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What do you get if you cross an old-fashioned dungeon crawler, with a pinball game? You get The Pinball Wizard on Nintendo Switch.
You will use your character like a ball on a pinball table, each level acts like its own little table, and you will "dash, hurl, and flip your way to the top of the tower castle."
Along the way you can level up your characters skills, loot treasure and fight monsters, but all within the kind of confines of pinball mechanics. For example, you will use the paddles to hit your character, direct him to collect things, to hit enemies, and eventually once you find the key, hit him towards the door which takes you to the next level.
Once you reach the top of the tower, you will restore the power of The Eye and "bring peace to the lands".
The game mechanics are super simple to pick up, and as you progress you will unlock extra skills which can be used as you play, for example while mid dungeon you can stop and fire your character in a certain direction, or even fire a ball which can collect things for you.
This is a game that on paper shouldn't really work, but in practice it seems to work really well.
I played on a Nintendo Switch Lite, and the game looks and plays great, even on the small screen. The sound effects and music etc are all decent, the graphics are clear and easy to see. And the game itself has an addictive quality you really need in a game like this.
The Good
Bright clear graphics, and super easy to learn gameplay.
The Bad
Nothing really.
Overall
Super simple pick up and play Pinball/Dungeon Crawler. Totally unique gameplay that I have no seen before.
I score The Pinball Wizard on Nintendo Switch a solid 8/10
Although this game looks pretty polished, it is still in early access, and it has a long way to go before it is anywhere near ready for full release.
There aren't many indie football games that have done well, in fact I can't think of a single one off the top of my head. That doesn't mean it is impossible, it just means that in a world that is dominated by the FIFA franchise, and with PES a distance second, to even stand a chance you game has to be very good.
Serious Fun Football tries an interesting approach, games are played in a 3 vs 3 environment. With fences surrounding the pitch, there are no corners, throw ins or even penalties. The game is purely about passing and scoring.
As this game is Early Access, some of the modes are not available, and bizarrely you cannot even play as your whole team, you can only control one player at the moment. This is not all bad, but to expect someone to come to the game and have this as the only available option, you are risking alienating your players before you even begin. Obviously as the game develops and is updated these options become available, but disappointed to see this from the get go.
The characters all have detailed attributes which will help them seem unique on the pitch. Some players can shoot better, others are better passes, and some can run faster, pretty standard stuff.
As you play through the game you will earn in game currency that can be used to unlock new stadiums, upgrade your player and so on.
There are three separate viewpoints you can play with, horizontal view, which is your more classic viewpoint, a horizontal one and
I am not going to talk too much more about the game, most of you know how a football game works. I want to concentrate purely on how the game is coming along.
The Good
The game looks great, the graphics are good, the pitch and stadiums all look very nice. No complaints there at all.
There looks to be a lot to come with teams, attributes of players, career mode, and so on, everything you would expect in such a game.
The Bad
The game plays very slow, the characters move very slow, I even put the graphics on the lowest mode to see if that was slowing things down, but nope, that is how it plays. This is a huge mistake. Arcade style footy games need to be fast and fun, and in this game, it is neither. Maybe less time spent on making things look pretty and more time spent on speeding up the game play, and making everything just play better.
The lack of ability to play as an entire team from the start is a huge mistake, a massive mistake, a monumental mistake, and one that the game makers should instantly work to fix, everything else put to the side. Let people play as the whole team, and speed up the play.
Overall
The game is early access so you can forgive a lot of the problems. It is being funded by private money, and is a truly indie project, but you really need to get the basics right. The game has been in development for 6 years and at some point, you have to ask why the basics aren't better. Forget the graphics, forget the fancy menus and stadiums. Get the basics right, get the gameplay right and everything else can be fixed later.
No score for now. And this game does have a lot of potential, a simple FIFA like 3 v 3 Footy game can work, but it has to be fun and it has to have quick gameplay.
A Winding Path is a hand-drawn 2D platform game of sorts. With a totally unique monochrome look, you play as a character exploring a world, the rain has stopped, crops are dying, rivers are drying up. Your job is to explore and complete small tasks in the hope of uncovering the mystery, and restoring balance to the world.
You will explore ancient ruins, forests and settlements, you will speak to various people, and help them solve their troubles.
Although the graphics look super simple, you literally control a stick man, everything is actually really cleverly done. You could argue that it is actually harder to animate in this way, using hand drawn sketches etc, than it is to animate in a more classical way.
The controls are super easy to get used to, interact with people, solve their problems, find a flute, make it rain and so on.
This really is quite a sweet little game, that you can just tell when you play, that has had a lot of love and time spent on it.
The puzzles and tasks you have to complete do have enough of a challenge to keep you interested, but are never too hard to put you off.
A nice little touch is also the way you can adjust the colours on screen. If you don't like black on a white background, you can change it to white on a black background. As well as lots of other variations, all have nice names like "Nightfall" which is black on a kind of pink background, Slate and Crimson, which is red on a light blue, and so on, basically you can find the colour scheme you like, or whatever suits your eyes and play that way. It makes no difference to the gameplay, but is a nice touch.
The music is very relaxing, melodic, the kind of thing you can just listen to while doing something else.
