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.

Code Vein II is very, very close to joining From Software’s games and the Nioh series in the upper echelons of soulslikes. A quality narrative, fluid combat and an excellent, Ocarina of Time-like approach to progression combine in a way that makes it very hard to put the controller down. It does feel like it’s in search of an identity of its own at times, and it's unlikely to develop the reputation Ocarina of Time has for that reason, but Code Vein II has a lot going for it.

The long and short of it is that FFVII Remake Intergrade is a truly excellent game, and it plays brilliantly on the Nintendo Switch 2. Having such an excellent port of an excellent game to play on the go more than justifies a second purchase of it.

Lached Up Games gets more confident and ambitious with every title. The 15-20 hours that Help! I’m Turning Into A Mermaid! takes to run through make you wish that the developer had a bigger budget to work with, but you’ll be glad that games like this somehow get made in the first place.

I just suspect that in the world of board games, anime fan service aesthetics are something that heavily limits the number of gaming groups that are going to be willing to play. Not everyone likes fan service, and if even one person is put off by Heart of Crown’s characters (particularly the lolis), then that’s a group that’s never going to vote to play it on game night. Therefore, as I’m not a fan of playing randoms online, Heart of Crown is likely to be a single-player only experience for me, and that’s a disappointing way for an otherwise excellent game to fall short.

Temirana might not be up with my very favourite visual novels, but it is entertaining, with good and warm energy behind it. It’s not the ideal entry point to otome as it doesn’t really have a hook beyond “exactly the kind of game otome fans like to see,” but if you are a convert, you’ll find yourself chuckling along with the way it plays within the genre traditions right throughout.

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.

Gorgeous art, an excellent soundtrack, a massive epic narrative that actually feels earned thanks to the strength of the writing and characterisation, and an exciting, tactical combat system. Yeah, it is, quite genuinely, an 80+ hour game, but that’s what the Christmas break is for, right?

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.

Sometimes, when I review a game, I expect to be an outlier. And my gut tells me that will be the case when this review is published, and I feel free to check out other review scores. But I cannot in good faith give a game that I want to like a good score; I have to rate what’s in front of me. And what I see is a lack of character growth, a lack of accessibility, and a lack of clear graphics. An interesting narrative only carries so much weight. It quickly makes one exhausted.

Cricket 26 is iterative, rather than a bold new vision for how cricket games should play, but Big Ant’s earned the privilege to approach its cricket games like this now because they’ve spent the past ten years building up to a cricket series that already offers a quality simulation of the sport. It might not have the investment of the big blockbuster properties, but nonetheless, this year’s Cricket offers an earnest, enthusiastic, and high-quality take on the sport for fans. I’ve always been an admirer of the vision and clear passion for the sport that Big Ant has, and I fully expect that this new title will occupy yet more hundreds of hours of my time.

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.

The point I’m really getting at here is that Lumines Arise has a meditative-like quality to it. Lumines has always offered rich and vibrant soundtracks backed by gorgeous visuals and an incredibly intense, yet rewarding gameplay loops. Lumines Arise is the ultimate realisation of that vision, and quite possibly the greatest puzzle game I’ve ever played.

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 realise that Avernum, and Spiderweb Software’s work in general, is a tough sell. One look at the screenshots and it’s far too easy to file this one away as something too niche for its good. But I’ll tell you this: Any time I’ve convinced someone to actually play a Spiderweb Software game, they’ve gone on to play at least a few more. Jeff Vogel has been a great survivor in indie development for a reason. If you like your RPGs, give Avernum 4 a go. Trust me.

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).

With its hugely appealing setting, rendered gorgeously well and near-blockbuster production values, Anno 117 might not be Ubisoft’s biggest breadwinner, but this is a confident and well-considered step forward for the series. When you think about what distinguishes a great city builder, you’d have to say that near to the top is when you can pan the camera back and feel like you’ve genuinely built something, and taken a couple of buildings and roads and turned it into a thriving city. The very best city builders make you want to learn about urban planning, and with Anno 117 it comes with a second benefit – it’ll make you want to learn more about what made the Ancient Roman cities tick as well.

While Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment isn’t going to convert anyone who doesn’t enjoy Koei Tecmo’s Warriors formula, this is a very fine entry in it. It effectively builds on the lore of Tears of the Kingdom, gives you plenty of entertaining characters to play around with, and looks stunning as the first Warriors to get a spin on the Nintendo Switch 2. If you enjoyed Koei’s previous collaborations with Nintendo, you’re going to really love this one.

While I do think that Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the most polarising Digital Eclipse museum experience so far, in terms of the quality of the games that are in it to play, I also think that it’s one of the most compelling experiences from a historical perspective. Who knows if we’ll ever have a series that has thrived this completely on notoriety again, and for that reason, this is a collection of curiosities that can’t be ignored.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is the best version of one of the greatest video games. This review was largely pointless in the sense that just about everyone knows that it’s a masterpiece, and yet, as of time of writing, there are “only” 2,500 user reviews on Steam. For the love of Hatsune Miku, please don’t let this be a “cult classic” a second time around. If we’re going to ever take video games seriously as an art form, it needs to start with games like this being part of the canon.

Tormented Souls 2 is the kind of horror game you like to see from independent developers. As a clear passion project that is willing to push back against “best practices” to maintain the creative vision, it’s here for people who have fond memories of the formative years of survival horror, while also looking very modern. It’s by no means perfect, but the clear enthusiasm that went into it – and the fact that it’s so atmospheric – makes it compelling.

Dragon Quest I and II HD-2D Remake achieves exactly what developers should always be trying to achieve with a retro remake: Breathe new life into something that fans love. With enough new additions to surprise and delight even the most veteran fan of both titles, combined with a gorgeous art style that does so many favours to Dragon Quest, I somehow found myself genuinely excited, enchanted by, and unable to stop playing something I’ve played almost annually for decades now.

Frankly, being competently made isn’t enough. Not for a genre as loaded as this boomer shooter one. The original Painkiller had an identity and personality. It wasn’t meaningfully different in how it played compared to its peers at the time, but it had something about it that allowed it to stand out for itself. This Painkiller is a generic multiplayer shooter with a generic Christian horror-themed setting and aesthetics, and none of it is memorable.

What it does have, though, is an excellent example of a roguelike formula largely done right, with great loot loops and an upgrade path that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve taken too many steps backwards every time you “die” and need to start a new run. And, hey. The pretty and sassy robot girls are the cherry on top.