With this review of Caligo, I am saying goodbye to the Nintendo Switch. There may one of two lingering reviews left to do, but this is pretty much it. Starting soon, I will soft reboot the site into a Steam website that runs press-releases as well as reviews. Why? For one thing, the Switch 2 shows up in five days, I didn’t buy one and it just doesn’t interest me at present. But I’ll explain that at the end. So, what about the game? There’s isn’t much of one. Caligo is a walking simulator. You walk forward, something happens, you keep walking and something else will happen. It is extremely boring and nothing worth anyone’s time, in my humble opinion.

Sometimes there a picture to pick up, but that’s about it for game play in Caligo. There is a story. You start off in a dreadful place reminiscent of HR Giger. You meet “the master” who reveals to you who you are, and then takes you on a journey. Unfortunately, like most walking simulators, nothing of interest happens, and I legit almost feel asleep playing it. I can’t recommend this. This gets a Not Recommended with a four back-end score. But before I go, I have one last thing to say:

Caligo perfectly encapsulates how the Switch dies, slow, plodding and boring. There’s nothing of interest here, and nothing of interest to review for the Switch. The eShop is now nothing but AI Slop and I gave up finding things of interest weeks ago. However, the reason I didn’t get a Switch 2 is because the dev kits to small indies haven’t gone out yet(June 5th is what I have heard), and it may be a very long time before, and if, they ever show. So, again, I’m going to soft reboot starting next week as one a stop obscure-Steam indie press shop. Hope to see you there!

Overall: Caligo is walking simulator with no-edge and nothing of interest to hold your attention, despite trying really hard.

Verdict: Not Recommended

eShop Page

Release Date	4/3/25
Cost	$9.99
Publisher	Sometimes You
ESRB Rating	T

The post Caligo Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Survivalist Invisible Strain wants to be Project Zomboid. Project Zomboid is quit possibly the most detailed zombie simulator known to man, as well as extremely difficult. I happen to have bought Project Zomboid a few years ago and can confirm its greatness and difficulty.

Survivalist Invisible Strain is the sequel to a game called Survivalist, which I have never played, nor do I after playing this. The developer’s name is Bob. Well, Bob, your game sucks as it currently stands and will take years of patches to make it playable, if it ever gets there. Project Zomboid this is not. Where do I even start? First, the game is in 3d with fog and pop-in. The game is ugly. The maps are randomly generated, and you can’t go in anything, not even houses. You just scavenge from a menu. No rummaging through cabinets while sneaking around the zombies. Speaking of sneaking, it either works, or it doesn’t. What I mean is, either they don’t see you when you’re right in front of them, or they see you from half a map away. But wait, there’s more wrong with Survivalist Invisible Strain.

Combat in Survivalist Invisible Strain is terrible. You will die a lot, not necessarily because you are weak, but because you’ll miss a lot and the zombies will prompt a press A minigame. If you die and have a point of constitution, a randomly created settlement will pull out from death for one of those points. That’s nice I guess. Oh, and there’s a survival mode(random map, no story), and story mode. Except there is no story. The map is randomly generated and you get the same mission prompts in either mode. The title refers to a invisible strain of the zombie virus that can turn your mates, but honestly never got that far because the game lacks a clear purpose or reason to continue.

Survivalist Invisible Strain will take years to get good. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’ll save this because why play this when you have Project Zomboid for a few dollars more? Project Zomboid has been around for 12 years. But when I played it years ago, it was great then, its just gotten better with time. This gets a Garbage with a 2 back-end score.

Overall: Survivalist Invisible Strain is a low-rent 3D Project Zomboid knock-off that fails to deliver. It’ll take years to get good, years it doesn’t have.

Verdict: Garbage

Steam Page

Release Date	4/25/25
Cost	$11.99
Developer	Bob
Publisher	Ginomocorp Holdings

P.S. For a zombie game I actually liked Try Splatter: Zombiecalypse Now

Game received for free from the publisher.

