In essence, Radiation Island is a zombie-infested survival adventure game on a budget. It is yet another mobile game that has washed ashore on Nintendo Switch and one that fails to ever become a memorable experience on the portable home console. It has clear potential but ends up feeling incomplete, in needing more content to help keep the player both engaged and motivated.

Unfortunately what the game does manage to get right is quickly dampened by some rather glaring and unforgivable flaws. It’s a real shame, the Switch has seen two racers make its way to the console in the last month and neither has stood out for positive reasons. Maybe 2019 will fare better.

Spiral Splatter is your typical smartphone port – visually simple, light on content and lacking some features in the move to Switch. While the core idea works, everything else about the game feels uninspired resulting in an experience that’s fine for an hour or two but likely forgotten the moment you move onto greener pastures.

Putting it simply, there is still fun to be had with FIFA 20 Legacy Edition and playing against others online is still a joy. Nevertheless, charging full whack for a game when absolutely no effort went into is out of order. Simply ask yourself this, are new kits and some roster changes worth over £40 to you? If you answered yes, then you have too much money.

Surgeon Simulator CPR is a very silly game whether it’s the cartoony vibe it gives off, the wacky situations you’re thrown into or just trying to deal with the loose controls. It’s a mildly funny exercise and something to be enjoyed viewing how others interact with it, however in turns of longevity and depth you’ll find the pair lacking especially as the initial novelty starts to wear off.

On paper, Contra: Rogue Corps should work, and it should work well. It has extravagant weapons, gaudy finishers, and bombs that can destroy every enemy on screen, but none of them gel together to create greatness. It’s the execution and implementation of all these ideas that hold it back from achieving greatness. Instead, they create mediocrity. Can fun be found in Contra: Rogue Corps? Yes. Will it be enough to justify buying the game at full price? No. I didn’t hate my time with Contra: Rogue Corps, but it isn’t something I feel the need to return to anytime soon, either.

Overall, I feel like Lust For Darkness suffered from a slight identity crisis. It’s part-walking simulator, part-hiding simulator, part-puzzle solver and a whole lot of Amnesia. It didn’t really know what it wanted to be and I came away feeling it could have nailed a few more of its elements better, had it stuck to one principle gameplay element, rather than be bang average in a whole load of them. In addition, given the size of the game, it never had the chance to fully realise any of its gameplay elements. It simply tried to cram too much in.

To put it bluntly, Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid is pretty much a proof of concept that should have been pitched for a crowdfunding campaign. If anything, the fact that it’s halfway decent makes me feel uncontrollably angry inside. There’s a part of me that wishes this was simply a terrible game through and through. Now, I can’t help but pine for a good, big budget Power Rangers fighting game with bright camp colors and horrifically acted cutscenes. Damn you nWay, for reigniting my childhood with such genuine potential. I’m left feeling like I have been gifted a cool Power Rangers toy from a charity shop that’s missing most of its pieces.

Removing the forced random space battles, and maybe bookending them between the exploration levels would have helped this title immensely.

Don’t. That is, don’t take a second look at this game – don’t even briefly consider it.

The few games even available aren’t faithfully recreated, are mostly on the dull side, and feature remix styles that will mostly make you want to puke.

Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition may very well gain a few new fans based solely on its narrative. Unfortunately, the tedious ordeal of having to traipse around the planet for half a dozen hours like a clumsy jelly baby just doesn’t make the plot strong enough to be worth the hassle. While it may not sound like it, I do appreciate the hard work and effort it takes to independently craft an environment of such scale. However, it really doesn’t excuse the fact that this is an incredibly poorly made game, regardless of how interesting its premise may be.

Playing alone, Nippon Marathon is a one-note joke, stretched too thin and without enough artifice to challenge or grip a player, but as a party game it works just about well enough to amuse those who can look past its various rough edges, have money enough to spare for frivolous purchases and enjoy a silly, wonky mess from time to time.

Hello Neighbor could be fun, within the right parameters. The neighbour would hold a lot more terror if his actions carried any weight. The puzzling aspect of switches, hidden doors and traps would be more enjoyable were they staged within an inspiring world or using interesting concepts. But the game fails on all of these points, not holding attention, not really projecting any fear beyond the first few encounters, and the world feels as flat as the polygons used to build it.

The end result is that Fimbul is a soulless experience that never amounts to much more than something that will forever represent the developer’s unrealized vision. Throwing the unpredictable bugs, glitches, and wayward problems that are present on Nintendo Switch into consideration, it’s hard to not come to the conclusion that you’d be better off simply leaving it to someone else to prevent Ragnarök from happening.

