Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is a nifty little throwback to some of the early, really good first-person shooters. For those who don’t need a Wayback machine, this game has more than just a little bit in common with Doom and Quake. If you have never had the pleasure of playing those, they’re basically “monsters in a maze” games. You are set loose in a building, a town, or wherever, and there are objects hidden all over the place, monsters around every corner, tools and weapons to find, and, typically, a world to save. You may need to meet an objective (kill an enemy or find a key) before a door will open, but you are free to wander around the level.

As you wander about, you may notice that the imagery is fitting for the nature of the story. The graphics look like a slice of 2007—not bad at a distance, but obviously pixelated and flat up close. That isn’t really a hindrance for this game, so we’ll move on to the soundscape. Here, the game does a very good job of providing background music that’s evocative and, mercifully, doesn’t sound like 20 seconds stuck in a loop. The sound effects are well done; the footfalls are a bit generic, but not bad. As a whole, the looks and sounds are pretty good.

One gripe I have regarding the visuals centers on the text. To keep from having to translate recorded dialogue into a dozen languages, the game relies on text. I’m fine with reading, but the text appears for a programmed duration, then disappears. This, for me, is a significant negative. Like most games which rely on text to communicate to the player, once you get past the dialogue of the moment, you can’t revisit the text. So, if you look away to see what new thing the cat has knocked off the shelf, you may miss something important. The text is also a bit on the small side, but it’s easy enough to read, even in handheld mode.

The Isle of the Dead is the first level and includes some tutorial information. The game will guide you to a place where you get your fist weapon; then it will send the hordes of undead things your way—good luck! If you use the more difficult settings, be prepared to die quickly if you are not well versed in this type of game. On the flip side, if you start with the “easy” setting, there is a lot of empty castle to walk through, so pick your poison. There are a couple of benefits to starting on easy: you can get the lay of the land before hacking undead creatures to bits in a non-stop flurry of blood and body parts, and you can get a bit more comfortable with the controls and the monsters to make surviving a little bit easier (that is, possible).

It takes little while, but the game will eventually give you what’s called a Soul Tether. You can use this to create save points which can be handy for where you die a lot or where you need to complete a tricky jump without having to run through half the level again. The game also provides the obligatory health kits (a.k.a. vial of lifeblood), weapon and armor upgrades, and artifacts you can use.

As a reminder, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin has a maze layout, so don’t forget to check every hallway, door, room, etc. If you can’t jump a particular gap normally, you can get a boost from your special attack (ZL button) that provides a power thrust with your blade. It also sends you lurching forward in such a way that you can effectively jump twice as far as using the regular jump button. Speaking of buttons, the controls are laid out well and easy to use. Every button has a function, but there are no overly complex combinations to frustrate the gameplay.

Any gripes I may have about Wrath: Aeon of Ruin are minimal and can be overlooked without too much effort. It provides us seasoned gamers a bit of nostalgia, but it’s a good choice for anyone seeking a first-person shooter challenge with some decent replay value (go ahead, start at Outlander level—I dare you).

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Our game of the day is Biomutant, and, just from the title, I’m sure you all know where this is leading. Yes, as you already expect, there will be opportunities to experiment with mutations to upgrade our little hero. You don’t get to mutate everything at the start, but, as they say, getting there is half the fun.

Biomutant was not quite what I thought it might be based on the publisher: THQ Nordic. I have played games from this studio, and got to meet some of the nice folks from THQ back in the E3 days. Some of the story-based games I played were very well done, but this one is a 3D open world game more akin to the newer Zelda environments. I would like to say there are distinct good points and bad points, but it wouldn’t quite work. There are a few things which are easily classified, but there are more items which have, to quote a different GOTG character, “A bit of both.”

At first glance, the visuals are very well done. Some of the fine detail gets a bit sketchy when you get up close. Maybe that’s a Switch issue. There were some lovely tall grassy plants with wispy tops which looked great when our hero was about 10 in-game paces away. Once he got within a couple of paces, you can see the disconnected dots of color used to represent the feathery ends of the plant. It looked a bit like a Bob Ross painting of evergreen where he made a series of taps on the canvas. But in 3D games where things are in motion, the illusion starts to break down and our happy little tree seems a bit sad. Overall, the graphics are good and the world which has been built is populated with interesting things to look at, interact with, and occasionally hack, shoot, or beat to pulp. Fun, right?

