Tag: Nintendo Switch

  • Review: The System Shock remake on Nintendo Switch 2 is an (almost) perfect way to explore Citadel Station on the go

    Review: The System Shock remake on Nintendo Switch 2 is an (almost) perfect way to explore Citadel Station on the go

    For those thinking of picking up System Shock for the first time on Nintendo Switch 2, Nightdive Studios’ 2023 remake transforms an iconic but dated immersive sim into a first-person survival/shooter hybrid that doesn’t feel out of place alongside modern games. What started as an unwieldy point-and-click/FPS hybrid now plays as a more traditional FPS and it works well enough with a controller. Given combat is so prevalent the change makes sense, and the shooting feels solid; however, navigating menus, inventory management, and interacting with switches or items in the environment can be finicky.

    System Shock Switch Medical CPU Cores

    It is for this reason I would discourage anyone playing System Shock (2023) using a standard pair of Joy-Cons. Unless you’re a natural with gyro aiming, they feel far too imprecise in a game that offers no auto-aim assist that I can discern. That lack of precision can still frustrate when using a Pro controller, but the game plays smoothly enough (after patches) so that precision aiming and picking up objects in the environment is manageable. I’ve you are stuck with a pair of Joy-Con 2s, you could try using one as a mouse on a lapboard or something serving the same purpose – though I could not find a sensitivity setting that ever felt as good as a proper PC mouse.  

    I’m highlighting this caveat early as System Shock (2023) has survival elements with resource and inventory management. Precision aiming is essential for conserving limited ammunition and minimising the damage you take. It’s only during cyberspace sequences and the end-game – when you have your hands on powerful weapons, weapon mods, and upgraded player augmentations – that System Shock (2023) can be played as a run-and-gun FPS with less concern for accuracy.

    System Shock Switch Mag-Pulse Rifle

    With a Pro controller and the Nintendo Switch 2 docked or propped up in tabletop mode, System Shock (2023) becomes every bit as compelling and immersive as on other platforms – especially when you combine the stylised visuals with campy voice acting, creepy ambient audio, and an incredible synth-heavy soundtrack. It targets a high resolution with all visual features intact, and it sustains 60fps enough of the time that I rarely noticed any impact on responsiveness. It’s not perfect, however, and given the extensive post-processing effects and pixelation filter on objects near to the player, Nightdive Studios could drop the resolution further to focus on stable performance.

    Considering just the game and not the hardware you play it on, System Shock (2023) is essential for those who enjoy more action-oriented immersive sims like Eidos Montreal’s recent Deus Ex games, or Arkane Studios’ Dishonored series and Prey (2017). It has little interest in providing the typical frictionless, heavily-guide experience of most modern games – even if you set each difficulty sliders to the lowest value. Thorough exploration, reading and listening to notes, and then following clues to key items is a core part of the experience. Even on the lowest mission difficulty, the objective icon only gives you a direction of travel, but getting anywhere in the labyrinthine Citadel Station is still a challenge.

    System Shock Switch Research Cargo Lift

    System Shock (2023) is a game that rewards or punishes player agency as it should. If you explore cautiously, pick off isolated enemies, hack every door panel, hunt for secret stashes, and conserve resources, you’ll rarely be caught off guard; you’ll be able to minimise the effect of environmental hazards; and you’ll always have heavy firepower in reserve to trivialise a boss encounter or ambush. If you ignore your surroundings, charge into groups of enemies, and waste powerful ammunition, you’ll soon hit difficulty spikes that force you back to the last regeneration bay (or you’ll have to remember to make frequent manual saves).

    Despite the focus on player agency and freedom, System Shock (2023) is still far more playable than its predecessor. There are mid-game requirements that might take you back and forth between levels of the station, but it opens up gradually and escalates smoothly towards the finale. For those who listen to audio logs, read notes, and pay attention to environmental details, it also has a wonderfully fleshed out setting and backstory you can piece together. If an audio log or note hints at an event, you can find evidence of it in the environment. Citadel Station provides a cohesive and believable sense of place despite the sci-fi trappings.

    System Shock Switch Berserk Combat Booster + Wrench

    Wrapping up, I have now explored the remade Citadel Station across four different platforms. After early teething problems that a patch mostly resolved, the Nintendo Switch 2 port is yet another option easy to recommend to fans of the immersive sim genre looking for a portable option (especially important when you consider how few im-sim options there are on Nintendo hardware). The only caveat is that my recommendation only applies if you have a Pro controller, as the standard Joy-Con experience is predictably awful and the Joy-Con 2 mouse option is not as responsive as it should be.

    Pros:

    • Yet another opportunity to play the excellent System Shock remake
    • It’s a rare immersive sim on Nintendo hardware
    • Great visuals, campy voice work, and synth-heavy soundtrack
    • Performance issues mostly resolved with post-launch patches

    Cons:

    • Nintendo Joy-Cons and first-person games are a terrible match
    • Those who need a guided experience beware

    Score: 8/10

    System Shock (2023) was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 1.

  • Review: Blood: Refreshed Supply on Switch offers a gore-soaked battle against the controls, cheap ambushes, and splash damage

    Review: Blood: Refreshed Supply on Switch offers a gore-soaked battle against the controls, cheap ambushes, and splash damage

    Nightdive Studios have spent an incredible decade remastering classic ‘90s and early ’00s PC titles, before releasing them on console. The relative simplicity of early first-person shooters like Powerslave Exhumed and STRIFE: Veteran Edition lend themselves to controller support, with no true Y-axis and limited verticality. Remasters of true 3D titles, think Quake and Turok, typically benefit from a slick auto-aim implementation that makes you feel skilful while still clearly nudging your shots towards the target. In contrast, Blood: Refreshed Supply doesn’t gel very well with a controller – a problem that exacerbates other dated designs.

    Starting with the good, Blood: Refreshed Supply looks authentic yet wonderfully crisp on both Switch handheld screens and a 4K TV. It runs great on both the Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. There are plenty of options to tweak the visuals, audio, and controls, and there’s more content in the form of two old expansion campaigns and a new one. It’s a comprehensive and content-rich remastering effort that preserves a game known for both its vocal, snarky protagonist Caleb, and the early introduction of several FPS mechanics that would become commonplace in time.  

    Blood: Refreshed Supply Intro Cutscene

    Unlike so many late ‘90s FPS, Blood put more effort into the storytelling beyond simple text-based interludes. A dated but no less entertaining intro video reveals Caleb and other former cult leaders were banished by a demon they once served. With no explanation given, it sets up a revenge story that kicks off with Caleb emerging from a tomb and uttering the iconic line, “I live… AGAIN!”. From that point on, you’re tackling traditional, sequential, classic FPS levels, but they include some unique lines between all the quips to better flesh out the setting and guide the player.