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post Survivalist Invisible Strain Steam Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

Halls of Torment is an Auto Shooter, like Vampire Survivors. And like Army of Ruin before it, it improves upon the Vampire Survivors formula in significant ways. But unlike Army of Ruin, they’re still updating Halls of Torments months after release, which is good! So I will review it based on how it is now, and Halls of Torment is good, really drawing parallels with the original Diablo It does this in two ways. First are the visuals and sound design, which seemed to be copied directly from the original Diablo. This allows the game to have its own unique identity among other auto shooters. The second is the fact there is inventory and more involved quests, which involve reading randomly found books.

It is worth showing a video of Halls of Torment, I show two different sections of game play, enjoy:

Halls of Torment: An Auto Action-RPG

When viewing the video, Halls of Torment appears to be another auto-shooter, but there are some big differences here. First, leveling up gives you options to upgrade traits, like action speed and strength, and weapons you already have. Weapons are gained via defeating mini-bosses or picking up banners on the field. Upgrading a weapon to level three allows you to upgrade it a new weapon. Arcane Shards(those shiruiken things), for example, gain the ability to splinter further. There is inventory, which modifies stats or gives you cool abilities, like summoning skeletons. You gain inventory by defeating bosses. However, you cannot keep the inventory until you use a well to send up an item, which you then buy from the well-keeper to permanently unlock it. Most inventory is not shared among characters, so keep that in mind.

Another welcome change to the Formula in Halls of Torment are the quests. Every area and character has their own set of quests to complete. Character quests tend to unlock traits which permanently upgrade the character. You can set a quest to show on the screen to track its progress. But even if you don’t do that, it’ll still complete. Speaking of characters, being a work in progress, the characters are unbalanced. The exterminator, who shoots a permanent stream of fire, owns all. Meanwhile, the cleric is pretty awful, as is the archer. I assume this will get fixed.

Conclusion

Should Halls of Torment get a Must Play? It should, but it won’t, because it is a work in progress. It is very unbalanced and important features, like equipment upgrading, is unlocked far into the game and not well explained at all. There’s a second currency at play with it, and I have no idea how to get it. Potions are unlocked via gathering items, but only if you wear a certain amulet and you get very few items per run. Still, for what Halls of Torment currently is, I’ll give it a recommended with an eight back-end score. Worth it now, warts and all, and will almost certainly be better later.

Overall: Halls of Torment is an auto-shooter that plays like an action RPG. It is a work in progress though, with a long way to go.

Verdict: Recommended

Steam Page

Release Date	9/24/24
Cost	$6.66
Publisher	Chasing Carrots

The post Halls of Torment Steam Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

💾

When I think of Megame, I think of Hot Love Dreams, the naughty game that released with full nudity and was promptly pulled from the eShop. And while on the Nintendo eShop, they’re still releasing questionable titles like Sniper Scope: Realistic Tactical Shooter, on the PC, they’re releasing stuff like Cybercorp. And Cybercorp is a mighty fine game. No, really, it is. I enjoyed it! Its an isometric looter with procedural generation. And I was stunned at its quality. The game play is fluid and deep, the graphics and audio are well done and there is a decent story here! And this review is special, because I played it on:

Yes, I played Cybercorp on my brand new Steam Deck, and it plays well on it. So, to start this review proper, let me play a video of some combat:

In Cybercorp you play an agent who pilots a synth droid in various mission. Game Play is basically walking around, shooting and slashing your way through hordes of enemies and obtaining loot. You are giving two gun slots and a melee weapon. Using melee is important because you can do kills that restore your health, necessary. With the guns, reloading is done via a meter with the X button, hit the sweet spot, the reload is instant. You also get two skills slots, like a dash and an auto turret, among others.

Of course, the core of Cybercorp is the loot, which consists of weapons and synth armor upgrades. Loot can be upgraded further as well via various systems. You are free to pick and choose your loadouts, and they do matter, which is nice. Oddly, I don’t feel the loot system is as engaging as say, Diablo. I feel you can skip some of the finer points, but that’s not a knock necessarily. Its there if you want it. The same can also apply to the combo system, which I don’t really understand, but I think it helps if you raise the meter high.

