While it’s not to the standard of its rhythm games, Rayark did well with its first RPG. Implosion looks gorgeous and is a very slick production. You can tell that it’s a game that comes from a studio that has had minimal need to develop narratives previously, and on the Nintendo Switch, the game’s mobile roots hurt it, but then the Nintendo Switch is also a portable console, and as a game that’s best played in short bursts, it’s a good one to have sitting on the hard drive or memory card.

The Seven Deadly Sins is a fun anime franchise, and that sense of fun does translate to the game. It’s not a perfect game by any means, and has some genuinely aggravating elements, though, and that means it is going to be one that only fans of the franchise are going to enjoy.

Late Shift is definitely a step in the right direction for choose-your-own-adventure film-games. Consider this: when reviewing a game or a film, we often look at content, characters, and (voice) acting. Late Shift stands up to each of these elements on its own to a certain degree. Some of the content verged on deep but never quite made it, the characters were solidly average, and the acting was surprising, in the best way.

It's not an original game by any means, though it also doesn't do anything wrong. I'd be surprised if this game was still finding new fans at this stage, but it's not a bad one to have on the Nintendo Switch for playing on the go either.

There are better farming simulations and JRPGs on the Nintendo 3DS. I generally enjoyed my time exploring, harvesting and killing things, but I could not escape the feeling that I had done this all before, and that there were better individual examples of each genre out there for the system.

There’s a lot to like in Vikings, even if the game’s never able to effectively articulate how it’s different to the genre’s greats. It manages - just - to be more than a by-the-numbers Diablo clone thanks to the creative energy that went into its bosses and environment design, but it relies too heavily on that, and the assumption that you’ll be playing the game in multiplayer. As a single player experience, the limits on what Vikings can offer become distracting; making it good for a lazy afternoon of grinding fun, but not something that you’ll remember over the longer term.

It’s a beautiful, elegant genre, and, when it all clicks, it’s a timeless formula. Unfortunately, Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy just asks too much of its players.

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.

Blue Estate is a fun little shooter that has a sense of humour, but ends too soon. I did enjoy the game but also did feel that it got a little too repetitive. If you're a fan of on rail shooters this is sure to please. If not, it still might be worth a whirl, since it is priced appropriately for what it offers.

Temtem’s disappointing, because it promised to be so much. In a genre that has been so utterly dominated by one particular property, and then lightyears back to the nearest rival, here was a game that seemed like it had the ambition and scope to actually rival Game Freak’s giant on its home turf. Unfortunately the result is more akin to the more egregious MMOs – a waste of time that exists to be a waste of time.

I would happily recommend something like Rogue Legacy to anyone, because it's a game that transcends its genre to become something special. La-Mulana never quite achieves that, so it's only ever going to be a cult favourite.

It's not a great game, but it does enough to deserve its license.

teamcoil’s PUSS! is memorable for its visual style and bizarre aesthetics, but the gameplay sadly doesn’t match the creativity of its graphics. For any player excited by the surreal dialogue and fearsome bosses, there will be another player who won’t be engaged in navigating simple mazes. I anticipate the difficulty will also be prohibitive for some players, and it does feel like the challenge and repetition are the only things stopping the game from being overly short (and there’s only so much that can be done to spice up this style of gameplay, too.) I love that the Switch’s eShop is a home for strange games like this one, and I appreciate the nod to Newgrounds culture, but this one left me wanting a lot more.

On the surface, Sheltered 2 looks great. The formula: take the original title and add factions. Easy, right? It seems easy enough until the pages and pages of information pop-ups appear, expecting players to remember everything immediately or else get stuck. I'd describe it as a cognitive nightmare. Back at the beginning of this review, I wondered if adding factions is enough to change the middle reviews that Sheltered received. In my case, it does not. It's fun enough in a sim/management way, but the post-apocalyptic thing has been repeated what feels like infinitely and lacks originality, and factions just complicate the game to the point there's no more room in my brain for information to remain there. There is very little to become emotionally attached to. The result? A middling review.