When you start the game, you get to select some characteristics for your avatar. You can choose your preferred balance of traits like stamina, intelligence, agility, etc. You can also pick a fur type (color and pattern). As you make your way in this world, there are the typical missions and objectives to complete. You get to collect stuff you can use immediately and stuff you can save up to get new upgrades and mutations. I had hoped for a little more interaction in this open world platform, but the early stages seem to be mostly pre-planned paths with simple “get from point A to point B” instructions.

This is, in part, because the early stuff is a bit of a warm up. There are even some instructions provided to get the player used to the movement and attack mechanics. One of the good things/bad things is testing out the movement, parry, attack combinations with some opponents. Biomutant has a robust mixture of martial arts and gun-based combat, so it’s good to get some on the job training. It was a bit frustrating during training, however, to be defending yourself and whacking away at a boss only to watch them take no damage while you get no reminders of what you were supposed to learn from this situation.

The soundscape has some good background music and sound effects. Here, too, a good/bad is the narration of the story. The delivery is a mixed bag of a refined and clear voice delivering the lines along with a sort of predictable and less than engaging story.

Some of the creatures you get to battle over the course of the game—from little critters to big bosses—show a good sense of creativity visually. You get to play around with multiple mutations over time. Your abilities change along with your gear, so you can do more—and more interesting—things. You can even have a mount in the game so you don’t have to just walk around everywhere.

Some of the world has some nice territory to explore within the whole open-world framework, and there are also plenty of buildings to rummage through. These feel a bit like a simple dungeon crawl, only with less stuff with which to interact. After a dozen-or-so hours, things start to feel monotonous and occasionally pointless.

Thankfully, the controls are not overly complex, so the physical aspect of playing the game doesn’t become a serious distraction from the whole experience. The camera, however, could use better positioning to provide a more stable picture and reliable tracking, especially during combat.

I liked Biomutant, generally, but it feels the developers decided to skimp on some of the content and refinement to make a deadline. Biomutant seems to be about 80% of what it could and should be.

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As our regulars already know, I have mixed feelings about all the games for the Nintendo Switch which lean toward the retro, 8-bit graphics look. This game does it fairly well, so it is at least not annoying. There is good enough use of form, color, and definition that it looks OK. Cybertrash STATYX is a 2D platformer, so it uses plenty of timing-dependent jumps, runs, slides, etc., to keep your fingers moving at a pleasantly frenetic pace.

There is a story to be had, but it is nothing to write home about. The audio goes along with the visuals—20 years out of date, but it’s a tolerable package.

Cybertrash STATYX offers a tutorial with an interesting element. To help you learn how to run, jump, slide, etc., you start the game by following a friend who will give you advice (text bubbles) and tell you to try to keep up. It’s not the most sophisticated tutorial, but it does a fair job. Since you only have a 2D world to explore, the game relies on setting up some tortuous paths to navigate by using the aforementioned running, sliding, and jumping. (Anybody got “dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge” stuck in your head yet?)

You have to jump on things, execute a higher jump for taller things, slide to get under things, run and pause at just the right moment to not get shot by things, and so on. You get the obligatory shooting bad guys and working your way up to take on the boss rounds, as you would expect.

By now, you may be saying, “Hey, David, this is all well and good, but the review is sounding a bit lack-luster.”  I’m afraid you are correct in your assessment. Something bumped the table on which this house of cards was built, and it’s the movement controls.

Everything seems perfectly normal at first. The left analog stick moves you left and right. To slide, pull the left stick down and press the B button.

With me so far? Because now it gets interesting. To jump, press the B button (easy peasy); but to jump high, you will need to be moving and then pull the left stick down, press B to slide then press ZL.

And this is where things fell apart for me. I thought to myself that perhaps I am just not comfortable with this particular combination. Then I thought to myself that of all the platformers I have played, this is about the most awkward way to execute a high jump—or double-jump—I have ever used. Most other games keep it as easy as pressing the jump button twice, so I’m really at a loss as to why this game uses such an unnecessarily complicated way of doing something so important to the gameplay. This effectively spoiled my experience with the game.

