It may be another trip back to the Lylat System, but Star Fox is a highly entertaining arcade adventure with arguably the best visuals seen from a Nintendo title yet, a more fleshed-out narrative and gameplay that truly stands the test of time. At seven campaign playthroughs and counting, as well as countless attempts at the game’s many challenges, Star Fox well and truly has its claws in me. Sure, my familiarity with the original game is light at best, but remake or not, Star Fox is a great way to kick off the summer and hopefully a sign of more adventures from Fox and crew in the near future.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition may not be the ultimate version of the game, but it’s another strong port from Capcom that especially excels when played in handheld mode. The core game has plenty to offer, and it’s fantastic to have Vergil included without any additional cost. It’s unfortunate that not everything from the Special Edition could be included, but despite that, Devil May Cry 5 is still easily one of the best games of this kind that you can play on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is a quirky, highly original offering from Capcom. Its mash-up of tower defense and action isn’t as fitting a combination as you might hope for, but it holds itself together well enough through the course of the game. The presentation is a real standout here, with a cool visual design and excellent audio. This Nintendo Switch 2 version might not be quite up to the technical standard of other platforms that played host to the game, but it’s more than respectable. That’s especially the case if you want to play portably, a style that works surprisingly well for this game. If you’re up for something a little different and appreciate games with strong personality, you might want to give Kunitsu-Gami a closer look.

Despite my frustrations, by the end, I just couldn’t find myself to truly dislike The Adventure of Elliot: The Millennium Tales as a whole. It just has too much heart, and I see a lot of room for improvement. This is the kind of game where you can just tell the people making it approached the project with pure passion. I’d love to see them get another shot, because you can just tell a follow-up could be legendary.

The Switch 2 Edition of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is, without a doubt, an improvement over what we saw with Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’s Switch 2 Edition. That doesn’t mean it’s all the way out of the woods, however. A soft image and some weirdness with the framerates of various elements hurt what is otherwise a really great-looking visual update. With the new Ether Jet bike, Nopon Grand Prix races, and voiced Heart-to-Heart scenes thrown in the mix, it’s a lot easier to recommend this than the Switch 2 Edition of Xenoblade Chronicles X. I’m hoping we see some updates at some point to fix certain things, but I doubt as many people will be scrambling to uninstall this Xenoblade Switch 2 Edition as we saw with the previous one.

Amnesia: Rebirth isn’t a bad game by any means. It certainly has some qualities, but it never reaches the heights of the other games in the series, especially The Dark Descent. It’s still a very interesting game with great atmosphere and some clever ideas.

Gobliiins Collection is a largely complete assortment of a very personable classic series of point-and-clickers. The five games on offer will take you quite a while to bash your way through, and you get a few pleasant extras to round the package out. The games are designed around mouse controls, and there are moments where the button controls and touch controls just don’t feel as good as they should. The lack of manuals is quite disappointing, and the games themselves can be very frustrating at times. Still, I think Gobliiins fans will be rather happy with this set, and with a quick look-up online to get started, I think newcomers will do alright with it too.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth tries to do more than its predecessor in many ways, and it has the scraped knees to show for it. When it hits, it hits, but when it stumbles, it kicks up a real dust cloud. The story is engaging enough, but to its detriment, it’s caught between trying to pay homage to the original game and doing its own thing. It’s also a middle chapter, one where we don’t really know how things are going to wrap up. This Switch 2 port gets the job done, but you’ll never find yourself wondering how they managed to do it. No, it’s abundantly clear what had to be given up to squeeze this onto the console. Rebirth on the Switch 2 is big, messy, full of heart, and often unsure of itself. It’s enough. I just wish it were more than that.

Despite another clichéd story and an uninteresting cast of characters, Split Fiction is easily my favourite Hazelight adventure to date. With so many ideas crammed into its roughly twelve-hour runtime, there’s barely a moment to breathe, bouncing from one world to the next. Sure, not every segment is a home run, but with the next thing rarely more than ten or so minutes away, you won’t mind these occasional lull moments.

