DISCLAIMERS:
- the reviewer has not finished all of the games with 100% completion
- all games were played on the Nintendo Switch using the NTSC digital version of the games in English
Yoshi’s Crafted World Demo Version (Nintendo Switch) Impressions
During the Nintendo Direct, Nintendo finally announced a playable version of the Yoshi game first announced at E3 2017 for the general public, Yoshi’s Crafted World Demo Version. The game is essentially the spiritual successor to Good-Feel’s earlier titles Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Yoshi’s Woolly World, which both also featured gameplay that was based on the art style. In this article the author will give their impressions on the demo.
Yoshi’s Crafted World plays somewhat similarly to the original Yoshi’s Island, but with a much slower pace and more emphasis on the puzzle and collecting elements. Yoshi walks around and controls satisfyingly enough, if a bit slow. Yoshi also has its standard flutter ability that allows it to kick its legs and get some additional lift if the jump button is held in the air. This ability is not exactly used to its fullest extent in this demo but that is understandable as the demo only features what seems to be the first level of the full game. Yoshi also has its other standard ability of eating enemies and turning them into eggs that follow it. What makes Yoshi’s Crafted World unique is Yoshi’s ability to throw the eggs into both the foreground and background, which generally controls rather well. This allows for some clever hiding of collectables and puzzle elements. Even in what appears to be the first level, getting every collectable in one try isn’t as easy as one might expect. The other thing that makes Yoshi’s Crafted World unique is the flipped side of levels. At the end of the only level present in the demo the camera spins around Yoshi 180 degrees and reveals the other side of the level. If the player chooses to they can then play the entire level from this new perspective, now in reverse. This feature helps to provide even more potential for hidden collectables and puzzles that will almost certainly be used in the full version of the game. Overall Yoshi’s Crafted World deviates rather greatly from its action platformer roots but looks to be a solid puzzle platformer as of now.
Yoshi’s Crafted World‘s most impressive aspects are its technical ones. The game is one of Nintendo’s first Unreal Engine 4 games and they used the engine quite well. Lots of visual effects are used to great effect and while the art style is not as immediately striking in this demo as the art styles in Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Yoshi’s Woolly World, the trailers for the game make it clear that Good-Feel used the style to great effect throughout the game. The game also thankfully runs at what seems to be a locked 60 FPS, which is especially important for platformers, though to a slightly lesser extent for slower ones like this. Yoshi Crafted World’s technical achievements are arguably its most important and appealing ones.
In terms of sound there is not much to judge here but what is present is done well. The little music that is in this demo is executed well and is far from grating. The sound effects are also on point and sound exactly like how one would expect them to sound. Overall the sound in Yoshi’s Crafted World seems like it will be perfectly acceptable, though not particularly impressive.
There is not enough plot or world building in the demo for those elements to be worthy of being commented on.
Overall the demo is worth downloading its small file size (under a gigabyte) for anyone interested in trying the game or unsure on whether they will enjoy the game or not.
If you decide to purchase this game through one of the links below this blog will receive a commission.
DAEMON X MACHINA: Prototype Missions (Nintendo Switch) Impressions
Another announcement during the Nintendo Direct was that players would finally get to try DAEMON X MACHINA almost a year after its E3 2019 reveal with DAEMON X MACHINA: Prototype Missions. The game is often considered a spiritual successor to the Armored Core series that has yet to have any releases on current generation consoles. In this article the author will give their impressions on the demo.
The gameplay of DAEMON X MACHINA is generally split up into two parts, fighting in your Arsenal (mech) or on the ground without your Arsenal and doing micromanaging and customization in the base. Right away it is clear that controlling an Arsenal takes some getting used to. The player is able to ascend, hover, drop the hover, dash, use multiple weapon slots, pick up and place or throw items. When the Arsenal gets close enough to a target it will lock onto that target and basically any weapon will always aim towards and hit the target even if the player is not pointing the camera at that target exactly, allowing the player to use more focus on their movement. Enemies generally all act similarly, with often the only notable difference being their movement affecting how easy it is to lock on to them. The bosses are an exception to this rule though and provide a much more interesting experience than normal enemies. Overall while this may look good the actual mechanical complexity of the game isn’t particularly engaging. Hopefully the full game will feature more in depth mechanics or harder challenges that force the player to play better. The customizable side of the game already feels well done, though. There are a variety of options and the menus are designed well.
