pax-west-2026
We've partnered with PAX to give away a total of five (5) four-day badges for PAX West 2026 in Seattle, WA. Follow the link to the contest page below:
Be sure to complete your entry soon because the contest closes on August 2, 2026 at 11:59pm PT. Good luck!
I'm seeing double here. Two Yunas!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76509/final-fantasy-x--x-2-hd-remaster-switch-2-review-and-tech-comparison
Originally released on PlayStation 3, the package of Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster is seemingly available everywhere under the sun, so it's no surprise to see it also receive a dedicated Switch 2 release. What is surprising, and disappointing, is that the Switch 2 version is almost indiscernible from the Switch 1 release. On my Switch 2 home screen, the virtual game cards use exactly the same image and title, and so the only way I knew which version was which was to boot one up and see if it had my 2019 save file from when I originally reviewed FFX HD Remaster. With both remastered packs still on the eShop, it begs the question why anyone would grab the Switch 2 version at all, considering potential discounts on other platforms. With that said, X and X-2 are still well worth experiencing for those who have never stepped foot in the world of Spira.
Final Fantasy X was one of the showcase pieces for the PlayStation 2 hardware back in 2001, a year after that console hit store shelves and after three mainline Final Fantasy games on Sony’s previous home console, the original PlayStation. While FFX is a largely linear turn-based RPG, it does open up near the end with multiple sidequests to complete ahead of the final battle with antagonist Sin. It tells the tale of summoner Yuna’s pilgrimage to protect the world from Sin’s destruction, but also the relationship that develops between Yuna and the game’s protagonist, Tidus. The story remains a standout among not only the Final Fantasy franchise but the RPG genre as a whole, and the unique sphere grid progression system holds up as one of the most memorable elements compared to classic level ups and stat raises. There are scores of touching and endearing moments between the other main characters–Lulu, Auron, Wakka, Kimari, and Rikku–and even if some of the dungeon segments can be frustrating, the world still feels alive and on edge.
Final Fantasy X-2 represents a fairly major departure from its predecessor in terms of both narrative, gameplay, and style. While still a turn-based RPG, it returns to the active-time battle first introduced in FFIV, and features a main cast of only three: Yuna, Rikku, and newcomer Paine. The three characters are sphere hunters who search out video spheres to discover more about Spira and also employ dresspheres as a way of changing classes, like the job system of FFV, and can even switch dresspheres mid-battle if and when the situation demands. The story also plays out in a much more non-linear fashion compared to FFX, with chapters and missions, rather than a single, straight-forward plot. From their airborne ship, they fly from location to location completing missions, fighting off random encounters, and acquiring spheres. It's a lot of fun to visit with characters from the previous game, like Wakka and Lulu, and even just to be recognized as a savior of the world, in Yuna’s case. Still, a bit more patience is required in figuring out exactly what each mission requires and where you need to go, especially with so much of what you can do being optional. For those who loved FFX and want to go back, FFX-2 is a fascinating return and also departure from the more standard RPG plot and structure that came before, and I can't help but admire it for that.
Speaking more technically about this Switch 2 version, there are some subtle distinctions once you get under the hood and spend some time with both titles. For one, the Switch 1 versions display at 1080p compared to 1440p on the Switch 2. While both versions run at 30 fps, there is improved texture filtering present in the Switch 2 games, as you can see right here. Unfortunately, that's basically the end of the story, and given the lack of meaningful updates, it's a shame that Switch 1 owners who already purchased the game can't just upgrade to the ever so slightly improved Switch 2 release.
Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster is an excellent package if you just consider the merits of the two games in a vacuum. However, we're seeing a glaring pattern emerge where Square Enix is bringing older titles, RPGs especially, to Switch 2 as full retail releases without any possibility of data carry over or any form of modest or reasonable upgrade path. In a time where anti-consumer practices are becoming more and more the norm, I would hope against hope to see more flexibility from publishers, large and small, to reward rather than punish early adopters and fans who have already supported them. If you're new to Final Fantasy and RPGs or a veteran who's never dabbled with FFX, this is a good place to start, but you can likely find the package on sale elsewhere and wouldn't be missing out on any vital Switch 2 boosts.
Fight boss. Become boss. Little room for error.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76507/gurei-switch-review
There’s something so pure about the boss rush genre that I can’t help but be drawn to it, and when I saw that the debut release from Brazilian developer Lobo Sagaz Studio combined the aesthetic of Silksong with some impressively unique boss rush gameplay, I was definitely curious to give it a shot. Through its dominant black and white color scheme, one-on-one combat, and sword-wielding protagonist, it evokes Japanese samurai films. It also employs a novel progression system in its run-based structure that rewards experimentation and learning from your mistakes. More than just your powers of observation, Gurei also requires a deft hand and precise timing to make your way through its punishingly tough gauntlet of opponents.
You play as heroine Rei, who awakens under a sigil of colorful flames within a ruined castle. From the centre of the castle, you're given the freedom to choose your path, seeking out the 10 bosses whose likelinesses are made physical in a statue just above your starting location, a statue that's very much akin to the same in Super Metroid. Your first real task is to locate each of your opponents, none of which is too far away. Each presents a unique fight and bestows a special ability or power when you conquer them, but they also scale in difficulty the more bosses you eliminate.
And therein is Gurei's greatest trick: the more powerful and capable you become, the more adept your foes become. How this manifests is both in terms of Rei being unable to do as much damage with her basic strikes given more stout defense that she faces, but each boss also has more tricks up their proverbial sleeves. If you choose to take on the red Snake first, you’ll find that it has really only two attacks; if you wait until after you’ve taken down half a dozen other bosses first, the bout becomes much more challenging, with four or five different attacks you need to watch out for. Some of the ways that the boss fights change depending on when you initiate them are really interesting, like the yellow Peafowl at first giving you a choice of which weapon it brings into battle and later forcing you to engage it with all of its armament equipped. The more you play, the better sense you have of which boss orders are more favorable and which are an absolute nightmare. The encounter with the orange Catfish is child’s play at level 1, but leave it for one of your final four and its robust exterior and increased arsenal may be too much to overcome.
Another wrinkle that needs to be underscored is that Gurei is run-based and doesn’t let you carry over progress from one run to the next, outside of minor interactions with spirits and other denizens haunting the castle. Every successful boss encounter gives you an extra life to use in future fights, but once those run out, your run is over and you need to start over from scratch. The ominous “last chance” message that displays prior to starting your last life is a glaring reminder that it’s truly do or die, and so maybe you choose to take on a different opponent with the hope that the skill they pass on to you could be the one to push you a bit further along. Defeated bosses also make a running commentary during the rest of your run, potentially offering advice or sharing their feelings about an upcoming encounter. My prevailing sentiment was that I really enjoyed experimenting with different boss paths and learning about which skills worked best with my playstyle, but the built-in delay with Rei’s dodge did leave me feeling frustrated fairly often.
Gurei takes a growing modern genre and adds some novel wrinkles to it, creating an ultimately unique experience. One annoying issue with the game is the high number of crashes, which forced me back to the Switch home menu on nearly every run; the game’s autosave meant I never lost any progress, but I was constantly worrying that I would experience a crash during one of the boss fights, rather than before or after–which added unnecessary tension beyond what the game was already offering. I’m a major fan of how the bosses scale up as you take down their compatriots, leading to tough but meaningful choices as you plan out the route of each run. Those who enjoy the difficulty of titles like Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, and Nine Sols will relish how much Gurei pushes you, but it will need a patch to address the crashes before I wholeheartedly recommend it.
It's easier to remember when everything ends with “mon”.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76421/digimon-story-time-stranger-switch-2-review
I had long been interested in the recent Digimon games after hearing positive buzz for them, with words like “underrated” bandied about. I only had slight exposure to the brand in my youth, but I ended up recognizing more of the creatures than I would have guessed after picking up Digimon Story Time Stranger for review. With the title newly arrived on Switch 2, it felt like the perfect opportunity to put the game through its paces. Does it approach the threshold of “Pokemon Killer/Competitor”? Decidedly not, but it's a decent turn-based RPG with some interesting story elements, particularly in the second half.
You're essentially dropped into the middle of the story after selecting your starting partner Digimon, with a cataclysmic event impacting the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. You play as a male or female agent of ADAMAS, a group who investigates strange phenomena, and one that effectively guides you through the story via a healthy drip feed of objectives. In a nutshell, you end up travelling to the digital world and working to stop evil Digimon called “Titans” from taking over and causing reverberations across time that can and have impacted the human world. The way that the narrative plays out is a bit odd, with certain main quests being as simple as moving across the map, while others are much, much more involved. Once the adventure gets going, you essentially travel to a new area or biome, explore a linear dungeon, and then fight a boss before heading back to base. The loop is familiar but can feel barebones at times. Fortunately, the latter half of the game shakes things up to an extent, but the early game can sometimes play out at a snail's pace.
Pokemon fans (and Digimon fans, too) will recognize the creature collecting, evolving, and battling that make up a major part of Digimon Story Time Stranger. Instead of catching individual Digimon, you can synthesize a copy of one after you've battled it enough; additionally, the more times you battle up to a 200% threshold, the stronger your Digimon can become, so it pays to let them cook as long as possible. Enemies are plentiful in the dungeon spaces, and speed up options make quick work of fights. You can also gain an advantage by Digi-attacking nearby Digimon, when you're not using the Digi-attack to destroy barriers or find hidden items. The dungeon spaces, both indoors and outdoors, end up being reused and revisited, as you might expect from a game involving time travel, but I wish they were a bit more lively or interesting.
The combat is genuinely enjoyable, with a special move called a Cross Art you can build up as you take actions in battle. While there are a number of these to unlock, you can only bring a single one into a fight, which is an annoying restriction. The turn-based fights are brisk, until you run into some of the damage-sponge bosses that are generally pretty tough, but a good measure of your team's preparedness. I skated through the first 10 hours with few problems, but the game's second half provides a much greater challenge and basically forces you to learn the ins and outs of Digimon typing and evolution, while also grinding out levels, collecting, and side quests. I didn’t notice at first that Digimon have a level cap, so you need to pay attention to small details like that.
Where Digimon Story Time Stranger suffers is in the lack of a clear villain figure. RPGs that introduce a central antagonist too late can fail to engage the player in their story and thus make it harder to compel them forward. I found the same with this game, such that I had hoped the major boss you encounter at the story's halfway mark was going to be followed by the credit roll. But as I discovered, you need to return to the digital world of the Digimon, after visiting in the past, to see how things have changed in the future. It's here where the game uses literal evolution of characters in some neat ways, tying their development as beings to mental or emotional growth and realization. I just wish we had gotten to more moments like that before the 12 to 15-hour mark.