Mina the Hollower is another masterpiece from Yacht Club Games. It’s one of those games that only gets better the more you play it, and considering how enjoyable it is off the hop, that’s really saying something. There is so much to do here, and yet it never feels overwhelming or like it’s stretching the soup too thin. I think the most important thing, something it really nails, is in how satisfying the game feels on a fundamental level. Always a joy, constantly shaking things up, and ever finding new ways to surprise you, Mina the Hollower is a genuine must-play.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the better Switch 2 ports so far in the AAA space, retaining the game’s identity and delivering a solid experience despite some issues. It isn’t as good as the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 or even the recent Dynasty Warriors: Origins port, but I like it more than Final Fantasy VII Rebirth based on that demo. If you only own a Switch 2, this is an easy recommendation. Hopefully, they will allow for a higher resolution texture pack as potential DLC in the future.

Unless you’re a curious person who likes poking at the less-celebrated side of gaming history, it’s hard to recommend Rugrats: Retro Rewind Collection to someone without specific, strong nostalgia for one or more of the included games. It’s not that there’s nothing to any of them, but you’re not missing much if you never play them. If, on the other hand, you do have happy childhood memories of playing any of these games, you’ll likely appreciate the work Limited Run Games has done to bring them to modern platforms. It’s really hard to imagine anyone else would, and regardless of what I think of the games, that effort earns my respect.

I can see Bubsy 4D falling either way in the end. Maybe it’s a decent foundation that the Bubsy franchise can rebuild from. The bones of a great game are here, after all. I could also easily see it ending up as another false start, abandoned in favor of slapping the character into another pre-built framework. This isn’t a bad game by any means. It’s probably one of the best in the whole series, in fact. Still, I can’t help but compare it to the other games from this developer and find that, once again, Bubsy’s take is more like a bridge too short.

Quartet’s pacing means you have to have a little patience with it while it sets up all of its various pieces, but it’s certainly worth doing so if you enjoy the genre. Its commitment to its bit costs it here and there, but in the end, I think the sacrifices are worth it. This is a very strong RPG regardless of your affection for the classics, and it’s one that’s comfortable to fit into short or longer sessions as needed. The Switch version is a great way to play the game, as it takes to portability like a duck to water. RPG fans would do well to give this one a look.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure – City Town is a strong add-on to the original game, giving you a reason to come back and spend more time with Kitty and friends. It’s a very substantial expansion in terms of how much time it will take most players to complete. Its general adherence to the previously established formula means that if you already managed to burn out on the base game, then you probably won’t find enough to excite you here. Still, I think on the whole this is a much better DLC than the previous one. If you’re not repelled by the notion of hanging out with this crew again for a while, then you might want to pop on over to City Town.

I think Picross S Konami Antiques Edition has plenty to offer to both Picross and Konami fans. For the former, it’s a whole new batch of puzzles to work your way through. If you’re the latter, this is a great way to relive your happy memories of Konami classics from the past while potentially getting into a whole new kind of game. Those who fall into both categories can dive in without fear, as this is another excellent package from the good folks at Jupiter.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book rekindles that sense of childlike wonder, successfully satisfying your appetite for discovery in ways that games rarely tap into. It’s unlike anything else that you have played yet remains familiar at the same time, and the brave decision to take the curious dinosaur’s adventures in a new direction was as genius as the old, wizened tome that it is based around.

Sektori is a brilliant twin-stick shooter with an incredible soundtrack and one that is a perfect fit for handheld play on Nintendo Switch 2. If you skipped it before or simply want to play it on the go, it is more than worth the asking price. Just be prepared for a great challenge throughout.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire should’ve been shorter, but I still really enjoyed my time with it. The Nintendo Switch 2 port definitely needs more time in the oven because of the performance issues and delayed updates compared to other platforms. I will revisit the game once it gets patched on Switch 2 to address some of the performance issues and potentially add gyro controls.

