Well, this is definitely a Nintendo Switch Online update. For those who watch these Review Crew episodes, you know that what we do here is dig up classic magazine reviews for all the old school games released on the Nintendo Switch Online service. That's normally pretty easy, since we're pulling reviews from not only American and British magazines, but pretty much any publication written in English. However, this is not a normal week, with only one of the four games having received a proper American release back in the day. This week's Nintendo Switch Online releases include Quest for Camelot, Kirby's Star Stacker, Downtown Nekketsu March: Super-Awesome Field Day and Joy Mech Fight. That's a pretty cool (and completely random) list of games, but are any of them worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Computer + Video Games, Nintendo Power and ... well, pretty much just those two magazines to see what the critics said back when these games first came out. Brace yourself, because this is going to be the worst and most frustrating episode of the Nintendo Switch Online Review Crew. Just know that I tried my hardest, I really did.


What is it with Nintendo and puzzle games? Instead of letting the games stand on their own, Nintendo insists on shoving their most recognizable characters into every single puzzler, just to squeeze out a few extra sales. Kirby's Star Stacker is yet another example of this annoying trend. It's a game that was first released on the Game Boy back in 1997, then ported one year later to the Super Famicom in Japan. The plan was to release the 16-bit version overseas, but when Nintendo of America stopped shipping Super NES units in 1997, those plans were killed.

With no American release, we're forced to turn to reviews of the Game Boy version, which is, by all accounts, identical to the 16-bit upgrade. Wait ... did I say “reviews,” plural? Well, there's really only one review, and it comes from Nintendo Power. Giving it a 3.2 out of 5, they liked that it “seemed simple, but is very challenging and fun.” They were also impressed by the four different modes. That said, they didn't like that the “higher difficulty levels are truly demented” and complained that “Kirby is just a figurehead.”

See that, Nintendo? When even your own magazine is complaining about the way you shove mascot characters into puzzle games, then you know you have a problem.

Now here's a Game Boy Color game you probably weren't expecting. Quest for Camelot is a 1998 adventure game based on the Warner Bros. movie starring Cary Elwes and Gary Oldman. It was both a critical and financial flop, which meant that this video game adaptation had a real uphill climb when it was released seven months later to almost no fanfare. It's basically an action/role-playing game where we take Kayley on an adventure to rescue her mother and the Excalibur sword from the evil knight Ruber. Straight-forward stuff.

Believe it or not, the few critics that reviewed Quest for Camelot seemed to like it a better than the movie. Nintendo Power gave the game a 7.4 out of 10 and argued that “Quest for Camelot stands in the company of Link's Awakening and the Final Fantasy games.” Scott explained that “Titus, along with a dedicated team at Nintendo, have created a great reason to buy Game Boy Color.” Henry agreed, saying that “the game has depth.”

Computer + Video Games wasn't nearly as impressed, giving the game a measly 3 out of 5. “Quest for Camelot is a cute adventure game that borrows heavily from Zelda. There are plenty of characters to talk to, soldiers to fight and errands you must run to progress. The graphics look like they belong on the Super NES, not a Game Boy. There's even a fancy warp effect when you go through the magic tunnels.”

Will that warp effect be fancy enough to get you to play Quest for Camelot? Probably not. From what I hear, it's better not to go to Camelot, tis a silly place.

Just in case you were looking for the game with the most ridiculously long title, here's Downtown Nekketsu March: Super-Awesome Field Day. While you may not recognize the name right away, this is actually part of the Kunio-Kun series, the franchise that gave us both River City Ransom and Crash ‘N the Boys: Street Challenge. Part beat ‘em up and part sporting event, this is basically a race from one side of the city to the other. The idea is to trip up the competition as much as possible, all while successfully navigating the urban terrain to come in first. This game was previously released as part of the Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle back in 2020, and while I loved the concept, this was not one of my favorite games in the compilation. Sadly, there are no English-language reviews to turn to, but I suggest you give it a couple of runs and then forget about it. That's pretty much what happened when I played it three years ago.

At first glance, it's easy to write off Joy Mech Fight as that weird 8-bit fighting game with the crazy characters. But look again, because this game is more than just crazy mech characters. As hard as it is to believe, this is actually Nintendo being so impressed by Street Fighter II that they had to make their own one-on-one fighting game, their first since Urban Champion. The gameplay is simplified and the graphics are understandably archaic, but you can see the Street Fighter influence in every fight. What's cool about this game is how Nintendo went all-in when developing it, not only giving us cool backgrounds, but also loading the Famicom cartridge with 36 different characters, which was the largest roster in a fighting game until The King of Fighters '98 rolled in with 38. Much like Downtown Nekketsu March, there aren't any English-language magazine reviews for Joy Mech Fight. But don't let that get in the way of checking out one of Nintendo's weirdest fighting games. This is a great addition to the Nintendo Switch Online service.