I couldn't help but notice the DNA of titles like Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, even more specifically a hidden gem like Tokyo Mirage Sessions. There's a darkness and seriousness to some of the plot elements, and even a sophistication to Digimon progress and development that would make more sense to competitive Pokemon trainers than those who only “gotta catch'em all”. As a Pokemon fan, I can be counted among the many who have bemoaned the series' insistence of being geared towards children, and so Digimon Story Time Stranger does serve as a nice foil to Game Freak's creation in terms of being more mature. That said, even as a seasoned RPG player, I did find some of the ways Digimon were classified, categorized, or even how they could switch to different personalities a bit daunting, so fair warning if you want a more casual or straightforward experience.
Digimon Story Time Stranger is a fine turn-based RPG with creature collecting and some rough story and progression edges. A notable feather in its cap is how smooth it runs and how nice it looks on Switch 2, not to mention miniscule load times both portably and on TV. I'm glad to have finally checked out a modern Digimon game, even if my expectations weren't fully met, and I'm curious what form the next one ends up taking. Maybe start with clear bad guys that aren't just evil Digimon.
Infusing horror theming works wonders for this cozy life sim.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76266/moonlight-peaks-switch-2-review
Vampires, werewolves, and witches all make an appearance in Moonlight Peaks, not so they can do the Monster Mash, but so they can find peace and tranquility in a small charming town. As the child of Dracula, you start the game leaving home and escaping the shadow of your imposing father, complete with a text conversation with mom about your sudden departure. It's a breath of coffin-fresh air to have Halloween season so pervasive in a farming game, and it ends up working well given how much Moonlight Peaks leans in. Magic spells go hand in hand with axes and shovels, and the result is almost a surefire recommendation for fans of cozy time.
Unsurprisingly, you inherit a homestead overcrowded with trees, tall grass, rocks, and an abundance of potential. Your first objective isn't the one you'll complete first, but it introduces you to one of the most important characters and teases his Achilles heel. For vampire Olrock, you're tasked with bringing him a bottle of red wine, and getting there involves prepping your farm space, growing the grapes, constructing a cask, and then producing the wine. Shortly after, you meet his kids who also live in Moonlight Peaks, but you also discover how much of a weakness this fellow has for imbibing. By that time, you'll have picked up enough of the basics, which is helpful for those less familiar with the genre. That said, Moonlight Peaks does very much feel like a game designed for diehard fans looking for something unique.
How then is Moonlight Peaks different from a Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley? One of the main distinctions is obvious at first glance, the purple tinge that infects nearly every aspect of the visuals. The claymation-esque, Animal Crossing-like characters have an endearing look to them, but I wish their character portraits didn't look so different; the side-by-side is a bit jarring. The perpetual nighttime in which you experience the game makes sense for your vampire avatar, but never seeing daytime did start to weigh on me as the days rolled by.
The other major difference is in terms of a mana meter and the spells that use it. Once you get your broken magic wand repaired, you have access to an ethereal watering can that can be summoned to water some of your plants. From Sabrina's shop in town, you can purchase additional spells, like summoning individual tools to break rocks, or conjuring a pair of hands to help you harvest crops. This latter spell has an annoying drawback in that you basically can't take any other actions while the hands are gathering your produce, so some spells are clearly less useful than others. The restrictive mana meter and cumbersome process for refilling it end up muting the effectiveness of the magic system to an extent, but it fits the theme well and adds to the novelty in what's become a wellworn gameplay loop.
What's particularly enjoyable is the random story events that pop up as you move to different sections of the village, like Luna's farm, the swamp, or the vampires' manor. Some of these introduce new quests to take on; many give you insight into the townsfolk and their own stories and quirks. When you put nose to the grindstone and focus on your farming, you can still get visits from your acquaintances and letters that keep you connected to them. It's fun to learn more about how each person feels about their neighbours, especially when they're siblings or parents and kids. Seeing the genuine concern for Orlock from his kids, or the struggle between mayor Brook and his brother Ridge always makes for a compelling scene. Exchanges of animosity and frustration balance out ones of amazement and comedy such that the narrative moments end up being the most memorable.
Should you be in a rush to get hitched, you may grow impatient when the apple of your eye takes a while to warm up to you. In spite of my daily visits and gifts, I waited many a night for barista-baker Mina to show interest. Therein lies the difficulty in playing a game like Moonlight Peaks for review, where the enjoyment derives more in stretching out the experience rather than pushing through as fast as possible. In shorter sessions, there's less repetition, but even on a more condensed schedule, I could gain a great sense of the possibilities for relationships, with effectively no restrictions. There doesn't appear to be an option to have kids, but you can date multiple characters at once, so go ahead and woo a vampire and a witch simultaneously, if your undead heart so desires.
In addition to the aforementioned magic spells, you can also gain transformations that make traversal much faster. One sees you turn into a Hellcat, much like the one you have at home as a pet, which lets you sprint across town at double speed. Another turns you into a bat, which improves your mobility by letting you fly over hedges and other barriers. Fortunately, these don't cost mana and serve as a worthwhile reward for playing through the story rather than just devoting yourself to the farmstead.
A truly staggering aspect of Moonlight Peaks is how many recipes and blueprints you acquire while digging, mining, and completing requests. Completionists and designers will love to keep building up their stable of possible dishes, furniture, and decorations, but the sheer number of these discoveries could somewhat cheapen them for someone who's more into the story and the relationships. There's a decent number of structures to build, tool upgrades, and even recipes to prepare from the outset, and through the process of completing quests you'll open up the devices and structures to create to your heart's content. In short, game's got a lotta stuff in it.
Moonlight Peaks is a life sim with a unique backdrop and a keen awareness of what makes these types of games appealing. The gothic vibes add freshness to a genre filled with replicas, and the transformations and spells, while not perfect, make for a pleasant complement. There's plenty to do on your monstrous homestead and a charming collection of neighbors into whose lives you can insert yourself, however much you choose. It's worth noting that stamina and mana meters can feel a bit restrictive, especially early on, and the purple tinged nights of the spring and summer seasons can grow tiresome. All in all, though, Moonlight Peaks is a delightful cozy experience that is built for fans of the genre and welcoming enough to newcomers as well.
Retro vibes, decent co-op options, but not much else.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76094/dark-scrolls-switch-review
Dark Scrolls is an auto side-scrolling action game that shares DNA with a handful of 8-bit classics like Gauntlet, The Legend of Zelda, and Ghosts ‘N Goblins. Given that it’s a video game releasing in the year of our Lord 2026, you won’t be surprised to learn that it also incorporates rogue-like elements. With nine playable characters from a starting roster of three and both local and online co-op, there are some sound reasons to give this one a shot. However, the basic gameplay loop is fairly uninspired and rarely feels good given some awkward albeit novel conventions.
The game opens on an unskippable cutscene that yields background on what exactly your goal is: naturally, the titular dark scrolls, and the heroes who will be setting out to find them. To start with one of the annoying elements of Dark Scrolls, to ever secure one, you need to finish a run of the game and then start over with the object you acquire, essentially a key, so that you can then take a different path that will now be open to you. The map screen will be familiar to anyone who’s played Castlevania or Ghosts ‘N Goblins, but the procedurally generated stages lack the charm of those old school Konami and Capcom adventures. Having to replay the multiple stages in hopes of not dying once and ruining your run does not make for a very fun time.
I spent most of my time playing as the mage, who has exceptional range on their basic attack but deals less damage than the barbarian or thief. It wasn’t long before I unlocked a dog from a cage who became my fourth character, and added a nice bit of levity to the experience. The mage can perform a dash-type move to reach greater heights and damage enemies, but like the movement in general, it’s difficult to be precise; when you hit the top of the screen, you end up being pushed sharply to the side. Unlike developer Doinksoft’s earlier game, Gato Roboto, which was a smooth handling Metroidvania, Dark Scrolls feels clunky and unwieldy by comparison. I was intrigued by how different the unlockable characters are, but I wasn’t enjoying my time enough to want to acquire them.
Each character charges up a star meter by attacking enemies and bosses, with a full meter being able to activate a super move. The mage, for instance, gains a rotating shield of orbs that deflect projectiles and can deal continuous damage to nearby enemies; the thief can turn invisible to avoid detection for a short time. Coins dropped from defeated foes and treasure chests can be spent to purchase perks at the shop found within each stage, but the surprise comes from how the perks only activate as part of your star meter either being drained or filled, rather than at will. It’s an interesting system, but I found it hard to fully appreciate, especially how expensive the upgrades became in later stages.
While you only have a single life, certain mechanics do make it easier to make steady progress. For one, enemies sometimes drop hearts to refill your health, which you sorely need given how much damage you receive and how short your invincibility window after a hit. A third of the way into every level you encounter an enemy gauntlet where the stage stops autoscrolling and you need to clear the area of foes within a brief time limit. Surviving nets you precious coins, but wiping out all the enemies also opens up a cannon that lets you skip the middle third of that level, a fitting reward given the challenge inherent with a full clear.
However far your run goes, you also build up a score that gets translated into gems to spend in the sparsely populated hub town of Dark Scrolls. For a handful of gems, you can acquire new perks that get added to the in-stage shopkeeper’s pool, and let me tell you about just how crucial it is that you pick up game-changers like the heart fairy perk, which drops hearts periodically over a short period. You can save up 100 gems to purchase a new character, which is a tall task when a failed run might only net you three to five gems in total. A neat mechanic is that each character has their own achievements to work on, and finishing these tasks unlocks new optional upgrades just for them to use. I just wish these came with some kind of manual.
While there are multiple paths through the game, it does feel like an experience that's best enjoyed with a friend given that the minute-to-minute gameplay doesn't feel overly fresh or really pop aesthetically. It was never clear if what I had accomplished or spent coins on was going to carry over to the next run. A bit too much is left up to the player to figure out, and I would have welcomed a bit more transparency while I struggled through my first couple hours with the game. By the time I hit my stride, I was bored of fighting the same enemies and bosses over and over. Short bursts and co-op play feel like the best ways to enjoy Dark Scrolls. Even then, there's really not enough charm or polish to shine through an experience that references the classics without containing what gives them staying power.
Tales as old as time.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/76095/the-adventures-of-elliot-the-millennium-tales-switch-2-review
Square Enix's HD-2D art style has to this point been applied to the realm of turn-based RPGs, namely the Octopath games and Triangle Strategy. The Adventures of Elliot is not an RPG like those; it's a Zelda-like, adopting mechanics and conventions from a variety of classic Zelda titles. Fortunately, it also contributes its own unique flavor to a very familiar formula. Despite some repetitive moments and the Magicite system lacking depth, The Millennium Tales is an experience as enjoyable as many of those set in Hyrule.
Adventure is both the name of the game and the well-worn job title of its daring hero, Elliot. No task is too big for him, from rescuing stray cats, retrieving lost heirlooms, and sure, breaking a world-threatening curse. It's easy (and fun) to step away from the main quest involving Princess Heuria, who has the power to protect her kingdom from the surrounding, and encroaching, beast tribes. The relatively small map doesn't take long to cross, but when you discover that your journey takes you to the same world across four different ages, the possibilities and quests multiply. That said, it is a bit disappointing to see how similar the map is in each era, which often left me with a feeling of deja vu, particularly within dungeons and caves.
