Aggelos 2 review (Switch)

It’s a good few years ago now that we played the first Aggelos. It was a fun game that was heavily influenced by the Wonder Boy franchise and was presented in an 8-bit style. As is the trend with indie games like these the sequel has decided to step up to the 16-bit way of doing things. As such, you can kind of think of this as a Mega Drive successor to the Master System original. Although there’s a few more colours on display here and the sound is much better.

In the beginning things seem much the same as before. You are setting off in a sort of Metroidvana world, although it is much prettier and much more open, looking for new power ups and bosses to defeat. There is a handy X on your map which points the way to your next objective and going off the beaten track normally rewards you with something worthwhile. You also get to stay fairly powerful with not only your sword in hand but a projectile attack which turns the game into a sort of run n’ gun at times. You’ll start to pick up items quickly as well which turns the game more into an open adventure.

An example of this is two things you pick up very early on. First off, you’ll get your angel wings back which let you float at a steady level for a short time. This makes movement much quicker and allows for some devious puzzles to solve, normally involving spikes. The second thing of importance you’ll get is the grappling hook. This allows you latch onto most surfaces and can be deployed over and over meaning you can climb and reach higher areas. This effectively acts as a bundle of different upgrades you normally get in Metroidvanias in one item.

The game also throws a few twists at you. Just when you think you are settling into a perfectly playable but slightly generic adventure it introduces the dark world. At one point you will find that you change from the light side to the dark. This transforms your character and changes your attacks and special moves. Most importantly it means you can travel through the various dark portals around the world into a dark version of the map with new enemies and layouts. You can change back and forth at will and allows of Ikaruga like puzzles to be deployed, something we certainly weren’t expecting.

What’s especially impressive is that everything fits together so quickly and the game runs incredibly smoothly. You are given a lot of things early on, but everything is introduced effortlessly and you never feel overwhelmed. It also means there are multiple ways you can approach the game in terms of moving around and combat which adds flexibility.

Overall, Aggelos 2 is a really good fun, solid game that lacks any real flaws. There’s a lot of thought that has gone into this and it comes into its own as well as keeping the influence of its retro forebears and adding new twists to them. The difficulty is pitched about right as well. If there’s one criticism it is perhaps that despite all this it just seems to lack that small touch of magic that would elevate it to classic status. That said, if you are a fan of Wonder Boy or these types of games it is pretty much essential.

Overall 8/10

Apidya Special Review (Switch)

It seems now people have worked out how to get the Amiga emulating properly across platforms there is no stopping the surge of games being remade and ported. We’ve already had a host of cartridges for the Evercade and even new games made for the Amiga, but now we have the classic horizontal shoot’em up Apidya, rebuilt from scratch with the original team involved and given the ‘special’ treatment. It certainly won’t be long before we will all be expecting the Amiga versions of games in all these compilations that are releasing on an ever-increasing basis.

For those not fortunate enough to know their Amiga history, Apidya is an insect-based side scrolling shooter where you pilot a bee through various urban environments, shooting other bugs and the occasional giant mammal. This gives the game a unique look compared to the usual sci-fi themes generally seen in these games as you zoom through grass and other more naturalistic environments.

There is a plot about an evil lord cursing someone to be a bee buts let’s not worry too much about that. This is close mechanically to something like Gradius. You pick up powerups which can be cashed in for bombs or more speed much in the same way as the classic space shooter, just instead of enemy ships you are shootings ants and butterflies. It’s crushing tough just like Gradius as well, though there a couple of options players can use to help them out.

The special edition has been rebuilt from scratch with 24-bit pixel graphics which do look pretty good on the Switch screen. The game still plays much the same so don’t worry. This isn’t an R-Type 3 situation. You now have ability to play the game in widescreen as well the original look and aspect ratio. Before starting a new game, you can change the difficulty settings, alter your number of starting lives and most helpfully, change if the level resets to the start upon death or not. But that is about it. The maximum number of lives you can go up to is five and you still have only three continues. The game does save when you complete a level but that will only let you continue with the same number of lives and continues you had when starting it. There are also no quality-of-life features such as rewinds. This is one for the shooter purists out there.

One thing we did find an issue was the colour palette. This isn’t because of something that has been changed in the new version though. As the game is naturalistic in its design there are a lot of greens and blues present and anyone who is remotely colour blind is going to struggle to see oncoming fire and even some of the creatures. It makes an already tough game even more difficult.

In terms of if the game still holds up then the answer is a resounding yes though. It still has an aesthetic that sets it apart from everything else out there. Taking on a giant praying mantis or a mole entrenched in its hill may play off traditional pattern-based tropes, but the new unique design and look helps keep everything fresh. The controls are tight as well and when you die its because of your error rather than something being off.

Overall, Apidya is game more than worth giving a second life to. It’s going to be difficult for newcomers to get into due to the crushing difficulty but fans of the multitude of other shooters found on the system should adjust quickly and find something unique and enjoyable here.

Overall 8/10

Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster Review (Switch)

Well, it’s been at least five reviews since we’ve looked at a Metroidvania game, so it seems only fitting to give Barbarian Saga a proper look. The game is heavily influenced by the swords and sorcery films of the late 80’s such as Conan the Barbarian and Beastmaster (as your character actually is both a barbarian and a beastmaster). After being forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena you decide to break free and with your demonic soul sucking sword, try to free the realm.

We would love to give you some more details of the plot, but the game is borderline nonsensical due to some poor writing and even worse translation. We often thought that whole sections of dialogue must be missing as characters spoke. This isn’t helped by the amount of text there is. Sometimes showing things is a lot better than reams and reams of text to get through.

The confusion goes for navigation as well as the map only gives you quite basic details with each area somewhat hard to distinguish from the next. There are also no markers or direction points, no way to check the progress of ongoing quests, or even a way to check on the controls for new moves you’ve learned. In a game world this big that is a problem. Even Hollow Knight let you put down marker stones.

