Tag: Hands On - Page 2
Hands On Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Feels Like A Perfectly Tuned Final Fantasy Celebration
Encore! ENCORE!
The curtains are open and the stage is set. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line marks the return of the Final Fantasy rhythm series to Nintendo consoles after a 10-year break. We've had a chance to go hands-on with an upcoming demo for the game, which will be available on 1st February, and if the early goings-on is anything to go on, then...
Hands On Fire Emblem Engage Is Surprisingly Fast-Paced And Delightfully Deep
12 rings to rule them all
Happy New Year, Fire Emblem fans! And what a start to 2023 it looks like being for all you tactical RPG aficionados, as Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem Engage gets set to drop onto Switch in just a handful of weeks. We've already been busy blasting through the game over the Christmas holiday period and, at around about 12...
Hands On Demonschool Is A Love Letter To DS Games And Italian Horror Movies
Persona, Stranger Things, and Suspiria, together at last
Every now and again, the world seems to collectively decide that the way things were X number of years ago was the peak of culture. This happens everywhere: Fashion, movies, makeup, and even language tend to rely on this ever-revolving cycle of nostalgia, fuelled by a yearning for the...
Hands On Want To Feel Like A Real Pokémon Trainer? Try This Premium Poké Ball Replica
Just don't throw it, ok?
If there's a single object which instantly calls to mind the massively popular Pokémon series of video games, it's the iconic red-and-white Poké Ball. Sure, there are more powerful and accurate balls to use in the game, but the original version is the one that everyone remembers – and it has become a symbol of the...
Hands On Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Performance Distracts From Neat New Features And Flourishes
Smeargle used Struggle
Recently we were invited by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo to pop down to TPC’s UK headquarters in London to give a build of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet a right ruddy going over. It’s less than a month until launch – and we were informed that the build we played was not the final release build – so how is...
Hands On AURGA Viewer Streams Switch To Tablets And Laptops, But How Well Does It Work?
Phones, too, but why do that?
The namesake feature of Nintendo's hybrid console has been perhaps the key factor in its continued success. The Switch's ability to, well, switch means it fits neatly into any lifestyle whatever your situation, but that doesn't mean there aren't use cases it doesn't quite cater for. For our part — and especially in...
Video We Played Some No Man's Sky On Switch - Here's What We Thought
An early hands-on with Hello Games
We are but a few short days away from the Switch release of No Man's Sky on October 7th and it is fair to say that we have been nervous to see how this frankly massive game would run on Nintendo's little console. Following a huge update to the game as we currently find it out in the wild, it seemed unlikely that...
Video Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope Talks Your Ear Off, But Has Fun In Spades
Our hands-on impressions after three hours
Recently we were invited down to Nintendo's UK headquarters by Ubisoft – we can only assume they got permission first – to have a bash at the upcoming strategy bwaaah-athon that is Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. We sat down and were able to play around three hours of the turn-based tactical crossover...
Hands On The Witch Is Back - Bayonetta 3 Is Real, And We've Played It
It's about (witch) time
Believe it or not, it’s been nearly five whole years since the wickedly stylish witch Bayonetta revealed the fact her action combat series would become a trilogy, and it’s been almost eight years since Bayonetta 2 released on Wii U. That original reveal trailer showed so little and left us with so many questions. Would...
Hands On All Of The Exciting Upcoming Games We Played At PAX West 2022
Indies, Nintendo Switch titles and more!
Recently, we sent our American video producer Zion Grassl to PAX West 2022 to try out the latest and greatest games coming out in the near future. Now that he's completed his assignment, he's put together the above video - where he and his friend, Zach Driscoll, share their impressions about all the games...
Hands On Splatoon 3 Brings New Ideas, But Nothing Revolutionary
Ink, splat, swim, repeat
Recently we were tickled pink to be invited by Nintendo to have a go at Splatoon 3, and as you might expect we accepted the offer. We got to play for about an hour or so, running through a few of the single-player levels, two rounds of Turf War, and three rounds of the new and improved version of Salmon Run — but how did...
Feature 'Ex-Zodiac' Is The Star Fox Throwback You Wish Nintendo Would Make
And it's got its sights on Switch
It’s been a while since Nintendo did anything of note with Star Fox. The last new entry was 2016’s Star Fox Zero (along with asymmetric tower defence curio Star Fox Guard), with Star Fox Command for DS coming a decade earlier in 2006. Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi appeared in Smash Bros., but there’s been a...
Hands On Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is A Heck Of An Emotional Ride So Far
Fight to live, live to fight
With just a few more weeks to go now until the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, we've been busy getting to grips with the latest entry in Monolith Soft's epic action-RPG series and, you may be relieved to hear, it's more than living up to our lofty expectations so far. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 introduces us to Aionios,...