The Good
A super chilled out, enchanting type of game. Offers enough of a challenge to keep you coming back, a nice storyline and easy but fun gameplay. Not to mention a unique hand drawn world that just shouts at you that it was drawn with love.
The Bad
Perhaps might not appeal to hardcore gamers, or platform gamers who are more interested in spectacle and fancy graphics.
Overall
Some games can just be described as being really nice. This is one of those games. It is just simple and fun to play.
What more can you want.
I score A Winding Path on Nintendo Switch a strong 8/10
Back in 1983 we were introduced to a game called Track and Field. Fast forward to 2021 and we have World CHAMPIONS: Decathlon. A true homage to not only Track and Field, but all of the Olympic type sports arcade games of the 80s.
The graphics are full retro style, and the sounds are as if you were stood in an arcade in the 80s.
We are back to button bashing greatness.
There are ten events to choose from, which you can take part in one at a time, as well as all ten in succession in the Decathlon mode.
You have...100 metres, Long jump, Shot put, High jump, 400 metres, 110 metres hurdles, Discus throw, Pole vault, Javelin throw and 1500 metres.
You can play in single player mode, or person vs person mode, local and online, however when I tried online I couldn't find a match.
The controls are simple, you have two buttons for speed, and then one for an action, for example to jump. And that is it, everything is super simple and easy to play.
There are leader-boards and achievements to unlock. Each event will have at least 3 achievements to get. One will be to beat a certain score, then an elite achievement where you have to beat a better score, and of course an achievement if you get the world record. There are even a few bonus achievements you can get, for example, spot a UFO or complete the 110m Hurdles in a certain time, without jumping.
And I will say that the 1500 metre race is gruelling, tapping buttons as fast as you can, non stop for 3+ minutes sounds easy, but your fingers are gonna get a workout that's for sure.
The Good
A proper retro Track and Field style game, it really does have everything you could want.
The Bad
This is a small complaint, but I think that when you have two buttons you need to press to run, they should have to be pressed alternatively, where as in this you can press both together, this makes things much easier than it should be. I also think that a lack of control on the jumping events, again makes things too easy.
Overall
I was a huge fan of Olympic style games in the 1980s. I love a good button bashing game. I think there are a few tweaks that could be made to this game to make it a bit harder which in turn makes it more of a challenge. That said I thoroughly enjoyed playing, and it brought back some great memories of my youth.
If there is one thing I like, it is 2D physics-based precision platformer, and what do we have here? Yes, it is a 2D physics-based precision platformer.
You control a ball or as the game calls it a sphere, and you have to get from point A in a level to Point B, in as fast a time as possible. You can only move the ball left or right, so have to make use of the environment to cleverly move you around the level. For example, hit a ramp at speed, or move onto a bouncing platform, move through an antigravity area and so on. Apparently, this is the 5th game in the series, but as far as I know this is the first time, I have played any of them.
With 50 levels to beat, with varying difficulty, the game presents quite the challenge. Each level offers 3 achievable points. First to pass the level, second to pass the level in under a certain time, and thirdly to do that while also collecting a moon icon, that is usually positioned in a difficult to reach place. Do all three, and you have fully passed the level.
There is a story too,
"Follow the story of Amber as she wakes up from her long slumber, alone, to find her former idyllic world transformed to the core. Incarnate her avatar and explore 4 different biomes, each with their own gameplay twists and narrative. Change the world as you progress and uncover hidden secrets. Where are your missing sisters and why did everything change so drastically?"
There are a few things that separate this game from other similar games. For example, there is not just a simple menu with the levels listed, instead levels are placed across an area, as you beat certain levels, others are unlocked. There is much variation between the levels too, for example a few of teh more unusual levels are like you are playing on an arcade machine, so offer slightly different mechanics. Some levels have areas with lower gravity, or even hit a button and gravity completely flips. Throw in all manner of traps, and obstacles, and completing this game is not an easy task at all.
There is also a handy statue thingy (sorry I cant recall the name) that when you approach will list all the available levels, your score and completion rate, and if you have discovered them, allows you to choose to play the level from that point.
And just when you think that is enough, there is even the option to create your own levels, and play levels created by other users, which in turns leads to a potentially never-ending number of levels to play.
Despite the game being listed as "Early Access" it is already very far along and has huge potential as more players join the game, more levels are created, and so on.
The gameplay itself may not be very original, but it is presented in a totally original format, with enough variety to keep you very busy, and an almost endless amount of user created levels to enjoy.
The graphics are as good as you would expect in a game like this. The sound effects and music are also decent.
The Good
Endless potential, already a very solid base, with enjoyable, addictive gameplay, and when I say addictive I mean it, when you miss the challenge time by a second, you WILL keep replaying a level until you get it, the hook is strong here, very strong.
The Bad
Perhaps the level layout might put off some people, especially those who are used to just seeing a long list of levels from the start and expect a linear approach. I personally liked having something different.
Overall
This is already a high-quality game, despite being in early access. It can only get better; I look forward to seeing user created levels explode once the game is fully released.
I don't usually score early access games, but I will make an exception here.
I score Amberial Dreams on PC (steam) a very strong 8.5/10. And I can guarantee that when the game exits early access, and gets the full final release, that score will automatically go to 9/10, purely because I know the amount of content available for the game will grow massively.
