Forager (Nintendo Switch) - Review

It's been a while since I've been as obsessed with a game as I have been with Forager this week. I received the code last Friday, before a busy weekend that included two of my best friends getting married. So Sunday was the first chance I had to give it a look.

So hungover and tired I booted it up, thinking that I'd give it ten minutes and get back to it the next day after the hangover had subsided (or in a few days, as is often the case since I've hit my 30's). My kids were happily playing on their Switches, which allowed me to play this game for FOUR GLORIOUS UNINTERRUPTED HOURS before they asked for food.

I couldn't believe how fast that time had gone. Or that my children hadn't argued in that time. I didn't even feel any remorse at how long I had spent playing. This was the most surprising thing. You've all heard of Mum guilt? Well I have gamer guilt too. Basically, whenever I manage to get a few hours of uninterrupted game time (which is actually fairly rare) I make myself feel awful by thinking about all of the things I could have done with that time. I could have baked with the kids, gone for a walk, tackled Mt Un-Ironed clothes, or even played a different game - maybe one more story driven, or one that's deemed a classic. When I've spent time playing a more simplistic game, this feeling is usually pretty magnified (Farm Together I'm looking at you).

But as I put my Switch on the dock to charge whilst I hastily made my kids a sandwich I realised I couldn't wait to get back to Forager. It had it's hooks in deep.

I'm writing this on Thursday afternoon. Schools are out for summer which means that I am not working and my kids are off school. The weather is crap. We have spent almost every day in the house playing Switch. And unbelievably Forager is the only game I have played in this time. My Switch is still showing it as 'first played 4 days ago' but I will not be surprised if I have already spent 30 hours in Forager.

So, a little more about the game. The store page lists games like Stardew Valley and Terraria as influences and it is easy to see the similarities between these titles. However, going into this thinking it is going to be like Stardew Valley can do Forager a disservice. Whilst the influence is clear, the games are actually quite different, with Stardew Valley taking a slower, more methodical approach. The Forager Steam page also states that this is an 'idle game that you want yo actively keep playing' and I feel like this description more accurately portrays what Forager is than it's influences do.

Upon loading up the game your character is in the middle of a little block of land. There's no real tutorial, you're told to build a furnace and then left to your own devices. This could have been pretty daunting, but luckily Forager is a fairly simple game to get to grips with. Use the tools at your disposal to collect resources. Use those resources to build things like forges, inscription tables and factories - all of which unlock more tools for you to make.

As you progress you will level up, giving you skill points to spend on unlocks. Many of the buildings are hidden in the skill tree, but you level up fast enough that you don't go without a building you need for too long. You can also customise the look of your little sprite. Mine is currently sporting a fetching set of Mercy Wings and a crown, because why not?

Money can be spent on buying new pieces of land, that surround your initial plot. There are a few different landscapes and each are home to different dungeons, puzzles and people. Completing dungeons will give you special items, whilst helping the people and solving the puzzles yields a large treasure chest. The game has a limited amount of these large treasure chests and actually keeps track of how many you have found. As of writing this, I have found 41 of a possible 46 treasure chests and I am working on the next three.

The dungeons are a lot of fun to explore. They're each in a different biome of the map and thus are styled differently. You can finish a dungeon without fully exploring it by finding the main big blue treasure chest, which will place you back outside. I found myself re-entering at least two shrines to make sure I'd scoured the whole place for enemies and treasure.

The enemies aren't very challenging initially, but they do get bigger and badder as the game progresses. Luckily you can upgrade your sword and the damage you do with the Spirit Orbs you unlock throughout the game. Thankfully you can also get more hearts too, as you start with a measly three.

There are wild animals roaming the land too, that you can click on to get resources. Chickens will give you eggs, cows will give you milk (if you have a bottle) and sheep will give you cotton. There are also beautiful moose like creatures that will give you gems, obviously.

I went in to Forager expecting a slightly different game, which actually has worked in it's favour. I initially wanted it to be really like Stardew Valley, but now I have played it I realise that it's better because of it's differences. Lets face it, if I want to play Stardew Valley I can just load it up. Forager offers up something different, albeit not completely different. It's faster paced and for me it has more of a focus on completion. I want to tick all of the boxes in the items list off, whilst in Stardew Valley I want to take things slow with no real objective.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent so far with Forager, and I know that I will be playing it for a while longer yet. This game will be the perfect game to flick back into in between playing some of the Switches bigger, more story focused titles.