The easiest way for me to tolerate A Healer Only Lives Twice was to play it in short bursts, before my mind wandered and longed for a meatier RPG experience. I

I must reiterate that The Ascent is gorgeous, and for a team of just a dozen developers, they have outperformed themselves in that regard. Unfortunately, because the narrative is so anaemic and there is so little that connects the narrative to the aesthetics and gameplay, The Ascent ends up feeling empty. There’s nothing memorable about the characters, the world is dull and far too large for how little it offers, and while, yes, the story hits those key cyberpunk talking points, the developers largely missed the nuances that elevate cyberpunk beyond pulp fiction. So, again, the game’s fine, if you are looking for a generic sci-fi shooter (and can ideally drag a friend along). As a work of cyberpunk, though, it’s a failure.

If you're a fan of old-school Wizardry, and don't mind delving into the B-grade of the genre, then like me you'll get a kick out of this even as you grumble about its faults.

From the opening cut scene through to the various platforming puzzles, Shiftlings feels like more than just a simple platformer with a gimmick. Instead of inserting a joke and then going about the level design like it never happened, here the joke is very integral part of the experience.

You know if you're the target market for it or not just by looking at it. If you are, then aside from some cumbersome controls and a generally generic approach to the genre, Moonshades is a perfectly decent effort that will scratch an itch. If you're a more peripheral fan of the 'crawler, or new to it all, I'd recommend something like Operencia or Hyakki Castle first. Both of those titles are far more vivid and creative efforts. Without a long history in 'crawlers yourself, unfortunately, Moonshades will likely be befuddling.

Totes The Goat takes one of my favourite retro games, and does a decent job of modernising it. The developer would have benefited from the actual Q*Bert license, and some creativity of their own so that the game didn't seem like such an earnest attempt to cash in on one of the biggest and most influential mobile titles, but yes, Totes is genuine good fun, and I imagine I'll get many months of play out of this one.

Fallen Legion shows all the potential in the world to become a great IP. The core ideas are strong, and the attempt to tell an interesting, deep story is admirable. Unfortunately this one doesn’t execute on its ideas as well as it should, and, critically, this lets down the game's themes, but it is on the cusp of being something special.

If you do like Space Harrier and similar, and you're familiar enough with the Neptunia series to know the characters and enemies without needing to have them introduced to you, then Top Nep is a short burst of nostalgic-themed fun. It's also a decent game to introduce people to the genre, thanks to the modest difficulty option, while eventually scaling to something more challenging to give the genre faithful something to sink their teeth into. I have very few issues with Top Nep as an arcade action throwback. My issue is that, as a Neptunia fan, the less-than-lip service paid to the property left the overall experience feeling humourless and soulless. For all the faults and missteps of Neptunia over the years that is something I never thought I would be saying about a game in the series.

The Sims 4 leaves me feeling like the potential for greatness is there, but at this point we will have to wait and see if it ever gets realised.

Painting Workshop has alternatives all over the market, several of which are superior and offer some kind of inventive extra, but despite this it works brilliantly as an introductory doodle station.

Home Sweet Home isn't a classic that transcends its genre roots, but the developers behind the game show that they understand how fear works, how to build tension, how pacing should work in a good horror game, and how to create some shocking imagery. I wanted more of the promised delve into Thai ghost stories, but overall, as a genre fan I found this an engrossing enough diversion.

If you can push past the sense that Luc Bernard’s art deserves to be associated with something that is so much more, this game is a great filler in between whatever else you’re playing on the Switch.

Coteries of New York does a good job being a Vampire: The Masquerade game. The developers have captured the essence of the property, crafted an appropriate aesthetic and narrative environment, and avoided any inclination to try and "change" what Vampire: The Masquerade is. Playing this game feels every bit like playing the tabletop pen-and-paper experience with a good GM weaving the story. Sadly, by nature pen-and-paper RPGs are about fun stories rather than anything meaningful, and Coteries of New York doesn't really have anything meaningful to say. Throw in some confused mechanics and this one won't be remembered as a classic of the genre.

