Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)If you ever thought monasteries were just devoted to worship, feasting abbots, and choral chants of Ave Maria, The Stone of Madness is set on proving you dead wrong.

This is The Game Kitchen’s first foray into the stealth-tactics genre (a distinctly Spanish obsession we discussed with the devs last year) after the team’s stellar work with the Blasphemous Metroidvanias. Two separate campaigns take place in an imposing 1800s Pyrenees monastery, which doubles as an insane asylum. This mountaintop prison offers no redemption, nor escape from earthly woes, for five luckless inmates aiming to escape, or destroy, their captors.

The hospitality of these cruel nuns and friars may feel as cold and stony as the slabs making up the monastery’s walls, but we still marvelled at this sordid Jesuit asylum that drips with the Spanish Inquisition’s cruelty and sorrow. A magnificent stealth sandbox, hand painted in rich gothic atmosphere and Catholic pageantry, creat..

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)In a market inundated with Metroidvanias, Laika: Aged Through Blood does something remarkable: it actually tries something new. That’s not to say that recent examples haven’t had a good crack at standing out amongst the crowd — Animal Well is certainly testament to that — but many largely stick to the same rulebook. Laika tears it apart and chucks it into the fires of Mount Doom.

So what makes this one so different? Well, it’s all about the traversal: Laika expertly blends motocross gameplay with more traditional Metroidvania mechanics, doing away with segmented rooms and corridors in favour of sprawling, interconnected landscapes. You’re specifically encouraged to travel at high speeds, launch yourself into the air, and pull off badass flips that will have Trials fans giddy.

Unlike other Metroidvanias, where the environment begins to fade into the background as you familiarise yourself with its layout, Laika demands that you continue to..

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)A few years ago, a little tabletop-RPG-inspired visual novel called Citizen Sleeper arrived on the eShop, expertly crafting an experience that tied together dice-rolling mechanics with a player-driven science fiction narrative. It quickly gained a cult following, leading to a short series of free DLC chapters and the announcement of a sequel. Now that Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is finally here, we’re pleased to report that one-person team Gareth Damian Martin of Jump Over The Age hasn’t lost a step—this new release is everything that the first game was and then some.

Citizen Sleeper 2 cold opens with your conveniently amnesiac character waking up in the clutches of a gangster boss named Laine giving you an angry speech about his claim of ownership over your synthetic body. Before he can literally pull the plug on you and bring about a very swift Game Over, a mysterious ally spirits you away in a small, stolen starship. Your saviour claims to..

Hello Kitty Island Adventure released on Apple Arcade in July 2023 to generally positive reviews. A year and a half later, the Switch release brings a charming cast of Sanrio characters and their island resort to a wider audience—an audience ultimately in for a good time.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure opens on a plane en route to a mysterious resort with lots of familiar faces from the Sanrio franchise on board. After creating an animal avatar of our own (a moody purple bunny), we soon found ourselves jumping out of the plane and gliding to the ground with a handful of balloons. We get our first major quest shortly after touching down: find everyone who was scattered across the island during the descent.

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Despite having a big quest to start us off, the game gave us a refreshing amount of free reign to begin exploring and building relationships right off the bat. Within the first hour of gameplay, we’d only tracked down a couple of lost characters bu..

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)A few years ago, developers Adglobe and Live Wire (which, fun fact, also developed Harvestella) released a Metroidvania called Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights to high praise. Combining a heavy atmosphere with tough, Soulslike combat in a dark fantasy world, it stood out as a notably quality addition to a genre that feels like it gets at least one new entry every week. The sequel, Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the mist, is a strong iteration on its predecessor’s formula. It’s everything a Metroidvania should be and, even if it’s not exactly revolutionary, it executes its vision well.

Ender Magnolia is set a number of years after Ender Lilies, placing you in the role of Lilac, a young girl who awakens from a long slumber in a strange and decaying world. What’s left of society is occupied by two different races: humans and the creepy machines called Homunculi. Some Homunculi could easily pass as human while others have much more monstrous or..

Summary

The Thing: Remastered is Nightdive Studios’ fastest-selling launch title ever, surpassing expectations.

The improvements made in the remaster, beyond graphics, include balancing infection features for a fairer experience.

Fans can expect more remasters from Nightdive Studios thanks to the success of The Thing: Remastered.

New financial reports indicate that The Thing: Remastered is Nightdive Studios’ fastest-selling launch title ever. Nightdive Studios is well-known for the quality of its remasters, and it seems that The Thing: Remastered has surpassed expectations, being a huge hit for the developer.

Originally released in 2002, The Thing was a direct sequel to the 1982 film, something unusual, considering most games based on movie franchises were adaptations at the time. The PS2 title was a third-person game with strong horror vibes and sold over a million units back in the day, becoming known as one of the scariest games of its era. The remaster of The Thing was anno..

Summary

The Pokemon GO February 2025 Community Day event begins on February 9 and features Karrablast and Shelmet.

Catching and evolving Karrablast and Shelmet during the event grants special rewards, including exclusive moves.

Special Research, Timed Research, and Field Research tasks will offer additional encounters, more XP, and many other rewards.

Pokemon GO developer Niantic revealed its plans for the upcoming February 2025 Community Day event, which features Karrablast and Shelmet. The new Pokemon GO Community Day event will also include several limited-time bonuses, Timed Research, and paid Special Research.

Niantic hosts monthly Pokemon GO Community Day events to give trainers more opportunities to catch new Pokemon and potentially encounter shiny Pokemon. Evolving the featured Pokemon in a limited-time window grants an exclusive move that can prove to be useful in Trainer Battles, Gyms and Raids in Pokemon GO. In addition, there are Community Day events that will help ..

Summary

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD has a co-op issue that makes certain parts of the game unnecessarily challenging in multiplayer.

The problem originates from the 3DS version and has been carried over to the Switch; fans are disappointed with the lack of changes.

Gamers are hoping for a future patch to fix the co-op problem, but there is no official response from the developer or Nintendo yet.

Following the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD on the Nintendo Switch, some players discovered a co-op-specific issue when trying to jump on enemies in the game. While this does not impact those playing solo, it makes parts of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD nearly unplayable in co-op mode.

Released on January 16, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is a remaster of the classic Wii-era game and includes the extra content from the 3DS version. Before its launch, the game received some criticism from fans, who thought the lack of original content for the Switch, besides the improved..