The first simulation title for the Switch, New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers is a mixed effort with a barnyard full of blusters. It’s a decently priced romp at $9.99, but its lack of customization and odd control scheme may turn off those who want a quality farming game.

Orangeblood is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s visually striking and has a conceptually deep battle system. On the other hand, the english translation is incomprehensible and your characters are too powerful to really have any sort of challenge or interesting fights. It won’t physically and emotionally destroy you like the Lisa games, but it’s still a decent enough RPG that I can recommend if it’s on sale.

Simulacra excels in premise alone. By the end of the game, I found myself wondering when a better game with this kind of concept will be released. It suffers from an identity crisis. It started out as an enticing murder mystery game, and wound up a tired metaphor.

Falcon Age has some extremely interesting ideas at its core, but never gives them the chance to shine. It tells the story of an indigenous woman fighting back against colonial oppression by training a falcon in line with her cultural traditions, but hides the best parts of its premise behind repetitive combat and boring presentation. There are moments when Falcon Age let me feel the bond between my character and her bird or see the culture she was fighting for, but never enough to be satisfying.

Deadfall Adventures is a game that doesn’t stand out. It has few redeeming qualities, and if you’re a FPS fanatic, there are much better games out there for you to play.

If it were released five years ago, Mad Max could have been revolutionary. But it was released in 2015, so Mad Max will be just another open-world adventure lost in the dust.

If you are a hardcore SRPG gamer with the patience of a saint, you might be able to get through Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires. There is a deep game somewhere in there.

Mainly it suffers from being too bland and inconsistent, and while it has some good ideas it doesn't quite deliver on all aspects.

While fans of the show will get a kick out of controlling the Zords, the gameplay is so repetitive and uninspired that most will find it boring. If that isn’t bad enough, the game is short.

Because the gameplay was so uninspired, I found myself speeding through streets and ramming myself into the sides of buildings or opposing traffic so that I could watch the physics engine in action, and even that grew tiresome after a short while.

Rengoku II is incredibly repetitive. If the fighting was fun, this wouldn’t be an issue. If the game had an understandable story, it might be worth trying to progress through to the end. Instead, you’ll grow tired of Rengoku II rather quickly.

With a complete lack of game design, uninspired dialogue, and sub-par technical performance I can safely say that Nintendo phoned it in on this one.

It’s surprising that none of the developers noticed the glaring issues in the game. This is really too bad as the multiplayer is actually a lot of fun and a bright spot in this otherwise piece of garbage.

State of Emergency 2 outright sucks. This is a game so weak in execution, bland, repetitively constructed and poorly balanced that one wonders how it made it out of testing alive.

There are only two potential audiences I see for this game: small children with incredibly short attention spans and Transformers fans blinded by nostalgia. It's an incredibly expensive way to waste a few hours.

The DS version of this game just missed the boat on so many features that the hardware could have made use of.

Disney may have a massive hit in the theaters but they have one heck of a dud for the PS2. This almost recalls the fabled "ET" in terms of rushing something, ANYTHING, out the door to cash-in on a popular movie only with better voice work.

Having covered this game since it was announced I was really hoping to find a great DBZ game. After all, the graphics look great and the presentation during the fight scenes is top notch. The problem is that the actual gameplay is so bad that I can't recommend Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi to even the most hard core of DBZ fans.

This game screams rushed port and the sad part is it screams rushed port of the non-existent Playstation 1 version.

It's good, it's solid, but the price can't be ignored. If you want this kind of game and if you have access to an iPhone, iPad or Android device, hit their respective app stores – your money will be better spent. And if you wait long enough, with the way things are going, I Heart Geeks may end up in those same stores at a reduced price after a while.

Eragon is about as devoid of passion and energy as any project I've ever born witness to and the very lack of soul robs it of any chance to become something more than a quickie tie-in for a half-ass movie.

My advice is to play the first game if you like it, because there is nothing new to be had here.

Senran Kagura Reflexions is an Ecchi dating sim game that in reality is a touching and squeezing simulator. The gameplay feels pervy at times, and gets repetitive and boring fairly quickly. There are no visual issues, and motion controls make things more interesting, but it unfortunately isn't enough to make it entertaining.