DAEMON X MACHINA‘s technical achievements are probably its most immediately appealing ones. The game’s use of cell shading and extremely saturated colors makes it stand out. The animations are also well done and fun to look at despite the obvious stiffness that comes with being a robot. The only problems are the games tendency to fall slightly below its 30 FPS target and the seemingly complete lack of anti-aliasing. This build of the game also needs some bug fixing. One example of a bug that the author experienced was the feature that makes the game move the player back into the battle arena when knocked out itself being able to get stuck on buildings and leave the player forced to restart the mission.
The sound in DAEMON X MACHINA is a bit above average. The music present in the demo is all well made and far from annoying to hear, but none of it stands out in particular. Sound effects are about what one would expect. There is also voice acting that is executed surprisingly well.
While there is obviously not much to judge in terms of plot in the demo, what was present didn’t particularly captivate the author. Thankfully the story is essentially completely skippable.
Overall the demo is worth the 2.1 GB download for the opportunity it gives to try out this completely new IP. Hopefully the full version fixes some of the technical issues and the game turns out to be deeper than this demo makes it seem.
If you decide to purchase this game through one of the links below this blog will receive a commission.
Tetris® 99 (Nintendo Switch) Review
Nintendo’s first reveal after the promised information on Fire Emblem: Three Houses was Tetris 99. The game is essentially Nintendo’s first attempt at a the Battle Royale genre, with the base game being Tetris. This review will judge the game on its own merits.
The gameplay of Tetris 99 is made up of two parts, the Tetris gameplay, and the targeting system. The Tetris gameplay in Tetris 99 is basically just standard modern Tetris gameplay. T-spins, held blocks, combos, ect. are all here. As always, the player places falling pieces that are always made up of four blocks on a grid that is 10 blocks wide. A 10 block wide line of placed blocks disappears (a “clear”) when filled, and gives greater rewards depending on the height of that 10 block wide line. Once the player has no room remaining to place blocks, they lose. As is often the case with multiplayer Tetris games, other players create rows of “garbage” blocks that appear at the bottom of the player’s screen and bring the player’s placed blocks up to make room when the other player is preforming better than the player.
What makes Tetris 99 unique are the Battle Royale-style elements. Every match is made up of 99 other Nintendo Switch Online members and only 1 can win. Players can choose to target either a randomly chosen player, a player with a high number of badges, a player close to death, or all of the other players currently targeting the player. Badges are rewarded by the player gets a KO’s on other players. Having more badges makes it easier to KO other players because badges increase the amount of “garbage” blocks the player can send to targeted players. These Battle Royale mechanics make Tetris 99 one of the most exciting Tetris games ever made, especially when the player knows that they are approaching the #1 position. The only real problem is that this review does a much better job explaining how these mechanics work than the actual game. A tutorial could make the game much more accessible. The controller options are also rather limited and could have used more options, though the default controls do work perfectly well.
Technically Tetris 99 feels is slightly above average for a free-to-play game, and the online functionality functions surprisingly well. Loading and matchmaking times are both perfectly acceptable. While it won’t impress graphically, the presentation is far from an eyesore. The only problem is some of the graphical effects overlaid on the Tetris grid when clearing lines can make it somewhat difficult to see the Tetris grid.
In terms of sound Tetris 99 is perfectly acceptable too. The soundtrack is mostly made up of remixes of classic Tetris songs and are generally all well made. The final song that plays when the player is extremely close to achieving first place also makes the game much more exciting in that moment. The sound effects are about what one would expect and fit well. Overall the sounds in Tetris 99 are well made and feel like they will hold up after dozens if not hundreds of hours of playing the game.
The value of Tetris 99 is a bit difficult to judge. In terms of gameplay time the game is basically infinitely replay-able and will easily last until whenever Nintendo finally takes down the server for this game. Nintendo also promises future “online events” that will only add to the games value. What makes it difficult to judge is that it can only be obtained through the Nintendo Switch Online subscription. While the Nintendo Switch Online subscription may be a bit overpriced for just this game, the other included features easily make the subscription worth it overall.
Overall the reviewer would give the game a 9 out of 10.
If you decide to purchase this game through one of the links below this blog will receive a commission.
