The Lion’s Song is a great point-and-click game that focuses mostly on the narrative. The choices you make in one chapter can not only impact the other chapters (both later and earlier chapters), but seeing all of these choices have connections to each other in the Gallery is a nice touch. With its unique art-style and use of music throughout the game, The Lion’s Song was a great experience.

There's so much to do and it's so easily to get lost for hours just exploring the world trying to find the right materials to craft some better gear, or to finish up that side-quest that you picked up in Puerto Valor, or maybe the casino is more your style? Dragon Quest XI is easily one of the best JRPGs this generation, and it would be a shame if you missed it.

While the graphics are strictly handheld-level, in the heat of battle you simply will not care. Players should be ready to plumb the depths of much more complicated crafting and material gathering systems, but the combat is very recognizable to fans old and new. This is one of the biggest and best games on Switch, and regardless of how long it takes to ramp up and get going, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate should not be missed.

When it comes to Monster Hunter, the level of depth in the game leaves a lot to talk about, and I don’t think it’s possible to capture everything in this review. I personally think this entry in the series is a fantastic addition, both for returning fans and new players like myself. The game is a tremendous amount of fun, balancing challenge and reward perfectly in a way that made me want to keep on hunting for hours on end. The PC port itself has some technical issues which detract from the overall experience, but the quality of the game underneath more than makes up for it.

Detached is a great spacewalking simulator, with gameplay that has obviously been built up around that mechanic. While some of the more gamey elements might not be up to snuff, you can’t argue with the feeling you get when you leave a ship and are floating freely in space. Expect to be mildly frustrated with the lack of direction and irritating checkpoints. But also expect to be awestruck by the superb visuals and setting. Detached is a mixed bag, but the spacewalks alone are worth the price of admission.

Okami HD is a beautiful and enjoyable game and I’m glad I finally got the chance to play through it. You now have three ways to use the Celestial Brush and each way has certain instances where it might work better than the other two. Between the great cel-shaded graphics and relaxing music and atmosphere, Okami HD is an amazing game that fans and newcomers to the game should check out.

Playing Another World feels like more than a dusty visit to the video game museum. It is something more akin to an exciting examination of modern gaming’s DNA under a powerful microscope. For those interested in the origins of Souls games, rogue-likes, and cinematic adventure games, this is the place to look. Be ready for some wonky old-school controls and bewildering level design, but know that working your way past those limitations is absolutely worth it.

Crush your Enemies! is a fun strategy title on Switch that fills a need that I didn’t realize I had. By cutting out a lot of the hoops RTS players are accustomed to jumping through, the shiny core of the genre is revealed. While the visuals might be a little low-res, the gameplay is top notch, and moving from battle to battle quickly becomes addictive. For a discount title, this game delivers an overwhelming amount of fun content. With a fun local multiplayer mode included, this is a head-bashing good time that is well worth the low cost.

Earthfall is a solo or multiplayer FPS that pits four remnants of a human town against some underwhelming aliens that are rampaging and at times swarming. It will not stand out from the other dozen games of its type but it is another reasonable choice that - at least - doesn’t require lessons.

Smooth and beautiful to look at, VSR: Void Space Racing packs a difficulty curve the likes of which I have never experienced in a racing game. It is best to go into VSR with the mindset that you will not be playing a racer, but a whole new genre. Even with that in mind, I would expect a large percentage of players to bounce off of VSR the same way that my racing ship bounces off of space debris. This is a game for dedicated, patient players.

XBox One owners have no excuse to miss out on this game. It is one of the best examples of video games as a medium of entertainment and needs to be played by every person possible. I cannot stress enough how important this game is, or how good it is.

Stifled is a stealth horror game that brings its own flair to the genre by using echolocation to see in the dark. The player has to use their own voice to see, but also must be cautious to avoid attracting the attention of creatures hiding in the void. Stifled has a truly unique core gameplay mechanic that is both interesting and nerve-racking, but it seems underutilized throughout the game. The repetitive design of the levels minimizes the horror impact of the gameplay, and the lack of diversity and AI in the monsters leaves much to be desired.

Mega Man X Legacy Collections 1 and 2 are a great set of games featuring the history of X and Zero. While we don’t have any stage challenges like the original Legacy Collections or the ability to rewind or use save states, the new X Challenge mode is definitely a challenge on normal difficulty and even on easy difficulty I enjoyed just whaling on Mavericks with just the X Buster. Overall, fans of the Mega Man X series should enjoy these collections, even more so on the go with the Nintendo Switch.