The thing that most stands out about the game is how absolutely gorgeous it looks. It has a hand drawn art style and the environments and characters are beautifully illustrated. The cut scenes are equally top draw to look at. Unfortunately, when in motion everything seems blurry and a little undefined. Frequent frame rate drops and juddering also hinder any real ability to enjoy the lavish visuals as they jerk around the screen.

Another let down is that while the game initially seems to let you explore anywhere, you’ll soon find that it is continually funnelling you down a pretty narrow path. A lot of the environment leads you to dead ends without anything of value really being there. Metrodivania games have continually refined and moved away from the idea of pointless wandering in recent times but here there is a lot of level here just for the sake of it. You do get fast travel unlocked from the very beginning at least which is something.

Combat is decent enough. You have a strike and a block and new moves can be learned by finding broken weapons and giving them to the appropriate person. A lot of the new attacks don’t really do too much different though and with the frame rate issues the block can be tricky to initiate properly. Enemies are also varied and interesting to encounter and have a wide range of attacks and patterns. Bosses don’t let the side down either with a challenging yet logical approach to defeating them, the game certainly does some things right.

Overall, Barbarian Saga: The Beast Master has some really nice ideas. The look of the game is beautiful. If it could be updated so that when moving, it doesn’t look like a stop motion movie that would be go a long way to improving things. There is a wider issue with the general level design though and the text translation makes it almost nonsensical. With more time this could have been something a lot better but as it is it’s hard to recommend.

Overall 5/10

Kaboomania Review (Switch)

We are used to seeing retro styled games based on older franchises appear. What is a little less common is for new games made for original hardware to appear on the Switch. There have been a few of course such as Astebros, but they tend to stay in the realm of the Evercade. Kaboomania, is a new Amiga 1200 game with some very clear influences from the Bomberman series.

The aim of the game is clearly to try and recapture the spark that the original Bomberman franchise was known for. There are 4 player local vs battles and even a password system for the single player instead of an auto save. The levels themselves are generally quite a lot bigger than with the Bomberman games as well. It all sounds promising but somewhere along the way it seems to lose the magic.

First, the password system probably sounded like a great nostalgic kick to begin with, but in practice its incredibly annoying. Having to remember to write down or take a screen shot of your pass code every time you play will likely see you losing progress in the single player game. It’s something we have really moved beyond and including a save function as well would have made a lot more sense.

Single player suffers in the same way a lot of the single player campaigns of its inspiration suffer from. Single player Bomberman was never something that held attention for long. While the Bomberman franchise tried to keep mixing things up it never quite got the mix of clearing enemies and puzzles to the level of the multiplayer draw. There was a reason that when the game came out on Xbox Live that it was multiplayer only. Kaboomania suffers much the same fate. You move around a grided maze, clearing blocks, picking up powerups and looking for exit. Aside from the look it’s pretty much identical. However, as the levels are bigger it just becomes a drawn-out experience very quickly. As soon as level ten we were getting bored with it.

Unfortunately, it also has some technical issues. There is a lot of juddering and frame rate dropping. This occurs when bombs go off or when enemies are exploded. In a game this precise it makes things very frustrating at times as you jump around the screen. It also makes levels with a large number of enemies near unplayable at times. It’s something that really needs addressing. There is a powerup that drops a load of bombs all over the map which just results in the game pretty much grinding to a halt. An Amiga 1200 game really should not be stressing the Switch 2 out quite this much.

The other major issue for this is that The Bomberman Collection is also readily available. This is cheaper but when you can go and get a whole bundle of retro games that present a much slicker experience It’s hard to see who will be drawn to this. As a physical disc to be used with the Amiga 1200 this has merit, out in the wider world it really does begin to fall short.

Overall, it’s a shame Kaboomania can’t quite capture the magic of the games it is emulating. Without the technical issues this would be a fun distraction. But with the frame skips and general lack of polish in the movement and controls it just becomes too easy to ignore when there are better options available.

Overall 5/10

CloverPit Review (Switch 2)

Making its jump from Steam, CloverPit arrives with an already established cult following. Promoted as the slot machine version of Balatro, the game is a roguelike built around the core concept of pulling a demonic leaver and trying to make enough money to survive to the next round.

In terms of aesthetic the game is minimalist but effective. You start locked inside a small room. Inside you can see a locked door, the fruit machine, a toilet, bin, a machine to buy charms from and the money machine. There are also a couple of information boards that display the odds of certain symbols showing up and the deal or no deal style phone which rings between rounds.

The aim of each round is to reach a continually increasing set number of coins. Spare coins can be put back into the coin machine to gain interest. You get three turns in each round and early on you’ll realise it’s a careful balance between getting coins and the tickets you need to get charms which alter things like the likelihood of certain symbols showing up or giving rewards for certain combinations.

All this said, the game still comes down to a lot of luck. Using the right charms can change the value of symbols and make things show up more often but if you get a bad run there isn’t much you can really do. This is frustrating as even when you know the way you need to go with a build you can still play every turn as well as is possible and still not get enough coins to get through. It means, unlike games like Balatro, it can become tiring as decision making is nowhere near as deep.

If you reach the end of a round without enough coins the floor gives way and you fall to your death and need to start again from scratch. The only permanent things you can add are when you gain a key to unlock a draw. When draws are unlocked it means items can be placed inside them to give options in late game or even carry certain things over to the next run. At this point you at least get a bit more of an ability to plan ahead.

Achieving the gold needed for a round has the player set a new and higher coin target to reach. After a while you will also activate the ‘666’ numbers, which, if they come on the slot machine will see you lose all gained coins for the round. Of course, this can also be changed with charms to turn the so called ‘curse’ on its head. Between rounds the ominous phone also rings. Answering it allows you to pick from three further upgrades. Sometimes though you’ll get a cursed call which, if you can ignore, will grant greater upgrades later.

There is also a small DLC available at launch. The Unholy Fusion add on allows for players to forge various charms together to create new effects. However, it’s not available until you unlock all the draws in the game (which requires four completions). It’s both very cheap to purchase and also fairly non-essential unless you have really rung everything else out of the game.