Different from a typical Zelda, it isn't always a new power or tool you acquire from the dungeons and ruins scattered about. Instead, it might just be an upgrade to your current repertoire of weapons or a heart piece to help bolster your health. On multiple occasions I would wander into a random dungeon and find that I didn't have what I needed to progress; at times, fairy companion Faie would even point out the futility of such excursions, which would push me to explore a new area or get back to the main story. In the first half of the game, I felt compelled to seek out designated temples that would give Faie new powers, reward Elliot with heart pieces, or even serve as a combat trial to increase your capacity for accessories. The designated temples are very reminiscent of Breath of the Wild's shrines and help to power up Elliot for the tougher challenge of the game's second half.
It's not before you acquire the base weapons in Elliot's kit, all of which have their own utility. Bombs, arrows, and a boomerang come as standard hero fare, but the spear, hammer, and chain sickle let players choose their own tool of destruction. Each weapon has a charged special attack that can put out extra damage and effect at the cost of leaving you a bit more vulnerable. The chain sickle and its constant whirling while charging was my preference, but I also loved charging the boomerang and watching it spin in place and whittle down enemy health bars. You can eventually find upgraded weapons, two-star and then three-star, in a variety of locations, and these are worth seeking out for a damage boost and some unique effects.
Another reward and currency relates to Magicite, not to be confused with Final Fantasy 6's crystals of the same name. In The Millenium Tales, Magicite functions as a way of further buffing each weapon and tailoring them to your playstyle, but most just raise your attack power, your crit chance, or your crit damage. The ones for the bomb weapon are a bit more interesting, like freezing enemies who come in contact with the bombs, but the game rarely challenges you to the point where the more novel Magicite are worth chasing or swapping for. You can spend money to raise the number of Magicite you can equip, but I rarely tinkered with my setup past the halfway point. While they do serve as a reward or incentive for exploration, I can’t say the experience would change much at all if Magicite were taken out.
Elliot's version of companion/guide Navi, the very chatty Faie, gains powers of her own, which mostly function as a way of solving different puzzles. Controlled with the right stick, she can catch fire to burn enemies and light torches, warp Elliot to her position, and allow Elliot to sprint by attaching herself to his back. Some of these abilities are more useful than others, and some are found so late into the adventure that I rarely used them. It's possible that completionists will find more utility in Faie's upgrades, but I might have been able to bypass some of these benefits by purchasing an accessory that allowed me to float. If a single accessory can skew the difficulty curve so much as to render your fairy companion obsolete, its inclusion may have been a mistake. It did help me roll credits in under 15 hours, though.
Don't be alarmed by my time to beat the game because multiple endings and hidden secrets compel you to look beyond simply defeating the final boss. Each town in the different eras is struggling with its own conflicts, in addition to their share of the main story. Whether it's a clan fracturing between magic users and non, or technology running amok, all of these issues fall to Elliot's capable shoulders. That's not to mention fully voiced sidequests that can be as heartwarming as heartwrenching, and even if the tangible rewards might not always seem meaningful, the narrative beats are well worth the effort. Who better than Elliot to help a musician improve their craft by visiting with a songwriter from a different time, or to pass the note of a soldier's final words to his family?
In under five minutes, Elliot can visit a forest, frozen tundra, desert, or swamp as each map hides more beneath than it does on the surface. Fast travel points are helpful, but almost feel a bit unnecessary, at least within the map of a single era. It wouldn't be a stretch to think of The Adventures of Elliot as evoking both Oracle of Seasons and Ages in a single breath. But whereas 2D Zelda games in particular can sometimes feel quite linear, The Millennium Tales feels incredibly open in terms of how you can spend your time. If you enjoy Zelda-style gameplay with lots of activities to complete albeit without a ton of distinct rewards and upgrades, the gorgeous aesthetic and soundtrack make for a memorable experience. The presentation and docked performance on Switch 2 are high points for the game, but I did encounter a softlock and noticed framedrops in handheld mode when taking on a larger number of foes. What doesn't work gameplay-wise is the repeated mini-boss fights, an issue made more painful because the unique major boss encounters are quite satisfying.
If The Adventures of Elliot become as numerous as the legends of Zelda, you'll find me a willing participant, despite the shortcomings of this maiden voyage. The inspirations are clear, but so too is the understanding of what makes for enjoyable minute-to-minute gameplay. The longer you play, the more the cracks begin to show, but the story manages to push you forward and the hidden plots beneath it make going out of your way an oft fulfilling detour. The red mage-looking Elliot has made a fan out of me, and if Link ever wants to take a break from stopping Ganon, Square Enix has a capable backup waiting in the wings.
Tomb Raider and SnowRunner, come on down!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/75975/two-games-shadowdropping-on-the-eshop-today
As we've come to expect from a Nintendo Direct, two full games are shadowdropping on the eShop today: 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider and 2020's SnowRunner.
SnowRunner had already been released on Switch in 2021, and now we have a dedicated Switch 2 version of the simulation game that also comes as a free upgrade for owners of the original.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration includes all of the previously released DLC and is the follow up to Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, which came to Switch 2 in 2025.
Two very different games, but is either one going to be joining your digital library in the near future?
One now and one this fall.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/75974/turn-based-rpg-fans-get-metaphor-and-more-deltarune
This morning's Direct presentation ensured that turn-based RPG fans were still eating good with Chapter 5 for Deltarune coming on June 24, which is just over a year since Chapters 1-4 hit Switch 2.
If Atlus' Persona and SMT series are more your style, Metaphor: ReFantazio was also announced for Switch 2, with a release date of November 12. A worthy follow up to those aforementioned games, Metaphor offers dozens of hours of dungeon crawling and challenging boss battles with some neat progression systems.
We'll have these two games and more to help tide us over while waiting for the eventual port of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
On the planet Bitter, it's hard to feel anything but.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/75485/starbites-switch-review
The RPG genre is rich with a variety of stories, systems, and styles. It's exciting when a new IP emerges that looks to make its mark in the space–let alone outer space. While no one can hear you scream out there, I'm confident that they would have heard my sighs and groans as I made my way through Starbites, an NIS America published, turn-based RPG that follows the exploits of a salvager named Lukida who yearns to leave her home, and mountain of debt, behind. Unfortunately, glaringly unattractive visuals and frustrating bugs make it tough to enjoy the solid combat and multi-faceted progression.
Protagonist Lukida is a plucky go-getter who aspires to secure her freedom after accruing an insurmountable debt on planet Bitter, with curmudgeon Fennec constantly reminding Lukida about her effective servitude. Fennec oversees the hub city of Delight, where the story begins, and a series of escapades see Lukida and her comrades Gwendoll (aptly named) and Badger (somewhat aptly named) explore the surrounding areas and encampments in pursuit of ever-changing goals. The motivations of the characters are puzzling, with the group at times cursing Fennec and her stranglehold of their society and at other moments feeling sorry for her. Later characterization helps with this to an extent, but the slow opening 10 hours are difficult to push through, for a multitude of reasons.
Compounding the narrative shortcomings are some of the worst visuals I've seen on Switch for an RPG of this size and backing. The words “muddy” and “faded” could be said to be effective choices for the desolation and dystopia that the people of Bitter live through, but it's the player that suffers as much, if not more, than the cast and their compatriots. From what I've seen in trailers and other footage and screens, other versions of Starbites are performing more admirably and looking sharper, but our Switch 1 review copy, in spite of being played on Switch 2 hardware, is genuinely tough to stomach. This is also coming from possibly the least sensitive staffer at NWR when it comes to things like resolution and performance.
For more than half of the game's 15 to 25-hour runtime, you'll be exploring a barren, lifeless desert, a space literally devoid of life save for a small encampment and a hidden hive of scum and villainy. Later biomes aren't much more intriguing. Even when you think you're done with the desert, it manages to pull you back in. The robot enemies you encounter are incredibly generic and far too difficult to tell apart. There's lots of treasure to find for the more intrepid, and helpful recharge pads every so often that refill your health and Talent Points (TP) and allow you to save, and you'll want to do this every time you see one given the crashes and softlocks that occur about once an hour, at least for me. A sore point, among many, in the second half of the game was when I spent all my money on weapon upgrades only to find basically every single one in a chest within the subsequent dungeon.
It's not all doom and gloom for Lukida and her pals; the combat system being reminiscent of Octopath Traveler's weaknesses and breaks is a welcome sight. Each character's basic attack is associated with a different element, in addition to all of their attacking special moves having their own affinities. By the end, everyone on the roster has the capacity to hit three or more different weaknesses, making every three-person party composition viable. Breaking an enemy also allows for a support character not in the active party to pop in for a few extra hits. Adding to the flexibility is the way levelling up earns you points to spend across three types of progression trees. You can focus on stats like attack power, HP, defense, or improving certain abilities, like making your healing moves cost less TP or be more potent. I'm always happy to see choice-based progression like this, allowing even more naturally offensive-inclined characters to be more stout or tankier characters more deadly. The mecha the characters control have some flashy moves, too, but performance can take a major hit during some of these abilities.
Another particularly neat element of the combat is the Driver High mechanic, which functions almost like S-Crafts from the Nihon Falcom Trails RPGs. As a character takes and deals out damage, their DH meter gradually fills, and when full, you can activate the Driver High to give that character a second turn, even jumping ahead of an enemy in the queue (if you're quick enough). In addition to a boost in strength, every character's special moves can gain new perks or elemental affinities. This adds another interesting layer of strategy in terms of timing when to use your Driver High to break a vulnerable foe or save a reeling teammate.
Where combat stumbles is in terms of the damage sponge bosses and the apparent punishment for being underleveled. Boss fights end up being fairly scarce overall, but I basically had to grind my way to victory after every first encounter with them. Even then, the game seems to force a reliance on items and attrition given how quickly you can run out of TP and need to recharge. In a few situations early on, I ran into routine fights with seemingly regular enemies where my normal and special attacks would miss more often than not, which led to some major frustration before I went back and leveled up some more. It's a very odd design to tie weapon accuracy, rather than raw damage, to a potential mismatch between your party level and that of the roaming foes, so be cautious about strolling into unfamiliar territory where your party members seemingly lose all hand-eye coordination.
There are plenty of fetch-questy side missions to take on if you need extra cash and items; some offer rare crafting materials and equipment, too. You're not always rewarded for your exploratory efforts, but occasionally you'll come across a game changing weapon that pushes you towards keeping a particular comrade in your party, as was the case for me with Gwendoll and her sniper rifle. Without a doubt, she put out the most damage of anyone on my roster, and so I used Lukida to keep the damage buffs flowing and Makobo to keep the enemies’ defenses in tatters.
It's not uncommon for an RPG to start slow and build to a satisfying climax and conclusion, and while the plot of Starbites does improve and diverge wildly in equal measure, the putrid aesthetic and repetition make for a slog of a time most of the way through. I did find Lukida to be an endearing hero, as she shares a number of close bonds that show how she has inserted herself into the lives of those around her. That said, inexcusable crashes and softlocks plagued my time with Starbites past the first 5 hours of the game, pushing me to the limit in terms of actually wanting to roll credits. When it wasn't the bugs and performance doing it, it was the repetitive, boring dungeons that nearly had me cast aside my controller. Sadly, Starbites neither aims high enough to get anywhere near the stars, nor does it have enough firepower to even breach the atmosphere. If you do somehow feel compelled to play it, leave the Switch version buried in the desert where it belongs.
