Lethal League Blaze (Switch eShop) Review

Title: Lethal League Blaze
Platform: Nintendo Switch eShop
Developer: Team Reptile
Publisher: Team Reptile
Release Date: July 12th, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 631MB

Review copy provided by Team Reptile

Here’s something with style and grace that features a yellow guy with a funny face! This is a cel-shaded “fighting” game that’s very much inspired by the Dreamcast. The team even got former Sega composer Hideki Naganuma on board to contribute a single track; Ain’t Nothing Like A Funky Beat! This is certainly a unique game. Let’s take a look shall we?

Rise: Race The Future (Switch eShop) Review

Title: Rise: Race The Future
Platform: Nintendo Switch eShop
Developer: VD-dev
Publisher: VD-dev
Release Date: July 22nd, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 1.7GB

Review copy provided by VD-dev

VD-dev, a developer basically consisting of just two men; Fernando Velez and Guillaume Dubail, hence VD-dev. The two originally worked under Atari/Infogrames and made many Game Boy and Game Boy Advance versions of (more commonly) racing games, such as the V-Rally series, and Driv3r. Their games would push those systems like none had ever done before (even Shin’en might’ve broken a sweat looking from a distance). On DS they would only make one game; C.O.P. The Recruit, which was basically an actual 3D Grand Theft Auto clone, unheard of on the system. On 3DS they would also make only one game; an original IP called Ironfall: Invasion, which was a Gear of War-esc 3rd-person shooter.

Then back on May 31st, 2016, they would announce their biggest project yet. Their first ever multi-platform game that was scheduled to launch on basically every platform at the time (including NX!); Rise: Race The Future. This is a racing game with futuristic-esc cars more or less. But, I can’t continue with the review without addressing the elephant in the room. Just two months later on July 22nd, 2016, Fernando Velez passed away. He was the programming mastermind of the two (Guillaume was more the 3D artist and designer going by what I’ve researched). Obviously this put the whole company into question since the V in VD-dev was gone. Eventually Guillaume hired Frédéric Zimmer (who previously worked at Ubisoft and Neko Entertainment, and just before on Ironfall Invasion) to takeover Fernando’s position. Rise: Race The Future credits both Fernando and Frédéric as the Lead Programmers. With that, let’s look at Fernando Velez’s last project; Rise: Race The Future.

Super Neptunia RPG (Switch) Review

Title: Super Neptunia RPG
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Artisan Studios/Compile Heart
Publisher: Idea Factory International
Release Date: June 25th, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 3.2GB

Review copy provided by Idea Factory International

This is a spin-off of the Hyperdimension Neptunia JRPG series that was created by Compile Heart and Idea Factory. In an interesting twist, this is made by Artisan Studios, a new Quebec City in Canada-born studio. Where prior games were 3D, this is exclusively a 2D game. This is also the series’ debut on a Nintendo console after being PlayStation-exclusive (with occasional PC ports) for so long. How does this game fare on Switch? Let’s find out!

New Super Monkey Ball game rated in Taiwan for Switch/PS4/PC

The wait for a new Super Monkey Ball game may finally be nearly over. The Taiwan rating board have recently put up a rating listing for a new Super Monkey Ball game for Switch, PS4, and PC whose title (現嚐好滋味！超級猴子球) seems to translate (via Google Translate) from Chinese as Now Taste Good! Super Monkey Ball. There’s also a Japanese title in the rating (たべごろ！スーパーモンキーボール) that translates to the similar The food is great! Super Monkey Ball.

To locate this on the Taiwan rating site, simply copy and paste either the Chinese or the Japanese names above (without the brackets) into the search bar you see, and viola! Here are the images of the full rating (on Switch) and the list showing the platforms for your convenience and in case they get taken down anyway:

Are you looking forward to seeing what this game will be? Have you played any prior entry? Let me know in the comments below! 😀

 

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Switch) Review

Title: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Beenox
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: June 21st, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 5.8GB

Review copy provided by Activision

After making his grand return with a remake of his original trilogy of games on PS1, Crash Bandicoot returns again, this time with a remake of not just Crash Team Racing on PS1 itself, but also with content returning from Crash Nitro Kart, and later on from Crash Tag Team Racing. How does this fare? How does it compare to other kart racers, as well as being its own thing? Let’s find out!