Others

Rhythm Tengoku | 12th nov, 2020 | 3:20hrs | rating: 4/5

Get through the little music videos while failing as little as possible.

GAMEPLAY: Mostly press the A button along with the music, but sometimes you press a direction or time your presses with the up beat. Very simple really.
AUDIOVISUALLY: A little ugly, but super charming visuals. The music is extremely memorable.
STORY/PRESENTATION: I wish I knew Japanese, because there’s a lot of text I don’t understand. The animations and ideas are out of this world though! Amazing.
MULTIPLAYER: Although it’s not made for multiplayer, taking turns is great fun, and in some games you can hold one half of the controller each.

This series just HAS to come to Nintendo Switch, because it’s amazing and needs to be played by more people. It’s too short, but that’s the only complaint I can think of.

WarioWare, Inc. | 1st Oct, 2020 | 1:30hrs | rating: 3/5

Hurry through a big number of 5-second silly microgames and watch cutscenes now and then.

GAMEPLAY: Mostly just press A or a couple of directions to beat 200~ microgames. Many are very creative and it’s a blast to play!
AUDIOVISUALLY: Paint-like drawings mixed with low-quality photos. It’s charming and timeless. The audio is creative, but not as memorable as in the sequels.
STORY/PRESENTATION: Some of the little cutscenes are funny, but all in all I’d rather be without them. The structure is pretty great and it’s simple fun to pick up and attempt a high score at any time.
MULTIPLAYER: You unlock a few 2 player mini-games that only use one button each. They’re quite fun once or twice! But taking turns playing the main microgames is more fun.

Ahead of its time with microgames like these, and it really is a lot of fun even today! It’s over very quickly if you’re decent at it though, as you’ve experienced it all within 2 hours.

Night in the Woods | 18th Jul, 2020 | 5:35hrs | rating: 1.5/5

You’ve returned to your hometown and get in touch with your old friends again.

GAMEPLAY: You run through the little town again and again to activate conversations and mindless minigames. When the daily hangout is over, you can go to bed, wake up and repeat again.
AUDIOVISUALLY: It’s cute enough. Music is alright but somewhat forgettable.
STORY/PRESENTATION: This game is all about the dialog, and it’s funny and relatable at times, but due to the lack of gameplay and any clear goal, I always got bored out of my mind after just 15-20 minutes of each play session.

For me, every single thing that happens feels like filler and padding, and I had to look up a guide to make sure I was actually heading anywhere. I did warm up to the characters at the end, but this game was not for me.

Rope Jumping | 15th Jul, 2020| 0:35hrs | rating: 2/5

Extremely simple app for Switch that tracks your virtual rope-jumping.

GAMEPLAY: You pretend to do rope-jumping with the joycon. The music follows your pace, so at least there’s a bit of challenge to keep it nice and steady.
AUDIOVISUALLY: Extremely simple, something that could be put together in an hour.
STORY/PRESENTATION: No story whatsoever, and it’s obvious why they released this for free.
MULTIPLAYER: You can be two players, but you then hold one joycon each.

All in all, a pretty nice app to add to your pandemic exercise repertoir while waiting until gyms and sports halls re-open.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons | 19th Apr, 2020 | 150:00hrs | rating: 4/5

Express yourself like in no other game, this time not just with clothes and interior design, but an entire island!

GAMEPLAY: You move to a deserted island where you fish, craft, collect, furnish and spend time with friends. A lot of text, slow one-thing-at-a-time pace and movement (to help you from making mistakes), and it results in slightly lacking gameplay feel. Still extremely polished and enjoyable, especially if you have a creative mind.
AUDIOVISUALLY: Simple but beautiful visuals, impressive how the framerate can stay solid when you place hundreds of various items on screen. There are some nice songs too (6pm!), but some are surprisingly annoying too. I would have liked more variation in the end. Maybe winter has other songs?
STORY/PRESENTATION: From my perspective, the progress isn’t slow enough. In previous games you were “out of things to do” after just an hour or so per day, but this time you can marathon things, and reach what is essentially “the end” in just 10 days. It’s a good ride, and it opens up the minecraft-like terraforming, but there aren’t many new things unlocking after that. For the first time in a video game, I’m craving DLC, and a lot of it.
MULTIPLAYER: Couch-co-op is a fun distraction a couple of times but is too limited. The online experience is amazing though, except for the long loading times. It’s a lot of fun to regularly visit your friends to trade things and see what they’ve made. Sharing island (a requirement if you share your Switch with someone) is also a great experience as long as you can collaborate.

It’s hard to compare this to other games. It’s more of a virtual reality, one where you can spend hours and hours just designing signs and floor tiles, or hanging out with visitors. The biggest flaw for me is the limited amount of custom patterns. Please Nintendo, give me twice the pattern inventory in an update so I can keep creating unique visuals!

I will keep checking in for a bit every day, but 150 hours in, I’m out of island space to build more things, and it’s time to start playing other games again.

Trivial Pursuit | Mar 3, 2020 | 3:30hrs | rating: 2.5/5

Play the classic board game on the big screen!

GAMEPLAY: You answer a lot of questions, preferably faster and better than your friends. The parts where you have to actually be fast or choose between many options simultaneously are the most fun, while the “one person gets to answer his question alone” ones are less fun.
AUDIOVISUALLY: The visuals are kind of lame, but you don’t need more than this. I wish the questions had been fully voice-acted, as it’s now only stuff like “here’s the next question!” and “here are the current results!” that’s spoken, and the actually questions are shown in tiny text.
STORY/PRESENTATION: No story, and the overall presentation could have been better. It looks like there’s so much to do, but there’s really only one mode to play with your friends, and it gets repetitive quickly. I don’t even understand what I’m unlocking when I supposedly unlock things after each round.
MULTIPLAYER: There’s an online mode (that I haven’t even tried) and the main draw: local multiplayer for up to 4 players. It’s fun, but 2-3 rounds is usually enough, because each round has the same structure and there’s no way to change things up.

It’s a great concept, so it sucks that it isn’t more fleshed out. If you could have chosen to only play the more action-y categories, it would have been a lot more fun. As it is now, you feel like you’ve experienced everything after just a couple of hours.