    As a result, Blood has more narrative glue holding together it’s diverse and loosely connected levels. However, it is first and foremost a classic FPS with 99% of the focus on level design, weapons, enemies to use them on, and a boss capping off each act. To its credit, and despite so many commonalities between FPS from that era, the gunplay feels fast and impactful thanks to destructible environments (where scripted, of course); the diverse arsenal; and a focus on over-the-top gore. Earlier games may have offered spectacular death animations for sprites, but Blood offered dismembered limbs and heads bouncing around, and uncomfortably funny burning deaths.

    Blood: Refreshed Supply Skull Key

    From a pitchfork, flare gun, and classic double-barrelled shotgun, to an aerosol can and lighter combo, Tesla Cannon, and voodoo doll, Blood: Refreshed Supply offers an entertaining toolset to dispose of the cultists, undead, and demons that impede Caleb’s pursuit of his former master. Better still, most weapons offer an alternate fire mode that gives them greater versatility (on top of the usual FPS pick-ups like temporary mega-health, invisibility, and dual-wielding). The double-barrel shotgun offers the now-ubiquitous one or two-barrel blast, while the Tesla Cannon’s alternate fire chews through ammo to create a BFG-like projectile. Dynamite – which I’ll return to shortly – can be flung to explode on impact or bounced around corners with a timed fuse.

    A great arsenal, a diverse roster of enemies, and a ton of gore – what could go wrong? With a mouse, keyboard, and easy-to-reach quick-save and quick-load keys, not much. On either Nintendo Switch console, regardless of whether you’re using a pro controller or the latest iteration of crappy joy-cons, the experience is far less fun and fluid. There is clearly auto-aim of some form, but it can’t compensate for twitchy and imprecise controller inputs that make it far too easy to miss targets in an FPS that can be surprisingly stingy when it comes to ammunition and healing items.

    Blood: Refreshed Supply Dynamite

    It’s not just the controls though. No matter how hard I tried tweaking the sensitivity and using gyro-aiming, Blood: Refreshed Supply still hails from an era that relished in labyrinthine levels, packed with keys, secrets, and monster ambushes. Exploration and secret-hunting are a highlight, but this means a lot of the time you’ll be trying to react to enemies that suddenly appear all around you; often a mix of melee rushers and ranged enemies that can shred your health bar quickly (and even on even lower difficulties). You might think weapon alternate fire modes and area-of-effect explosives could see you through… but that brings me to another criticism.

    Blood: Refreshed Supply has brutal splash damage irrespective of the source – environmental hazards, enemy attacks, or Calab’s arsenal. When you combine splash damage with cheap ambushes, just as many of my deaths were self-inflicted as a dynamite bundle bounced back at me or hit an enemy that in front of me that appeared as I was tossing it. If you’re someone who dislikes the concept of save-scrumming to optimise every encounter, Blood: Refreshed Supply will brutalise you into compliance.

    Blood: Refreshed Supply Dual Wielding

    Wrapping up, Blood: Refreshed Supply is another great Nightdive Studios remaster, with an unusual setting, dark humour, and satisfyingly gory gunplay. It is, however, cheap when it comes to enemy placement and unforgiving when it comes to splash damage. If you’re a PC player and no stranger to hammering quick-save/quick-load to get through classic FPS, it is easy enough to recommend. On console, however, it might be worth waiting for a few patches to tweak the auto-aim as the imprecise controls can turn challenge into frustration.

    Pros:

    • An unusual setting, dark humour, and snarky protagonist
    • A diverse arsenal and satisfyingly gory gunplay
    • Labyrinthine levels will satisfy those who love exploration and secret-hunting
    • Smart visual enhancements without impacting authenticity

    Cons:

    • A fondness for cheap ambushes that encourage save-scumming
    • Twitchy controller aiming and brutal splash damage are a recipe for self-inflicted deaths

    Score: 7/10

    Blood: Refreshed Supply was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/PS5.

  • Review: Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster (Nintendo Switch)

    There has to be a point where, when considering the work done by Nightdive Studios in remastering, we should immediately acknowledge the stunning work the company is doing in updating and preserving classic games – some of which were considered lost to time – and making them playable for modern machines. Using their custom KEX Engine, they haven’t just made the games playable on modern hardware, but updated them as well with better visuals, quality of life changes, behind the scenes extras – if those production goodies are still available – and even going as far as creating new expansions, in conjunction with other developers, for certain games. Their track record is nothing short of… wait for it… legendary.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Intro

    Not ones to rest on their laurels, Nightdive are constantly jumping into forgotten gaming libraries and pulling out gems to work on; usually multiple titles at a time. Right now, we’re going to focus on one of their latest efforts: the Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster.

    Outlaws might be one of those games you have heard of. Lord knows it’s flown well under my radar for many years, even though it has an illustrious pedigree behind it.

    And that pedigree? None other than LucasArts themselves.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Intro Cutscene

    While most will remember LucasArts for their classic point-and-click adventure games and numerous Star Wars titles (with the enduring legacy of Monkey Island still going strong), but their FPS legacy didn’t begin and end with Star Wars: Dark Forces. Two years after LucasArts gave us one of the best Star War FPS’s, they used the same engine to power a nostalgic trip into the Wild West with Outlaws.

    Heavily inspired by Westerns, particularly of the Spaghetti kind, Outlaws was a surprisingly narrative heavy FPS that took us through Frontier towns and tumbleweed-filled gulches across a lawless land of bandits and land barons. A year later, the free expansion, Handful of Missions, was released to further extend our stay in the lawless frontier. Although Outlaws wasn’t a major commercial success, it managed to gain a cult following as well, along with community-created level packs, and is regarded as the first game to introduce a sniper zoom on weapons and reload animations.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Visuals

    Like most Westerns, this is a story about revenge. When retired Marshall James Anderson’s wife is killed and his daughter kidnapped by the minions of a ruthless land baron, the good Marshall sets out to get his daughter back and deliver frontier justice to the men that took her.

    While this may be a simple story, Outlaws tells it with a surprising amount of cut scenes and dialogue, chronicling Anderson’s bloody journey across the West. LucasArts tells that story with serious cinematic flair, featuring a wonderful opening sequence heavily inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and some fantastic lingering landscape shots. It doesn’t hurt either that the surprisingly dark story is rounded out with a soundtrack that fits right up there with the best Westerns.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Gunfight

    The audio design is great overall, with wonderful sound effects for gunfire and reloads – though I did get a little tired of hearing the same; “You’re outnumbered Marshall!” sound byte playing throughout the campaign.

    Featuring a combination of hidden secrets, large multilayered maps, light environmental puzzles, and fun shooting, Outlaws plays like any number of FPS’s from the 1990’s. It may not feature the smartest of enemies, but they fill the role of shooting gallery goons well enough. The Wild, Wild West motif, coupled with the game stunning score, goes  a long way to giving Outlaws its own flavour. Overly complex it may not be, but it is incredibly stylish and fun.

