It is worth noting that I gave Hidden Around the World’s predecessor, Hidden in my Paradise, a great score. But for some reason, Hidden Around the World resonates less with me. It’s cute. It’s fun while it lasts. But with the frustrating bugs and very little narrative, it is also easily forgettable. One major problem I’d like to forget is that the game didn’t improve on Hidden in my Paradise: the same issues persist, which were easier to overlook the first time around. When there are already problems, don’t just copy and paste them into another game. It’s just the same, and that doesn’t cut it for me.

The Last Ninja is not likely to find new fans. The archaic nature of them makes them awkward to play, whereas there are plenty of other retro options that are much more instantly familiar and comfortable to play. They are enormously important, influential games, however, so if you’re here for the history and heritage of video games, then by all means, struggle through this collection, because it is right up there with the most famous retro series that we just don’t talk about that much.

Arcade Archives is doing an exceptional job in properly preserving games that would otherwise be left to dodgy emulators or lost to time. Quester might not be the best arcade game you’ve ever played, but it is a moment in gaming history, and it’s enjoyable enough. I, for one, am glad it’s available on modern platforms.

On the Game Cube app, there is Mario Strikers. That is an excellent example of a time where Nintendo and its party sports developers had a handle over the balance between capturing the basics of the sport and making it arcade fun. Now, though, they’ve lost the plot entirely. I genuinely don’t understand who this is for, but it isn’t me. Or anyone that I know who loved what Mario Tennis once was.

Games these days are rarely “finished”, but I’m not 100% certain that a smaller niche title like Speedball will see much in the way of post-release content and patching. If it does, it could evolve into a nice little game for those who fondly remember the original – but as always, I can only review what’s in front of me, and at launch, there’s just not enough of Speedball to make it a particularly compelling prospect at full game price.

PBA Pro Bowling 2026 on the Nintendo Switch has an extremely short lifespan, thanks to the lack of multiplayer and just one meaningful single-player mode. The development team really have done a good job of capturing the sport, and it’s a substantial improvement on FarSight’s previous efforts, which were both dry and not quite nuanced enough to do the sport justice. This gets that right, but just imagine going to the bowling alley to play a game by yourself. It’s not half the experience without friends around, and that applies to both the real sport and the digital adaptation.

Sugoroku isn’t a brilliant board game. It’s not Wingspan, or Catan, or Lords of Waterdeep. It’s not even Hero Quest or Talisman. But sometimes a game has cultural resonance beyond the entertainment value of its mechanics and systems. Sugoroku is as Japanese as Shinto, Kabuki, Pikachu and Sushi. And for that sociological reason, it’s actually worth having a take on Sugoroku and playing it. This one is actually one of the best examples of it.

But these titles do deserve to be remembered as part of the overall patchwork that the games industry grew out of, and I’m genuinely happy that I had the chance to discover Rammy’s Great Adventure. It’s not an easy thing to recommend to anyone because… Well, the Switch already has so many great roguelikes. But if you’re in the mood for something eclectic and eccentric, or just a piece of gaming history that you absolutely haven’t played before, Rammy’s Great Adventure and its sequel and the existence of this remake is genuinely fascinating.

If you are the type that might have bought a Terminator 2 game back in the 1990s when it was something of a cultural institution, and as long as you stick to the regular difficulty modes you’ll enough to entertain you here. Otherwise, though, this is going to be a bit niche for everyone else.

If you’ve never played Tomb Raider, then you can grab this and enjoy the ride. It still looks comparable to other modern titles on Switch 2. The action is also taut and, the first time through, exciting. The thing is, though: Tomb Raider just isn’t worth replaying that often. The best games – as works of art – delight over and over, no matter how familiar they become. With Tomb Raider, and so many other blockbusters over the last 15 years, familiarity just makes the lack of creative inspiration behind them and the slavish devotion to risk-free content delivery all the more apparent.

It is way, way better than Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, and it could be great for you if you like your games on the とても難しい side, or if you don’t already have a copy of the still excellent Bubble Symphony to hand. If you’re after that classic Bubble Bobble gameplay, however, the original is still the best.

Still, while Kirby Air Riders won’t be remembered in the countdowns of Nintendo’s greatest games, and certainly won’t have the longevity that Sakurai brought to Smash Bros., it’s a fun distraction and the kind of thing that you’ll pick up every six months or so for a quick blast and laugh. And sometimes that’s all a game needs to be.

Football Manager 26 is for the diehards alone for this reason. It’s frustrating to deal with the bugs and UI changes, even if the core game remains basically the same. If you were to imagine this game without those issues, however, the new ideas and enhancements that are in the game are universally good and, whether it is just a matter of patches or waiting for Football Manager 27, there are very good reasons to get very enthusiastic about this series again.

I’m going to hazard a guess and say that the potential audience for Sacred 2 Remaster is very small. It’s a very simple, grindy, button-masher action RPG with a totally irrelevant plot. If you’re going to play and enjoy this, it’s because you get hooked on that simple, basic gameplay loop. And if you do… well, welcome to dozens upon dozens of hours of it. If you’ve never played Sacred 2 before, but enjoy Diablo-likes or Eurojank like Risen, Gothic or ELEX, then there’s every chance you’ll find this one amusing (and in the right way).

Ghost of Yotei achieves what it set out to, in that it wanted to take what makes Ghost of Tsushima so popular (the visual engine, the combat, Sucker Punch’s open worlds) and transport it to a “barely settled” location where they could give us a rip-roaring, all-American Wild West story. So… good on them for achieving that, I guess. But, as I brace for the inevitable comment moderation job ahead, I gotta be honest and say I just didn’t care for any of it. Or the way it capitalises on the Japanese/Ainu setting rather than tries to work with it.