Overall, CloverPit is an interesting game. It starts out a bit confusing then you’ll start to work out how you are meant to play it. However, if you don’t start seeing success in yuir runs due to the luck element it’s hard to see players sticking with it as long term as over rogue style games. What’s here works pretty well, it just feels a bit light weight at times and may leave you looking for something with more depth.

Overall 7/10

Skautfold: Moonless Knight Review (Switch)

We’ll admit to not being aware of the Skautfold series. Apparently, there are a ton of games out there set in this interconnected indie world across a range of genres. What drew us to Moonless Knight was the notion of a top-down action Metroidvania set in alternate ancient Japan featuring demons and samurai’s. It certainly sounded like something different, and it claims to have a unique battle system as well. 

Stylistically, Moonless Knight sets the tone really well. The eerie, cursed environment comes across strongly with some suitably spooky music and mist drifting across the place. The ancient Japanese setting is also handled well enough with the thing looking not a million miles away from Rocky and Pocky if the colour palette had been toned down. If anything, there is a bit too much detail at times and some of textures don’t blend together in the best way. A slightly cleaner design approach would probably have benefited everyone. 

The story goes that you have been sent to retrieve and ancient relic from the emperor’s castle. Upon arriving you find that a luna cult has taken over and now there are cosmic barriers keeping the rest of the soldiers getting in to win the castle back. As such you must head the resistance from within your hiding place in the castle grounds and keep the emperor hidden.

Combat is certainly unique, but we didn’t find it something that ever really clicked or became enjoyable. There are ways to avoid and block attacks, and of course doing so with split second timing creates bonus effects. There are also a ton of different weapons to get hold of and upgrade. But it always felt too sluggish, I do wonder if it would have been better almost as an auto striker kind of game as you have a strength bar which effectively acts as a timer to say when you initiate an attack. It’s also quite difficult to tell if you are making contact with the enemy when striking and keeping an eye on the various armour, strength and damage bars meant we never were never really sure who was winning a battle until someone keeled over. 

When you die you return to the main base with any money you’ve found and are free to go out and explore again. While in the base there are a lot of different characters to talk to get advice or fill in sections of the back story. Unfortunately, this has some of the most frustrating text skipping controls we’ve come across. We read quite quickly but the option when in dialogue is either to let it run at its slow pace or skip the sentence completely. You can go back and then check the conversation log, but would it have been so difficult just to make text appear a full sentence at a time? This, perhaps more than anything else, really took us out of the game experience. 

Overall, Skautfold: Moonless Knight is an interesting idea and if you do end up gelling with the combat then its certainly intriguing and interesting enough to take up a considerable amount of your time. We just found it a bit too slow and clunky though. There’s certainly something good in here but there were too many rough edges for us to really get into it. 

Overall 5/10

R-Type Dimension III Review (Switch)

It’s been a mixed bag to be an R-Type fan other the last few years. Dimension EX was a strong remix of the original two games but then R-Type Final 2 was a considerable letdown. It leaves fans stuck between wanting remakes of their favourite games and still holding out hope that something new will appear. We should say that we are deliberately reviewing this late. With this review coming after the second major patch for the game and after the developers vowed to address some of the many issues raised by fans.

R-Type Dimensions III takes the Super Nintendo game R-Type III: The Third Lightning and rebuilds it from scratch with new graphics. This is of course where all the controversy started. In rebuilding the game and adding the 3D graphics the hit boxes and enemy behaviour has been changed so much that an already crushingly difficult game was made ever tougher.

We always find it an odd choice for developers to rebuild games like shoot’em ups from scratch like this. It runs the risk of alienating previous fans as things have been changed in terms of the flow and is unlikely to attract new fans as they will want to experience the original. It’s even more bizarre in a sense as you can change the graphics back to the 2D pixel style of the original, except of course it isn’t. The game does look great though, in that respect you can’t fault the visual upgrade.

Where it gets a bit confusing is with things like the lack of quality-of-life features or other things you tend to associate with these sorts of releases. This may have redesigned assets from the ground up but in some sense, it would probably have been better to but an HD filter over the original and add in the usual rewind and save features. At least that would have kept the gameplay the same and probably avoided a lot of fan unrest. It’s certainly an argument for having the original game available on any of these remakes and upgrades in the future. What is here is an ‘infinite’ mode where no matter how many times you die you just keep going but there should be some middle ground between complete death and invincibility.

The game itself was always a tough one, and never the finest R-Type cut. It is the first in the series to allow players a small amount of customisation in the form of being able to pick from three different force units, each with their own attack styles. The level design is also strong enough to be worth revisiting, be warned though, it really throws you straight in at the deep end and new players will probably struggle to get off the first level for a significant amount of time.

In terms of the version we now have there have certainly been improvements. The hit boxes do seem a bit better now and the game certainly runs at a crazy speed and incredibly smoothly. The 3D graphics are still be a bit too busy at times though and it can be difficult to tell what is in the foreground or background and what is something that needs to be avoided.

Overall, it’s clear that the intentions with R Type Dimensions 3 were good, and the continued support by the development team to try and fix the issues is to be commended. That said, we still would have preferred to have access to the original game as it was. To not have access to that in some way just seems like a huge oversight. As it is, the game looks great but there are still some frustrating issues that stops it reaching the greatness of other games in the series.

Overall 6/10

City Hunter Review (Switch)

For many out there you probably have never heard of the City Hunter Manga. We first became aware of it via the Hong Kong movie featuring Jackie Chan. Even after this though we didn’t realise there was a host of other City Hunter material available and we certainly had no idea that there was an obscure Japanese game released on the PC Engine. Now, like many an obscure retro game before it, it is being brought to a wider audience with a slightly new coat of paint.

Like many action games of the time, City Hunter is a side scrolling mix of shooting and platforming. It has heavy arcade roots but is set out over three chapters. You can choose any chapter you wish but in all honesty they all play very similarly. You move left and right, enemies continually generate and you can also move up and down stairs or go through doors into new rooms. Some rooms will have quest items or people in to talk to. There are some slight variations where sometimes you have to avoid traps but on the whole, you are walking, shooting and looking at identical looking doors.

