Author: MichaelD
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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…
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9th Dawn III (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Valorware What I Paid: $5.62 Verdict: Not Shovelware. What I Say: Normally the death-knell for any game is to mention the word “mobile”. Combine this with “solo developer” and you quickly develop a sense of dread. NOT SO for this unbelievably amazing RPG. Once you get over the pixel graphics, you are in for…
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The Case of the Golden Idol (Microsoft Xbox Series X)
Publisher: Playstack What I Paid: GamePass Verdict: Not Shovelware. 100%ed it. What I Say: Look at and examine the images carefully. Read the text carefully. Slowly unravel the mystery of the Golden Idol. The graphics may not be state of the art, but the puzzling sure is hard work (in a fun way). Essentially you…
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Zombie Harvest: Survival Farming Simulator (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: GOGAME CONSOLE PUBLISHER What I Paid: $1.50 Verdict: Shovelware. What I Say: There are many excellent games with the word Zombie in the title. This isn’t one of them. The claim is that you are a farmer with nothing but a cabin and you need to build up your farm to survive and protect…
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Bid Battle: Auction War Simulator Storage Hunter (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: DEZVOLT GAMES What I Paid: $1.99 Verdict: Shovelware. What I Say: There’s not much to this game apart from the obligatory signs of shovelware; the Made by Unity logo, the massively keyword spammy title and the worse than desultory gameplay. The gameplay consists of travelling to a location, locating a small number of objects…
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Demetrios – The BIG Cynical Adventure (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: COWCAT What I Paid: $1.50 (Nintendo Switch), $2.24 (XBox Series X) Verdict: Not Shovelware. What I Say: In short: Bargain! Classic point ‘n’ click with modern conveniences. Watching the end credits of this game made me realize that this was a Kickstarter assisted solo-developer project, so I did some reading on the project’s background…
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9 in 1 Puzzles (Nintendo Switch)
Publisher: Kistler Studios What I Paid: $1.50 Verdict: Shovelware. What I Say: I guess the first clue that this is shovelware is in the title – 9 in 1 Puzzles. The second clue is in the download size – 60Mb. The third clue comes when you run this for the first time and discover that…