The tricks are fun for a short amount of time, but given how quickly the novelty wears off, this is not likely to be a title you'll spend much time with.

The Trail: Frontier Challenge is too much of a barebones experience for us to give it anywhere near a solid recommendation. The act of getting about is minimal when it comes to interaction, and the performance issues turn the game into far too much of a slog. The skill tree and the art style itself are two brief high points, but they’re not enough to make us recall this trip through the countryside with any degree of fondness.

Tomy has succeeded in converting Pop-Up Pirate! to a video game through the Pop-up Party game mode. Although it works well, it doesn’t go far enough due to a lack of variety in the gameplay. This is the case for the game as a whole, you’ll only get a few hours of entertainment out of it at maximum.

Sports Island could have been a great addition to the Wii catalogue, but sadly the lack of polish and emphasis put on fine tuning the controls drags it way below its potential.

Baldo: The Guardian Owls is a beautiful looking Ghibli-esque adventure that draws you in with its wonderful art style and atmosphere and then beats you into submission with its bewildering gameplay. This is an excruciatingly frustrating game filled with bad design choices, clunky combat and traversal, a terrible UI and map and instant, unfair death waiting around every corner. For a small number of gamers who thrive on pointless, unfair punishment, there may be some joy to be found here. For everyone else this is one adventure you'd do well to avoid taking.

On a platform that is destined to become almost overcrowded with colourful, vibrant, ‘happy’ games, having a burst of horror as an option is very welcome indeed. Unfortunately, this isn’t the game to showcase the genre, nor is it one to showcase games in general. Some promising early moments left us with high hopes for this title – there were times where we felt genuine, edge-of-your-seat fear – but it soon becomes clear that it cannot live up to the standards it is trying to achieve. If you’re looking for a horror fix, maybe wait until something else comes along.

Hamsterdam is a mobile title through-and-through. It's got all of the tropes normally associated with mobile games, such as limited gameplay mechanics and a heavy focus on purchasing cosmetic items, with none of the depth you should come to expect from your average Switch title. There's a lot of potential in the game's premise and presentation that could well be capitalised on for any future games, but here it feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity. Add to this the lengthy load times and technical issues, and this is game you'd be best off avoiding.

Nanda's Island is a tedious and frustrating physics puzzler featuring raindrops that act nothing like water and an interface that turns every horizontally flat surface or slight dip into a level-ruining trap.

It is a shame that Rango on the Wii cuts corners and, worst of all, is over all too quickly.

Copter Crisis is another example of a good concept for WiiWare that has been poorly executed. With bland visuals, repetitive gameplay and an absurd Pay and Play pricing plan, there's little that speaks in this title's favour.

If you can look past the blatant consumerism and potentially damaging image-crafting effect that the classic line of dolls has on children, Barbie Dreamhouse Party has a lot going for it when scrutinized with an eye for metaphor.

It feels harsh to draw so many comparisons between Back in 1995 and the classic survival horror games of the '90s, but then again, the former is an intentional attempt to replicate the latter, so it's unavoidable. Unfortunately, by staying so rigidly faithful to the typical survival horror tropes – like tank controls and fixed camera angles – the developer has left out important elements like plot and art direction. As it is, Back in 1995 only succeeds in reminding you why its ancestors were so good in the first place – but perhaps more importantly, why some of them should be left back in the '90s.

We were, as you can tell from the body of this review, consistently frustrated with Beautiful Desolation, another ambitious and lovely-looking game whose Switch incarnation just wasn't an acceptable way to experience it - shades of Genesis Noir's port (though that was better). It's especially unfortunate because this is exactly the sort of different that the Switch needs, but it needs to run better than what's on offer here. If you can muscle past the problematic controls, excessive loading and weak performance, you may be able to get into Beautiful Desolation. There is a lot to like in its worldbuilding, gorgeous backgrounds and interesting premise. But we felt like it just asked us to overlook way, way too many problems for the privilege.

As hard as it tries, Blades of Time rarely comes close to emulating the success of any of its obvious muses. Its mixture of third-person melee combat, environmental puzzles and platforming are entertaining for a while, but they lack the nuance of Capcom’s long-running Devil May Cry series or Sony Santa Monica’s refreshed God of War. Only the ability to control time, creating a co-operative element as you team up with your past self, offers something truly rewarding to use in battle or as part of a puzzle solution. The MOBA-style overhaul of the game's Onslaught mode offers an improved take on multiplayer, but the wonky combat and lacklustre presentation are impossible to overlook.

