The game you're looking at right now is Kirby Tilt ‘N' Tumble, and it's just one of the games added to the Nintendo Switch Online service this week. That's right, Nintendo surprised everybody with an early-week drop of some classic 8- and 16-bit games, including Blaster Maser: Enemy Below, Harvest Moon and Mystery Tower, a game that had previously never been released outside of Japan. That's really cool, but are any of these games actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Nintendo Power, Computer & Video Games and more classic magazines to see what the critics said back when these games first came out. Well, all of them except for Mystery Tower, with understandably was not reviewed by any English-language critics back in 1986. So, go and grab a shovel and overalls, because this is another farm-friendly episode of the Nintendo Switch Online Review Crew.


When Blaster Master was first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System 35 years ago, it was a breath of fresh air. In a world where most games were either side-scrolling platformers or overhead shooters, Sunsoft's 1988 action game dared to be both. And it worked, with both critics and fans falling in love with Jason and his versatile tank, Sophia the 3rd. Unfortunately, the subsequent sequel and Game Boy spin-off were not met with the same fanfare, resulting in Sunsoft scrapping the franchise for the better part of a decade. Finally, in the year 2000, Jason and Sophia returned in the Game Boy Color game, Blaster Master: Enemy Below. This brought back the multiple perspectives and epic boss fights that made the first game so popular, all in the hopes that it could ride the wave of nostalgia that was hitting Nintendo's colorful handheld. It was definitely nostalgic, but was that enough for the critics?

In short, the answer was no. Like a lot of Game Boy Color games released at the turn of the millennium, most magazines completely ignored this game. In fact, I could only find two magazines that bothered reviewing it, and neither presented a glowing picture of the reboot. Let's start with Nintendo Power, which gave it a 7.6 out of 10 and called it “solid platform action” with color that is “fantastic on GBC.” Nate sums it up this way: “If you don't like it on the NES, you won't like it now. But I, for one, can't get enough of the NES-to-Game Boy Color migration.” Jennifer was not impressed, falling asleep during her review: “I would try to comment, but (yawn) I keep falling asl...zzz.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Across the pond, Computer & Video Games sided more with Jennifer than Nate. They gave it a 2 out of 5 and concluded: “Fans of the series will lap up Blaster as a chunk of nostalgia. Anyone new to it though, will most likely wonder what all the fuss is about. There are better platform shooters available for your coinage and, unless you're a fan of the previous games, you're likely to be seriously disappointed.” As a fan of the original Blaster Master on NES, I do have nostalgia for Enemy Below. That said, this game is definitely not for everybody.

With dozens of sequels, updates, re-releases and spin-offs, getting into the Harvest Moon series can be a bit daunting. Where do you even start? Well, perhaps you begin with the 1997 Super NES game that started it all. Harvest Moon is a bright and colorful farming simulator where you tend to the crops and feed the animals, all while foraging for items, exploring your surroundings and getting to know the townspeople. It's a simple concept with a lot of fun activities that prove to be extremely relaxing, which is why this franchise has endured for so many decades. Did the critics see the series potential from this first game?

When it comes to Electronic Gaming Monthly, the answer to that question is definitely “yes.” Earning an average score of 8.1 out of 10, the review crew was largely impressed with this unusual role-playing game. Dan summed it up this way: “Sim Farm meets Zelda? Perhaps, but Harvest Moon wins my vote for one of the most refreshing and original concepts to come out in quite a while.” Sushi-X called it a “sleeper hit [...] with an off-beat quest surrounded by a familiar interface. The farm quest will turn off skeptical users, but once you give the game a try, you'll quickly become immersed in a true adventure that is hard to break away from.”

Nintendo Power wasn't nearly as sold on Harvest Moon as EGM, giving it a score of 3.7 out of 5. They said that “Harvest Moon may sound a lot like PC simulations like Maxis's SimFarm, but the RPG elements really add something. This is not an economic sim, but rather a race against time, the weather, your own learning curve and events.” They liked the “involving, task-oriented play and the fun hidden stuff,” but did complain that it wasn't for action fans. That's right, their biggest complaint is that a farming simulator isn't an exciting action game. That's like saying that Street Fighter II is bad because Final Fantasy fans might not like fighting games. Good grief.

Having mastered the art of making 2D platformers, Nintendo found itself looking for unique ways to shake up the formula and bring some freshness to their aging franchises. That brings us to the 2001 game Kirby Tilt ‘N' Tumble, an overhead action game that used the cartridge's built-in accelerometers to move Kirby around the labyrinthine levels. This meant that you would need to physically tilt the system in order to move our pink hero around like a marble, something that proved to be both simultaneously fun and frustrating.

The reviews were mostly positive for Kirby Tilt ‘N' Tumble, though a lot of the critics felt like it was more of a gimmick than a good idea. Electronic Gaming Monthly ended up giving the game an average score of 6.2 out of 10, with Chris explaining that “it would've been better if there was an option to play with the control pad. Its biggest problem is the tilt technology. You need to have the Game Boy under direct light to see what you're doing, but you have to tilt it for control, making it nearly impossible to play unless you're in an area flooded with light.” Jeanne liked the game even less, elaborating on the problems: “See, the point is now to play the game by tilting your Game Boy Color ‘every which way,' right? Well, what if tilting your GBC means the screen gets lost in shadow and you can't see what the heck Kirby's doing? Try rolling Kirby straight down a narrow platform, Marble Madness-style, without seeing where he's going to end up. You'll soon grow accustomed to hearing Kirby's screams as he fades into the void. Unless you have patience, night vision or an undying adoration for Kirby, let a friend buy the game and just borrow it for those long road trips.”

As you might expect, the critics at Nintendo Power liked it a lot more than Electronic Gaming Monthly. Giving it an average score of 4 out of 5, Drew said that “Kirby's innovative motion control and well-designed levels are wonders to behold, but you'll have difficulty beholding them without a perfectly positioned light source.” Jenni explained that “Kirby Tilt ‘N' Tumble is a refreshingly different way to approach handheld gaming.” The only pushback you saw was from Scott, who argued that “there's a reason video games use controllers.”

Believe it or not, the highest score came from Game Informer, who didn't have a problem at all with the weird motion controls: “Kirby's Tilt ‘N' Tumble's brilliant gyroscopic control offers jaded GBC owners something genuinely new. This game easily could have been a terrible mess, but the developers pull this experiment off with aplomb. The control will hook you, but the addictive gameplay will keep you coming back for more.” They gave it an average score of 8.7 out of 10. Here's hoping the game is easier to play on the Switch than the Game Boy Color.