The Adventure Pals may not be the deepest or most challenging game in the platforming genre. Nonetheless, it still manages to stay fun thanks to its topsy-turvy plot, accessibility and the neat ideas that are sewn into the charm of its art style. The familiar layout of the stages can become repetitive the more you play, yet work great when accompanied with the little person who runs riot around the household. If kids aren’t your bag but you still want something that doesn’t test your gaming skills to the limit, then The Adventure Pals could very well be the reclined platformer you have been looking for.

It turns out that Sonic the Hedgehog is still a fun game and, thanks to M2’s input, this is one of the better versions out there. Sure, you could argue the hedgehogs’ best days were yet to come – its three Mega Drive sequels improving on the original in many ways. However, if you’ve yet to experience this classic or fancy a trip down memory lane this is a great way to go about it.

Jupiter has delivered yet another quality entry in its Picross S series this time cramming more content than ever. If you’ve yet to be hooked on the addictive power of Nonograms (surely not) then this will do little to change that, however for fans after more and even bigger grids to fill then don’t hesitate to pick up Picross S4.

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.

LEGO Party is a great Mario Party-like time. As much fun as my family and friends have battling it out in Nintendo’s long-running series, it’s nice to finally have another option to try that offers a similar level of entertainment and quality.

20XX does far more than to simply be a blatant Mega Man clone. It is a combination of what ifs and why nots that makes this particular title a great little game in its own right. With plenty of modes, tons of upgrades, an in-depth record of your statistics and, most importantly, fun gameplay, 20XX certainly deserves a place next to Capcom’s mascot in the library of your Nintendo Switch.

I genuinely hope ITTA will be enjoyed by many but it’s only fair that I provide my wholehearted insight to the game laid before me. I loved how unsettled the world of ITTA made me feel, the wonderful Hyper Light Drifter-style visuals and incredibly fitting soundtrack. I just wish I felt the same way about the actual meat of the gameplay itself.

Coming in at around five hours for the base game and another two hours for the included Whistleblower downloadable content, you have yourself a game that doesn’t outstay its welcome. However, it must be said that there is a huge difference in fear, enjoyment and overall quality during the first half of the game compared to the second.

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty! may be my first foray into the series proper, but it’s immediately shown me that I’ve got some catching up to do. Some graphical and frame-rate issues don’t detract from the charming, challenging platformer gameplay that makes this an adventure well worth having.

I love visual novels, and I love strategy games. For a subsection of gamers, Digimon Survive will hit the perfect sweet spot between both of those. It’s got everything you’d expect from a digestible entry with a focus on presentation. However, I couldn’t help but feel that the game is just shy of greatness. Make no mistake, Digimon Survive is good. However, despite its best efforts, I found that the pacing drags and the combat mechanics are unremarkable. If you have enough patience to engage with its story and gameplay, the positives will far outweigh the negatives. It’s flawed, but the heart shines through and it goes down easy thanks to being one of the best-looking anime-style games released in years. Are there better SRPGs to play right now? Sure, but none offer Digimon’s unique brand of SRPG and I think it hits more than it misses.

It’s hard not to come away from Ys X Nordics loving it, even if I have my qualms on the overall package. The game largely feels like an experiment, to push the series forward without fully abandoning the fans it gathered with the Party System Ys games. This is by far the best combat I’ve seen from any of the games, and it absolutely carries the experience. If we can get a sequel that builds all these concepts, fleshes them out further and adds a lot more visual variety, I think we could have the best Ys game ever made. We have a pretty good one with Ys X, and that’s still impressive. This is a step in the right direction for this new gameplay system, and there are so many great ideas here. I sincerely hope this manages to capture the hearts of new fans just like VIII did with me all those years ago.

My personal feeling is that Yakuza 3 didn’t really need to be remade, particularly in this manner. There was a perfectly good remaster of the original game that could have been ported and maybe given a little extra polish. But I understand that simply reissuing the older games might not be in line with the current vision for the series. With that in mind, I do wish a little more oomph was put into making Yakuza Kiwami 3 feel like a more cohesive experience. This mish-mash of things from other Yakuza games is probably going to go over well enough with Nintendo-exclusive players who have only played a few games in the series, but I question if this is really the take on Yakuza 3 that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio wants in the canon. It’s fun! It’s full of stuff! So why does it often feel so darned empty?

Having enjoyed the first Pac-Man World remake, I went into the sequel with pretty high expectations. What I wound up with was another well-made remake, and sure, it’s definitely a platformer of its time, but it proved to be a fun and nostalgic trip with plenty to see and do. Bring on Pac-Man World 3 Re-Pac, I say!