MUJO is a decent casual puzzler with a pleasant aesthetic, but the total lack of effort made to bring the game in line with its new platform is deeply disappointing. The game's poorly optimised user interface and ill-fitting legacy in-app purchase system smack of a rush job. We've got no problem with developers bringing mobile games across to Switch. This is a portable system that's built on mobile technology, and there are plenty of top mobile games out there that would make for a good fit with just a little effort. MUJO, however, is a deeply lazy and cynical port.

Unless you're one of the biggest DreamWorks fans on the planet, you'll struggle to fall in love with DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing. Its attempts at authenticity and its numerous references are admirable, but it really lets itself down on the track with frustrating design choices, unstable performance, and a forgettable range of power-ups.

As a small, short experience, it's not entirely without merit, but if you enjoy lightly randomised action then the Switch already has the likes of Enter the Gungeon, Dead Cells, and Hades for you to play. Heaven's Machine is sadly best left for collectors to keep safely sealed away.

Twisted Fusion misses its potential. The skeleton of a solid game is here, but it falls short in various regards and is plagued with issues. What fun you might have from searching for secrets and gaining new abilities is completely marred by tedious combat, a shaky camera and movement, a lack of navigational help, and overall boring gameplay. The variety of technical issues suggest that perhaps this game could have used some more time in development.

Fire Emblem Shadows is a turgid mobile game that serves up dull automated battles involving pay-to-win nonsense, timers, and cooldowns. The main selling point of a unique social experiment/turn-based battle hybrid is very weak in its setup, with neither enough players nor time in combat to create any semblance of actual strategy, and the game itself looks and plays poorly on the battlefield. There are a few nice cutscenes for fans who persist, and outfits for the outfits fans. But beyond this, it's thumbs down as far as the eye can see for this failed experiment.

It’s a shame that a game as idiosyncratic and thematically dense as Indika arrives on Switch in such a dire state. Its story and ideas linger long after the credits, offering plenty to reflect on. Still, this version is marred at every turn by technical shortcomings and visual compromises that diminish the impact of an experience that deserves far better.

Instead of being a brand new platformer, Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure feels like a remaster of a game from the early 2000s, and not a very good one either. On the positive side, the level design is pretty good, with areas connecting to one another in a way that feels large-scale, but remains comfortably linear. Otherwise, Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure completely lacks challenge, is extremely repetitive and runs on the Switch about as well as Manny the Mammoth runs after gorging on a bunch of peaches. In short, it's exactly what you’d expect from a licensed game of this type.

While there is some fun to be had, a purchase is only recommended for creative players who can turn straw to gold - otherwise, stick with a portable version of Minecraft.

SuperMash is a great idea that feels squandered thanks to poor execution. The idea of mashing together different genres is a fun one, but the reality is that the resulting games are only mildly amusing at best, and infuriatingly broken at worst. Procedural generation certainly has its place in the industry, with many games using it to fine effect. Unfortunately, in the case of SuperMash the concept is so inelegantly and heavily implemented, we’d much rather sit down with a deliberately handcrafted game any day of the week.

The gameplay is passable and there is a high level of challenge for completionists, but the title falls over in almost every other area.

Remote Racers is disappointing on so many different levels that it is difficult to find anything good to say about it.

Don’t let the fact that the game is developed by WayForward fool you; The Smurfs 2 is mostly lackluster licensed fluff. While it is nice that it isn't as disjointed as other games of its type, it’s hard to recommend something this uninspired. If you’re thirsting for a kid-friendly platformer, you’d probably be better off keeping your smurfberries in your wallet and waiting for alternatives in the coming weeks and months.

The cheesy music, dull story and lacklustre graphics complete an uninspired package that is guaranteed not to win any in its second time around.

Fans of the Touhou Project might get some enjoyment purely from seeing their favourite characters on the big (or little) screen once more, but this isn’t a quality fighting spin-off. The game’s slow pace, disinteresting plot, and lack of any serious fighting credentials leave an awful lot to be desired. If the game was considerably cheaper you could potentially justify a purchase for having quick, easy-to-set-up fighting rounds; as it stands, though, this may well be best left alone.

Games like this can work very well if they’re backed up by visually stunning graphics and clever gameplay, but unfortunately, Spirit of the North has neither.