While I definitely appreciate the hard work that went into making this game, and the cute, fun graphics, this just isn’t something I can see myself picking up again and playing, though I do believe this could be a fun game for young children to play together. I think I was expecting more, maybe even looking for the choice to pick which job in the hive to play, and hope that the developers might consider adding more to the game in the future!

The Grand Theft Auto series will always be seen as a cultural milestone in video gaming which led to the open world games that we cherish now, but the years have been a bit harsh on the trilogy and the complete lack of care put into what is essentially an afterthought of a remaster doesn’t help matters much. The few updates made with controls, shooting, and lighting are nice, but not enough to justify the $60 price tag. The games are still worth revisiting, especially if you’ve never played the original releases, but only if you aren’t playing on PC or the Switch as those versions seem to share the bulk of issues the game is currently experiencing. So far PS5 is the way to go for a hassle-free trip into Liberty City, just maybe wait for a price cut first.

A very deep, complex, and well made game with high quality experiences from the lowest to the highest level of rule in Feudal Japan. It is also a tease, showing you all of this quality without taking the time to actually explain itself. Frustrating camera controls and a total lack of guidance leave a bad taste in the mouth when the game so easily could have avoided both and been truly great.

Beat Cop is meant to be a tribute to cop shows from the 1980s, complete with snarky dialogue and questionable characters. When it comes down to it, however, it’s a stressful sim that’s heavy on time management and largely unforgiving. There are multiple endings you could discover, but after several hours with the game it’s hard to muster the patience for even one.

While it might not have enough staying power to keep you going for long periods of time, Iron Snout is still a functional title that has a tongue-in-cheek satirical style. It’s great for extremely short bursts, but nothing more.

Just do yourself a favor, skip this game and go have fun with the real thing.

KHOLAT nails the experience of being atop a snowy mountain during volatile conditions, and the idea of it being based on a true story is intriguing. Ultimately, though, the execution falls short and you’re left with a shallow experience that is hard to find the fun in.

Pleasantly simple and with a sense of humor that fades in tandem with its tactical formula, Crush Your Enemies delivers fast-paced strategy with an old school look and an anti-fantasy flair. A bargain at $10, it provides a few hours of fun, but nothing more.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a game that places too much of its emphasis on its dating sim mechanics rather than a polished RPG experience. Dodgy armor designs mar the progression that the weapons add to the game, and a rather stale storyline does not give enough motivation to want to progress through the game.

Flood of Light is a passable title for those that are hankering for a few hours of puzzle solving. While repetitive settings and cumbersome controls hamper the overall experience, there’s enough here to justify the $4.99 price tag.

The Bard’s Tale IV could be a fun — but seriously flawed — game if it weren’t hamstrung by technical problems. Its frequent framerate drops, bugged combat abilities, and crashes are compounded by an archaic save system that makes it far too easy to lose progress. Though it features some great combat and challenging puzzles, they’re not without their own flaws, and become extremely repetitive over the game’s 30–40-hour playtime.

Phantom Fury is an unapologetic boomer-shooter that can definitely talk the talk, but fails to walk the same walk that its inspirations did some 25 years ago. Countless technical problems, obscure level design, and a sad excuse for a story unfortunately make what could have been a good game a middling one.

While the presentation is charming and amazing, Joggernauts ultimately fails as a casual party game. With its unfair death mechanics and steep difficulty curve, it’s one that will appeal to groups that want a challenge, less so for ones that want to have a fun time.

TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants puts you on a roller coaster ride through the world of the 2012 cartoon. The ride proves amusing, but digging any deeper into its game design reveals the game to be a rather sloppy bout of sewer surfin’.

If you really love crafting, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Paintings might be your jam. But if you like literally any other aspect of a typical JRPG, you’re going to be disappointed. It might be worth $20 for the curiosity, but at $60, I really can’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already like the series.

Trials of the Blood Dragon continues the storyline from where Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon ended. If you’re driven to find out what happens next to Rex Power Colt and his two kids, Roxanne and Slayter, it looks like you’re buying this game. You won’t hate it, and the charm of the presentation is enough to keep you moving forward, just don’t expect it to be the thrill that other Trials games have been able to deliver.

