REVIEW: Pinball Freedom on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

The pinball table is one of the oldest games around, and almost as soon as computers were invented, we have video game pinball. So whether you are a younger gamer or a more mature gamer like myself, we all know and have played Pinball games.

The latest game to want to grab your attention is Pinball Freedom, this is very much a simulation of real Pinball tables, you can even walk around the room while you choose which table to play next.

There are 5 tables to choose from, each with their own theme. Sci-fi, Fairy-tale, BMX, Skate Park and my favourite Chill Panda's Adventure.

There are a few viewpoints to choose from when you play, and gameplay itself is pretty straight forward, press A to launch the ball, and then use the bumper buttons on your controller to activate the paddles. Keep the ball in play as long as possible and try to get as high of a score as possible so to get to the top of the all-important leader board.

The Good

Nice selection of tables, all unique and easy to play. Graphics are clear and well defined so easy to follow your ball as it zooms around the table.

The Bad

The playable viewpoints are all in set positions and although you have a few to choose from, I would have liked a free camera option to set the viewpoint in what would be the perfect position for me.

Overall

A simple, straightforward Pinball simulation, good tables to play, and as is always the case in Pinball games, that leader board is always calling you to play one more time to get the high score.

I score Pinball Freedom on Nintendo Switch a solid 7/10

Out now at https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Pinball-Freedom-2192461.html

REVIEW: Matchpoint - Tennis Championships on XBOX

Review by Jon Donnis

Matchpoint - Tennis Championships is the latest tennis game out there to try and grab your attention, released to coincide with Wimbledon, and try and pick up your casual fan as well as your tennis gamers, the first thing you will notice when you start playing is that this is a proper tennis simulation.

Everything looks incredible, the graphics are amazing. (Some of the close ups not so great)

Now if like me you are a fan of Virtua Tennis games, you need to quickly get that out of your head, as the controls are slightly different, and at first I struggled a bit with the characters as I was trying to play, I jumped straight into a quick game, and you will soon learn that everything is about precision, positioning the player, but most importantly where you are going to play the ball, once you have positioned your player and chose the shot type out of top spin, flat, lob or slice shot, a small black circle appears which you have then got to quickly put in the place where you want the ball to go. All of this needs to be done in quick order. And despite at first feeling a bit overwhelmed, I was surprised how quickly I then figured it out.

Of course, jumping straight into a quick game is not always the smartest thing to do, luckily there is a tutorial mode, which I should have tried first. This helps explain the game mechanics, gives you practice shots and talks you through everything you need to know to get you feeling solid on the basics of play.

There is your usual career mode, which you will want to get started on, as this delivers the main focus of the game. Create your character, choose your clothes, rackets and so on. As you play through career mode you can unlock special equipment and so on. 

There are training modes and a coaching system that will allow you to build up your characters strengths and lower your weaknesses.

The game features 16 real-life tennis superstars including Nick Kyrgios, Kei Nishikori and Amanda Anisimova, as well as official branding from their sponsors, so you will see Nike, Yonex and Babolat etc.

You can play online or local against real life opponents, and there are even some mini games to have some fun with.

The Good

Once you get used to the controls, the game is fun to play, the career mode has good depth, and in general this is top quality tennis game.

At the start the opponents will feel tough to beat, but this really is a game about practice, you need to watch your opponents, learn their movements, and before you know it you will be dragging them around the court to where you want them to be, so you can play that winning shot.

The Bad

Only 16 real world players in the game is a disappointment, I understand licencing players costs money, but would still have been nice to have had a full selection of new and legend players to choose from. The sound effects are also not the best.

Overall

If the developers can bring updates to the game, new players, and updated commentary, sound effects etc, then the game can become great. If this is the finished article, then the game is still good and brings enough to impress any tennis fan, but I just feel like it could do better.

I score Matchpoint - Tennis Championships on XBOX a solid 7/10

Out now at https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/matchpoint-tennis-championships/9p66ggsjr71m

REVIEW: Dragon Forge on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

Dragon Forge is an incremental base building adventure game, you start the game as a young dragon, and you have to uncurse areas, build factories, gather resources and expand.

Main gameplay involves gathering resources like wood, charcoal, food, stone etc. You build factories which are automated, with the help of little Goblin Minions. Once you unlock buildings, you place them, and once set up, pretty much can forget about them. Once you build up diamond currency / mana you can then uncurse areas which are covered in fog, which then allows you to expand to those areas.

Your dragon can of course fly, but you have a stamina limit, so don't fly too long or you will fall to the ground, oh and swimming in the water also drains your power, so no long swims for you.

The game works when you are not playing it too, set up the Altar and Forge, let them do their thing, and when you come back to play the next day you will have plenty of diamonds.

The game plays a lot like a mobile game, play for 20 minutes, then leave and come back the next day, collect resources, expand, rinse and repeat.

There is combat too, your dragon can breathe balls of fire, and eventually poison and lightening, as well as claw at people. This is also how you collect resources.

80 areas to expand and explore, as well as a few different environments, all with their own secrets.

The Good

Simple game that doesn't take too much thought, and plays as something you do for 10-20 minutes.

The Bad

Although not advertised as such, this does feel very early access, and some of the aspects of the game seem a bit off, the placing of buildings for example.

Overall

The game has a lot of potential, but it is unknown if this is the finished article, or if there is more to come.

Time will tell, I guess.

I score Dragon Forge on PC (Steam) a fair 6/10

Out now - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163930/Dragon_Forge/

REVIEW: Paradise Killer (PS5)

Review by Jon Donnis

Paradise Killer is an open world adventure game made by British studio Kaizen Game Works.