We wish we liked Library of Ruina more than we do; its world and characters touch on clever themes and storytelling devices, but never fully lean into its potential. Slapdash pacing coupled with sluggish, nerve-wracking menus makes playing Library of Ruina an exercise in courting digital whiplash as you cycle between rushed, truncated story beats and glacially-paced menus. If it had more engaging combat and a more efficient narrative setup, Library of Ruina would have really impressed us. Sadly, we don't feel very compelled to see it through to completion.

Molly Medusa: Queen of Spit takes a great idea and, unfortunately, fails to deliver on its promise. The throwback camera is a mistake and needed far more refinement, and the controls feel clumsy as a result. Molly's lack of reaction to her curse takes away any emotional impetus or impact from the plot. There is a potential gem here, but despite a handful of inspired ideas, it feels antiquated and is very difficult to recommend, at least in its launch state.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a great game, a fun and colourful adventure full of excellent writing, brilliant acting and plenty of wacky action and exploration to dig into. However, this Switch cloud version renders pretty much any praise we could lavish upon it entirely inconsequential as it serves up a truly messy, laggy and unreliable experience — even when played via our super solid, ultra fast internet connection. It is, in short, a disastrous and ridiculously expensive way to play through a game that deserves so much better. Pick this one up on another platform if you can and steer well clear of this mess.

Electroplankton Trapy tends to make the Electroplankton experience very simple for the user - maybe a bit too simple, you could argue.

If you’re interested in a horror-inspired Bomberman clone with shaky movement, non-distinct stages and a toned down freneticism BRAWL might just pique your interest. For the rest of you looking for a party/combat game there are other, more solid feeling, options out there including but not limited to Switch's own Super Bomberman R.

Approach this one with caution.

It's fine as a short diversion, but becomes wearying and repetitive when looking for more entertainment.

The many, many enemies encountered and length of the game dilute the variety, and just lead to a repetitive trudge to the end. While we applaud HAMSTER's quest to showcase the Neo Geo's full library on Switch, this is one title that can't really be considered a classic.

Cutie Pets Go Fishing is an unremarkable little game that should either have been released on mobile or as a compilation with the other Cutie Pets titles.

While there is clear potential in Supraland, the game suffers from an identity crisis. The whimsical setting and level design show potential, but the control problems, lack of direction in puzzles and odd narrative undertones make this a disappointing package. Look elsewhere for a more enjoyable game that will make one think outside of the (sand)box.

With its lighthearted tone, entertaining characters, and charmingly overzealous commitment to world-building, it feels almost mean-spirited to criticise Starbites - like telling a kid full of starry-eyed passion that they’re just not good enough to make the sports team. However, to look past the game’s glaring technical flaws would require you to avert your eyes from the screen entirely, and we all know that’s not how games are played. Even if you can push past the myriad shortcomings of this shoddy Switch port, you’ll be left with a middle-of-the-road RPG with an undercooked narrative and simplistic gameplay systems that strive for adequacy and little else.

While Vaccine recreates the look and feel of classic survival horror games, its own additions to that formula leave a lot to be desired. Randomized games can be fun when done right and properly balanced, but Vaccine has no qualms about sometimes generating a game layout that's completely unfair and almost unwinnable, while at other times showering you with more guns and ammo than you know what to do with. If the randomizer was more balanced and perhaps the timer or the multiple playthrough requirement for the true ending were removed, Vaccine could very well be an excellent throwback to the games that started it all - as it stands, however, it's a never-ending exercise in frustration.

Guts and Glory is a really fun little indie that’s burst out of the gates and onto Nintendo Switch, but the porting process has taken its toll. The basic rinse and repeat nature of its challenges and the madcap bloodbath of its physics are a laugh-out-loud combination while they last, but without the long-term appeal of the map editor and its library of user-generated content, the Switch version suffers as a result.

The mechanics and the gameplay are solid but don't have enough longevity to make the game anything more than a passing amusement that'll only keep the average gamer entertained for a short period of time.

The execution is frustrating, the music is monotonous and the feel of the game doesn't find the sweet spot.

Samurai Sword Destiny twiddles between the line of mind-numbing and oddly enjoyable combat, in a compulsive kind of way. In the end, though, it's tough to shake the hollow feeling present in both the gameplay and presentation.

Sure, the Mario theme is cool and the ability to actually have some interaction with the experience makes it a bit more practical than the Animal Crossing Clock, but ultimately it's still not enough.

Between these limitations, as well as a general lack of options or control precision, this collection is only for casual gamers and even then only if they are looking for a collection that will let them play a lot of different games but none of them well.

