After playing Bleed, it would be very easy to be worried for the sequel not living up to expectations. While the sequel is very different from the original, it is not by any means a bad thing. At the core, Bleed 2 is still in the same spirit as the first entry, but just a bit more grown up and comfortable. Wryn is still the same cool chick she always was, ready to kick some you-know-what as before, except this time for less selfish reasons. The action anti-heroine has become a real heroine, and the bosses have got more creative and include more variety. However, this has comes at the expense of having less platforming segments, a worthwhile pay-off in the end as the most memorable parts of the first game weren't the platforming sections, but the radical boss fights, and Bleed 2 will not offer anything that disappoints on that front.

Episode 2: Giant Consequences seems to steady the ship for Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two, as the Admin's gigantic boss fight at the beginning sets the stage for the subsequent episodes. The challenges do a great job in testing the friendships of the heroes, and the surprise twist at the end is an unexpected surprise that makes sense, and proves that the Admin is a vile creature who will stoop to any level to get exactly what he wants. The "gameplay" sequences play out more or less the same as in the first episode, with more crafting tables to get that Minecraft experience, but the unfortunate scene rough cuts are present and detract from the quality of the story delivered.

Episode 1: Hero in Residence is a slow start to the new season of Minecraft: Story Mode, as Jesse tries to ready Beacontown for the Founding Day celebrations. Fortunately, this early section of the game is quite fun to interact with, and the various characters create various types of "mini-games" to accomplish. Unfortunately, once Jesse and Petra jump into the mines to start their adventure, the story takes a bit of a downward turn, becoming a little bit cumbersome to complete due to the dullness of Jack's character. Audio cues sometimes miss their mark and the scenes have rough cuts between them that disrupt the experience. While these may seem like minor issues, for a game that doesn't revolve a lot around "game mechanics" and focuses more on story-driven episodic adventures, the story and the sound need to be the best they possibly can be to make it a worthwhile experience.

Far more complex and stressful than it lets on, Nuclien is a delightful tap 'em up that genuinely challenges players to focus like little else on Nintendo Switch. Unlike most games on the console, the gameplay actually takes advantage of the touch screen by removing the use of buttons during stages. Each world has its own tap-based gimmick to overcome, with plenty of twists and tension to endure. While the last few stages are especially hard, there's a build-up to the difficulty and players are given all the tools they need to succeed just by paying attention. It isn't particularly long, but Nuclien's reflex-based gameplay is a fantastic way of engaging the brain and the Switch's underused hardware.

Nearly eight years later, Super Meat Boy remains a master class in balancing difficulty into engaging level design. The quirk burst level structure holds up incredibly well, allowing players to fail repeatedly without getting discouraged as the goal is always just a few seconds of gameplay away. As more content unlocks by clearing stages with an A+, collecting bandages, and finding Warp Zones, it's incredibly easy to play "just one more level" for hours on end. Unfortunately, the replacement score pales in comparison to Danny Baranowsky's original soundtrack, but the core gameplay is strong enough where this can be overlooked even if longtime fans will surely be disappointed. For anyone who hasn't played Super Meat Boy, though, there's little reason not to give it the chance it more than deserves.

More of a refinement of the original than seeking to right its wrongs, The Escapists 2 on Nintendo Switch adds more of what fans enjoyed in the first place, whilst still not quite advocating enough time to entice a newer crowd.

While dying in the same place over and over gets frustrating after awhile, Son of Scoregasm does a great job pushing the player to try one more time. Bite-sized levels are so chaotic that it feels like each one was a major achievement, even if the next level is patiently waiting to show you what the real definition of difficult is. Any twin-stick fan would be remiss not to pick up Son of Scoregasm, as it's just a delightful entry to the Vita catalogue, through and through.

Against all odds, Energy Invasion manages to take its almost too simple Breakout-inspired premise and spin it into something truly original and engaging. Adding the ability to fire off miniature, bouncing balls from the main ball is an ingenious addition that elevates the gameplay from just a mere homage. While there are only 50 stages between Linear and Invasion mode, the difficulty curve allows progress to feel earned, and Endless offers an unlimited amount of levels to bounce through. Along with Nick R 61's fantastic soundtrack, Energy Invasion is a surreal, and strangely addictive, evolution of the Breakout formula.

