Given the game’s structure will usually lead to short playthroughs, these short sessions won’t feel that empty and with the amount of unlockables means I’ll be playing for quite the while before all the empty jars in the opening area are filled. With this summer having other similar platformers releasing (La-Mulana 2, Iconoclasts, Chasm, Salt and Sanctuary, Death’s Gambit, and Guacamelee 2), Dead Cells definitely will hold its own and it will be in contention to be one of 2018’s finest.

If you’ve ever wanted to play a JRPG but don’t know where to begin, Rainbow Skies serves as a pretty thorough intro. (And, of course, if you’re already into JRPGs and you need something to sink your next couple of weeks into, it’ll more than serve that function, too.)

This is a great set of 8 mostly classic Mega Man games and will certainly help get you reacquainted with the Blue Bomber leading up to his more retro return in Mega Man 11. The series started to tale off with the PS2 titles (horrible voice acting mixed with some questionable 2.5D designs), but I would love to see a resurgence in the X series like we did with the OG Mega Man series, just please do it in the 16 bit SNES style.

Super Destronaut DX is essentially Space Invaders for the present day, so your feelings on that classic will dictate entirely how you feel about this modern update.

Hello Neighbor is the kind of awful that doesn’t need much time to make itself obvious. It stinks pretty much from the get-go, and that stench only gets more putrid with every second you spend with the game.

The whole thing is disorienting and unsettling — a lot like the movie that inspired it. Neverout isn’t the easiest game to love, but I imagine that those people who do love it will love it a lot.

If you’re not super into mobile gaming but you want to recreate the experience on your Switch, then it might be kind of worth checking this game out, but it’s not going to be the end of the world if you miss out on it, either.

Where Zelda is all about combat and the story, Yonder is a much more relaxing experience. It wants you to simply settle into the rhythms of living on the island of Gemea — and it’s a testament to how good it is that, given half a chance, it’ll have no problem sucking you in.

It’s not quite the full spiritual successor to Burnout that we need, but it’ll certainly do the job until that arrives.

Tempest 4000 is a fantastic version of a true classic. However, no matter how stunning it looks, or simple it plays it’s definitely not for every gamer out there. Those looking for a legitimate challenge will find it here. Those looking for a deep story or engaging quest will not find anything like that. It’s a simple shooter designed after the tried and true classic Arcade gameplay. Being the Classic Gaming fan that I am, I had an absolute blast playing this, but it might be hard to persuade other gamers to take a look.

I’d like to say that there are some points in the game’s favour, but that would be a lie. Ice Cream Surfer is a bargain basement App Store game masquerading as a mid-priced indie game, and at that price you should stay far, far away.

Classic trilogy or not, the idea that you have to sink 40 or 50 hours into a game before it gets really good is kind of insane. By itself (or, I guess, going by the two games included here), Muv-Luv falls a little short of being a must-buy…though, at the same time, if you want to check out the third game (and I do after playing through Muv-Luv Unlimited), it’s probably unavoidable. So — buyer beware.

Sonic Mania Plus is definitely worth checking out, especially if you happened to miss out on the original release of Sonic Mania. It’s a true return to form for everyone’s favorite hedgehog, and it’s definitely nice to have a reason to revisit.

For the most part, Bridge Constructor Portal is Bridge Constructor II in all but name. As I said, it’s a poor substitute for another actual Portal game, but if you just want a casual building game that you can drop in and out of, with the added bonus of a nice sense of humour, this will more than do the job.

Just like you’d expect, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is the complete package on the Switch. It’s a straightforward port with a couple add-one that don’t feel stapled on, but as always the real draw is having a game on a console with more staying power and appeal than the Wii U offered. If you’re not familiar with Captain Toad then definitely check this out, but if you had the game on Wii U then you’ve probably already made up your mind about if you’ll be migrating the recent ports over to the Switch. Either way you cut it, this is a great game and a definitive port.

I think the reason that Mario Tennis feels like it’s been out of the picture is because Nintendo hadn’t tried to seriously get it online and into the modern era. It seems like this time the game feels fully online with no gameplay issues that I found. It also helps that Aces has the best gameplay of the series so far and if you like party sports games, you really can’t go wrong with this one. The court variety, character selection, and ability to go online with multiple players on one console make Mario Tennis Aces out to be a game with lasting value. If you’ve been waiting for a series return to form well here it is.

By no means is Omensight a bad game. If you’re into the story and the lore, in fact, I can see being able to overlook the action and the camera — neither is great, but nor are they the worst things ever. Personally, I’m not going to stay awake at night wondering how to uncover a few pieces of the story I may have missed, but there are certainly worse games you could agonize over.

As someone who’s always loved building teams in other sports games, it was pretty fun to have so much control over your destiny here. Even more importantly, watching the games play out on the field was pretty enjoyable here. I wouldn’t say that Football Manager Touch 2018 is about to challenge FIFA or anything in the looks department, but it’s still pleasant to look at.

What matters most, though, is how well OOTP 19 delivers in terms of giving you full — and I do mean full — control over your favourite baseball franchise. And, unsurprisingly, it delivers a comprehensive experience, as it has for years now. Whether you want to build your team from scratch or take over the reins of your current favourite, you can do that here, and you’ll probably sink hours and hours and hours into it in the process.

As someone who’ll take a concentrated dose of exceptional storytelling over an endless slog of repetitive tasks and quests, I can’t say that the brevity or the lack of replayability bothers me all that much. All I really want is to hear/read an incredible story — well, that, and a genuinely great follow-up to Thomas Was Alone. Luckily, Subsurface Circular delivers on both.

Essentially, I never found myself enjoying The Crew 2. It’s not broken or busted in any major way, but I kept hacking away at the progression in the hopes that something would click and make the core game fun, but that never happens. It’s remarkable how similar in design the game is to the original, and how little feels improved upon outside of the visuals and the number of events to compete in.

If you just want something to jump in and out of without any commitment required, Urban Trial Playground will more or less do the trick. If you want anything more than that, you’ll probably have to wait until Trials Rising in February, but until then, this will act as an okay stopgap.

I can’t imagine there’s a huge audience for this out there, but for those elusive few holdouts, now is as good a time as any to jump in.

Warp Shift is only long enough to fill part of an afternoon, but as far as I’m concerned, at least you’d be squeezing a few hours of fun into that short time frame.

Infernium seems like the kind of game you’ll either love or you’ll hate. Either you’ll adore the way it mashes together a bunch of different ideas, or it’ll frustrate you to the point of wanting to never see the game again. I definitely fell in that latter category, but it’s a mark of how distinctive this game’s vision is that I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who sees it the other way.

LEGO Incredibles gives a fresh coat to the cookie cutter LEGO genre and has all the charm you would expect from a Pixar property. If you’re a Pixar and LEGO fan this is an INCREDIBLE release (sorry…not sorry) and you should definitely check it out.

Riddled Corpses EX isn’t going to astound you, but it’s also not going to disappoint you too much if you just want to shoot some monsters. It may not be sophisticated, but it works.

Hollow could have the most terrifying monsters ever chasing you through its dimly-lit hallways, and it would still suck on account of the fact that said chase would take place at the slowest speed imaginable, and give you ample opportunity to be reminded of what an eyesore it is. As I said up top, credit to the game for having such a clear vision of what it wanted to be, but the gulf between idea and execution couldn’t be any wider than it is here.