The Deer God is beautiful. Sadly, that beauty is only skin deep. Poor design choices take away from fantastic visuals that really have to be seen. With the right level of polish, this could have been one of our favourite indie games on Wii U. Instead, clumsy quest design, repetitive environments and poor performance ensure The Deer God will be remembered as little more than eye candy.

Dangerous Road might scratch that crossing itch on the 3DS for fanatics of this style of game, but not in a way that feels broadly compelling. A desire for tighter responsiveness aside, it functions reasonably well. Still, with repetitive gameplay, frustratingly unintended deaths, and little sense of skill or accomplishment, some chickens will want to stay on their side of the Interstate.

While it's not all bad — there's nothing "broken" and younger players will enjoy dressing up their hamsters and collecting new cages — the experience is simply too thin to justify its price tag.

Young players might love the idea of stomping baddies as their favorite Big Hero 6 characters, but be warned that there is nothing even slightly super about this one.

Ben 10: Omniverse falls into a lot of the same traps that lesser games in this genre do — lots of repetitive button-mashing gameplay, uninspired level design and clunky controls.

Let's be clear – this is no disaster like Gleamlight. This is a well-crafted, carefully designed and fantastic-looking game. It's just such a damn shame that the central shadow-casting mechanic is so fussy, so irritating and so downright broken that we can't recommend it without the strongest of caveats. It's very clear that the developers put their heart and soul into Projection: First Light, and that effort deserves to be recognised. Unfortunately, we suggest you recognise it from afar. We don't think that a patch alone could solve this game's problems, and if there's ever a Projection: Second Light, we'd be surprised.

We appreciate Funfair Party Games' wholehearted attempt to inject motion controls into classic carnival games, and while when they work well the games can be quite fun, in most cases, the controls are either too unresponsive or too confusing to use effectively.

While Zombie Skape functions and does what it sets out to do, you'll be hard-pressed to get any lasting enjoyment out it.

While Takeshi & Hiroshi may immediately grab you with its charming art style, the game itself is sadly quite lacking. From start to finish, the player will feel like they are watching an interactive short film, completely removed from the world. Combined with the frustrating random elements and the lack of overall content, Takeshi & Hiroshi does not provide enough to warrant a recommendation.

The fans and faithful of the Jewel Quest series who don't mind wildly cramming gems into a corner for several minutes might very much enjoy the newer takes and elements of The Sapphire Dragon.

Play French is barely educational and only mildly fun.

Skautfold: Usurper ultimately comes off as more of a mid-effort flash game than a properly polished new eShop release. There are flashes of fun every now and then, but none of the ideas or concepts here cohere into something that’s worth your time. If you’re looking for a solid Metroidvania with Soulslike elements, Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, and Salt and Sanctuary all offer up a substantially more polished and enjoyable experience.

Sometimes licensed games made for younger players can surprise us, and exceed our expectations. Sadly, this is not one of those times.

Chronicles of Vampires: Origins is too short and relies too heavily on a bland storyline to make this worth a recommendation, though we admire its attempts to innovate within the hidden object formula. While you're searching for items or solving puzzles it makes for some decent casual fun, but overall it's flawed and far from special.

Drawn To Life: Two Realms is a sequel that fails to replicate what made the Drawn To Life games so compelling: the actual drawing part. It's pretty (and pretty cheap), but the puzzle-platforming underwhelms and the story drags; if you're a hardcore fan of the franchise then we dare say you'll be able to extract a modicum of enjoyment here, but there's an equal chance that, as a series aficionado, the changes made to the basic gameplay will annoy you the most.

Eba & Egg: The Hatch Trip has decent ideas in terms of mechanical design and aesthetics, but it lacks a lot of polish and refinement that could have made this a more memorable experience. Perhaps you can find some redeeming qualities to it, but otherwise this is an egg best left in the carton.

With a much larger collection of words and maybe a couple more ways to play, uWordsmith could be a very solid, brain-based party game. As it stands now, however, its lack of vocabulary is a telling blow that makes it hard to find the words to recommend it.

Gabrille's Ghostly Groove Mini takes the idea of a streamlining to an almost satirical extent. With a measly four songs — which are each about one minute long — and no sense of challenge whatsoever, it's hard to imagine who, exactly, this release is targeting

There's no sense of progression or improvement on offer, the story is a bore, you're made to walk circles around a tiny village and, even at the relative budget price of £20 / $28 it feels like Crypton Future Media is asking way too much. If you've got a very young child to entertain, maybe this will do the job for an hour or two. Otherwise, it's hard to recommend something so slight, unchallenging, and unwilling to engage with what makes its star such a joy to be around in the first place.

