Loved this. Perfect mix of Pokemon clone and originality. Definitely a little rough around the edges in places (performance, janky gameplay mechanics) but also incredibly accomplished and full of heart. Made primarily by two guys in Brighton so it's hard not to see past its faults. I loved the design, the 2.5D sprite art style was perfect, even if it took me a little while to warm to. The open world aspect was good, but didn't blow me away. Comparing it to Pokemon, I think I prefer to linear town-to-town level design of the older games. Obviously that's nostalgia based and doesn't ring true in the newer Switch games, but still. New Wirral could have a bit more life to it, and lacks the character that some Pokemon worlds have. Still though, top effort.

fun creature collector that is kind of like a love letter and bitter departure from pokemon. I think it lays a foundation for an amazing franchise in the long run, but as it is it has fun exploration, nonlinearity, traversal, and the CB type interactions are very fun. The main problem is the casette beasts themselves. The creatures should always be the highlight of a creature collector, and this is the only one I've played that feels lacking in the creature department. I don't like most of the designs, they dont feel unique enough in their gameplay due to no unique abilities and stats not varying much (or mattering much at all for that matter). The fusion mechanic is fun but very very strong. The overarching story is lackluster but the smaller, character focused stories are pretty good. This game obviously has a LOT of love and care put into it though, so I'm excited to see what comes next out of the devs.