After years of mediocrity for AiAi and the crew, there was always the worry SEGA might drop the ball when it came to a Super Monkey Ball 20th anniversary celebration. Thankfully, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a great remaster of the series’ best years packed full of content and given a handsome facelift. The major downgrade of the much-loved Monkey Target aside, there’s still plenty of fun to be had here fan or newcomer.

If you already own Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade is definitely worth purchasing. If you don’t, I think that Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Reforged Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is the best console version. You have the ability to play it on the TV when docked, the option to use mouse controls with the Joy-Con 2, and even a full touchscreen portable experience. It delivers the most input options available and great visuals, regardless of how you choose to play through Revolution Software’s classic adventure.

Jotun: Valhalla Edition a short but memorable experience. The art style and animation alone stand out tall and proud amongst the ruckus of the indie scene. At its core, it is a game that does repeat traditions and repetition both in gameplay and pace that some may find a little tedious. But, as for myself, I found it quite difficult to put down.

Well, it’s been an emotional ride from start to finish, and while DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part One felt like a testing hill sprint to the top, The Ancient Gods – Part Two felt more like a fun whack-a-mole cooldown decline that the players deserve. Those who want to be tested until the very end may want to turn the difficulty up a notch for this one. Unless, of course, you’re already a relentless ultra nightmare DOOM-slaying beast.

The Nintendo Switch may not be riddled with racing simulators, but GRID Autosport has set the benchmark. It caters so well for someone like me who’s a casual racer at best, and it doesn’t take a genius to see how its interface and design has been engineered for petrolhead veterans craving a challenge. It may lack multiplayer out of the gate and be half a decade old at this point, but it’s still a solid racer nonetheless that’s a worthy addition to the hybrid convenience of the Nintendo Switch.

Urban Flow is a neat game that’s highly enjoyable on your own or with others. Its simple premise is used to great effect forming an experience that’s challenging, frantic but always rewarding. Traffic lights might suck in real life but that’s definitely not the case here in Urban Flow.

If you are new to the series, this is an amazing place to start. If you have played the others to death then there is still enough here to warrant you getting hooked all over again. It is utter madness from start to finish.

Make no mistake; Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a good game. With a great variety in themes, inventive bosses, and some really cool small ideas that break up the main gameplay elements. There are just a few things holding it back from being great, such as a massive lack of enemy variation and I do feel that at certain points, the games plays it a little too safe at times. Nevertheless, I had tons of fun playing through and it is an easy recommendation to anybody, as it will appeal to so many different people. Luigi is still my favourite Ghostbuster.

Pawarumi is a solid shoot ’em up game with a decent spin on a tried and tested mechanic. I found that getting a handle on its multi-tasking demands is both satisfying and tense, especially when it came to keeping my cool under pressure. Throw a few decent boss fights into the mix, an online leaderboard, music that varies from pan pipes to rock music, and you have another well-crafted arcade shoot ’em up to add to the collection on Nintendo Switch.

Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is a light-hearted and content-rich package that’s a great way to unwind with on your own or have a good laugh with friends. While the unlock process can feel like a bit of a slog at times, the golfing itself is strong enough to keep you coming back for one more round.

Despite my misgivings with this particular port, I adored my time revisiting Tales of Graces f. I’d need to see if a Tales of the Abyss port is in our cards to fully decide, but at the moment I think this is the Tales game for me. I’ve caught the bug again, and I really want to comb through this series’ back catalogue. This is probably the best Tales remaster we’ve gotten so far, even if there are parts I wish could have been improved further. As the first title in this Remaster project, however, this is a promising start. If you’re interested in playing this and really want to dive into the battle system, you should probably play it on any other platform. If you’re here for fun vibes, the Nintendo Switch version will do you fine enough.

I had a blast with the female fighters of the arcade era. It’s a great brawler and the whole Super Smash Bros. element works a treat. There’s definitely enough depth and wackiness to keep things interesting – at least for as long as you have others to play against.

Super Mario Party manages to get the series back on track in a big way, it’s selection of modes engaging, mini-games exciting and overall sense of fun high. While not every idea is a winner, it nails what fans have been after for many years while also injecting a few new twists of its own.

In an industry that at the moment finds itself focused on Battle Royale, shooters and generally anything with big budgets and plenty of action, Fishing Star World Tour is a wonderfully refreshing change of pace. With its picturesque visuals and chilled out gameplay, my time spent fishing in Wright Flyer Studios’ colorful little world was a relaxing and surprisingly fun one. Who knew fishing could be this entertaining?

Street Fighter 6 Years 1-2 Fighters Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 offers incredible value and delivers a great portable and online experience on the console, but it isn’t the best way to get the full experience thanks to some technical issues. The online and core gameplay hold up as they should, though, and that’s what matters the most in games like this. If you already own Street Fighter 6 on another platform and just want to practice on or play on the go, the Switch 2 version is an easy recommendation. Just don’t bother with buying this to play World Tour.

