Nintendo Switch Reviews A-C

Grade: D-
Publisher: Nintendo (2017)
Reviewed: 2017/5/9
Rating: Everyone



Some of the more offbeat games incorporate shaving, eating, and milking a cow. Signal Flag and Sword Fight are too confusing to be fun, although you could argue that none of these are particularly fun. A few, like Dice Roll and Soda Shake, barely qualify as a game. To its credit, 1-2-Switch boasts slick production values, bright color schemes, and enthusiastic actors. Judging from the tutorial videos alone you'd expect every game to be a complete riot. Most critics have written off 1-2-Switch as a glorified tech demo that should have been shipped with the system. They aren't wrong. © Copyright 2017 The Video Game Critic.

2 players 

Grade: B-
Publisher: Nintendo (2017)
Reviewed: 2017/8/10
Rating: Everyone 10+

screenshotArms is Punch-Out!! (NES, 1987) for the 90s! I mean 2000's! Whatever! This high energy, one-on-one slugfest features fighters with long, coily arms. Not only can you throw punches from a distance, but you can guide your fists toward your opponent. The stylish presentation boasts bright visuals and a spirited vocal chorus. It occurred to me that Arms has one element you rarely see in modern video games, and that's a catchy soundtrack! It'll have you cranking up the volume and humming right along.




1 or 2 players 

Atari Flashback Classics
Grade: C-
Publisher: Atari (2018)
Reviewed: 2020/5/26
Rating: Everyone

screenshotCombining the three previously-released volumes of Atari Flashback Classics, this massive 150-game compilation would seem to be a tremendous value. You get 32 arcade games, 102 Atari 2600 games, and 16 Atari 5200 titles. The arcade selection includes all-time greats like Centipede, Tempest, Asteroids, and Missile Command. Digging deep into its archive, Atari also unearthed ancient black-and-white arcade titles like Avalanche, Destroyer, Basketball, and Fire Truck. They look sharp but their audio is the true revelation. That bonus beep in Asteroids Deluxe sounds like it's coming from another dimension!

The console selection includes some legitimate classics (Adventure, Warlords, Video Pinball, Yars' Revenge) but there's plenty of filler like Hangman, Stellar Track, and Basic Math. Several homebrews are also included like Yars' Return, Wizard, and Adventure II. M-Network titles like Armor Ambush and Frogs and Flies are great third-party additions, but the lack of Activision and Imagic games is glaring. They produced some of the best titles for the system! And where are Defender, Phoenix, Galaxian, Jungle Hunt, and Pac-Man? Apparently they were only licensed by Atari for their consoles.

It's neat how you can bring up a virtual Atari 2600 dashboard and flip its switches. To determine which variation you want, you can peruse digitized manuals and they even included the comic books for the Swordquest titles. My main issue is regarding the controls. Most of the arcade games and even some of the console titles required special controllers like paddles or trackballs. An analog stick is a marginal substitute. It feels more touchy than precise, even when you dial down the sensitivity. Certain games work fine with the thumbstick (Black Widow and Night Driver) while others don't respond at all (Red Baron and Race).

The Atari 5200 keypad emulation is comically bad. It ruins Realsports Baseball, which also suffers from visual glitches and off-key sound. The Flashback menu interface is poor in general, requiring you to begin a new game before you can return to the main menu. Local high scores are saved for the arcade games but not the console titles. Atari Flashback Classics may contain a treasure trove of classic material, but it feels like a case of quantity over quality. © Copyright 2020 The Video Game Critic.

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1 to 4 players 

Axiom Verge
Grade: A
Publisher: Badlands Games (2017)
Reviewed: 2018/4/7
Rating: Everyone 10+

screenshotI tend to hop from one game to the next but Axiom Verge became an instant obsession. I still can't get over how finely-crafted and inventive this sci-fi platformer is. Though clearly inspired by Metroid, Axiom Verge manages to out-Metroid every Metroid game ever made. Its gorgeously-pixelated 16-bit graphics employ limited color schemes for dramatic effect with stages composed of granular blocks. Its superb 2D gameplay is enhanced by a mind-bending story and pulse-pounding musical score.