Twin-stick shooting that transports you to a new plane of existence.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/75480/sektori-switch-2-review
If you combine the thrill of arcade-style high score chasing, the vibe of a pulsing dance club, and the visual spectacle of a fireworks warehouse explosion, you get Sektori, as addictive a video game as any I've ever played. At its core a twin-stick shooter, the elegant simplicity of its controls allows the full spectacle and impact of its aesthetic to take center stage. Sektori takes minutes and transforms them into hours, making it the closest thing to time travel that I've ever experienced, and what a trip it's been.
Across a variety of modes, you pilot a triangular ship called the Redeemer, which can be customized in terms of appearance as you unlock new palettes and propulsion effects. A couple other ships can also be unlocked. Once you've selected a suitable vehicle, jumping into the campaign mode gives you the first unforgettable taste of what Sektori is all about. Around you various enemy shapes materialize as your environment contorts and conforms into different sizes and designs, meaning you need to spend as much time shooting as you do moving to a new vantage point or safe space. Your only other move besides shooting is a short, straight dash that ends in a small explosion around your ship; this strike attack can save you from a tight spot or help you set off a chain reaction of strikes if you manage to explode or cut through a bomb token. Collecting enough pick ups from defeated foes allows you to upgrade your ship's capabilities, like speed and weapons, Gradius-style, and eventually you'll survive long enough to face a screen-filling boss.
Across three difficulty modes, the challenge ramps up significantly, but even the first setting offers a satisfyingly tough experience. Failure is often humbling, and I have no issue admitting that I’m not the best at twin-stick shooters, but the way in which each new attempt feels unique is a key incentive to make just one more run. The enemy patterns, progression, and music can and do switch up from run to run, and when you want a break from the campaign, additional game modes can hold your attention as much if not more than the campaign does.
Touching on each of the six extra modes briefly, we begin with Classic, which sees the playing field remain static while your score multiplier increases the longer you ignore the single token that upgrades your ship and recharges your shield. I love the relative simplicity of this mode and the stark risk-reward proposition of it.
Surge sees you flip flop between strong and weak forms as you try to last long enough to gather a new token and turn into a geometric super Saiyan for a few moments. Lots of enemies show up in short order, making for an intense race to score high and fast.
Gates is a mode that I shunned early on but that really grew on me over time. Your weapons and strike are disabled, and your objective is to fly through laser gates that gradually materialize on screen, causing a large explosion that gives you a little more breathing room. Tokens also appear to help you thin out the growing mass of enemies. I like the focus on maneuvering and escaping that feels unique compared to other parts of Sektori.
The aptly named Crash puts the focus squarely on your strike ability, namely a special triple strike that lets you dash and burn multiple times in succession. Essentially, you're striking around the map and chasing bomb tokens as they appear to ratchet up your score.
The wave-based Assault removes the randomness built into Sektori and presents you with the same enemy waves each time you play. That said, it may be the hardest of the extra modes given its 3-minute time limit and the quick ramp up in difficulty, wherein collecting the special green token advances you to the next wave.
Boss Rush is both an obvious choice of game mode to include in the bunch and also an obvious candidate for most challenging. It's great practice for the fights you face in the Campaign mode, and it lets you select harder variations of the bosses, often featuring an additional form to overcome, as you encounter them in the Campaign.
114 medals to achieve give added incentive to keep playing and to try out new builds and progressions, and online leaderboards for basically everything in the game make for a true arcade feel on a global scale. Even during the review period for this Switch 2 version of Sektori, I've pushed myself particularly in the modes I felt weakest at to practice and strive for higher scores. The variety of game modes give me the sense that players will also be able to find their niche and eventually carry over mastery in one gameplay style to others.
For some, seeing Sektori in action or hearing it be described might be enough, but I didn't “get it” until I had a controller in hand that eventually became sticky with sweat as I realized just how long I had been playing before taking a break. This is the logical evolution of classics like Geometry Wars, Resogun, and of course, Asteroids. And if you took any of those and added even more lights, colors, and a pulse-pounding soundtrack, you'd be within that heavenly realm that Sektori occupies. A true high-score chasing masterpiece in every sense of the word, Sektori is an unmissable addition to the Switch 2 library and an experience that I plan to stretch out for the rest of 2026 and beyond.
Love the nostalgia-fueled visuals, but I wish Jack wasn't such a mouse about town.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/75403/mouse-pi-for-hire-switch-2-review
We didn't all grow up with them, but black and white cartoons like Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse's Steamboat Willie never cease to tickle the nostalgia strings for a time long past. The runaway success of Cuphead can be partly, if not primarily, attributed to its retro cartoon aesthetic, and so games coming after with a similar art style were going to draw their fair share of comically large blinking eyes. Mouse: P.I. for Hire arrived with a bang, fired from its hardboiled protagonist's pistol, but it's all boomer shooter in terms of the minute-to-minute gameplay. While the visuals and voices continually captivate, the narrative loop of driving to a new area and then returning to the office turns to stale cheese after half a dozen hours.
As private detective Jack Pepper, you work towards solving a growing web of capers spreading across the city of Mouseburg. The plot sees Jack encountering a variety of friendly and seedy folks who offer banter, side missions, or information, and the voicework of Troy Baker as Jack and then the rest of the cast bring the world and its furry denizens to life. The writing is genuine and intriguing, helping to make you feel transported to its crime noir setting. Of course, the fact that nearly everyone you meet is a mouse, rat, or shrew gives the dialogue a contrasting irony that works well.
With a new lead in mind, Jack hops into his automobile and rolls around town to the next unlocked destination, which includes an opera, a subway, a laboratory and others. The stages are quite linear aside from a couple hidden secrets or areas, but I wish the incentive to explore were stronger. Of the hidden cash, ammo, and blueprints you find, only the lattermost feels meaningful since they allow you to upgrade your weapons. Completionists will have fun seeking out all the baseball cards, newspapers, and comic strips to collect, but these can also be purchased with the extra cash you pick up. The baseball minigame that uses the cards you acquire didn't do much to hold my attention, and so back to shooting bad guys I went
The shooting gameplay feels pretty good overall, with a decent variety of enemies and weapons. The boss fights are particularly engaging and pretty tough, and I found myself wishing there were more of them because of how they offered a more novel encounter than the repetitive loop of the stages and their “kill room” design. One involves dodging a robot's rotating laser beams and then ducking behind bulletproof glass to avoid an even more devastating blast. Along the way, Jack does acquire a handful of movement abilities, like a propeller tail to float across gaps and a grapple tail to swing on hooks, but these felt gimmicky rather than additive. One use of the mouse tail I did look forward to was the lock-picking minigame attached to some locked doors and loot boxes, some of which involved a time limit or a set number of moves. I also have to shout out the Devarnisher weapon for its ability to make quick work of enemies by coating and then disintegrating them, often with a single shot.
There's a sweet spot in terms of length for a game like this, and Mouse: P.I. extends a bit too far into golden time such that the returns are diminishing. Because of the overworld and individual stages, the narrative is tasked with giving the game cohesion, a task that is largely successful. The flip side of this equation is that the stages themselves are less memorable because of how they play out in such a similar way. The ones that end without a boss fight always felt like a letdown, a feeling of “That's it?” Fewer, more intricate stages, or possibly fewer trips back to the office with more story doled out each time would create a more consistent experience.
Mouse: P.I. for Hire contains an excellent 6 to 8-hour game that's trapped in the body of a good 10 to 15-hour game. Despite its memorable, eye-catching art style, the lack of color ends up being another factor that makes the length less sustainable. Fortunately, excellent performances from the voice cast and compelling writing give Mouseburg a charming character all its own. Solid first-person shooter gameplay and unique bosses make it easy to recommend for fans of the genre, especially those who don't mind the extended experience. Switch 2 players may particularly enjoy mouse mode, a fitting way to play, but there is some stuttering in Performance mode, which aims at 60 fps. If you love a good trenchcoat-clad, heat-packing hero with a wit as sharp as his cheese, go ahead and hire this mouse to take a sharp-toothed bite out of crime.
If you miss biting your NES controller in anger, have I got a game for you.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/75208/saint-slayer-spear-of-sacrilege-switch-review
Surely I'm not the only one whose childhood NES controllers took an absolute beating during sessions of Ninja Gaiden 2, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, and Ghosts ‘N Goblins. Should you find yourself in search of such classic challenges, look no further than Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege, a game that looks and plays like it's straight outta the ‘80s. Choose any of the aforementioned titles and throw in a dash of Castlevania and you'll know exactly what to expect from this stage-based action-platformer, but some frustrating design choices make it as much sacrilege as saint.
As former soldier Rudiger, your gore-soaked mission is to save the Holy Roman Empire from Father Pacer, a man wholly consumed by corruption. Across 21 side-scrolling levels, you disembowel and dismember all manner of cursed creatures and spirits, with Rudiger gradually upgrading the titular spear and his physical abilities. The slow walking speed and stiff jump mechanics can make traversal and platforming harder than it needs to be, and this problem is compounded by the fact that the stages have no checkpoints and death sends you all the way back to the beginning of the level.
The largely melee-focused combat feels good, and after gaining the ability to throw your spear, you can pick up power-ups to change its effect as a projectile. What's less enjoyable is that you only get three tosses until you find a rare item to increase this limit, and so unlike in a Castlevania where you can rack up dozens of hearts to fuel your sub-weapon-centric dreams, you'll more often want to hang on to your spear toss charges for tougher enemies or bosses. That said, I did appreciate how plentiful the health pickups were, because boy did I need them.
Saint Slayer never gets too close to the notoriously punishing Silver Surfer for NES, but there were moments when I experienced comparable feelings of rage at some of the obstacles. The boss fights are a cake walk compared to the different environmental hazards, narrow jumps, and randomly appearing enemies. Because the bosses are their own stage, it's great to be able to quickly retry them when you lose a life, or via the in-game password menu, but only a couple were memorable, like a librarian that protected herself with books in a fight reminiscent of Mega Man's Yellow Devil. Some more novel moments included an entire level where you need to propel a gondola forward by striking its gear, all the while fending off airborne foes on both sides.
A baffling element of Saint Slayer is a merchant and her tent that appear in every non-boss stage, something normally seen as a very welcome sight. Instead, from very early on, you realize that the currency the shop requires is incredibly rare, such that spending it on purchases like health or even a continue would be wasteful compared to a hint for the game's collectible artifacts or an increase to your life or spear stamina meters. I ended up never using the shop once but can see how it would be more helpful on return playthroughs as you work towards unlocking the game's multiple endings.
