It feels like all I played last year were crossover titles, of varying levels of success and narrative insanity. No matter how many absurd narratives I played though, I was still really excited for Nicalis’ Blade Strangers, if only because Gunvolt and Shovel Knight were on the roster. However, how did the accessible fighting game shape up on release?
Mario and his friends have been getting into sports-related scrapes for years, duking it out across tennis, football, golf and several trips to the Olympics. As long as you don’t think to much about the odd canonical implications of them, they’re often really fun games. So enter the latest sportsball free-for-all Mario Tennis Aces for Switch! But is it advantage Nintendo, or a disappointing double fault?
I’ve been with the Pokémon series since the very beginning. As such, Pokémon Let’s Go, Eevee! is not my first time running amok through Kanto, but I simply wasn’t going to resist another jaunt with an adorable little Eevee in tow much like the Pikachu I had back in Pokémon Yellow Version.
Mario Party as a franchise has a bloodied legacy across the ages, likely causing more fights amongst family and friends than Monopoly, Operation and Kerplunk combined. The last couple of games have been weak in comparison to the whole, with Mario Party 10 being incredibly lacklustre. Now that we have the Switch though, Nintendo are giving it another try with their eleventh main entry; Super Mario Party.
Tales of Vesperia has always been a missing link in my love of the Tales series, as a game that I had no means of playing (outside of imports) and yet one that was more widely praised than any other title in the whole franchise, and so I spent years of generally feeling sad about not playing it.
Travis Touchdown is pretty much a gaming legend at this point; starting as an immature otaku punk with a bad temper and thankfully having no growth since then. It has been a while since we checked in with him, so thank you SUDA 51 for Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. Got your beam katana? Good.
Being a huge fan for many years of JRPGs, I must admit that the Atelier series had passed me by simply because it was a little too anime for past me. Now that I’m older and more partial to big-eyed anime girls, the recent release of Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland DX for Nintendo Switch felt like a great time to jump in.
The gravy train of the Nintendo Switch just keeps on rolling, with a strong year ahead for Nintendo already, and that’s only the games confirmed at the moment. First out of the gate for the first party presence this year is New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe, a collective port of both of the games in that franchise from the Wii U.
This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 5th April 2018.
Occasionally, the Switch has seen some odd releases, either of unusual indies emerging out of an increasingly experimental indie scene or of ports of the more strange games from other platforms. Speaking of which, Eat Beat: Dead Spike-san is a rhythm action game based on the BlazBlue franchise of anime fighting games. Released originally in 2015 for iOS and Android devices by Arc System Works, this absurd spin-off of an already arguably absurd franchise has now come to Nintendo Switch eShop. But how is it?
Reu The Gamer 