Nintendo Life's Scores

  • Games
For 5,862 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 18% same as the average critic
  • 37% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Horace
Lowest review score: 10 Lawnmower Game: Racing
Score distribution:
5870 game reviews
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Your enjoyment of Everdream Valley will depend on how you like to play the farm sims already on your Switch. If your primary goal has been about raking in the gold, beautifying your farm, or finding The One, you might not dig it. If you’ve never played a farm sim before, and want to till your first tile, we don’t recommend starting here. However, if you love caring for your animals, and want to see life through their shiny eyes, Everdream Valley could be right in your paddock.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Many will see the score at the bottom of this review and immediately write off Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. However, there is something genuinely brilliant buried deep inside this Switch release, beneath the lingering issues with pacing and narrative design as well as the myriad painful “enhancements” Nightdive Studios has dumped on top. To cut through all that, you will need a great love for Blade Runner and cyberpunk, saintly patience, a walkthrough on hand, a strict requirement to play on console rather than PC, and a pair of rose-tinted glasses. If you have all those things then you may still see life in this game’s eyes, but we don’t need a Voigt-Kampff machine to tell this version from the real thing.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The problem solving aspect of the game isn’t a bad thing; if anything, it’s the only reason to keep coming back. We just wish the game offered more of a reason to encourage repeat play than high difficulty level.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Skyforge is a properly mediocre MMORPG that could, perhaps, have been a reasonable enough little timesink for a bunch of friends or solo players who just want to mindlessly blow through its content without thinking too much. There's no shortage of content here, and the idea of having eighteen different classes to master is an attractive one. However, this Switch port is such a huge disappointment on a technical level; it's such a lazy, janky, stuttery, buggy, low-resolution mess that it's hard to see how anyone could be bothered to stick with it for long enough to properly engage with anything it's got to offer. If you're in need of an MMORPG to play on your Switch right now, we recommend you download and play just about anything else that's available because seriously, this ain't it.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    It is a shame that Rango on the Wii cuts corners and, worst of all, is over all too quickly.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Rather than simply releasing a barebones recreation of the most well-known incarnation of the game, developer Agenda chose to liven things up a bit by providing different stages, new moles, multiplayer and even achievements.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Hellpoint is a reasonably decent sci-fi/Soulslike effort that sticks closely to FromSoftware's well-worn formula whilst introducing a few neat new tricks and twists of its own. The combat here is solid, the space station setting often spectacular and the narrative as enticingly cryptic as you'd expect from the genre. However, the whole thing suffers massively due to myriad technical issues on Switch. Constant crashes to the console's homescreen, a seriously flaky framerate, long loading times and a pretty huge graphical downgrade result in an experience that's infuriating for all the wrong reasons and one that it's almost impossible to recommend in its current form. Here's hoping Cradle Games has some big patches incoming.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Overall this is a good digital representation of the core card game, but players looking for anything more than that won’t find it here.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Offering no variety and serving as little more than a quick way to play a game of Chess against a computer opponent, Silver Star Chess should be viewed as nothing more than a place holder to give you your Chess fix until a better representation of the game comes along.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    While playing a Leisure Suit Larry game is the gaming equivalent of being seen reading a copy of the Daily Sport, this mostly unwanted revival of the series is actually far better than anyone was expecting. Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry's 2D art style has a ’90s comic book feel to it, while the simple point-and-click gameplay is a far better fit than the awful open-world approach the Larry Lovage games took in recent years. While some of the jokes do land, many don’t (even with its tongue impaled through its cheek), and with some often utterly obtuse puzzle designs you’re probably better off enjoying the superior offerings this genre has to offer on Switch.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Plättchen: Twist 'n Paint is the videogame equivalent of trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time; there are too many elements to consider in tandem for this to be considered to be much fun.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    But in the end Ant Nation is just a fun, quirky game that most people with a sense of humor and at least a passing interest in strategy will get some pleasure out of.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Kung Fu FIGHT is a fun little title. It delivers diverse and often times humorous action alongside a handful of custom achievements.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Unbox gets everything right in theory, but fails to actually deliver on the majority of its goals. The character design, the core ‘unboxing’ mechanic, and the collecting side to the game could have been great but there are just too many problems standing in the way for it to be truly successful. We can’t help but feel that the game just needed an extra dose of love and attention on the technical side of things because, if that was at the standard of the creativity and fun of the characters and ideas, it would have been a great experience and a whole lot of fun. As it stands, it might not be quite worth your time.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    While its fun for a time in single-player, Claws of Furry is definitely a brawler with two-to-four player fights in mind. With an abundance of enemies on-screen at any one time, it’s the kind of game that’s going to be twice as fun with someone sat next to you. While its Rogue mode feels like nothing more than a tokenistic doff of the cap to gaming in 2018, the Arena mode is a big selling point all on its own if you’re looking for a new regular entry in your couch-play rotation.