The graphics and sound stand out in Cybercorp. The levels are detailed and brightly colored and you feel like you’re in a cyberpunk world. While there’s no voice acting, the music is great, and it changes between combat and walking around.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Cybercorp, but I will keep playing after review, which is a telltale sign of the verdict: Must Play with a nine back-end score. Megame did a phenomenal job here and should be rewarded with a great review. It is it perfect, no, but still, Megame deserves credit for delivering their best game to date(yes, better than Survive and Craft). Now if they would also stop releasing dreck, that’d be great…

Overview: Megame delivers a banger in Cybercorp, a rouge-lite looter which absolutely stunned me at its quality. Gave it a Must Play.

Verdict: Must Play

Steam Page

Release Date	4/22/25
Cost	$14.99
Publisher	Megame

Game received for free from the publisher!

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post Cybercorp Steam Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

💾

Silent Mist, on its surface, seems like a scam game, and in many ways it is. The blurb is full of adverbs and obvious BS:”Silent Mist is not just a horror game. It is a descent into fear, isolation, and “the secrets that should have remained lost in the fog.” The game goes on instant sale 70% off. The screenshots are AI enhanced and obviously so.

This screenshot is of a real part of Silent Mist, but as you’re about to see in this long video, the actual game doesn’t look like it, not even close. Anyways, the video has three part, first displays the opening cutscene and atrocious voice acting. Second section is the above screenshot area. The third shows off the terrible lighting.

Silent Mist game play looks like this: First you find a bunker door, You need a key to open the bunker. Then you see a generator, it need fuel. Walk to the gas station, you need a can and hose. So on down the line it goes. All the while you’re avoiding wood creatures that rattle. They don’t do much damage, and the damage easily heals. There are also the tapes to play, which give an actual story-line. And that’s pretty much the game.

Is Silent Mist a Scam Game?

Jean Bourjoix is the publisher and I assume the developer of Silent Mist. Work went into this, there is a story-line here, even if its 100% cliche and voice acted by friends.. It’s just one-hundred percent grade-A Garbage, which gets a two back-end score. You’ve played this game before. I’ve even reviewed better games like this. In the end, this might as well be a scam, as it has about the same level of quality as the average scam title.

Overall: Silent Mist doesn’t appear to be a scam horror game, but it might as well be with how awful it is.

Verdict: Garbage

eShop Page

Release Date	4/15/25
Cost	$9.99
Publisher	Jean Bourjoix
ESRB Rating	T

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post Silent Mist Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

💾

There is something about a game’s first impression. If a game leaves a good first impression, I’ll keep playing. If a game leaves a bad first impression, it’s over, there’s no coming back from it… unless you are No Man’s Sky, but this is not that game and it took years to accomplish. The point is, Star Overdrive leaves a nasty first impression. It is a game that advertises: “See the hoverboard? The hoverboard is awesome. You’ll love the hoverboard!” If you go on the eShop and look at the marketing materials plus watch the trailer, the hoverboard is front and center. There’s a reason for that. Its the best part of the game. I’ll give it that. Hoverboarding is fun. The issue is, you have to come off your board for most of the game, and that is where Star Overdrive simply falls apart.

The first thing you’ll notice in Star Overdeive is you that you have tank controls, you’re locked into a strafing motion and use the camera to turn. That wouldn’t be a problem, except there are dungeons that require precision jumping, and platforming just sucks. Second, the combat is atrocious. It’s not fun, its not exciting. It’s boring and frustrating, in part because there’s no lock on. Third, there is a story, you’re this silent dude who crash lands on a planet and has to save his girlfriend, except Breath of the Wild this is not. There’s no instant connection, no enticing world to explore. The overworld is kinda barren and just not interesting. Mad Max the game had a better overworld and that was all desert.

In the end, Star Overdrive is a bait and switch. Bait you with the hoverboard, and switch it out for a bad imitation of Breath of the Wild. I don’t care if the game turns into the best thing ever. The game leaves a nasty first impression, and I’m not continuing. Sorry. Star Overdrive gets a Not Recommended with a four back-end score.

