Ollie Barder's Reviews
Overall, this is the same game from 2011 that felt very dated and awkward but is now available on the Switch. The narrative premise is also delivered in a way that makes very little sense and is visually pretentious, to the point of being overly jarring. If you really want to play a stylish action game with a fixed camera and Biblical narrative influences, then just pick up the original Devil May Cry, it plays a lot better.
Overall, Rainbow Cotton is a very faithful HD remaster of the original Dreamcast game. That means it suffers from the same functional shortcomings that game did. So unless you are a diehard fan of the Cotton series, you can give this one a miss.
Overall, Custom Mech Wars is a mediocre mecha game that gets the customization somewhat right but fails on dealing with how the combat should work. While the Earth Defense Force games have their low budget infused charm, they are at least fun to play. Custom Mech Wars sadly lacks this redeeming feature and is just an arduous chore.
Mighty No. 9 then is definitely a missed opportunity, not only in terms of crowdfunded gaming but also as a homage to what made the Mega Man games so great in the first place.
Overally, Megaton Musashi W: Wired is a belated release of a game that didn’t really work that well back in 2021. The role-playing game framework is done well, but breaks the mecha combat by rendering it redundant through levelling. The mecha combat is also very repetitive and the camera and controls still need finetuning. The game also failed to land its sole remit; to prop up what could have been a cogent super robot series and that is the saddest part of all.
Overall, Grendizer is a solid game with a clear love and passion for its classic super robot source material. It’s also very much meant for fans of Grendizer, otherwise much of its appeal and charm will be lost. It also clearly needed more time for polish and general graphical optimization. That said, it still plays decently with these shortcomings and is worth a look for those that want to pilot an old school super robot.
Overall, while there are faults with the game’s multiplayer, this is still a good Sonic the Hedgehog game. If you stick with the singleplayer on your own, you will definitely have fun with it. However, I do hope the next 2D Sonic game is one that uses pixel art in the same manner as Sonic Mania.
Overall, this is still a solid collection and there are some genuine gems tucked away here. I just feel that this collection could have been so much more and picked a better array of games to show off what used to make Taito such an arcade gaming powerhouse.
Overall, this is an accurate and faithful remake of the original The House of the Dead but lacks the bespoke light gun controls to really make it work. While games like Virtual On have had their TwinStick peripherals over the years, it’s a shame to see The House of the Dead denied a proper light gun.
Overall, the Famicom Detective Club games are interesting gaming curiosities from an older era of gaming. If you are more of a Nintendo historian, then you will find these games fascinating. For everyone else though, they are an acquired taste.
Overall, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a good game but not a great one.
Overall, the standard game is an excellent high-definition remaster and is the best version of the game to date. The VR mode ruins that impressive achievement and is wholly unnecessary. In short, play this for the high definition remaster and give the VR mode a very wide berth.
This Namco Museum release on the Switch is as good as its precursors and brilliantly accentuated with the local multiplayer focused Pac-Man Vs. but it is currently overpriced and I hope this is not a new trend when it comes to future retro gaming releases on the Switch.
If you want arguably one of the best iterations in the Street Fighter series on the Switch, then Ultra Street Fighter II is definitely worth getting but bear in mind that it is definitely overpriced.
If you are at all interested in the world of Berserk, either as a long time fan or a complete newbie then this game is worth a look. If you are looking for an interesting game with varied as well as involved hack and slash gameplay, you might want to give this entry a miss and check out one of the mainline Dynasty Warriors games instead.
In short, if you are new to Marvel vs. Capcom then pick this up to get ready for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, whereas more experienced players should probably give this one a miss.
So as a companion game to the mainline Gundam Extreme Versus series and as a game you can dip in and out of on the move, Force is great. However, as a standalone game it may leave many confused as to why certain mechanics play out the way they do.
Overall, Taito Milestones 2 follows nicely on from the first release. It includes even more excellent games and does a nice job of encapsulating Taito’s long and influential gaming history into one neat little package.
So if you missed these classic Super Mario games when they were originally released, then you should pick this collection up. However, if you loved these games as a kid and were expecting Nintendo to pull out all the stops and give them the technical update they deserved, you will feel a tad disappointed.
A great deal of effort clearly went into making this game work and bringing SR388 to life once again. However, as a Metroid game, it still falls short of earlier releases.