Your job is to investigate a murder and explore Paradise Island, (wasn't Paradise Island the name of the Island in the classic racing game Burnout Paradise?) Paradise Island is a pocket universe created by aliens canned The Syndicate, they want to create the perfect society, as that will awaken their ancient Gods. The Island is an experiment but unfortunately as with all utopias, things fail fast, the Syndicate kidnap humans from earth and let them live on Paradise Island, but as things fall apart, the humans are all killed, and their souls harvested to rebuild the Island. This game exists on the 24^th rebuild of the Island.

When the humans are about to all be killed, so that everything can be transferred to Island 25, the alien Syndicate Council are found murdered. The Syndicate Judge sends for Detective Lady Love Dies, who was previously in exile, and is given the task of solving who was behind the killings, with everyone on the Island a potential killer.

The game is a murder mystery, a "whodunnit" if you will. The game is played in the first-person perspective, and when the game starts you find yourself on an island, you have to solve a mass murder. But how exactly you do it is up to you. As this is an open world game, there is little instruction, you will have to explore, look for clues, find evidence, and talk to people.

The game can be a bit confusing at first, as I said there is not much instruction, and at times it feels like you are playing a game that has some rich history to it that you are unaware of. So much of the first part of the game is you trying to understand what is going on.

Once you do kind of figure things out, the island is a pretty big place, and there is a lot to explore, this can mean a lot of walking, but along the way you will talk to a lot of people, as you try to solve the mystery. There are plenty of people to talk to, items to collect, and clues to find. Luckily there is a fast travel option, however it is not free, and you will use in game currency to use it.

One interesting part of the game is the ability to bring a suspect to trial at any time, but of course if you want to get the all-important conviction you better have enough evidence.

This really is an unusual game, something very different.

The Good

A wonderful soundtrack, and interesting gameplay really bring to live what is a pretty unique game.

The Bad

It can be confusing at first, with a lot thrown at you, but if you stick with it, it is worth it. And for a PS5 game I was ratehr underwhelmed by the graphics in some parts of the game.

Overall

A decent addition to your PS5 collection, a game that stands alone in its genre. Pretty unique in every way.

I score Paradise Killer on Playstation 5 a solid 7/10

Out now on PS5 - https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10002720

REVIEW: CYBERSTELLAR on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis

We do like a good shoot-em-up here on the Gaming Couch, and we were asked to take a look at one called CYBERSTELLAR.

The game has a pretty unique look, it is rendered in 3D Pixel (2D Rendered Voxel), which means nothing to me, but if you look at the images and trailer, you can see it is looks pretty incredible.

The game has 8 levels, of which I managed to only get to level two, and that was after a few hours of gameplay.

There are 4 weapons you can upgrade to, a single shot, a double shot, a treble spread shot, and a temporary super laser shot that just destroys everything, as well as a collectable, automatically fired bomb.

The story tells us of a distant future where a civilisation has made its way to Mars to make a home there, after some time though a planetary event happens, and a great eclipse causes storms, as well as being a cover for an alien invasion of Mars as well as Earth.

Earthlings and Martians ask for help, (not sure from who exactly?) a spacecraft has been designed for spare warfare called Cyberstellar, and you are the chosen pilot for the mission to save the lives of Earthlings and Martians.

With the slightly over convoluted story out of the way, how does the game play?

Well as mentioned earlier I have only managed to get to level 2, and that took me nearly 2 hours of repeated play.

I am not a newbie to the genre; in fact I have been playing shoot-em-ups since the 1980s. This is one challenging game, that's for sure.

Controlling the ship is easy enough, it moves well, the weapons are upgraded during play through power ups you collect, but some of the weapons are temporary and you need to collect repeated power ups, without using them, to get the most powerful weapon, and once that is used you are stuck back with the basic one, so you need to choose carefully which weapons you activate and when. The whole weapons system needs to be re-thought, it just doesn't quite work, use traditional ideas for weapons and you can't go wrong.

The ship you control is relatively large, on what is a small playing area, with alien ships also quite big, this can cause problems, you simply don't have much space to navigate in if things get a bit hectic, so what will happen is that you will quickly become overwhelmed, and if you lose a life, you have to start back at the beginning of the level.

You have your usual power bar, but make contact with a large opponent and it is instant life lost.

To get through the level on a clean run, you really need to be on top of your game, and take out your enemies as soon as you can and in the best order possible, the levels play pretty much the same each time, so you will learn where enemies will approach from and use that in your tactics.

The Good

The game looks incredible, I have never seen graphics quite like this, and although in screenshots things might look a bit too busy when an enemy explodes, it isn't actually that bad as it is only for a moment. The music is ok, if a bit dull. Gameplay is super challenging, and you really need to try, try, and try again if you hope you get through the game.

The Bad

The main ship is too big, and the playable area is too small, leaving you little room for error, I understand that the developer wants you to see the detail on the shop, the pilot etc, but that's just not that important in the grand scheme of things. The menu is poor, and some of the power ups and weapons should be much clearer, and easier to use.

Overall

The issues I mentioned are easy to fix, but I am not sure if the developer is interested in listening to criticism. (I tried).

With such a unique look, this game could hit it big in the gaming community, but I fear that the lack of compromise, as well as some basic errors might mean the game struggles to do well.

I always want to support Indie Developers, but sometimes they really are their own worst enemies.

I score CYBERSTELLAR in its current state a 6/10. A lot of potential, but a lot of work needs doing.

Currently on sale with a 50% discount for just £1.99

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1853920/CYBERSTELLAR/