It’s also nice to have something in this genre that isn’t weighed down with all the mobile game contrivances that have taken over the puzzle/RPG hybrid in the years since. It’s unfortunate that it’s such a no-frills release (they couldn’t even put multiplayer in the thing!), and that this is the dictionary definition of a game that has “aged poorly,” but who knows? Perhaps Puzzle Quest really is back this time around, and the development team can use the momentum to finally deliver a second game that moves past the mistakes of previous efforts and builds on the heritage and prestige of the original.

As a result of these misfires, Lego Party finds itself in a position where there’s a lot to like about it and bravo to SMG for looking for ways to be creative while also producing a blatant Mario Party clone. On the other hand, it does show that where Nintendo has been producing them for decades now, this is a rookie effort. Perhaps part of the issue is that I played it on a Nintendo console, when I have the alternative sitting right there on the hard drive. On other platforms that don’t have a Mario Party, I can see this resonating more strongly. Unfortunately, though, I can’t see it being a particularly memorable experience for anyone in the long term.

I don’t know if Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is going to turn me into a fan of these mecha games, but I certainly enjoyed the combat and design enough that I’m keen to check out some more to see if I do like something about the genre after all. Just be aware that the performance is pretty suspect at times. If you can handle that, then this is certainly an ambitious and entertaining sci-fi game for on the go.

Ultimately, perhaps we do need to remember that this is FuRyu’s first self-published game, and the existence of Varlet at all is, itself, an experiment. We didn’t get the usual creative subversion that we’ve come to expect from the company behind the likes of Lost Dimension, The Caligula Effect, Crystar, and Reynatis, but in taking this step as a company, perhaps FuRyu will be able to protect its ability to continue to do those games in the future. Valent itself, unfortunately, is a game I wish I could love more than I did.

With dozens of characters drawn from the series and a full ten courses, Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots does act like a celebration of the series to date. However, it’s also painfully clear that this game comes from a new developer trying to find their place with such a venerable series. HYDE was timid to try to be too innovative, but at the same tim,e clearly struggled to achieve the same precision from the previous developers. Unlike Clap Hanz’s Easy Come Easy Golf, HYDE’s game actually wants to challenge players and require skill. And I’m quite sure that a patch or two will get the game to where it needs to be. For now, however, as enjoyable as Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is, it’s just a touch too frustrating for its own good.

As a big-time Shantae fan, I’ve loved having the opportunity to fill in the gap for the game in the seies that we very nearly didn’t get. It’s more a curiosity than something essential – more recent titles in the series are definitely better, but if this continues to breathe life into the series, then I’m all for it.

All of this leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, Mario Party Jamboree is the best thing that has happened to my favourite Nintendo multiplayer properties. On the other hand, this… this was just not Nintendo’s finest hour. A clunky mess of a package that seems not to have been thought through, coupled with an infuriating limitation on online play really lets it down. Also, when you think about it, most of the really good stuff was in the Switch original, and while Jamboree TV adds more, it doesn’t add anything that tops what we already have. Overall, the disappointment of the Switch 2 launch window, despite being essential if you haven’t played it before.

What’s in Tamagotchi Plaza is well-made enough and entertaining, particularly for the younger audience, but this is a very limited and shallow game that somehow manages to lack the meaning and intellectual value of Tamagotchi themselves. As an opportunity to play a few little minigames with your favourite critters, it has value, but as an experience where you get to hang out in the world of these mascots, Tamagotchi Plaza is lacking badly compared to the likes of Hello Kitty Island Adventure or Disney Dreamlight Valley.

Civilization VII is an excellent demonstration of just how good mouse controls can be and the game is significantly better than the Switch 1 release for it. Unfortunately, while the interface and UI is now an order of magnitude better, nothing can hide the fact that Civilization VII is just not very good. I hadn’t played it since launch, so I took this opportunity to dig in and see what the patching has achieved over the last few months, and it’s still not good. I don’t think anything can fix the way the game soft-resets with each era and effectively splits one campaign into three. It’s just broken game design.

I truly wish I had better things to say about Spray Paint Simulator. I do have good things to say: it’s really chill, the graphics are vibrant, the painting gameplay is great, and the options cover a good amount of possibilities. Unfortunately, the game is weighed down by its clunkiness and lack of story. (Yes, even a game about spray painting needs a story.) I would like to say I will go back to it, but I’m left wondering if I’ll ever feel that itch to return.

For all my criticisms here, I do want to see another take at this. There’s absolutely room for an anime Returnal, and the base mechanics are there. Scar-Lead Salvation does play well. It is so achingly close to a good game. It’s just crushed by trying to spread that quality across a very, very long gauntlet.

I like my retro gaming to be bathed more in rosy nostalgia and details about what made a game great or a company significant, not drenched in cynicism. Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics isn’t awful by any stretch, but it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that it is something of a cynical cash grab first and foremost. Do better, Arc System Works!

I came into Lushfoil Photography Sim expecting to love it, and maybe that was a mistake. I do like it. I plan on returning to it for little escapes sometimes (emphasis on little). There is just something I love about taking a view that countless others have seen and putting your own twist on it; as it turns out, that feeling can also exist thanks to video games. Unfortunately, the camera controls never became intuitive, and accessibility around motion sickness is lacking. Lushfoil Photography Sim has a solid base, but I could never recommend it to someone without also pointing out the heavy negatives.