A couple of aesthetic aspects hit hard in terms of blending nostalgia with more contemporary vibrancy. Nods to the aforementioned NES games and others show reverence but also play with those classic conventions. It's clear that Saint Slayer is having fun with our expectations of the genre. One specific example is in the rotten fish that can pop out of breakable torches, causing Rudiger to puke his guts out and lose a point of HP. Another is in the way your old corpse can appear right where you gave up the ghost, both taunting you and perhaps reminding you to tread more carefully. The map screen that pops up every few stages is a clear homage to Ghosts ‘N Goblins, and I'm a sucker for all of it.
Pushing through some of the more devious sections, I felt a sound sense of accomplishment in rolling credits on Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege, in all its alliterative glory. In more ways than one, it's not for the faint of heart, but those seeking a retro-style challenge in 8-bit packaging will very likely enjoy the ride. While not all of its design choices land flush, the overall journey makes for a fun afternoon. A co-op mode made me wonder whom I might subject to this punishing experience, but once through was enough for me to hit my cursing quota for the year.
A music-themed RPG that definitely hits the notes, both high and low.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/75100/people-of-note-switch-2-review
From Publisher Annapurna Interactive comes turn-based RPG People of Note, which dials up the volume to 11 with its musical theme, wordplay, and score. As protagonist Cadence, who aspires to bring her pop music to the world, you have to travel the world of Note to bring a band together from different musical genres to help Cadence eventually take center stage. Across a variety of environments and cities, Cadence and her crew fight not only to realize her dreams but also to ensure that Note's peace and music survive. I just wish I had a better sense of who the bad guys are.
The story and voiced dialogue, including full music video-style performances, start slow but rise closer to a crescendo as the adventure progresses. I wasn't sold on the heavy purple and neon theming of the game's first chapter, but the color palette shifts with each new environment, which imbues the world with more life than the fairly flavorless NPCs manage to offer. As the cast grows, I had hoped to see more emotional beats among them, but only a handful ended up sticking with me. One pair I did enjoy was that of your first primary partner, Fret, and his old buddy-turned-nemesis Freq (or Quincy, get it?). The second major area of the game, a desert landscape, sees Cadence looking to recruit someone with a different flavor of music compared to her pop stylings, and after some convincing, rocker Fret joins the team. The first shared objective for the pair is to root out the trouble afflicting Fret’s home, which leads to a confrontation with Freq and a charged walk down memory lane for the pair of guitarists.
My impressions were more pronounced for the dungeons, combat, and progression. People of Note largely plays the same beat throughout its runtime when it comes to its plot line, with a city visit, key character encounter, and then a dungeon dive as the order of operations. Familiar button and switch puzzles offer some light brainteasing in conjunction with a handful of out-of-combat abilities. One of the more interesting mental tests is puzzle battles that require you to eliminate all enemies within a set number of turns; these essentially require perfection and thus a mastery of your party members moves and the combat system itself.
The turn-based battles involve a number of neat quirks that employ musical staff, including time signature, stanzas, and bars, which represent turns and can be manipulated by your party and the opposition. My relatively lapsed knowledge of musical composition put me at a bit of a deficit; People of Note throws a lot at you in short order, and I did find myself perusing the tutorials from the menu as a way of trying to figure out what was holding me back. Fortunately, if and when you do lose to one of the damage-sponge bosses, you can quickly grind a few levels for your party with the generous EXP awarded and the ability to summon a random encounter at the press of a button.
Unfortunately, even though there are timed button presses for attacks and special attacks and all of the musical presentation elements, the combat drags. Other than powerful mash-up moves that become available once a pair of characters have their meter filled up, it just takes too long to do the way too much damage needed to secure victory. Winning a fight feels more like it depends on your stats/level and having the best gear than it does effective strategy and decision making. The lack of timed defense is an odd omission, and the way that certain rounds benefit some party members over others feels like an unnecessary complication. There are some genuinely good ideas around the battle system, but the end result is more of a cacophony than a symphony.
Although it may strike a chord with those who really love its theme and aesthetic, People of Note plays it a bit more monotone than I had hoped. The few high notes aren't able to fully compensate for the safe storytelling and narrative design, and the combat waffles too much between tedious and novel. That said, I couldn't help but feel taken by the game's commitment to being a music-themed adventure; constant puns and shake-ups to the combat mechanics gave me a genuine sense of joy. There wasn't enough momentum, however, to sustain those positive vibes, and I was left wanting to just roll credits in double time rather than slowing down the beat and soaking it all in.
A heartfelt journey through gorgeous natural environments.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74916/kena-bridge-of-spirits-switch-2-review
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is one of only a few former PlayStation exclusive titles to make their way to Nintendo, but this one waited specifically for Switch 2–and for good reason. Its lush forest environments, especially during rainy sequences, look amazing, and it's hard not to stare at the breathtaking art and scenery of the game as you make your way through. While the gameplay of Kena serves it well enough, the heart of its story and the beauty of its visuals are the real standouts.
Kena is on a journey to find a sacred mountain shrine and comes upon an abandoned village that has been overtaken by corruption. By collecting little (oddly named) Rot spirits, she can manipulate the environment and even turn the tide of battle in order to bring balance back to the world. Gameplay will be familiar to fans of other PlayStation 3rd-person action titles like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn, with Bridge of Spirits being lighter fare but with some of the same challenge, both in terms of puzzles and combat. There's lots to collect in terms of the Rot themselves, hats for them to wear, and currency to upgrade Kena's abilities.
Across a medium-size map, Kena will encounter spirits and other humans who guide her towards eliminating the corruption that has blocked paths and disrupted life in the village. Armed at first with just a staff and the ability to use her Rot to ensnare enemies and open up paths, eventually she acquires a bow, expands her health meter, and adds powers like creating a healing flower. Five difficulty levels allow players to customize the experience, but even the default setting offers a good challenge across many of the boss encounters.
Careful observation of your surroundings is needed to complete puzzles and figure out how to move forward. While your trusty map does indicate points of interest, including warp stones, each new section of the world brings with it new obstacles to navigate. Sometimes you'll need to command your Rot followers to pick up a stone to create a pedestal from which you can activate spread out beacons to open a door forward. When the bow is eventually in hand, you can use it to shoot certain flowers to hookshot you up to higher ground. Activating pillars in a particular order or defeating waves of enemies before purifying the battleground are a few more of the sequences you'll encounter, all of which culminate in a familiar but enjoyable romp.
Where Kena stumbles just a bit is in terms of its controls, movement, and repetition. Another Rot mechanic sees the lot of them transform into a dragon-like entity that you guide with one stick while controlling Kena with the other, and these moments never felt responsive or satisfying. At other times, there are ledges, hills, and platforms that it feels like you should be able to traverse, but instead the game just pushes you away, forcing you to find another way around. Even though the aesthetic of Bridge of Spirits is quite attractive, the forest spaces do blend in with one another, making me wish for a bit more visual variety, in spite of how beautiful these places are.
There are some truly heartfelt moments that Kena witnesses in her journey to the sacred mountain shrine. One of these involves a pair of children who serve as guides to you early on as they search for their older brother. The conclusion of their story arc was one that genuinely choked me up, all the more so because the cutscenes are so evocative and gorgeously animated. Changes between day and night time throughout the game contribute equally to it being in moments ominous but also tranquil. The balance that Bridge of Spirits manages to achieve in terms of tone is an impressive one.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits had long been on my radar as I held out hope for a future Switch port. It took the power of the Switch 2 to make that a reality, but there's no doubt that the fidelity of the visual experience was worth the wait. Bridge of Spirits isn't overly unique in its gameplay, but it compensates for that with a charming story and beautiful environments. Even in handheld mode, the game holds up well and the charm remains intact. Kena: Bridge of Spirits doesn't outstay its welcome, and with luck it will continue the practice of what were once PlayStation exclusives finding a home on Nintendo platforms.
A brick breaker that breaks new ground.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74917/chicos-rebound-switch-review
Chico's Rebound is a charming Brick Breaker-style game with adventure and puzzle elements. It starts off with simple stages that will be familiar to any Arkanoid player, but the difficulty and variety ramp up quickly, making for a satisfying challenge overall. While its retro presentation harkens back to the days of the NES, the tweaks to a familiar genre make Chico's journey feel unique.
In 2025, Ball X Pit took Brick Breaker gameplay and added roguelite progression to it; Chico's Rebound opts for a multi-floor tower with individual stages, boss fights, and puzzles you need to solve to progress. There's an initial approachability that makes it easy to get hooked in, but very quickly the bricks you need to break turn into patches of grass to be burned, seeds to be watered, and bombs to be detonated. By the third floor, I was already scratching my head and needing a few retries to finish every level.
The signature mechanics of Chico's Rebound distinguish it from other Brick Breaker clones, and these include the ability to gather Chico's ball (or walnut, in this case) and aim it wherever you choose, and the power to swing your tail to ricochet the ball so that you can keep the play going and potentially build up a score multiplier, which you'll need to do in order to keep exploring the tower.
There are four types of currencies to collect, two of which allow you to keep moving up and up the tower. Keys won by solving puzzles act as intended, but each level also allows you to earn up to two coins that open up new stages and boss doors, with one coin awarded for simple completion and the other for reaching the high score target. Nearly every target score requires that you take advantage of an aforementioned mechanic: namely, the fact that the longer you keep the ball from getting past you, the higher your score multiplier (to a max of 10x). In a tough spot, you can also perform a desperation leap to try and prevent the walnut from slipping behind you and costing you one of your three lives. Optional gems open up bonus stages that really test your abilities, in addition to your patience, and the plentiful sunflower seeds you gather can be spent on cosmetics to change the appearance of menus or even Chico's walnut.
The boss fights are genuinely novel and exciting, requiring all of the skill you've built up and mastery of the power-ups you encounter. One such fight takes place on a desert tile set against a skeletal octopus, and you need to alternate between water shots that grow plants and fire shots that ignite them and leave the boss vulnerable for a few seconds. Another tasks you with knocking a bomb-tossing villain off a ledge while contending with an ever growing wall of bricks that seek to shield him. It may actually help that you effectively need to have shown enough aptitude for the game to have earned two coins in most levels to unlock the boss doors because you're gonna need that practice. One of the later bosses had an annoying bug where a grinding sound would continue to play if you failed the fight and had to restart, but that was the only real issue I encountered during my time with the game.
One look at Chico's Rebound tickled the 8-bit nostalgia strings of this ‘80s kid, but I found a surprising amount of depth the more I played. There's a light story and some cute characters, but these are window dressing for a challenging and satisfying block-breaking adventure that doesn't overstay its welcome. Even if you're only lightly interested in the genre, Chico's Rebound is a standout that's well worth a look.
A little angel and her demon protector.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74811/damon-and-baby-switch-review-in-progress
From Arc System Works comes a quirky Zelda-like with twin-stick shooter gameplay and a vibrant art style. DAMON and BABY feels something like Oceanhorn or TUNIC but with the aesthetic that Arc System Works is known for, and after some initial friction with the controls, I found myself compelled to push further into this unique action-adventure. It will come as no surprise that the premise of a baby riding on the shoulders of a demon invites a healthy dose of comedy, which shines through in the game’s dialogue, but there’s a novelty to the world and a mostly effective sense of progression that’s pushing me forward. At present, I’m about 5-7 hours into DAMON and BABY, so here’s what I think so far for this review-in-progress.
