Code of Princess EX - Nintendo Switch

If you have played a game called Guardian Heroes, then you have an idea of what type of game this is. In Code of Princess EX, Princess Solange and her motley crew of warriors, mages and thieves (if you want to call them that) have to stop the spread of evil monsters through the kingdom. This is an enhanced version of the 3DS game but with better graphics and rebalanced gameplay. The game is a sidescrolling brawler that allows you to shift up and down through (3) horizontal planes to dodge and defeat your enemies. Each character has unique melee and ranged attacks and the more levels you beat (they can be pretty short and to the point), the more characters you unlock to play and upgrade as. You also gain new upgrade perks that you can assign to either give you more HP, Magic points or help you do stronger attacks against bosses. You can purchase others and swap them out as you like between characters. As you progress, your characters will automatically upgrade as well. The physical edition does come with a full color instruction manual and a mini cd with songs from the game. One thing of note for anyone who played the original 3DS game, although the graphics are a bit better and the gameplay/combat rebalanced, there is one huge change: You can no longer assign individual skill points to characters in order to upgrade. Even though you can swap out perks and upgrade automatically, the first game allowed you to gain a number of skill points as well that you could assign permanently to your overall health, magic, attack power etc. You can longer do this. For example, you could grind a few battles and assign all of your skill points to your melee attack to give you a strong upper hand but this is not the case in this version. These skill are distributed automatically when you upgrade now. Which means that you will have to do a lot more grinding before you can advance through latter levels for certain characters. Also, the English dub is no longer available - it is Japanese with English Subtitles only! The comedy is still funny and quirky, but anyone looking for the Atlus release's dub might be disappointed. Overall a fun and challenging game with better graphics and quirky characters...but with a few omissions. The soundtrack is also solid. I do recommend it but know what you are getting into!

The original Code of Princess was released on the Nintendo 3DS in April 2012 and was a great game. It featured superb English voice acting by Laura Bailey and others and was genuinely a great game also featuring stereoscopic 3D. While fighting as princess Solage, you team up with dozens of other characters you meet in battle that you can later have on your roster to fight as and aid you in battle. Now the game has been remastered and re-released on current day consoles including the Switch in higher resolution. The game plays great and is a fun ride that has replay-ability in leveling up characters and finding new gear. The only downside I see is that the English voice acting is just gone this time now featuring only Japanese voice actors with English subtitles. This slight downgrade is glaring but acceptable considering that you can now fight alongside another player in couch co-op. If you are looking for a great co-op game in line with Double Dragon then this is a game I can easily recommend. But hopefully we get an update to allow the download of the English language voice-overs at some point in the future.

This is another game I knew very little about. I had a friend who had got it for 3DS and recommended it. I have always been a fan of beat em ups, especially arcade style. This game gave me exactly that. Its a great looking game, with a fun button mashy type control to it. I played the story mode which was fairly weak in premise and characters, but sets the stage for the quest-like advancement through fights. It definitely has a different perspective geared toward a quirky, buzz word type dialogue. It goes, story, fight, story, fight. You can repeat fights with new characters that add on to best times and experiences. I stayed interested enough through this because of the fun fights, the story won't be the reason you stay, but can work to make this game fun. That's what you will get from this. I am not disappointed with my purchase.

"Code Of Princess" was originally released for the 3DS in 2012, and is a modern take on the classic 2D side-scroller beat-em-up from the old arcade days. This Switch "EX" version comes with a few quality of life changes, such as couch co-op and additional playable characters. The gameplay is quite similar to other 2D side-scroller beat-em-ups...except instead of full 8-way movement, there are 3 plains that you hop between to face enemies (think Fatal Fury or of course, Guardian Heroes). The stages play out in a sectionalized fashion, with each mission only being a 3-7 minutes long before going back to the selection screen. Story-wise, "Code Of Princess" is nothing exceptional: Solange, a scantily-clad princess with a giant sword, sets out to save her kingdom with a rag-tag band of friends. You know the drill here. The main campaign isn't terribly long–easily beatable in a few hours, but the real fun comes in trying out the bevy of available characters. Indeed, there are about 50 characters to choose between in Free-Play and Bonus mode (Campaign mode only lets you use the core cast of 8 characters, but that's fine). While not all of the characters are useful, it's fun to have the option of taking control of almost every enemy and ally in the game; some creatures such as the Dragon are crazy overpowered and blast to fool around with. So why only the 3 star rating? Well...the campaign is a bit short, and the graphics didn't make the transition so nice to the Switch. When playing in docked mode, it becomes obvious most elements were upscaled from a lower resolution. Furthermore, the English language track that was present in the 3DS version is inexplicably absent from this port. This is still a decent beat-em-up though, and earns its own place aside "Dragon's Crown" and the like.

This is a re-release of a GREAT 3DS title from a few years back. The original had JAP/ENG audio options, but due to a change in US publishing rights we lost what the majority felt was a pretty great dub. The gameplay is largely the same. It's still a pretty game with smooth movements and a huge number of characters with various abilities. Local couch co-op is possible and can be pretty fun. I'd recommend it. The story is pretty interesting, so don't press through the dialogue too quickly.

The biggest downside is that you will be replaying some missions to gain more levels. From what I've heard this game is more challenging than the original 3DS version (this is a port/remaster). If you don't mind grinding, then the game is worth it at only $40. Even more so if it goes on sale. Combat feels clunky at first, but once you get used to it, it becomes very fun!

Solid, old school beat’em up with some modern elements. Very much an up-res from the 3DS version so don’t go in expecting revolutionary graphics. Game is fun but it does suffer from repetitive aspects that more modern gamers may dislike. If you grew up during the late 80s-90s of gaming, this game will remind you of those times; for better or worse.

I think that if you like anime, a slower style of beat ‘em up, and A large array of playable characters this game is for you. I enjoyed the humor in the story, the visual art style, and most of the game play. It does fall a little flat as once you figure out a decent combo with your character that will be able to take out pretty much everything. I did hit my first “big boss battle” and got stuck. He was faster than me, stronger than me, and once I got him to half health he blocked everything I threw at him. It took a passably ok game and made it an annoying game. So I can’t say I finished it, but I played a lot and had some fun. But I also wouldn’t recommend it. It does come with a little mini disc with the sound track and a beautiful manual, but looks only go so far.