With a unique presentation unlike anything I’ve seen before in gaming, Salary Man Escape creates its own singular vision of workplace hell. But with frustrating controls and a bordering-on-broken physics model, the stellar puzzle design is lost in a mire of irritation and exasperation. If I wanted to feel stressed, I would just go to work.

If you've played the first two, The Banner Saga 3 is impossible to ignore. In this final chapter, everything is broken and mended and broken again. I was never sure if there would be--or even could be--any kind of happily ever after to this massive mythology Stoic Studios has built. It's an excellent uncertainty.

GNOG is something of a mechanical puzzle game in that you solve the puzzles by manipulating various switches, knobs, sliders, and buttons, but the overall experience goes far beyond that. With a trippy art style reminiscent of the LSD-enhanced art of the 1960's and a unique musical sound, GNOG is a game that doesn't take itself too seriously and encourages you to just play with it, and maybe even solve a puzzle now and then.

Overall, Sonic Mania Plus is a great game. While the Plus part really only gives you two new characters and a harder version of the game, current Sonic Mania owners will only have to pay five dollars for the DLC which isn’t too bad. Even 30 dollars for those wanting a physical version is still worth it for the main game alone if you don’t already have it. Either way, fans of Sonic who haven’t played this yet should definitely pick it up at some point.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus plays great on the Nintendo Switch, though if you have a chance to play the game docked, it is definitely the way to go. But either way, New Colossus is an amazing game, with a rich universe, gonzo cinematic storytelling, and great-feeling combat. Not having played the first title is no reason not to jump into Wolfenstein II, and the Switch is a completely viable way to experience the touching lunacy of this series. Highly recommended.

Even eight years after its release, Limbo is a small, subtle masterpiece of smart puzzle-platformer design and haunting show-don’t-tell storytelling. Every self-respecting gamer should play this one, and a portable version on Switch is definitely worth a purchase even if you own the game on another platform.

While the game is most effective the first time through, repeated visits to its brief vignettes reveal just how meticulously this spook-house was built. Don't bother with the individual episodes, just go for the whole game. You will immediately want to buy more episodes after playing the first one, so you might as well save some money by buying the package. And don't forget to play with the lights on, for all the good it will do you.

Wreckfest offers the eRacer something not available anywhere else: the ability to race on the computer in cars and at tracks that are accessible to the common man. Don't let the 70's era rust buckets fool you, though - the driving and damage physics are quite good, the damage models are entertaining, and the racing is close and brutal. It's astonishingly fun!

Songbringer’s general aesthetic and sense of humor rubbed me the wrong way, but the procedurally generated worlds are actually a lot of fun to get lost in, and the art style and music, though occasionally harsh, have a lot of love and nuance put into them.

While the game suffers in performance in docked mode, the pleasures gained in handheld mode more than make up for it. Even with the technical issues, this is a fine collection, and well worth the investment of both time and money.

Bus Simulator 18, at its core, is a good simulator game with a whole lot of soul. It brings a lot of playability options to the table, whether you want to just drive a bus or manage the whole company. The driving is complex enough to keep the player involved, and the economic systems provide a respite for players tired of being behind the wheel. However, the game is hurt by some frustrating bugs and sub-par traffic systems.

In a way The Crew 2 is a better game from the old, but in another way, it is also very much the same flawed racer. There is a lot of good here: open world, four racing types, huge customization, and tons of races. However, as a racing game, you’d do better with Mario Kart.

New Gundam Breaker is such a bad game that it makes me feel bad for Gundam fans. I picture a 12-year-old Gundam fanatic that has saved up weeks’ worth of lawnmowing mowing money, sitting with a controller hanging loosely in her hand, staring at the screen and crying. This is a game that should never have come to market, regardless of how much hard work went into its creation. To ask anyone to pay money for New Gundam Breaker is outright offensive.

Dream Alone has a tired story, clunky controls, and flawed mechanics, and most of its problems can be traced to the near-fundamental incompatibility of this type of horror with this type of platforming. Its most promising aspect—multiple dimensions—is by far the creepiest part, which is enjoyable, but it seems to sabotage itself with a few key flaws that impact the entire game’s playability.

Pode is a fun and relaxing puzzle game that starts out simple and becomes more complex as the game progresses and you gain new abilities. While the game is meant for co-op play, it plays just as well single-player, though you will have to constantly swap between Glo and Bulder. Having a second player can also help with solving puzzles as you have a second person helping you out, but alone or with a friend, with its enjoyable art style and relaxing atmosphere, Pode is a puzzle game worth checking out.