Little Friends: Dogs & Cats (Nintendo Switch) - Review

Usually my daughter is pretty unimpressed by the games I am reviewing. She likes gaming and loves her Nintendo Switch with a passion but her favourite games on it include a game where you make towers from cake. She's 7 so I'm letting her off, for now.

So it's a rare thing that I get to impress her with a review. She was quite excited by Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2 - until she actually played it with me and realised that I am the head chef from hell.

When I got the opportunity to receive a code for Little Friends: Dogs & Cats on Switch I knew I had to take it. My son gets to reap the benefits of my reviewing a lot more than she does and I had an inkling she'd love this game.

Little Friends: Dogs & Cats is basically Nintendogs for Switch and I'm sure we can all admit that we loved those games at some point, even I did when I was a teen with much more spare time than I have now at my disposal.

My daughter let out a squeal when I showed her what had downloaded whilst she was at school and immediately opened the game. The game opens and you can pick which dog you want. She went for a Chihuaha and called it Sofia and spent the rest of the evening lovingly tending to it's every need.

Once you reach level 15 you can adopt more pets from the Friends Plaza and each one will have a favourite food. You level up your friendship level with your pets by playing with them, petting them and feeding them.

You can also unlock achievement stamps for doing certain tasks - like walking a certain distance, petting your little friends and teaching your pets tricks. There are also different levels of competitive frisbee games where you can earn a little money, and an opportunity to practice your skills in the park.

My daughters favourite thing about this game is that you can dress up your pets. The clothing shop is full to the brim of ...err...interesting things you can dress your animals in. My daughter delighted in picking out outfits for her dog and two cats, (Rosie and Elsa) as you can see by the pictures below!

You also get to personalise your home in game with new furniture, wallpapers and flooring. This is the bit I prefer - I don't really like dressing up the animals with reindeer horns like my daughter does and would much rather make the house look nice. Luckily we both have separate saves so we didn't have to argue about it! For me, there's just something really weird about putting clothes on an animal, fake or real. My daughter has no such qualms and has delighted in buying her animals an array of crazy outfits.

At the time of writing this review my daughter has spent more than 25 hours playing this game. I can't claim to have spent anywhere near that much time on it. As much as I can see the appeal of this game for young and old alike I'd rather spend my precious game time on something a little more involved. The joy it has brought to my daughter is well worth the price of admission though, and if you have a child (or adult) who would love nothing more than to have a house full of pets they can dress up to their hearts content then this game is a no brainer.

I asked my daughter if there was anything she didn't like about this game. Her answer:

'You have to clean the toilet and that's just a bit weird.'

Spoiler alert kiddo, the toilet in real life doesn't clean itself either.

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2 (Nintendo Switch) - Review

I first played Cook, Serve, Delicious when it was an iPad game and I was hooked immediately. It was fast-paced and frantic and I loved that about it. Couple that with control over the menu and having to think about the "buzz" your restaurant received and I played nothing but that game for hours on end. It was basically all I used my iPad for.

So when Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2 came out on PC in 2017 I had to play it. Something didn't gel right with me though, and I spent nowhere near as much time with it as I thought I would. On paper it sounded right up my street - more food items, more challenges - but something just wasn't clicking. 

Fast forward to 2019 and it turns out the game is coming to Switch! Which has fast become my favourite console because it is actually accessible to a Mum of two game-obsessed kids who keep stealing my Xbox One. Not only is it coming to Switch, but it's coming to Switch on my birthday! I reached out to the developer with my fingers crossed and happily received a code. 

I downloaded it immediately and in the week prior to launch (and my birthday) I put in numerous hours of burger-flipping and latte making. I work in a school and the code happily coincided with my two week Easter break so I played it A LOT. I even played it whilst I re-watched Game of Thrones from the beginning ready for the new season. I am hooked. 