While the basic premise is a simple one, it is the added elements such as the day and night transitions, defense building, RPG-like elements and that online leaderboard that makes Over 9000 Zombies quite the enjoyable arcade game.

In the tradition of Worms Forts it’s an intriguing base-building strategy game, and the real-time nature of it solves one of the bigger issues of Worms Forts: that it could be bogged down to almost stalemate, making games drag on for ages. That being said, the game does need a lot more than what it’s offering, and as with all indie games, I wonder about the wisdom of making the game so heavily reliant on multiplayer. When players have to wait around for however long just to get a game going, they’re just as likely to go and play something else instead.

I soured quickly on Penny-Punching Princess. I love the art. I love the combat. I found the sharp challenge and simple, clean mechanics to all be very enjoyable. But I just couldn’t get past how shallow it really was in the end, and how the game failed to live up to the tantalising promises made in its lede. It could have easily been a 5/5 game, but instead it’s one of the real disappointments in 2018.

It is certainly not a bad game, but it feels like War of the Vikings has room to grow, and is currently not as much of an advancement over the last game as I would have liked.

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.

Hello Kitty Kruisers isn't a great game from an adult's perspective, and that's a bit of a wasted opportunity as there are plenty of adult Kitty fans out there. But where most games made for children are brutally bad, I don't think Kruisers is that. In fact, I think the developers have cleverly stripped back the elements of a kart racer that children struggle with, while leaving the elements that they're inclined to enjoy. And for parents that are dragged into playing this with their kids, just think; soon enough they'll graduate to Mario Kart.

As a proof of concept, Reigns: Three Kingdoms is intriguing. As far as allowing players to travel through history (and/or literature) and play out “what if” hypothetical scenarios based on moral decisions, there is clearly a lot of potential here. Is there a future where we can talk sense into Napoleon before he marches on Moscow, or give Romeo & Juliet a happy ending? Reigns could well give that to us. For it to truly work, though, the developers just need to manage continuity and introduce a sense of consequence to our actions when trying to reverse history. That way, when we successfully do achieve something, we can feel like actual heroes in the story.

Paradigm Paradox is not terrible. It’s a perfectly readable visual novel, and the twist it gives to the magical girls story – putting it in the context of an otome – was one worth exploring. However, I’ve got to say that I expect far better from Otomate. This is a studio that produces the most beautiful visual novels, with the most vivid characters and settings, of all. Against that studio’s lofty standards this one is, unfortunately, a big misstep.

For the very small niche of people who care that much about Snooker, however, Snooker 19 does deliver. There are more accessible Pool titles out there - including on the Nintendo Switch itself, but as an attempt to go the full distance with a deeply authentic simulation, Snooker 19 is a good and genuine effort.

That standout map is Egypt. It’s a complex arena, with wide desert fields interspersed with columns and trenches that really open up your tactical toolset.

Feather is a beautiful, soulful experience, which is sadly too limited for its own good.

For such a cheap little game I had plenty of fun with it, and blew through it well before I got bored with it.

It is a shame that Master Reboot seems to nail the atmosphere so well, because the story, puzzle and to a lesser degree visual elements, just do not come together to create a fully realised and enjoyable package.

Management games are, of course, incredibly niche, but as SEGA's Football Manager series has proven, there's a lot of potential in there for these games to also be utterly life-consuming. Is Franchise Hockey Manager 3 up to that standard? No quite, but it's on the right path.

So credit to Nintendo’s development teams for thinking outside the box. Unfortunately that’s about all the good I’ve got to say about Arms. I didn’t much enjoy this fighting game at all, to be honest.

The talent is there, and it's wasted on a game like this which, fun as it is, doesn't live up to the promise of its screenshots.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite gets things right where they matter most. Combat is entertaining and the addition of the Infinity Stones is a fresh and welcome addition. I also appreciate the diversity in how characters play and a storyline that does a serviceable job weaving two very disparate universes together. Visually Infinite misses the mark more often than not however, and the roster misses several opportunities in what gave me the impression that Marvel is more interested in promoting their current movies than catering to their overall fan base.