With any luck, Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer will be simply the first of many dives into the 3D era of arcades. If so, it’s a perfect choice to carry that flag. Ridge Racer was a revolution back in 1993, and it’s still a fantastic racer today. With just four courses and a single car, you’ll really need to get into challenging the online leaderboards if you want the fun to last. Still, this is essentially the game as it was, and I doubt anyone would come into it expecting anything more than that.

The Need for Speed series isn’t the behemoth it used to be but it’s great to see one of the last great entries in the series make its way over to Nintendo Switch. It may be a ten-year-old game, but it manages to stand toe to toe with other more recent examples on the console with ease.

The story that OPUS: Rocket of Whispers has to tell is a meaningful one, that touches on mental health issues such as loneliness, dealing with grief and low self-esteem. It is clear to see that it is a game that has been created from the heart, and, while much of it will be spent scavenging for rocket parts, it is the message that it imparts that will linger in your memory for a long time to come.

It is in the thrill of space combat that Manticore: Galaxy on Fire comes alive, as you get an enemy in your sights and mercilessly hunt them down. It’s not without its imperfections, but genre fans will get more than enough from the spectacle of it all.

R-Type Dimensions EX is a coding of classics that snugly fits the Nintendo Switch like a comfy old pair of slippers. While the minor quality of life components could be sniffed at, the extra features and visual gimmickry make mastering such an unforgiving piece of history more fun than just a standard cut and paste port of the originals. It’s the crown to top the nostalgic arcade shoot-em-up library that currently fills the shelves of the Nintendo eShop, and a recommended addition to a rapidly growing portable arcade collection.

There’s definitely a substantive quality gap between both games in this collection, but ultimately, this is a worthy collection to keep on your shelf if you’re fond of original PlayStation RPGs. I’d spent so long wanting the PSP collection to make it west, and it’s great to have that finally with a few extra bells and whistles. I wish there could have been some kind of extra graphics options here to preserve the original pixel aesthetics for the backgrounds, but serious praise needs to be brought to the work the team put into Suikoden II’s remaster. That alone feels worth the cost of admission.

The good news is that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Nintendo Switch 2 Edition’s strengths far outweigh its grumble-inducing weaknesses. The classic gameplay loop that remains at its core has received playful reinvention through the addition of Psychic powers, while combat encounters, whether against grunts or the game’s gargantuan bosses, show why the series’ gunplay remains best in class. The game’s climactic conclusion is worth the price of admission alone, and I won’t be the only one hoping that this could be the start of Samus Aran’s next trilogy of adventures. This was worth the wait, at least.

You almost need to have a masochist tendency of taking pleasure in your own defeat with nobody else to blame but yourself. What makes failure even harder to digest is when realising that the track is clearly laid out before you with all the signposts there for you to read. Yet, the gratification of overcoming the addictive plough of constantly feeling rubbish and inadequate becomes all the more satisfying once you succeed.

Outlast 2 is a fantastic technical achievement on the Nintendo Switch with a good story and a setting that is impressively and increasingly atmospheric.

The Nintendo Switch port of Yakuza Kiwami is an interesting beast. Sure, you could play it anywhere else to get a better experience. Getting to play one of the most addictive Yakuza games on the go is a treat though, and playing it docked looked solid on my 4K TV. If you’ve never played the Yakuza series, this is a solid entry point. It kind of assumes familiarity with Yakuza 0, as Kiwami takes the original game and tries to retrofit it to be a sequel, but you won’t be punished without 0. I certainly wasn’t back when I first played Kiwami. With an impressive portable experience that doesn’t cut back on too much of what makes Yakuza Kiwami special, this is a compelling offer. And if you want to re-experience the PS3 Yakuza games of the previous decade, you’re going to absolutely love this Switch conversion.

Everything functions well enough, but it doesn’t evolve beyond that at any point besides the boss battles. Even with these issues, No Straight Roads is one of the most heartfelt and stylish games I’ve played in a really long time.

Not every shoot ’em up from the past stands the test of time, but Trouble Witches has held up quite well. It sure doesn’t hurt that each release has added a little something, making Trouble Witches Final! feel jam-packed. None of that would matter if the game wasn’t as fun as it is, though. The game’s systems are fairly easy to understand, but there’s so much here to play with that you can keep on going with it for ages. Yes, there will probably be Trouble Witches Final! Last End! No, This Time We Really Mean It later on with another character or mode, but I don’t think anyone jumping in on this Switch release is going to feel stiffed.

Due to it’s weird control issues, The World Ends With You: Final Remix could be hard to recommend to most players if not for everything else it does so well. It’s fantastic story and characters, beautiful designs and unique gameplay more than make up for the occasional wrist strain, but just be warned going in that it’s not like any other title you’ve played.