Hands On 'Live A Live' Gives A Unique 16-Bit RPG A Gorgeous New Lease Of Life
We're LIVE from the past, present, and future
If you have any interest in Super Nintendo RPGs, then you’ve likely heard of Live A Live. Released in 1994 for the Super Famicom in Japan, it came out during what many claim is Square Enix's — then known as Square, or Squaresoft in the West — 'Golden Era', launching just under a year after Secret...
Hands On Two Point Campus Offers One Hell Of An Education
Learn more
If there’s one thing we need in life that goes criminally underappreciated, it’s education. Ejucashun kan turns a sentinse lik this into something that can be concise and precise, or eloquent and needlessly protracted. From students to heads of state, veterinarians to loquacious video producers — we all could do with a little more...
Hands On MADiSON Is A Familiar Yet Effective Horror Tale
Picture perfect or underdeveloped?
After the monumental impact of games like Amnesia, Outlast, and Hideo Kojima’s doomed Silent Hills teaser P.T, horror fans have witnessed somewhat of a resurgence of the genre after franchises like Resident Evil and Dead Space started leaning toward more over-the-top action. While some fans have since taken...
Hands On Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Is Shaping Up To Be A Belter
Choose House Hack 'n' Slash
It's been five whole years already since Nintendo's Fire Emblem and Koei Tecmo's Warriors series first collided, resulting in the rather magnificent Fire Emblem Warriors, a game we called "one of the best Musou outings yet" that "combines enjoyable combat with re
Hands On Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Is Looking Like A Mighty Meaty Hunk Of DLC
More than just new monsters and new quests
Monster Hunter Rise is tremendous — if you haven't played it, you only have to look at our review to see how much we loved it — so when Capcom asked if we fancied having a pop at the honking new DLC expansion titled Sunbreak, we couldn't say no. We got to have a go at just two of the quests on offer...
Hands On Drainus Is A 2D Shmup Masterpiece, So Keep Praying For That Switch Port
(Port-begging works, right?)
Japanese developer Team Ladybug is really good at homages. Its output so far has been dominated by titles with a Metroidvania theme, with the excellent Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth drawing massive inspiration from the game that helped coin the genre's name – Castlevania: Symphony of the Ni
Hands On Mario Strikers: Battle League Makes A Furiously Good First Impression
Where Mario can kick Yoshi in the face
Yep, we’ve only gone and played Mario Strikers: Battle League (Football) by invitation of Nintendo UK. We’re not boasting or anything, we just didn’t know how else to open the article. Fittingly, we had a good 90 minutes with the game and have been able to get a fairly decent idea of what we can expect...
Hands On Final Vendetta - The Ultimate Love Letter To Final Fight And Streets Of Rage?
Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting
Beat-em-up fans are like addicts cluttering up the mean streets of an '80s New York, willing to shoot themselves up with almost anything resembling the belt-scrolling boom that swept arcades in the early '90s. Whether pink-mohawked punk or run-of-the-mill gamer, if you’re still experiencing withdrawals despite the...
Hands On Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - The Ultimate 'Retro Throwback'?
We chat to Dotemu and Tribute Games about the road from 1987 to 2022
It feels like an age ago now, but when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge was announced it triggered excitement among gamers of all ages. For sure, some of the reaction came from players of a certain vintage that remember the original show and the TMNT arcade game,...
Hands On Nintendo Switch Sports Has Great Highs, But Disappointing Lows
Wallyball
Many of you will have already had a go at Nintendo Switch Sports through the recent online play test, but last week we were invited by Nintendo to experience the full fat version of the game without even having to be online. It's been over 15 years since we first woke up with the dreaded Wii elbow after Wii Sports' enthusiastic recepti
Hands On 4K Gamer Pro - A 4K 'Silver Bullet' For Your Nintendo Switch?
Keeping up with the upscalers
The arrival of the PS5 and Xbox Series X has made 4K gaming a reality for millions of players, so it's understandable that many Switch owners are feeling a little left out and are seeking to make the resolution jump as well – despite the fact that Nintendo's console is now five years old. Rumours of a Switch Pro (and...
Hands On WaterField's Analogue Pocket Pouch Perfectly Protects Your Precious Portable
(Sorry.)
Given how hard it is to come by, it's little surprise that the Analogue Pocket has become a treasured object for those lucky enough to own one. With that in mind, it goes without saying that some form of protection is in order – especially if you're going to be, you know, carrying this thing around with you, so thank goodness for the...
