If you can tolerate the punctilious demands of the basic movement, you may wring some joy out of Gunbrick: Reloaded. There's definitely a clever idea here, and the later levels offer some trickier puzzling to get your teeth into which mitigates the problem a tiny bit – but getting to that point may be a bridge too far given the resolutely irritating early stages. It's a shame, because a lot of effort has clearly gone into its presentation, but Gunbrick: Reloaded just isn't want we're looking for from a puzzle-platformer.

Its current status means that we can’t give NBA 2K18 a score until the situation is remedied (or at least clarified). If it gets patched soon we’ll happily declare this one a highly recommended game, but in its current state we simply can’t recommend it at all.

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.

It's hard to quantify whether The Silver Case 2425 is a good game. Certainly, we didn't enjoy it in the slightest. But it's extremely purposeful with its Suda51-ness — his work might be an acquired taste, but for those who've already acquired it, this may well fill in the gaps in his back catalogue that you've been waiting for. In the case of anyone new to Suda's work, this visual novel is just too hard to recommend.

We’re hoping that as soon as the online functionality is live Nintendo Switch Sports will make a lot more sense, but as a purely local game there’s a lot to be desired to make this a worthwhile purchase. If you’re keen on simply playing some motion-controlled Wii Sports-like games on your Switch then Nintendo Switch Sports might bring you a good bit of enjoyment, but if you’re looking for something a little deeper and with a bit more variety than the game you first played on Wii, you’ll probably be left somewhat disappointed. [Review in Progress]

The Kore Gang: Outvasion from Inner Earth is occasionally a funny, loving tribute to those collect-a-thon games many of us grew up with. Unfortunately, though, most of the time it's struggling with problems left behind in previous console generations.

There's a pervasive sense of disappointment to When the Water Tastes Like Wine. For all its invention and forward-thinking, there's a profound feeling that the mark has been missed. In truth, it does very little to justify itself as a video game in the first place, given that most of the player's time is spent moving painfully slowly across a monotonous, samey map of America with no clearly defined goal. It's a failed experiment through and through, but all the more painful because it could have been so much more. There is space in gaming for narrative output like this, but they need to be carefully tailored to be games first and experiences second. You don't even want to know what this water tastes like.

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.

Vagante is, at times, an impressive game that feels incomplete. There is no denying the incredible amount of dedication that the team put into certain aspects, especially into the visuals and variety of upgrades available, but there isn’t enough of a game here to make it all come together into a complete package. The combination of a short adventure, the lack of any story, arbitrary difficulty, and minimal tutorials makes for a hard recommendation. The Nintendo Switch has plenty of incredible roguelikes and run-based indie games, and your time is better spent on them than Vagante.

Gal*Guns Returns is a so-so remaster of a tedious on-rails shooter that features dull, unchallenging and highly repetitive action set against a cringe-worthy story that's neither titillating or in any other way engaging. This is a very short and basic game for the asking price, and one that it's hard to see anyone outside of hardened (no pun intended) Gal*Gun fans deriving even the slightest amount of enjoyment from.

Hauntii is so beautiful that it's heartbreaking not to be able to recommend it right now. We can tell that it's made with love, but love isn't enough to overlook its flaws. We hope that the developers manage to fix the issues in the long term, because underneath them is something truly magical – but for now, it's just a ghost of what it could be.

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.

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.

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

Rock of Ages 3 failed to impress us on almost any level. It's definitely a game with character, and it could feasibly work its charms on you, but in its drive to be different and unusual it seems to have neglected to be fun. Still, it certainly has an audience; broadly speaking, you don't get to a second sequel without your game mattering to someone. If you can muscle through the frustrations, you might be able to roll with Rock of Ages 3, but with so many other worthy titles on Switch, we can't say we'd recommend it.

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.

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.

NBA Playgrounds is a flawed game, but a fun one. Single player modes are playable but can feel like a bit of a slog for all but the most hardcore fans. Multiplayer fares much better, delivering an enjoyable local multiplayer experience that we’re hopeful can be recreated well online. If you’re thinking of picking this one up, then, we recommend you do your homework and proceed with caution; perhaps wait until the online multiplayer is live, too.

Through and through, this is a fastball on Sega’s part and one that many gamers are going to want to avoid.

Azur Lane: Crosswave is a game that was best left on smartphones. The visual novel sequences are perfectly fine, and the story itself – while utterly bonkers – is interesting enough to keep you engaged, while the characters are both charming and unique. Sadly, the naval combat sequences bring down the entire experience. They’re slow, repetitive, rarely require much strategic thought, and look incredibly bland all at once. This is a game for hardcore fans of the genre only; everyone else ought to look elsewhere for their naval combat needs.