I don't understand why I didn't feel so positively about the PC version of this game after playing it on my Switch for the last fortnight. In 2017 I (mistakenly) believed that the original iPad game was the best version of the game and that the sequel had not managed to come anywhere near as close. Playing it again, two years later on a console I adore has completely changed that for me. And I haven't even been using the touch screen controls that have since been added. The button controls work really well. I mean, yeah it can be stressful to try and find the right button fast - especially when you also play Xbox and the X and Y buttons are switched which leads to much confusion - but it only adds to the pleasure of the game. 

There is so much content here too. The new console releases are up-to-date with the current PC build which is fantastic. There are so many different restaurants you can work in in the tower to unlock things for inside your own restaurant that, honestly, I don't know how anyone could get bored. All of the different restaurants offer different cuisines, which in turn, offer new ways to cook. 

The game also offers a co-op mode which is perfect for the Switch. Though be warned, it could quite easily lead to domestics. I played it with my son and ended up delegating him to just the chores. I couldn't handle watching him slowly read the ingredients and take an age to press the corresponding button. Hey, nobody is perfect. I'm working on it. 

Yes you don't just get to cook gorgeous looking meals in this game. As in real life a food prep station comes with chores. Take the trash out, do the dishes and flush the loo that your customer can't quite seem to get the hang of. Typing it like that it sounds a lot like my actual life with the tiny humans I've spawned. Luckily I don't have to set many mice traps in real life though. 

I am having so much fun with this game and honestly don't see myself getting bored. At just £12.99 this game is a steal for how much content there is and I can't see how anybody at all could say they didn't have fun playing it. The Switch is the perfect home for it, but for you guys who haven't yet bought one Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2 is also out on Xbox One and I'm sure it will provide just as much fun. And that version will have achievements! I'm fairly sure I'll end up double-dipping and if that's not telling you how fantastic this game is, I'm not sure what will. 

Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition - Review (Switch)

I know I've already reviewed Prison Architect on Xbox One, but when the email came in about the Switch release in the middle of the school summer holidays - with many more days filled with my kids stealing my Xbox off me stretching before me - I couldn't believe my luck and replied instantly basically asking the lovely PR person to save me from the new hell that was Fortnite whenever we were at home.

Now they're not re-inventing the wheel with Prison Architect: Nintendo Switch Edition. If you've ever played the game before, you know what you're getting yourself in for. The Switch edition does come loaded with all of the post release DLC too though, which is an added bonus. And also you can now play it on the go, which is basically what we've always wanted for a sim game, right?? It can't be just me.

Cue to me telling you that I've now ran a prison from outside my kids' school, inside the seventh level of hell that is the Legoland Discovery Centre on an after school visit and in the waiting room for the doctor's - this last one more times than I'd have liked. I know that people might be sick of reading how people want game x, y or z brought to the Switch, but there is a good reason for it and that reason is THAT EVERYTHING FEELS BETTER ON THE SWITCH!

I mean, seriously, I have put more hours into the Switch version already than I ever did on the Xbox One. It just suits me better at the minute and I'm so grateful for all of the support that the Switch has received so far from other developers and publishers.

I haven't encountered any major issues with the game running in either docked or handheld mode, which is pretty great. I did kinda expect that there would be the choice of using touchscreen controls, though, and as of yet there aren't. This isn't a major problem for me, in fact I don't really like touching the Switch screen. But I know that could make a huge difference for some Switch owners out there.

I'm not sure whether I would tell everybody to buy this game. If you haven't played it before and are interested in the concept, go for it. It's a very fun game. If you've played some of it, enjoyed it but haven't had the chance to play the DLC yet then I'd still say that this package offers you something too. Obviously, this decision is yours to make, but I am in no doubt that my favourite place to play this game is on the Nintendo Switch, and I did already own it on the Xbox One and the PC.

Smoke and Sacrifice (Nintendo Switch) - Review

Smoke and Sacrifice is available now on the Nintendo Switch and is priced at £19.99. There is a launch discount running at the moment that takes the price down to £15.99.

The beginning of Smoke and Sacrifice is quite something. It throws you into the game as Sachi, a new mother living in a village that believes they have to sacrifice a child to a Sun God for protection. Guess who just got picked as sacrifice? Yep, you got it; Sachi's new little boy, Lio.

