Richard Heaton

“The game is nowhere near as big as other monster catching games and franchises, but it gets the job done. If you like this RPG subgenre, you’ll like Doki Monsters: Quest. If you grew up with RPG’s of the 1990’s, you’re also going to love the nostalgic feel.”

“It might be a Nintendo port of a game that’s more than a decade old, but it still looks amazing. In those opening moments, you’re looking out past the cliffs towards the sea, and it looks phenomenal. The camera shake, camera angles, motion effects, lighting, and other visual effects come together to create such an immersive experience that’s cool and tense. It’s basically a giant movie that you’re playing.”

“Megabonk is like so many other roguelike titles but it’s 3D gameplay and mix of chaos and absurd humor makes it such an exciting and addicting experience.”

“Murder Inc is fun, frantic, and looks great, but the excitement is very short lived. The game becomes very stale rather quickly and both the controls and moving on the Switch version are very lackluster. I tried playing as much as I could, but it was a slog after less than an hour.”

“Fruitbus costs a very reasonable $20, which is good considering you’ll get anywhere between 10 and 20 hours out of your playthrough. It’s a very sweet game with such a relaxing experience that you’re going to enjoy like I did. You just need to look past the movement animations and you’ll be fine.”

“If you’re trying to go for every collectible and puzzle room, you might be able to push for 10 hours. That’s not bad, but for $25, it’s a bit pricy if not all the puzzles hit the way you’d like. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Lumo 2. It’s just that from a personal standpoint, $25 was a tad much considering that I had no interest in maybe 25% of the puzzles.”

“xtremely Powerful Capybaras is definitely the kind of game that you can pick up and play for 20 minutes whenever you want. But you can also lose yourself for hours. If the game cost $19.99, I would say it’s a steal because I put in around 10 hours during my first week because it was mindless fun. But the game costs $5.99, that’s an insane price for something that’s this addicting. It’s even better if you add some friends to your game.”

“Gloomy Eyes is a relatively short game; you can beat it in around 3 to 6 hours if you don’t get distracted by the visuals constantly like I did. Such a short game might be a bit much for people to fork over $25, but I think it’s worth it for the immersive experience. If you like the style of Tim Burton, Gloomy Eyes is worth checking out.”

“Is Cladun X3 going to appeal to the casual RPG gamer? Probably not. The game does require a lot of patience because of all the grinding. Some people might also find the story to be too simple. I personally liked the game and think that it has a great amount of content for the $39.99 price tag, but it won’t be for everyone.”

“The $50 price tag is only going to apply to diehard Nickelodeon fans. Casual gamers aren’t going to get a ton of enjoyment. If the levels had more going on, or the price was closer to $20, Dice of Destiny would have been an easy recommend. In its current state, it’s a good game at best.”

“The Edge of Allegoria is a fun game that looks and feels like Pokemon, but with shades of Deadpool and South Park.”

“Wander Stars is a quirky RPG that uses vocabulary to fight. It's old school anime art style and soundtrack will transport you back to the 90's and will live up to the expectations of those who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons.”

“At $49.99, Fia and the Wondrous Academy is a bit pricey. But it’s loads of fun and can keep you occupied for dozens of hours.”

“Hogtie is no different than your average mobile game. Heck, it’s even available on Steam for only $5. But it makes for a solid puzzle experience because of how many levels there are and how difficult the levels can get later on.”

“Starlight Legacy is a solid game. If you’re younger, the nostalgia factor isn’t going to affect you, and you’re not really going to care much for this title. But if you grew up with the older Final Fantasy games and other old RPG’s, Starlight Legacy will be a very good sub $15 purchase.”

“Do I think it’s a fun game? Not entirely. The gameplay angered me at times with how slow it was at the start and figuring out where to go was a pain. But gameplay was never really the focus for me. This is a slow burn game that relies on characters, story, and occasional puzzle solving. Those were the main draws for me, and it’s more than enough to keep people invested.”

“Bambas! is an okay game. It has lots of style and is enjoyable for a few hours but will become boring rather quickly for some. But for a game that only costs $15, it’s solid.”

“There’s enough content to suck hundreds of hours out of you and if you’re playing in handheld mode, some of the visual graphics are less noticeable. If you can get the game on Steam or PS5, that honestly should be your first choice, but this is a great example of how powerful the Switch 2 is and should be enjoyed if you’re playing this way.”

“You can get between 15 and 30 hours of playtime if you don’t mind the repetition and constant grinding, but I don’t see the average gamer doing more than one run and for $30 it’s a bit on the expensive side.”

“9th Dawn Remake is so much fun, there’s so much to do, and it runs perfectly on the Switch. For only $16, the game throws so much content and value at you and will keep you occupied for 50 hours or more. It’s well worth the price of admission if you’re an RPG lover.”