There are a few additions to the package but nothing that really makes it a must own. Theres a nicely presented representation of the original PC Engine box and a juke box. There are a few filter options and you can also play the original version of the game as well a the more refined one. It is a bit lite overall though and while all these things are nice to have it nots going to make the game essential unless you are already a fan.

Overall, this is going to have a very niche appeal when it comes to players deciding if it’s worth adding to their Switch library. For someone out there I’m sure this will be the easy access to an obscure Japanese game on an obscure console that they have been looking for. For the rest of us though there just isn’t enough here to really warrant the purchase. The game was never that amazing to begin with and this is just a slightly shinier version of that same average game.

Overall 5/10

Soccer Kid Collection Review (Switch)

 

Once Soccer Kid appeared as the headline for one of the Evercade collections it was only a matter of time before it made its way onto the Switch. A semi successful attempt at creating a new mascot, the character that started on the Amiga went on to grace a host of platforms from the SNES to the Atari Jaguar and Playstation. What is a little disappointing is that only two versions of the game are included here.

What you have here is the most controllable version of the game – the Super Nintendo one, and the one with the all the cut scenes – the MS DOS version. So while that makes sense to some degree it begs the question of why call this a collection when so many other platforms have been overlooked?

That said, the little dude certainly has something of a cult following and it’s easy to see why. This can’t hide its Amiga platformer roots with the loose feeling controls, but the main gimmick helps to keep it above its peers. We are of course talking about the football that Soccer Kid uses as his main way of dispatching enemies. Control of it can be a little tricky to begin with but once you’ve worked out how the momentum of it works it’s a satisfying experience belting it at the many caricatured people that inhabit the levels.

While there are only two versions of the games here it doesn’t mean they have skimped on the general features. All the usual quality of life features such as rewind and saving are included along with screen filters and borders. You can even activate various cheat codes. There is a decent gallery as well with instruction manuals and materials from the other versions of the game not included. It’s actually far more than most of these collections have.

While the game plays a bit lose it is fun. There are a few frustrations like too many leaps of faith and not being able to properly look up or down. This seems like a minor thing until you release that if you really want to finish the game properly you are going to have to search for football cards that let you try and reclaim a piece of the missing world cup. Think of the chaos emeralds in Sonic and you aren’t too far off.

Overall, Soccer Kid is a fun game that we are glad getting some attention again. It’s release around the World Cup was somewhat inevitable and we really do love it when games a little more obscure are given the time to be ported. It’s not perfect by any means but there’s fun to be had here for those willing to master the controls.

Overall 6/10

Blue Prince Review (Switch)

It’s unusual for us to come across something unique, we’ve been around a while and played a lot of games. Blue Prince, combines a number of different elements to achieve that, mixing parts from visual novels, rogue likes, puzzle games and a good helping of a big old mystery.

The story goes that you have inherited the estate of your uncle. Or at least you will do if you can do something that no one else has – find the elusive room 46. But far from being a simple mystery you need to do this with the knowledge that at the end of every day all the rooms in the mansion will reset. There is a lot of lore in here as well about the games setting and why everything is so mysterious, but we’ll let players figure that out as it is drip fed through the various books and letters that you find along the way.

There are a lot of different elements to balance as you go about your investigation. The most pressing of these is the number of steps you have. Each room you enter knocks one step off your total of fifty. Once you run out the day ends and the rooms reset. As well as these you need to manage gems, keys and coins. Keys open locked doors and chests, gems are needed to draft certain rooms and coins can be used to purchase various things along the way. All these need to be found in the various rooms along with other items such as a magnifying glass, hammer or shovel.

Players have a blueprint which acts as a grid with which to draft their rooms. The initial sort of goal is to reach the ante chamber which is nine squares up at the top. It’s not a simple of that of course as you will soon find out. When you open a door, you are presented with three rooms which you can draw. Some may require gems to draft, and all will have different exit doors or other special features. You’ll soon learn as well that there are different colours for the rooms which denote different things.

Red rooms for instance, normally have some kind of negative effect such reducing your steps or removing your ability to see what you are drafting. Green rooms in contrast normally contain dig spot or other goodies. There are also bedrooms to help you restore some of your steps, hallways and shops of various kinds where you can get items, keys or food.

Away from these rooms there are rooms with specific puzzles or special qualities. The security room allow for the manipulation of cameras and security doors, while working out the boiler puzzle will then allow you to pump power through the house. There are also rooms like the lab and the observatory which can give you permanent upgrades. Gradually, as you progress, you’ll learn what it the most important to you and unlock a few permanent upgrades and areas along the way.

For what is effectively a game where you wander around and solve the occasional puzzles it’s remarkable how engaging the game is. The balancing of all the elements and trying not to put yourself into a dead end with you Tetris style rooms works very well. Add in the uncovering of the law and the gradual realisation of how different rooms work means you always feel like something new is happening each playthrough.

There are a few issues to think about though. The most pressing of these is the constant reliance on colour with the puzzles. If you have any form of colour blindness you are going to really struggle with this. There’s several puzzles which use six or seven colours of similar shades and sometime we had no idea what we were even looking at. We did get round it with a guide but otherwise we would have had no idea what was going on.

Also, you can get a number of runs were not that much seems to progress. The game could do with giving you a bit more in terms of keeping the progression loop going and give a bit more in terms of rewards when you solve a puzzle you’ve been working on for days. The biggest issue though is that a lot comes down to luck. You can stack the deck in your favour but sometimes you simply won’t get the room you need drafted for what you are trying to do in that run. All that said, we did keep going back again and again to it.

Overall, Blue Prince is a refreshing, interesting and original game. All the individual elements may be small, but when they are brought together it has created a high quality adventure game that will keep you curious and wanting to venture back in for one more go. It’s not perfect but its about as close to as we have seen for a fair while.

