Nintendo Life's Scores

  • Games
For 5,858 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: 10 153 Hand Video Poker
Score distribution:
5866 game reviews
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Young players might love the idea of stomping baddies as their favorite Big Hero 6 characters, but be warned that there is nothing even slightly super about this one.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ben 10: Omniverse falls into a lot of the same traps that lesser games in this genre do — lots of repetitive button-mashing gameplay, uninspired level design and clunky controls.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Let's be clear – this is no disaster like Gleamlight. This is a well-crafted, carefully designed and fantastic-looking game. It's just such a damn shame that the central shadow-casting mechanic is so fussy, so irritating and so downright broken that we can't recommend it without the strongest of caveats. It's very clear that the developers put their heart and soul into Projection: First Light, and that effort deserves to be recognised. Unfortunately, we suggest you recognise it from afar. We don't think that a patch alone could solve this game's problems, and if there's ever a Projection: Second Light, we'd be surprised.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    We appreciate Funfair Party Games' wholehearted attempt to inject motion controls into classic carnival games, and while when they work well the games can be quite fun, in most cases, the controls are either too unresponsive or too confusing to use effectively.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    While Zombie Skape functions and does what it sets out to do, you'll be hard-pressed to get any lasting enjoyment out it.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    While Takeshi & Hiroshi may immediately grab you with its charming art style, the game itself is sadly quite lacking. From start to finish, the player will feel like they are watching an interactive short film, completely removed from the world. Combined with the frustrating random elements and the lack of overall content, Takeshi & Hiroshi does not provide enough to warrant a recommendation.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The fans and faithful of the Jewel Quest series who don't mind wildly cramming gems into a corner for several minutes might very much enjoy the newer takes and elements of The Sapphire Dragon.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Play French is barely educational and only mildly fun.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Skautfold: Usurper ultimately comes off as more of a mid-effort flash game than a properly polished new eShop release. There are flashes of fun every now and then, but none of the ideas or concepts here cohere into something that’s worth your time. If you’re looking for a solid Metroidvania with Soulslike elements, Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, and Salt and Sanctuary all offer up a substantially more polished and enjoyable experience.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sometimes licensed games made for younger players can surprise us, and exceed our expectations. Sadly, this is not one of those times.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Chronicles of Vampires: Origins is too short and relies too heavily on a bland storyline to make this worth a recommendation, though we admire its attempts to innovate within the hidden object formula. While you're searching for items or solving puzzles it makes for some decent casual fun, but overall it's flawed and far from special.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Drawn To Life: Two Realms is a sequel that fails to replicate what made the Drawn To Life games so compelling: the actual drawing part. It's pretty (and pretty cheap), but the puzzle-platforming underwhelms and the story drags; if you're a hardcore fan of the franchise then we dare say you'll be able to extract a modicum of enjoyment here, but there's an equal chance that, as a series aficionado, the changes made to the basic gameplay will annoy you the most.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Eba & Egg: The Hatch Trip has decent ideas in terms of mechanical design and aesthetics, but it lacks a lot of polish and refinement that could have made this a more memorable experience. Perhaps you can find some redeeming qualities to it, but otherwise this is an egg best left in the carton.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    With a much larger collection of words and maybe a couple more ways to play, uWordsmith could be a very solid, brain-based party game. As it stands now, however, its lack of vocabulary is a telling blow that makes it hard to find the words to recommend it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Gabrille's Ghostly Groove Mini takes the idea of a streamlining to an almost satirical extent. With a measly four songs — which are each about one minute long — and no sense of challenge whatsoever, it's hard to imagine who, exactly, this release is targeting