Walking through the village before the sacrifice you are thanked, even celebrated for what you are about to do. One woman comments that sacrifice's shouldn't be named, to save yourself from a little of the pain. Whoops. Seems Sachi is something of a rebel. You have to go pick the baby up and drop him off under the watchful gaze of a laser beam.

Just as you're feeling completely disgusted with yourself and your actions the game then skips you forward seven years. Sachi is still living in the same village and dines't truly believe her son is gone. Then the protection surrounding the village fails and monsters attack the village and its people. Sachi is sent to find the village priests but in all of the confusion they're nowhere to be found. She heads into the temple and is transported to a completely new world and immediately sets out to see if she can find her sacrificed son.

I feel like I've given you more story than I ever have in a review before, but honestly these aren't spoilers. What I have described is literally the first fifteen minutes or so of the game, probably less. But I wanted to speak a little about those opening moments, to give you an idea of what the game is about. It started off looking so charming, but is much darker than I expected. It's a survival game with something actually at stake - you have to survive to see if Sachi can find her son. Don't worry though, no spoilers from here on out. Guess you'll just have to buy Smoke and Sacrifice if you want to find out what happens to Sachi and Lio :-) (or watch it on YouTube or something).

The new world is very different to the one we started in. Its gloomy and smoke-filled, and has monsters and something called Drear's roaming around. They're friendly enough and will set you tasks that start off simple enough and are actually helpful to Sachi. They'll teach you ways to keep the smoke at bay, craft weapons and even a warmer jerkin, and later some fur boots, so that you can enter another biome to continue your quest.

The crafting in this game starts out simply enough, with you being able to make nothing more that make-shift weapons and items. Eventually though your crafting recipes will increase to include much tougher weapons - even elemental ones.

I feel like the crafting system is much deeper than I initially expected given how simplistic the combat is. That's not to say that the combat isn't good, because despite it's simplicity - you literally just bash one button over and over until your foe dies - it is both fun and challenging. There is a dodge button too and you WILL need to use it. In a way playing Smoke and Sacrifice made me think of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. If you read my review for that, you'll remember that I liked that you played as someone who was rubbish at fighting. He was on a learning experience, just like the player. He got better as I did and it really helped my enjoyment of the game. Smoke and Sacrifice is exactly the same. Sachi isn't a warrior. She's a mum who's been thrust into a terrible world and will do anything to find her son.

The monsters in Smoke and Sacrifice don't always have to meet their end at the hand of whatever weapon you've managed to cobble together either. You can set traps, tame some of them, and even milk some of them to help heal yourself - as long as they're stunned first. And trust me, healing is important in Smoke and Sacrifice.

Smoke and Sacrifice is a fantastic entry into the survival game market. Yes, some of the tasks set can feel monotonous, but it's not so bad as to ruin the enjoyment of the game. The manual saves at terminals set at intervals around the world are something I really enjoyed, but I know they're not for everyone. Remember though, when playing on Switch you can just put your console into sleep mode if you suddenly need to stop gaming. The game looks gorgeous and playing a survival game with a story you really want to get to the bottom of makes a nice change to. I think Smoke and Sacrifice would be a valuable addition to anybody's Switch library.

A Normal Lost Phone + Another Lost Phone (Switch) - Reviews

It's really difficult to review games like this. As you know, I never want to ruin story for you guys, I just want to give you enough information that might help you make your decision on whether you want the game or not.

I thought I'd do these games in a single review because, even if the stories differ wildly the core gameplay and ideas are the same. You have found a lost phone and you want find out more about who it belonged to, cos you're nosey like that.

Now, obviously, if you find a lost phone in real life this sin't what you would do. You would hand it in to the appropriate person - be it at a shop or a train station etc. - and go about your business as usual, never thinking twice about it again. But in these games you get to play out your nosey fantasies, deep diving into somebody else's phone, reading their emails and texts, scrawling through their pictures and even having a good ol' gander at their dating profile.

Now I played the first one way back when it was first released and I adored it. It felt so different to any other game available on the market and managed to paint a fantastic picture of a character, even though you never get the chance to meet them. It was unusual. The "story" - that is to say the information you find on the phone - was brilliant and it really did stick with me. Both games deal with difficult issues, but I think the first one in particular shone in this regard.

