So how do you improve on perfection like that? Well including the game’s bulkier sequel is a good start. 

This Switch remake of the first two Game Boy Advance titles doesn’t do anything too crazy with the formula, but when it works so well any excessive tweaking would have been foolhardy.

Based around grid-based maps where you have to move around various battle units – tanks, missiles, troops, aircraft, ships – you defeating your foe by either destroying all their forces or capturing their bases. 

Different units can move certain distances, some are more effective against others – and so on. CO Powers also give you little advantages once a power meter is filled too, such as increased firing range and the ability to heal units.

Although both titles have dinky visuals and anime styled characters the gameplay mechanics underneath are rock solid – movement of your units is incredibly simple, but the way they can be used in combination is often breathtaking. 

The amount of scenarios created by just a few units and various types of terrain is masterful, and the way it’s presented mean that even casual players can enjoy the experience – helped no end by the addition of an actual ‘casual’ difficulty mode, which wasn’t present in the originals. 

The sequel throws around time limits and other gimmicks, but is still fun enough to satisfy – just not quite in the same pure way as the original. 

So the core mechanics remain unchanged, so wisely the main differences in this Switch version are additions in the form of new modes – such as a Challenge Campaign – and numerous extras you can unlock via an in-game shop.

As you’d expect there are multiplayer modes too, and you can play up with up to three other people locally – but only one on one online for some reason. There’s no matchmaking either, which is puzzling and possibly the only real issue we ran into with the game.

Ultimately this is an improved version of an already almost perfect strategy game, and its bulkier sequel isn’t bad either. We recommend you sign up forthwith.

The post Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp [Switch] Review – What Is It Good For appeared first on Gamezebo.

This is the fourth entry in the Dadish universe, but the fundamental ‘plot’ is the same. You play as a father who’s trying to round up his errant children, but you also happen to be a radish. Hence the portmanteau ‘Dadish.’

To rescue these young vegetables you have to complete linear 2D stages filled with various obstacles and enemies – with most of these foes fast food related.

This is a little different to the previous three titles – as those were all pretty standard linear 2D platformers that saw you progress through roughly 50-60 stages and a range of bosses at the end of each world.

The appeal of the Dadish games has always been their simplicity, with crisp visuals pairing perfectly with the responsive controls. Dadish can’t attack, but he can double jump – and this mechanic is used in a range of massively satisfying ways.

This simplicity is followed in the set up for Daily Dadish too. You get just one level a day to complete, and that’s it. There’s a star up for grabs each day if you complete it quickly enough, and these can be used to unlock new playable characters.

The stages vary in terms of location – all taken from previous entries in the series – and are usually very short. If you don’t die they’re often over in around 30 seconds.

Thing is, you will die – as there are some brutal challenges served up at times, and one hit is all it takes for Danish to go to the great vegetable patch in the sky. The difficulty is purely random though, so some days have been much, much harder than others.

Fortunately the quality of stages is largely up to par compared to previous Dadish games, perhaps a little lower due to the random nature of the locations. 

What is a little disappointing is that there are few attempts to take advantage of specific days, events, or celebrations.

On Valentine’s Day we were expecting a stage flooded with the lovestruck cupcakes that chase you for instance – but none were to be seen.

The amusing dialogue at the end of every stage between Dadish and his rescued child rarely reflects any special events either. 

It’s odd as the effort put into creating 366 levels (the leap year day has not been forgotten, we’re told) has clearly been gargantuan for indie developer Thomas K. Young – so not to go a small step further in this regard is a little surprising.

Ultimately Daily Dadish is a must buy for long-term fans though, and offers some enjoyable if hardly revolutionary platforming fun – in very small daily doses.

The post Daily Dadish [Switch] Review – Vegetable Patch-y? appeared first on Gamezebo.

Be it the accelerometer-tastic Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble on the Game Boy Color, or the scribble happy Kirby: Power Paintbrush for the DS. Even last year’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land was a mildly diverting step away from the norm for the series.

That norm, of course, revolves around the 2D titles starring Kirbs. It’s not too controversial to say these are generally very gentle platformers made for younger players – who find the antics of Mario, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi a touch too difficult.

And this latest title for the sucking pink monster – a remaster of Kirby’s Adventure on the Wii – does not buck that trend. Which is more than a little disappointing.

For those not in the know, Kirby is an all powerful protagonist – possibly one of the most overpowered in all of gaming. 

You can jump and then float indefinitely, and also inhale your foes and inherit their abilities. Often the abilities you gain are even more powerful than those shown by the enemy in the first place too. Wait, did we say ‘often’? We meant always.