The environments feature a lot of familiar elements like steam vents, rolling boulders, and toxic pools, but don't let that fool you. The creativity in this game is off the charts, with monsters, items, and weapons like you've never imagined. Case in point is the "address disruptor" gun which actually allows you to create graphical glitches in the game for your own benefit!

And once you think you have Axiom Verge figured out, you're just getting started. Like a good Zelda adventure once you acquire a new ability you'll want to comb over old locations to make new discoveries. Backtracking has never been so satisfying. A handy map is at your fingertips and the save points are perfectly placed.

The audio is striking, from the crisp tapping of your drone scurrying around to the Defender-like electronic noise when you find a new weapon. Static in the music adds to the atmosphere of isolation, but some people might wonder if there's something wrong with their sound system.

Axiom Verge was developed over five years by a single man. And when you consider Tom Happ even created its otherworldly soundtrack, this is an astounding accomplishment. My one complaint has more to do with the Nintendo Switch controller. A game like this demands a directional pad which you won't find on a Joycon. Double-tapping is so awkward I found myself accidentally changing weapons! Once I switched to a Pro Controller, it was like night and day. Axiom Verge isn't a Metroid clone - it's a Metroid killer! This is one of the best games I've ever played - hands down. © Copyright 2018 The Video Game Critic.

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1 player 

Blade Strangers
Grade: D+
Publisher: Nicalis (2018)
Reviewed: 2019/11/19

screenshotThis one-on-one fighter really does live up to its name. Who the hell are these people?! According to its NES-style instruction manual most hail from Cave Story and something called "Code of Princess X". I did recognize Shovel Knight and that Isaac dude at least. Blade Strangers kicks off with an exuberant, feel-good vocal animated intro. Its 2D characters are large and detailed but their grainy edges suggest the screen resolution isn't high enough.

The warriors hail from ancient times all the way through the future, and there are a few legitimate hotties. Most are armed with a weapon like a sword, knife, gun, or... backpack? There's no blood, even when a girl is kneeling over an opponent and stabbing him repeatedly with a knife! One chick rides on the back of her enormous cat who does most of the fighting with his claws. When someone takes a hit the screen warps a bit like there's a sudden tear in the space-time continuum.

The controls are pretty standard, with plenty of combos and counters. Expect some really over-the-top moves, like getting smacked into the stratosphere with a baseball bat. I like how using the same attack over and over results in a repetition penalty. That said, button mashing can get you pretty far, and once I cornered my opponent they usually had no chance. The voices are all Japanese, giving the game some street cred. The stages tend to be bland and uninteresting, including a space station, clock tower, and empty basement. Even the Halloween-themed "Lich Yard" is lacking in detail.

After beating arcade mode on my first attempt I gave the story mode a try. It featured a bunch of computers having funny conversations about bringing fighters back from throughout time to battle. Wouldn't you know I beat that on my first try too? The survival mode might be a challenge if you set it too hard, but by then I felt like I'd seen just about all the game had to offer. Unless you have a vested interest in these obscure characters Blade Strangers feels like generic, disposable fighting fare. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

1 or 2 players 

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
Grade: B-
Publisher: Inti Creates (2018)
Reviewed: 2019/10/29
Rating: Everyone 10+

screenshotCurse of the Moon is one of two recently-released Bloodstained titles, so try not to get them confused. Curse is an NES-style Castlevania throwback with charming pixelated graphics, old-school platform gameplay, and reverberating minor-key music. For those with fond memories of the original Castlevania (NES, 1987), Curse of the Moon fits like an old shoe.