Now we all know that we should have pins and locks on our phones and these lost phones are no different. Luckily for us, there is enough content on these phones that isn't locked behind a pattern or code. But to progress you must find the Wifi password for the town, or information that will help you with the pin code on their profile for example. These were really interesting puzzles - nothing too difficult that you find yourself having to reach for an internet guide but certainly not always simple enough to feel like it was easy.

There is no part of me that wants to go back and play through these titles again, they were deleted from my Switch immediately after I finished to make way for other games. This isn't a bad thing, but obviously after you have cracked all the codes and found out who the phone belonged to, your drive to do it again is going to have vanished. You've done it. I have to admit, it felt nice to park a game quite so definitely. It certainly isn't something I generally do, I mean I have a very full 5tb drive on my Xbox One - just in case I ever feel the need to play that game for five minutes again one day.

I would say that if you're interested in trying out one of these games I would recommend A Normal Lost Phone more than Another Lost Phone. I felt like it dealt with it's own particular issue in a less clumsy and obvious way and the puzzles in general were just generally slightly better. Only slightly, obviously, because at their core these games are exactly the same. I just feel like there wasn't as much thought put into Another Lost Phone - the story felt rushed and the puzzles were a little too easy.

I do think that you should give one of these games a go at some point though, they really are interesting, though they do deal with subjects of a sensitive nature. This is done very well in both cases, but I definitely think A Normal Lost Phone shines slightly brighter than Another Lost Phone.

ACORN Tactics (Switch) - Review

ACORN Tactics is available now on the Nintendo Switch and is priced at £8.99.

Strategy games feel so natural on the Nintendo Switch. I think we can all say that we have enjoyed a good little strategy game from time to time, even if it isn't the genre of game you generally turn to when you want a few hours of entertainment. I have put countless hours into Defense Grid 1 and 2 on the Xbox in the past, I just find that gameplay loop completely addictive. But I have to admit that - on the Xbox One anyway - seeing games like Defense Grid next to the big AAA titles I often found my head turned. I mean, if I'm getting to use the TV for anything other than a kids' TV show then I want to make the most of it!

I think we all suffer from something I like to call "backlog guilt" from time to time. You know you have those big releases queued up, and in some cases you bought them on release day, intending to play them straight away. Now though you can pick it up for a tenner and your £40 copy is still in the shrink wrap on the shelf because you kept getting distracted by newer games, or by the gems you had forgotten you owned. It's a struggle I'm sure we're all too familiar with. There are so many games released these days and we all typically have less time to play. The Switch changed that for me and I'm SO incredibly grateful for it.

You see now I can jump into a casual little game in handheld mode, whilst my kids are playing Minecraft. One that I used to feel guilty about playing after I'd got my kids to bed and I could have been playing a more cinematic game. I love that my Switch library offers huge variance in the type of games I can play without making me feel guilty about abandoning other games.

Anyway, I've digressed a little. ACORN Tactics is a neat little strategy RPG that sets you in a post-apocalyptic world where humans live on man-made islands in the sea. These little islands are now being invaded by aliens and it is up to you to save us. It's a fun little story set across 25 missions.

If you've ever played a SRPG before then you will know what you're doing from the off. You move your battalion of mechs around the island board and kill the aliens. Each turn your mech can move and shoot - if an enemy is in range, of course. You create your mechs in your garage but there isn't as much room for customisation as I had originally thought. You basically pick the size of the mech, which dictates which weapons it can carry and you can choose a colour and a name for your creation. It's all very standard fare - snipers, shotguns etc.

There are perks you can pay for along the way, but I have to admit to finding purchasing these tiresome. You always unlock a new perk when you have ample coin available for it and I never found myself having to make a tough choice between upgrades because I didn't have enough for both, so it just kinda felt like extra button presses for the sake of it.

If you lose your mech in a battle they are gone, which can hurt. They are easily replaced in the garage though so it is easy to brush yourself and get back into the battle. Your mechs level up with their kill score though, so you do lose some of those perks when you let your mech fall in battle.