This is one of our major issues with a game that looks great – the visuals are crisp, clear and colourful – and often has some interesting ideas. All these nice details are all but missed because everything is so easy to blunder your way through.

Taking damage is a mere annoyance rather than something that ever threatens your massive health bar emptying. So in turn you lose all interest, unless you happen to be under the age of five. 

Even the harder difficulty mode is only unlocked when you complete the game, and there are even options to simplify things further – such as the ability to turn off death via falling.

It makes it all feel like a demo showreel at times, and one extended to sometimes a painful length. 

Levels often lack any real flow, simply bounding from one set piece to another – or another simple A to B line where every enemy is simple cannon fodder to be breezed straight through. Even bosses – mini and main – can be beaten by mindless button mashing.

When it comes to level locations things can often feel a little lazy as well, with deserts, volcanos, and snow stages being rolled out with no major attempts to mix things up.

Even the title’s main selling point – that you can play it with up to four people in local co-op – makes matters even simpler. In fact it ruins the balance of the game even further, as there’s no increase in enemies or difficulty to compensate for the extra player/s.

It’s a shame because Kirby’s Return To Dream Land Deluxe is a well presented title that does have more ideas than most 2D platformers – but they’re presented in such a chaotic way that we can’t imagine anyone but the very young (and their parents) getting much enjoyment out of them.

The post Kirby’s Return To Dream Land Deluxe [Switch] Review – Does It Suck? appeared first on Gamezebo.

This was to be expected from developer Jeff Minter and Llamasoft though. The man behind Tempest 2000 and Revenge of the Mutant Camels was never going to create something straightforward.

Even the game’s origins aren’t simple. It’s a reimagining of an Atari coin-op arcade game that was never actually released to the public, and it’s not hard to see why it may have been a hard sell amongst the other cabinets around at the time.

It’s loosely related to many titles including Missile Command and Robotron: 2084. You control a turret in the middle of a small platform, and must fire bombs at enemies who can at best be described as, er, vague shapes.

Once one enemy explodes they create a secondary blast that slowly expands out in a circular radius – with the aim being to chain these explosions together.  

Larger foes can’t be destroyed by your bombs though, but can be with the bullets you get every time you take out a minor enemy.

You’re not technically controlling the turret however, but merely the cursor that aims the bombs. 

Another element that really confused us at first is that you’re placed on top of a lift – with a basement area that resides at the bottom. This is where your health is kept. If you do end up in this section you’re allowed to unleash a short range rapid-fire gun.

Levels have different objectives and tasks to complete, but Akka Arrh is ultimately a real mixed bag. There are times when it flows wonderfully, and you complete a massive almost never ending combo. Then times where you feel lost, a little bewildered, and ultimately frustrated.

It never feels as tightly designed as it should, and pales in comparison to other classic Minter works such as Tempest 2000.

Akka Arrh is worth investigating for hardcore shooter fans of course – it has a lot of visual appeal and is certainly something different. Everyone else may want to consider if they can truly handle this eclectic neon fever dream.

The post Akka Arrh [Switch] Review – Unbelievable Jeff appeared first on Gamezebo.

Perhaps as they’re looking to work not just well for gaming, but in fact everything you use headphones for. How successful are they in doing this? More than we expected, we’ll be honest.

In terms of connectivity they can pair with your phone, but there’s also a dongle provided so you can use them with your PC – and then there’s a low latency bluetooth mode too. Taps on the side of either earbud allows you to easily switch between Bluetooth and Lightspeed modes.

But what really sets these apart from its rivals are a feature called Lightform, which shape the earbuds to your ears – in practice giving you a custom fit to your ears, and your ears alone. 

In the box they’re not in the case either, but sealed inside another package entirely – this is because they’re sensitive to the atmosphere, and will harden before they have a chance to adjust to the shape of your ears. And yes, this is all a bit weird – but the final result is just about worth it. 

Boasting a thinner pill-shaped look, the Logitech G Fits are distinctly unusual looking – but in our opinion are not unpleasant, and once you’ve paired them to your phone (via a custom app) the process to create your custom fit begins.

The app you use to pair plays music during the process, as you adjust the buds until the sound is the loudest. It’s like an eye test, but for the ears. 

Once the moulding is complete, which is an odd process we won’t lie, we actually liked the feel of these. 

We have used them for a fair while now – several weeks now in fact – and found them useful for a range of purposes. For gaming and work they function well, but even when we did a rare bit of exercise they held firm and didn’t feel uncomfortable.

As for audio quality, these are neither top end nor bargain bin. The fact they’ve been designed for multiple uses perhaps means this is no surprise. They’re not as bass heavy as some of the other headphones we’ve reviewed on Gamezebo, and we actually found this worked better for games – which obviously made us happy when we were using them on our smartphone and then the Switch. The lack of noise cancellation was a shame however.