Its graphics are understated but artistic, with layered scenery that's easy on the eyes. The opening scene features a dark forest silhouette over the night sky, with a ghostly blue locomotive chugging in the background. The monochromatic characters and monsters are rendered with thick outlines and frankly it's hard to tell what some of them are supposed to be. The animations are engaging however, with decrepit skeletons pointing the way and the scuttling rats that periodically hunch up to look around.

The controls are so simple you can even navigate stairs with ease. You begin play as a swordsman but new characters soon join your party which you can toggle between on the fly. They include a wizard, a lady with a whip, and a vampire dude that transforms into a bat. I love how each has special attacks perfectly suited to particular enemies. When a character dies you still have the rest of the crew to fall back on. On the downside, there are certain areas that are awkward, if not impossible to complete if you don't have access to the right character.

The bosses are great, including a skeletal giant composed entirely of gold coins. The old-school gameplay does afford a few old-school headaches. The controls feel stiff and taking a hit will often knock you backward into an abyss. If the challenge is too much you can switch to the easy mode at any time. The game offers automatic saving, unlimited continues, and even a score. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is an enjoyable love letter to all the gothic platformers of yore. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

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1 player 

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Grade: B+
Publisher: 505 Games (2019)
Reviewed: 2019/10/29
Rating: Teen (blood, partial nudity, violence)

screenshotBloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a modern Castlevania-style platformer unlike Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch, 2018) which delivered retro-style Castlevania action. Ritual boasts high-resolution anime characters, lush environments, and excellent 2.5D platform gameplay with heavy RPG elements. I love the look of this game. Its foggy courtyards, exquisite castle architecture, and omnipresent full moon convey a cozy, gothic atmosphere.

Playing as the attractive female warrior Miriam you navigate platforms while slaying squid monsters, werewolves, and towering knights. Some of the weirder enemies include flying pigs, fluttering fairies, demonic bunnies, rolling balls-o-death, and animated portraits (of the programmers, no doubt). Your adventure begins on a rickety pirate ship in stormy seas, and if you think the water running down the hull of the ship looks amazing, wait until you see the colossal mermaid with her tremendous rack.

There's a wide selection of weapons to choose from including guns! Ritual of the Night is also one of the few games where being impaled by a giant glass shard is a good thing. Shards imbue you with magical powers like weilding fire, summoning demons, or materializing a huge boney hand to remove heavy obstacles. There are so many magical attacks in this game it's kind of overwhelming. I prefer to stick with my fully-powered "bone throw".

A "familiar" shard gave me a floating silver knight companion, but boy he is one worthless sack of [expletive]. Beating up enemies is satisfying however and I love the numeric damage displayed for every hit. Inventory management is easy enough and it's satisfying to equip a new item that pumps up your stats. Even the crafting process is relatively painless as the game lets you know what you can create based on your inventory.

The stages are complex mazes but a handy map on the top-right lets you know where you haven't been. Ritual of the Night looks amazing but there are a few technical flaws. It's disconcerting how the screen "blacks out" for varying periods of time while moving between floors. Worse yet, the game actually crashed on me twice ("software was closed due to an error"). Fortunately save rooms are so frequent I didn't lose much progress. I've failed games for less, but Ritual of the Night is just too much fun. This is one I looked forward to playing every night. It was like a ritual! © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

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Bubble Bobble 4 Friends
Grade: D+

screenshotThe original Bubble Bobble (NES, 1988) was a classic platformer starring one or two pudgy little dinosaurs. An arcade romp with no rhyme or reason, you blew bubbles to trap foes and popped them to produce fruit bonuses. The game was addictively fun whether played solo or with a friend. Sadly, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends fails to capture the essence of the original.

The primary mode "challenges" (and I use the word lightly) one to four players. Each screen-sized stage sports an uninteresting kids' room theme, and the graphics are so sugary sweet it hurts. You'll face little resistance as you methodically clear out animated tanks, cannons, and Lego bricks. Upon completion dozens of high-value fruit and confections flood the screen.

