Gunbrick: Reloaded

If you can tolerate the punctilious demands of the basic movement, you may wring some joy out of Gunbrick: Reloaded. There's definitely a clever idea here, and the later levels offer some trickier puzzling to get your teeth into which mitigates the problem a tiny bit – but getting to that point may be a bridge too far given the resolutely irritating early stages. It's a shame, because a lot of effort has clearly gone into its presentation, but Gunbrick: Reloaded just isn't want we're looking for from a puzzle-platformer.

An entertaining and agreeably clever remaster of the classic puzzle platformer, with added 3D bonus levels that give the formula a welcome and devious shake-up.

Gunbrick: Reloaded is just super fun and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging but not punishing puzzle platformer. The standard levels and boss battles are charmingly difficult and the new isometric mode is a blast, the game just left me wanting more. Nitrome continues to show some great support for the Switch, and I personally can't wait to see what they have next up their sleeve.

Nitrome's signature is designing increasingly complex levels out of the most basic gameplay mechanics, and Gunbrick: Reloaded shows how well that formula can work—even when that mechanic is as simple as counting.

Puzzle platformers are generally pretty common on the Switch, so it can take some effort to stand apart from the pack in some way...