Venture Towns is, mercifully, free of microtransactions and is an odd delight to play on the big screen, where once Kairosoft was restricted to small mobile phone and tablet screens.

There are plenty of titles out there with a strong moral conscience that try to communicate with players by making "difficult decisions" the core gameplay loop. This includes This War of Mine, Papers Please, Reigns, Not Tonight, Beholder, Ministry of Broadcast, and plenty of others besides. Yes, Your Grace is guilty of not adding enough to this philosophy of game design, and thus I suspect that it is destined to be one of the lesser-remembered examples of the "genre." With that being said, there's still a lot to appreciate about this one, and it's wrapped up in such a lovely package that, if nothing else, it makes for an excellent lazy Sunday afternoon experience.

If you can handle the uncomfortable controls, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in some good old platformer shooting fun.

Meow Motors has its issues, but overall, it gets away with it all. It's a bright, colourful, charming and cheap little kart racer that kids can enjoy, and people who never seem to tire of kart racers will have a compulsive need to buy and mess around with. As we wait for the PlayStation 4 to finally have a great kart racer (Crash Team Racing is on its way), Meow Motors is nothing to cough up a hairball over.

Minoria is excellent, but it's also very limited. It's beautiful, the action is solid for the most part, and there are plenty of intriguing ideas running behind it. The game's problem is that it deserved a bigger vision than the modest execution, and while that is a much more preferable problem than the other way around (too much ambition for too little means), it still means that Minoria will be forgotten well before it deserves to be.

It’s a perfectly serviceable game with a lengthy campaign and plenty of customisation, but it lacks defining mechanics that inspire or excite players.

Neither side of the game will exactly challenge your mastery over their respective genres, but the cutesy aesthetic, light sense of humour, and general balance of the game is spot on. This is something that’s easy to play in the background while watching television or a movie, and sometimes that’s all you’ll need or want.

This game will not be for everyone, and there are superior platformers available on the market that offer a greater gameplay experience. With that said, control issues aside there is replay value, with each level giving you a ranking out of four stars based on how well you perform.

The Coma doesn’t outstay its welcome, and tells its story over five or so hours. Sadly it’s just not frightening enough. The implications of the story it’s telling are terrifying, and certainly this will discourage anyone who thought they wanted to do a couple of years education in South Korea, so the themes that form the basis of game are potent. But where Creeping Terror had me gripped with its aesthetics and tension and never let go, The Coma is simply too inconsistent and clean to really work as a piece of horror.

Unlike Nintendo's Mini NES retro console that was released last year, this is a more difficult package to recommend to people that didn’t grow up playing the games. I don’t think there’s been a better effort to archive the games on the Atari 2600 and bring them to modern players, but I just don’t think the people used to complex worlds, storytelling and gameplay that we have today will understand the value of these older games. But older players may well get a kick out of playing Basic Math again, to remind them of just how hard it was to act out excitement on that Christmas day when their parents thought they had found the perfect gift.

Jet Car Stunts is the kind of game that appears simple on the outside, but smacks you in the face with its sheer difficulty.

Unlike Nintendo's Mini NES retro console that was released last year, this is a more difficult package to recommend to people that didn’t grow up playing the games. I don’t think there’s been a better effort to archive the games on the Atari 2600 and bring them to modern players, but I just don’t think the people used to complex worlds, storytelling and gameplay that we have today will understand the value of these older games. But older players may well get a kick out of playing Basic Math again, to remind them of just how hard it was to act out excitement on that Christmas day when their parents thought they had found the perfect gift.

Overall Gravity Badgers is worth the time and thankfully the levels that cause the most frustration can be overlooked and forgotten thanks to the exceptional boss battles.

I can see myself replaying Crystalis at some point, and working at Athena until I do finally beat it, but for this collection to be really worth the price of admission, SNK needed to dip into its more recent history, and particularly the fighting game genre, where the company has a genuine leadership position. It didn't do that, so it's hard to shake the impression that you'd be better off with a couple of the dozens of Neo Geo Classics that are available as individual purchases on Switch.

