Tag: Nintendo Switch

  • Review: Foreign Sun (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Foreign Sun (Nintendo Switch)

    Foreign Sun had spelunking back and forth between a settlement, a sewer system, and a competing settlement; running around shanking anyone foolish enough to cross beam-sabers with me; getting ready for another attempt at the boss. Turns out I still wasn’t ready enough.

    I spawned back in to find the settlement I’d been buying my mods at raised to the ground, its inhabitants butchered by some black-clad, mask wearing weirdos who were also wiping out anything breathing in the competing settlement. I imagine they did the boss in as well?

    Did this happen because I failed to beat the boss too many times? Because of a prisoner I helped free a little earlier in the game? Questions whirled through my mind but I carried on. And just when I felt the need for a map, lo and behold there was an NPC selling them for the low, low cost of my soul. What could possibly go wrong, right?

    Choices with consequences – a bold claim many games make yet very few achieve. Even fewer with consequences that make a discernible difference to the game world around you.

    It’s not difficult to understand why that doesn’t happen all that often. Games are complex beasts, full of varied systems already struggling to work together in harmony. But every so often, a game comes out of left field that makes you go; “Wait? What just happened?”

    And that is exactly what Foreign Sun made me do. Now I love replaying games that I enjoyed, but I rarely have the urge to restart them or play a New Game+ as soon as I’d finished it. But even before I was at the halfway point through Foreign Sun‘s world, I already found myself wondering “What if?”

    What if I’d beaten that boss on my first or even second attempt? What if I hadn’t visited that suspicious prisoner? What if I hadn’t sold my soul just for a quick way to figure out where I was or had yet to visit? What if?

    So much so that I’d considered starting a new save file just to see how much of a difference my decisions would make. And that’s when I knew Foreign Sun had me hooked. Even with the tough boss fights and the more than a few moments of feeling like I was butting my head against a wall trying to figure out where to go next. Yeah, Foreign Sun captured me, so much so that I’m still thinking about it. Still wondering “what if”?

    Developed by Final Scene dev, Foreign Sun is both the spiritual successor and rework of the developers previous game, Biomass. What started out as a visual update has evolved into it’s own pilgrimage to the Lighthouse.

    Set in a flooded, post-apocalyptic world, where survivors eke out a miserable existence in the drowning remains of skyscrapers, Foreign Sun is a Souls-vania swimming in a variety of influences. From odd mutations to cyberpunk-ish leanings, it’s a melting pot of ideas all rounded out with a heavy Spaghetti Western feel. And as a pilgrim with no name hoping to reach The Lighthouse and cross the Meridian Gate, your journey across a new, wild world is only just beginning.

    With choice being such a huge part of the narrative, seeing everything Foreign Sun has to offer will require multiple playthroughs. The game seems tailor made for it in essence, with multiple endings that reveal more about the world, change characters, and open up new routes and boss fights.

    With that requiring a fair amount of time investment, it’s a good thing the game is both intriguing and plays well. In essence the basics of Souls-likes is here, with light and heavy attacks, ranged attacks, and mods that upgrade your health and stamina. There are machines to reconstitute at when you die, where you also buy your mods from, but stat specific upgrades don’t exist, making this a more streamlined experience in the Souls genre.

    You can block and parry attacks, but what you can block and parry is based around the type of attack used. Some attacks, like AOEs, can’t be blocked. Others will drain your stamina bar and a little bit of your health. Some attacks can even parry bullets back at enemies.

    Close combat is the name of the game here, with bouts designed around weapon clashing. In function it’s a form of parry, but one that needs to be hit back-to-back to drain the enemy’s posture, leaving them open to one hit kills for regular enemies and large damage dealers to bosses. With all your melee weapons plasma-based, the Star Wars inspiration is clear and quite awesome. Timing is paramount, but when you do get the flow right and clash multiple sword attacks together in one sequence, it’s a spectacular-looking (and sounding) sight.

    The combat system is simple to use but has enough nuance so that it is hard to master while paying attention to all the small details that can turn the tide in a fight. Clash weapons too often with not enough success and you can overheat, leaving you open to attacks. Sneak up on enemies and you can do a one hit kill. Regardless, paying attention is highly important as the combat flow in Foreign Sun is incredibly fast. You’re going to need speedy reflexes here to survive fights. Even more so in boss fights.