    There are an assortment of items to pick up, from the typical key variants to open locked doors, to oil canisters and throwing knives for combat. Most weapons have an awesome alternate attack. For the double-barrel shotgun, as an example, it’s the classic ability to fire either one round at a time or both. My favourite, however, was the revolver alternate, which lets you quick fire with a fanning technique – that’s slapping the hammer back repeatedly with the palm of your hand. If you’ve watched enough Westerns, you’ll have seen that move often enough.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Alternate Fire Modes

    If I have one nitpick about the games combat, it would be that important enemies, or bosses if you will, often aren’t all that discernible from regular enemies beyond how much damage they take to go down. More than once I had a level end as I capped someone, only to have a cut scene play showing that I’d just taken down a wanted target when I thought I was blasting just another cattle thief.

    The Handful of Missions expansion, meanwhile, is just that: a handful of missions. Only they take you back into the events that made Anderson the Marshall that he becomes. Across the Civil War battlefield, to hunting down and trying to bring in wanted felons alive, the expansion is a nice continuation of the game for those wanting more High Plains shenanigans.

    As for Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster itself? Well, what is there to say? Nightdive have once again worked their magic to make this the best version of the game to play without spoiling the original vision. Most noticeable, of course, are the reworked, high-resolution visuals which gives the game a lovely, crisp look. You can switch between the original visuals and the new with the push of a button – a feature I always love – but this is one time I certainly do prefer the reworked art assets.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster River Level

    There’s also cross-play multiplayer, both online and locally, and a Vault for you to take a gander at the games production artwork, script, and development documents. And if you love the soundtrack as much as I do, you can listen to each of the games tracks in the Vault as well. Rounding out the package are a set of Achievements to be earned.

    Overall, Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster is an excellent remaster of a really fun Western-themed shooter long-relegated to a clunky and buggy PC version. It may not be visually or mechanically complex by today’s standards, but it’s still a great FPS featuring a strong narrative and a fantastic soundtrack, that still proves that sometimes, simplicity is the best design.

    Pros:

    • Reworked textures and higher resolution
    • Can switch between original and reworked visuals at any time
    • Excellent soundtrack
    • Fun gameplay

    Cons:

    • Some overused sound bytes

    Score: 8/10

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions Remaster was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/PS5.

  • Review: Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch 1/2)

    Review: Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Nintendo Switch 1/2)

    After Aspyr and Crystal Dynamic’s conservative but smart remasters of the CORE-era Tomb Raider games, I had hoped that a remastered Tomb Raider: Legends, Anniversary, and Underworld Trilogy was the next logical step. Instead, we got the shadow drop of a Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition port for the Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. If you’re after a one sentence summary: it’s a solid, feature-complete portable option; however, it’s hard not to notice visual compromises that make it feel like a Switch 1-focussed project that left Aspyr with few options beyond boosting the resolution and framerate for the Switch 2.

    Starting with the quality of the game rather than the port, it’s hard to believe this reboot released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 all the way back in 2013, before receiving a spruced up Definitive Edition for Xbox One and PS4 the following year. It still looks good and feels modern – reinforcing my belief the cinematic, open-world, third-person, action-adventure genre has become too dominant and increasingly stagnant in the “AAA” space. When it was released, Tomb Raider (2013) felt like an impressive and polished hybrid of classic Uncharted-style set-pieces and shooting, merged with the fledgling open-world, action-RPG template.

    It’s more open-zone in practice, with the plot taking you through each region on the island. The path occasionally loops back through evolving central regions, and all zones are connected by set-pieces or obvious transitions designed to mask loading screens. There are parts that feel more like Crystal Dynamic’s first reboot trilogy – in which you spend the bulk of your time running, jumping, puzzling, and driving rare animals closer to extinction – but there’s a gradual shift towards wild set-pieces and firefights, coupled with a steady flow of XP and points to invest in a limited skill-tree, and no shortage of collectible weapon parts and scrap to improve your arsenal. It was an early indication of the trend that would see RPG and survival-crafting elements shoehorned into every other genre – but it felt fresh at the time.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch Shotgun Upgrades

    Although many of those designs have been commonplace, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on Switch is still worth playing for the first time if you missed it (or worth replaying if you wanted a portable option). Both newcomers and returning players might find the compact world, brisk pacing, and 12- to 15-hour runtime less daunting compared to the AAA bloat we’ve come to expect in 2025. It also serves as a decent introduction to the character of Lara Croft by proving an entertaining albeit dubiously written origin story. Lara goes from terrified victim, to retching after her first kill in self-defence, to killing hundreds of cult-like castaways in often brutal ways (including gratuitous executions you can unlock in a skill-tree for bonus XP).

    It’s a classic example of narrative dissonance in a video game – think gameplay systems and storytelling that don’t feel coherent – but Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is still a wild ride and good fun if you don’t overthink it. A young Lara and a diverse crew of Hollywood-style archetypes (most only fleshed out later in flashback cutscenes) are shipwrecked in the Dragon’s Triangle while on the hunt for the civilisation of an ancient Japanese Empress who was said to control the weather. A gruelling opening sets the tone, with Lara escaping from a pursuer through a series of gameplay tutorials and classic stick-wriggling, button-mashing, quick-time event (QTEs). As a precursor of what’s to come, failing any of these early QTEs reward you with a gruesome death scene before setting you back to try it again.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch Bunker Firefight

    That over-reliance on QTEs and questionably gratuitous violence feels like baggage from the era but, thankfully, most of the game plays out as a mix of slick third-person platforming, light puzzling, wild set-pieces, and scrappy shooting that sees Lara automatically ducking behind anything waist-high. There are white markers to guide you while platforming; Lara gravitates towards ledges and ropes when jumping; puzzles rarely let you think for more than a minute before giving a hint; you can sneak up on enemies and dispatch them stealthily; there’s a “hunters sense” scanning ability you’ll find yourself spamming to highlight enemies and items, and the map slowly fills with dozens of markers as you explore. Thankfully, that familiarity is less of a problem for Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition in 2025 as only those foolish enough to systematically hunt for every collectible will find it overstays its welcome.

    Returning to the port itself, it’s worth touching on the visuals and technical performance not because they’re terrible or the game is unplayable – the cutbacks are simply unexpected. The Switch 1 has had many great Xbox One/PS4-era conversions, but Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition loses a considerable amount of vegetation density and shadows that can change the entire feel of many forested areas by leaving them far brighter. That said, if you’ve not played the other versions recently, it’s not a deal breaker. More annoying is the visible pop-in when running through an area and framerate drops from the mid-game Shantytown area onwards on Switch 1 that can impact the responsiveness of the controls. The Switch 2 receives no noticeable visual upgrades, but it does have a higher base resolution and reasonably solid 60fps framerate. It ultimately feels underwhelming and clearly underutilises the improved hardware.