ACORN Tactics is a fun little game but it does play it safe. It's cheap though and kept me interested whilst I was playing through it, I just wish that there had been something a little different about it.

Millie (Switch) - Review

Millie is available now on the Nintendo Switch and is priced at £4.49.

There are a lot of games on the Nintendo Switch eShop that started life as a mobile game. Millie was originally released on mobile and Steam a few years back for a little less money up front but a fair few micro transactions once you got stuck in.

I hadn't really heard of it until it came to the Switch store. I was intrigued. I'm almost 30 and so I spent much of my teen years playing Snake on my Nokia 3310. No phone since has ever been as loved. Millie looked enough like Snake to pique my interest, so I fired off an email and got to playing it the minute the code came through.

Millie isn't a Snake clone. It's actually more like what would happen if Snake and Pac-Man had a baby in that you do grow as you eat pellets but the pellets are spread around a maze-like level a la Pac-Man. And these maze-like levels can be incredibly tough to get around when you get bigger every time you eat.

There are 100 levels that are spread through three environments and the first few left me feeling pretty confident. I was doing alright. But then the levels suddenly seemed to get a lot bigger and it was a hell of a lot tougher to not keep smacking Millie's head into her butt. I had to give up on my perfectionist preferences pretty soon. Until then I had been getting every last pellet and not bumping Millie into herself at all, but I soon began moving to the exit the minute it became open and after I had quit out a couple of times because I had made Millie headbutt herself, again, I gave up on that too and accepted the time penalty that came with it humbly. Ish.

You do get some items that will help you along the way, but I tried to stay away from them for as long as possible. It's not possible to for long though. Well, I guess it probably is, but I don't know how much fun you'd have. As I mentioned before, the mobile version had micro-transactions built in. These micro-transactions included things like scissors that cut a little bit off Millie (ouch!), and clocks that allow you to rewind slightly after you've got yourself into yet another pickle. Luckily for us Switch players these are bought with the stars you earn in game, rather than real money. I did find it annoying though that after using some of them in a level only to have to restart it anyway, I lost what I had used. I was kinda expecting that you'd get them back if you failed the level after using them.

Millie is a fun little game, but wow does it test your patience. It would have even the most seasoned of gamers moaning with frustration, especially in the later levels. Kids might enjoy the first few levels they would definitely tire of how tough it is a little later on.

Pic-A-Pix Deluxe (Switch) - Review

Pic-A-Pix Deluxe is available now on Nintendo Switch and is priced at £6.99.

I became somewhat addicted to nonograms last summer. It was my dad that started it, during the long hours in the hospital he had downloaded a few little free monogram games onto his phone and showed them to me. I have a Windows phone (yeah, silly me right?!) so there were very few for me to choose from, but I managed to find a couple and quickly lose a few hours trying to decode the pictures.

I imagine that everyone reading is familiar with the idea of a nonogram puzzle, but they may not be familiar with the name as they can go by so many others. Basically they're like a crossword but for coloured blocks. Each column will have a number - and sometimes colour - attributed to it and you need to find where these coloured blocks reside. Do this for each column and you're rewarded with a pretty, pixellated picture. They are stupidly addictive and whilst they may sound simple enough, they can be incredibly tricky.

There are a couple of games like this available on the Switch now, Picross S and Piczle Lines DX. I have only played the latter but found myself losing an hour at a time rather than the ten minutes I had previously thought I'd play it for. I completed puzzle after puzzle in huge marathon sessions with Friends on in the background. It was the perfect game for the slump I found myself in at the time, allowing me to completely veg out. I completed it very fast.

So when I saw that Pic-A-Pix Deluxe was coming to Switch I knew I had to try it out. I downloaded the free Christmas themed demo first and whizzed through it one sitting, absolutely hooked on the simple gameplay and intuitive controls. I didn't use the touchscreen capabilities at all, for me it felt so easy with the Joy-Cons in handheld mode that I didn't even consider attempting a different control method. It made sense to me.