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    There's no sense of progression or improvement on offer, the story is a bore, you're made to walk circles around a tiny village and, even at the relative budget price of £20 / $28 it feels like Crypton Future Media is asking way too much. If you've got a very young child to entertain, maybe this will do the job for an hour or two. Otherwise, it's hard to recommend something so slight, unchallenging, and unwilling to engage with what makes its star such a joy to be around in the first place.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Go Vacation's main problem is that its controls are, nine times out of ten, too unresponsive to make it any fun.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Those looking for straight-up, no-frills Texas Hold ‘Em can find it in Governor of Poker. Those looking for engaging goals and atmosphere, however, likely will not; the constant tug-of-war on the tables to build the funds to buy the next non-interactive building feels more like a chore than a real accomplishment.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sonic Frontiers is a brave new direction for the series, but this first ‘open-zone’ entry misses the mark by quite a margin. Traversal and combat annoyances plague the experience from start to finish, while structurally the game offers up very little variety, instead leaning on repetitive fetch quests that get exasperating after the first island. As far as the Switch version goes, it’s quite comfortably the worst option available to fans, with graphical compromises that make it impossible to recommend if you're able to play it anywhere else at all. If you’re going to get this game, we implore you to try it out elsewhere.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion dripped with potential upon announcement, but the final result is a more smudged affair. A fun, if basic, platformer lies at its heart, yet it's coated with unbalanced difficulty and drawing mechanics that interrupt its flow regularly, while the number of worlds is very disheartening. Disney fans will get a kick out of seeing which characters turn up, but if you're expecting another Castle of Illusion, you're going to be disappointed.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    At 200 Points, Gene Labs is cheap, lengthy and an okay way to waste time, but that's about all it has going for it.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    R.B.I. Baseball 18 is another disappointing baseball 'simulation' on Switch. If you want a solid baseball experience on the Switch, you could do worse than Super Baseball 2020. Failing that, go buy a PS4 and MLB The Show 18 and be happy the rest of your life. On today’s platforms, Sony San Diego has it sewn up and this is not going to change any time soon.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    While Gene Labs is not a completely unplayable game, there is no real reason to want to play it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A typically rushed movie tie-in, and an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise excellent franchise.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Radiation Island is a good survival horror premise that sadly never delivers. We are unsure if the game will continue to see future support and updates to better streamline the entire experience, possibly leaving it in this limbo state on Switch forever and as such our final score reflects the game’s current state. It's a shame Atypical Games decided to bring this game to Switch before other games in its catalogue as it sets a dangerous precedent on the eShop. Buyer’s beware: the titular radiation is the least of your worries on this island... but that hole it will leave on your wallet most certainly is.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    In the end, Percy’s Predicament feels like an unfinished build of a game that could’ve released for PC back in the late 90’s.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Ultimately, we found 12 Minutes to be a trite adventure that squanders its initial intrigue almost instantly. We can see how someone else might get a kick out of its star-studded silliness, but in a gaming landscape littered with time loop games, we found this one extremely tedious at best.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    While both Dream Drop Distance and Fragmentary Passage are good stuff, this is a much more niche product than the previous compilation, and far more difficult to recommend. It's essential if you're a fan, but... let's face it, if you're a fan, you've already played these games. And on a system on which they run natively, rather than this (again!) erratic, temperamental Cloud Version. We feel like it's our destiny to repeat ourselves on the matter, but if you can buy this package for another system we'd earnestly implore you to do so — it may not be handheld, but at least it would be yours to keep and it would run reliably and consistently. As it stands, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue on Nintendo Switch is yet another compromise. If your internet connection is consistent and strong, it runs great... when it's running great. But, you know, stuff happens. Using Ethernet while docked helps, but it's still putting a sticking plaster on a glaring wound. So, once again, another good package but presented in the worst way. And slightly less good than the last one.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    With only three different mini-games to play and no real challenge in taking care of your little pets, from an adult perspective this game gets old very quickly.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A bijou Doctor Who experience, Edge of Reality is impressively dedicated to the beloved TV show but unfortunately suffers in its transition from VR exclusive to traditional console game. Limited inputs and fetch-questy scenarios hardly inflame the imagination and it's not until the game's last quarter that things start to feel more tailored for the Switch — because they are. It's too short and there aren't enough clear save points (we lost a fair amount of progress when we quit during the first area to play something else and it simply hadn't saved the game yet) but the fact that performance is so all over the place is Edge of Reality's main issue, and one that will absolutely affect your enjoyment of an otherwise serviceable adventure. Overall, it's the most cautious of recommendations to Doctor Who fans, then. Everyone else almost certainly need not apply.

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