Switch Reviews

30Nov

By Edward Azevedo-GreenwoodNo Comments

Pnevmo-Capsula – Switch Review

Developed by Valentin Pomeshkin and published by Sometimes You, Pnevmo-Capsula explores a utopian atompunk world in a Soviet-like environment through the lens of a telegram capsule en-route to delivery. Throughout my playthrough, it was clear that Valentin Pomeshkin has poured out hours of work and passion into giving life to the environment players experience. This includes complex puzzles with solutions that require interpretation of and interaction with the environment around the capsule. I played Pnevmo-Capsula on the Switch, but it is also available on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox. Pnevmo-Capsula – Telegram on rails! Explore a world full of detail and intrigue to guide your telegram capsule through an interconnected rail system to your guided destination. Pnevmo-Capsula’s main puz...

23Nov

By Oliver RevoltaNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Bayonetta 3 – Switch Review

It was a little strange of me to put my name forward to review Bayonetta 3 (PlatinumGames). I haven’t played the other two in the series, but I’ve always been intrigued by Bayonetta’s passionate and loyal following—and also by Bayonetta herself, the witch with guns for shoes and clothes made out of her own hair. I wondered if this action game, in the same genre as No More Heroes and NieR:Automata, would be accessible to newcomers even if it was the third in the series, like in a Zelda or Metroid, where starting with the third or fourth game doesn’t matter. The conclusion on that count is certainly mixed, but I also had a hell of a good time finding out. A MOST BEWITCHING TIME It seems obligatory (and logical) in reviews for Bayonetta 3 to list examples of its wild eccentricities. The gam...

Horse Club Adventures 2: Hazelwood Stories – Switch Review

23Nov

By JasonNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Horse Club Adventures 2: Hazelwood Stories – Switch Review

Horse Club Adventures 2: Hazelwood Stories, published by Wild River Games, is a single-player casual adventure sim and the second in the Horse Club Adventure series. Available across all consoles as well as PC, I had a play through of the game on my Nintendo Switch Lite. Prepare to meet the neigh-bours! If you are looking for a casual, easy-going game to play, then this may just be it. Saddle up and come and see what I made of Horse Club Adventures 2: Hazelwood Stories! Gameplay Set in autumn, in a village called Lakeside, the aim of the game is to meet up with friends, go riding and take part in quests! At the very beginning, you get to create your own character, customising not only yourself but also your horse. You can change the colour and markings as well as choose a man...

22Nov

By Oliver RevoltaNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Signalis – Switch Review

Nothing sums up the artful, near-pretentious confidence of Signalis better than how some players are going to miss its final act and they won’t realise. I won’t go into spoilers, but this retro-futuristic survival horror game—which plays like an art-house cinema mashup of classic Resident Evil, classic Metal Gear Solid, and the ever under-appreciated Eternal Darkness—has a fake out ending. This design choice is bold, assertive, and a little strange, a trio of adjectives which represent the game well. WHAT ANDROIDS DREAM The first wave of my enthusiasm towards Signalis peaked during the impressively confident first hour and a half. From the menu screen, with its cathode-ray-tube visuals and clacking sound of its slowly-revealing text, to the opening screens of the game itself, with their ...

26Oct

By Oliver RevoltaNo Comments

LEGO, Switch Reviews

LEGO Bricktales – Switch Review

LEGO Bricktales—a 3D puzzle-adventure game centred around helping NPCs with LEGO-brick constructions—is one of my surprise gaming experiences of the year. It was developed by Clockstone Studios and published by Thunderful Publishing. More than any LEGO game to date, developer Clockstone Studios have captured the essence of what makes LEGO fun. The in-game building mechanic feels somehow magical: I didn’t just remember what it was like to be a kid playing with little blocks—blocks I’ve given no thought to as an adult—I relived it. The game lured my weary, aging mind back to the same calm, happy mental space I had as a seven or eight year old. Once again I was living my life brick by brick in an innocent, zen-like calm. It felt great. And the video game elements enhanced this core experie...

29Sep

By Oliver RevoltaNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Haiku, The Robot – Switch Review

To teach himself the rhythm and structure of a great novel, legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson once re-typed F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby word for word. Playing Haiku, The Robot made me think something similar was going on, because the game’s resemblance to Hollow Knight is so overt that you could almost call it a replica—or, to put it more generously, a Hollow Knight expansion with a robot skin. The sense is that the game’s solo developer, James Morris, AKA Mister Morris Games, had no intention of hiding his influence. You play as a little robot named Haiku, and as you explore the robotic world of Arcadia, divided up into branching paths like in any Metroid-vania, the echoes of Hollow Knight are frequent. The tech-based enemies have a direct insectoid parallel in Hollow ...

17Aug

By Gareth TruemanNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – Switch Review

Developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the third instalment of the widely popular RPG. It was released on the 22nd of July, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. Is It The Best Number 3 In Any Franchise? The first two instalments of Xenoblade Chronicles are arguably some of the best RPGs to ever be made. Who knows what heights they would have reached if they weren't Nintendo exclusives? Now after five long-awaited years fans are finally playing the sequel. If it is half as good as the original two then it will surely be a hit. So let's find out, shall we? If you enjoyed this review then why not check out my previous one here? You can also catch up with what the rest of the Thumb Culture team is up to on our social media. Gameplay Trying to...

14Aug

By Oliver Revolta2 Comments

Switch Reviews

Live A Live – Switch Review

Live A Live comes to the Nintendo Switch a thing of intrigue—a game that has waited 28 years for a western release, and one that has websites and reviewers singling out this remaster as a standard-bearer in games preservation done well. The hype is strong and expectations are high, particularly for a game that due to its age could potentially not hold up to modern sensibilities. From a distance, the game’s background appears mysterious. Searches for reasons why this 1994 SNES release never travelled outside of Japan give conflicting reports. Maybe low sales are the culprit—Square Enix shifted only 270,000 copies originally. Square’s other games that year did much better in comparison, at least in Japan. It’s possible that Live A Live’s unique structure—seven narratives, each designed...

28Jul

By Oliver RevoltaNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Unavowed – Switch Review

The opening of Unavowed — a point-and-click adventure game first released in 2018 on Mac and PC and now out on the Switch — throws you straight into the action. The first shot is of a moody, blood-orange sky depicted in beautiful, high-quality pixel art (the resolution so high that the word ‘pixel’ seems redundant). Rain is falling. Tense music plays. With the exception of the main character, the game is entirely voice-acted, and we hear some dialogue of what turns out to be an exorcism. The camera pans down to three figures on a rooftop, one of which is you: you are the one being exorcised. You don’t remember anything and you’re confused as hell. Of the other two figures, one has a knife in your back and the other a magic staff in your face. For some, a magic staff might sound off-putt...

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes – Switch Review

21Jul

By Gareth TruemanNo Comments

Switch Reviews

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes – Switch Review

Developed by Omega Force, Intelligent Systems and published by Koei Tecmo and Nintendo. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a hack and slash, role-playing game that was released for the Nintendo Switch on the 24th of June 2022. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Hacky Slashy Done Easy Some of the greatest RPGs to ever be made are primarily from Japan. The likes of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Pokemon and the Fire Emblem Series. There's just something about JRPGs that always gets gamers wanting more. Whether it be the storytelling of the combat system that always seems to be a favourite among fans. More is just never enough and today we take on the latest in the Fire Emblem series. If you enjoyed this review then why not check out my latest one here. You can also catch up with what t...