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Commandos 2 - HD Remaster is a disappointingly lacklustre port of a real-time tactics classic. This is a game that's showing its age in many ways but, with the right tweaks, some decent control implementation and squashing of bugs, it could have had its moment to shine with modern audiences. As it is, the irritations and annoyances expected in revisiting a game of this vintage are exacerbated to no end with shoddy, unwieldy controls, unexpected performance problems and a general lack of care. The graphics have been updated here, but everything else remains much as it was – with the added frustration of bugs, glitches and long loading times.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Dementium: The Ward is a safe Switch port that successfully replicates as much of the 2015 3DS remaster as possible while updating the controls for a more modern experience. It's a short game that does suffer from repetitive environments and dull enemy encounters, but the overarching atmosphere makes up for this in spades. If you're a fan of survival horror, there's definitely enough here to scratch an itch, and the solid performance and tight controls make this a port worth checking out.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is a cracking bit of turn-based Warhammer action that delivers big on strategic and atmospheric combat whilst also serving you a top-notch, choice-driven narrative and campaign. Hooray. However! This Switch 2 port, at release, is a borderline disaster, and not something I recommend anyone pick up until it's had some patching done. A constantly stuttering frame rate, long loading times, unresponsive and laggy menus and controls, a huge graphical downgrade, and hard crashes aplenty make for a mess of a port. Let's hope they fix it up, because for now, it's a hard pass for a great game.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    We found it to be a fun experience, despite some slightly annoying controls and obtuse instructions. If you like sim games or meerkats and want to try your hand at building a pack of your own, it's certainly worth a look.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Cumbersome controls, poor AI and a few other clunky features get in the way, though some selections can still provide some uncomplicated on-the-go fun.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    A strong contender for the title of 'Worst 3DS Launch Game'. It has a sickening amount of bugs, is unfinished and reeks of a game that has been rushed for launch.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    A competent puzzle platformer that tends to satisfy rather than entertain.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    It's a short game, but Caveman Warriors still entertains as you work through the levels figuring out how best to deal with the threats encountered and then how to defeat the bosses. There's some good character designs in the game and fun moments - like the way scared foes flee in panic only to knock themselves out by running into a wall. It's not without fault however, with the over-the-top knock-backs from hits being the biggest irritant. There's some replayability in trying to track down all the fuses and then tackle the harder versions of the levels and the co-op play works well. If you've got some friends around and are looking to pass the time with some platforming action, then Caveman Warriors is a good pick.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    This one is short, shallow, and frankly too easy to keep anyone interested for long.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Snow Moto Racing Freedom is another scrappy, challenging and rough-around-the edges extreme sports racer from Zordix. It's not going to win any technical awards, and it takes real patience to master its awkward handling and unforgiving physics. For those who crave something different from the racing genre norm, a little perseverance will yield a surprisingly entertaining arcade experience for one to four players, albeit one that could leave some feeling cold.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 Critic Score
    Clive ‘N’ Wrench is not a good game, there is no way around that. When the Switch is home to some of the greatest 3D platformers ever made, Clive ‘N’ Wrench stands out for all the wrong reasons. From terrible controls to poor visuals and performance, we're sad to say that there is very little redeemable about the game on Switch. The entire project feels like a glorified demo made for a game design class, rather than a completed project that belongs on store shelves. The attempt is admirable, but after a decade's worth of development, Clive ‘N’ Wrench turned out as an incredible disappointment. With so many other ways to get your 3D collectathon platforming fix on Switch, your time and money are best spent elsewhere.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Aqua Moto Racing 3D has good intentions, and in its better moments will bring waves of nostalgia and earn some affection in its own right, with fun racing and a kicking soundtrack to match. And then it judders and creaks, course designs confuse, and the fluidity that so benefits a game like this is lost in a sea of poor optimisation.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers is a real surprise in the Switch's launch lineup: a focused town-building sim with an addictive gameplay loop that looks decent, sounds great and plays well. A lack of variety and an unambitious presentation are notable drawbacks, and will keep it from being a long-term investment for many, but what's here is enjoyable enough, and certainly worth a shot for sim buffs looking for something simple and fun.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Its launch day timing and name place Rabbids Land in unfortunate competition with Nintendo Land, which is a superior multiplayer experience in every way. That said, if you've got a group to play with and don't mind the one-on-one restriction of the mini-games, there's a lot of fun to be had here. Fans of the series in particular will get a kick out of seeing these furry faces in HD, the excellent and characterful animations, and the unlockable video shorts. Rabbids Land wraps fun mini-games in an underwhelming board game shell, and while it may not be the life of the Wii U party, if you happen to be throwing your own these guys make great little guests.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The lack of depth and variety outright kills CFM’s value as a fishing sim and what's left is a convoluted minigame bolstered by a few neat ideas.

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