We briefly used these for voicechat in-game and they worked well though, even if the quality was much better when the Lightspeed dongle was used over a bluetooth connection.

Overall the Logitech G Fits are perhaps a little pricey considering the omission of certain functions – such as wireless charging and noise cancellation – but the Lightform element is far more than a gimmick, and the solid battery life mean these are a good choice if you’re looking for Headphones that can serve you while gaming but also elsewhere. 

 You can find the Logitech G Fits on the official Logitech site here.

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Released on Steam way back in 2016, the game doesn’t feel like a great fit for the Switch from the off. It’s a slightly grungy first person shooter title that asks its community to create levels and share them with other players, and isn’t hugely user friendly to those new to the genre.

Whether it’s been released on Nintendo’s system to revive a flagging userbase we don’t know, but it’s been priced smartly considering the age of the game (even if the Seismic DLC will cost you extra).

The aesthetics are very Quake 2, but perhaps even more basic than that – with large polygonal enemies and environments to explore and/or create.

There’s a range of modes – deathmatches, co-op, and solo campaigns – and it’s undeniable there’s a lot of content to get through here. The big question is whether any of it is any cop. And the answer is…some of it.

The core mechanics are not terrible. There’s a good range of weapons, the foes you’ll face all have fairly unique attack patterns, and there’s even some decent sound design to make things genuinely scary at times.

Sadly it just all feels a little clunky – whereas a tightly designed title such as Quake or even the original Doom do not. Where those games had mechanics that felt tightly screwed together, Gunscape feels more than a little loose.

Firing weapons never feels hugely satisfying, enemies never react in a particularly convincing way – despite their movements being genuinely creepy at times.

If you can jive with the slightly janky nature of Gunscape there’s a lot to enjoy here though. Emphasis on a lot, as there is stacks of content to get through.

A admirable attempt at opening up the world of FPS level creation to a wider audience, Gunscape is perhaps a little too grungy for complete newbies to the genre – and those more experienced at shooters might be better off simply learning how to use the likes of TrenchBroom.

The post Gunscape [Switch] Review – DIY FPS appeared first on Gamezebo.

A point and click style adventure about life in the 90s, it sees a boy called Atma who writes a bucket list of life ambitions with his girlfriend Raya while at school.

That seemingly inconsequential act has huge consequences though, including the potential end of the world. Oh and Raya has mysterious powers that allow her to bend reality. That’s an important note.

If that all sounds a tad melodramatic and faintly ridiculous, you’d be right. But the game leans into that so much it just becomes hugely charming and engaging – rather than mildly irritating.

There’s diving into people’s dreams to solve their problems, various mini-games, and even some mild dating sim gameplay via Atma and Raya’s relationship – including going to the cinema and petting the many cats that you encounter.

The game has an overarching story that focuses on mental health, but it’s done in such an unusual way it never feels like pandering. In fact it ends up being quite touching. 

In terms of presentation everything is spot on too, with the pixelart visuals feeling fresh instead of tired – and there are numerous playful nudges and winks towards games that the developers obviously grew up loving and playing to death.

There are numerous interesting puzzles that unfold because of the game’s unusual mechanics and set up, and it would be almost unfair to ruin any of them for you here.

We’d therefore recommend trying out A Space For The Unbound if you’re looking for something that’s clearly been made with love and passion – it’s hard not to be whisked away by its charms.

The post A Space For The Unbound [Switch] Review – Out of this World? appeared first on Gamezebo.

A Game Jam baby – in that it was created in a short time period against various other developers – it’s not an experience that will live long in the memory. But while you’re play it? It’s not half bad.

A single screen high score shooter, the main aim is to survive in a circular arena for as long as you can.  

Enemies teleport in and fire away at you, but getting hit by bullets doesn’t actually hurt you. To see the game over screen you only have to touch the edge of the arena.

So you can often be shot and thrown one way, but saved by a bullet hitting you in the opposite direction. Which happened to us quite a lot, we are not embarrassed to admit.

In fact sometimes we did feel we survived purely due to luck, but there’s just enough skill involved to keep you playing for a little while at least.

The visuals are simple, but the enemies are a varied bunch – with the crunchy audio design also adding to the fairly limited experience, making you feel like you’re always against the odds. Which to be fair, you are.

There’s very little else to say about Void Prison. It does what it wants to well, and we feel expanding the game out – to include co-op or competitive modes for example – may have gone against its Game Jam origins. 

Still what you’re left with is a game that’s a solid high score chaser with online leaderboards and a suitably low price tag. If you’re looking for something that will a scratch a very small itch then this could be worth a look. 

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