    It does bring me to one of Foreign Sun‘s flaws: it’s just a little too hard for its own good at times. Bosses can be very challenging and even standard enemies can wreck you in two or three moves. Even with health mods, you get wiped out very quickly. I think the game needs a little more tweaking on the difficulty and damage dealing mechanics, especially for bosses where it can feel like you’ve hit a roadblock until you finally manage to beat them.

    Atmosphere is one thing that Foreign Sun excels at. The fantastic soundtrack combines wonderfully with the ominous, washed-out, sun-drenched visuals and dark, mutant infested corridors. Even with NPCs around, there’s a feeling that you’re a lone gunslinger on a long, lonely journey, reinforcing that Western feeling. And dripping over it all, a sense of melancholy and despair that permeates the whole journey. The games audio is also wonderful. Beam weapons sound fantastic – even more so when you’re clashing at high speed.

    Games that come around and really surprise you are increasingly rare. Vanishingly rare are the ones that make oft used mechanics feel fresh again while also surprising you. For its few faults – namely the high difficulty and obscure moments on where to go next – Foreign Sun is one of those games. It’s an atmospheric, lovingly crafted, melancholic Souls-vania with haunting, hidden depths that I can recommend to all indie fans.

    Pros:

    • Choices you make have weight
    • Fun, fast and deep combat
    • Fantastic atmosphere
    • Great soundtrack

    Cons:

    • Some hefty difficulty spikes
    • Can feel obscure at times where progression is concerned

    Score: 9/10

    Foreign Sun was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC.

  • Review: Skautfold: Moonless Night (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Skautfold: Moonless Night (Nintendo Switch)

    Welcome to the 1900’s. Welcome to the Angelic Empire of Britannia. Welcome to Skautfold: Moonless Knight. And welcome to the end of the world.

    If that sounds like a heavy opening, that’s because it is. And that’s because Skautfold, as a whole, is as well. Set during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the Skautfold series is a full-on Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraftian, Cosmic Horror action-RPG franchise that, sadly, you probably never heard of. Initially released for PC in 2020, Moonless Knight is now allowing console owners to pit the Knights of the Empire against eldritch horrors with this penultimate chapter that propels the series towards its apocalyptic conclusion.

    For this entry, the series switches location from the horror-plagued streets of London to the shores of Japan and its Dawn Empire. As part of a delegation sent to negotiate with the Emperor in response to the looming end of the world, you take on the role of Gray, 2nd Knight of the Empire. Alas, things do not go well, and the negotiations are sabotaged by a group of Eldritch God worshipping Lunatics. Taking shelter in the Imperial Palace, it becomes your job to route the cultists, win the Emperor’s trust and delve into the legends of the Oda clan and what lies hidden beneath the Palace – possibly the only thing capable of saving the remnants of humanity.

    Like the Darksiders games, the Skautfold series has played around with different game genres for each instalment. From survival-horror to Metroidvanias, the developer has explored diverse mechanics and perspectives. What has remained true for each instalment is the heavy cosmic horror focus along with RPG and Souls-like elements. And that remains true for Moonless Knight as well.

    Moonless Knight ditches the survival-horror mechanics of the original, instead focusing on gameplay mechanics and styles from other games in the series, creating an isometric action RPG with Souls-like mechanics. Unlike most action-RPG’s however, the Skautfold games focus firmly on storytelling while taking a step back to focus on almost hardcore, tactical Souls-like combat. There’s a bit of Metroid and Legend of Zelda mechanics thrown in for good measure to create a melting pot of strangely addictive gameplay.

    The story itself is great and paints a pretty, or not so pretty, picture of the stakes here at the end of the world. It’s certainly one of the games highlights, filled with plenty of dialogue and enough creatures to make the Lovecraftian fan in you happy. From Night-Gaunts that operate shops, to the Mi-Go running a smithy, to certain frozen statues highlighting the form of a certain Mighty Messenger, there’s a veritable who’s-who of the Mythos here for the aficionado.

    One of the nice things about the Skautfold series is that you can jump into the games at any point. While the story, albeit focusing on different protagonists, is continuous, you don’t have to have played the previous game in the series. And the same goes for Moonless Knight. There’s more than enough exposition for you to figure out what’s going on but I would recommend picking up on this series from the very beginning, if you haven’t already.

    The world is a little bit Metroidvania in design, with plenty of locations blocked off by skills you may not have, and alternate routes and paths that need to be unlocked. Exploration is important on your first run through an area as there are upgrade materials, money, and skill increases scattered across the environment or found in chests. There is a level of repetition that does set in as you do travel across the same areas a bit too much. For me, this aspect of the game felt less like a Metroidvania and more like a dungeon-crawler when taking into account the back and forth and room layouts that add to the labyrinthine and maze-like feel of the environments.

