REVIEW: 10 Second Ninja X on Nintendo Switch

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

10 Second Ninja X is a single screen platform game, that has you controlling a Ninja, and you have 10 seconds to complete the level. So yes, the title is pretty damn accurate!

Yes, the game really is that simple, but it is also very tricky, everything is about speed, when the level starts you can look around, you will see the enemies that you need to kill, and work out a route, and as soon as you start moving, the timer starts to tick down, if you have not killed all enemies within 10 seconds, you lose. The faster you complete a level, the more stars you get, the aim being 3 stars, but you can pass the level with 1 star if under 10 seconds.

There are 100 levels to beat, leader boards for each level, things to unlock and collect to add a bit more of a challenge too.

The controls are super simple, you run back and forth, you can jump, and of course the now obligatory double jump, you can slash your enemies with a Katana sword, or you can hit them from afar with Shurikens, (Ninja Throwing Stars) you only get 3 of them per level, so you need to use them wisely to hit enemies you can't reach by jumping, or ones protected with an electrical shield. As you progress through the game, some enemies you come across will be immune to the Throwing Stars too, just when you thought you had it mastered, the game throws a spanner in the works.

Some levels will have switches you need to activate, to move platforms, others will have surfaces you can bounce your ninja stars off, and even surfaces you can hold on to.

The more stars you collect, the more levels you unlock. There are also costumes you can unlock for your ninja. And in the pre-level area, if you find the hidden CD pieces, you can unlock an extra minigame, so that is worth looking for.

The Good

With the short time limit, and the leader boards, there is a strong "re-playability" to the levels. Trying to get 3 stars, trying to get as high on that leader board as possible, and just trying to do the perfect run, really is enjoyable, and a rewarding experience.

The graphics are decent, as are the sound effects.

The Bad

Although 100 levels sound a lot, once you get the hang of the game you will get through them relatively fast.

Overall

A great little addition to your puzzle game collection, that is perfect for quick bursts of gameplay, and to pass the time.

I score 10 Second Ninja X on Nintendo Switch a very strong 8/10. I very much enjoy the game.

Out Now on Nintendo Switch - 

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/10-Second-Ninja-X-2010458.html

REVIEW: Ghosts and Apples on Nintendo Switch

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Ghosts and Apples is an "action-puzzle" game that will test your reaction times as well as memory.

Over 150 levels of hand drawn action. Are you hooked yet?

You find yourself in a house of magic, there are ghosts looking through windows, an octopus acting as a coat hanger, ravens, evil potions, a vampire, and so on. It is all very fantastical looking and as mentioned all hand drawn.

You play as a Puppet called Jack; your soul is trapped within him. You will soon find yourself looking up at paintings, which when you click will suck you into them, and that is how you access a level.

The main point of the game is to catch ghosts and turn them into apples, yes makes no sense to me either, but neither did the octopus as a coat hanger.

I am playing this on a Nintendo Switch Lite, and I found that playing using the touch screen was easier than using the controller, this is important as it really does affect the way you play.

As you catch a ghost you have to decide where to put it, on either side of the screen is a capture device, with an input on the top or the bottom, in essence you have 4 points to put the ghosts. If you play with a controller then pressing up and down on the controller will send the ghost to the top or bottom of the containment device on the left of the screen, and pressing X and B will send them to the top and bottom of the right-side containment. This means you need to have your hands doing 4 separate actions. However, if you play with the touch screen, you only need to do one or two actions at a time as you just press where you want the ghost to go. This makes a difference as each ghost is a different colour, and you need to have 3 ghosts contained in a row together to change them into apples. And as more and more ghosts are caught you need to think very quick with regards to which of the 4 points you want to put them. Just putting them in the containment alone is not enough, so you can find a lot going on very quickly, and touch screen is just easier in my opinion.

As you collect apples, this allows you to unlock further levels, a golden apple is given if you "perfect" a level, capturing and transforming all ghosts. These are the most important apples needed to progress to the later stages.

Completing certain things will award you trophies which you can view in a room, and the challenge to get them all is one that should keep you coming back.