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch Plane Crash Set-piece

    All that said, it’s still a solid portable option for console hardware that has seen far greater uptake than handheld PCs that still have OS and interface issues, compatibility problems, and a lack of developer-created optimised settings for older games. Despite my preference for the older games and criticisms of this port, I played through the bulk of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition on the original Switch, content to forgive any technical flaws as the tight gameplay loop hooked for another 15 or so hours. Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition may not feel as mechanically fresh in 2025 – having laid many of the foundations for so many modern cinematic, third-person, action-adventures – but it’s compact design and brevity (and budget pricing) offers a breath of fresh air for those daunted by modern AAA games.

    Pros:

    • Tomb Raider (2013) remains a solid reboot that still plays great
    • Completionists will find collectible-hunting sessions a good fit for handheld play  
    • It still looks good on Nintendo Switch displays (and decent enough when docked)
    • The Switch 2 version benefits from boosted resolution and a 60fps framerate…

    Cons:

    • …but the reduced visual settings compared to other platforms are obvious
    • An unstable 30fps framerate can make the controls feel sluggish on the Switch 1 at times

    Score: 7/10

    Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/PS5.

  • Editorial: Yooka-Re-Playlee is solid remastering effort that can’t mask old flaws.

    Editorial: Yooka-Re-Playlee is solid remastering effort that can’t mask old flaws.

    It has been a while since I’ve seen a remaster with a title quite as awful as Yooka-Re-Playlee, but it feels appropriate for a game that was developed as a shameless nostalgia-driven mash-up of classic 3D platformers. This remastered edition offers a spruced up and definitive version of the 2017 original; a genre I’ve found myself returning to more often in a post-Astro Bot world.

    The biggest problem with Yooka-Laylee however, in both its original and remastered form, is that making fun of classic designs without ever subverting them can only take you so far. That is not to say Yooka-Re-Playlee is a bad game – it simply struggles to stand out in a crowded genre. An even bigger problem when so many of classics that inspired it are still accessible through remasters, backwards-compatibility, or emulation.

    Yooka-Replaylee Updated Visuals

    With a handful of quality-of-life additions and an admittedly impressive visual overhaul, Yooka-Re-Playlee offers up a competent but predictable 3D platformer. It intersperses brief storytelling scenes – which are still unvoiced – with extensive collectible hunts within small but dense game worlds.

    In classic fashion, once you collect enough MacGuffins (PAGIES!), you unlock another game world to explore from within an evolving hub (and you might receive a snippet of storytelling for your efforts). You repeat the process through five worlds before tackling an end boss to roll the credits. It is a formula that goes back to Super Mario 64 and can offer methodical fun if the pacing is good.

    Yooka-Replaylee Book of Ages

    At first, Yooka-Re-Playlee nails the pacing by ensuring the hub and each world you explore feel visually distinct and are packed with diverse platforming challenges and dozens of mini-games. The variety is essential as despite the remaster granting you the full move-set from the start, the combat is mostly one-note and rarely asks more of you than spamming a spin-attack and jumping to avoid damage.

    You have classic 3D platforming that can shift into 2D-gauntlets or isometric sections that will test your depth perception and timing. Bosses are all about pattern recognition and skilful movement as you bide your time until they’re vulnerable to damage. With an updated camera and controls, the basics feel slick, responsive, and satisfying if you’re after a traditional experience.

    Yooka-Replaylee Arcade Mini-games

    The problem is that progression boils down to collecting “pagies” (PAGIES!) that are scattered from a magical book during the introduction. Rather than just a handful of essential pagies (PAGIES!) to find in each world, the developers have included hundreds of them. Far more than you need to reach the final boss and sometimes split into fragments or alternate forms for good measure.

    Starting with the good, they clearly realised variety would be essential between the platforming challenges, so there are dozens of mini-game variants. There are time-trials and races – on foot, underwater, or in the air; puzzles based on elements, patterns, and symbol-recognition; minecart rides; arena battles; target practice; a transformation gimmick in each world with associated mini-games; and even an entire series of arcade games you can tackle within the game.

    Yooka-Replaylee Puzzle Mini-games

    That is not even an exhaustive list though it is worth noting many of these challenges have been tweaked for the remaster to ensure they control better.

    In addition to the endless stream of pagies they provide – as often as every 30 seconds if you’re on a roll – you have two currencies: one for passive upgrades and another for cosmetics and tonics. The tonics are the most worthwhile addition, as you can equip them to make the game easier, harder, or just weirder. It all sounds great but there are problems.

    Yooka-Replaylee Tonic Upgrades

    I’ll start with the plot, which is threadbare, and the characters that are an acquired taste. Yooka the chameleon and Laylee the bat form a great duo where gameplay is concerned, but their clashing personalities feel forced in dialogue. The video game-centric jokes and “quirky” NPCs (with some official cameos) are neither funny nor particularly smart, outside of a handful of interactions that made me chuckle. The lack of voice work is a big issue as button-mashing throughs lines of text mean there is no control over the delivery or timing of lines.

    The bigger problem is that each new world you unlock shares the same assortment of mini-games. That diversity is great during the opening hour or two, but even with changes to streamline the experience, you’ll be going through the same motions for another 6-7 hours. Despite plenty of quips about video game tropes and greedy corporations, Yooka-Re-Playlee never plays off those observations in a meaningful way.

    Yooka-Replaylee Brrreeze Blok Boss

    It’s a game that wears its N64-era inspirations on its sleeves – with shared mechanics and in-game references to Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong, and, of course, the buddy-duo Banjo-Kazooie – coupled with plenty of modern cameos or references. If you’re a fan of those classics, or even if you’ve played any other recent 3D platformers (indie or AAA), little will surprise you.

    All that said, the new tonic upgrades and low level of challenge could make Yooka-Re-Playlee a decent introduction to the 3D platformer genre for new or younger players. The improved visuals, camera, and controls are significant updates, while features like the unlocked move-set, detailed map, and fast-travel points make the endless hunt for Pagies (PAGIES!) more bearable. However, it’s harder to recommend Yooka-Re-Playlee to all but the most die-hard 3D platformer fans when better options are available.

    This article originally appeared on nexushub.

    Yooka-Re -Playlee was reviewed on PS5 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch 1/2.

  • Review: Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian (Nintendo Switch)

    My journey into Gusts long-running, cozy Atelier RPG’s may have started a little late in the series life but in that time, I’ve come to be enamoured with the games. Each game usually tells a standalone story and falls firmly into the JRPG bracket. However, what set the Atelier series apart for me was its focus on stories that rarely had anything to do with saving the world and instead focused on saving or making your community better. It’s a series that’s about friendship, community, and the journeys you go on together, one in which alchemy makes the journey that much better. And it’s a concept I’ve found to be thoroughly refreshing.

    Later games in the series have delved into larger themes beyond the borders of mere community, with some even changing tone and direction. With twenty-seven titles in the series, some change has to come along somewhere down the line. But it’s always the games based around characters and friendship that bring me back to this enchanting series. And with Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian, Gust have brought the series back to it’s cozy and uplifting roots.