Overall 8/10

 

 

The Last Ninja Collection + Bonus Games Review (Switch)

Of all the collections we thought might make their way to the Switch, we didn’t have a Last Ninja collection at the top of our likelihood list. With the prevalence of C64 releases on the Evercade that seemed like a far more likely destination. We are however delighted to see one of the most iconic franchises of the 8-bit computer era find its way to a new audience.

One-time British powerhouse, System 3 has been pretty quiet for a long time. We had a Putty Squad release a long time ago and Constructor, but this is by far their most high-profile release for decades. Even then, it took a Kickstarter campaign to finally get the franchise over the line in some form. In terms of context of why a Ninja game was out on the C64, it can help to remember that the West was absolutely obsessed with Kung Fu and Eastern culture back in the 80’s, with martial arts movies prevalent at video rental shops.

What you get included here is The Last Ninja one, two and three and the Last Ninja Remix with the C64, Amiga and ZX Spectrum versions of the relevant titles. As well this Internation Karate and IK+ are added in as bonus games along with the easily forgettable Bangkok Knights.

There’s no hiding that anyone new to these games is going have a steep learning curve to go through. The games are difficult and the controls and isometric viewpoint will take some time to adjust to. The basic layout of all three games is similar. You explore a level, pick up weapons and key objects and then progress to the next. But you can leave key items behind and then find you can’t progress later such as the glove in the first game which is needed to pick up a poisoned rose later, or the shuriken’s in the second game.

There are also traps and puzzle elements to overcome and the river and swamp jumping sections were infuriating even in the 80’s. All that said, the first two games are stone cold classics and when it clicks, they still offer a unique experience. The Last Ninja 3 isn’t as strong sadly and the emphasis on almost constant combat makes things very frustrating.

Which brings us to the added quality of life features. Or lack of them. There is no rewind function which is the biggest shame as that would have really made these games accessible, and no way to implement any kind of cheat codes. There is a save function. But each game can only have one game saved and there is also no quick save and load option, meaning you have to quit and then reload when you want to load again. Why we couldn’t just have a load option in-game I don’t know. That said, the screen transition very quickly so we didn’t find it to be a major issue and we were loading a lot. It’s strange though as the Steam version seems to have one.

The other disappointment is the extras. It seems clear the museum text is pretty much all identical for each game with a few words (such as the platform) changed. That’s a real missed opportunity as getting a real insight into some of these titles would have been great.

We are somewhat surprised that IK+ doesn’t get a bigger billing on this collection as it was arguably as iconic as the Ninja games back in the day. Here you have three combatants on a single screen trying to score points to win a round of karate. As these are 8-bit computer games, controls are based around a one button joystick configuration. In this case, you hold a button then press a direction to break out different moves. It actually works really well, and no matter which version you are playing it’s a great high score chasing games.

We found that the Last Ninja games where best played in their C64 guise. This makes sense as this was originally the main platform for games. The ZX Spectrum version of Last Ninja 2 is also remarkably playable. We found the Amiga versions, although they look a lot better, to be far less playable. And if anything, the extra graphical detail made the environments more difficult to traverse and objects more difficult to find.

Overall, we are just really happy that this collection exists at all. These are games that really should be preserved with Last Ninja 1 and 2 and IK+ being among some of the most iconic games the British games industry has ever produced. Yes, there could be more here in terms of the quality of life and museum features, but we can hope for that in an update. We just hope that this gives System 3 some latitude to get other release out the door, we would love to see a Putty or James Pond Collection in the future also.

Overall 7/10

Sands of Aura Review (Switch)

While the top down and ismoteric dungeon crawling genre has been an ever present on platforms like Steam, the Switch has seen far fewer titles make it over to the platform. Of course, there is the giant of Diablo and a few games such as Moonlighter but overall it’s all Rogue-likes and Metroidvania’s that dominate the indie sales of the eshops. Sands of Aura it a solid and content filled attempt to change that.

The game is an open world adventure where most of the world is buried beneath a huge sea of sand. Players spend most of their time delving beneath the sand in dungeons, looking for ancient relics with the overall goal of restoring life to the world. The dungeons are dark and complex with well-designed layouts that wind around labyrinthine like. They are perhaps a little too dark at times though as we kept falling off the edge of things we couldn’t see.

You don’t spend the whole time in the dark though as there are numerous settlements and islands above the ground to explore as well and players can take sand ships to sail around the sand ocean looking for new areas to explore. While you do have quests, you can explore fairly freely as long as you can stay alive.

There’s a certain Dark Souls feel to the game as well. It’s certainly not as crushing as the Souls series, but the linking level designs, combat pace and the fact you drop all your money when you die certainly show the rootes winding through this. It did make us wonder what a full isometric Dark Souls game might look like.

There’s certainly a lot for players to get involved with here as well. Your inventory is detailed and upgrading is the only real way to improve weapons and armour. You don’t pick up new weapons as such, but instead different parts such as pommels or blades and then forge them together to create upgrades and imbue special qualities. This goes for armour as well and you’ll find you are always collecting things, sometimes to the point that you aren’t really sure what you hard earned junk collection is useful for.

Combat is solid as well with a good range of moves and options. You have your standard light and heavy attacks along with rolls and dodges and both a shield and parry system. Add in special attacks and spells and you’ll find there are a range of options for players to think about in how they approach the bashing of enemies.

The only real issue with the game is that it’s quite ugly to look at. Its indie routes are very much on show above ground where we had a lot of noticeable pop in and there is a real blandness to colours and textures. A lot of the time you don’t notice this as the camera stays fairly close, but when you are looking out over the sand sea or in certain positions things really show their lack of details. This isn’t a massive issue due to how engaging the game can be, but if you find yourself repeating difficult sections it can quickly become dull and doesn’t help with getting lost in the maze like levels.

Overall, Sands of Aura is an engaging and deep game that if you dig into it will keep you engaged for the hours and hours it will take you to complete it. It does take engagement from the player to get the most out of it though and you’ll need to spend a good few hours getting used to how everything works. It’s the sort of games that Souls and Diablo fans should get on well with and just accessible enough for those not so hardcore to enjoy it as well.

