Unfortunately, as I said up top, Mushroom Wars 2’s big drawback is that it also doesn’t skimp on content. That may sound like a bizarre thing to complain about, but there’s really not a lot of variety from level to level. On top of that, this game demands that players be patient, since you have to spend a lot of time waiting for those toadstools to generate enough mushroom army men for you to launch assaults on the opposing — which means that you also spend a lot of time looking at those maps that, again, don’t look all that different from each other.

I really, really enjoyed my time with Yakuza Kiwami 2, and as a fan of the series, I’d certainly urge you to check it out. It has very few flaws, outside of some minor animation issues and the occasional cumbersome combat sequence. It also feels like a much stronger remake than even Yakuza Kiwami, which was no slouch to begin with. It also has some solid ties to both Yakuza 0 via the new elements, and pre-existing story beats that feed into the more recent Yakuza 6. So check this one out when you get a chance, you will not be disappointed.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is truly spectacular.

The endless running lacks decent timing, the rhythm is pretty arrhythmic, and the two halves just never feel like they gel together.

Even with it’s very basic presentation, Firewall Zero Hour really delivers on every front. Minor issues aside, you will definitely have a good time with this. Keeping in mind that this is a completely online experience so, if you are a shy one who doesn’t like interacting or working together with friends or complete strangers than this might not be the game for you. If you like other tactical shooters like the Ghost Recon Series, then this will be right up your alley!

To some extent, Sir Eatsalot is good for all the usual reasons a game is good. The characters, from the titular knight down to all the random enemies and allies he meets along the way, are as fun and relatively well-written. Along those same lines, Gluttington, the kingdom in which the story takes place, is richly imagined, with tasty-looking foodstuffs falling from every tree and colours that make the world pop off the screen. And, of course, the story is as compelling as it needs to be, with a plot that makes sense and keeps the action going for a couple of hours.

If you want another FIFA, that probably won’t do, but if you’re looking for something that captures of the vibe of off-brand sports games from decades ago, it’ll do you just fine.

If you’re going in expecting RBI Baseball 18 on the Switch to rival MLB The Show, you’ll be sorely disappointed. For that matter, if you’re hoping for a game to rival Super Mega Baseball 2 for arcade baseball action, you’ll be pretty disappointed. But if you go in just hoping for a baseball game that works, then — possibly for the first time ever — then it’s possible to say that RBI Baseball 18 does the job.

If you want a mind-bending puzzle game along the lines of, like, Portal or something, it’s not going to deliver that, and you’ll want to stay away. If, however, you want a gentle puzzle game with heartfelt visuals, that will remind you of life pre-gaming, then Gorogoa offers a solid — if brief — experience.

Given how much care was put into the rest of the game, it feels weird that much of the combat — when you’re not either hiding or running — basically comes down to swinging your weapons wildly until you kill the other people. In a game that’s so intricately made, it feels oddly inelegant. We Happy Few isn’t nearly as broken as Contrast was, but it’s still frustrating that a game that looks and sounds so good doesn’t play all that well.

Horizon Chase Turbo may occasionally be infuriating, but it’s a whole lot of fun much more frequently. If you’ve ever yearned for an arcade racer that genuinely feels like it comes from the early days of home consoles, you should most definitely check this one out.

All in all, while this isn’t necessarily a fresh take on the Dragon Quest series, it’s still one of the best entries in a franchise that has been around since the NES days.

Yoku’s Island Express is kind of a testament to the power of positivity. Sure, it’ll leave you frustrated at times. But it’s frustration borne out of wanting to experience more of this delightful world, and that’s more than enough to keep me pushing through those brief moments of annoyance.

At the end of the day, if 2D Souls-inspired action platformers with Metroidvania elements are your thing, you absolutely need to play this game. Story aside, the gameplay is great and the difficulty hits that sweet spot between too hard and too easy. Once you grasp it, it is intuitive and pretty simple but until then you will die, die, die and die some more. With a modest $20 price tag, I recommend it.