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian Cutscenes

    Set after the events of Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and The Polar Night Liberator – sadly a mobile and PC Gatcha title that reached the end of its life earlier this year – The Red Alchemist throws you into the shoes of dual protagonists, Rias and Slade, who come together by chance in the depths of some ancient ruins. Their discovery of an Atelier and Rias’ gift of a natural born alchemist puts them on a long journey together to restore their hometown of Hallfein, which was damaged in a mysterious incident some twelve years before.

    While tragedy and the makings of something darker add depth to our heroes, The Red Alchemist firmly places its storytelling boots in what got me interested in the Atelier games to begin with: the light-hearted and heartfelt desire to make life better for others. Slade may be on a journey to decipher his father’s secrets, but Rias embraces the role of becoming a better alchemist so that she can use that skill to improve the lives of others.

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian Storytelling

    Along the way, they’re joined by an assortment of amusing characters. New party members join and there are various cameos of major characters from other Atelier games, popping up to keep the story light-hearted and fun. There’s a lot of cut-scenes, fully voiced dialogue, and story bits here that keep the game progressing at a steady enough pace and it’s all wonderfully engaging.

    That story is backed up with some addictive gameplay that made it hard to put The Red Alchemist down. There are a whole bunch of systems at play here, from turn-based battles, to harvesting mechanics and even running a shop – all of which you’re going to have to contend with. For the most part, the developers have made most of the systems easy to understand and link them together towards one of your main goals: rebuilding Hallfein.

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian Cast

    When you first get to Hallfein, damaged buildings and mostly empty streets meet your arrival, but as you begin to fix the place up, new shops open, more people appear outdoors, and more customers come to your shop. It’s a nice visual showcase and satisfying feedback for all your hard work.

    Rias has a store in town that you can run and upgrade over the course of the adventure. The sales you make benefit one of Hallfein’s industries, from mining to nature. Running the store is easy peasy, especially if you hire fairies to do all the work for you. You can let them choose which products to sell if you don’t want to spend time picking them yourself, and you can customise the interior with wallpaper and products that boost sales.

    All of the products you sell can be found in the field through the games harvesting mechanics – which are just as easy. You will need to craft new harvesting tools to harvest from specific sources or get rarer and higher-level resources, but harvesting is as simple as pressing the action button and watching your character whack the resources into existence with one swing.

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian Exploration

    Combat is one of the games other joys. It’s traditional turn-based JRPG fare but with just enough depth to keep battles interesting and fun. There’s a timeline you can use to plan your attacks, which is very useful as sections of the timeline come with buffs that can affect you or the enemies. Interrupting enemy attacks can delay them but also let one of your party members make use of that buff attribute.

    There’s a front- and backline for party members and you can use technique points built up in battle to initiate combo moves that swaps their places at the end of the turn. Backline party member don’t take part in battles otherwise, but everyone receives experience from combat regardless.

    Once unlocked and a gauge has built up, you get an automatic combo attack by frontline party members that uses special attacks and, along with the swop-out mechanic, typically decimates foes in beautifully explosive displays. Even with Field and Dungeon bosses, The Red Alchemists combat may be too easy for some.

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian Combat System

    Personally, I loved the difficulty curve of the game (which gets a bit harder during the latter half) and the ease with which foes were decimated. It kept fights short, interesting, and fun, while making it feel like I was never grinding. In fact, this is one of The Red Alchemists strengths. Grinding, whether for XP or items, never feels like a grind at all because the game is just such joyous breezy fun to play.

    Alchemy does present a fair amount of complexity that I feel the game didn’t explain as well as it could have. There’s a lot to take in when trying to craft the perfect item. From colour-coded items that increase an items level, to various effects that can be crafted into it, along with a transmutation function that can be used to change one item to another. There’s a fair amount to wrap your head around, especially when you get a request to craft an item you don’t have a recipe for yet.

    One area that The Red Alchemist does drop the ball a bit on – along with showing its mobile roots – are the games Dimensional Path dungeons. These areas are procedurally generated rooms that take you across different floors of enemies to find more fairies, chests, items, and story snippets for Slade. They accomplish the goal of giving you more enemies and repeatable bosses to fight, but don’t have the strength of a handcrafted dungeon.

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian Alchemy System

    From a performance and visual perspective, Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian runs at a stable and smooth 30fps on the original Nintendo Switch. I encountered no performance issues, but that smooth performance does come at the cost of the visuals. Make no mistake, The Red Alchemist does have its visual flair, especially in the character designs, but the visuals have a fuzzy, un-aliased look to them that we’ve come to expect from a lot of multiplatform Nintendo Switch games.

    With Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian, Gust have taken the Atelier series back to its cozy RPG roots featuring fun and endearing characters. And they’ve backed up those themes with highly addictive and fun gameplay that made the game incredibly hard to put down. Fans of the Atelier series will love Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian, while those looking for a new RPG series to dive into can do no wrong by starting with this stunning gem.

    Pros:

    • Fun gameplay that’s hard to put down
    • Endearing characters
    • Harvesting ingredients is easy
    • Surprising depth to the alchemy system

    Cons:

    • Procedurally-generated dungeons
    • Slightly fuzzy visuals on Nintendo Switch

    Score: 9/10

    Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist and The White Guardian was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox Series S|X, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Review: Castle of Heart: Retold (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Castle of Heart: Retold (Nintendo Switch)

    With the original Castle of Heart, released back in 2018 as a Switch exclusive, developer 7Levels decided that they wanted to bring back really old-school action-platforming to the market. One that gave us the difficulty of yesteryear wrapped in a shiny new hardware package. Castle of Heart managed to earn a reputation for being quite difficult, but not always for the right reasons.

    Seven years on, 7Levels have half remastered, half remade Castle of Heart with a significant number of improvements, both visually and behind the scenes, to make this the definitive version. And they haven’t skimped on the difficulty in the process.

    Castle of Heart’s story is one we’ve heard countless times in the fantasy genre. An evil wizard gains too much power through shady, otherworldly dealings and begins to subjugate the world. One priestess dares to stand against him, earning the wizard’s wrath. And, when a brave knight stands up to the wizard to protect the priestess, the wizard abducts the priestess and turns everyone else into stone. But, don’t you know it, thanks to the priestess’ tear, the knight is only partly transformed. Grabbing his sword, he goes on a mission to rescue the priestess, slay the wizard, and, hopefully, undo the curse before it does him in fully.

    As the brave knight, you have twenty visually distinct levels to survive, along with a handful of bosses to slay on the way to saving your love and yourself. While the knight is mobile, the curse is still active, slowly turning him to stone as you fight your way to salvation. Health pick-ups from the environment and defeated enemies will restore a portion of your health, but you’re always on a strict time limit, watching it whittle away as you charge across each stage. And charge you will have to, if you want to make it to the end before crumbling into stone.

