What has the ingredients to be a compelling RPG with roguelike side dishes, unfortunately, boils down to a mediocre cold buffet of half-baked ideas and passable visuals that never fully gets the taste buds tingling.

Although the entire idea of Labo is to use your creations with the software, it’s a little disappointing that there isn’t an option to just play through the software with the Joy-Cons in a normal fashion. Echoes of the cancelled Project Giant Robot are haunting.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is not exactly the full-fledged sequel fans have been asking for, but it’s a step in the right direction and a sign of good things to come from Goichi Suda. With more than 10 hours of gameplay and further content planned via upcoming DLC updates, the game may very well keep you busy for a while. Another positive take that could be realized from the latest release: it’s a relief to know that Travis is back and he’s most likely here to stay.

While there’s no discernible reason that DK Island shouldn’t have been included as a bonus layer at the end of the base game, especially with the DLC releasing so soon after launch, Emerald Rush nonetheless adds worthwhile replayability to Donkey Kong Bananza with an engaging new mode that encourages you to take full advantage of the game mechanics. If you’ve already completed the main story and are looking to prolong the game further with a more challenging roguelike twist on Banandium destruction, Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush is paid DLC that is worth your consideration.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a well-prepared sweet treat that gets stale rather quickly without friends to share it with. While its £13.49 price-tag certainly makes it easy to swallow, it admittedly feels like a missed opportunity for it not to have been a free bonus for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers alongside the likes of Tetris 99 and Happy Home Paradise. For a budget title though, there are definitely many hours of enjoyment to be had in this adorably competitive game, especially if you can convince a few pals to pick it up for themselves for some online play. If you’ve finished Kirby and the Forgotten Land and are looking for more cute Kirby action to tide you over until the next main-line release, then Kirby’s Dream Buffet will surely satisfy your hunger.

Unless you’re a Pokémon fan that loves to read and are looking for something easy to play casually, Detective Pikachu Returns unfortunately doesn’t have too much to offer outside of charm. While the game does have some interesting interactive elements, it focuses more on story rather than having super engaging gameplay. It’s clear that a lot of love and care was put into the narrative and character dialogue, but the decision to rehash certain plot elements from the movie gave a strange sense of deja vu and made some of the twists feel less impactful. If for some reason you haven’t seen the movie though, I recommend playing Detective Pikachu Returns beforehand, as you’re likely to gain a lot more from the overall experience by doing so. Otherwise, it’s difficult to fully recommend this sequel that doesn’t quite live up to the quality of the 3DS original.

The Teal Mask is, for better and for worse, more of the same. It tells an enjoyable story with some excellent lore that makes Kitakami feel as alive as any past region, and offers the same freedom of exploration that made Paldea so captivating. Unfortunately, it also comes with all the performance issues and poor optimisation that made Paldea so frustrating, and its short length, poorly-designed level scaling, and failure to deliver a proper conclusion to its story make it a less satisfying experience than it could have been, particularly if you’re coming into it from an endgame save state with a powerful team. The value of The Hidden Treasures of Area Zero as a package will of course be determined by both parts of it, but The Teal Mask is not as strong of a start as it could have been.

Chocobo GP has a lot of decent ideas with its Magicite attacks, and a large roster of recognisable characters that each have their own unique ability. You can play a good chunk of the game for free, and Square Enix promises Season Pass DLC, but racing as Cloud Strife won’t shift the bad taste from unimaginative race tracks Chocobo GP has to offer. The Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass may not be far away, and this won’t do the Final Fantasy kart racer spin-off any favours, but the free version of Chocobo GP offers a mediocre alternative to Nintendo’s crown jewel with plenty of modes to enjoy, even if the road is a little on the bumpy side.

Fans of the Style Savvy/Fashion Boutique franchise looking for a spiritual successor may find that Fashion Dreamer doesn’t live up to their expectations however, as the lack of a narrative and extremely slow progression in solo play make this feel like a tedious grind that actively hampers your creative freedom with extremely high costs for customization. I enjoyed my time with the game for what it is, but your mileage may vary.

While the staggering amount of things to do may be appreciated by some, it’s another example that demonstrates how quantity shouldn’t always be a priority over quality.

Drag x Drive tries too hard to reinvent the wheel, putting more focus on the unique (yet intuitive) mouse controls of the Nintendo Switch 2 than having enough gameplay content to give you the drive necessary to play more than a few times. Priced accordingly, shooting some hoops online with friends can be a real ball, and rolling around a skate park-like arena in a wheelchair is even more fun than it looks, but Drag x Drive doesn’t reach its full potential and is far from being a slam dunk.

As long as you don’t approach it with a completionist mindset, Endless Ocean Luminous is a relaxing and overall fulfilling experience that is perfect for short solo gameplay sessions or group dives with friends. The limited variety in the procedurally generated maps means that the novelty of exploration will likely wear off for most long before they catalogue everything, and the story mode is disappointingly sparse and disjointed, but what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in sheer volume of content. If you are looking to try something with a slightly different flow, this might just be worth diving into.

Deadly Premonition 2 is up there with Travis Strikes Back levels of weirdness, but much like Suda 51’s hack ‘n’ slash Switch exclusive, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise isn’t really a blessing for Nintendo’s hybrid console. If this second title in the Deadly Premonition series sacrificed its Switch exclusivity and had more development time, it may have been saved from being a sloppy mess that doesn’t deserve its otherwise fantastic story and loveable cast of characters.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour fulfils its intended function admirably, quite literally taking you on a tour across the Switch 2. It explains how each part was made in a way that is easy to understand and fairly engaging, and then lets you try it out for yourself with some minigames and tech demos that are fun (or at least sufficiently demonstrative) for a few minutes, and there is quite a substantial amount of content here. However, it lacks the replayability or thematic cohesion of past titles that demonstrated the capabilities of new hardware, such as Wii Sports or Nintendo Land. If you’re at all curious about the technical aspects of the Switch 2, this is more than worth the cost of admission, but otherwise, there is very little reason to take this tour.