I really wanted to enjoy Cybertrash STATYX, but it didn’t work out that way. The game feels like a solid “meh.” If you think the movement mechanics will annoy you, there are plenty of other similar games out there, and you should probably find one of those.

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In Reigns: Three Kingdoms, you have to make decisions to navigate the local political landscape. Along the way, you learn about the history and the people as you build a set of allies who appear as cards in your battle deck. The decision-making process is mechanically very easy; you swipe the dialogue card either left or right. Each direction will textually show you what your decision is and what your decision will mean for your standing in the game.

There are four statistics meters at the top of the screen. These represent your wealth (material resources), popularity (with the common folk), might (military strength), and virtue. The game lets you know, very early, that the best situation is to keep all four aspects in balance. Indeed, if you let one of these get all the way to zero or all the way to maximum, you die. If you get too bad at something, you are a target. If you get too good in these areas, well, let’s just say Emperors are not known for how much they love competition. Watch your back.

Your stats will decrease or increase based on how you answer questions or react to situations put to you by the friendly faces on the cards you are dealt. This is where the game plays on your human nature. Most people don’t like to come off as being a massive jerk, so they will answer like a nice-guy or in a way which may sound like a logical, reasonable solution that should be good for everyone. Unfortunately for you, altruist, answering in this way will make you very popular with the people. This will quickly max your popularity score, which will get you (even more quickly) killed.

Sometimes, you just need to be the jerk to stay alive—at least in this game.

Once you have answered a few questions and encountered some folks, you get to add the recruits to your deck of allies. Sooner or later, you will face an opponent, and then the fighting begins. Your followers will appear as cards to be used in a turn-based combat scene. Each card will have two stats on it—an up-arrow indicates how much damage that card will do to an opponent, and a heart displays how many hit points that card has before it is out of commission for the current battle. Combat strategy is just as important as the  decision-making part of the game. The card which represents your character will show up in the battle deck. You don’t have a lot of hit points, and, at the start of combat, you don’t do much damage. On the other hand, you gain 1 point of damage for every turn you fight, so you have to weigh your options.

When you die (and you will do this a lot), you will find yourself in the tender care of Synaptic Insight Technology Systems. I can hear you saying “Whoa! That doesn’t sound at all like something from the Han Dynasty of ancient China!” You are quite right. Where you really are is in a lab at Synaptic, getting your consciousness zapped back in time and plunked into one of your ancestors. This allows you to live out scenarios so Synaptic can collect data. Welcome to the game, lab rat!

The upside is that when you die after cheezing off the emperor, the commoners, the army, the nobles, or whoever else feels you need to die, you simply wake up in the lab and get sent back into a new body to try again. Unlike the situation in Edge of Tomorrow, you don’t get to relive the exact same day over and over. You will be faced with new decisions and new encounters, so you will have to learn what kind of decision combinations will give you the best chance at survival.

All things considered, Reigns: Three Kingdoms is a pretty good game. The stylized visuals are well done. The game has some interesting story and human interaction elements. You will need to employ strategy, so it isn’t just a walk in the park—there is some challenge to be had. As I write this review, the game can be purchased at the Nintendo website for $2.99, so there is very good value for money here, as well. As you make real progress, the game opens new options and can put you on the path to ruling several regions.

So, even better than three, right?

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The game’s premise is that you are a young noble being groomed to lead a kingdom. You will get some guidance, but you have to learn to make your own decisions quickly. This means you also get to deal with consequences just as quickly.

Rising Lords is a turn-based strategy set in a sort of Middle Ages Europe society. The game looks the part, with different types of scenery presented to the player. There is the world map and there are action cards. The world map (a hex grid playing field) has some nice design elements, but it is more rudimentary.

There is a good level of detail, and you don’t have to squint through overly pixelated graphics to tell what you are seeing. There is not a grand level of variety in the imagery; with only a few shapes for the trees and terrain, they get repeated in obvious patterns. This isn’t so bad, considering the type of game with which we are dealing.

Speaking of the game grid, Rising Lords offers you control of how obvious the grid lines are. It may not be the handiest thing in the world, but it can help the player keep track of spaces into which you can or can’t move. The cards for the combat rounds are a little more detailed and look rather nice.