State of Mind is so obsessed with its story that it forgets what medium it’s in. While a strong storyline and adept world-building can’t be denied, the game can’t escape its undercooked mechanics and puzzles.

Semblance lets you deform your platforms to solve puzzles how you want, but it limits your tools so severely that the promise of that idea is wasted on mediocre puzzles. It has a neat look, but like its core mechanic, it wears thin even before you get to the end of your two hour trip through the game.

Just after the first section of the game I wanted to throw this game out the window. Where has the fun gone in beat-em up games? Where are the Final Fights, Streets of Rages, and Double Dragons today?

Clash Force is a nice attempt at recreating the classic 2D side-scroller. The 8-bit graphics and game design feel right, but the final stages of the game take a dramatic difficulty spike. If those were tweaked, the game would be less frustrating and more enjoyable.

While certainly not a terrible release, Sisters Generation doesn’t stray far enough outside the box it lampoons to be considered a good game either. This game is only for dedicated fans of the series, or RPG gamers starving for a new game to fill in the gaps.

FullBlast is a nifty little diversion for those that have a few bucks to spend on a shoot-em-up, but with lenient difficulty, generic presentation, and unremarkable gameplay, you might have a better time with another bullet hell game on the Switch eShop.

I commend Enotria: The Last Song for trying to do something different in an oversaturated gamespace, but it just doesn’t quite hit the mark. This game needed a lot more time in the oven before being released, but nowadays it's the norm to ship out incomplete messes for a full price anyways right, so what’s new?

Oil Enterprise is a game that is lacking in almost all departments, and never comes to compelling gameplay. If you like watching numbers more than actually building an empire, you may enjoy this game, for everyone else it just never seems to hit the mark.

From the disappointingly generic artwork to the charming-but-repetitive music, the GBA version of the game comes across as a rather ordinary golf game that relies heavily on its associated movie license.

VULKAISER is a nice distraction, but lacks any major step forward. Fun for a spell, but has the longevity of a coin-op arcade machine.

Torchlight III feels watered down compared to its contemporaries, and worse, its predecessors. The loot is as plentiful as it is unsatisfying. The monsters are a deluge of health bars, removing all sense of threat or purpose. The characters feel so genericized that they can’t transcend past whatever non-specific weapons they may carry. Betrayed by its F2P roots, Torchlight III needed a full rebuild to iterate on its origins, and clearly, that’s not what happened here as it’s simultaneously more of the same, and somehow less.

Poi, gripping with nostalgia, delivers standard 3D platforming in a adorable and relaxing way, putting nothing between you and the thrill of exploration, but this resolve to keep the game simple and to the point leaves it lacking in content. It's a fantastic way to unwind, though not much else. The exclusive content to the Explorer Edition adds little to the experience, and you're better off purchasing the title on Steam or another console, unless you want to pay the premium to have the option of mobility. A charming presentation coupled with dull interaction leaves this specific product mediocre.

Battalion 1944 is a WWII shooter that doesn't do much to set itself apart or feel very memorable. The gameplay is alright, but bad spawns and quick deaths can be frustrating. Graphical issues are noticeable and break immersion. Wartide drags on for too long.

As a The Walking Dead fan, a fan of puzzle games, RPG games and retro-style graphics, there is nothing I can say I enjoyed about this game.

Sifu Arenas gives players 45 new challenges to help them master their Kung Fu. However, the challenges felt more like a chore than something to achieve. This is definitely geared more towards achievement hunters and completionists and less towards those who want to actually get better as it doesn’t actually present that opportunity.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown doesn’t break the mold of any other generic racing simulator, which isn’t inherently a bad thing. It definitely scratches the itch of purchasing cool cars, racing them, upgrading them, and customizing them. The backdrop of Hong Kong Island is beautiful, but the overall visual fidelity here is lackluster and disappointing, especially in 2024. The progression wipe and constant server issues along with other technical bugs are unacceptable though, so I suggest waiting for a sale or more patches to polish out the experience.

Oninaki has one foot in the grave while the other doing a pleasant tap dance. It has an interesting story held back by bland characters and filler, and its gameplay can feel great when you’re not getting pounded in the face and stunned to death. Unless you can find it on sale, I’d skip this one.