Not only do I feel undeserving of 40k-point donuts, but the game gives you so much time to gather them up it starts to feel like a chore! It takes forever for any challenge to kick in and the selectable power-ups are confusing. Before long you'll want to run out of lives. The carnival-style background music is nauseating.

You'd expect multiplayer to be the main selling point for a game with "4 Friends" in the title but there's no competitive element. Teaming up to clear a screen is boring and you even share the same score! Bubble Bobble 4 Friends might be considered the "participation trophy" of video games.

This game does have one ace in the hole however, and that's Bubble Bobble Classic Arcade. This mode presents the original 1986 arcade game in all its pixelated glory. Tuned to perfection, the game offers seemingly endless series of imaginative stages. I played head-to-head with Brad and had a blast competing for high score. Classic mode not only redeems the entire cartridge but reminds you why people like Bubble Bobble in the first place. © Copyright 2021 The Video Game Critic.

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Recommended variation: classic
Our high score: 142,500
1 to 4 players 

new BurgerTime Party
Grade: D
Publisher: XSeed (2019)
Reviewed: 2021/7/1

screenshotIt's hard for me to put my finger on what's wrong with BurgerTime Party. It retains the same gameplay and whimsical graphic style of the 1982 arcade hit, but with an endless supply of screens and support for up to four players. So why am I not having a good time?

If you're not familiar with the original BurgerTime (Colecovision, 1984), the idea is to navigate a little chef over a series of platforms while avoiding wandering hot dogs, eggs, and pickles. Walking across buns and patties causes them to drop down to form burgers below. Sandwiching foes between dropping layers nets you bonus points, and you also have a limited supply of pepper to freeze enemies. The original game was extremely difficult as you had to strategically maneuver to avoid getting trapped.

Like too many modern remakes BurgerTime Party lacks intensity, piling on the lives, pepper, and a lot of unnecessary new power-ups. The solo mode is so easy it comes across as a braindead tutorial. The selling point of any "party" game is its multiplayer modes, so why are they locked from the outset? And for a game that requires precision control, the lack of digital pad support is unforgivable.

The only mode I found moderately fun allows four players to compete at the same time on expansive screens of sprawling platforms. Still, it's hard to keep track of what's going on with so many characters milling around, especially when the camera is pulled way back. Your initial placement on the screen is critical but out of your control. At the end of each stage a winner is declared but it's not clear what criteria is used to determine that (it's not score).

My friends thought this was okay, but clearly BurgerTime wasn't meant to be a party game. It requires a certain degree of strategy that basically goes out the window when three other players are causing chaos. I'm all for reintroducing a long-dormant franchise to a new generation, but this watered-down version has "participation trophy" written all over it. © Copyright 2021 The Video Game Critic.

1 to 4 players 

Capcom Belt Action Collection
Grade: B-

screenshotYou don't see many 2D side-scrolling beat-em-ups nowadays but they were big in the 1990's. This awkwardly-titled import offers seven arcade games from the era including Final Fight, King of Dragons, Captain Commando, Knights of the Round, Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors, and Battle Circuit. Despite being a fan of the genre, I had never even heard of some of these!

Final Fight is a classic brawler where you punch and kick your way through the mean streets of "crime capital" Metro City. Any fighting game that lets you shatter a phonebooth with one punch has got to be good. Like the other titles, only two buttons are used yet there's still a wide range of moves. Final Fight's vibrant city skyline is a feast for the eyes although more variety in the thug department might have been nice. The game is great for coop and the ending is well worth the effort.

Captain Commando is like a futuristic Final Fight with post-apocalyptic scenery and mechs you can commandeer. In the medieval world of King of Dragons you employ might and magic to battle orcs, minotaurs, and dragons (duh). Knights of the Round is more sword-oriented, with gorgeous countrysides, classy renaissance music, and RPG elements. In Warriors of Fate you do battle on horses but I found it mediocre.

Armored Warriors is a futuristic fighter with hulking mechs like the film Pacific Rim. The sprites definitely push the envelope with behemoths that fill the screen. Battle Circuit is a downright weird futuristic romp with aliens and mutants in a tawdry, reality-show setting. One of the bosses is actually an Elvis impersonator.

