On some level, I guess, Tamarin is sort of amazing, in that I can’t think of when I last played a game that was this much of an outright disaster on every level. I’ve played plenty of terrible games recently, but at least in those cases you could see what they were going for, and you could imagine what good versions of those games might look like. In Tamarin, the game is an absolute fiasco at a conceptual level. That doesn’t mean you should play it, of course, but the game gets points for effort, if absolutely nothing else..

Obviously, you could just play Nicole as a traditional VN, but that feels like it’s missing the point — and, moreover, if you do that, it’s not like the story or the characters are all that interesting. Which means your two options here are to either read through an incredibly tedious novel, or add to the tedium by turning the game into a life-sim/visual novel. Whichever way you choose to play Nicole, one thing is certain: it’s going to bore you.

In the end, it’s kind of telling that all the commentary around Crysis — and Crysis Remastered — focuses on the graphics. As shooters go, there are plenty of better options out there, regardless of what platform you’re playing it on. In terms of looks, though? On that front, this is still one heck of an achievement.

Even if it’s not an all-time classic, it’s still a very good game, and if, like me, you’ve never played it, the Switch remaster is an excellent opportunity to dive in and discover what you missed.

While I’m not usually a huge fan of tactical RPGs, I can totally see how fans of the genre would get a lot out of this game. Between the roguelike nature of the levels and the fact you’re basically creating your army from scratch, no two playthroughs of Othercide will ever be quite the same. Provided you’re cool with dying a lot, that makes for a pretty unique experience.

Prehistoric Dude is for when you want a Metroidvania platformer that doesn’t require a whole lot of thought — and when you want that, it’s just about perfect.

It’s the big things — like, again, the 8 main characters and the 100+ hour story — that really define Romancing SaGa 3, and on that front, the game is…well, it’s an acquired taste, for sure. But if you’re a fan of JRPGs and you want to see an interesting time capsule from the genre’s evolution, it’s well worth investigating.

Despite my qualms with elements of Spelunky 2, I still can’t help to get “one more run” in hopes of getting that elusive win (over 1000 attempts and still a 0% victory rate). Even if I’ve achieved a victory, there are plenty of secrets waiting to be discovered! Rescuing the Spelunkys might end up in my list of unfulfilled rougelike checklist, but at least I’ll have had plenty of fun while I was attempting it.

Mask of Mists is certainly nowhere near as good as its influences, but it’s still a pleasant way to pass an afternoon.

One thing about Urban Trial Playground that I remember pretty vividly is that I was getting pretty sick of it by the end, because it started feeling a little grind-heavy and all the levels felt the same. With Urban Trial, that feeling started to kick in somewhere around the second track. This is not an enjoyable game, and even if its predecessors didn’t set the bar all that high, Urban Trial Tricky comes nowhere close to clearing it.

Honestly, to me WWE 2K Battlegrounds is a good start for a new engine and possibly a new franchise from 2K. Many of my issues can be corrected with patches or game updates. The gameplay is fast, fun, and easy to pick up. I really wish the game wasn’t so microtransaction heavy as this could have been a stronger recommendation, but that could change over time depending on fan and critic feedback.

However you want to classify Metro: Last Light Redux, there’s no denying that it’s an excellent game. Both it and Metro 2033 feel right at home on the Switch, and combined, they make for a fantastic — and incredibly gloomy — experience.

I honestly have no criticisms for Active Neurons. It’s a short, enjoyable puzzle game you can finish in an hour or two, and you’ll walk away feeling more relaxed than when you started.

So while yes, these are three games that Mario fans around the globe will likely love, it’s also a little hard to wholeheartedly suggest rushing out to pick up this collection simply because it feels like a barebones kind of thing, especially for a franchise and anniversary milestone that deserves better. The ports are well done, the emulation feels spot on to me, and it’s fun to go back and revisit all three of these games. But I don’t think it’s unfair to expect a little more from Nintendo as the owner and caretaker of these historic titles, and would hope that we see big improvements on that front for future collections.

Given that RogueCube is around $5, it’s hardly going to break the bank for anyone, and I’ve certainly played much, much worse games than this one. Still, it would be nice if the game had any personality to speak of, and without that, it’s hard to muster up strong feelings towards the game one way or another.