On the other side of the visual department is the overall viewability. There are text tips and other details which are so small in handheld mode that they are almost unusable. The best, and almost only, way to play this one is on the TV. You will need the text, especially in the tutorial stage, so save yourself the eye strain and play in docked mode.

Game audio is usually quite important for me, and Rising Lords provides a balanced soundscape with no real bad spots. However, there is nothing about the soundscape which really shines. It is a case of “done well enough”.

Whether playing through the single-player campaign or online multiplayer, gameplay is a mixed bag. To keep the hexagonal turn-based combat interesting, you have to play some social politics with things like how many food rations the peasants get per day, what sort of structures the town builds, and how many people you throw at the bears to drive them away. Every decision you make will shape the ability of your mini-kingdom and its population, as well as how high or low the morale of the people will be. If the morale gets too low, you may be looking at a revolt—and those don’t usually end well for the ruler at the top (which is you, of course). If you can manage to keep people happy, continue to build your army, and collect enough resources, you can set out to bring other towns into your kingdom in a grand effort to unite the whole region under the benevolent rule of one person: you.

The game provides a few ways to accomplish your goals. You have to build farms, mills, smithies, and so on. You need these to make food and weapons and grow the size of your town so you can improve your workforce and your army. There is also a resource management element to the game. Not only do you need new types of buildings to make different things, you have to decide on how much food to give the people, how many people to dedicate to making resources, how many people to conscript into the military, and so on.

Once you decide to take on a neighboring kingdom, the game switches into a turn-based combat system driven by a deck of action cards. I have played a few games of this type and, if they are well done, they can be good fun. This one is a bit middling, but the card-based battles work.

The biggest issue I have with gameplay is the developers seem to have crammed too many types of playing styles into one title. There is also some clunkiness with the controller and option selection. There are things you use a pointer to select and there are things you use an options wheel to select.

The Joy-Con controls can be a bit lively, which makes selecting something small a bit more difficult than it should be. The game does offer a two-button solution to slow the cursor movement for more precise selection, but I would prefer if this wasn’t necessary in the first place.

Finally, the tutorial could also be a bit better. There are places where it tells the player to go do a thing, but it doesn’t tell you fully how to do that thing.

As a whole, Rising Lords is a moderately good turn-based strategy game. There is some story going on, so it isn’t just blind action. The visuals are good, and there is plenty of detail to manage so you get a good amount of play time. The controls can be a bit clunky, however, and the multiple gameplay mechanics can start to feel a bit too busy. That’s a shame, because the complexity will make it difficult to find others to play online.

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As you can tell by now, Kickback Slug doesn’t take itself very seriously, and that is one of its strengths. This game falls into the fun bucket of a little challenge wrapped in a lot of levity.

The visuals are rather cartoon-like. There is a pleasant use of color and form, and the graphics are smoothly rendered. There is enough detail to provide all the context you need, but not so much that it takes your attention away from your goal. Don’t forget, you are a space slug, so it should come as no surprise that the rest of the elements in the game are just as whimsical. There are some floating beach ball creatures with eyes all over you can shoot. I’d liken them to a beholder, but they are far too silly for that.

There are caves and trees and all sorts of other terrain and obstacles you need to navigate as well.

Speaking of navigating, this is an important part of the game play. Nobody expects a slug to be very fast, so you need some help. You have a blaster pistol with settings for regular shot and cannon shot. The regular shot will not only allow you to shoot the baddies or activate switches, it’ll also propel you a short distance in the direction opposite of where the barrel is pointing. The cannon shot will also damage the baddies and move you, but it moves you further. However, it fires fewer times per minute.

There is a third option for moving: the jet function. As with the other means of getting around, you need to point your pistol in the direction you want to apply thrust. If you point the piston straight down, you will jet straight up. Gravity is in play, so you have to be careful jetting around with all the spiky bits lying about, ready to ruin your day.

The gameplay isn’t overly complex, but it does require concentration and a little skill. Getting through each level may not be as easy as you think, but the levels are meant to be replayed, and the action doesn’t get bogged down by rehashing a long winded backstory. There is a bit of a story (or, at least some humorous background) which is relatable to anyone who has worked for a delivery company…or just about anywhere in corporate America, really.

