Bingo for Nintendo Switch – Review

(By Paige, this review is made with a review code, with thanks to Japanesenintendo.com)

BINGO for the Nintendo Switch launched last month in the eShop.

The price is $ 4,99, € 4,99 and GBP 4,49.

It features four different kinds of Bingo with up to four player local co-op. This game is playable in handheld, table-top with a special lay flat presentation or docked. There is no joy-con grip or pro controller support, meaning outside of handheld it is split joy-con only. It has a simple pleasant looking presentation however there is only one background song, which you can turn down.

These modes are Buzzer Bingo, Slide Bingo, Bingo Poker and Classic Bingo. All game modes are playable in games of up to eight, and all but Slide Bingo can be played in lay flat mode. Lay Flat is for tabletop play where the top half is flipped around to accommodate for four players.  Slide and Poker can have wait times of 10 secs, 30 secs or infinite. At the end of each game there is a leader board as there are other ways to accumulate points besides winning.

Number 4

Classic Bingo is normal bingo where a number generates and if it’s on your board you move to and press the number. If you don’t press the number before the timer runs out it blackens and you can’t use it. If you press the button when you don’t have the number you lose points and miss a turn. This mode doesn’t have a timing option so I wouldn’t recommend it for younger players.

Bingo Poker starts with four red tiles and three “GET”s. On your turn pressing the button stops the number roller, if you have that number you take it, otherwise it is passed to the next player. That player can take that number if they have it using one “GET” if not the number is gone and they have to roll for a new number. If anyone runs out of “GET”s then the passing number would go to the following player.

Every time someone rolls the right number or “GET”s one they have to discard one of their numbers. Once discarded the number is blackened and is out of play for any row. This makes the mode more strategic in spite of the randomness. As such it is one of the best modes for co-operative play and somewhat enjoyable for younger players. Bingo Poker games run in rounds of four.

There’s More

Slide Bingo is essentially a competitive slide puzzle. There are red tiles at the start and your goal is to make a bingo row. Each turn you get to select a row or column to move in a particular direction, this occurs on all players spaces. After every round another red tile is added to everyone’s bingo cards. Unless playing with COMs this mode has no randomness. It is also quite a competitive mode but not best for younger players.

Buzzer Bingo is similar to regular bingo, however only one person can claim a number that is generated. Anyone else that presses to get the number that isn’t first, blackens that number. This will also happen if you don’t claim the number. If you claim a number that is not yours, you will lose a turn and pay points to other players. It is entirely about remembering which numbers you have as fast as you can. As such it is probably the worst mode to play with younger players, but good for testing reflexes against friends and older family.

BINGO!

The game gets a 6 out of 10 score.

I don’t recommend playing this game against computers AI at all. This game is best suited to play with other players, and I found the most enjoyable modes to be Poker Bingo and Slide Bingo. It is a decently priced package, with good presentation and different modes. However the lack of joy-con grip or pro-controller support seems particularly odd. I also found it to be a game that has no profile log in meaning there is no data saved and it doesn’t show you as playing it like other games do. That doesn’t mean anything for this game but it is pretty weird. For what is probably the cheapest party type game on the switch I can recommended depending on what you plan to get out of it.