The story centers on a prospective demon overlord named Damon who has grand aspirations to become a leader of the demon realm. After the father of a young baby passes away, Damon is entrusted with the child’s safety, but there’s more to her than meets the eye, and this appears to be one of the central mysteries of the game. Immediately after the tutorial dungeon, you end up in a small desert town where the story unfolds a bit more and you’re charged with finding out why demons are running amok and figuring out what’s happened with an individual referred to as the Lord. Damon himself never shies away from cracking a joke–many of the 4th wall-breaking variety–but the humor fits well in this pseudo-real world setting. Eventually you meet different human shopkeepers and mapmakers, and then monstrous creatures also that seem imposing but end up introducing new mechanics and abilities.
In true Zelda fashion, especially titles like the original Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past, Damon encounters obstacles on his path that require exploration to find a way forward. Typically, these involve gaining a new physical ability, like a stomp, double jump, or wall climb, but also familiar tools like bombs. In addition to a standard slash attack (which locks on to the enemy for easier sniping), the twin-stick shooting mechanics see Damon gain access to a machine gun and shotgun with limited ammo to complement his standard handgun with unlimited bullets. While it’s nice to have a few different weapons to choose from for the fights you encounter–machine guns do really well when trying to clear a room of weaker foes, for instance–the guns and their ammo represent one of the main issues with DAMON and BABY: itemization.
The world of DAMON and BABY is filled with closets, cabinets, dressers, and boxes full of items–these include ingredients for cooking, guns and gloves for combat, and tokens that you hold in your backpack to boost your stats. You’re constantly picking up new stuff, but you’re very limited in what you can carry as the starting backpack and the initial save room storage chest are incredibly small. Upgrades to both containers are costly, and having to pay for fast travel points ultimately means less access back to town to sell your extra goods. What this creates is an early-game cycle where you may have to just constantly drop what you’re holding to create space or ignore loot you come across rather than save it for later. In a survival game like Resident Evil, the tension of not having what you need and the strategy of managing your limited space fit with the genre; in an action-adventure that encourages exploration, these storage limitations are just plain frustrating.
Another problem is the survivability of Damon and the auto-save system. If you don’t have enough healing items on hand, you won’t be bailed out by picking up hearts or their equivalent from defeated foes (you will find more ammunition than you can ever carry, though!); so it’s more or less a necessity to keep ingredients with you for minor health restoration or make a point of gathering and hanging on to the food items you need for when you do end up in a kitchen space and can put on your chef hat. What may be worse is the auto-save system, which really only seems to save around the exact same time that you make a manual save. You would think that either resting at a bench to restore your health or sleeping in a bed to both restore health and spend accrued ability points would function as an auto-save activation; you would be wrong. There’s no real reason why the auto-save shouldn’t happen more often.
With regards to gameplay, combat and movement largely feel good, after you get over the initial learning curve. Damon can throw the baby to teleport a short distance away, which in practice functions like a dash to traverse gaps or avoid attacks. Switching between guns and reloading them is fairly quick, but it’s annoying to not have an on-screen indicator of your total ammo reserves. The boss fights offer a fun challenge and have so far been distinct and with more of a top-down perspective, which is another nod to the twin-stick genre. The dungeons themselves can be annoying to navigate because of the way the camera can obscure paths and doors; this means you need to be thorough about checking every wall and corridor before moving too far forward, lest you end up running in circles and feeling you’re trapped in a maze.
There’s enough I’m enjoying about DAMON and BABY that I’m curious to see the experience through to the credits. Its use of familiar mechanics in a novel wrapping and the enticing aesthetic and presentation do help to smooth out some of the rougher edges mentioned above. At present, I’m hovering around a lukewarm recommendation, but check out Nintendo World Report dot com closer to the game’s March 25th release date for a final score update. In the meantime, DAMON and BABY does have an eShop demo with progress that carries over to the full game, so check out for yourself how it feels to play as this devilish cute duo ahead of launch.
Etrange-r than fiction.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74809/etrange-overlord-switch-review
Etrange Overlord is an action-RPG with an interesting hook and a story and dialogue that are certainly an acquired taste. Courtesy of Sohei Niikawa, creator of the Disgaea games, Etrange Overlord takes you through Heaven and Hell on the titular protagonist's journey to become ruler of all. Its most unique feature is a revolving lane that brings items, power-ups, and tools around each stage, but is that novel mechanic enough to earn a recommendation from us?
I hope you like Japanese musical performances in your game because heroine Etrange never misses an opportunity to put on a performance. What's funny is a menu prompt that asks if you want to skip each musical interlude before it comes on screen, which makes me think even the folks making the game thought these events might be too common. At its core, though, Etrange Overlord is a stage-based, button-mashy RPG with a lightly explorable overworld and fairly simple progression mechanics. The first world, Hell, is subdivided into a handful of areas, with completion of the newest stage opening up the next one. A handful of boss battles pop up along the way, which are much more involved and complex than the normal stages.
Every stage has a slightly different flavor but falls into one of a few categories. After choosing up to four characters from your ever-expanding cast (and sometimes being forced to take or leave behind certain ones), you'll typically face one or more waves of foes or need to survive or protect a target for a set amount of time. Capture the flag and Fort Knox-style stages add variety, but the former feel particularly tricky if you're not playing multiplayer and instead have to rely on your CPU squadmates. In every one of these levels is a rotating track or lane that revolves constantly while carrying items that boost your attack, activate your special move, or heal you. You can also find energy tokens to power up machines like turrets or bombs that can be held above you and thrown at enemies. If you imagine a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, you've got an idea, but in some cases there are also platforms on the track that you can ride across gaps to safety or into the fray. It's a neat gimmick overall, but the button to board the aforementioned platforms being the same as your character's dash ability is frustrating.
While there's some decent enemy and objective variety in the normal levels, at times you'll run into major difficulty spikes. These can force you back to the drawing board, which in this case means returning to base and using your accrued funds and materials to level up the attack power of your party members, boost the proficiency of the lane items, or craft dishes that offer a set of temporary buffs based on recipes you find on the overworld map. I found success early on by leveling up Etrange and her projectile basic attack, but eventually you run into a cap that can only be raised by completing missions, including side story cutscenes, or going back to old stages and finishing off their secondary objectives, like winning without having a teammate get KO'ed. What dampens the enjoyment of any grinding is the fact that every character only has an attack, a dash, and a special attack that requires an item you pick up from the lane; it's overly simple and quickly becomes tedious, but it does encourage you to swap to different characters for the diversity.
Returning to the narrative elements of Etrange Overlord, there's an awful lot of chatter before and after the normal stages in particular, and that's not factoring in the previously mentioned music scenes. One cutscene before a major boss fight features a back and forth conversation that must have lasted more than five minutes, and while I'm sure the playful banter back and forth on display does have an audience, I was much more interested in the core gameplay and less so the window dressing and plot.
The repetitiveness of the gameplay loop is certainly less of an issue in short bursts, which is how I would approach Etrange Overlord, but I can't help but feel strangely compelled by the lane system and the strategy needed to survive some of the more diabolical challenges, like holding a key aloft until it finishes materializing, all while avoiding enemies attack from every direction. Those moments are the ones that drew me in, even if the aesthetic and story elements held little appeal for me. If you're into the art style and don't mind Etrange's constant need to be the center of attention, you may find an interesting time-sink type of action-RPG. If you're more put off by the anime-style storytelling, chibi-looking characters and combat mechanics that lack real depth, I'd say skip this one, just like I ended up skipping Etrange’s musical numbers.
It ain't easy, but I'm doing my part.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74806/starship-troopers-ultimate-bug-war-switch-2-review
Starship Troopers was a seminal film from my youth; all of my friends and I had seen it in theaters and then countless times on VHS. I'll always have a fondness for the property, and so the announcement of an indie first-person shooter set in that universe was one that definitely caught my eye. It turns out that my time with Ultimate Bug War coincides with my online gaming group getting into Helldivers 2, so I've enjoyed my fair share of bug busting the last couple weeks. An interesting wrapping and decent gameplay make for a good time while it lasts, but some rough edges take a bit of the “boom” out of this boomer shooter.
The premise is that you're playing a character in a video game simulation, which is meant to train and/or discover capable soldiers to join the war effort for the Federation. You play as Samantha Dietz–Sammy, to her comrades–and it's your job to lead the war effort across eight separate missions. Each stage has a variety of objectives to complete that are spread out across a medium-size map, with plenty of chatter over the coms between squadmates. One of the real standouts narrative-wise is the cutscene interstitials between missions that function like 4th-wall breaking propaganda hosted primarily by Johnny Rico himself, now an eye-patch wearing commander but still unmistakably cool as only Casper Van Dien can be.
Gameplay leans heavily into classic FPS titles like Doom, with a variety of guns that increases the deeper you get into Ultimate Bug War. Objectives include defending outposts, destroying bug hives, activating switches, and taking down massive superbugs. The levels are distinct enough visually to make the missions feel fresh, and their length manages to successfully balance traversal and explor-ability. A funny aspect involves your NPC allies who appear almost at random and often find themselves in the line of fire, which means you might need to be prepared for a hefty amount of scolding during heavy combat sequences. Other times, it's nice to have some firepower support and additional targets for your enemies to pursue.
Typically, missions take between 15 and 30 minutes to complete, and a bit longer if you want to find the pair of hidden secrets. What surprised me most out of the gate was the steep challenge of the default difficulty setting for the first proper mission. One of the defend your base-style objectives took me more attempts than I care to specify lest my gamer cred be forfeit, and so I ended up alternating between the first and second difficulty settings throughout my time with Ultimate Bug War. I'd suspect that even seasoned FPS players will find a more than respectable challenge across the four options, and for those who just want to see the bug world burn, there's a God Mode option in the menus.
In addition to the eight human missions, there are also five bug missions where you play as the assassin bug, which can fly and spit acid. In these missions, your objectives include raising the terror level of the enemy soldiers and destroying the human bases. While a neat departure, I found controlling the assassin bug to be awkward and janky, and I was rarely able to get it to act how I wanted. It's cool to be able to rally more of the regular bugs to help you by getting close to their hives, but I wasn't nearly as interested in completing these missions compared to the human ones.
Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War combines nostalgia with tried-and-true first-person shooter mechanics and gameplay. The way it puts the player into infomercial-like military propaganda serves as neat window dressing, and the number of difficulty and control options, including Switch 2 Joy-Con mouse mode, make for a fairly customizable experience. There are some frame drops during more intense battles and an annoying sound effect issue where gunfire sounded scratchy and ear-piercing, but the performance largely holds up. Fans of Starship Troopers and classic FPS games will find enough to love here, even if the bug missions are a letdown. Everyone fights; no one quits. But maybe turn down the difficulty until you get your space legs.