    Skautfold: Moonless Knight makes use of one of my favourite ways to level up skills in a game and that is, by using them. Blocking, dodging, and your weapon are improved by using them. It’s a really satisfying progression mechanic that does a great job of showcasing your increasing prowess. You can also find skill upgrades in chests and at the games merchant. Your weapons, which range from a standard sword to dual wielded blades, can also be further levelled at the smithy. This not only increases your damage output but, eventually, completely changes the weapons form.

    Empowering you further are relics scattered across the environment. These not only add another tool to your arsenal but also help in navigating the environment. These relics also come into their own in boss fights with specific ones working better against some bosses than others. Finally, on the offense scale, you’re saddled with a familiar to help you in combat that also levels up as it does its job.

    Where Moonless Knight really shines, and where it got its hooks into me, is in the combat. The various rooms may not be overly populated, but almost every fight is a tactical contest for survival even as you get stronger. This is due to the game favouring positioning, perfect dashes, and perfect blocks to keep you alive, and it’s all driven by the Guard mechanic.

    Moonless Knight employs a Guard bar, which is a combination of a stamina bar and a shield. All of your actions drain some of the Guard bar, whether that’s swinging a sword, blocking, or dashing. At the same time, the bar protects you from damage and once it’s empty you start taking damage to your health. Each fight is a taught affair of managing this bar while paying attention to the enemy tells to determine whether or not they’re going to block or attack.

    Damaging an enemy means having to chew through their Guard bar before you can rain hell down on their health. While the bar recharges on its own, blocking at the right time will recharge the bar while pulling the same amount out of your opponent’s bar. The Guard bar is also tied to your health: the lower your health, the lower the Guard bar.

    The best part about this system is that the enemies, even bosses, are governed by it as well. So, while bosses may have inflated health and guard bars, and you have to learn their attack patterns along with which relic is best for the encounter, the combat system and encounters never feel cheap. Ultimately it comes down to you increasing your strength while reading every encounter carefully because, even as you level up, a string of poor moves can punish you all the same. And if you read the room right, you can walk through it without a scratch.

    While I liked Moonless Knight‘s pixel-art visuals, especially the death animations as enemies are cleaved in twain amidst gushes of blood, it does bring me to one of my few issues with the game. And that is that in certain maps, specifically the Imperial Palace, I found it hard to tell the difference between walls, support pillars, and the floor. This is down to everything been constructed from wood and there was more than one moment where I had to stop and wonder whether or not that was a wall or floor before me.

    My other issue is the room design becomes more and more labyrinthine the further you delve beneath the Imperial Palace. It’s fun enough for exploration, but once you have to start running through the same area multiple times, especially if you want to get somewhere quickly, navigating it becomes a repetitive chore.

    That said, Skautfold: Moonless Knight is a wonderfully fun delve into an alternate, Cthulhu Mythos-infected world that builds upon its earlier instalments. The dungeon-delving nature of the game may get repetitive at times, but it’s made up for with a great story and some truly fun and infectious combat mechanics.

    Pros:

    • Good Cthulhu Mythos inspired story
    • Fun, gripping combat mechanics
    • Levelling up abilities through use is always a great mechanic

    Cons:

    • Some tile-sets make it difficult to discern walls from floors
    • The maze-like aspect of later areas gets tiring to navigate

    Score: 7/10

    Skautfold: Moonless Knight was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X.

  • Review: City Hunter (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: City Hunter (Nintendo Switch)

    My introduction to Ryo Saeba’s adventures came not through Tsukasa Hojo’s original City Hunter manga or the anime series or even the movies, but rather through the 1993 Jackie Chan City Hunter live-action adaptation. A movie a I absolutely adore. So much so that it’s my second favourite Jackie Chan movie. It was that adaptation that got me to delve deeper into the previous adventures of the lecherous private investigator and his underground City Hunter business.

    Now, after thirty-five years, the only official licensed game of the classic manga – not counting Ryo’s appearance in other crossover games – has been brought back to modern consoles and PCs with a somewhat slightly remastered version courtesy of Red Art Games and the original developers SUNSOFT. This also marks the games official debut outside of Japan.