I was sent a review code on the Friday just gone and have spent the weekend snatching moments to play it whilst the kids are watching TV, or while I'm overseeing dinner. Then when they're in bed, when I could be playing LA Noire - which I'm in the middle of - I've found myself instead succumbing to marathon sessions of Pic-A-Pix Deluxe. So much so that by Monday I had finished the coloured puzzles, most of them with medals - which I think are given for not using the 'Fix' option or blank space markers. I never use blank space markers anyway, but I have used the Fix option a couple of times when I've been left flummoxed. I know I'll go back to get the rest of the medals one day though, it's nice to see them hanging over the finished pictures in the menu. First of all though I'm going to finish the rest of the Black and White puzzles found in the Extras menu, I believe I still have about five pages of puzzles left in there.

Pic-A-Pix Deluxe also includes a multiplayer mode which makes for some rather frustrating fun. I guess I'm more controlling than I thought, because I found it really difficult to work with someone else to complete the puzzles! We split the puzzle into segments, but I found it really difficult to relinquish parts of the picture for someone else to solve. It was a lot of fun though and it's certainly something I haven't done before. I found it much better to go back and do puzzles I had already completed on my own beforehand, I think it helped me feel like I wasn't missing out on solving the whole thing for myself. Silly, I know.

Overall, I've loved almost every second of the time I have spent with Pic-A-Pix Deluxe and I will be sad when I've completed all the puzzles. There is the promise of extra puzzles to be added in the future as paid DLC packs - one of which is available now for £3.49 I believe. These packs will typically include around 150 puzzles which offers pretty good value for money. The one at the minute includes the puzzles that were included in the Nintendo DS release, so if you have already played those puzzles save your cash for the next DLC pack.

I'd definitely recommend Pic-A-Pix Deluxe to Switch owners. It's a perfect fit for the console, especially in handheld mode which is how I primarily play my Switch. It doesn't tax the battery so you can get plenty of hours of nonogram goodness in a single charge and it is SO satisfying when you complete the puzzle that you've been struggling with for a little while and get a pretty picture!

Quest of Dungeons (Switch) - Review

Quest of Dungeons is available now on the Nintendo Switch and is priced at £7.99.

You may feel a little deja vu reading the title of this review. Yes I have reviewed this title before, way back in the September of 2015 when it was released on the Xbox One. I loved it and gave it a massive 9/10. So when I realised it was released on Switch I didn't hesitate to reach out to the lovely game developer David and ask if I could review it again on the Switch. I had a feeling Quest of Dungeons had found it's true home.

How right I was! Everything I loved about the game initially has been magnified tenfold by the fact I can now take it with me!!! It really does feel super special on the Switch, I've played it for hours on the TV and when my kids want to watch a film I get to carry on playing. I'm one of those annoying parents that turns up to pick the children up from school half an hour early (in my defense if you don't do that you don't get anywhere near the school) and having Quest of Dungeons on my Switch has been the perfect companion to those last few minutes of peace.

In fact I'd go so far as to say that the experience of playing Quest of Dungeons on the Nintendo Switch has made me reconsider how highly I rated it on the Xbox One. I'm not going to go back and change the score but if I was going to score this now, on the Switch, I'd give it 9/10. I can't give it a ten because there could be more of it - the option to reenter a dungeon you liked would be a sweet addition for starters - so it's not quite perfect. But it is definitely closer to perfection than it's Xbox One counterpart is. It feels like the definitive edition of the game.

That being said though it does feel like a little more could have been added for this re-release. There have been some tweaks and new additions - mainly in the form of a new achievement like system that keeps track of your feats and a new "mansion" level that has some new enemies. I might have liked an extra character or two but what I really, really wish we'd seen come to the Switch version of Quest of Dungeons would have been a little co-op mode. Ah that'd be truly glorious. A Joy-Con each as you try and make your way through the dungeons? It's be the perfect way for me to introduce my kids to this type of game. They're too young yet to appreciate the type of game where one mistake can mean you start again from the beginning, but if I were able to support them through it I'm sure we could have a lot of fun together. Hint, hint David!

Ironcast (Switch) - Review

Ironcast has now been released on the Nintendo Switch and is priced at £11.99.

I have reviewed Ironcast before when it was first released on the Xbox One and despite being crap at it I kept going back for more. So when I saw that it had been released on Switch I was pretty excited. I had a feeling this game would work perfectly on the Switch - specifically it's handheld mode. Boy was I right!

