Reader Review: World’s End Club (Switch)
Ravva and the Cyclops Curse (PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
There once was a powerful owl sorceress who could summon monsters at will. But an evil cyclops turned her to stone. Now the sorceress’ daughter Ravva must use her weaker summoning powers to save her. Ravva and the Cyclops Curse is an 8-bit styled 2-D puzzle platformer. It’s available for most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Guts N Goals (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
Colors Live (Switch)
I always thought Nintendo’s Art Academy games were neat ideas. Even though they were not completely realistic and couldn’t replicate the feel of actually drawing on paper, they taught a lot of art techniques and some of the games even showed you how to draw Pokémon and Disney characters! With the touch screen usable in handheld mode, I’m kind of surprised Nintendo hasn’t made an Art Academy on the Switch yet. So that’s why I was interested in reviewing Colors Live. It’s a paint and art program on the Switch with a unique twist: the physical version of this game comes with a special stylus that hooks into the headphone jack and uses sound to detect pressure sensitive hard and soft brush strokes!
OBAKEIDORO! (Switch)
With all the Pac-Man playing I’ve done in my life, I know that Obake means ‘ghost’ in Japanese, more or less. I’m not sure what the ‘doro’ part at the end means though. Anyway, in this game, two siblings are about to go to sleep under a red moon, but then a ghost comes out of their closet to snatch them away to play a spooky yet silly game of tag meets hide and seek. In this multiplayer game, choose to side with the humans or the ghosts as you either hide from the specters or try to catch all the humans.
Pretty Girls Panic! (PS4, PS5, Switch, PC)
WitchSpring3 (Re:Fine): The Story of Eirudy (Switch, Mobile)
WitchSpring is a series of mobile phone RPGs from Korea. And now one of the entries is on Nintendo Switch, which is why we’re starting with WitchSpring3. But you really don’t need knowledge of the previous games to enjoy this one, unless you just want to know more about the lore of everything in it. Anyway, in this game you play as Eirudy, a witch girl who lives in a monster-filled misty forest excluded from humans (but her grandmother lives nearby). One day while running an errand to collect materials for her magic, Eirudy bumps into a human fugitive who is trying to avoid soldiers like she does. Together they have lots of adventures, and you can use your witch magic for good or evil in this highly customizable turn-based RPG. It kind of reminds me of a cross between Secret of Mana and those Atelier so-and-so RPGs.
Cotton Reboot! (PS4, Switch)
“Cotton” is a series of 2-D horizontally scrolling shooters that were very popular in the 90’s during the 16- and 32-bit eras. They star a candy-obsessed witch girl named Cotton who flies on her broom as she shoots down foes in spooky yet silly settings. It’s an example of the “Cute ‘Em Up” subgenre of shooters similar to titles like Twinbee, Parodius, Fantasy Zone, or Ordyne. And now the series is coming back with Cotton Reboot!, based on the original game. Darkness has fallen over a fairy kingdom, and a fairy named Silk enlists witch girl Cotton’s help to save the day (with a bribe of candy, of course). This game is available on PS4 and Switch, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Spelunker HD Deluxe (Switch, PS4)
Spelunker was an 8-bit 2-D platformer game where you explored caves, avoided obstacles, and gathered treasures. It came out in the US, but gained more popularity in Japan, probably because it was one of those easy to play yet hard to master games, and it came out when the Famicom (Japanese NES) was big. About ten years ago I reviewed an HD remake of Spelunker on PS3, and now you can play a Deluxe version of that on Switch and PS4 (reviewed on Switch here).
Space Invaders Invincible Collection (Switch, PS4)
Space Invaders is just as iconic of a classic video game as Pac-Man or Tetris. We probably wouldn’t be where we are today without it. And now you can play nearly a dozen games in the series with Space Invaders Invincible Collection. It’s available on Switch and PS4, but reviewed on Switch here. Let’s take a look at all the games on this collection!