Overall 7/10

Sonic Wings Reunion Review (Switch)

It’s been a couple of months of remakes and sequels to old franchises that we didn’t see coming. We’ve had Simon the Sorcerer, Puzzle Quest and even Glover on the Switch and the Evercade. But again, we find ourselves saying – we didn’t have Sonic Wings (or Aero Wings if you prefer), on our list.

The Sonic Wings franchise of course goes way back to the arcade and Super Nintendo in 1992 and we have had a handful of releases since then. It is of course a vertical scrolling sh’mup and a fairly straight forward at that. You pick a jet from a selection of characters, dive right into some geographically themed locations and start blasting away. Stages are fairly short but well designed and while its challenging, it’s certainly not one of the hardest games of its type you are ever going to play. Although, avoiding the tall buildings as well as the bullets does take getting used to.

It is, however, enjoyable and great fun. Each stage has its own look and enemy design, and the bosses are large and imposing. The selection of characters gives you some difference in approach to each run and when you clear the game there are a few unlockables as well. Which is handy as there aren’t that many stages to blast through.

Gameplay is simple as well. Avoid getting shot and continue to pick up power ups and you’ll dish out more and more damage with ever more impressive attacks. You can do this in two player as well and destroy pretty much everything on screen at once. You can also assign a second pilot in single player mode which allows you to use a different pilot’s bomb attack if you wish. It adds a level of flexibility to you attacks which is certainly welcome.

Unfortunately, though, aside from the various difficult settings there isn’t actually much more here to justify a purchase. The game itself is fine, but it comes at a premium price and when you start to compare it like for like with other releases it comes away a bit lacking. There are a ton of collections that feature multiple games and a number of games that have different routes or more to add to the longevity. Here it’s just one route and one game to get through.

Overall, Sonic Wings Reunion works as a nostalgic look back on the franchise and provides a good blast of nostalgic adrenaline. But it is brief and the general lack of options and additional content makes it hard to justify as a purchase at full price. If you are a hardcore fan of course you won’t be disappointed.

Overall 7/10

Micro Mages Review (Evercade)

The indie revival has moved forward somewhat in recent years. For a long time, we have been reviewing games made to look like titles on classic systems. In the last few years though more and more indie titles are making the full jump and simply being developed and released on the original hardware. Micro Mages for the NES is one of the most high profile of these.

Micro Mages is a platformer where up to four players can help each other ascend a tower before existing the door at the top. Don’t worry though because it is perfectly playable on your own. Your little dude can jump and shoot and they also stick to walls. Some of the later levels require a few more advanced techniques such as a power jump (caused by fire a charged shot down while jumping), but it’s basically your starting skill set all the way through.

It can be tough as well as one hit kills and you aren’t exactly brimming with lives. More can be picked up along the way of course and you can also pick up a few items which protect against instant death. There are four worlds in total with a stand off against a large boss creature at the end of each. Once completed you unlock an advanced mode which remixes the levels enough to make it worth while playing through again so it will keep you occupied for a decent amount of time.

The biggest criticism is that your character and enemies are quite small on screen. It’s not such an issue on original hardware but if you are playing the rom on a handheld or the Evercade version it can be difficult to see what’s going on. That said, you are never in a position where things become impossible. 

The controls are wonderfully responsive as well and allow players to leap around the levels with the confidence that your character is going to respond in the way you think. This is handy as the game runs at an excellent pace and suffers none of the characteristic slow down or flicker often associated with NES games. 

Overall, Micro Mages is a welcome addition to the ‘original hardware’ indie scene. It’s one of the few games in this category that would have happily sat alongside the original systems releases. This new focus on simple but effective gameplay and the creativity that working with reduced memory is breeding is something we can get behind with Micro Mages being among the very best examples. If you’ve never tried any of these sorts of titles before this is certainly one to start with.

Overall 8/10

Boulderdash 40th Anniversary Review (Switch)

Hands up anyone who feels old at the fact that we have reached the 40^th anniversary of Boulderdash. The classic rock dropping and gem finder has gone on to influence a ton of games and dates back all the way to the 8-bit era. While we were always Repton fans ourselves, it’s undeniable how iconic the game is and now it’s been brought to new systems in a comprehensive package.

For the uninitiated the game revolved around the player navigating a maze of dirt, rocks, gems and moving enemies from a flat 2D perspective. You can move freely through the dirt, but any rocks perched on top will then fall. If they hit you, you get crushed and die. Rocks will also fall off other rocks, sometimes creating huge landslides which can easily trap you in and cause a level restart. Once enough gems in a level have been collected an exit will open allowing progress to the next stage.

We certainly can’t complain about the number of levels included. As well as the first three games, there are a ton of new levels created with more up to date graphics. We do think the new look has a very ‘mobile game’ quality, but this isn’t the most deep of experiences so it’s not the end of the world. While most collections now seem to include emulated versions of original games that isn’t strictly the case here. You can play the games with either a C64 or Atari filter, but these aren’t the original versions of the game. You would be hard pressed to tell though.

Controls wise everything works well. Before a recent update you had to use the left stick to control movement, which was incredibly twitchy, but you can now use the cursor keys which is transformative in terms of precision movement. This has made the games a lot more friendly to play and means you are rarely overshooting when moving around. With a game this tough it really didn’t need anything else getting in the way of progression.

Boulderdash 40^th anniversary does fall between two audiences though. If you haven’t experienced the game before there probably isn’t much here that’s going to really draw you in. While fans may feel a little shortchanged by the fact there isn’t much in the way of archive footage or that more versions of the games haven’t been included. When you think to the extensive retro collections now filling the Switch this does begin to look a bit bare bones in terms of content by comparison. That said, there’s a lot of Boulderdash here, so if you are a fan or into these types of games there’s certainly enough to get into.

Overall 7/10

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream Review (Switch)

As point and click adventures go IHNMAIMS is certainly one of the darker and most out there ones. Based on the short story of the same name is follows the story of five humans who are held captive by an artificial intelligence known as AM. AM has destroyed the earth and now keeps the five humans alive for its own sadistic pleasure. They are held immortal and eternally tortured, so far, they have been tormented for 109 years.