Kickback Slug: Cosmic Courier is ultimately just an obstacle course with some puzzle elements (actuating switches to access new areas, etc.). Collect the parcels, beat the clock, survive long enough to get to the next area. Lather, rinse, repeat. It may not sound like much, but it does tick off a few things which, to me, make a game fun to play.

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Let’s start with what may be the strongest aspect of the game: the story. Picking up where Gothic ended, you are back from the dead (insert Spinal Tap reference here), and you need to renew your quest to save the world. This time, it isn’t about some prisoners under a dome; there is something bad coming, and you have to stop it. On the up-side, there is a grand story with characters, plots, and a bunch of incidental stuff. On the down-side, it is all a bit predictable.

Gothic II Complete Classic provides you with a healthy dose of background and preparation information in the opening dialogue with the wizard, Xardas. When you die and start over, however, you can’t skip this  dialogue. Additionally, the voice acting hasn’t gotten any better since the first episode, so it is rather uninspiring. As you wander through the game, you can interact with many NPCs and glean bits of information. The information gathering is slow and often not very helpful, which dulls the game experience a bit.

Next up are the graphics. While the imagery is a little bit better looking than the previous installment, it is only a very little bit better. The visuals are still a bit too angular relative to the technology, and the game still looks like it was really good…twenty years ago. I get that this is a Switch port of an older game, but it would be nice to see it cleaned up a bit.

There is still plenty of walking through solid objects. The game also has a very unfortunate habit regarding the camera angle. I had rather a rough time trying to keep the point of view in one relative position. As I was wandering in the castle, the camera angle would drift up or down with a will of its own. It is relatively easy to reset, but having to babysit the camera so you can see where you are going became frustrating.

The soundscape is next on the agenda. As with other elements, we have a mixed bag here. Some of the audio, like the background music, is well done and enjoyable. The sound effects, however, are a bit shallow, repetitive, and too often annoying. One thing I found particularly unpleasant is the sound of our hero’s boots on the stone floor of the castle. It is far too “clacky” for me, and the way the game registers footfalls, which triggers the sound effect, is twitchy. A simple quarter turn to look at something can yield a brief flurry of clicky footfalls where, in reality, we might expect a shuffle and a single tap. Some of the other sound effects are similarly disappointing. Overall, the soundtrack does help make up a lot of ground, so the audio isn’t completely tragic.

Let’s talk about combat. You start with a very basic weapon, and you have to collect, trade, and purchase your way to better gear. What the game doesn’t provide is any kind of instruction on how to equip or use your gear. I get it—this is a sequel. But sometimes people start in the middle of the series, so some basics are always called for.

Another reason to have a quick review of equipping and using your weapons is that almost everything and everyone in this world is likely to take a crack at killing you, so you need to be armed and ready. Even in the very beginning, there are wolves, bandits, and mutant mosquitoes which can kill you rather quickly. It is actually one of the more discouraging facets of the game, it’s a bit too easy to get killed early on. Gothic II could use a lower grade difficulty ramp. The movement is also wonky enough to make getting and staying on target during combat a bit tricky (which, of course, gets you dead quickly).

There is still a heroic story to be had, plenty of baddies to destroy, battles to fight, and a world to save in Gothic II Complete Classic. There are plenty of game elements to manage to keep you busy for a while, and the open world exploration helps to keep it loose and relaxed. However, there are plenty of other RPG action options which will look, sound, and play better. I have played some really great games from THQ Nordic, but this title needs some work.

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Let’s see what we do have here. The visuals are going for the retro 8 Bit thing, and they do it reasonably well. The graphics are pixelated and mostly dark (given the theme of the story, it’s appropriate). But there are splashes of color, and it’s easy enough to distinguish what things are supposed to be. Since most of the baddies are aliens, it doesn’t matter much what they look like; this is a game which follows the old mantra: “If it moves, shoot it.”