I was unable to play multiplayer so can't comment on that aspect of the game

The Good

The graphics are really good, and the soundtrack is perfectly acceptable, the frantic gameplay will really test anyone, and I am sure over time would help anyone who wants to improve their hand eye coordination.

The Bad

Sometimes progress is stopped because you need more golden apples, and since they are relatively hard to get, I imagine this might put off some younger gamers when they get stuck.

Overall

A tough little puzzle game that has plenty of challenge, even for the most experienced of gamer.

I score Ghosts and Apples a solid 8/10, one of the best puzzlers on Switch right now

Out Now at

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ghosts-and-apples-switch/

REVIEW: Gravewood High (Early Access) - PC (Steam)

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Before I start, as always with Early Access games, you must keep in mind that this is not the finished product. Game developers often will listen to feedback, update and change the game before a proper release, so any comments I give here are not on the finished game.

Gravewood High is a stealth horror game, set in a high school. Seemingly set in the 1980s/1990s.

The story goes that some students have gone missing at Gravewood High, but none of the teachers or parents have noticed. You are stuck within the school, and you need to escape, the problem is that the school is very much a maze that is constantly changing, and there is an evil teacher (Mr Hyde) looking for you.

Although this is a horror game, it is a game with very cartoony graphics, but the big twist is that every time you get caught by the teacher, when you replay, things have moved, locations of objects you need to solve puzzles have changed, the very puzzles themselves may need different ways to solve. Puzzles might include finding objects to open a gate, connecting or disconnecting electrical devices. Entering or exiting a certain area. Early on one puzzle you need to complete is to power up an elevator, the power coupling outside is damaged, so you need to find an alternative way. You find an electrostatic generator in the science room, and soon realize you need to find metal trophies and place them along a route to the elevator to give it power. Sounds simple, but when you have Mr Hyde (The Teacher) looking for you, that is where the stealth comes in, you need to watch him from afar, and if he sees you, run to safety. As panic sets in you will make mistakes, and before you know it you have to start again. Luckily you have a friend on the other end of a walkie talking who will help you as you play.

Each area of the school contains plenty of things you can pick up and move, things you might need to hold on to, spanners, bolt cutters, torches etc. And as you progress Mr Hyde gets smarter, transforms and develops new abilities as well as new ways to find you.

One of the ways to win is to outwit the teacher, set up traps for him, maybe connect a wire cable to a patch of water and lure him to you to electrify him. The game has a decent plot, and the story is worth following and paying attention to.

You will play for long periods without a checkpoint, so when you do get caught, the thought of playing a long area again, can be frustrating, more so because you know that the things you need will have changed location. Instead of this being a challenge, it just becomes an annoyance. Although you will lose things that were in your possession, you do keep hold of any keys picked up, so it is not all bad.

Finding secret paths and areas is also a big part of the game, they are a great way to avoid Mr Hyde, as well as progress further. The puzzles themselves are all pretty straight forward, so the hardest part of the game is staying away from the teacher, so as soon as you figure out what you need to do in a puzzle, you need to figure out how you will avoid Mr Hyde while you do it.

The Good

A nice-looking game, that does have some genuine moments of excitement as you rush to solve a puzzle while Mr Hyde is on the war path.

The Bad

Sometimes feels more like a game of chase than it does of a puzzle solving horror, the frustration felt sometimes overruns the challenge, meaning that when you do know exactly what you are supposed to do, but keep failing, you might just give up.

Overall

As an early access game, many issues can be forgiven, there is a lot of potential here. The various story elements need to be further investigated in the gameplay, and perhaps help lessen the frustration to challenge ratio.

For now, the game is worth checking out, won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is decent.

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Out Now On Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239300/Gravewood_High/

REVIEW: Green Hell - PS4

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Green Hell is an open world survival game from developers Creepy Jar.

Played from a first-person perspective, you play as a researcher called Jake Higgins, you find yourself in the jungle in the amazon, your partner Mia left to visit a tribe in the jungle, she is a linguist and decided to make first contact with a tribe known as the Yabahuca. Now she is gone, you are alone, and you need to not only find her, but you need to survive.

