New Switch Exclusive Game is Having a Rough Time

The newly-released Nintendo Switch exclusive scuba diving adventure game Endless Ocean: Luminous has earned mixed reviews from critics, making it one of the lower-rated Nintendo-published games in some time. Switch game Endless Ocean: Luminous is the third Endless Ocean game developed by Akira, with the first one releasing as a Wii exclusive in 2007, followed by a sequel in 2009.

The previous Endless Ocean games weren't exactly runaway hits either, with review aggregate scores landing in the 72 and 76 ranges for the first game and its sequel, respectively. Considering this, it's unlikely that many fans had particularly high hopes for Endless Ocean: Luminous to buck the trend of poorly-received Endless Ocean games. Now that the game has been released to the masses and the review scores are out, Endless Ocean: Luminous is the lowest-rated game in the series to date.

According to review aggregate site OpenCritic, Endless Ocean: Luminous has a 63 overall rating, with only 21% of critics recommending it. While there are a couple of high scores for the game in the 8/10 range, it seems the majority of publications gave it 7/10 or lower, with a few even giving it 4/10 and 5/10. It seems many critics found the game to be unexciting and repetitive, with the multiplayer mode doing little to improve matters.

One of Endless Ocean: Luminous' main-selling points is its support for 30 player multiplayer. This feature lets players explore Endless Ocean: Luminous' game world with friends. Previous Endless Ocean games had multiplayer support, but not to the scale of Luminous. Unfortunately, Luminous multiplayer doesn't seem to have impressed critics all that much, though the consensus points to it being superior to the game's single-player experience.

It's rare for a Nintendo-published game to release to such low review scores, but it's certainly not unheard of. Some of the Nintendo-published games in 2024 have been released to lower-than-expected reviews but have still managed to