Review | Dragon Quest Builders

Reviews

This article was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 8th February 2018.

It likely surprises no one at this point when it comes to me getting excited about new JRPGs coming out, especially if they are coming to Switch and I can play them whenever and wherever I would like to do so. This being said, I’m not normally a fan of building or sim games such as Stardew Valley or Minecraft as I find them a little overwhelming and ultimately dull. However, I could not ignore Square-Enix when they announced that they were bringing Dragon Quest Builders, their mash-up of building games and their popular Dragon Quest series, to the Switch. I wanted, at least to have a play around in their blocky reinterpretation of the traditional Dragon Quest formula. One question though, how is the game?

Review | Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds Overdrive

Reviews

This review originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 27th January.

Have you ever wanted to fight your way through a series of generic Japanese tropes, while playing as slightly over-designed anime girls in a retro-style rendition of Japan? Well, do I have a treat for you. There’s a little game on the Switch eShop that fulfils that little dream called Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds Overdrive. The question is, before we get lost in dreams of waifus in lolita clothing, how actually is the game?

Review | The Sexy Brutale

Reviews

This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene.

2017 is rapidly reaching its end, and right up to the last moment the Switch has been treated to constant solid gameplay experiences and one of the most phenomenal launch years in gaming history. I’ve covered some of the biggest and best games of the year (making any kind of Top 5 ludicrously difficult), and also some of the best and brightest new studios offering their indie titles too. As my penultimate review of 2017, I’ve been graciously given a review code of The Sexy Brutale by Tequila Works and Cavalier Game Studios. This all being said, how is the game?

Review | Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Reviews

It’s absolutely no secret that I am a huge fan of JRPGs. When the original Xenoblade Chronicles released on Wii, and later on 3DS, I billed it as my favourite games of those years on their prospective consoles. The beautiful worlds, fantastic characters, and wonderful combat system sold me from almost the moment I started playing. So, when a second Chronicles game was announced for Switch I thought that my Christmas had come early. Little did I know that it most definitely had come early, with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 billed for December this year. However, now that I’ve had a significant amount of time with the game, how does it fare both as a game and versus the legacy the previous title laid out for it?

Review – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Reviews

This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 22nd November 2017.

Following from the successful launch of DOOM on Switch, it stands to reason that Bethesda would continue the ball rolling with bringing more of its extensive backlog of incredible and critically acclaimed games to the portable wonder. So, and as the end result of possibly the worst attempted cover up in recent gaming history, when a game that looked suspiciously like Bethesda’s Skyrim was shown as being playable on Switch during its reveal video, only to be fervently denied by Bethesda, we now have Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Nintendo Switch. Now, this game has been ported multiple times in its lifespan, but I haven’t played it before, so this review will be coming in as a complete outsider. With that said, how is Skyrim?

Review | DOOM (Switch)

Reviews

This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 14th November 2017.

There have been some incredibly left-field announcements for the Switch since it’s release in March, almost all of which have been well-received on reveal, if not on release. DOOM, originally released on X-Box One and PlayStation 4 last year, received incredibly positive reviews and went on to win and be nominated for multiple game industry awards. So when Nintendo announced that, following on from the reveal of Bethesda’s first game on a Nintendo platform (a port of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim), id Software’s lauded revival of DOOM would be brought to Switch too, it piqued the curiosity of a lot of fans. But, how does this dark, violent action game fare on Nintendo’s incredible hybrid device?

Review | Earth Atlantis

Reviews

This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 4th November 2017.

This year has been a phenomenal year for the Switch, as I’m sure has been said many times before by just as many people. This success and the incredible library that the console now has can be at least partly attributed to the sheer amount of indie support that it has received. There has been a large amount of fantastic games, many of which we have covered here on Nintendo Scene, and next up in our sights; the post-apocalyptic marine adventure, Earth Atlantis, by Pixel Perfex.

Review | Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

Reviews

This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 2nd February 2016.

We’re one month in to 2016, and what I’m dubbing JRPG Fever has already gripped the Nintendo 3DS. We’ve already had Final Fantasy Explorers (review will be posted soon), and there are plenty more on the horizon like Project X Zone 2 and Bravely Second: End Layer. So, how does the latest dungeon crawler from Atlus fare amongst the big dogs from Square-Enix and Monolith Soft?

Review | Super Mario Odyssey

Reviews

This review was originally posted on Nintendo Scene on 26th October 2017.

The Nintendo Switch launched in March this year, and it has had an incredible year so far, but it’s hard to deny that it did feel like something was missing. Obviously, when Nintendo has a new console, it isn’t long until a new Mario title comes to it, and the Switch was missing it’s outing with Nintendo’s premier ex-plumber. It’s pretty much undeniable that Super Mario Odyssey impressed from it’s first showing, but then again Mario has a formula that is very hard to get wrong, no matter the format or setting but hadn’t set the world alight in a few instalments. What is needed was a new set of features that truly excited the player base again, and it looked like the latest attempt was going to be a sentient hat. This all said, how is Super Mario Odyssey?

Review | DOOM (2016)

Reviews

I’ve always loved DOOM. I distinctly remember visiting a friend’s house when I was much younger and blasting my way through a variety of increasingly horrific monsters with increasingly ludicrous weapons, using the mouse and keyboard of a PC that could quite easily have crushed me to death. The game was an absolute thrill and, to me as a lowly console peasant (an accolade I still hold with pride), a technical and visual feat. The arguably simplistic aesthetic boasted incredibly in-depth and labyrinthine level design that never became less of a joy to explore even once I knew my way through. Furthermore, earlier this year I played through the original DOOM again with a friend on Xbox Arcade (I believe) and enjoyed it just as much. One thing I missed last year, and kind of regret now, was the revival of DOOM on console, which simply took the moniker of “DOOM”. I’ve recently finished the game on stream, but what did I think of it?