Speaking of moving around, the controls are pretty easy; you can use either the direction buttons or the left stick. All you have to worry about is up, down, left, right. There is no running, no jumping, no ducking, no hiding—just keep moving to avoid being hit, and keep shooting. There are sometimes obstacles in your path, so the range of movement might be limited. Be careful or you could get yourself stuck in a bottleneck that can lead you to taking extra hits. As you probably anticipated, you only get a limited number of hit points, so you have to be a bit careful. The first few rounds are pretty easy, so there isn’t much worry there. After things get a bit more hectic, the game will drop first aid kits. These will restore you to full hit points, but they don’t hang around forever. Be judicious about picking them up (just touch them to use them).

Now, let’s talk about the music, because we have to have music as we slay the hordes of aliens and undead. The developers said this game has a heavy metal soundtrack, and they are technically correct. The music is well done, it’s high energy, and it doesn’t take your attention off the game play, which could get you dead. Depending on your personal tastes in music, the soundtrack is not so metal as to be off-putting to most gamers, but metal enough to appeal to those of us who like our tunes a bit heavy. It’s most akin to epic metal, but nowhere near thrash. Those who know the metal family tree might start nodding…and maybe throwing horns ( |,,| ).

Now we get down to the heart of the thing: gameplay. Evil Diary has very few elements; it really is just move up, down, left, right, and shoot stuff while avoiding taking damage. It is very basic but satisfying in its purity. It also isn’t very difficult, but you do have to pay attention. There are no weapon enhancements or other upgrades you see in a lot of games of this type. The game does offer a few power-ups (like the lightning bolt which, if you get to it in time, will make you invulnerable for a few seconds), but there don’t seem to be any permanent improvements to your situation upon which you can build. There are some between-level shootouts where you just have to hit the fire button as fast as possible to kill the alien before it gets to you. At one point, as you try to escape the city, you get to ride a motorcycle and shoot things.

You only get to go in one direction, so you are limited in movement. You can purchase a new skin and go from blonde to red-head to chainsaw duck (I guess it’s a thing), but cosmetic upgrades lack any real draw for me.

All things considered, Evil Diary is a bit of fun. At press time, Evil Diary is on sale in the Nintendo eShop for $3.99. It’s worth it at that price point, but be aware that Evil Diary is a bit shallow as gaming experiences go.

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Just so we don’t get off on the wrong foot, I can say the game is still playable even if it’s dated. I’m sure it was really interesting when it came out, but time has not been very kind over the past 20 years. Gothic is an open world concept where you can choose from three “camps” to which you can ally yourself.

You can choose to interact with NPCs and the environment, or you can skulk around and avoid anything which looks like it may be dangerous. In the beginning, however, everything is dangerous, so a bit of caution is not a bad thing.

In this world, there is an area which was sealed off by magicians to protect the mining of a valuable ore. Something went sideways, and the area has become a dumping ground for felons. You can get in, but you can’t get out; if you try, the magic kills you quickly. Since you are in here, as well, it’s safe to say you were caught being naughty. Getting tossed in was your punishment. You do have a mission, so there is a faint hope of gaining favor and maybe, possibly, someday getting out.

As you wander around this terrarium of an open world, you get to make friends, kill things before they kill you, collect stuff, upgrade your gear, and so on. The original developers provided a game with some interesting story elements, a few somewhat memorable characters, and a place where you can, more or less, wander around wherever you like.

You can shop for gear, join a guild with the diggers (miners) or shadows (thieves), or just hang out with your new buddy, Mud. By the way, Mud is one of the aforementioned “memorable” NPCs. He’s memorable primarily because he’s The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon-level annoying, just nowhere near as smart.

Once you can manage to collect enough stuff to start bartering for better gear, you will, slowly, get harder to kill. There is a classic inventory management system and weapon wield mechanics which will be familiar to most seasoned gamers.

There is an overarching story you can experience in this game. There are bad guys to kill, beasts to roast, stuff to buy, and NPCs to talk to.

Unfortunately, thus ends the happy portion of my experience with this iteration of Gothic, as there are a plethora of little to not-so-little things which were off-putting. Some of the minor irritations include the soundscape. The sound effects are limited and, when heard on repeat, can be a bit annoying. The dialogue is a bit predictable, but some of it is necessary to walk you through the narrative. The acting is not exactly top shelf so interacting with the NPCs can be a bit of a slog.

