Cast your minds back to the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase earlier this month. One of the most surprising games featured during the presentation was Tokyo Scramble, a stealth-horror hybrid where you have to escape from dinosaur-esque creatures. And you can do so alone or with the help of friends via GameChat and GameShare.

Not only was the announcement a surprise, but so was the release date — 11th February 2026, just less than a week after the Direct. Well, that’s cool! Plus, the game was developed by one of the co-devs of Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia. Sounds interesting, right?

Unfortunately, just a week after release, it seems like people aren’t too hot on the game. We haven’t managed to check it out ourselves, but looking at reviews and discussion online, opinions range to “a neat experiment” to “campy” to “very rough”.

With only three critic reviews on Metacritic — all of which score the game at 5 or below — and an average score of 37 on OpenCritic (after 11 reviews), Tokyo Scramble’s big reveal doesn’t seem to have paid off.

Take Monster Vine’s Spencer Legacy’s thoughts on the main gameplay element, for example: “The stealth mechanics that serve as the very core of Tokyo Scramble are more irritating than compelling, especially since you die in a single hit.” Technical issues and poor writing hampered what was otherwise a game with “some neat ideas”, with the outlet landing on a 2/5 score.

Azario Lopez over at Noisy Pixel similarly sees the potential, but says Tokyo Scramble takes the “campy moments… too far”. Again, mechanics, gameplay, and visual issues hinder the experience a lot, with Lopez concluding: “I respect the ambition behind trying something strange and new, especially for a fresh IP, but ambition alone doesn’t carry a game this far”, scoring it a 4/10.

It’s not all bad, of course; Fernando Lorde at Brazilian outlet Nintendo Blast awarded the game a 7/10, praising that ambition, while acknowledging that (translated via Google): “it feels like a melting pot of ideas and mechanics lost in a feverish teenage dream about relationships and subterranean monsters.”

Outside of reviews and the odd Reddit thread about the game, online chatter seems pretty muted about the game overall. But the consensus seems to be that Tokyo Scramble is a swing and a miss for most, though if you like campy, ambitious experiences, you might find something to love.

Of course, we’re just going by what others have said, so we’d love to hear from any of you lovely readers who have actually played the game — or are even a little bit interested in it! Do you think Tokyo Scramble is a misunderstood gem? Perhaps the camp and clunk have won you over? Or are you disappointed you jumped in head-first?

Vote in our polls below and let us know in the comments what you think of this unusual Switch 2 surprise!