Still, How to Sing to Open Your Heart is worth a look if you want some cute, lighthearted romance. It's full of heartwarming moments backed by fantastic artwork, and even if the attempts at dealing with more serious matter fall short, that's reason enough to join Myana on her adventures.

To criticise Pocket Academy; things tend to happen more slowly than in some of Kairosoft's other titles. You unlock new buildings and facilities more slowly, and run out of cash more quickly. Time also ticks by at a slower rate. The most directly comparable Kairosoft title, Hot Springs Story, is much more sprightly, and therefore the superior place to start if you're looking for just one Kairosoft sim for your Switch.

I shouldn't allow the presentation to bug me, but for Rory McIlroy, it does. Coupled with the limited range of play modes and a relatively shallow range of courses, and I was left with the impression that this game was certainly not EA Sport's focus this year.

The limited budget of an independent developer is clearly on show from start to finish, but there's an earnestness to the game that is really quite appealing. But if "walking simulators" don't do much for you, don't expect to get much out of this either.

The danger with coming up with something that is a clearly different creative vision is that you set expectations for what the rest of the game will be like. The art and concept of Pinku Cult are so compelling that the contrast with the incredibly mundane RPG mechanics and puzzles is all the more disappointing. This is a well-meaning but inconsistent experience. I hope the developers get a second shot, because there are more stories to tell here and I do think with a bit more experience they’d be able to build a game as strong as the concept.

Sparkle 2 may certainly be a game that has been played a hundred times before, but as it is on the PlayStation 4, it is truly a treat. The pick up and play aspect shines and the difficulty curve is spot on. It does get repetitive though, so short bursts are recommended. And I just can't get over how disappointing the lack of multiplayer is.

Of the two, I give the tip to the first Revelations, as that boat setting really is up there with the original Resident Evil’s mansion, and Resident Evil 0’s train as a distinctive and brilliantly designed environment. Otherwise I find these games to be unremarkable. Entertaining, but unremarkable.

Full Mojo Rampage isn’t exactly a genuine look at the mythology and aesthetic of voodoo, but the name drop of Baron Samedi and the other Loa lords is a nice touch. Still, it’s hard to imagine you’ll get much from this. Not when there are so many other great roguelikes out there.

Ittle Dew 2 has many good things going for it, but I am wondering whether Ittle might thrive more now if she sets off on her raft, unencumbered by trying to be part of another franchise's tradition, to discover a new land all her own.

Jump Force fulfils its central purpose - anime fighting - splendidly. Instead of focusing on that brilliance, the developers piled disconnected features from other games on top. With better utilisation of fanservice and context for the characters present, this could have gone down as Bandai Namco's best outing in the category, but the love still shines through.

10 Second Ninja X is fun, but I definitely had to limit it to smaller sized doses.

It’s only around 14-20 hours from go to final blow, depending on how frequently you need to repeat boss battles, and that feels about right. Flintlock isn’t a majestic epic in the vein of Elden Ring, and nor did it need to be. This is a nicely streamlined, elegant, and focused Soulslike, with an interesting setting to explore and some excellent, refined combat. This is a tough genre to get right, and the developers, in realising their limitations, have not over-extended themselves. The result is very playable and enjoyable.

Voltron VR Chronicle would have been far better if it was limited to being a “VR experience” rather than a VR game. An episode of Voltron like any other, but one that you watch from inside the cartoon’s world rather than through a TV.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, THQ Nordic will see fit to bring out a new de Blob game that takes the core idea of what makes de Blob an enjoyable time, and builds upon it by modernising the more archaic elements of the game.

The game itself is balanced quite well, and aside from blurry text that is nearly impossible to actually read, it’s an attractive and charming enough game. Where Of Mice And Sand ultimately suffers is that it doesn’t tell a story of survival, like its betters, and never convinces you of the urgency and desperation that you’re facing. It’s simply too gamey for its own good.

