Monopoly for Nintendo Switch: Demo Review

Seeing as I had recently gotten back into playing traditional board games, I was curious to try out the Nintendo Switch version of the most classic board game of all, Monopoly.  Surely most people are familiar with this game, where you buy property, try to get a monopoly by owning all property of a single color, then build houses and hotels to increase the amount of money your opponents owe you whenever they land on your spaces.  While Monopoly is one of my favorite board games, I went into the demo with low expectations because I feel like physical games lose a lot of their charm once they enter the digital realm.  So perhaps my opinion of this demo was a bit biased from the start…

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain: Demo Review

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is one of those educational games similar to Brain Age that help you to exercise your brain with a variety of activities that challenges your mental prowess in five categories: identify, memorize, analyze, compute, and visualize.  The demo includes three mini games.  Whack Match challenges you to whack moles with the matching picture, Balloon Burst requires you to pop balloons from the lowest value to the highest, and Shadow Shift asks you to match the objects with their shadows.

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics: Demo Review

Considering Mother Duck and I have accumulated a small collection of physical games to play in recent months, I thought it would also be fun to try out a digital collection of physical games called Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics for the Switch.  While the full game has, well, 51 games, the demo contains four, Connect Four, dominoes, a card game called President, and slot cars, which featured three tracks. 

Favorite Games Meme (Created by Ry-Spirit)

It took me a while, but I wanted to do this Favorite Game Meme thing that Ry-Spirit (from Deviant Art) did a little while back, and I wanted to post it here on my blog…as no one ever really looks at my journal entries on DA.  Anyway, the images used are a mixture of my own screenshots, an image I found on the Nintendo site, and game covers I got from Wikipedia.  And if you’re interested in filling this out yourself, here is the link to the original post.

This took way longer than I expected…

Kaze and the Wild Masks Playthrough on Virtual Bastion

Kaze and the Wild Masks is a 2D platformer with clear inspiration from such retro classics as Donkey Kong Country!  Kaze must save her friend Hogo from a curse as she journeys across the Crystal Islands with help from the Wild Masks!

Video from YouTube User: Virtual Bastion

Arietta of Spirits: Demo Review

Arietta of Spirits follows the story of Arietta and her family as they visit the island where her grandmother once lived before her recent passing.  The demo covers a short jaunt into the woods to gather apples for dessert, which includes a boss fight against a giant bee.  According to the game’s official description, Arietta eventually gains the ability to talk to spirits around the island, and the game supposedly has an emotional story and “no-filler gameplay”.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Demo Review

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a relaxing puzzle game that was released on the Wii U, 3DS, and Switch.  The titular Captain Toad can explore various floating environments that you can view from various angles, with the goal of collecting three gems and a star, alongside one other optional task, like finding the golden mushroom or collecting a certain number of coins.

Aspire: Ina’s Tale Could Have Been So Much More

Aspire: Ina’s Tale is a short and simple puzzle game about a girl who must escape from the Tower.  Along the way, you gain several “spirits” that allow you to solve puzzles.  These spirits are: energy (for powering things), movement (for moving objects horizontally or vertically), and magnitude (for making objects bigger and smaller). 

I and Me: Demo Review

I and Me is an obscure puzzle game for which I could find very little information.  You control two cats who move in unison with each other, and the goal is to figure out how to get both of them into these…boxes?  Picture frames?  Playing demos has exposed me to games of a wide range of quality, from impressive games from both indie and large companies alike to games whose best feature is the fact that I didn’t actually pay for them.  Unfortunately, I and Me falls into that latter category.

The Gardens Between Playthrough on Virtual Bastion

The Gardens Between tells the bittersweet story of two friends, Arina and Frendt, who find themselves on a series of islands representing their memories where time can flow in both directions.

Video from YouTube User: Virtual Bastion