    As the knight, you can dual-wield weapons for extra damage, block attacks, dodge roll out of the way, and jump high enough to put most superheroes to shame. All of these skills you’ll need to chain together on a regular basis. You’ll want to dual wield, whether that’s with swords or crossbows, to deal extra damage because every little bit of health you save makes the difference between life and death.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Stone Mechanic

    With your health always depleting, losing too much of it causes your arm to shatter and eventually the rest of your body follows suite. Getting through enemy encounters and environmental traps as quickly as possible is therefore paramount to your survival. The stages are littered with health pickups and enemies drop slivers of health on death, while hitting a checkpoint restores you fully before the next section. However, between the damage dealt by enemies – which increases in later stages – and how long it may take to get through an encounter, you always feel like you’re on the back-foot. Even with gems hidden throughout each stage that increases your total health, it always feels like you’re one step away from crumbling to dust. The sense of urgency is very real.

    That said, enemy encounters have been retooled. Unblockable attacks now have a visual prompt, and early enemies don’t take as many swings to put down. You can get caught between them though, which makes for some troublesome times but, thankfully, your dodge roll also knocks down enemies to create some valuable breathing room. Enemy placement can be a bit of a pain and feel unfair at times, such as projectile enemies at the lip of a jump you need to reach or flying enemies just going about their business near a rope you need to swing on.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Platforming

    Stages are very linear, but the developers build upon each environmental design after they’ve been introduced in early levels. Before long, you’ll be swinging across large gaps to land on collapsing platforms, jumping over spikes, and leaping into a group of enemies. These are some of the best moments in the game and require you to be absolutely on point to make it through. There’s no room for even a tiny misstep in these sequences.

    That said, instant death haunts you on just about every step of your journey. Mistime a swing or jump too late from those floorboards, it’s curtains and right back to the last checkpoint. To mitigate the number of instant deaths in the game, the developers have liberally placed checkpoints around the stages and give you infinite lives. There’s no game over screen here, just another chance to get it right. While that is appreciated, it doesn’t mitigate how unforgiving certain instant death platforming sequences feel, such as having to make it to the top of a flooding mine before the water catches you were even a split-second delay in your response time determines whether or not you succeed.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Set-pieces

    Castle of Heart: Retold has been rebuilt with better textures and materials, improved meshes and geometry, and significant lighting improvements. It is, quite simply, gorgeous with much of the game falling into the screenshot worthy status. The 3D world with a 2.5D perspective making for a stunning spectacle, with multiple layers of scenery adding tons of depth to each location. Animations have been improved as well, for both our hero knight and the various enemies you’ll encounter, making the game feel closer to a remake than a remaster at times.

    While it seems that the bulk of the original’s issues have been addressed – such as combat difficulty, control issues, visual quality, and a complete script rewrite – Castle of Heart: Retold still has some issues that keep it from old-school greatness.

    While enemies may be visually distinct, with each area introducing new ones that fit the biome, attack patterns are repeated. Later encounters less about learning and exploiting new move-sets, and more about dealing with more incoming damage. This may make it easier to use the same tricks to defeat them, but between the escalating damage and your life draining away, I found it made more sense to just jump over enemies and rush past those that I could.

    Castle of Heart: Retold Updated Visuals

    Another issue that increases the difficulty is a common problem that most multi-layered 2D games suffer from: foreground elements obstructing the action. That happens in quite a bit in Castle of Heart: Retold, especially in the sliding sequences. Yes, it makes the game look beautiful, but when that tree trunk or rock in the foreground hides the edge of a cliff or drop from a roof at any point in a long platforming sequence, it can feel infuriating.

    On the whole, Castle of Heart: Retold is a great remake/remaster of an existing game that focuses on fixing the original releases problems, while bringing back old-school action-platformer difficulty. With a beautiful visual upgrade and plenty of tense set-pieces, it will suit those in the mood for significant challenge from their platformers.

    Pros:

    • A gorgeous visual remake
    • Some nicely constructed platforming sequences
    • The turning-to-stone premise keeps you on the edge of your seat

    Cons:

    • Some sequences can be very frustrating, especially when the environment can obscure your view
    • Later enemies just feel like reskins with the same move-set

    Score: 7/10

    Castle of Heart: Retold was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Review: Turbo Kid (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Turbo Kid (Nintendo Switch)

    Once upon an apocalypse, in a 1997 wasteland, there was a kid, his friend, and a bad guy trying to control everything. With his BMX and Turbo Glove, the “Kid” had no choice but to take on the bad guy in a no-holds-barred, gory brawl. But, when the dust had settled and the damage was too great, the Kid rode away into the Wasteland sunset to explore what was left of the world.

    That, boiled down to its essence, is the synopsis of Turbo Kid, a low-budget SF/Superhero movie that, most likely, many have never heard of nor seen. That makes reviewing a videogame based upon said movie a rather amazing thing in of itself. Not only because it’s based on a movie that came out in 2015 and promptly disappeared into the cult market, but because movie tie-ins have a checkered past. The chances of a good adaptation are, as we’ve sadly come to accept, pretty thin on the ground if not backed by massive studios.

    Turbo Kid Story

    We throw around the expression “labour of love” around a lot when it comes to entertainment and this is one of those times where it shows throughout the experience. Developers Outermind Inc., have joined forces with the original movie team to create an experience that channels the essence of the movie, while expanding upon it in significant ways.

    The world feels bigger and more detailed, with a history behind it that shines through in what you’re told, along with the many visual clues showcasing this new version of post-apocalyptic 1997. There’s a new cast of odd characters, even weirder situations, and a more fleshed out take on the world revealed through impressive visual storytelling.

    The game doesn’t set out to recreate the movie in playable form, instead it continues where the movie left off with the Kid riding out into the Wasteland. He doesn’t get very far though before he’s ambushed and robbed of his weapons and bike. Thus begins a new journey to get his stuff back that eventually dovetails into a new threat for the struggling survivors of this world.

    Turbo Kid Character Selection

    The Kids journey is canon, though there are two playable characters you can choose from: the Kid or his friend Apple. Apple’s journey is a non-canon one and, even if you haven’t watched the movie, it’s not hard to guess why.

    There’s a lot of story on offer here, either to give context to what’s happening or merely to add some humour to the proceedings – usually through the sidequests which are fun to do because of how they play out versus the rewards. There’s a giant mutant rat looking for sweet, sweet turtle meat; a mysterious voice educated on bygone cult movies; and a sad tale of a robot looking for meaning, amongst others.

    Turbo Kid Platforming

    While the story alone is worth the price of admission, we’re lucky that it’s been paired with some truly addictive gameplay.

    Turbo Kid is as Metroidvania as it gets, following the common gameplay designs to a tee. There’s the expansive world to explore, replete with blocked off passageways and doors that can only be opened with new abilities; a variety of enemies that make exploration challenging; hidden pathways to find; and bosses to fight for the aforementioned abilities.

    While that is as traditional as it gets, Outermind have managed to implement whatever digital magic it is that makes a genre you’ve played a thousand before times feel just as exciting and fun as your very first go around. Turbo Kid managed to grab me right from the get go and never let go.