Guacamelee 2 takes a very solid base of the original and adds enough to prevent this iteration from being stale. The new mechanics blend in seamlessly and adds to the experience. The humor hits, more than it misses and the visuals are vibrant like it’s predecessor. All in all if you had to choose only on metroidvania-style game to play in 2018, make sure Guacamelee 2 is high on your list.

Fill-a-Pix may come with some decent pedigree, but decent pedigree means nothing when the end result is so boring.

By itself, Gene Rain’s gameplay is only bad. Factor in plot, dialogue, and instructions that barely make sense at the best of times, and you’ve got a recipe for a genuinely terrible game — albeit one that will undoubtedly delight bad game connoisseurs.

If you’re a fan of the series then this is another solid entry. Will it be your favorite? That probably depends on the person, but there’s definitely something here for everyone who has liked any version up to WarioWare Gold. If you missed the tilt controls or wish we had another stylus version, this is where you can enjoy an encore of series past with the largest collection of migrogames yet! Me personally, I’m not complaining about WarioWare being back in our lives.

Musynx is unquestionably one of the most demanding music games I’ve ever played. I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it (in fact, I wanted to throw my Vita across the room not too long after starting), but if you’re looking for a crazy challenge, you’ll find it here.

The bright splashes of paint really stand out against the black background, and they give the game a look and feel that make it seem like a relic from the early ‘90s. The gameplay, however, is of a much more modern vintage — and, unfortunately, it doesn’t compare well to its contemporaries. INK may be more visually appealing than its competition, but it doesn’t play nearly as well.

If you already own Madden 18 and you’re a casual football fan, you’d be hard pressed to find anything in here really worth the $60 price tag, especially when you can download the current roster via the community downloads. But if you’re looking for your way back to Madden or have not ever played the series, this is a great jump on point as the visuals are amazing and it’s a near perfect football simulation.

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk succeeds as a visual novel generally and an otome specifically because it ignores its genre conventions in favour of telling a compelling story, with largely decent characters and enough content to keep you interested all the way to the end. I’m not sure what Aksys’ goal with the Summer of Mystery was, but if it was to showcase just how impressive and engaging the genre can be, I’d say it succeeded beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Super Skull Smash GO! 2 Turbo doesn’t try to break the mold that’s been around for several decades, but it doesn’t really need to. It promises players retro-infused platforming fun, and, by any measure, it firmly delivers on that promise.

If it had just stuck to the hidden object part of its name, it could’ve been one heck of a game. Instead, it’s half very good hidden object game, and half thoroughly nonsensical puzzle — and, unfortunately, those two halves don’t quite match up to being a worthwhile whole.

I’d say that this episode is a pretty great start to the finale of the series for Telltale. It’s been a long, and occasionally bumpy road, but this seems to be shaping up extremely well early on. The cliffhanger for this episode has me anxious to see what happens next, and the new cast of characters are more appealing than most of the hardened jerks that populated The New Frontier. It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here, but again, I’m not holding my breath for a happy ending.

I’d be lying, of course, if I said that I found the puzzles that compelling. And the fact that they almost always lead to more gore (albeit hand-drawn gore) is more than a little off-putting. But still, if you’re in the mood for a puzzle-platformer/word game that’s different from pretty much everything else out there, Haimrik may be an interesting investment.

This was an underrated gem on the Wii’s library, and its remastered version on the Switch is giving people a second chance to discover it. If you’re wise (and, obviously, you’re into inventive platformers), don’t miss out on it this time.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is an absolute must play for anyone who enjoys that genre at all. As for the Switch version, it is a bit of a mixed bag. If you only own Nintendo consoles and never use anything else, get it. If you are looking to play the game on the go and the Switch is your preferred gaming console, get it. If you have other consoles and you only use your Switch now and then, and want the best experience possible with Wolfenstein II, go a different route and experience it for the first time the way the developers intended.