Overall: Star Overdrive is a bait and switch. The hoverboard is not the meat of the game, which is completely rotten.

Verdict: Not Recommended

eShop Page

Release Date	4/10/25
Cost	$34.99
Publisher	Plug in Digital
ESRB Rating	E10+

P.S. When you make a game worse than what Midnight Works did, you have a problem.

Game received for free from the publisher!

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post Star Overdrive Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

This review of Tongtong is filler content. Not really a game I care about, just exists so that this site has content on it. I doubt anyone will even read this review. The reason I say that is because this isn’t a game. It’s a glorified slot machine. The game claims to be a storefront arcade game from 1987. The only reference I can find to it is this screenshot from the eShop. Google turns up nothing because the real name of the game is in Japanese and not TongTong.

The image above spells the game out. Spend medals, choose an animal, if three or more animals appear, you win medals. If you collect seven pandas on the side, you play a bonus game. You basically get all of TongTong in the below video, minus the bonus game:

That’s TongTong, its a kids slot machine, which begs the question, why was this released here in Switch form? Was anyone clamoring for this? I doubt it. This is a filler game, designed to take up space in the eShop, but nobody actually buys it, because its stupid and pointless. It is also glorified gambling sold to 80s children, but that’s a completely different issue. This is not worth buying, not worth playing. Heck, I’m not even going to write 300 words on this cause I really don’t care about it. This is filler content, after all. Tongtong gets a Not Recommended with a three back-end score(because cause it works).

Overall: Tongtong is a kids slot machine from 80s Japan. Devoid of its arcade cabinet roots, it is a complete waste of time and money.

Verdict: Not Recommended

eShop Page

Release Date	4/10/25
Cost	$3.99
Publisher	Success
ESRB Rating	E

P.S. For more filler content… try 2222.

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post TongTong Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

💾

Biomorph is a great game. It gets a Must Play with a nine back-end score. I started off the verdict and score because I want to frame this review. The game has some neat twists on the Metroidvania formula, like spicing up revisiting earlier areas with harder creatures. Still, it feels very familiar at times, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing here. I haven’t seen many games attempt to replicate Metroid’s morphball, but this game does, and does it well. The game is huge, I barely cracked the surface, but played enough to give it a good review. So let’s begin:

I’ll start with what drags the game down to a nine from a ten: the plot. There is one, but its not really explained at that well, though the animated cut-scenes certainly sure are pretty. You’re this character who wakes up in an alien spaceship, escapes and sets off on a quest to restore the very spaceship you escaped… or something. Fortunately, the rest of the game is exquisite. Biomorph’s name comes from its signature ability, where you kill, then morph into various creatures that do various things. Morph enough times, you unlock the ability to morph at will. Morph even more times, and the morphing itself becomes more powerful.

When not morphing in Biomorph, you use chips that provide a wide range of skills, from shields to melee and ranged attacked. You get upgrades that upgrade the chips. You also have momentos, which provide passive abilities, like dealing more damage to bosses. You can change your outlay at any save point, which also doubles as a fast travel system. There is also vital scans, which restore health after a few seconds of pressing R. You start with 2 and can get more. Finally, you can slide from the start by pressing ZR. Other abilities like wall jumping is unlocked as you go.

In Biomorph, there is a main town called Blightmore, and here is where you can upgrade your chips and momentos, as well as do other things. The town’s features are mainly unlocked by various side quests scattered around the map. I guess they’re nice and do add to the plot and ambiance, but are just kinda there. There are bosses, and they are well done, but stragely I had the most problems with the first main one. You can watch me beat it below:

Biomorph has great graphics, they look like hand drawn animation at times. The sound is nothing write home about, but gets the job done. The game play is smooth and slick. The game has twists(the aforementioned making revisiting old areas harder) while feeling familiar in a good way. Only the plot drags this down. So as I said at the start, this gets a Must Play with a nine back-end score.

Overall: Biomorph is a great Metroidvania that manages to do new things while still feeling familiar. It works very well!