Hands On Turn Your Nintendo Switch Into A Gundam With This Case
A new meaning for the term 'Mobile Suit'
Cases for the Nintendo Switch aren't a new phenomenon. Given that the device is portable in nature, it stands to reason that plenty of cases are available – especially with the Switch being five years old now – and we've seen a wide variety of different options, too. Some cases merely prevent damage...
Hands On Kirby And The Forgotten Land: More 'Super Mario 3D World' Than 'Mario Odyssey'
Or should that be 'Super Kirby 3D World'?
It's closing in on six months since we got our first look at Kirby's upcoming 3D adventure, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and the reaction to the initial Nintendo Direct teaser back in September last year was certainly a positive one. Here's a game that gives the impression it isn't resting on the series'...
Hands On MLB The Show 22 Tech Test Impressions - Sony Takes A Swing At Switch
Strike
For those of us that consider it to be the true sport-sim addiction, rather than the usual FIFA and Madden entries, news that MLB The Show 22 would represent the series' debut on Switch was rather exciting. A PlayStation exclusive for many years, Major League Baseball clearly felt a broader audience was needed and — presumably in license...
Hands On Triangle Strategy Delivers Deep Turn-Based Combat To Match Its Incredible Art
For Norzelia!
As we've already reported, a brand new demo for Square Enix's upcoming tactical RPG, Triangle Strategy, dropped onto the Switch eShop during the latest Nintendo Direct and it's a pretty generous offering, giving players a chance to dig into the game's
Hands On Rune Factory 5 Feels Comfortable And Familiar, But Is That Enough?
A decade on, a new day has dawned
It’s rather hard to believe, but this July will mark the 10-year anniversary of the initial launch of Rune Factory 4 for the 3DS. Since then, the farm sim genre arguably hasn’t seen much innovation or notable movement, other than the release of a certain indie gem that hardly needs any introduction. Still,...
Hands On 'Mina The Hollower' Mixes Zelda, Castlevania, And Plenty Of 'Git Gud'
Death is coming
When Yacht Club Games formed way back in the distant sepia-toned past (2011), there was a good amount of buzz around a studio predominantly staffed by WayForward veterans. The prospect of outstanding pixel-art gaming was then fulfilled when Shovel Knight was unveiled in 2013, with the game going on to have a hugely successful...
Feature Aya Neo Next Review: Could This $1,300 Switch 'Rival' Hold The Answer To Joy-Con Drift?
Aya Neo Next uses 'Hall Effect' sensors for its analogue inputs
Remember the Aya Neo 2021 Pro, the super-powered and super-expensive portable PC we covered a short while ago? Well, the company behind it is releasing a new handheld this year which boasts a feature that should be very interesting to long-suffering Switch owners. The Aya Neo Next is a...
Hands On 'Infernax' Blends The Best Of Zelda II And Castlevania II While Skipping The Flaws
Gifting gore and irreverence this Valentine's Day
The eShop is not short of retro-styled titles that show due reverence to iconic games of the 8- and 16-bit eras. From feisty ninjas in the likes of The Messenger and Cyber Shadow, to high profile efforts like Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and its sequel, there are plenty of titles that are both...
Hands On Knobs, Bums, And 4D Armrests - Getting Comfy In Secretlab's New Pokémon Chair
Well, it's more like "bums on"
If a person's life story can be told through the state of their office chairs, then mine would be near-unpublishable. I have left a trail of destruction in the wake of my sedentary lifestyle: hard-wearing workhorses passed down from my parents, a fancy Herman Miller at my former job, and the peeling faux-leather...
Are we in the best timeline, or the worst?
If you could hop into a time machine and fly back to the early '90s and tell a young gamer that one day, Nintendo would make a piece of Sega hardware, they'd probably spit out their sugary Sunny D and laugh in your face. "Sega and Nintendo are mortal enemies," they would retort; "what planet on you from,...
Video We've Actually Played Metroid Dread, Does It Meet Our Expectations?
[The same 'dread' pun everyone else has made]
That's right, we've finally managed to get our mitts on Metroid Dread (temporarily); Nintendo UK were kind enough to invite us down for a good old fashioned preview in their showroom so we could have a go on it using one of those swanky new Switch OLED Model consoles to boot. Our expectations were high,...
Hands On We Created A GameCube Pad In Minecraft-Style Farm Sim 'Staxel'
We tried, okay?
Gather round, folks, for a tale of love, loss, and failure: For never was a story of more woe, than this of Kate and her, er, GameCube controller. Let's back up a little. 'Twas a Friday night after a long and tiring week, and my partner and I sat down for a game of Staxel, which is a sort of Minecraft-Animal Crossing-Harvest Moon...
