Echoes Of The End (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £32.99)

Verdict: Punching above its weight

Rating:

Ah, Iceland! Land of vikings, Björk, absurdly expensive bottles of beer — and now, it turns out, ambitious if slightly underwhelming video games.

Echoes Of The End was made in Iceland by a small studio called Myrkur Games. Normally, I don’t really go into the provenance of the titles I’m reviewing — but, in this case, it matters for two reasons.

The first is that Echoes Of The End is very Icelandic. Technically, it’s set in the world of Aema, with warring magicians called ‘vestiges’ and mysterious glowing outcrops.

But, really, it feels as though its set in a version of its home country, with glaciers and volcanoes. It’s a wonderful setting that seems immediately more real than those in most other fantasy games.

 And the other reason to mention the provenance of Echoes Of The End is that — wow! — it was made by a small studio? It certainly doesn’t look like it. This is a cinematic adventure in the vein of the Uncharted games.

Your goody vestige, Ryn, clambers, leaps and occasionally fights her way across beautifully detailed landscapes. 

At first glance, I’d have told you that this was made by hundreds of people, not tens.

The problems become visible on subsequent glances. The movements of the characters are a little clunky, which can be frustrating when you’re trying to land a precise jump.

The combat, which makes use of Ryn’s various magical powers, is also not as fluid as it might be. There were, at least on my playthrough, a noticeable number of bugs and glitches.

Still, this small Icelandic team is clearly worth keeping an eye on. Let’s hope that Echoes Of The End is actually the start of something zing, boom, as Björk would say.

Drag x Drive (Nintendo Switch 2, £16.99)

Verdict: Part brilliant, part bland

Rating:

Surely you’ve heard: the Nintendo Switch 2 has a new mouse mode. Just detach its two Joy-Con controllers, lie them on their sides, and you can move and click them like you’re working at your desktop PC.

Except, outside of the first-person combat of Cyberpunk 2077 or a few turns of Civilization VII, there hasn’t been much need for those mice. My Joy-Cons have remained firmly upright.

Until now. Drag x Drive, made by Nintendo themselves, is the first proper showcase for the Switch 2’s mouse mode.

It’s effectively a game of wheelchair basketball in which pulling back on one detached Joy-Con rotates one wheel. Pulling back on the second rotates the other wheel. Do both at the same time, and you’ll speed forwards in a straight line. Whee!

The Joy-Cons do other things, too. Waggle one in the air to signal for the ball. Wave your hand in the direction of the hoop to shoot.

It’s such an unusual set of controls that it takes some getting used to — but, once you’ve done so, it starts to feel like magic.

Which is why it’s a shame that almost everything else in Drag x Drive feels so humdrum.

There’s not much to do beyond the online or offline matches of 3x3 basketball. And those matches take place in a grey arena with grey characters and grey ambience.

What on Earth happened to Nintendo’s normal exuberance?

They’re showing off the Switch 2’s mouse capabilities, but they’ve dimmed everything else. What a drag.