If you’re not well-acquainted with Compile Heart’s shenanigans and you don’t have a vested interest in the franchise, then the Switch version is perhaps not the most seamless introduction to the universe of Furies and Fang.

For those who have played and loved any of the tabletop games over the years that have been based on Lovecraft’s mythos – the tabletop miniatures game that Cthulhu Tactics itself is based on, for example, or Arkham Horror, or the legendary Call of Cthulhu pen-and-paper RPG, Cthulhu Tactics does a remarkable job of capturing that same aesthetic and sense of overwhelming challenge. This game is well and truly worth a look.

I definitely don’t regret the download – even though my Switch is bloated full of titles, I can see myself always coming back to Downwell whenever I need to fill a short five to ten minutes.

The universe of Genesis is vibrant, with distant systems lighting the ship with a beautiful sci-fi glow, and the aliens representing a full intriguing gamut from cockroach-like beasts through to humanoid aliens. This is the kind of game that people who dream of crafting their own space exploration stories, without being dragged through any particular forced narrative, will absolutely love.

Sphinx has aged relatively well. This is the perfect way to introduce newcomers to the game, even if it’s a series that didn’t take off.

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.

Legrand Legacy is, in the end, a very playable JRPG. Sadly it's also one of marginal appeal, even to those who grew up playing old JRPGs back in the 32-bit era.

The core action is still exciting and dynamic, with a layered combo system that ensures it's never quite a button masher. Throw in the series' infamously hyperbolic and satirical sexualisation, and you're still left with a good time. There are games that do genuine sexiness better, and there aren't many out there that have the wild, unbound entertainment value of Senran Kagura.

For Christie nuts, The Raven is one of the better attempts to do her style of detective mystery that Christie herself wasn't involved in. It's well performed and convincing, and the age of the game is hardly a concern because, dated as it looks at times, the appeal of this one has to do more about the cerebral. It's all about the storytelling, in other words, and that side of things is spot on.

I’d like to see another Fight of Gods, with improved development competence, but is still happy to be an absurd, irreverent bit of fun. We need those games too, else what would we have to play by the time we got to the second bottle of wine?

The Shrouded Isle is so razor-focused on its darkly original theme that it comes across as quite brave. This isn’t a necessarily uplifting or relaxing game. Nor is it particularly rewarding. It is, however, genuinely clever with how it works within an established genre, and it’s uncompromising in its vision. We need more games that are willing to do that.

As a fan of the original game, this Resident Evil 2 remake has been an utter joy to play. During my time with it, I was constantly in awe of the love and reverence the developers clearly have for the original. The spirit of Resident Evil 2 has been distilled down, concentrated, and reconstituted into this beautiful, hideous experience that completely undermined all my preconceptions. Resident Evil 2 remade is not the cheap B-movie of its predecessor. It eschews the horror-kitsch stylings that made the original games instantly memorable, cuts down the weird, and plays it entirely straight. It can be off-putting. It can feel too serious. But this package delivered by Capcom is undeniably brilliant in its own right. It’s a love letter to survival horror, delivered direct like a bullet to the head.

It's too poor as a bowling simulation to work as a bowling game. It's too lacking in gameplay modes to work as a minigame-driven take on bowling or as a party game. So what's left? Not much, other than the under-developed seeds of something that could have been really great.

Pikuniku is an intriguing game as it takes some heavy concepts and transforms them into something colourfully palatable, with interesting characters and a fun soundtrack.

It's now in its 20th year, but Ace Combat 7 shows that there's plenty of life yet in the series. Neither pure arcade, nor hardcore simulation, it straddles the line it needs to offer both a sense of flight and fast, furious dogfight action, even as it tells a cinematic and genuinely enjoyable story.

Bury Me, My Love is a remarkable exercise in building empathy. It’s a simple game, but so much more razor focused and successful at creating authenticity than most games that have budgets of a hundred million. Most importantly, however, is that no game is telling a story of greater importance to the world at the moment than Bury Me, My Love. The games industry and those who play games keep arguing that there's the potential for video games to have the emotional power and potential to be the next great art form. Here’s your proof.

Travis Strikes Back: No More Heroes isn’t the Lollipop Chainsaw remaster that I’ve been begging Goichi Suda to produce each year over the last four TGS' when I've caught up with him, but it’s a stylish, energetic, amusing and surrealistic return to Suda’s most popular character and “world.” Yes, it might have been a vanity project for a guy that wanted to indulge his love for retro and indie games, but I’ve had a cracking time watching Suda show off just how much of a nerd he really is.

You can get these two great existential crises in one package of fourteen minigames for just 6 AUD on the Nintendo Switch eShop. What a bargain!

Whether this release is testing the water for a return to the series, or it's just a dip into the library to throw out a release in January, Onimusha is one of Capcom's finest and least appreciated. Hopefully with this new version, creaky as it can be at times, the game (and franchise) finds some new fans. It would be great to have Onimusha and Nioh competing side by side to have the premier Japanese dark fantasy crown.

The designers don't seem to have understood how strategy works with card games, and, unfortunately, that's really what differentiates a good TCG from a very poor one.

Given that this is a port to a console, and the Switch has consistent hardware specs across the board, it’s clear the game’s stability wasn’t re-examined prior to its Switch debut. No cheeky philosophical quip is going to make that look anything short of lazy.

For a ten year old game, nothing about Tales of Vesperia feels like it doesn't belong today. The Tales series might be one of the most traditional JRPG properties out there, but when the core is this good, innovation isn't needed.

While New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is a repackage of (mostly) existing stuff, with a couple of minor additions designed largely around making the gameplay more accessible for newcomers, and is clearly a filler release on Nintendo's part to capitalise on the post-Christmas lull and appetite for new stuff to play, it's hard to deny its value.

I'm all for adult games, and I'm all for the use of sex and sex themes within a game. Seed of the Dead could have been something really great; the idea of mixing the violence of Killing Floor with the sleazy, trashy humour and theme of a School Girl / Zombie Hunter, taken to the next level, could have made for something extreme and interesting. But Seed of the Dead doesn't work on any level. It's not erotic, it's not exciting, it's not interesting, and it's only just playable.

And in to those players attuned to punishing difficulty and high expectations, Neko Navy feels like three soft hackysacks and an earnest request to have fun. Anyone can play it, anyone can enjoy it, but for the lovers of the SHMUP genre, this is home.

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.

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Adventures is pleasant on the eyes, but is in every other way a disappointment. It's a shallow grind, which challenges none of the player's management skills, and comes across more as an opportunity to simply decorate a theme park.

Despite those struggles, I loved my time with The Keep, though admittedly I'm part of the target demographic that it's really designed for.