Hands On PowerA's Spectra Controller For Switch Is A Light Show With A Catch
LEDs on a lead
We're not sure if you noticed, but there are LEDs on everything these days. If you've dabbled in the realm of PC gaming you'll no doubt have noticed the proliferation of colourful lights on keyboards and mice, and that trend is carrying over to console accessories, too – including joypads which light up like the 4th of July during...
Hands On One Man's Vision Shaped The GBA-Style GameForce CHI
...but is it any good?
If you're familiar with the raft of emulation-focused handhelds that have been emerging from China over the past few years, then the work of Anbernic and Bitt Boy will no doubt be on your radar already. While these are clearly small-fry when compared to the likes of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, they're still firms with a fair...
Feature Zooming Through Sonic Colors: Ultimate And Getting The Switch Lowdown
Sonic customisation, the new Wisp and that Switch framerate
SEGA has had various events and tie-ins to celebrate 30 years of Sonic the Hedgehog, but the big event from a gaming perspective is the upcoming Sonic Colors: Ultimate, which will see the previous Wii-exclusive come to various platforms including, of course, the Nintendo Switch. We were...
Hands On Streets Of Rage 4's Mr. X Nightmare DLC Is A Dreamy Add-On
Packs a punch
Streets of Rage 4 was a big hit in 2020, tempting in newcomers with its stylish visuals and weighty combat, and delighting series veterans of a certain age that had been waiting many years for an official sequel. It's a game with plenty of replayability, too, with a good number of unlockable characters and a generally moreish campaign...
Hands On It's Time To Judge The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Law blimey
It's been six years since the release of The Great Ace Attorney — known as Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken in Japan — and in that time, although a fan translation was made, the game was never released in the West. Many people speculated as to the reason: it's hard to localise, it relies on the player having basic...
Hands On LEGO Builder's Journey Is A Tiny, Beautiful Experiment About The Joy In Play
Creative block
LEGO Builder's Journey might fly under the radar on Switch, despite bearing the name of the mega-popular brick manufacturer, purely because it's quite different to their normal fare — but we really hope it doesn't. For the past couple of decades or so, the LEGO games have been dominated by other massive franchises — Star Wars,...
Hands On NEO The World Ends With You Has Us Caught In A Twister
A true evolution of touch controls
If you were a Kingdom Hearts kid back in 2008, you probably played or at least had ambitions to try out The World Ends With You on DS. Between its sharp, stylized visuals, pull no punches attitude, a bopping soundtrack, and the way it utilized touch and button controls, there's plenty of reason it sits very high on...
Hands On Book4Games "Precision Game Storage" - Fancy Warehousing For Your Loose SNES Carts
We go hands-on with the fanciest alternative to a shoebox yet
Many years ago, some wise penny-pincher at Nintendo decided that shipping games in flimsy cardboard boxes was a sound business decision, and as a result, NES, Game Boy, SNES and even N64 owners had to endure packaging that was annoyingly delicate when compared to that seen on rival...
Hands On From Xbox Series X To Nintendo Switch, The Falconeer: Warrior Edition Soars
An impressive port of a fascinating game
The Nintendo Switch has a broad library of multi-platform games, but publisher Wired Productions has confirmed one of the more intriguing download titles to transition to the hybrid system. Yes, it was beaten to the punch by an early eShop game page, but The Falconeer: Warrior Edition is announced and...
Hands On Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne Still Has The Power To Shake You Up
Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series
Ahead of the game's launch on 25th May, we recently had the chance to sit down with a pre-release version of Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster. Here follows our hands-on impressions from intrepid Nintendo Life (p)reviewer, Mitch Vogel... Before we get into impressions, let’s set the scene...
Hands On The EverDrive GBA X5 Mini Solves The Only Real Issue We Had With The Original
Small but still mighty
When we tested the original EverDrive GBA X5 flash cart back in 2016, we had plenty of good things to say about it, but the fact that it was bigger than your typical GBA cartridge was ever-so-slightly irksome. It meant that the cart protruded from the GBA's cartridge slot – a "first world problem" without a doubt, but one...
Hands On We've Played Bravely Default II On Switch, And Here's What We Think So Far
Classic gameplay meets classic grind
The original Bravely Default launched during a time where it felt like everyone had moved on past the tried and true turn-based RPG. Even the king of the formula, Square-Enix, seemed like it had given up on the genre as it had been (unfortunately) pouring its everything into the action RPG, Final Fantasy XIII,...
Hands On We've Played Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, And Here's What We Think So Far
Cat's entertainment?
When it started to become clear that Nintendo was porting many of its Wii U games to the Switch, a lot of fans naturally hoped that Super Mario 3D World would be one of the games making the jump. It's hard to believe it’s taken nearly four years, but we're finally just a matter of weeks away before this much-requested Mario...