All games are configurable but only three let you adjust the continues. The others are on "free play" which removes any tension and undermines the high score system. I'd recommend lowering the difficulty, cranking up the lives, and forgoing any continues. My friends clocked a lot of time with Capcom Belt Action Collection, especially since most games support up to three players. Not all are gems but collectors will appreciate owning these on physical media. © Copyright 2020 The Video Game Critic.

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1 to 3 players 

Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy
Grade: B
Publisher: Activision (2017)
Reviewed: 2019/8/2
Rating: Everyone

screenshotI'll never forget the first time I played Crash Bandicoot (PS1, 1996). As I ventured down that scenic island path I felt as if I was being engulfed in dense jungle foliage! The tropical 3D graphics were brimming with style and character. Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy resurrects the series for a new generation, giving the stages a high-def makeover while retaining its classic gameplay.

The original game ushered in a new breed of 3D adventure, restricting the player to a path but allowing for free movement within its confines. As Crash hops across overgrown ruins he'll bash crates, collect fruit, and perform twirls to send turtles, crabs, and aardvarks spinning off the screen. There's plenty of variety too. Certain stages are more 2D in nature while others let you run toward the screen. Crash 2 introduced new moves, a stage select, and a higher difficulty level. Crash 3 tempered the difficulty while introducing motorcycles, airplanes, and even a bazooka!

The developers did a fine job porting these three to the Switch but took a few liberties. When bouncing on crates Crash now collects three fruits at a time, minimizing the number of bounces necessary. Now that is a good idea! When you spin into animals, they tend to fly into boxes and enemies up ahead, which is very cool. There are new icons to collect, presumably to unlock new features. Upon completing a stage you'll watch all the crates you missed getting smashed over the head of Crash, and that gets old in a hurry.

A few new stages are included but if "Stormy Ascent" is any indication, these are more punishing than fun. So the big question is, do these games measure to the originals? Well, the controls don't feel as tight and despite the graphic fidelity I had problems with depth perception and hard-to-see hazards. Then again, unless you own an old CRT TV it's hard to experience the trilogy in its original glory. Retro gamers should clutch their old discs like grim death, but newcomers will discover N-Sane Trilogy packs plenty of bandicoot goodness for the money. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

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1 player 

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Grade: D
Publisher: Activision (2019)
Reviewed: 2019/8/2
Rating: Everyone

screenshotMuch like Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy (Activitision, 2019), Crash Team Racing Nitro attempts to resurrect a beloved franchise with updated graphics, tossing in a few new features to sweeten the deal. Back in the day Crash Team Racing (PS1, 1999) was the only kart racer that could stand toe to toe with Mario Kart 64 (N64, 1997). This updated edition offers "revved up" versions of tracks from the original game as well as the less-than-stellar Crash Nitro Kart (Xbox, 2003).

The developers managed to bring the graphics up to 2019 standards while retaining that cartoon likeability. The gameplay however suffers from a serious lack of tuning, beginning with the frustrating single-player adventure mode. While there appears to be a whole island at your disposal, in fact everything is locked except for two tracks, and you need to finish in first place to make any progress. That's a problem because the difficulty is so hard you'll need more luck than skill to win.

The action is chaotic but not in a good way. The game's rubber-band physics has CPU karts slingshotting all over the place. One second you're in first place and next you're in dead last. Most weapons are pretty lame but those guided missiles are too good. And then there's that weird weapon that turns everybody into drunk drivers.

The four player screen screen action is always a welcome feature and the framerate is quite smooth. But like the single-player game, you'll find yourself fighting for 5th place! The over-engineered, non-intuitive controls suggest a lack of play testing. Power-slide boosts were key in the original game, but here you'll be lucky to figure out how they even work! In the final analysis Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled feels more like a wreck than a souped-up ride. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

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1 to 4 players 

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