    Turbo Kid Environmental Hazards

    As expected, the Kid’s BMX plays a huge part in traversing the landscape once you’ve reacquired it. Thanks to the magic of technology, you can teleport it to you anytime, anywhere. Once you have it in your arsenal, it becomes even more apparent just how much like a BMX track the world has been designed to emulate. The labyrinthine layout makes great use of half-pipes and jumps to get you around and reach those hard-to-get to areas. You can pull off tricks on your bike and engage in races for various upgrades, such as spiked tires that help you scale walls and ceilings. And it plays just as much a part in the multiple-stage boss fights as your Turbo Glove does.

    While the bulk of your upgrades will be familiar – such as Air Dashes and charged shots – the game lets you customise passive abilities through a chip system which gives you extra abilities or enhances standard ones, such as letting your BMX’s spike wheel ability last longer. You can only equip three chips at a time though.

    One control aspect that took me a bit of time to come to grips with is needing to hold down a button to crouch. Holding down a shoulder button for precision aiming was fine, but having to hold one to crouch went against years of ingrained muscle memory of just pressing down on a D-pad or analog stick to crouch in a 2D game.

    Turbo Kid Silver Ghost Boss

    Visually Turbo Kid is a gorgeous pixel art game featuring wonderful animations for both the characters and background elements. As I’ve stated before, the visual design does a ton of heavy lifting in breathing life into the world while telling you it’s backstory.

    From the enemies that heft weighty spiked shields around to those ambiguous, drill-headed characters in the background drilling through garbage, Turbo Kid is gorgeous to look at. The art style reminded me of that classic 1991 2D adventure game Another World, though a more direct inspiration can be found in that other phenomenal 2D action platformer from 2021, Narita Boy. And it’s all rounded out with a pretty good soundtrack to boot.

    If I have any issues with Turbo Kid, it would be that boss fights, while inventive, can feel a little bullet spongy. It’s the one area in the game that did frustrate me occasionally, but on the whole, Turbo Kid is a case of the stars aligning to buck the trend of poor movie tie-in adaptations. It’s addictive, impressive, and a whole heap of fun that kept me hooked from the opening to the finale. Turbo Kid isn’t just amazing, it’s bloody brilliant and one of the best games I’ve played this year.

    Pros:

    • Fun and addictive gameplay
    • Fleshed-out world
    • Gorgeous visuals and animations
    • Labrynthine maps
    • Great soundtrack

    Cons:

    • You need to hold a shoulder button to crouch
    • Bosses can feel like bullet sponges

    Score: 9/10

    Turbo Kid was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Review: Dead of Darkness (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Dead of Darkness (Nintendo Switch)

    Dead of Darkness is the kind of title that screams pure pulp horror. The kind of title you’d expect to see plastered on the cover of an ‘80’s direct-to-VHS horror. You know the kind, on the shelf in the dark corner of the store that you’d rent for the weekend, watch on repeat with your best mate, and then talk about for years even if wasn’t any good. Yeah, it’s that kind of pulpy, badass title.

    But instead of a movie, it’s strapped on to a 2D survival-horror title. The sort that we might call a love-letter to the greats of genres past. Dead of Darkness takes us back to that time when survival-horror ruled the roost and you couldn’t take two steps outside your front door without been accosted by any number of games trying to cash in on the genre’s success. The game is bathed in the tropes of old school survival-horror, from the story to the various gameplay mechanics. It’s like a mash-up between Resident Evil and Alone in The Dark, with a bit of cosmic folk horror thrown in for good measure.

    Dead of Darkness Cutscenes

    Like any good pulp horror story, Dead of Darkness provides us with a colourful cast of characters and a significantly ominous location. A damaged ex-cop turned drunken private eye? Check. A mysterious, isolated island chock-full of secrets? Check. A strange family that aren’t all that they seem to be? Check. Armies of monstrous abominations stalking the darkness? Double-check to infinity and beyond!

    Set in 1985, Dead of Darkness throws you into the shoes of a reluctant P.I. When a letter arrives asking him to come to Velvet Island for answers surrounding his daughter’s death, Miles Windham doesn’t hesitate to grab the next ferry out. But things on the island are about to go from bad to worse when a scream shatters the dead of night.

    Dead of Darkness Combat

    Instead of throwing us into a classic whodunit, Dead of Darkness propels us headfirst into a creature feature as monstrous forms roam the island and mansion hallways, tearing apart anyone foolish enough to get too close. The shambling horrors are only the beginning though and, as the night crawls on, nastier creatures come looking for a snack too. Does the island harbour the truth Miles needs? Will he even survive to find it?

    The only way you’re going to know that is to run through Velvet Islands death trap locations. And, thankfully, the games story is it’s single, strongest element pushing you forward. This twisty, turny tale is powered by some great voice acting as well, though be warned, like Still Wakes the Deep, there’s surprisingly adult language chucked your way at times. And while the usual Resident Evil-like ne’er-do-well corporation conspiracies do make an appearance, the bulk of the narrative – also fleshed out through plenty of letters – is a really good tale and well worth the time to explore.

    Dead of Darkness Boss Fights

    Gameplay is traditional survival-horror to the tee, just in a top-down, isometric 2D world. There are plenty of items to collect, locked doors needing specific keys, there are puzzles to solve, and not enough ammo to go round. Some of the best moments are built around puzzle solving, which lets you combine clues with items to do so. While there’s nothing in here that will cause the old brainpan to overheat, they’re nice filler to the rest of the gameplay, which is as traditional as can be – though not always for the best.

    Item management, along with an unhealthy amount of back-and-forth between locations, will be taking up most of your playtime as you struggle to manage what you need for a specific task versus what you need to keep yourself from keeling over. One nice addition to the map system is that any room you haven’t cleared or collected everything in, remains coloured red on your map, along with doors that need specific colour-coded keys. This way, you’re never lost as to where you still have to explore or complete an objective.

    Dead of Darkness Visuals

    The problem, of course, is that inventory space is limited to a measly eight slots. You can chuck items into the storage crate in every save room, which synchronises its contents across all crates, but it doesn’t stop you from having to run around picking up and dropping off items all of the time. Your weapon selection may be limited, but you’re going to have juggle that along with ammo and health pickups, which left me with only two open slots most of the time. And, because monsters can respawn or get swopped out for different ones in areas you’ve already cleared, you don’t want to be left short of ammo.

    Ammo is certainly in short supply. Not so much because there isn’t enough to pick up, but more because enemy damage seems to be randomised. When your regular flesh-eating zombie things can take between three to five pistol shots to go down, those seventy rounds of ammo you’ve picked up disappear pretty quickly. The shotgun, thankfully, packs a nice, meaty and disgusting punch, especially on the more common grunts that it turns into misty gibbets with ease. Weapons can be upgraded, but that random element means that I didn’t notice as much difference in stopping power as I would have liked. There are multiple difficulty settings to choose from but, honestly, I only noticed about a one bullet difference between normal and easy most of the time.