And this is the main idea of the game, survival. You will start off by learning how to do simple things, like building and starting a camp fire. You will need to learn how to craft items by collecting the raw materials, and combining them. But of course, things are a bit more complicated than that, you need to keep an eye on your health, not just physical but mental. As the environment around you changes, so will your need to build camps, find places to sleep. Everything you do matters. Find yourself thirsty and you decide to drink some water from a river, great if the water is clean, not so great if it is dirty. You will only make yourself more ill.

Try and find and collect food, but what happens if you eat an unknown mushroom? Might be ok, might give you hallucinations, might make you sick. As you navigate through all of these problems, you will also need solutions, cut your arm and maybe use ants to close the wound, get an infection and use maggots to clean the wound. You see you will need to use such tricks, as bandages and medicine need to time to make. Luckily your notebook will help you keep track of things and you will slowly learn from your mistakes. And then there are the animals, think snakes, spiders and scorpions, as well as larger animals you can try to kill to eat. You might even find yourself in a fight with a native tribesman.

Your watch will be a major benefit to your survival, it helps you keep track of your vitals, as well as acting as a navigation tool, you will also make good use of a map that you will find.

As you do try to survive, trial and error really does become your friend. You will soon learn what does work and what doesn't. 

With all that, the question then remains, is the game any good?

As survival games go, Green Hell is very detailed, and very tough, there is no hand holding here. Don't waste your time with the tutorial, as it is the same as if you just start the story mode. Which seems very strange. There is also a major issue that you cannot easily save your progress. You can only save when in a camp. So, if you are playing and need to stop quickly, you can't, you have to build or find a camp, and then save. You will find yourself easily losing a lot of progress due to this.

There are 7 extra challenges you can attempt, these are away from the story mode, and are stand-alone challenges. When you have the main idea of how to play, it is worth playing the challenges to really help you figure out how to survive, the challenges include simple things like finding a camp and starting a fire, or building a raft, or killing and cooking an animal etc.

The difficulty is pretty high in the game, and you might find yourself putting the game on the easiest setting on a first playthrough, but as mentioned earlier there is no hand holding here, early help and instructions soon disappear, and you really do need to figure out much on your own, this will put off newbies to the genre. Finish the game on the easiest setting and you will want to replay on a harder setting using the knowledge you have gained.

The Good

The game is beautiful, and despite the odd graphical glitch, everything looks and plays wonderfully. Any experienced survival game fan should feel right at home.

The Bad

This is not a game for newbies to the genre, it is tough, the controls at time feel a bit clunky, especially navigating the backpack.

Overall

For experienced survival game players, you will find yourself enjoying this game, the story and the challenges are all very rewarding. For newbies, this game is tough, really tough, with the clunky controls, you might find yourself put off early on, which is a shame, because if you stick with it, the game has a lot to offer.

I score Green Hell on PS4 a fair 7/10

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

REVIEW: The Black Heart on PC (Steam)

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

The Black Heart is a gothic horror 1 vs 1 fighting game, think original Streetfighter 2 but with aesthetics from Mortal Kombat and you get the idea.

Originally released on the "M.U.G.E.N engine" which was a freeware 2D fighting game engine, whereby "authors" would port characters from other fighting games into the engine, Andrés Borghi took a different route, by creating totally original characters and stages for his game The Black Heart

Although moving on from that engine, it still plays in a similar way. And now gets an all-new official release on Steam with updated HD graphics and soundtrack.

 

The controls are as you would expect, directional control over your character and 4 buttons for punching and kicking.

Here is the story.

It's about another world in a parallel dimension where the king and ruler has been murdered. A vicious creature called Final has ripped his heart where he stored all the power, he used to create that world.

Six creatures, both from our world and the other one, chase this monster to steal the heart for their own purposes, since it's said that the bearer of the heart will wield an enormous power.

Although only 6 characters to choose from, this is a true Indie game, everything made by just one man.

The gameplay is similar in style to the classic Capcom fighting games of the 90s, you have combos, finishing moves and so on.

The Good

Simple graphics will take you back to the 1990s. A great soundtrack matches teh fun gameplay.

The Bad

Only 6 characters, and no online play.

Overall

The Black Heart is a true fighting game, made by one man, we should all try and support Independent Developers, for they are the real future of the Gaming Industry.

I score The Black Heart a fair 7/10

Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff

Out Now On Steam