Flame Keeper + Space Cows

Genre: Compilation

Players: 1

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Review:

Flame Keeper + Space Cows, released on Nintendo Switch in 2024, is a Compilation containing the two named games, released separately on Nintendo Switch in 2023 and 2019, respectively.

I have separately reviewed these games. Here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Flame Keeper	Action / Roguelike	1	C
tl;dr Flame Keeper is an Isometric Action Game with Roguelike elements where players take the role of an anthropomorphic piece of flaming coal fighting dark creatures and trying to return flame to massive pyres. There are some interesting ideas at the heart of this game, such as a system where players must use their own life force, fire, as a currency to unlock progress. However, these interesting elements usually just make for more tedium as you grind to refill your fire over and over again. This game isn’t without its charms, but you have better options within the genre.
Space Cows	2-Stick Shooter	1	C
tl;dr Space Cows is a 2-Stick Shooter about a farmer propelling himself around a space station with farts so he can rescue cows from mutant creatures. As silly as that may sound, the game’s humor gets old quickly, and what you’re left with is a 2-Stick Shooter with a central mechanic that you can only fire one shot at a time, which seems like a way for the game to artificially inflate the challenge, but not the fun. This isn’t a terrible game, but you have countless better options on Nintendo Switch.

In short… neither of these games is very good, but at the same time, neither is especially bad. At the very least they’re both action-focused while providing different styles of gameplay, making them a decent pairing, but I can’t say either one of these is a game I would feel compelled to recommend to anyone.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that a bundle like this will sweeten the deal by adding a greater value, so the question is… is that what’s going on here? Well… eh. At $18, this shaves $2 off the price of buying these games individually. And if we look at sale prices, these are two games that have each dropped down to the rock-bottom price of $2 in sales, and this bundle beats that by a whole… 40 cents. Either way it’s a savings over buying the games separately, to be sure, but it’s not like this is a great deal that overcomes the mediocre quality of the games contained within.

I suppose, if you’re looking for a pair of action-focused games on Nintendo Switch, you could do much worse than Flame Keeper + Space Cows, but you could also do so very, very much better. With neither of these games being particularly great, and the bundle pricing being decent but nothing special, I can’t imagine many players finding this worth picking up unless it’s on sale, they have a few extra bucks to spend, and one of the included games strikes their fancy for some reason. If that describes you, I don’t think you’ll be horribly disappointed by this bundle, as long as you keep expectations in check.

tl;dr – Flame Keeper + Space Cows is a Compilation containing the two named games, an Action Roguelike game and a 2-Stick Shooter, respectively. Neither of these games is particularly great, and while they’re not bad either, there’s little reason to get these over countless other games on Nintendo Switch. What’s more, the bundle, while not at all a bad deal, isn’t an especially great deal either. So kinda’ “meh” all around, I suppose.

Grade: C

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