As you walk around the camp, you will hear snippets of conversation. If you stand still in one spot for a minute you get about 10 sentence fragments which repeat (slightly randomized), but these may as well be just random, non-speech sounds. The game takes into account the time of day and, if you are walking in the appropriate direction, the sun gets in your eyes. The glare effect is a bit overdone, making other parts of the game seem unduly dark.

The moderately annoying part is the graphics. The looks are a bit too faceted-looking. There are also places where you can see through buildings and terrain. I was leaving a room and talking with an NPC in the doorway and noticed my avatar’s arm was 2D and I could see through the door frame. This is a bit distracting and not what we expect from modern Switch releases.

The most annoying part was the janky manner in which the game responds to the Joy-Con inputs. Moving around is a bit clumsy and clunky, and the game has a hard time staying centered on the object of your ire when you are engaged in combat. Mercifully, the AI controlling the object of your ire is a bit slow, so you have a fighting chance when fighting.

Additionally, there is very little finesse to the combat; as long as you keep pounding on the ”attack” button, you can get the job done. You can also move through some of the “solid” objects in the game, and even stand in the middle of a fire pit without taking damage.

All things considered, Gothic Classic is worth getting only if you want to relive the past on your new gaming rig, if you want to finish an old title you didn’t finish before, or if you are a die-hard fan of this style of game from the early aughts. If your desire is to experience a good open-world adventure on your Nintendo Switch, there are several other titles more worthy of your time and your coin. The current cost of Gothic Classic in the Nintendo eShop is $29.99. At this cost, you can readily find something better.

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Gravity Oddity is an adventure game where you wander around spaceships and space stations blasting enemy defenses, teleporting, floating and flitting about using your jet pack, and so on. You also have to do your best to not get killed by the myriad things which exist to do only one thing: kill you. See, I told you it would be interesting.

Fortunately, the game does give you a good tutorial where you learn how to move about, to jump off the bulkhead and use your jetpack to reach new places, to use your teleport gun to get somewhere or through something, and to use your weapons to zap enemies before they zap you.

The whole moving around part is simple—just use the L-stick. This is a 2D game, so you only need to worry about X and Y axis stuff. If there is a locked door, or no door, the transition from walking on the floor to walking up the wall is automatic. This also leads to an interesting problem; if you need to go through a door and then down, but you are walking on the ceiling, you will need to remember to get your feet back on the floor first or it’s up the hall you go. Don’t forget, you have the option to either jump away or to teleport. It may seem a little overkill, but it gets the job done.

Shooting things get interesting, too. This is outer space, so, of course, you get a blaster. The game provides a nice LASER pointer-like line to use with your teleport gun, which also works well for targeting with your other weapons. Be careful, though; you will use the Joy-Con to aim, and it is very touchy. The game also has some new things you pick up along the way, including a lively special attack which can disable enemy shields and stun things so you can take a nice clean shot at them with your blaster. All things considered, it’s a nice bit of kit to have.

As you probably already expect, you can also modify your character (skin color, number of eyes, spacesuit color, etc.). This isn’t strictly necessary, but it is a bit of fun. Space Oddity, while not a walk in the park, still enjoys a bit of whimsy.

After completing the tutorial, you get down to the real gameplay. By “real,” I mean there are a lot of things shooting at you and you need to get moving.

The game doesn’t exactly jump in without a shark cage, but it doesn’t exactly slow-walk you through the whole thing, either. Yes, this translates into, “I died on the first level on my first run-through.” For the gamers out there with the fine-touch twiddle fingers, you should be fine. For those of us who are used to implementing a bit more travel when using a controller, the touchy aiming thing can bite you fast. Be ready to put in a little practice.

The only weird points of this game include such minor things as the character’s face not necessarily pointing in the direction you’re walking when you change directions. The sounds played while the text appears on the screen is a bit bleepy (you’ll know what I mean as soon as you hear it). Finally, some of the text needs vocabulary/grammar help. Otherwise, most things are fine.

Gravity Oddity is silly enough to appeal to the younger gamers, and challenging enough for those younger gamers to embarrass their parents when they try to play. The parents can still enjoy the challenge as well, and while away some time on the quest to find the lost roommate and save the day. Either way, this is a fun little game.

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