A pixelated tower defense with staying power.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74632/bean-beasts-switch-review
The titular bean beasts feel like only one piece of the puzzle that makes their game so darn enjoyable. I wasn't expecting tower defense when I first saw the title, but I'm glad I took a second look and gave it a chance because Bean Beasts reminds me of just how addicting the genre can be. Fun progression, strategic gameplay, and a stout challenge culminate in an experience that will entice veterans and newcomers alike.
A handful of cutscenes portray a lizard on a boat exploring new lands before finding the island where Bean Beasts take place. Across a total of 40 stages, you encounter a variety of enemies, environments, and obstacles that require their own strategies to overcome. There's a bit of an initial learning curve as you figure out how your bean beasts, traps, and special abilities work, but after getting through a handful of stages, you'll have a solid foundation of the game's mechanics and all the choices you can make to survive and even thrive.
Three initial difficulty settings and a fourth unlockable one allow players to customize the experience to their liking, but the harder you go, the more gems you can earn and then spend opening up new perks, weapons, and characters from the main menu's shop. Each stage also has two side objectives, like not allowing your main character–a lizard riding your choice of mount–to take damage, or using cannons to shove a set number of enemies into an open pit. The layout of paths, pits, trees, and other features changes noticeably with every new level, which means that you will want to change up your (initially limited) arsenal before giving it a go.
At the start of each stage, you have an unlimited amount of time to spend your meager starting resources on setting up your defense. Energy can be spent to deploy weapons like crossbows and swords or traps like spike pits and barrier-forming boxes; you earn more energy with every enemy you take down in the wave. Beans are used to deploy and upgrade bean beasts, and you typically earn one bean per round. At certain moments, your lizard hero will shout a battle cry that immediately bestows multiple beans and hundreds of points of energy, and this is typically a signal that a difficult wave of foes is on the way.
Before each wave of enemies emerges, arrow indicators show their exact path to your “tower,” which allows you to plan your defense effectively, at least some of the time. What you can't always plan for are enemies that will destroy your boxes, instead of going around them, or swift enemies that will zoom past your slow-firing cannons. Certain waves will contain powerful “nemesis” creatures that pose a very real threat to the mounted lizard and its health counter, so you'll want to save abilities like the lizard's rain of arrows, your mount's earthquake-producing stomp, or the earth-type bean beast's spike cannon for particularly dire moments. Speaking of, the final stage in each area involves a boss fight that truly tests your tower defense mettle, and I always looked forward to these and even tried them out with different setups to see what worked best.
Tower defense as a genre hasn't really grabbed my attention as a Switch user, but Bean Beasts has made me think I need to pay more attention for potential hidden gems like this one. The steady drip feed of unlockables means there's always something new to try, especially if your tried-and-true tactics don't work on a particular stage, and the initial learning curve quickly gives way to a satisfying challenge that ebbs and flows across the various biomes, boss fights, and special levels with an endless number of enemies. Frequent but short loading screens are a minor nuisance, but they're worth the price of admission for this incredible entry in the tower defense pantheon. The name might not do it any favors, but don't judge these Bean Beasts by their cover. There's plenty of tasty meat on these bones.
A Playdate-sized Zelda-style adventure.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74427/ratcheteer-dx-switch-review
I don't own a Playdate, the charming, pocket-fitting handheld with a crank on the side, but every year it's been at PAX West, I've taken a good long look at it; there's a definite yearning. Season 1 of Playdate saw 24 handcrafted titles come to the miniature platform, and among them was Ratcheteer, a pint-sized Zelda-like. The DX version marks the game's move to Switch and Steam, and while it's not the first Playdate title to make that leap, it is one that's a solid action-adventure in its own right.
The hero awakes in Mechanic Town to find the power shut off, which sets up one the game's primary challenges: leaving you literally in the dark, with only a lantern to light your way. Shortly after you find a wrench that plays the role of sword surrogate and you're off on a mission to rescue the town's Master Mechanic. A central feature of the town is an engineer working on restoring a mech suit, and so another primary goal involves recovering spare parts and an ever-increasing amount of ore to fulfill that endeavor. There's also an underlying story about aliens named Astrals and an entire language of theirs that you gradually piece together in the same way that you learn Al Bhed in Final Fantasy X.
The gameplay loop involves moving to different areas–many of which are underground like the starting town–and exploring those spaces to find any regional inhabitants and the requisite dungeon. The dungeons are fairly well designed aside from a frustrating one involving ghosts that move with every step you take. Chests are noted on the map and generally contain pieces of ore or heart fragments: collecting two of these increases your life meter. One element you struggle against is the darkness of these subterranean spaces as subtle visual clues can indicate a secret that needs to be uncovered for you to progress; another troublesome element is the need for backtracking, especially later in the game, but that's a minor complaint considering the size of Ratcheteer's world.
The unique boss encounters and the interesting abilities that you acquire on the journey were a pleasant surprise. Certain bosses require that you make deliberate use of your lantern’s beam of light or the float and stomp moves that your jump boots unlock. That you frequently open a chest only to find 10, 25, or 50 pieces of ore was a bit disappointing given the lack of ways to spend it, essentially a choice between purchasing life-restoring rations or funding the mech suit repair. On the plus side, you’ll also collect Astral Runes along the way that allow those inclined towards lore to dig in a bit further, while also being used for some puzzles. On the whole, though, there are more positives than negatives, especially if you enjoy the minimalist aesthetic.
It only took a couple sittings to finish the 3 to 5-hour experience, but Ratcheteer DX makes for a good time nearly the whole way through. It’s well paced and introduces new tools regularly, all with two different functions or uses. There are some points of frustration, but none soured the adventure for more than a few minutes. If you enjoyed games like Minit or Master Key, you’ve got no reason not to dive into the underground and become a full-fledged ratcheteer yourself. Bonus points if you choose the pea soup color palette for maximum Game Boy nostalgia.
A solid Zelda-like with a few tricks up its sleeve.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74296/under-the-island-switch-review
Top-down Zelda games have always been my preference over the 3D games, and so I've ended up trying out more than a dozen indie Zelda-likes since the inception of the Switch. The best among these have a good grasp of what makes an action-adventure compelling while adding its own unique flavor. Under The Island has a bright, cartoony aesthetic that works well for its levity and lightheartedness. It's reminiscent of Link's Awakening and Minish Cap, but marches to the beat of its own drum enough to stand out.
The plot focuses on a teenager named Nia who is relocated from her hometown by her parents who have a one-year research project on Seashell Island. Nia encounters a girl named Avocado, and the pair end up being given a quest to collect four mechanical gears to stop the island from sinking into the ocean. There's also a central town you'll return to frequently to purchase upgrades and find out where your next destination is. As you might expect from a Zelda-like, there are numerous sidequests to undertake that reward you with upgrade materials and heart containers, and it's fun to explore the map as your repertoire of tools expands.
The 10 to 15-hour adventure takes you across forests, beaches, and a snowy mountaintop, with main quest progress often requiring a detour or two before you get into one of the major dungeons. Your tools include a flower that shoots out a ball of flame, handy for lighting up dark passages, burning down plants, or damaging enemies; and a bag of animal snacks that help you guide turtles, rams, and sheep to step onto switches or ram into sealed doors. One neat mechanic is the way fast travel is unlocked around the island by solving a block-pushing puzzle. Another interesting feature is how multifaceted the boss fights are; one even begins with an Overcooked-style cooking competition.
While Under The Island does run well and look good both docked and handheld, there are some minor annoyances. Your sword stand-in, a hockey stick, can feel a bit awkward with its three-hit combo attack, which makes the game's challenging final boss all the more difficult. There are also swamp areas and other small bodies of water where the game doesn't visually discern between shallow and deep water, so there's a trial and error to exploring these spaces that just makes for a frustrating time overall. The difficulty curve is such that you'll know when you're exploring an area you shouldn't be yet, but the final boss really pushes the envelope in that direction, so you'll want to be as prepared as possible before heading into the final dungeon. The dungeons themselves don’t require a ton of backtracking or headscratching, and so veterans of the genre may be left wanting in that regard.
Under The Island didn't take long to sink its charming teeth into me as I had been itching for something a little lighter, both in tone and runtime, after making my way through a handful of long RPGs. Along Nia’s adventure, you end up encountering a variety of different gameplay types, including stealth sequences and arcade-style minigames, and so what has become a well-trod genre does feel quite fresh. If you're in the mood for a whimsical Zelda-like with some unique items and boss fights, the dozen-plus hours you can spend on Seashell Island are absolutely worth your time.
Multiple blasts from the past, with an odd Switch 2 upgrade.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74293/super-bomberman-collection-switch-review
The Bomberman franchise has provided hundreds of hours of both single but especially multiplayer entertainment. The series has had a special place in my heart all the way back to the NES original, which launched in North America in 1989. When Super Bomberman came out and was bundled with the multitap, it was a game changer for my elementary school friends and me in terms of our after school and weekend hangouts, and the recent release of Super Bomberman Collection from Konami brings me right back to those youthful days of yore.
This explosive compilation combines Super Bomberman 1 through 5, and then throws in Bomberman 1 and 2 for good measure. You'll forgive a bit of a history lesson, but that's one of the most fascinating aspects of Super Bomberman Collection: the third, fourth, and fifth 16-bit titles never got released in North America. Super Bomberman 3 did see a PAL release, and it also happens to be a title I experienced in bootleg form near the end of the Super Nintendo's lifespan. A music room option and art gallery are particularly worthwhile additions for longtime Bomberman fans, like yours truly.
From the start screen, you can choose to hop into one of the five Super games or find the two NES titles and the aforementioned art and music offerings within a separate menu. Each Super Bomberman has its own separate Boss Rush mode with three difficulty levels. The experience of owning each game is well represented here: you have access to single-player, multi-player, and even the original box and manual. The single-player stories can be enjoyed with save states, rewind, and a handful of display options. There’s little doubt that the Collection represents a full and definitive way to experience these SNES (and NES) era games.
For Bomberman purists, it's easy to appreciate the subtle changes made to the formula across seven games in Super Bomberman Collection. Given that the final three SNES/Super Famicom games stayed outside of North America, it will be many players’ first encounter with them, and of course it's the addition of rides and mounts that drastically impacted both single and multiplayer. I absolutely adore the kangaroo creatures--named Louies–from Super Bomberman 3, but some of the new power-ups, rides, and mechanics in 4 and 5 are also pretty neat, like the Bomb Tank and its sticky bullets or the non-linear stage progression specific to Super Bomberman 5.
All this said, if you're lukewarm on Bomberman, this collection isn't likely to change your mind. There’s a lot of repetition built into the story modes (“story” used very loosely here), despite the neat evolution of the formula from Bomberman (NES) to Super Bomberman 5. As someone who grew up with these games, it's been a blast to return to them, but without online multiplayer, the overall value of the package is slightly diminished. In an odd twist, the Switch 2 version of Super Bomberman Collection comes at a higher price compared to, or a paid upgrade from, the Switch version. What you appear to be paying for is the GameShare feature and 4K visuals. It's an unfriendly separation of SKUs for a package that largely appears a labor of love.