    City Hunter Nintendo Switch 2

    Originally released in 1990 for the PC Engine – or the TurboGrafx-16 in the US – City Hunter is a mostly traditional side-scrolling action game. It’s highly reminiscent of Taito’s Elevator Action, Ocean Software and Eurocom’s Lethal Weapon, and just about any other retro side-scroller. You run to the left and right of the screen, shooting endless enemy spawns as they come towards you from off-screen while trying to complete your objectives.

    Across the three missions the game has for you, you’ll find yourself running and gunning through office hallways, warehouses, labs, and industrial areas. Each of the levels are full of doors leading to other areas or to empty rooms and there’s a lot of back and forth between sections. To the developer’s credit, they’ve tried to add some depth to the game by implementing NPC’s that either update your objectives, heal you, or give you a new weapon. This does change the missions into a bit of a run around as you hunt down someone or something to get that next keycard but that does very little to mix up the base gameplay of shooting the ever-loving snot out of anything that happens to wander on-screen.

    City Hunter Nintendo Switch

    Like most retro games, City Hunter is very much a product of its time. And of licensed titles of the time as well. Which is to say that while the action is fun enough for the short time it will take you to blast through this – in a perfunctory sort of way – there just isn’t enough done with the City Hunter license to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd. Sure, Ryo can get health back in the presence of a scantily clad woman, and the anime’s iconic closing theme is here for the opening, but the bulk of what makes City Hunter City Hunter simply isn’t here – specifically the jokes.

    This version of City Hunter is less of a remake or remaster as much as it is a straight-forward port of a thirty-five-year-old game. Which is nothing to be disappointed with where preservation and saving obscure retro titles is concerned, but it could have done with much more love than what few features have been added that are now standard for retro title remasters. It also comes with all of the original’s problems too. From flickering sprites to unfair enemy spawns that always result in cheap hits (specifically when you’re exiting a room), to lacklustre background art design that makes each mission look identical, this really is the same game it’s always been.

    City Hunter Gallery

    What’s new to this revival version spans the gamut of what is now mandatory for the preservation of old games.

    Visually, the game supports CRT filters and multiple aspect ratios, specifically 4/3, widescreen, pixel perfect, and native resolution. The visuals themselves look exactly the same as the original games, featuring some nice 2D animations – though they might be a tad cleaner than the original release.

    There are three flavours of gameplay: original, enhanced, and hard. Original speaks for itself and it’s the game as it was back in 1990. The Enhanced version is meant to have refined enemy behaviour, more responsive controls, and improved gameplay but for the life of me, I couldn’t pick up any major differences between this mode and the original. Hard is, as it implies, stronger enemies and a higher difficulty which should suite those wanting get every ounce they can out of the game when tackling a new scenario.

    As is now super popular across retro game compilations, there’s a nifty Rewind feature that let’s you undo your mistakes. Sadly, it doesn’t do anything to nullify those cheap hits from enemies that spawn right outside a door that you’re exiting. You can also save and load your progress at anytime which is really great when you need a breather and is vastly superior to the original password continue system.

    City Hunter Bunny Girls

    Finally, there’s my favourite feature of any retro title: the Gallery. While not as robust as I would have liked, City Hunter’s Gallery lets you take a look at key artwork, anime stills, the original games CD Box and inlays and, finally, listen to all of the music.

    When compared to a lot of the recent retro collections, City Hunter is a little on the anemic side. It’s not the longest retro title and hasn’t aged all that well in the gameplay department, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an appreciated effort in making sure that another relatively obscure game doesn’t disappear into the annals of gaming history. As such, it’s a game that hardcore retro collectors and fans of the original game, manga, or anime will get the most out of.

    Pros:

    • City Hunter finally receives a worldwide release
    • The crisp animations still hold up
    • The anime’s closing musical track is included

    Cons:

    • A slightly barebones retro release
    • Repetitive stage design
    • Design bugs lead to cheap hits

    Score: 6/10

    City Hunter was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PS5 and PC.

  • Review: The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest (Nintendo Switch)

    The mind, as they say, is a terrible thing to waste. Even more so if you’re the creative type. And that’s the problem facing Fletcher, a burned-out game developer who needs to reignite that creative spark. When a hypnotherapy session goes wrong, Fletcher’s world goes full meta as he finds himself trapped within the labyrinth of his own mind and his current creation. The only way out is to spelunk through the job that has bled into his subconscious and defeat the demons within holding him prisoner.

    As such, Fletcher’s quest puts you in the shoes of a game developer who has to reckon with his own profession by living through what he’s designed. And in this case, it’s a 2D platforming title with vague hints of Metroidvania-ness at its core. As is developer Elden Pixels go-to through the course of their career, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a retro-inspired platformer that could have easily stepped out of the past with its, initially, challenging design.