Danger Zone 2 attempts to bring back the crashing thrills of the Burnout franchise, but unfortunately falls prey to presentation issues and a lack of overall content. It’s still a fun time for the couple of hours you have with the game, but there are much better arcade racing titles from which to choose.

Cities XXL is a unique and innovative city builder that is among the best, but there is not enough new features or content for returning players to justify buying.

ANNO: Mutationem had a lot of promise, but ended up spread far too thin. Both the exploration and combat lack any sort of depth, the story is nonsensical, and the sprite work looks ugly in motion.

Gal Metal is a weird rhythm game that unfortunately doesn’t live up to the hype that its premise promises. It’s worth checking out if you want some metal in your Switch diet, but other than that, you can probably skip it.

Sisters Royale is a decently fine title for die-hard bullet hell fans (or those that yearn for the craziness of Castle of Shikigami), but some glaring issues and uninspired presentation makes this a quarrel from which you’ll want to step away.

While it’s a decently fun time for 5 bucks and easy to pick up and play, Mini Golf Resort is an unremarkable 3DS port of a game with generic design choices and some strange physics.

Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1 The Teal Mask offers nothing we haven’t seen before. Kitakami, despite the Japanese theming, feels exactly like Paldea just with different Pokémon. The story is uninteresting and has characters changing completely on a dime, and quite a lot of the included Pokémon already appear in the main game. There’s just not much going on here.

After a year of delays, the Switch version of Pocket Rumble unfortunately disappoints on multiple levels. While it has a distinct art style and some great multiplayer options, the overall lack of content and limited moveset hinder the game’s true potential.

Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes 2.0 feels like a failed attempt at rushing a game out to cash in on a trending genre, that ultimately suffers from too little development time and polish.

The definitive edition of Dead Island Riptide is hardly an improvement. The gorgeous visuals may distract you from the tedious gameplay and odd bugs for a while, but it doesn’t last forever.

Scars Above is unfortunately bland, with dull combat and very few puzzles. It has hints at interesting ideas and ambitions, but couldn’t execute on those.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan’s charming visual style doesn’t make up for repetitive level design and combat that would leave even Master Splinter frustrated.

Gestalt: Steam & Cinder looks and plays the part of a competent action game. However, its heart lies more in its narrative. While I admire the ambition, Gestalt left me asking, both as a game and as a story, one simple question: “so what?”.

Drakengard 3 is a disastrous mix of high potential and very low execution.

The Sims 4 Outdoor Retreat has fun new items, a unique aspirations, and new activities. It is nice to bring your virtual people to the outdoors but fails to give longevity outside of a brief vacation.

Samurai Maiden would have been a fun and satisfying RPG if its several stark issues didn't hinder the experience so significantly.

For only $10, it gets you a couple of hours of playtime and you can soon return it to the dusty corners of your digital library. It’s an ok VR title on its own that most should consider buying if they’re new to the platform to ease into VR controls. Though the story is very bland and it feels more like a concept than a fully-fledged title, it’s the gameplay that keeps you playing just that bit longer before you release how repetitive those levels are.

With a sour stomach and a lot of disappointment, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot delivers a gorgeous visual feast with more motion sickness than I’ve encountered in any VR game to date. Insult to injury, it’s also painfully short, smacking more of AAA tech demo than meaty Wolfenstein tie-in.

Nepenthe is half as good as its source inspiration, and while it’s still in need of much more improvement, it is an ambitious first effort. While it suffers from derivative gameplay and a shallow story, it does have a unique presentation and some fine music.

The game’s bland look and feel only serves to further highlight the abject shallowness of the entire experience.

Minecraft: Story Mode is left with a lot to prove in the coming episodes. “Assembly Required” doesn’t do much to convince players that any of its drama is genuine, or that any of its plotlines can adequately fill up what they’ve come to expect in a full episode of a Telltale series.

Flip Wars is a very simple, shallow party game. It’s not actively terrible, but it barely offers anything to do. It only costs $9.99, so if you think it looks really fun, it might not hurt to buy it. Someone else might like it more than I do. But personally, for that amount, I’d much rather have Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, since that offers far greater enjoyment over a longer period than the few minutes I had with this game.