Go Vacation's main problem is that its controls are, nine times out of ten, too unresponsive to make it any fun.

Those looking for straight-up, no-frills Texas Hold ‘Em can find it in Governor of Poker. Those looking for engaging goals and atmosphere, however, likely will not; the constant tug-of-war on the tables to build the funds to buy the next non-interactive building feels more like a chore than a real accomplishment.

Sonic Frontiers is a brave new direction for the series, but this first ‘open-zone’ entry misses the mark by quite a margin. Traversal and combat annoyances plague the experience from start to finish, while structurally the game offers up very little variety, instead leaning on repetitive fetch quests that get exasperating after the first island. As far as the Switch version goes, it’s quite comfortably the worst option available to fans, with graphical compromises that make it impossible to recommend if you're able to play it anywhere else at all. If you’re going to get this game, we implore you to try it out elsewhere.

Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion dripped with potential upon announcement, but the final result is a more smudged affair. A fun, if basic, platformer lies at its heart, yet it's coated with unbalanced difficulty and drawing mechanics that interrupt its flow regularly, while the number of worlds is very disheartening. Disney fans will get a kick out of seeing which characters turn up, but if you're expecting another Castle of Illusion, you're going to be disappointed.

At 200 Points, Gene Labs is cheap, lengthy and an okay way to waste time, but that's about all it has going for it.

R.B.I. Baseball 18 is another disappointing baseball 'simulation' on Switch. If you want a solid baseball experience on the Switch, you could do worse than Super Baseball 2020. Failing that, go buy a PS4 and MLB The Show 18 and be happy the rest of your life. On today’s platforms, Sony San Diego has it sewn up and this is not going to change any time soon.

While Gene Labs is not a completely unplayable game, there is no real reason to want to play it.

A typically rushed movie tie-in, and an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise excellent franchise.

Radiation Island is a good survival horror premise that sadly never delivers. We are unsure if the game will continue to see future support and updates to better streamline the entire experience, possibly leaving it in this limbo state on Switch forever and as such our final score reflects the game’s current state. It's a shame Atypical Games decided to bring this game to Switch before other games in its catalogue as it sets a dangerous precedent on the eShop. Buyer’s beware: the titular radiation is the least of your worries on this island... but that hole it will leave on your wallet most certainly is.

In the end, Percy’s Predicament feels like an unfinished build of a game that could’ve released for PC back in the late 90’s.

Ultimately, we found 12 Minutes to be a trite adventure that squanders its initial intrigue almost instantly. We can see how someone else might get a kick out of its star-studded silliness, but in a gaming landscape littered with time loop games, we found this one extremely tedious at best.

While both Dream Drop Distance and Fragmentary Passage are good stuff, this is a much more niche product than the previous compilation, and far more difficult to recommend. It's essential if you're a fan, but... let's face it, if you're a fan, you've already played these games. And on a system on which they run natively, rather than this (again!) erratic, temperamental Cloud Version. We feel like it's our destiny to repeat ourselves on the matter, but if you can buy this package for another system we'd earnestly implore you to do so — it may not be handheld, but at least it would be yours to keep and it would run reliably and consistently. As it stands, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue on Nintendo Switch is yet another compromise. If your internet connection is consistent and strong, it runs great... when it's running great. But, you know, stuff happens. Using Ethernet while docked helps, but it's still putting a sticking plaster on a glaring wound. So, once again, another good package but presented in the worst way. And slightly less good than the last one.

With only three different mini-games to play and no real challenge in taking care of your little pets, from an adult perspective this game gets old very quickly.

A bijou Doctor Who experience, Edge of Reality is impressively dedicated to the beloved TV show but unfortunately suffers in its transition from VR exclusive to traditional console game. Limited inputs and fetch-questy scenarios hardly inflame the imagination and it's not until the game's last quarter that things start to feel more tailored for the Switch — because they are. It's too short and there aren't enough clear save points (we lost a fair amount of progress when we quit during the first area to play something else and it simply hadn't saved the game yet) but the fact that performance is so all over the place is Edge of Reality's main issue, and one that will absolutely affect your enjoyment of an otherwise serviceable adventure. Overall, it's the most cautious of recommendations to Doctor Who fans, then. Everyone else almost certainly need not apply.

As it stands, there’s no real incentive to buy this as its central gimmick wears off too quickly and all that’s left is you, spinning around endlessly, zapping imaginary aliens.