Raji: An Ancient Epic is a gorgeous game, and it would be nice to be able to appreciate everything about it. As it stands, though, it’s the equivalent of the prettiest box you’ve ever seen containing an utterly forgettable present.

Demon’s Tier+ is a solid twin-stick shooter, and even if I wouldn’t say that it’s elevated Cowcat to the point where you can say that they’re making essential games, at the very least they’re making good games.

As criticisms go, “it was too addictive and I finished it in a few hours” isn’t exactly the worst thing you can say about a game. In fact, as someone who prefers quality over quantity, I’d much rather leave a game wanting much, much more — which was exactly the case with One Line Coloring. There are much worse ways to spend part of an afternoon.

It’s one of the better roguelikes out there, and makes for a great action-adventure in general, with an engaging story, excellent writing, beautiful music, and some amazing art to go along with it.

If Hotshot Racing were just a little more balanced, it would’ve been something special, but as it stands, it feels more like a missed opportunity.

While some of the early puzzles are pretty easy to solve, the further in you get, the more you need to be able to think in terms of 3D space, since you can shift gravity to get a different perspective on everything. As someone who’s terrible at spatial reasoning puzzles, I’m not going to lie: there were times when I felt like my brain was pushed to the breaking point. Even so, it still felt like there was a pretty sizable discrepancy between what Manifold Garden achieves artistically, and what it achieves as a game. The latter is pretty forgettable, whereas the former occasionally borders on breathtaking. I leave it up to you how much weight you place on those two halves, but for me, it added up to a somewhat uneven whole.

When Lonely Mountains: Downhill works, it works pretty well. It’s far from perfect, but if you want a game that captures the zen of cycling, it mostly does a decent job of that.

Tangle Tower is built around an excellent whodunit mystery that moves along at just the right pace. There’s a great balance of plot, puzzle, and humour, and it does a good job of keeping you invested all the way to the very end. In this respect, you could say that the game carries on in the traditions of the very best adventure games from a few decades ago — but it manages to do so in a way that feels undeniably fresh.

As someone who plays nearly all superhero games, watches all the movies, and still reads the comics, I can’t help but be let down by the Avengers. Square Enix was in development way too long to turn out something that’s just fine and I didn’t even get into all the bugs and glitches that this launched with. I am optimistic though, that this game will grow if the community continues to support it. Avengers is meant to be a “games as a service” after all and once we start seeing some DLC and the type of support that Square Enix gives we can get a better idea how this franchise will grow. If you’ve played all of the Arkham games, Ultimate Alliance games, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man, you really have no other choice for a Marvel experience, but if you haven’t I would sadly recommend any of those other games over this.

Obviously, seeing as this is a visual novel, that’s secondary to whether the story itself is any good. And on that front, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen really demands that you be invested not just in the 30+ hours of story here, but also the 80+ hours that have come before it (er, after it?) in Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth. That’s a big commitment to make, and I’d be lying if I said I thought the time investment was worth it, but if you’ve come this far with Utawarerumono and need to see it through, Prelude to the Fallen is probably a must-buy.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2 is easily one of the best remasters available on the market today and does an excellent job of retaining the spirit and feel of the PlayStation era classics while adding on new features, music, and other options to propel these two entries into the modern era. The gameplay is still timeless and is sure to capture the attention of a whole new era of skateboarding fans that might not have grown up on the Tony Hawk series to begin with. Here’s hoping Activision and Vicarious Visions have plans for additional releases, as there are still more excellent entries in the franchise that are worth revisiting, especially if done so with the level of care and attention to detail that is present here.

Sure, this is the first time they’ve graced a Nintendo platform, but that only means that if you’re in that elusive “Nintendo-only gamer who likes shooters” demographic, you owe it to yourself to pick up the Borderlands Legendary Collection. For everyone else, though, it’s harder to see the value proposition. Pick it up if you want these games on the go, but be aware that you’ve had up to ten years to play some of these games on other platforms, and this doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

I wouldn’t say that A Summer with the Shiba Inu is too complicated to understand by any means, but it’s definitely not as lighthearted and silly as you might expect from a game where dogs dress and act like people. But complexity isn’t a bad thing, and neither is A Summer with the Shiba Inu. It may sound like a joke at first, but if you’re a fan of visual novels, you’ll find that it’s far better than it has any right to be.