There are plenty of puzzles to work through of varying degrees of difficulty, and then there are daily puzzles to encourage you to log in each day. As with every mobile puzzle game, you earn experience points and "titles" as you play, which don't have any impact on the game whatsoever, but it's fun to see numbers going up. The real problem with Sudoku Simple+ is just how efficient it really is. Minimalistic elegance is fine, but this game doesn't even have a title screen, and the menu is just a block of text. Perhaps it's not a big issue for Sudoku, but there is a point where "no-frills" step into the realm of being just plain cheap.

For all its mechanical competency, The Surge feels as mechanical as its enemies through most of the experience. No where near enough was done with the science fiction theme, and after catching my attention with an intriguing set up, the game then lost me with a generally dull plot that it was never quite able to claw back.

Ultimately, the best way to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is in exceedingly short bursts. As a “switch your brain off and button mash” kind of experience it works and in so closely emulating Hades it is inherently entertaining. But it’s also soulless and draining to play for longer than a half hour here or there. It doesn’t even work as TMNT fan service since it behaves more like Hades. It is, simply, a pastiche that is simultaneously a decently made game but also a very bad creative work. If only the games industry were better at using the language to grapple with stuff like this.

Particulars is a game by smart people for smart people. It holds many instances of clever design choices that both entertain and educate, although its complex subject matter might leave some players in the dust.

Howl is an earnest effort with a strong aesthetic and creative vision. It’s easy to imagine that it’s going to find an audience among people who pick it up on a whim – because in screenshots and video, it does stand out – and then find themselves absorbed in the puzzles. Unfortunately, while it does get challenging, Howl outlives its welcome, and the strange decision to deliberately add repetition into something that should have focused on forward momentum really hurts it in the end. If it was half the game it would have been twice as impressive.

The low percentage chances of getting the really good slimes are where the microtransactions might have come in handy for the less patient, but with a bit of patience you’ll end up with the powerful team that you’re looking for, and there are certainly enough levels on offer to keep you playing for quite some time.

I floated through the campaigns without ever feeling too taxed. An online multiplayer mode would have helped mitigate this by allowing people to pit wits against other armchair generals, but alas Panzer Tactics is one of the rare strategy games that forgot the importance of online multiplayer.

Rugby Challenge doesn’t really have licenses (aside from Jonah Lomu). It has teams – both domestic and international, but the rosters are made up, kits and logos are generic, and nothing that could be considered a licensable brand is in there. You’ll need to spend a lot of time in the editor just converting names, let alone trying to massage the team to actually look approximate to anything in the real world...If licenses don’t matter too much to you, though, then there’s a basic, but halfway reasonable game of rugby available in Rugby Challenge 4. It’s not going to be something that you spend hundreds of hours with, but for some quick play, it scratches an itch.

There's plenty to like about Element. The game's stated goal was to distil down the strategy game to something that still felt grand and "complete" in scope, but was playable for a few minutes at a time. It achieves that, and at the same time gives players a compelling look at a theme that is quite pressing, as the world looks towards an era of depleted resources. But it's also hard to push past the feeling that there should have been more to this one.

Nevaeh is easy-playing stuff. It takes familiar, comfortable genre conventions and splices them together in a way that is imminently playable. With such a strong, compelling art style it would have been nice to see the developers push the artistry a little further, either to subvert or confirm the fairytale themes in a compelling way, but you're not going to regret your time playing this one. Not by a long shot.

I have zero doubt that, given extra time and material to work with, the developers could have produced one of the best anime-inspired video games this decade. What’s here is still modestly enjoyable, though, and this title is worth supporting just to champion the notion that anime games besides the Narutos and Dragon Balls of the world deserve localisations.

Realpolitiks is not the kind of game I would have ever expected on Nintendo Switch. It's not the perfect grand strategy experience; Europa Universalis IV may have slightly less complex and interlocking systems, but it offers deeper AI and greater complexity in strategy, and that's far more important to a grand strategy's longevity. That being said, Realpolitiks is a really delightful game to have for on-the-go play, on a console that I would never have guessed would end up with something like this on it.

For those who are on the fence, Naruto to Boruto Shinobi Striker isn’t as convincing as it thinks it might be.