Ironcast feels completely at home on the Switch and the fact that in all probability you won't complete the campaign on the first try works brilliantly here. I've found myself picking up my Switch to have a go on a couple of levels of Ironcast tonnes of times this last week or so - during ads on YouTube, waiting for the kettle to boil etc etc. I know for a fact I won't be going back to the Xbox One version anymore, even though that means missing out on those 'cheevs. I'd say, for me at least, that the Switch version of Ironcast is definitely the definitive version. Yeah it's a bit pricier - especially when you consider that Ironcast will likely have been on sale on the Xbox store a few times by now - but honestly it's worth it.

I was hoping to be able to play it with the D-Pad because I remember getting a bit annoyed at how inaccurate the analogue stick could be when making your matches - I ended up retracing my steps a fair few times when playing it on the Xbox. But you can match diagonally on this board so obviously a D-Pad wouldn't work well here, which is a shame none the less.

Another thing I'd like to add is that the menu hasn't gotten any better. Or moreso the navigation of the screen where you can fix your gear or craft new stuff. It's like a mouse cursor that you hover over where you want to go and then press 'B' to get into. Why can't this just be done by moving up or down? Or even better with a hotkey. In combat you press 'Y' to enter the repair mode and then each trigger is a different area you can repair - I feel like this could have worked in the main hub too.

Overall though I haven't got many negatives to tell you about this game. It's good fun, pretty damn challenging and perfect for on the go - it doesn't tax the Switch battery at all. If you're yet to buy it on any other console but have been interested in it previously I'd say pay the extra couple of quid for this version. Hell, I'd even recommend double dipping on this one if you enjoyed it on a home console before. It definitely feels better when you can take it anywhere too.

Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas (Switch) - Review

Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas is available now on the Nintendo Switch and is priced at £11.99.

You may be feeling a little deja vu reading the title for this review. Way back in September of last year I reviewed Oceanhorn when it was released on the Xbox One. I reviewed this before I stopped giving scores out of ten and I have to admit to being surprised now by how highly I scored it back then. I guess a few things have changed since then.

As I said in the last review Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas is pretty much a Zelda clone. And when I reviewed it last we were all very much in a Zelda drought, having to revisit old games to get our fix. Oceanhorn for Xbox One couldn't have been released at a better time really, it had been such a long time since a new Zelda game had been released that I (and I imagine a fair few others) was just excited to play a game that reminded me so much of one my favourite game series. But since then we have been given the gift of the Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild, a game that I am over 100 hours into and nowhere near finished or even slightly bored of it. I love it so much I'm even attempting to collect all 900 Korok seeds.

So coming down from this Zelda high to play Oceanhorn for review was quite a bump. Everything I liked about it in my previous review is still true; it still looks beautiful and the music is still a treat for your earholes. But playing it on a Nintendo console, home of the real Zelda just brings it home that this isn't Zelda.

Which should be a good thing, right? I wouldn't want to release a game for it only to ever live in the shadow of another series anyway. But unfortunately for Oceanhorn playing it on the Switch just made me even more aware of the games shortfalls. Again all of these shortfalls were mentioned in my last review; the sailing is automatic, the levelling up system is a bit crap and uninvolved and makes me wonder whether it would have been better to just not have it and there is still no quest log or world map, which just seems silly really.

I was more forgiving of these issues in my previous review, and I still stand by that decision. It's easier - for me anyhow - to be more lenient with the Xbox One version. I know that if I ever want to replay this game it will be on the Xbox. When I realised this I was really surprised. My Switch has taken over my gaming life - it has been weeks since I have played on my Xbox at all and I don't even have many games yet. But as a mum of two being able to play a game on the TV whilst the children aren't around and switching to handheld when they're home has been invaluable. I can't wait for the Switch game library to grow.

Even considering the limited number of games available on the Switch up to now I can't really recommend Oceanhorn. It's really unfortunate because I did genuinely love the game when I played it on the Xbox One, but turning from Breath of the Wild to this highlights how much of a Zelda-lite this game is. And that's not as much of a compliment as it was last year.