There is not much to Mom Hid My Game! - the game promises everything it has to offer in its title. It ends far too quickly for it to be recommended to anyone other than small children. What it does offer, though, is some surreal puzzles and amusing sound design. The fun factor comes down to enjoying escape the room style puzzles with a silly coat of paint and not much else.

If the rest of the season pass content is as specialised as this, the future for Project Cars 2 certainly looks diverse.

The ending to Little Nightmares: The Hideaway is very creepy indeed, and looks to tie things together with the exploits of Six from the main adventure, perhaps in the next piece of DLC. For now, though, this finely crafted puzzle-platform-adventure is highly enjoyable and truly gripping and tense in places. More laidback than The Depths, though, this makes for a better experience overall as the whole atmosphere can be appreciated more. A few minor gameplay hiccoughs cannot take away from the fact this will definitely be a few quid well spent, and hopefully the wait for the next episode is not too long.

The interest in learning Japanese has always been large for fans of gaming and geek culture, and tangential learning is a fantastic gateway into understanding the language. However, Hiragana Pixel Party works only in a tangential sense to memorise the easiest part of the language. With just a few tweaks, and some greater focus on learning more of the language, this could have been fantastic as either an actual teaching tool or learning aide. Sadly, though, instead it's about as useful as a deck of flash cards.

This review is of the PlayStation 4 version of Romancing SaGa 2, and this is something of a negative in the grand scheme. This new remaster is hitting almost every possible platform and this may not be the best option. While the upgraded graphics look a great deal better, they really don't require an HD TV and it feels like this would fit better on Nintendo Switch or Vita. Despite that, there is a great and original experience here, one that hardcore old school RPG fans may have completely missed out on. It may not be for everyone but this is a perfect opportunity to try a classic and unique Japanese experience.

Life is Strange: Episode 3 - Chaos Theory is the highest point of the series thus far, which contrasts with the dark and murky beginnings of the episode. While the fun of breaking into a school at night is mildly hampered by a weathered fetch-quest, no thanks to the junkyard stage from the previous episode, Chaos Theory doesn't spend too much time on that. Then it quickly accelerates to an unpredictable and even more dramatic conclusion that turns the series on its head. The voice acting is top notch as it helps to drive the story, while the game's technical aspects are still broken in terms of controlling Max's movements. One thing is for sure, however, Arcadia Bay will never be the same again, and the remaining iOS episodes cannot come soon enough.

While the earlier portions of Life is Strange: Episode 2 - Out of Time seemed like a way to flesh out the game time, the story takes a dip into menial tasks and clunky technical issues in a junkyard. However, once that part of the episode is over, the story ramps up into a thrilling conclusion that highlights the importance of every decision that Max has made up to this point. This episode shows that no time can be wasted dwelling on the unimportant aspects, and that Max's time-rewind mechanics can have fruitful results, while also walking on the line of unfortunate consequence. If anything, though, this does a fantastic job of elevating the stakes right through to Episode 3 - Chaos Theory.

Life is Strange: Episode 1 - Chrysalis is a great episode that sets up the high school world quite well and makes it a believable setting. While the story does proceed to get a little slow after the introduction of the time-rewind mechanic, it is necessary for the build-up to set the stage for the series going forward. It sets an intriguing premise that promises an epic finale centring around the mysterious storm that only Max knows is going to hit the small town of Arcadia Bay. While the app isn't perfect, and suffers from momentary lag, or crash issues, coupled with the sometimes clumsy control input that mixes up interactional finger taps with movement taps, this is still a great game to check out for newcomers who don't own the mainline consoles.

Human: Fall Flat on Nintendo Switch is neither good if labelled as a purposely "bad" game, nor as a physics puzzler. Why? It is purely because the controls make things more aggravating than hilarious, and, secondly, due to how uninspiring the puzzles themselves are. That's why.

Ridiculous fan-service aside, Caladrius Blaze is a very enjoyable STG. Each action-packed stage is filled with exciting moments, and they are all capped by thrilling boss battles. The eight pilotable ships offer a myriad of strengths and weaknesses, ensuring a high amount of replay value. While the graphics are far from cutting edge, at least they aren't unpleasant to the eyes. Everything from enemy ships to their bullets is clearly visible, so there's no chance that something life threatening will get lost in the chaos. The sound balancing is also a little suspect, so feel free to crank the music up, while turning the sound effects down. All in all, this is a worthwhile pick-up, so give it a shot sometime.