Super Bomberman Collection showcases some of the best Bomberman gameplay the franchise has ever seen. If you have friends or family for local co-op or competitive play, there are a lot of options, stages, and features to explore. While I will continue to bang the drum for thoughtful compilation releases, of which this is definitely one, more online connectivity would have been a great addition to the package. Perhaps best enjoyed in short bursts, Super Bomberman Collection is the best Bomberman release since the Bomberman 64: The Second Attack!
Tempted with a good time, and a fun role reversal detour, too.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74255/yakuza-kiwami-3-n-dark-ties-switch-2-tech-impressions--review
When the original Yakuza Kiwami released on Switch, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the port. The reimagining of the original Yakuza lost very little in its translation to Switch. On Switch 2 we’ve seen a multitude of Yakuza titles arrive within the first year. As the original target hardware for these games has spanned multiple generations the Switch 2 runs the gamut in terms of performance metrics. Yakuza Kiwami 3 along with its side story, Dark Ties, presents the first day and date release for a Yakuza game on the platform, and thus the greatest technical challenge for the series thus far.
Due to the scope of this title, I will be covering the technical aspects of this release while Jordan Rudek will be diving deep into the brand new Dark Ties expansion. But as for Kiwami 3 itself, as expected this is an excellent modern re-working of the PlayStation 3 original. The story does take quite a while to get going, but once it finally kicks into gear it proves very compelling. New content abounds and outside of the very small explorable environments, little remains to hint at its 2009 origins. I’ve particularly enjoyed the new expansive questline involving Kiryu getting mixed up in an all girls gang in Okinawa and waging war against the other gangs. The storyline is ridiculous and paired with fun over the top gameplay that truly exemplifies the Yakuza series.
Kiwami 3 avails itself well of the Switch 2. While I’d by no means call this some sort of miracle port, it feels very natural on Switch 2. There are some compromises of course when compared to other versions, but all well within reasonable expectations. In both docked and handheld mode the game runs at 30 frames-per-second. I found that outside of expansive combat within heavily populated areas, the framerate remained very consistent throughout. The game does suffer from a noticeable hitch going from gameplay to cutscenes that lasted just long enough to make me question if the entire game had actually crashed before loading into the next scene.
Resolution is dynamic in both docked and handheld mode and both are upscaled via the system’s native DLSS. The actual underlying pixel counts range from about 1080p down to 720p when docked and from 720p to 540p in handheld mode. In the vast majority of scenarios I found the range to sit closer to the high end of those metrics, but select circumstances were able to visibly drop the resolution. Of course with DLSS in the mix those underlying numbers don’t really tell the whole story, and the general perceived resolution winds up generally sitting significantly higher.
Dark Ties Review
Yakuza Kiwami 3 continues SEGA’s mission to remaster the original Yakuza titles for modern platforms, including Switch 2. Whereas Kiwami 1 and 2 released as budget titles at launch, Kiwami 3 is going for the gusto at $59.99 USD, but to sweeten the deal, the package includes a standalone side game called Dark Ties, which sees players step into the polished shoes of Yoshitaka Mine. It is Mine who takes on the role of primary antagonist for Yakuza 3, and switching sides with Dark Ties makes for an enticing little diversion, coming in at about 4-6 hours to roll credits on its main story.
While you can start Dark Ties without finishing Yakuza 3, the game warns that the ending of the former spoils the latter, so it is recommended that you play through Kiwami 3 first. That said, I found it an interesting experiment to spend time with Dark Ties right away since it has much less preamble upfront compared to a full Yakuza game and its version of Kamurocho is very much a condensed one. The combination of being pushed out of the company he founded and being a witness to a grisly encounter with Sixth Chairman of the Tojo clan, Daigo Dojima, push Mine into the criminal underworld, but it's a fresh scaffolding for his story that makes Dark Ties a delicious aperitif or nightcap to the main game.
The gameplay premise sees you as second-in-command to a bumbling oaf of a man, Tsuyoshi Kanda. It's comedy to see the stoic, calculating Mine acquiesce to the laziness and horniness of Kanda, as your main objective is to raise his reputation around town by solving citizens' problems and granting their requests. About a dozen of these missions play out like the Substories the Yakuza series is known for; others are simple fetch quests or rescues where you get to beat the stuffing out of bad boyfriends and boisterous bullies. Every time you level up Kanda's standing, you earn money to spend upgrading your stats and sometimes a special cutscene featuring Kanda and Mine. Your hard-earned yen can also help you procure a variety of CDs to change your traveling music and even a handful of Game Gear cartridges to help you unwind back at the home base. If you're still traumatized by the decision to buy a real Game Gear in the early ‘90s, you can sock a few dingers or invite Kanda out for some darts instead.
Wanting something more compact after recently spending time with Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1, and Kiwami 2 on Switch 2, Dark Ties was a perfect encapsulation of what makes the series so fun and charming, without the bloat that can creep in from time to time. Mine's combat style is simple but fast-paced, meaning random street encounters with unfriendly Yakuza never lasted more than 30 seconds. It may hit differently if you choose to roll credits on Kiwami 3 first, but for what it is, Dark Ties represents a welcome pack-in and the type of additional content I hope we see with the next Kiwami remaster.
The longest Dragon Quest is charmingly remastered and noticeably trimmed, but loses a bit of its heart in the process.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/74110/dragon-quest-vii-reimagined-switch-2-review
The announcement of 3DS remakes for Dragon Quest 7 and 8 was the motivator I needed to finally get into the long-running RPG series. Ahead of their 2016 and 2017 releases in the West, respectively, I would find my way to acquiring Dragon Quest 4 through 6 on DS, spending months on end in classic, turn-based heaven. After having finished each of these aforementioned titles, I was quite firmly in the camp of actually loving Fragments of the Forgotten Past, the seventh mainline Dragon Quest game. I have fond memories of putting that world back together and finding its individual stories and peoples quite endearing, to the point of feeling emotional during certain story moments. As a result, I was delighted by the sudden announcement of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, which comes on the heels of HD-2D remakes for the first three games in the series. While I adored basically all of the changes made to those remakes, I’m more lukewarm on Reimagined’s approach.
The premise of Dragon Quest 7 is that you are finding puzzle piece-like fragments that allow you to return to the past to rebuild the world of the present. It’s a fascinating conceit and presents a clear objective to the player up until you find all of the fragments. It isn’t until more than halfway through the game that a more central antagonist appears, and so the earlier proceedings can grow tedious as you rinse and repeat the collecting of fragments, opening up of new islands, and then solving typically a singular quest on each before returning to the present day. What this means is that it can feel like you’re going on dozens of hours of fetch quests before a more focused plight rears its head and compels you forward.
While most will certainly appreciate Reimagined’s streamlined approach to the structure of Dragon Quest 7, as someone more fond of the original than others, I do feel like part of its heart is missing. For sure, the addition of helpful mini-map markers to guide you towards fragments works quite well; the fact that it doesn’t take 20 hours to access the job system is undeniably a feather in the hero’s proverbial cap. The removal of The Haven, the casino, and a number of regions can be seen as trimming the fat, but I was somewhat put off by the sheer amount of streamlining. For reference, I reached the credits in under 30 hours, albeit without working my way through all of the optional content. I have to give partial credit here to the revamped battle system, which includes an automated feature that’s great for grinding or running through dungeons, and the speed-up options we’ve seen in more recent Dragon Quest releases.
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined adopts a beautiful, diorama-style look that complements the Toriyama art exceptionally well; it reminds me of Sakaguchi’s Fantasian. The aesthetic is absolutely one of the highlights of the remake. Added voicework brings another level of depth to the characters; Roly Botha as Kiefer is particularly excellent. Seeing your party running around the overworld map can only be described as cute, and from beginning to end I never tired of what I was seeing on screen. There aren’t many of them, but the CG cutscenes were an absolute delight. I’m gushing about the art style, and for good reason: I’d love to see Dragon Quest 8 given the Reimagined treatment, too, but maybe with fewer edits.
Another major positive is the job system, which allows you to eventually have two vocations at the same time, like Mage and Warrior. Mastering certain classes opens up more advanced ones, but I did find that on the normal difficulty, I didn’t need to go any further than having only one or two of the intermediate classes opened up. The head of Alltrades Abbey even gives you a device so that you can switch vocations at any time, even within dungeons, which is perfect for creating a specific party composition before a boss encounter. Although it’s a bit annoying that mastering a vocation doesn’t allow you to retain your learned spells, working towards the higher-tier classes and the ability to switch on the fly do ease that frustration to an extent.
One of my takeaways during the review period of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is that the game may be more enjoyable in short bursts, even with all of the streamlining that’s been put in place. Because the gameplay loop is so repetitive, so perfectly circular, longer gaming sessions really magnify the shallowness of how you put the world back together. The characters you meet are interesting for a moment, but because you have somewhat fleeting interactions with them, it’s harder to see each one as memorable. Once you finish their basic requests of you, it’s on to the next questgiver on a different island. It feels like I’m complaining about some standard RPG tropes and mechanics, but the structure of Dragon Quest 7 seems to accentuate the negatives built into these elements.
In terms of performance the Nintendo Switch 2 version runs steady. With minimal load times and a smooth 60fps, it is a delight to play through. The one noticeable oddity is that there is a clearly visible “rendering line” that makes textures and smaller obstacles load in a few frames late. It's probably something you will only start to notice many hours into your adventure, especially at the beginning of combat encounters. Other than that the Switch 2 version comes highly recommended. The Switch 1 version offers a steady and smooth 30fps itself. Though it is a shame that for physical lovers, the Switch 1 version cannot be upgraded and the physical Switch 2 release is restricted to a Game Key Card.
The question I have to ask myself, and perhaps one that will be asked by others who love(d) an earlier version of Dragon Quest 7: Why does Reimagined not quite strike the same chord as the original or the 3DS remake? Has it been pared down too far, or have the dozens of RPGs to come in the intervening years driven our tastes towards something else? Normally, I would be fairly eager to dive back into a Dragon Quest game to explore the post-game content or seek out side quests left incomplete, and even though I know there’s a good bit more I can do here, the drive to compel me back just isn’t there. After four remakes in less than a year and a half, I may be Dragon Quest-ed out, and I’m surprised to even think such a thing.
Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a beautifully designed turn-based RPG that is much more approachable to new players than the 3DS remake in 2016, but it may leave fans of earlier versions feeling slighted. Small changes like enemy weaknesses or immunities being highlighted in battle can make combat less challenging, so RPG veterans may want to consider a higher difficulty and avoid auto-battling entirely. I can’t recall the last time I defeated a Dragon Quest final boss on the first try, but such was the case with Reimagined despite doing little grinding, and the result left me feeling deflated, rather than triumphant. Even though there aren’t any glaring problems with this remake, it never felt as satisfying to play as the HD-2D games or Dragon Quest 11, so be prepared for a noticeably different experience compared to those RPGs.
