The Nintendo Switch has become home to a staggering number of indie and 2D games, and it becoming the platform of choice for games that may not receive the attention they deserve on other platforms. All this is in spite of the fact that Nintendo neglected to include a traditional D-Pad on the Joy-Cons included in the base package. Nintendo were keen to allow each Joy-Con to function as separate controllers to facilitate 2 player gaming reminiscent of the Famicom in Japan. As a result, the D-Pad...

Treasure have found themselves amidst something of a retro revival recently. First they lavished upon the general gaming populace the superlative Gradius V, a real return to form for Konami’s flagship shooter especially after the so-so Gradiuses (Gradii?) III and IV. Following this success, they went somewhat sequel crazy producing excruciatingly middling follow-ups to both Gunstar and Guardian Heroes on the Game Boy Advance. After the relatively muted response these games received, Treasure,...

Shigeru Miyamoto once commented that Ridley Scott’s flawed classic ‘Legend’ was one of the elements that helped him to visualize and inspired him to create the Zelda series. Here is a movie that delves deep inside the human imagination. It provides a magical experience whilst keeping the qualities we can relate to: fear, doubt, love and excitement. These very qualities are exactly what make the Legend Of Zelda series so compelling. Capcom, it would appear, know this full well. The fun...

Inside System is a small team of Japanese developers that found their fame with the two Legend of Dark Witch games. Initially available only on the Japanese 3DS eShop, the first game gained enough momentum to be first translated for western markets, then ported to the Playstation Vita and Steam; the second game is following its predecessor's steps, without the Vita port. A third chapter is in the works, and in the meantime Inside Systems released Brave Dungeon, the first spin-off of the Legend of...

The original 7th Dragon came out on the DS hot on the heels of Etrian Odyssey, and just like Atlus' game it was a dungeon crawler. Despite its moderate success, Sega never ported it to western shores; its sequel landed on Sony handhelds shifting tone and focus, the fantasy setting replaced with a mix of modern and magic, less dungeon crawling and more RPG-ing, the cutesy character design changed to a more edgy approach. 7th Dragon Code: VFD sees the series return to the 3DS while keeping what are...

Kyoei Toshi, or "City Shrouded In Shadow" as usually advertised by western media, is a spin-off of the Disaster Report series and marks developer Granzella's first entry in the series after buying the series from Irem.
As a spin-off, Kyoei Toshi plays very similarly to games of the main series, with the player's avatar seeking safe evacuation from a city besieged by natural disasters. However, what makes buildings crumble in Kyoei Toshi are giant monsters: the game features monsters from ...

Fortnite comes in two flavours: The PVE campaign mode against Zombies (in paid Closed Beta at the time of publishing) and the PVP Battle Royale mode, which is available to all for free. This is a review of the Battle Royale portion of Fortnite. It's free to play and updates to graphics and gameplay are still coming thick and fast (at time of publishing) with substantial changes to gameplay, but don't let that put you off - it's worth putting some time into. It's a third-person shooter with 100 players,...

I consider puzzle games an incredibly hard genre to make: the basic premise must be easy to pick up but have enough depth to keep players coming back for more; luck must be kept at bay as much as possible, and the mechanics must allow for some flexibility to create different game modes.
Enter Aenigma OS for the WiiU, a puzzle game by Akies Games. All you have to do is to match three or more symbols of the same shape in vertical or horizontal lines by tapping the first and last symbols you w...

If you liked Limbo, you'll like Inside. It's a natural progression, but with huge changes in style, pace and puzzle types, so it's never anything less than totally fresh and exciting. But what if you didn't play Limbo or didn't like it? Inside is a sideways scrolling puzzle game, featuring a young boy who appears at the start, with no plot divulged; the plot unveils as you progress. Whilst motion is restricted to 2D, the world is very much 3D, with the camera panning continuously as you move...

Fire Emblem Awakening was the make-or-break point for Intelligent Systems' fantasy strategy series. The two games on the DS (one of which never reached western shores) failed to captivate the public, so Nintendo would pull the plug from the series if the next game wouldn't reach a certain sale threshold. Awakening was a smash hit, one of the most feature-rich games in the series, with a customisable player avatar, children, skills, and a class tree more complex than ever.
Fire Emblem Fates...