If you don’t mind paying a Switch Tax, there’s a lot to like about Strike! It’s more or less a straightforward bowling game with a couple of minigames thrown in to pad out the game, but that doesn’t make it any less fun — especially if, like me, you’re playing it solo in handheld mode. It’s there that you see the game as it was designed to be played, with touch controls on a vertical screen, and it’s really easy to get sucked in to game after game. It’s intuitive and it’s addictive, which are two very good qualities for a game like this to have.

Will you like it? Obviously, that depends on how much you like Soulsborne games. Even if you do, however, I’d tread carefully before committing to Ashen. It’s got some charms, but also some pretty big drawbacks, and I’m not sure the former is enough to make up for the latter.

If you just want more picross-style puzzles, then it’ll do the trick. But if you want ones with any kind of personality, you need to know going in that that’s not what you’re getting here.

At the end of the day, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is without a doubt the most faithful retelling of the source material and an incredibly enjoyable way to relive the story. The weak RPG and open-world mechanics are a bit of a letdown, but they are carried easily on the shoulders of the solid combat and awesome cinematic moments. If you love Dragon Ball, the odds are that you will really enjoy the majority of what Kakarot has to offer.

Even if the typical story-driven adventure game isn’t quite your thing, I think the overall experience is so unique that there’s a good possibility you’ll see past the style of gameplay, and still manage to see what makes this game so affecting. So give it a shot on whatever platform you have access to, you won’t be disappointed.

While none of this is enough to make Homo Machina a must-play, at the same time, there’s enough worthwhile stuff going on here that it’s not not a must-play, either. I mean, it’s only $3 or so, and for that price you get a fun little story that wraps up nicely and never overstays its welcome. That’s hardly GOTY material, but it’s nothing to sneeze at, either.

Maybe I’m just not in the right mood to appreciate a good, slow-burning mystery, maybe I’m just more protective of my time as I’ve gotten older, but I feel like there are better ways to spend your free gaming time than wandering slowly around a vaguely menacing environment in the hopes that you’ll stumble across something kind of compelling. More power to you if you’re someone who wants that experience — but if you are, I’ve got to say that there are other, significantly better games that offer the same thing, but in a much more interesting form.

While there’s plenty of variation to be found in the level layouts, you still can’t shake the feeling that you’re doing the same level over and over again. It doesn’t help matters much that the checkpoints in some of these levels are few and far between, and you die pretty quickly, so it’s not uncommon to do the same segments more than a dozen times before you finally get the timing and the pattern down right. But that may appeal to some (or even many) people! I mean, Pac-Man is one of the most addictive, beloved games of all time, so if you’re going to copy from anywhere, it offers a pretty good template — even if Cyber Protocol isn’t a one-to-one comparison.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger may not be a forgotten classic, but it is pretty darn fun, and that’s more than enough to make it worth checking out.

There’s no challenge, there’s no story, and there’s nothing interesting at all going on here whatsoever. Take the hint from the game’s title, and ignore it.

At only $7.99, this is a great deal for those who are fans of the series, but as I stated before, the challenge here is no joke. First timers, you have to battle through the frustration and you may just find your new favorite title in the SEGA AGES line.

Even with the game’s many flaws, however, I’m still happy to get a chance to play a Layton game on the Switch. Layton’s Mystery Journey may feel bloated, and have iffy controls, and feature lousy characters, but at the end of the day, it’s still Professor Layton. You’ve got to be willing to put up with a lot of extraneous stuff that isn’t that great, but I’d much rather have this flawed game than none at all.

It all feels like a little bit much. I’m not going to say that games shouldn’t be ambitious, but We. The Revolution probably would have been a whole lot better if it had tried to do just a little bit less.

You’ll definitely need to enjoy RPGs to get the most out of it (or anything at all out of it, really), but sometimes, simply being a solid genre game is all you can ask for out of a game.

Terrorhythm may be lacking in some key areas, but with this much style, it’s not hard to mistake it for a significantly better game.

The execution is as boring as everything else Pine has to offer. It’s a shame that the finished (or, given the technical issues, maybe that should read “mostly finished”) product doesn’t come anywhere close to living up to the incredible potential displayed by the trailer, because that game could have been great. This game, however, is in dire need of improvements, and until it gets those you can skip it pretty safely.

I’d say pretty much the same thing about the game now that it’s on the Switch as I did back when it came out on PS4: if you’re into slightly janky detective games, you’re going to love The Sinking City (and as someone who does love those games, I mean that with all the affection in the world).

If you’re looking for a game that’s low-stress, it may be right up your alley. But if you want a game that’s even remotely challenging, be aware that Submerged isn’t it.

Lost Ember has a neat idea behind it, and I feel like it could have been done fairly well with a few tweaks. Absent those tweaks, however, there’s really not a lot to recommend here.

This is a fantastic, gorgeous experience, and if you have a Nintendo Switch, you should definitely give these islands a visit.

Does it change anything from the first Pic-a-Pix Color? Of course not. But seeing as that first one was one of my favourite games of 2018, I’m very pleased to finish up 2019/kick off 2020 with more of the same in Pic-a-Pix Color 2. It’s basically the gaming equivalent of comfort food, but I’ll take it.

It’s quirky enough and happy enough to win over all but the most hardened of hearts, and unless you believe games should be serious business at all times, it’s well worth checking out.

I’m not going to say that Shadows 2 is terrible or anything, because it’s not: if you want a few jump scares, it’ll do the trick. If you want more, though — like, say, an interesting story, or creepy visuals, or anything that makes a horror game worth remembering — look elsewhere, because you won’t find it here. Mind you, even if it were here, you wouldn’t be able to see it.

The biggest problem with Spirit of the North is that there’s far more of it than it needs to be. Take the story, for example: it’s a wordless tale about a fox wandering through the frozen wilderness to find its lost love (or so I gathered). While that’s certainly enough to go on, it’s also not enough to sustain the game for nearly four hours. That’s hardly a lengthy experience, but it still feels like the game’s length could have been cut by an hour or more, and nothing would have been lost.

Not all of its ideas are great — and again, they’re mostly recycled from the series’ first entry — but it’s still interesting to see a dungeon-crawler willing to try so many new things.

Kine isn’t original, and it’s got some pretty obvious gameplay flaws. But when a game is as charmingly put-together as this one, you won’t have much difficulty ignoring all that and focusing on the positives.

I know it’s unfair to condemn Mad Games Tycoon for what it’s not — but it’s hard not to do so. After all, when the pinnacle of the genre is available on the same system for a fraction of the price, there’s really no reason why anyone should want to play this over Game Dev Story. It’s a fine effort, but the fact is, it doesn’t come anywhere close.

Calling it dull and repetitive does a disservice to dull, repetitive games. Strike Force Kitty asks nothing of you other than to let it run in your browser, so you may as well do that, rather than paying a cent for it on the Switch.