thecou..toolkit

Pokemon Sword and Shield arguably wasn’t the fully-fledged console experience fans had been waiting for, but it was certainly a solid foundation for Game Freak to build upon moving forward. Primarily a portable endeavour for decades, many of the series’ conventions felt rooted to its handheld origins, some it simply failed to shake on Nintendo Switch.  That...

XCOM 2 is widely regarded as one of the very best PC games released within the last decade, so to see it arrive on the portable Nintendo Switch is quite the marvel.  A number of compromises have been made to make this port possible though, with a shaky frame-rate performance reminding us of the Switch’s unfortunate hardware limitations.  The...

After the runaway success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Nintendo Switch’s release schedule has been somewhat barren as far as major first party titles go. In their place however, Switch owners have been subject to a bevy of ports from Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition to Bioshock: The Collection, and now EA’s getting in on the fun with...

They don’t make licensed platformers like they used to. Back in the days of PS2, Xbox and GameCube you were spoiled for choice when it came to adventures based on your favourite properties, many of which focused on the biggest cartoons and films of the day.   SpongeBob: SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom was one of a few licensed platformers...

Valorant is a new free-to-play tactical shooter, taking the pinpoint gunplay and claustrophobic maps from Counter-Strike and layering on top an Overwatch-style character class system for oodles of charm and replayability.  Integrating various zany power-ups into such a classic shooter formula creates a seemingly endless number of possibilities...

Nintendo Switch has transformed into a welcome home for ports in recent months, with Overwatch, The Outer Worlds and countless other classics making their way to the hybrid console. While they’ve offered reduced visuals, performance and features in most cases, they’ve normally been a perfectly adequate way to experience these games, and in case of...

You can read our original review for The Outer Worlds here, which features a different final score reflecting the platform it was originally reviewed on.  Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds made a significant splash when it launched for PS4, Xbox One and PC last year. In a world where Bethesda had failed to deliver with its Fallout franchise...

Revenge is everywhere in The Last of Us 2. It’s the central motivation that drives Ellie forward, leading her to commit despicable acts for a goal that may only end in her own misery. It’s not an easy journey to embark on, leaving you hesitant to push forward, crying out in defiance at the path of the bodies being left in your wake.  Everything...