Games like these may be designed exactly for short bursts of play, but when mission objectives consist of the same requirements, with a dull story that lacks quality sprinkled in between, there's barely any fun to be had.

Lost Ember attempts to be an artistic experience, yet struggles to be an enjoyable game. The story is uninteresting and predictable, the gameplay is boring and sometimes frustrating, and the huge performance issues on Switch makes this game close to unplayable at times. While there is clearly potential here, Lost Ember fails to deliver on nearly every front. There are plenty of other artsy games on Switch to pick up over this one.

A Normal Lost Phone is a tough game to recommend. The concept is intriguing and there’s a genuinely interesting narrative at the center of the experience, but it’s all so fraught by poor execution and mediocre presentation that we can hardly suggest you pick this one up. You could do a whole lot worse for three bucks, but you’re also getting exactly what you pay for and nothing more. If you have some credit leftover in your account from another eShop purchase and feel like distracting yourself with a mildly entertaining adventure game, this one may be worth a look, but you’d best take a pass.

Inkub is a decent game that unfortunately outstretches itself. While tower defense titles live or die by the strengths of whatever flourishes or mechanics they add to the genre, Inkub piles them on indiscriminately and then sinks from the weight.

Although we welcome the presence of new tricks on the DSiWare service, the two presented here aren't really up to scratch.

Try as it does, Bounce & Break never rises above unremarkable and ultimately feels hollow.

As far as word puzzles go, Mega Words is a pretty bland experience. It does what it sets out to do, but it doesn't particularly excel or do anything new or otherwise noteworthy. Hardcore word puzzle fans only need apply.

With the exception of new categories and a colour swap, Word Searcher 3 is literally the exact same thing as Word Searcher 2. If you are absolutely in love with word search puzzles, couldn't get enough of the other Word Searcher games available, and have an extra 500 Points, feel free to purchase this game knowing that its aim is to provide alternate, rather than better, content.

Much like its Wii U counterpart, LEGO Jurassic World for the 3DS has a lot of potential, especially when considering the source material, but fails to deliver on almost every front.

If you're a die-hard fan of Olympic shooting you can give it a try, but we'd suggest choosing any one of a myriad of other games on the Wii featuring target shooting instead.

Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed is a button-mashy, overly simplistic fighter that's aimed at young kids but doesn't even manage to lift its game enough to satisfy a junior audience on any level outside of very basic fan service. There's a serious lack of modes or variety here, especially for the not-insignificant price tag, and what is included is let down by a lazy story mode and some shockingly simple enemy AI. Serious Zoids fans may derive some fleeting pleasure from seeing their favourite characters battle it out, but, for everyone else, this is a mega-hard sell and a fighter that absolutely fades into insignificance when compared to other examples of its genre.

Those looking for a simple yet challenging experience will be happy with this collection and will have over a thousand unforgiving challenges to keep them busy. This quantity, however, won't matter to the majority of players, who will likely get too frustrated to continue after about ten or so.

Putting our opinion on the cynical Ryan phenomenon to one side, the resulting game is nevertheless a slightly below-average kart racer that handles reasonably well but generally underwhelms, from the pitifully small number of tracks to the uninspired, floaty-light weaponry. Give your kids a Mario, Sonic or Crash racer instead; they may be young, but they aren’t stupid.

Mainlining fails to really provide any interesting commentary on its chosen subject matter, revelling instead in caricatures we’ve all experienced a hundred times before; stuff you’ll have seen done better in any Grand Theft Auto game that has parody websites involved. Its gameplay too often degenerates into trial-and-error and lacks any sort of consequences for the player getting things wrong, which renders the whole investigative process pretty much pointless. On Switch these problems are married to a control system which is, in short, terrible, and will likely see you reaching for the off switch long before you’ve reached the end of your investigations.

Blowing up cars is entertaining, but the game somehow manages to fumble this core concept with way too many irritations: dull graphics and repetitive missions and objectives are bad enough, but even they could be overlooked if the game's control scheme wasn't so bad. Transformers: DotM - SFE is over in just about four hours, but after struggling with its cumbersome controls, you may be thankful to say goodbye to this scrapheap.

Looking past the unbalanced difficulty for the player controlling Charla, poor graphics and extremely limited amount of content, there are some fun ideas that work well as a party game. Unfortunately that won't be enough for most and the launch price seems way too steep for a game that doesn't have any real replay value.

Overall Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle feels half-baked.