On almost every level, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a delight. Its art style begs for your attention at every turn and I couldn’t get enough of the Echoes system, always eager to explore new combinations to overcome the next challenge. Given the dramatic shift that Breath of Wild brought to the series, Echoes of Wisdom feels like the perfect answer in kind for the top-down Zelda titles, expanding the gameplay in a whole new way whilst maintaining the core look of the franchise so that existing fans don’t feel too isolated. It may have taken a long time for Zelda to star in the leading role, but for it to finally come about in Echoes of Wisdom, the wait was most certainly worth it.
With a fast-paced and addictive gameplay loop, not to mention a solid amount of multiplayer content to keep things feeling fresh, I can see myself coming back to NWC: NES Edition time and time again, even if it’s just to shave a millisecond from my reigning records.
While the game suffers from a lack of 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is still tons of fun to play, keeping younger gamers entertained with its accessible gameplay whilst older players will find tons of collectables and an exciting multiplayer mode to keep them occupied.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door may not be anywhere near as ambitious as other modern remakes such as Final Fantasy 7 and Resident Evil 4, but it didn’t really need to be. This is a fantastic and faithful remake for the Nintendo Switch, with enhanced visuals and reworked music breathing new life into this GameCube classic.
Princess Peach: Showtime! is a great option for young children who want a casual collectathon to sink their baby teeth into without fear of any difficulty spikes halting their progress. The variety of stages and abilities also helps to keep the experience fresh, while simultaneously never becoming so complicated to prove intimidating or confusing. That said, a lot of the inventive mechanics do feel undeveloped, lacking the required time to be fully explored. The low difficulty ceiling, even with collecting every single collectible, will likely put off older gamers – especially with the likes of Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Yoshi’s Crafted World doing a greater job of pleasing multiple audiences.
Super Mario RPG is a gorgeous reimagining of the SNES classic thanks to the highly detailed 3D animations. Those looking for a dose of nostalgia will be pleased that this is an extremely faithful remake, with just enough tweaks to make it more accessible to a new generation of gamers without diluting the magic of the original.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a condensed version of the modern Assassin’s formula. That may disappoint some who hoped for something that felt new while also significantly harkening back to the series’ past. Stealth does get a boost, alongside occasional engaging narrative and characters, but there’s plenty of padding that dampens the fun.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a fantastic addition to the franchise. Every level is bursting with personality and the fantastical new power-ups and abilities offer a lot more motivation to look further into every nook and cranny. The characters are a joy to control and all the platforming elements feel seamless. The Wonder Flowers are a very welcome addition, adding a lot more dimension to what I would previously call a very cookie-cutter experience. The only downside – if you can really call it that – is that Wonder can’t exactly stand alongside its peers in terms of storytelling or sheer size. Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t break the mould for 2D platformers, but it has built upon what came before wonderfully and I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a calm, cosy experience on the Switch.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is exactly what you want from a sequel, building upon the web-swinging traversal and thrilling combat with numerous upgrades, while also making the most of the PS5's cutting-edge hardware for improved visuals and instantaneous loading. The story is excellent too, with one of the best on-screen adaptations of Venom to date. If you're a Spider-Man fan, this is an essential purchase for PS5 owners.
Starfield is an excellent RPG in the same mould as Skyrim and Fallout, but with a sci-fi spin. It features a deep skill tree and rewarding side quests to eat up your free time, as well as fantastic gunplay. But it hasn’t quite reached the high expectations for space exploration, with technical limitations and countless bland planets making the journey into the stars a rather mundane one.