    Fletcher’s story is full of bizarre, fourth-wall breaking humour that intends to poke fun at the game design process. Quirks, bugs, poor design, it’s all fodder for the developers to use to elicit a smile through this surreal adventure. Not all of the humour lands, but when it does, it’s a nice slice of grin-worthy meta-commentary. But the humour is even better when those poor design choices are thrown at you as obstacles to be overcome. Be warned though, there’s some serious adult language and jokes on display here, from pixellated nudity to Samuel L. Jackson level of profanity bombs. If you’re thinking of handing this one over to the kids, you may want to reign that horse in for a bit.

    Visually, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a bright and almost cheerfully colourful game, despite the adult subject matter. The game uses a lovely looking pixel art style that is both charming and wonderfully animated from the characters to the backgrounds. Between the character and enemy designs and the stage design, it very much resembles bright, colourful, children’s cartoons from the days of yore. There are wonderful little details scattered across the place, from the squinty eyes that peak out of boxes until you get close to them, to the lovely boss designs such as a giant surfboarding shark with colour changing trunks.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Shark Boss

    The games audio is no slouch either. Sound effects are great, but it’s the games soundtrack that comes in kicking with a pop cowboy/Western themed tune that will worm its way into your ear long after you’ve stopped playing. The boss music is really great though and represent the best tunes in the game.

    The gameplay is where The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest will, most likely, polarise many gamers. It is, initially, quite tough and a bit on the unbalanced side.

    Progression through the game uses some Metroidvania design, with a world map and layout that’s evocative of so many games in the genre and areas blocked off until you gain new abilities by beating a boss. But that’s as far as the Metroidvania impact goes as the game is broken up into small, self-contained challenge rooms that are a mixture of platforming, combat and timing to get through. Each room is like a little mini-puzzle in survival that requires fast reflexes along with the patience required to work out the patterns in enemy movement and attacks while making sure you don’t get skewered by the many sharp environmental objects, like tacks, that are littering the world.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Gameplay

    Adding onto the game’s difficulty is the use of light procedural generation. Now while the overall map shape remains the same and certain specific rooms and gauntlets remain in place, the bulk of the room layouts will differ both between new runs and, even, reloads. While procedural generation is supposed to give you the feel of a new run each time, it’s not long before you’ll see rooms repeating, even if they’re not in the same place you originally encountered them.

    It’s that procedural generation though that really throws the games difficulty all over the place. The randomisation means that you’re just as likely to run through one, long series of frustrating rooms to reach the next save point as much as a whole bunch of easy ones. Worse yet, are the areas where you’re hitting a weird combination of hard and easy rooms that completely destroys any sense of finely-tuned difficulty progression. Stepping out from a save room could land you in a really hard room, followed up by two easy rooms and then three hard or so. I’m sure you get the point by now. Now while this keeps you on your toes, and you have to be because you can only take two hits before dying, it does the game no favours early on and set me up with a sense of increasing frustration by the time I hit the first boss.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Randomised Rooms

    Here’s the thing though. There’s a point, right after that first boss actually, that The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest just clicked for me. Perhaps it was earning the double jump which made navigating the rooms faster and with a little more finesse that did it. Or getting a second bullet so you could fire two shots at once instead of just one and waiting till you’re bullet either hit something or disappeared off-screen before you could fire another. Either way, this is when the game really came alive for me and, dare I say it, became a whole lot more fun.

    Sure, the procedural generation and its difficulty skewing dynamic sticks around. And yeah, the multi-phase boss fights can be a bit much, but somehow, this is when it just starts feeling right. There’s a sense of finding your groove once you understand the mechanics at play that makes even the umpteenth death just another learning experience. And believe me, I died quite a bit.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Premise

    If it’s all still a bit much, there is an assist mode available. There’s no description in-game on what this does, but it appears to me that with it enabled, when you die, instead of respawning at the last save point, you respawn at the entrance of the room you died in. Super useful for sure, even though save rooms are liberally placed across the map and you can warp from one save room to another. This just streamlines moving forward and not having to hassle with reaching where you died when the last place you saved at was five rooms ago.

    If you can overlook the procedural generation and its issues and get on board with a truly ancient slice of game design, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a lovely looking and fun old-school, arcade platformer with a humourous narrative that just needed a little bit more fine-tuning to reach greatness.