Million Onion Hotel is a wonderful new game to add to the mobile phone library of treasure troves. This is a surprisingly addictive release, with its fast-paced action mechanics complementing the required skill to achieve high scores. While the whimsical setting, and even weirder cut-scenes, may leave heads scratching, it is part of the overall charm. Whether it's fighting off asparagus, or taking on large onions, this is a required title for those seeking a fast and exciting finger-tapping adventure to an overbearing and scary countdown clock.

Lineage 2: Revolution is a reminder that there's a reason some things haven't really been done before. If it weren't for the weird way it approaches IAPs, this would have still only rated slightly higher. It's not particularly exciting, and setting it down almost has a lifting of weights from one's back feeling to it. Grinding gets old quickly, and the micro-managing of so many different things is so overwhelming that many might find themselves not even bothering with half of it. The game gives special rewards just for not playing it.

SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition brings together everything that made the original release such a breath of fresh air in a crowded turn-based strategy field, and adds in all the post-release content to well and truly make this live up to its name. With perfect touch-screen controls throughout in handheld mode, added to the already excellent controller support from other iterations, this is easily one of the most accessible games in the genre, and definitely one of the most enjoyable on Nintendo Switch, full stop.

The idea and mechanic behind Mudd Masher is simple enough to easily pick-up and play, whether on a commute or at home. However, as the few minutes of playing become hours, the mechanic withers away into a repetitive and boring slog that rarely has anything to keep playing for except a tile-counter. The finger-swiping mechanic isn't always accurate, as the sprite-based character sometimes jumps in the opposite direction to the swipe, while scaling large procedurally-generated stages to combat the monsters becomes a chore with the larger stages. The base ideas in this game are good, and, with a lot of fleshing out, has the capacity to greatly improve if future updates are released.

Chaos;Child is a deviously clever visual novel from start to finish. It plays the reader like a fiddle by presenting all the ingredients for a mystery novel, but without some of the necessary tools to solve it. A megalomaniac mystery fan will look for a logical solution finding none as the important pieces are hidden away from the protagonist, and by extension, the reader. It might seem insane and risky, but it works extremely well and creates a memorable read that, while perhaps annoying for some due to certain choices made during the prose, will impress many others. Like most visual novels, it is not a crowd-pleaser, but for the intended audience it is a must read, and one that will not easily be forgotten.

Both tables in the Pinball FX3: Carnivals and Legends pack offer a moderate challenge that, being offered for free for a limited time, complements well the already free table offered with the game on Switch, Sorcerer's Lair. They indeed both feature a challenge that is a little higher and should serve as a good continuation from the aforementioned free table for people who really got into Pinball FX3 through that one and then felt like dabbling in some more advanced tables, while still being fairly manageable for less skilled players. They are both well worth the purchase even now that they are not free anymore.

While larger maps are irritating to navigate, there's so much to love about this experience that it's hard to really care. Thankfully, with the added replay value, you can start the series and finish it a couple times in anticipation for the final book, and it should hold up just fine.

Both tables in the Pinball FX3: Carnivals and Legends pack offer a moderate challenge that, being offered for free for a limited time, complements well the already free table offered with the game on Switch, Sorcerer's Lair. They indeed both feature a challenge that is a little higher and should serve as a good continuation from the aforementioned free table for people who really got into Pinball FX3 through that one and then felt like dabbling in some more advanced tables, while still being fairly manageable for less skilled players. Son of Zeus might be the more interesting of both with some more crazy ideas, while Adventure Land feels more like a classic, "all mechanical," real life table, but that fits the theme so well for the latter and both offer such different experiences that they complement one another perfectly at the end of the day. They are both well worth the purchase even now that they are not free anymore.

Brawlout attempts to fill a niche that is currently not occupied on the Switch. Unfortunately, being plagued by a rushed launch, it is not fully polished and feels lacking in content. Combat, the main focus of this platform fighter, feels clunky and requires a fair amount of tweaking before it's "just right." Paired with a handful of bugs and questionable mechanics, competitive players might not be satisfied with the current status of this title, but more casual players or those who want a party game with friends can find some enjoyment to be had here.

Despite some snarly camera issues, A Hat in Time should not be overlooked. Behind the vivid graphical style lies a charming and cute platformer that provides even the most experienced players a challenge. A hoard of collectables will help extend the life, and an excellent soundtrack befitting of the genre will ensure that ears will also be delighted. Hats off to the developers!