Ultimately Mecho Tales is derivative, borrowing tried and tested ideas rather than coming up with anything that ever surprises or astounds. It fails to leave a lasting impression to result in another forgettable platformer that is unable to compete with far more memorable and groundbreaking games in the genre that are available on the Nintendo eShop.

The characters available in different colour palettes are appealing and I’m sure add a lot if playing with another person, but this brings me to the biggest issue that plagues DragoDino; the loading times. When they did load, the levels themselves offered little to no joy, at all, despite the cute protagonists, DragoDino is shallow and sadly cannot live up to the visual style.

On the bright side, Nickelodeon Kart Racers is the kind of game you can buy for a nephew that you can’t stand. Just think. On the surface, his parents will give you brownie points for such an appealing looking gift. The nephew, on the other hand, will know full well that you have completely screwed him over. Furthermore, you can shamelessly watch in glee as he gets chastised for being an ungrateful and spoilt little brat after complaining about such a generous present. A win, win situation if you ask me, and well worth your money.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is a substandard remaster of a game that quite frankly didn’t need it in the first place. The disappointing level design, frustrating boss battles and shallow party games are a sore reminder of just how much this series has fallen since the glory days of the GameCube pair. I want the series back just as much as any fan, but not like this.

The Game of Life 2 is a fairly faithful adaption of the original board game – complete with a few minor tweaks – and is an okay distraction for a few rounds. However, minimal variety, content and a general lacking feel of excitement leave The Game of Life 2 far behind other board game offerings on Nintendo Switch right now.

Struggling is one of the more frustrating games I’ve played on the Switch to the point where it felt more like an endurance challenge than anything else. Small victories are marred by countless failures and coupling that with a co-op mode than only serves to aggravate more and a visual style that is at times unappealing and others just plain gross makes for an end result that makes it a struggle to keep playing.

DYING: Reborn had the potential to be a decent game. Nevertheless, with its lack of real horror elements, bad translation issues and nowhere near enough good puzzles, all of the things you would want, it is hard to recommend. To stand out from the crowd on the Nintendo eShop nowadays, you have to do something different or something special. DYING: Reborn does neither. There are much, much better options out there.

Those patiently waiting on a decent realistic racer on Switch, unfortunately, won’t find that in Gear.Club Unlimited 2. Its decent selection of cars, solid customization and lengthy campaign are crippled thanks to the game’s sluggish and uninspired racing, sketchy performance and horrendous load times that pop up far too frequently. The Switch may be sorely lagging in the racing department but it certainly deserves much better than this.

It doesn’t work as a video game and it doesn’t work as a movie. While it looks great, the acting leaves a lot to be desired and there just isn’t any involvement for the player as you’re just pressing the A Button a couple of times here and there without ever really having to make choices. It had potential and any future games can certainly learn a lot from this, but my advice is to stay well away unless you’re absolutely desperate for something to do for an hour or two.

I could go on, but Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed was another disappointing entry in a series that hasn’t been on a straight path since 2014, following the critically panned ARPG Akiba’s Beat. I was intrigued by the idea of bringing back an overlooked entry in the PSP’s library to modern systems and a new fanbase, but I’d go as far as to say that you’re better off just playing the original or Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed. Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed might be worth sticking through for the experience of feeling like you’re wandering through Akihabara, but the clunky combat, thin plot, and poor performance make this a stripped-down experience. I really hope one day we can get a brand new Akiba’s Trip game that hits all the marks, but at this point, I’m wondering if the developers even want to.

If you are a fighting game fan you probably won’t be able to look past the floaty controls, loose game flow, and flimsy mechanics. It’s lacking basic quality of life, and all this stuff adds up. If you’re looking for a solid introduction to fighting games and enjoy anime, you’ll probably at least find some value here. I think there are much better introductory fighting games that offer smoother game flow and better spectacle to the players, and probably for cheaper. Simplified mechanics aren’t inherently a flaw, but I think Phantom Breaker: Omnia makes the fatal mistake of over-simplification. Maybe the Nintendo Switch port is just of subpar quality and the other consoles would have provided a better experience, but that just goes to show that if you do want to play this game you should do so elsewhere.

Gear.Club Unlimited 3 offers a solid core racing experience, but it suffers from poor visuals, performance issues, some visual glitches, and a scarcity of content to justify the asking price. It is even harder to recommend Gear.Club Unlimited 3 in a post-GRID Legends: Deluxe Edition world on Nintendo Switch 2. There is potential here, but too many caveats for it to be even close to an easy recommendation.