    Pros:

    • Nice, colourful pixel art style
    • Good soundtrack
    • Fun gameplay once you get used to the mechanics
    • Memorable bosses

    Cons:

    • Procedural generation messes with the difficulty curve
    • Very frustrating initially

    Score: 7/10

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC.

  • Escape from Ever After is a slick and fun homage that stretches itself too thin.

    Escape from Ever After is a slick and fun homage that stretches itself too thin.

    My first thought when putting fingers to keyboard was just how much better Escape from Ever After could have been if it had spent time with a merciless editor. Coming from a two-person indie team, it has a strong start, solid writing, thoughtful gameplay, and is far from a bad game. The problem is the longer I played, the staler the gameplay loop felt, and the more I noticed the impact of limited assets.

    Escape from Ever After - The Three Little Pigs

    For all vocal fans of the Paper Mario games, there have been surprisingly few attempts to copy that formula – think paper-craft sprites in 3D environments, serving a streamlined RPG that focuses on platforming and puzzles during exploration, and mini-games during the turn-based combat. 2019’s Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is the most successful example that came to mind but Escape from Ever After now offers another indie alternative if you’re looking for more of same or don’t have Nintendo hardware.

    Escape from Ever After benefits from a great promise befitting the aesthetics. Fairytale protagonist Flynn and his arch nemesis, the dragon Tinder, are captured by Ever After Inc – a “real-world” corporation that has figured out how to extend their operations into storybooks, reduce iconic characters to white-collar workers, and exploit their fantasy worlds for profit. Deciding that they could do more damage from the inside, Flynn and Tinder begrudgingly team up and accept an employment contract from the unhinged middle-manager Mr Moon.

    Escape from Ever After Wolfgang's Lute

    The setup provides an excuse to move between the office hub in Tinder’s castle – full of office worker archetypes doling out side-quests – and a half-dozen worlds based (very loosely) on classic fairytales and other literature. There are subverted classics like The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, but also unexpected choices like an amusing, age-appropriate take on Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Each world has its own problems, usually exacerbated by Ever After Inc.’s rampant capitalism, and each introduces a companion that’ll join Flynn and Tinder on their adventure. Like the Paper Mario games, it is closer in style to a JRPG, so the few dialogue choices you get don’t have any real impact on how the story plays out.

    The writing still managed to impress and tug on the heartstrings at times, despite no voice work and the player controlling the dialogue flow, but gameplay dominates the experience. It revolves around exploration, some light platforming and time-based challenges, and also some light puzzling that use your companion’s abilities: think hitting distant objects with Flynn’s buckler, setting things on fire with Tinder, or manipulating plant growth and wind using Wolfgang’s melodies. It makes exploration far more interesting than simply running between set-piece battles and, naturally, you can return to worlds with new companions to use their abilities to unlock new gear, trinkets, or discover ink bottles that upgrade attacks.

    Escape from Ever After Boss Fight

    The combat is fun as it’s a low-numbers game, in which most enemies have health points in the single digits, and new gear or skills feel significant rather than incremental. Gaining XP and levelling boosts the party’s max HP, MP, or trinket slots – items that offer interesting buffs and potential trade-offs. More important is which party member abilities you use to deal with enemies that are flying, shielded, armoured, or buffing one another. You need to time button presses for blocks and attacks; complete mini-games to maximise the impact of special abilities; and simply spamming the basic attack will get you nowhere.

    Returning to my opening statement, the biggest problem Escape from Ever After faces is the 20-ish hours it takes to roll the credits. Aside from multi-phase boss encounters, there are too few enemy variants; the charming visuals slowly give way to that “made-in-Unity” look; and even the brilliant soundtrack becomes grating once you’ve heard it enough times. As someone who would always take a shorter game with a satisfying conclusion that leaves me on a high, rather than a longer one that simply leaves me relieved to see the credits roll, I can’t help but wonder why so many developers don’t follow the less is more principle?

    Escape from Ever After was played on Nintendo Switch 2 using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox Series S|X, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 1.

  • 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.

    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. If 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.  

    System Shock Switch Medical CPU Cores

    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.

    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 the 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.

    System Shock Switch Mag-Pulse Rifle

    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 (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).

    System Shock Switch Research Cargo Lift

    Despite the focus on player agency and freedom, the System Shock remake is still far more playable than its predecessor and closer in design to its well-regarded and equally influential sequel. 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.

    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.

    System Shock Switch Berserk Combat Booster + Wrench

    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 and releasing them on consoles too. 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 also 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 (even on the 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.