If 2022 is going to be the year where I end up slamming dozens of games for being written like amateurish fan fiction, so be it. YA-style writing might sell well, but to be perfectly blunt about this it's good writing in only the most exceedingly rare cases. For narrative-heavy genres, like RPGs, the tonal dissonance that YA writing forces into to work to make it read and sound "modern" even if it's set in a world of swords and sorcery, is unacceptable. I could have and should have liked Reverie Tactics. In practice, I found it infuriating. Developers: please stop pitching your work at this level.

The strongest part of Regalia was its multitude of lovable characters, and any interaction with them was where the game really shone; there just weren’t enough of those opportunities to carry the more cumbersome elements. Those new to JRPGs likely won’t have the same jaded lens to view this game through, but I maintain that for Regalia to have really made an impact, it would have had to aspire to more than being a tribute to those who have gone before.

Ultra Age is a middle of the pack action thing that has the basic mechanics of the genre down, but doesn’t do anything to stand out, and it has some real balancing issues. but struggles to balance difficulty progression as well as pushing boundaries in the genre. Unfortunately for the developers, this is one genre in which we are spoiled for choice, both in terms of finding challenging games to enjoy, and complex, thought-provoking experiences.

For a collection that will only ever appeal to a very limited niche, the Epyx Collection does a decent job of making those games playable on the Switch, but a terrible job of celebrating them. The only way this thing had a chance was to go the full virtual museum tour, and they completely missed that opportunity. As it stands, most people will buy this, play it for five minutes to remember the console they lost to the garage storage boxes decades ago, and then move on.

It still tells a potent, important story, and looks the part, but I fear the only thing people are going to notice as they play is how unrefined and often downright irritating they find the button-pressing bits, because they are so poor they completely overwhelm the stuff that players should be focusing on instead.

Again I need to emphasise that Brave’s Rage does nothing wrong. It’s a perfectly competent game that belongs to a sub-genre that has become popular for a reason. There’s even a clever design element or two in the combat, and it’s clear that the developer (and I do believe the studio is a solo dev) has a talent for the craft. Unfortunately, the lack of identity or personality ultimately lets the game down. What could have been charming and bright quickly becomes mired in a loop of mediocre repetition that wears out its welcome well and truly before you get to the end.

The New Denpa Men is a throwaway free-to-play game, but it’s not a bad time by any means and you’ll have a smile on your face while you play. Do I wish that Genius Sonority went the other way with Denpa Men and gunned for something of the scope of Dragon Quest proper? Yes, absolutely, and I think the inherent quirkiness of the series could work at full scale. But do I regret playing this? Not at all.

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.

Until you see the update, however, I must strongly advise against playing this game, as I've found it, in the state it's in right now, to be very much unplayable.

So if you like the characters, you like the songs, and you’ve for whatever reason always wanted to play Puzzle Bobble while occasionally hitting buttons to the rhythm of a Touhou track, then this game is for you. For designers, this is an interesting exercise in how to cram together two sets of clashing game mechanics and achieve a harmonic and synergistic result. I’m still so surprised that Rhythm Game and VS. Puzzler came together in such a deep and intuitive way. But when I’m done asking “what” this game is and I start asking “why” this game is, I only see it as an expensive curiosity, reimagining of Taito’s classic (and better) puzzle game which is available as a Neo Geo Archives title for 12 dollars on the Switch shop.

Sadly, Mario Party: Star Rush is the latest game that fails to realise that simple truth behind the appeal of the franchise.

So whenever I wasn’t about to Hulk Smash the entire console (I promise I’m exaggerating, no consoles were harmed during the writing of this review) I did actually quite enjoy the game. I’d sit down to play for an hour, and come out of it twice that amount of time later with burning eyes because I barely blinked in case I missed something. There’s a great satisfaction felt when your farm starts functioning, then when it expands a little, and especially when it starts bringing in the cash. If only the developers were better at onboarding players and providing the information that they need to fully understand what’s going on around them, this little franchise has the makings of something special.