Author: MichaelD
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Galaxy Mania (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: RuWaMo Games What I Paid: $1.50 Verdict: Shovelware. Asset Flip. What I Say: Galaxy Mania (release date 27-July-2024) is an asset flip of Fantasy Saga Frenzy (release date 29-June-2024), so in the spirit of asset flipping, I’m just basically going to cut and paste my review of Fantasy Saga Frenzy here. This game is…
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Editor’s Hell – Newspaper Story (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: 404 Games What I Paid: $1.99 Verdict: Not Shovelware. Made with Unity Logo. What I Say: The premise sounds interesting: you have just taken over running a newspaper in a fictitious Eastern European country with a despotic ruler at the helm. You choose what stories to publish to either please or anger the leader…
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Cannon Dancer – Osman (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: ININ Games What I Paid: $7.99 Verdict: Shovelware. What I Say: It’s fair to say that I am not a fan of brawler games, of which this is one (technically two). That likely colours my opinion of this release. Osman (Cannon-Dancer in Japan) is a 1996 Mitchell Corp. arcade game which has been plonked…
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Ball Rush (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Entity3 What I Paid: $1.50 Verdict: Not Shovelware. Game-Breaking Bug. What I Say: I wanted to like this game, but it is ruined by a game-breaking bug on Level 33. You are the titular ball, rolling through colourful obstacles accompanied by a very catchy tune. Some obstacles are trickier than others, but overall progress…
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Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Ripstone Publishing What I Paid: $9.37 Verdict: Not Shovelware. What I Say: I enjoyed Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics. Based on a table-top game, this is a turn-based 4 member squad warfare simulator with your elite (and ethnically diverse) team infiltrating a super-secret Nazi project compound where a new occult-based weapon is being developed. Working out…
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Agent Walker: Secret Agent (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Artifex Mundi What I Paid: $2.19 Verdict: Not Shovelware. What I Say: This is a surprisingly violent Artifex Mundi Hidden Object game. It departs little from the typical formula for these games, but several puzzles involve guns and violence, which I am not accustomed to seeing in these sorts of games. The Nazis are…
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A Day Without Me (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: indie.io What I Paid: $1.50 Verdict: Shovelware. Game-Breaking Bug. Very Short. What I Say: This is surely a pre-alpha concept demo inadvertently released as a “game”. Super low rez graphics. Aimless wandering around. Not only a game-breaking bug, but a bug that persists even through New Game. Less than 15 minutes to complete (based…
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A Lost Note (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: 404 Games What I Paid: $1.99 Verdict: Shovelware. 100%ed it. Very Short. What I Say: You are a cat. You walk around several barely different environments (they all have much the same low resolution sparse emptiness but have different colour palettes) collecting “notes” on the way to a specific visual memory from a specific…
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Big Adventure: Trip To Europe 4 Collector’s Edition (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Ocean Media What I Paid: $2.25 Verdict: Not Shovelware. What I Say: Ocean Media publish many Hidden Object games. This is but one of them. Clearly they must be popular, as the series goes up to at least 5. There’s really not much more to say about this game: you get what you expect,…
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Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Artifex Mundi What I Paid: $2.19 Verdict: Not Shovelware. What I Say: Artifex Mundi publish many, many hidden object puzzle games. This one is Christmas-themed, which makes it even more syrupy and cheesy than usual. Santa’s voice has been stolen and he has been accused of thievery. You, the hyper-earnest Yuletide Detective, must help…