With the understanding that there are going to be some sacrifices to get a game like EA Sports Madden NFL 26 going on the Switch 2 hardware, I think this is about as good as one could reasonably expect. The loss of cross-platform play is unfortunate but sensible, and the visual downgrade might be noticeable, but it’s certainly acceptable. Stepping back from that, this is an excellent game to be able to take on the go, and it carries itself well enough docked, too. American football fans, rejoice: Switch 2 is already eating better than its predecessor.

Yooka-Replaylee on Nintendo Switch 2 is a very good upgrade over the original to the point where I wouldn’t bother playing the former anymore. I just wish the Switch 2 version had a performance mode or even a 40 frames per second option. Right now, this is one to play on PS5 or Steam Deck if you have those options. If you only play on Switch and Switch 2, I can still recommend it if you want a quality 3D platformer collectathon, but I was hoping for better.

It may come as no surprise, then, that Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 is a great companion package to complete the original canon saga. It wouldn’t surprise me if the newer generation of gamers would actually favour this over the first, due to the technically more advanced graphics and more ambitious ways that Capcom had stirred up the formula. I still personally favour the original collection if I didn’t have the choice of having both, but I am in my mid-30s and loved them as a kid so that is a given.

In spite of its repetition, Castle Crashers Remastered is an enjoyable and mindless romp that’s best experienced with four players. While it might not hold up as well against my initial 2008 playthrough there’s enough content and fun still to be had that made revisiting Castle Crashers a nostalgic journey worth taking.

Collar X Malice still remains an entertaining visual novel and remains my favorite Otome game to date. So much of what it does appeals directly to my interests, and I’m glad it has the chance to get the recognition it deserved. I feel it’s the perfect introductory Otome game because the mystery is interesting enough to appeal to casual visual novel fans, and Otome fans can enjoy both that and the great cast of guys. Takeru is the best of course, but you’ll just have to see that for yourself.

Picross S6 is another reliable entry in the series delivering hundreds of puzzles across a familiar range of modes. Solving Picross continues to be as addicting as it’s always been, however, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed at another entry that does little to surprise or refresh the series.

The game is filled with very fun platforming levels which make good use of Kim's innovative gadgets and moves. Some bosses could be a bit frustrating, and the Rufus levels are a bit dull.

Strikey Sisters is a good fun game, just in a very classic way. There are no frills to speak of, nor does there need to be. It harks back to the olden days of gaming in a very satisfying way and the combination of visuals and the soundtrack make for a good time all around. The co-op gives it a bit more in terms of replayability too. It is definitely worth a look, and it isn’t as creepy as the name suggests.

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.

Moving Out is a silly, simple but enjoyable romp that follows the successful blueprint of series like Overcooked very closely. As a result, you have a game that delivers the same style of loud and manic cooperative fun but at the same time fails to do much that’s new and surprising. In the end, Moving Out is perfect for those hungry for ‘another one of those’ but perhaps a tad too safe for others who have since moved on.

Outside of egg farming being annoying, I’d say nothing about Monster Hunter Stories is inherently “offensive” but rarely is it truly amazing. The simplicity gets in the way of that, but I’d still argue that isn’t an issue. If you could only afford one of the two Stories games, I’d probably recommend its sequel. It’s quite impressive though to see how much they got right on the first go, and it shows just how flexible the Monster Hunter franchise can really be. If you have a younger sibling or child interested to start checking out family-friendly games in this genre outside of Pokémon, you won’t find one with as much polish as this one.

It isn’t the complete package version of Football Manager, no, but it is the version that best suits the Switch. Touch screen controls mixed with the good use of the Joy-Con and on the go playability make it a winner. It may go unnoticed but being able to play for 5-10 minutes at a time to continue to progress through a season is a godsend.

Darksiders Warmastered Edition remains as gloriously apocalyptic an adventure on Nintendo Switch as it ever was. With the added chance to battle Heaven and Hell whenever and wherever you like, it comes as an easy recommendation. Not only does it have an impulse purchase-inducing budget price point, but, especially for those that haven’t played it before, it will scratch that Zelda itch until Link’s next adventure arrives.

Hitman World of Assassination Signature Edition offers fantastic value, but it is hard to recommend at full price right now, given the unstable performance. A 30 frames per second cap would help a lot, but even with performance issues aside, the online focus is a bit of an annoyance when playing on a portable system. As someone who has enjoyed the three Hitman games that are now part of Hitman World of Assassination Signature Edition enough to buy them on multiple platforms, I’m glad to see it finally arrive in a good-looking version on Nintendo Switch 2 content complete, but it really needs some patches to make it an easy recommendation.

Game Builder Garage is an excellent introduction to the world of game programming. While it might not be the most comprehensive example out there, it’s certainly the most accessible and charming one I’ve had the joys of experiencing.