The game works in the traditional point and click way. You move around with the Switch left analogue stick and click on items to pick up and things to interact with. There are dialogue trees to work though as well and unlike many point and click games you can die. AIM won’t let you really die though and instead will drop you back at the start of the adventure, so it pays to save often.

However, each of the chapters can be completed in numerous ways with different actions being carried out throughout. Your characters have a spiritual health bar which increases whenever they do something good and decreases when something bad happens. The state of the bar at the end of the level along with the route you have taken to completion results in determining if you have been successful or not (something you won’t know for sure until the final act).

Taking control of each of the five captives in turn, players must solve a mystery relating to each of them. These act as self-contained mini adventures and change dramatically in content. One minute you might be wandering around a fantasy castle making deals with the devil while another adventure is set in a prison camp where horrific experiments are being carried out on the inmates. The one thing that does stay consistent is just how dark it all is though.

There is no humour here and each of the characters must overcome nasty things in order to make it through their section. Everything relates to things in their past and they are certainly not for the faint of heart. One of the characters main aims is to commit suicide so that gives you a hint as to the tone. It’s also very easy to make mistakes which lead you down the darker sides of the adventure. A number of times thing happened that surprised us, or we didn’t even know could be avoided and this can be frustrating.

Frustration is one of the biggest problems with IHNMAIMS. It’s wildly changing frame of reference within the different setups for the adventures made us feel that much of the time we were simply fumbling our way through it instead of having great revelations. Often using items on things when you’re stuck can have a bad effect or bring the story to an end without any warning and when you are intricately trying to get something sorted it’s beyond annoying. In one scene we accidentally clicked on something in the background and our player was immediately dragged back to the hub world by AIM without any warning or chance to abort our action.

Overall, IHNMAIMS is a strange one. The story is excellent, and the dark tone and menacing atmosphere are something you don’t normally find in this type of game. The multiple routes are also good (in theory) and it does a lot right. However, it never really clicked with us. Without the humour it dragged a bit and the fragmented stories of the captives and changes in tone and design didn’t really help this. A lot of time we were solving things without really knowing why we were doing it, and I would be surprised if we dived back in to find the alternative ways through the game. It’s certainly worth playing through once though and one ever point and click fan should at least try.

Overall 7/10

Beyond Galaxyland Review (Switch)

 

The Switch is packed with RPG’s so it was always going to take something different to standout from the crowd. Most of Square Enix’s back catalogue is here so we are a little surprised to see a fairly low budget indie game step up and give the big boys a run for their money.

Beyond Galaxyland, is a game based on old sci-fi and B movies and has our hero Doug, taken off to the stars in order to save earth. The galaxy he finds himself in is inhabited by not only humans but normal earth animals which have now transformed into walking, talking versions of themselves and an array of other alien life. It’s ok though, as Doug has his newly transformed giant hamster companion to help him through.

Presentation wise, the game is a side scrolling 2.5D affair. You can move in and out of the screen at various points as well to add depth to some of the locations. There are occasional puzzles and sections which require some object placement or basic platforming but it’s mainly about finding your way through the environments.

When you encounter enemies the game switches to a turn-based system not dissimilar to many other games of this genre. You have your basic attack option as well as being able to use special skills, items or summon any of the many creatures you can capture along the way. Combat has a small contextual and timed element to them on attack and defence to keep things a touch more interactive than fully traditional RPG games as well.

The capture mechanic adds a very light pokemon style element where you need to photograph the enemy, then try and entrap them in combat. Once this is done, they bring a special move to the party. Summons can also be levelled up and improved as the game goes on. There are a few other systems in play as well, with a crafting mechanic available for those looking to grind the best equipment.

The game also has an excellent quest and map system. Everything is organised clearly and it’s easy to work out what you are meant to be doing. If you get really stuck, you can have guidance to your next waypoint as well. Occasionally you’ll have some issues working out what level something is on but it isn’t often enough to frustrate for long.

What will likely divide players though is the graphical style used. There’s a heavy, old school, style pixel approach here that can make it hard to identify fine details at times. It’s also just a bit too dark at times, especially in some of the dungeons. Certain areas do look suitably impressive though when the visual clutter clears.

Above everything else though the main thing about Beyond Galaxyland is that it’s incredibly engaging. The characters and dialogue are well written and often humorous, so in your interludes between adventuring you are still keen to push forward and return to continue your adventure after setting the game down.

Overall, Beyond Galaxyland is another indie gem that deserves far more widespread recognition. It may be a touch rough around the edges but there’s so much here that works perfectly it would be remiss of any RPG fan not to give this a go. Those that do will find a fun and rewarding game that gives you hours of planets to explore.

Overall 8/10

The Thing: Remastered Review (Switch)

Of all the remasters of old games we were expecting, The Thing would have been one of our least predicted. Upon release on the PS2 and Xbox it garnered a warm reception from both press and gamers alike with it capturing the tone ands tyle of the John Carpenter’s movie well though so it’s not an unpleasant revisit.

The basic premise is that the game acts as a sequel to the 1982 movie with teams sent in to investigate what has happened at a remote outpost in the Arctic. You lead a team of four people, each of which has different talents such as medic or engineer and move through the facility carrying out various missions. The big gimmick for the time is that you don’t just have to worry about health but also the temperature of the environment and the sanity of your team.

Whenever you are caught outside a temperature gauge will drop. If it reaches zero, then you start to take damage from the extreme cold. On top of this when your teammates encounter weird phenomena they start to react in different ways. Sometimes they will begin to freak out and you’ll need to calm them down. The further in you get the more suspicious they will become when they see strange things and might start accusing other teammates of being infected. It adds a layer of tension to what is already a tight survival horror experience and it’s something different from most other games in the genre.

The Thing was never the best-looking game to begin with so it’s fair to say you are going to have to either forgive or get used to the look of it now. The textures have been cleaned up a bit but the game is pretty barren in terms of colour palette and much of the time you are in a snowstorm, the dark or a fairly generic looking polar base. It doesn’t really matter though as it matches the look of its source material and adds to the creepiness of the whole thing.

