Overall, Storyblocks The King concept looked great on the Nintendo Switch page; unfortunately, playing it proved to be a frustrating affair. If you are interested in checking out Storyblocks The King, do yourself a favour and play the game on another format, as hopefully the controls will be much better
Avia Corporation is a minimalistic strategy game in more than one sense of the word. It’s minimalistic, from the graphics right down to the tutorial. Having played many similar games in the economic strategy genre, I wanted to like Avia Corporation. Unfortunately, that was hindered by a poor tutorial that doesn’t explain the game properly and a gameplay loop that feels uninteresting and dull.
Broken Pipe is fine if you don’t want a challenge from a puzzle game. However, as a player who likes to be challenged and enjoys discovering the solution to a puzzle Broken Pipe offered none of that for me. The frame rate shudders are interfering with the gameplay as well, and the mini games fill up the game, but I’m afraid they don’t really fit well into the whole game. Although the eShop price for the game isn’t high, I honestly don’t think it is worth the $5/£3.59 price tag. This only leaves me to tell you that my score for Broken Pipe is…
Hidden Office isn’t a terrible game but there are many, many other Hidden Object type games out there that are much more fun to play. It took me around two hours in one sitting to complete the game, so the price point of the game being sold at $4.99, £3.99, € 3,99 is a little expensive for what you get. There are many hidden object games on Steam that are less expensive and more enjoyable.
You may have gathered by now if you have made it this far in the review that Reminiscence in the Night isn’t going to get a high score from me. Unfortunately, as I’ve explained, with the game so short I really did not gel with the main character at all. If I had spent £5\$5 for the game in the eShop and it finished so soon I’d be unhappy about that. It’s certainly not value for money at all. This leaves me only one thing to say…
StarScraper in my opinion needs more work before it is worthy of the $19.99 price tag it has. I do think that some more development of the game will improve it and maybe added some scenarios would help too. The game currently feels unfinished and the camera likes to float off into the clouds. At it is now I can’t recommend StarScraper, and the price tag just isn’t justified.
A Day Without Me is a weird game where you stumble around clueless with little idea of what’s happening or has happened. The issue I had with the joy-cons continually disconnecting did not help in the least or lead to an enjoyable gaming experience. At the moment with this being one of the problems with the game I can’t recommend it.
Her Majesty’s Ship feels like a direct port from PC with little or no conversion work carried out on it for its release on the Nintendo Switch. Playing the game for this review proved to be a frustrating experience, to say the least. Her Majesty’s Ship, in my opinion, could be a decent game if the control and menu problem where fixed to make it a less frustrating experience. As it is at the moment I can only say my score is….
Fantasy Tower Defense is a simplistic take on the standard Tower Defense games. There are 20 levels to defend your way through, which will keep you busy for a while if you can work out the strategy to make it to the end without any help from the game. I do think you could find a much better TD game on the eShop to purchase and spend time with as there isn’t much to Fantasy Tower Defense or any replayability in it.
Mittelborg: City of Mages has a pretty interesting premise, it’s a real pity that that is all it is. It plays like a straight port from pc or mobile. What art there is in the game looks well, I just wish there was more of it instead of a static image of the city. The translation of the text needs work to help the game story along and help to make it more interesting for the player. There are bigger and better simulation, strategy games to choose from on the eShop sadly this isn’t one of them.
There really isn’t much to write about Theme Park Simulator as there isn’t much to the actual gameplay. Once you have checked out each ride and fiddled around with a few settings for each of them the game is over. There isn’t much to justify the price of this game, nor is there much gameplay to hold the players attention for any length of time. And there certainly isn’t any replay value in Theme Park Simulator.
Visually Orn the Tiny Forest Sprite looks good, with the bright lush colours in Japanese style. The idea behind the platformer of progressing through the levels clearing away all obstacles using the runes is a nice one. But sadly, the way you fill up the jump meter, and the problems it causes spoils the gameplay for me. Hopefully a future update changes or improves the use of the magic meter.
Arc of Alchemist is an RPG/ Adventure game, according to the info on Nintendo’s web page it has been newly polished for a western release. Released from a publisher and developer who have a lot of RPG games in their back catalogues. I thought I was in for an enjoyable RPG adventure when I took the game on to review. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case! In my opinion Arc of Alchemist should never have been released in the eShop or advertised as “Newly Polished” in Nintendo’s blurb for the game, and priced at $40. It did get an update on the day of release but I can honestly say it has made no difference to how the game runs and preforms.
Trappist is playable as it is, and the developer is continuing to update the game and has plans for more colonisable planets and research. But I can’t help thinking that it should have been released on Early Access first while the dev improves the game through the EA phases. It has the promise of developing into a great game; Trappist has not quite reached that stage just yet, so I’d hold off on buying it for a while until it has had further development; instead, add it to your wishlist.
Highwater gives off an eerie post-civilisation feel, so kudos to the developer for getting that point across to the player since it is set in a post-apocalyptic world. As for the gameplay, I have very mixed feelings about Highwater. Firstly, I think that the different elements of the gameplay don’t gel well together. The boat journeys were the most enjoyable part for me, especially at sunset when the sun was creeping down the sky; the artwork illustrated that well, whereas the rest of the gameplay left me feeling kind of indifferent.
Overall I’m sure if you have stayed reading this review until now, you will have surmised that I have mixed feelings about Minabo – a walk through life. While I applaud the developers for trying something different from every other game genre out there, I think choosing a nondescript vegetable like a turnip to convey the feelings it is meant to have to the player was the wrong choice. Moreover, the game may have lovely music and beautiful graphics, but it’s not enough to make the gameplay interesting and make you want to continue playing.
I have very mixed feelings about Molly Medusa: Queen of Spit. I liked exploring the temples and the puzzles but not the gravity gimmick. On the other hand, I can see the likeness to The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and that’s great if the developers wanted to pay homage to the Zelda series. However, other than exploring the temples, the world is pretty empty and void of any personality. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But with Molly Medusa: Queen of Spit, I’m not sure it is flattery in this case.
Grimgrad is shaping up to be an interesting survival simulation game. However, it still has a way to go before it feels like a fully developed game. Between the UI needing work and the mechanics of the Gods not being implemented fully into the gameplay, Grimgrad is one to keep an eye on for the moment. Hopefully, given time, it will come out of the development oven properly cooked.
So, taking everything into account, Lucie’s Potager has a relaxing gameplay loop of pottering around the garden, gathering and selling in the shop. However, the relaxing loop is broken by the short days and the inability to travel far on the map. I wouldn’t mind the short days so much if the areas I’m exploring had more resources to gather; then, it would be worth my time to go and explore. I can’t help thinking about the $20 price tag in the eShop; Lucie’s Potager is up against some stiff competition from much better simulation games that are already released.
Ankora: Lost Days is a bit of a peculiar game. After playing it I think it might be a little confused in its identity. It is not an open adventure game where you have the freedom to explore fully like in Summer in Mara. Moving around the map and terraforming it makes it a kind of puzzle as you figure out how to get from east to west. Some aspects of the game stand out, the music is lovely and the animations are done well, but I much prefer Summer in Mara and so might you!