    Dead of Darkness Storytelling

    The amount of back and forth does damage the games pacing as well. During a second playthrough, after a consistent and unavoidable crash was patched, I found the pacing more enjoyable as I already knew where to go and what to do, thus cutting the tiring backtracking. This did wonders for improving the pacing. While I admire the developers desire to make a truly retro experience, certain elements were best left in the past.

    One of the other aspects I enjoyed, even if it meant sacrificing an item slot, was the sanity meter. Every successful monster attack doesn’t only damage your health but your sanity. There are items to help restore it, but the game does throw in some cool insanity effects when it starts to get low, like creepy voices and the game seeming to “crash”. Beware though, if your sanity drains completely, you can die.

    Dead of Darkness Shotgun

    Combat may divide players. As with classic games, you can’t move while shooting or reloading, so you have to use the environment to your advantage during combat and boss fights revolve around observing attack patterns. In general, combat just feels very basic. It’s effective but doesn’t get the blood pumping. And while there’s guts and gore galore, Dead of Darkness isn’t very scary at all, even with some insta-death sections that I could have done without. This may be a buzzkill for some, but the general overall enjoyment of the game goes a long way to making up for a lot of its flaws.

    Another potential issue for some will be the pixel art that, although nice to look at, is far less detailed than what we’ve come to expect from many indie games lately. It does a bit of disservice to the monster designs and animations but, like the combat, the visuals are serviceable.

    Overall, Retrofiction Games’ Dead of Darkness is an ambitious title in the 2D survival-horror genre. While the combat may be passable and the pacing could be better, it’s buoyed by a great story, good voice acting, and fun puzzles that mostly manage to capture the best parts of survival-horrors past.

    Pros:

    • Great story
    • Fun puzzles
    • Good voice acting

    Cons:

    • Pacing hampered by too much back and forth
    • Combat is just okay
    • Insta-death sections were painful

    Score: 7/10

    Dead of Darkness was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Review: Ruffy and the Riverside (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Ruffy and the Riverside (Nintendo Switch)

    Playing Ruffy and the Riverside has been like jumping back into the past. Like way, way back into the good old days of PS1, PS2, and, more specifically, N64 platforming.

    There’s an earworm of a soundtrack that embeds itself in your mind, an expansive world to jump and run through, tons of quirky characters to meet, gorgeous visuals bringing the world to virtual life and, the most important ingredient to stand out in a crowded market, superb gameplay innovation that turns a fun time into a must-play title.

    And that is exactly what Ruffy and the Riverside is: a must play platformer for all platformer fans who want the nostalgia of the past running on modern engines and hardware. But Ruffy and the Riverside is so much more than nostalgia-in-a-box, it’s a joyously addictive exercise in taking a simple concept and spinning it into a defining gameplay mechanic.

    Ruffy and the Riverside Switch Visuals

    Sure, the basic action-platforming rulebook is at play here, with melee attacks, a gliding system, and a butt smash to deal with certain enemies to go along with traditional platforming shenanigans. There are platforms to pounce around on, spiked traps to avoid, and puzzle areas to navigate. But what really shines a light on Ruffy’s already colourful world is the main gameplay trick: the “Swap”.

    Ruffy has the god-level ability to transform one object into another by swapping textures around – essentially changing its look and properties. This really simple concept elevates a good platformer into a great one, creating a myriad of charmingly inventive gameplay moments. These range from the more obvious uses of the mechanic to think-outside-the-box moments that are always a highlight.

    Ruffy and the Riverside 2D Puzzles

    Need to get to the top of a cliff but can’t find a path there? Just copy a vine texture and turn that waterfall in front of you into a giant vine to climb. Stone pillars blocking your path? Turn them to wood and punch ‘em down. Need to cross a body of water? Why not make use of that ice floe just to your left?

    These, of course, are the more obvious uses of Ruffy’s power designed to help you move across the world, but you’ll also solve simpler puzzles by changing the markings on rocks or turning a pillar into a magnet to break the chains holding a door closed. The world has been designed to make use of the Swap mechanic at just about every moment, with some changes more permanent than others and some more beneficial.

    Ruffy and the Riverside Texture Swap Puzzles

    But it’s really those think-outside-the-box moments that breath such fresh air into the genre with their more elaborate puzzle solutions, such as turning a stone pillar blocking your path into wood and the water spout just beneath it into fire to bring a fiery end to the obstacle, before turning that fire spout back into water and riding it up to your goal. The game is full of these kinds of puzzle sequences which, I must admit, occasionally had me scratching my head. But they were never too tough to figure out in time, and always left me with a “Damn, that’s cool” smile on my face.

    Of course, if you are struggling to figure them out, the NPCs are always willing to help you out for a few coins. Though I’d argue against it, because part of the charm of Ruffy and The Riverside is seeing just how much creativity you can get away with. There are obviously limitations to what the Swap mechanic can achieve as, if there weren’t, you’d probably be able to break the game in ways the developer hadn’t conceived. Still, it’s rather surprising at the level of leeway you’re given to play around with the world and its textures and properties.

    Ruffy and the Riverside Environments

    The world itself is rather large and perhaps a little too full of things to do and collect. Seasoned gamers who love that stuff will find plenty of collectibles to scour high and low for, while the rest of us can focus on every little platforming, puzzle, or racing sequence on offer.

    Visually, the game is gorgeous and really looks like a an N64 game presented at an ultra-high resolution. And I mean that in the best way possible. The world and its segmented areas are gorgeously colourful and exude personality. The art style, which goes back to that 90’s blocky aesthetic while using 2D sprites in a 3D world, is just stunningly realised, bringing to mind classics like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. It’s all backed up with some wonderful 2D animation for the games oddball characters and a soundtrack (and sound effects) that really stuck around long after I’d finished playing.

    If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m smitten by the games infectiously joyous charm.

    Ruffy and the Riverside Platforming

    That said, it’s not a perfect blast-from-the-past as the original Nintendo Switch occasionally struggles when there’s too much being rendered onscreen. There’s some frame rate jitters and a bit of a sluggish feeling in the controls during these sections. To keep the frame rate high, I imagine, distant vistas fade in an out depending on the camera angle your distance from those areas, giving a bit of a fog-of-war feeling to the proceedings, while making sure the zone you’re in gets rendered in full.

    Ruffy and the Riverside is easily one of the better, nostalgia-tinged platformers of late. It’s gorgeous visuals and enthusiastic characters are elevated by one of the more fun gaming mechanics in recent years that will have you spending hours swapping around textures and properties just to see what can be done. Performance issues on the original Switch aside, developer Zockrates Laboratories has developed an impressive and fantastic debut title that platforming fans should play.

    Pros:

    • Super fun texture swapping mechanic
    • Gorgeous N64-inspired visuals
    • Stunning 2D art and animations
    • Impressively large world full of things to do

    Cons:

    • Some performance issues on the Nintendo Switch

    Score: 9/10

    Ruffy and The Riverside was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch 2.