While fun and trying new things, the game always had a fair few flaws. The controls are somewhat awkward at best and when this is combined with the tight spaces it can make combat more frustrating than it needs to be. This is of course a trope of survival horror, but it doesn’t quite work as intended. Also, your squad AI is generally rubbish. A lot of the time you’ll just end up leaving them somewhere and trying to move forward on your own. It’s a nice idea which adds the suspicion element but if they were just a touch less annoying it would be much welcomed. The first time one of them mutates into a horrific monster you’ll still likely jump though.

There are other quality of life issues we would have loved to have seen added as well. A map or radar of some kind would have been most welcome. Even in mission one we had issues working out where we needed to go near the end to plant C4 charges. This isn’t helped buy the dim lighting and we must have spent over an hour looking for one of the bomb plant points as it was barely visible. The game also descends into to a bit of a meat grinder blastathon by the end as well, changing too much from the creeping dread of the early levels.

Overall, The Thing is an interesting game that works well enough to still be fun for survival horror fans. It does get a bit repetitive but remains one of the most original takes on the genre. It does the 1982 movie a good service as well so fans of that will find much to enjoy here. We would like to see a few more quality of life adjustments in future releases though. There’s nothing wrong with map after all.

Overall 7/10

 

Voidwrought Review (Switch)

This will shock you, but Voidwrought is an indie Metroidvania game on the Switch. It’s fair to say that Nintendo’s hybrid has no shortages of games in the genre (including Metroid and Castlevania), so anything new must really do something to standout.

It’s a good thing then that Voidwrought really does try to do things a little bit differently. The first thing you’ll notice is that the game looks incredible. Everything from cutscenes to the general level design is presented in a gorgeous dark comic book style. To match this, the flow of movement is as smooth as the visuals with the games trademark being that it’s a fast-paced take on the genre. In these respects, it really does stand out in a positive way.

The general look of the design is a sort of comic book inspired mashup of Deadcells, Blasphemy and Dark Souls with a mixture of both technological and biological terrors inhabiting the environments. It definitely has a continually brooding and menacing tone to it that works well with the general bleakness of the game’s difficulty.

The steep learning curve may put some gamers off, the environment is harsh to navigate, and most enemies take a considerable amount of damage before they go down. This is all fine until you end up repeating sections multiple times. There are save points of course but they aren’t that prevalent. One concession to this is that any major object collected, or event triggered, will still have happened when you die and respawn at your last save point.

In a game which is generally difficult the bosses are, perhaps surprisingly, quite well balanced. There are certainly sticking points but once you have learned how they behave they don’t take crazy amount so damage before going down which helps to keep the game flowing.

There are a few issues though. First of all, the plot doesn’t really carry much of an impact. We would struggle to tell you what you are doing and why beyond the obvious Metroidvania exploration. We had no real idea what the overall goal was. Perhaps more concerning, the game also isn’t very good at giving you clear feedback regarding things like getting or damage.

The cartoon style is beautiful, but it does give things a lack of weight and impact, so it can be difficult to know if you are being hit or how hard you are hitting yourself. The health bar is also an issue. There is one of course but it doesn’t stand out that well and there is little other visual feedback to give an indication you are about to die. This led to a fair few deaths when healing was otherwise available.

Overall, Voidwrought succeeds in bringing something slightly different to the Metroidvania template. This is impressive enough when you consider how many games there are out there in the genre. It never fully clicked with us though in the way some of the other games have. That moment when you are just zooming around feeling like a super being never really came and, in the end, the few flaws did start to wear away at us. It’s a beautifully crafted game that runs amazingly well, but it is also perhaps one for gamers out there looking for a more hardcore experience. If you are into the genre though, this is well worth checking out as it’s somewhat unique in a crowded market.

Overall 7/10

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged Review (Switch)

In the mid 90's Revolution released Broken Sword with little hype or press attention. By the time the game came to be converted onto the Playstation, it was being acknowledged as one of the most astounding adventures ever made and to this day it remains at the peak of the point and click genre. The last we saw of the game on consoles was the Directors Cut which added a few extra sections for Nicole, some Wiimote waggle and, criminally, removed the iconic opening. This reforged version removes the added extras and gives you the original game with the option of both the original and new look graphics.

The plot follows unsuspecting tourist George as he finds himself caught up in a murder at a small Paris cafe. After a bomb blast George raises himself from beneath a crushed umbrella, brushes himself off and unwisely decides to investigate. The story takes you all around the world as countries such as Ireland, France and Syria give up their parts of the mystery.

What makes the game so great is the care and attention to the script. Every conversation contains humour and charm, and you never feel bored while the characters speak their piece. It helps that everyone you meet is brilliantly over the top (the mad kebab seller using the toilet brush for basting springs to mind). The skill of the writers to make sure the characters are funny as well as informative is to be commended. Although, characters can fall into the cliched category perhaps once too often.

Apart from the great characters, the puzzles are among the finest to be found in the genre. Broken Sword gently eases you into the way you need to think. Most puzzles are logical but do require you to really understand the objects you have. For instance, a blood pressure gauge found in the hospital can be used to stop the flow of water in a hose. The player really must think as inventively as the programmers to get through. This new version has added a hint system in for those looking to make quicker progress though.

The Switch controls aren’t up there with a mouse of course but they are more than a match for the few time-based puzzles found within the game. There are touch controls available on the pad as well, but we didn’t find them particularly useful or needed. The new look of the game is in keeping with the original and style and we couldn’t ever quite decide which look we preferred the most. Luckily the graphics can be switched with a simple button press at any time. One thing that hasn’t been updated though is the audio, which serves as one of the few disappointments as the recording quality is really showing its age now.

Despite its age, Broken Sword is an exceptional game and remains a high point of the genre. Apart from the slight problem with the controls it's faultless. This is one of the best adventure stories you will ever encounter and is perfectly scripted and perfectly executed in just about every way. It’s the best point and click game on the Switch and still one of the best games ever made.

9/10