Wax Heads is one of my favorite narrative-driven puzzle games in years. I hope the developer adds in an endless mode so I can just boot Wax Heads up and spend more time in the world. It makes me wish some of the bands in-game were real, but at least I can keep listening to the soundtrack and think of my time in Repeater Records.

Blaze of Storm isn’t looking to strike any particularly new ground, but it’s a well-made platter of shoot ’em up comfort food that should go down well for those looking to scratch the itch. Developer Terarin clearly knows what it’s doing in this genre, and this game falls nicely into the expected level of quality we expect from him. The only real thing I can fault it for is that it feels a little too meat and potatoes on the whole, and that’s not the worst problem for a game to have, so long as you go in knowing what you’re in for.

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma might not be the most polished game, with all of its systems not being fully cohesive, but it was the entry point to Rune Factory I’ve been looking for. The skill floor is pretty low, with simple combat mechanics and easy-to-manage farming. While it might not have the tightest design in a farming simulator or an ARPG, I think it presents a breezy and fun combination of both genres. I’d like to see another spin-off tackle this approach again, because I think there’s a lot of potential in the series going in this new direction. Hopefully, next time, though, the Nintendo Switch 2 version could get a bit more love.

Only time will tell if Vampire Crawlers will meet a similar level of success as the game it spun out of, but I think, at the very least, that it should be of interest to anyone who enjoyed Vampire Survivors. Despite being in a completely different genre, you can feel the shared design sensibility in every aspect of the game. It’s incredibly easy to lose hours upon hours in its garish warmth, with the credits likely to be the only thing that stops you once it has pulled you in. This Nintendo Switch 2 version is a fine way to enjoy the game, especially if you’re looking to enjoy it on the go. Don’t come to it looking for anything too hardcore, though. It knows its audience, and it’s playing its melody for them more than anyone else.

I think Pokémon Champions has some potential, despite its many shortcomings at the moment. It’s carried by the excellent Pokémon battle system, to be sure. As the number of Pokémon available to use increases and the game gets more filled out, this could eventually grow into the true competitive scene that Pokémon could use. I at least appreciate that the current monetization method limits what you can spend and largely avoids potential pay-to-win problems. Still, there’s no denying that this feels somewhat undercooked, both technically and in terms of what’s actually included here. Hopefully Pokemon Champions can, over time, grind its way to living up to its name.

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta is a slightly spiffed-up version of a game that is very much of its time and place in the history of the series. While it’s not the best Ys game you can play on the Switch, or even the second-best, going on a journey with Adol rarely shortchanges the player on thrills. Those using a Switch 2 will find this to be a particularly comfortable handheld experience, but there’s a satisfying quality to it wherever or however you choose to play it.

As a port, Overwatch on Nintendo Switch 2 is an easy recommendation for portable play as a companion to playing on another system. It feels quite lacking when played docked, though, with it not including the field of view slider or 120 frames per second options found on the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions, let alone running at a much lower resolution than those consoles. Given it took almost a year following the console’s launch, I expected a bit better, but I’m glad to have it in a much better state for handheld play at least.

Goofy, endlessly surprising and genuinely laugh‑out‑loud funny, the world could use far more games like Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream. I’m ecstatic that its chaotic silliness is back in our lives, and you won’t touch another game this year that works this hard to make you smile. This is Nintendo at its quirkiest, and you can feel the team’s enthusiasm shine through in every bizarre moment. It’s simply unmissable.

All of this ultimately falls into the “nice to have” bucket rather than the “essential” one. If you loved the base game and want a little more juice to squeeze from it, you’ll likely be satisfied with what you get from SEGA Villains. On the other hand, if you’re expecting a full-on expansion, you’re not really getting that here. It’s a good excuse to fire the game up again, and I will say that what’s here pays homage to the respective franchises quite well. You get some excellent new boss encounters, some new stages to traverse, and even get some new moves and looks for your trouble. I do wish the stages were a little more fully-realized, and it’s disappointing that the only Sonic stage is reserved for the climactic boss battle. SEGA Villains isn’t all it could be, but it’s enough.