Darkestville Castle feels at home on the Switch, and with a strong narrative and clever puzzles cements itself as a decent point-and-click adventure, despite some niggles.

This remake of Destroy All Humans! is really quite incredible.

A fantasy adventure with tough-but-fair combat, a well crafted story and a punchy pixel art aesthetic, No Place For Bravery is the next ‘must play’ game in the 2D/dungeon-crawler renaissance. While it’s still not perfect, the game is much more stable now that it has received a patch and despite a few spotty frame rates, this is an easy title to recommend.

Whilst Highwater starts with some rather lovely visuals and whimsical charm, it soon devolves into a tedious, languid affair that failed to launch. If you can endure the droning voices and hackneyed lyrics in here, you may enjoy this turn-based nautically-induced apocalypse adventure.

With a bit more to say The Last Worker could’ve been a great game, but the paper thin plot and clunky controls hold back what is otherwise a stylish and unique time with or without VR. Hopefully there’ll be more to come from this world as it’s an interesting premise, but for right now it’s a decent couple of evenings spent.

If you’re a fan of the likes of Overcooked and you’re looking for a new title to spice up your games night, Cannibal Cuisine is certainly worth your time. Despite its familiar aspects, it adds a little of something new to the formula via its darkly funny theme. It’s not as polished or as packed with content as the genre leaders but it’s still a dish worth tucking into.

Heartfelt, charming and very on-brand for Keita Takahashi, to a T is a fun episodic journey of a teenager stuck in the T-pose. However, with an emphasis on narrative and cut scenes, the gameplay takes a backseat, making those fleeting moments of T-posing minigame shenaginans feel less impactful as a result.

SpellForce 3: Reforced is a valiant effort to mesh RTS and RPG into a functional package on console. In theory, it shouldn’t work at all, but for the most part it succeeds more than it fails. There’s plenty of issues, whether it be the shallowness of the tactics for success, the visual oddities that plague your journey or the overabundance of burdening dialogue to cut through, but the essence of this fantasy game is good enough to shine through.

There’s certainly fun to be had with a mate/partner/postman in Biped, but there’s very little here to have you playing for any more than a weekend. Once the levels are complete there’s the odd unlock that doesn’t justify prioritising Biped over the likes of Jackbox or Overcooked. If you’re on your own you’ll find little joy in ploughing your way through the adjusted solo campaign, which is more infuriating than infatuating.

If you’ve never played a solitaire video game, The Solitaire Conspiracy is the perfect gateway into them. Bithell Games have created an accessible yet deeply strategic twist on the classic card game that includes an espionage narrative delivered via FMV’s featuring famous faces. There’s some ludonarrative dissonance between the drama of story told and the relative calmness of the game play but it does little to spoil one of the best this genre has to offer.

You likely won’t want to replay it to see the multiple endings, but for a single play through, Whateverland is a charming, charismatic if rough around the edges point and click adventure. It stumbles a number of times before the credits roll but with multiple solutions to puzzles and quirky characters to get to know, this game is a perfectly fine way to spend a few evenings.

Digimon Survive is a solid blend of Visual Novel and Tactics RPG. It has great moments, but Survive’s combat encounters lack any real depth or challenge to keep them engaging over its runtime. Its story, however, remains interesting enough to push it along, even if it hits its peaks early on. A little more variety could’ve pushed Digimon Survive from good to great.

Peril on Gorgon plays it very safe, which may frustrate players who were looking for it to mix up the formula. For people like me though, who just wanted a reason to take control of the Unreliable once again and tear it across Halcion, this is exactly what you’re after.

A fun little take on an old concept, Witcheye’s tentative leap to bigger platforms is one to keep an eye out for.

A solid sequel to compliment a wonderful franchise, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake offers a much more coherent adventure platformer than its predecessor. With each world feeling like it’s own TV episode, and a fun story throughout, there is a lot of fun to be had within this entry.

The nomadic lifestyle translates into an interesting take on the resource and management genre, that is more interesting for its ideas than its execution. However, those who fancy a more contemplative slow going game will find solid goal-oriented challenges in this journey back to the source.

Retaining what made the first game unique, whilst making it a much more rounded experience that you’ll be more likely to revisit, Surgeon Simulator 2 is a good single-player experience that becomes pretty special in online co-op. Gather some mates and it’s one of the most fun multiplayer experiences of the year.

Whilst it is nice to at least try something different, Immortals of Aveum falls back on way too many cliches to make it stick. Terrible dialogue, formulaic shooting and linear progression are too overbearing in an otherwise colourful shooter.

A satisfying platformer aimed at a younger age group, Yestermorrow is memorable for its aesthetics and inspirations. However it’s gameplay doesn’t really do anything we haven’t seen before, and fumbles what could have been more interesting uses of its Everlight and time-based premise.

Combining monster hunting, colossi climbing, exploration, and crafting, Eternal Strands often feels a little ‘lite’. However it’s defining feature is an elemental physics-based magic-system that is a valid competitor to Breath of the Wild. It’s that rare beast that often just sets you free to explore and find your own solutions, and its wonderful when it does.

Unashamedly developed for fans of the series, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is a unique and deftly crafted take on a well-trodden character. Retaining its detail oriented, mystery solving core while moving to an open world design with a heavier inclusion of combat, this game retains the charm of its predecessors while pushing the series in an exciting new direction. It’s not perfect, but an excellent story and a plethora of ‘eureka’ moments make up for many of its flaws. If you loved Crimes & Punishments and The Devil’s Daughter, you’ll love this.

Supermassive Games’ The Devil in Me lays some new ideas for the Dark Pictures franchise’s future. While well-intentioned, the implementation of these new gameplay ideas isn’t quite there yet. Lacklustre new mechanics and a bloated runtime do more harm than good. The Devil in Me would’ve been better off as a shorter, more refined experience. Great visuals, a solid cast, and a fun slasher premise can only take it so far.

Cris Tales is a stunningly gorgeous indie, with art that’ll make your jaw drop. However many of its time mechanics are relatively skin deep, and it lacks the kind of depth its art inspires. It’s also not the epic it claims to be. It’s a love letter to classic RPGs, if within that same analogy those classics are the full novel.

It’s a cracking good time with friends but on your own, it’s a meanderingly frustrating tiresome glitch-filled experience.

Retro inspired first person shooters don’t come any more stylish than KINGDOM of the DEAD. A fantastic soundtrack is matched by a macabre hand drawn art style to create an atmosphere that feels unique to this game. It has a few bugs and some anticlimactic boss battles but there’s a lot to love about this game beyond those rough edges.

A Night At the Races is an interesting if unbalanced narrative experiment. Despite its issues, it’s a peculiar indie curio that completely divorces its central arcade game play from its story which results in some odd effects. If you like original experiences, this is certainly worth the hour it takes to complete.

In a sea full of roguelikes/lites, Dust & Neon floats on by like an innocuous limpet attached to bigger players. It’s not terrible, nor is it bringing anything new to the table. The future-retro style is attractive to look at, which otherwise holds up this rather shallow experience.

A beautifully dark throwback to the classics, Aeterna Noctis revels in its classic charm. The difficulty also apes that of its forebears, which for some they might enjoy, others it might be too much. For those impartial, it’s another in a massive catalogue of Metroidvania titles.