Verdict: Must Play

eShop Page

Release Date	4/3/25
Cost	$19.99
Publisher	Lucid Dreams Studio
ESRB Rating	T

p.s. I don’t review many Metroidvanias due to the time commitment, but another one I did review was Sugamenia.

Game received for free from the publisher!

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post Biomorph Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

💾

Why? That’s the question I have. Why? Why release Big Rigs Over The Road Racing at all? This 2003 game is widely considered one of the worst games of all time. It is still shit after all these years. The issue is, it is not alone anymore. This game was famous at the time for being as horrendous as it was. Now, there are countless games lurking on Switch and Steam that are just as horrible. Take The Love, it doesn’t work, the core feature is missing. Only people my age(older millennials) or older are going to remember Big Rigs. But since you’re here, I might as spend some time going over it. We’ll start with this video, which takes up a quarter of the screen(don’t ask).

As you can see, Big Rigs Over the Road Racing is a racing game, with tons of stuttering(it should be fixed by the time you’re reading this). However, there is no hit detection, no invisible walls to keep you on the course. There is a rival truck that drives, but you can easily beat it, and get the famous:

At the time, people marveled at how broken Big Rigs Over The Road racing is. No serious commercial game had ever released that broken. And this version is still broken. No work has gone into it. It may even the abandonware version ripped and sold, not entirely sure. But what I am sure of, its not a marvel anymore. There are countless broken and pointless games littering Switch and Steam, many from Midnight Works and Demenci Games, and others as well. There’s nothing special about this game now. No reason to re-release it, unless to capitalize on the meme potential for older millennials. That’s it.

Big Rigs Over The Road Racing gets a Hilariously Awful verdict(yes, this exists, only gave it out four other times in 500+ reviews) with a one back-end score. Yes, it is still hilariously awful, even if it is no longer alone in being complete garbage. Finally, there is a free DLC which adds more stuff(from another sister game) achievements and leaderboards. It’s nice, but not enough to make this any more than a curiosity.

Overall: Big Rigs Over The Road Racing is still a Hilariously Awful game. The issue is that 22-years later, it is no longer alone in how crap it is.

Verdict: Hilariously Awful

Steam Page

Release Date	4/8/25
Cost	$5.99
Publisher	Margarite Entertainment

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post Big Rigs Over The Road Racing Steam Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.

💾

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream is a 1995 point and click adventure game based on the 1967 short story by Harlan Ellison. An evil AI called AM has taken over the world and has tortured five people for 109 years. It places each of them in a simulation, and you must outwit the AI. The question isn’t should you play this. If you like point and click games, this is a classic. Its unforgiving at times, demanding you look at everything in order to get the best ending(you can fail). However, nothing is obtuse or illogical. The question is, should you play this on the Switch? That’s a much harder question.

The Switch version of I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream is played using the sticks and buttons. Each button corresponds to a particular task. To use the Use command, press A, then highlight the object, press A again, then move the cursor to what you want to use the object with, then press A a third time. The issue is, especially on handheld, the play screen is tiny and maneuvering the cursor to highlight something can be difficult. Though you can use the D-Pad to move the cursor slower. There is no touchscreen support nor is there pointing at the screen(ala the WII).

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a straight translation of the game, even the pause screen is identical, with no graphical options present. That is disappointing because I’d love to have the game take up the full screen. I also had important dialog skip for no discernible reason, but may have been due to the joycons. In the end, the game is a classic, but I really cannot recommend it on the Switch, the controls are simply too clunky. Maybe wait for the Switch 2 mouse controls? Not sure. I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream gets a Your Mileage May Vary verdict with a six back-end score.

Overview: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a straight port of a classic. Unfortunately, the controls are too clunky to recommend this.

Verdict: Your Mileage May Vary

eShop Page

Release Date	3/27/25
Cost	$9.99
Publisher	NightDive Studios
ESRB Rating	T

P.S. For a point and click made for the Switch, try Tux and Fanny!

Subscribe so you never miss a review:

The post I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Switch Review appeared first on The Game Slush Pile.