The return to Teer Fradee largely disappoints in the De Vespe Conspiracy, although the PlayStation 5 upgrade works well. I wanted so much more in something called an expansion, even if the cost said I should temper my expectations. The De Vespe Conspiracy still tells an enjoyable tale, but the surrounding new enemies, empty location, and anticlimactic ending make for something akin to getting a dinner mint as a dessert rather than the chocolate melting cake.

As unmemorable as it was disappointing, Vikings—Wolves of Midgard misses the mark. With a flat story, uninteresting combat made worse by the game’s annoying exposure system, and a boring environment to boot, this title doesn’t compare to its many well-liked peers within the ARPG genre.

While it has a nice premise and ambitious goals with its social deduction, several frustrating problems drag down Save Koch.

MindsEye is as beautiful as it is broken, vacillating between promise and problematic. With design choices rooted in the distant past and an infestation of bugs, it’s held back by an unforced error – releasing far too early.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may have had its heyday, but this particular entry feels well past its prime with bland visuals, uninteresting courses, and terrible controls.

Despite its incredible art direction and pixelated visuals, The Last Faith fails to encapsulate what makes its inspirations so brilliant. The plethora of poor and frustrating game mechanics and design choices, combined with technical performance issues and lack of accessibility options, makes this one of my biggest gaming disappointments of the year.

The World Next Door is an ambitious action-puzzle game with some interesting narrative and RPG elements, but unfortunately wears itself thin trying too much with too little.

I Love You Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator is fun for a free laugh, but will bore visual novel veterans with its one-note supporting cast. Stay for the art style, but feel free to grab your chicken to go if you’re in a hurry for something else.

After looking at all the evidence, I must say I almost enjoyed The Sinking City. There is a solid game here buried under technical problems and tedium. The interesting characters and quirky protagonist were almost enough to keep me interested, but sloppy combat and plentiful walking eventually wore me down. This is a paranormal call I recommend walking away from.

Despite the charm that Shin chan and co. bring to this endless summer vacation, with its bizarre story and fun cast, it’s not enough to carry it across its 10+ hour playtime. The gameplay falls flat in its monotony and doesn’t quite capture the charm of embracing everyday life like other games have done before it.

Mario Party: The Top 100 is sadly mediocre. What should be a wonderful commemoration of the friendship-breaking party experience turns into a bland rehash of different minigames from the series. While this is still fun with friends, it’s probably better to just grab an older Mario Party and dig in there.

Sky-high ambition meets sub-par execution in this roguelike fantasy-epic. Vambrace: Cold Soul delivers a large helping of worldbuilding but fails to provide engaging gameplay to accompany it.

Red Bull BC One has very little to offer to anyone.

At the end of the day, Squareboy vs. Bullies: Arena Edition is a serviceable beat-em-up that doesn’t go out of its way to stand out. While it does have a distinct Gameboy-inspired feel, its repetitive level design, disappointing enemy variety, and lack of content make for a middling five dollar experience.

Skellboy is a lovely looking game with an addictive soundtrack and lighthearted story. However, its main gameplay loop is unremarkable, and there isn’t much to differentiate itself from the competition.

Tragically short and simplistic, Homo Machina will satiate those looking for a fun little interactive experience about the human body. At $3 however, its runtime of less than an hour puts a huge damper on the whole thing.

Frustrating and generic gameplay rounds out an otherwise technically impressive package. Killzone: Shadow Fall should have been another solid entry in an above-average franchise, but instead it succumbs to all of the usual launch game pitfalls, and a decent though unimpressive multiplayer suite can’t save it from mediocrity.

Fated: the Silent Oath didn’t allow me to become the Viking that I dreamed of being, but there is a decent experience mixed in with the game’s poor gameplay elements and innovative controls. While I might have been able to feel a connection with the characters, the constant lack of immersion dampened what could have a been much more satisfying game.

After Us presents a strong message about planet conservation and wildlife preservation. However, weak gameplay and hollow-level design make the game a running simulator rather than an engaging platformer.

The Forge is a disappointingly brief and underwhelming add-on to an excellent game. What is there is technically good, but hard to recommend as content that Square Enix is asking you to pay for. I’d recommend holding off to see if the rest of the season pass is worthwhile or if you should pass on it entirely.