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.

It's a shame that a respectable franchise should have something so mediocre tarnish its name, but hopefully this will be a lesson for Creatures Inc. to take on board and realise that if it's going to produce a spin-off it should make sure that it's something they themselves would play.

We spent a long time mulling over why Senran Kagura: Peach Ball didn’t push any of our buttons. If you find anime ladies with animal features highly appealing, you can probably add a couple of points to the score below. Ultimately, though, Peach Ball serves up a tedious, repetitive story with monotonous characters and pinball tables that can be characterised likewise. Despite a polished art style and a genuinely interesting idea of livening up the arcade game in a way only possible in a video game, we found the end result sorely lacking in the pinball department.

Unless you’re a big fan of horror adventure games, Perception is one you can easily skip. The plot isn’t particularly engaging, and the horror elements are predictable with jump scares, characters and story dialogue that is typical of this genre. Even if it does fulfil all of the necessary criteria, it serves as a reminder that the horror genre is far too reliant on clichés to get by, and will only appeal to the thrill seekers happy to overlook its generic design. Ultimately, the biggest downfall is the core concept that drives Perception. The echolocation mechanic gets old quickly and seems like a better idea in theory than in actual gameplay; walking around in the dark in any game isn’t normally enjoyable, and in this one it’s no better – even with the added sense of meaning from the narrative. It’s an aggravating concept that should not have really got past the early design stage, and detracts from the already average quality of this short-lived horror adventure game.

Kotodama could have been a perfectly fine mystery school adventure if it didn't leave you blindly groping in the dark through repeats of repeats for a tiny morsel of fresh content. Failing that it could have been a decent brain-teaser if only it had the depth of even the most casual of free-to-play phone puzzlers. It could even have been an actually erotic visual novel if your lead's "People I've met but without their clothes on" fantasies ever went anywhere, real or imagined. Kotodama is in every way too much of not enough; the individual elements do not work well on their own nor gel together to form something new and there is no unique fusion going on here, nor even a basic feeling of quality to the individual elements. Pick whichever part intrigues you most about this title then seek it out elsewhere.

If you’re a rabid Mega Man fan, have already played all the main games to death, and are desperate for something to fill that void, Metagal is maybe worth your five bucks. Otherwise, we’d encourage you to save your money and put it towards something that’s more worth your time.

If you’re new to visual novels, and curious, then go somewhere else first; Root Letter: Last Answer could put you off the genre for life. But if you’re a visual novel fan, you’ve played all the other interesting ones on the Switch and you absolutely cannot wait for another – and if you’ve considered maybe just going outside or watching TV or lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling and you still can’t wait for another – then you could take a look at Root Letter and just hope you find it so bad it’s good.

Neon City Riders promises an epic open-world action-adventure set in a vibrant '80s sci-fi world, but its action and writing are far too flat and clunky to back up its initial promise. It looks and sounds a treat in places, but lacklustre execution makes for a punishing, repetitive and confounding experience. Pull away that admittedly amazing pixel-heavy packaging and you've got a game that fails to make a lasting impression in any meaningful manner.

Uninspiring, uninteresting and utterly unremarkable, Seven Knights: Time Wanderer is an extraordinarily tedious game that it’s hard to recommend to anyone but the most die-hard fans of its mobile counterpart — particularly given how many other top-quality RPGs the Switch plays host to. Even if you're an ardent follower of the franchise, we'd argue your money is much better spent elsewhere.

Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro gives us one of the most mystifying pieces of software to hit the public domain in recent times. If it could muster even a stable 30 FPS, it would likely be a commendable arcade action adventure, featuring nice mechanics, stage variety, large bosses and pleasing graphics. Possibly, even, a highlight in its genre. As it stands, it’s so confusing a technical train wreck that we can barely make sense of why it's been released in this condition. Should a patch materialise that resolves these issues entirely you can add at least three points to our current score, but at present technical problems gravely undermine the positives.

Digimon World: Next Order is an open-world RPG that's too much of a grind to recommend. While the music and graphics have their charm, they’re totally overshadowed by the unbalanced difficulty, highly-repetitive training mechanics, and some very strange design choices. Unless you’re a die-hard Digimon fan with untold patience, this one is best left alone.

Arkanoid DS disappoints in so many ways. Even with a retail price of $19.99, the game is just not worth picking up. If you're looking for a great remake of a classic arcade game, then pick up Taito's other retro remake - Space Invaders Extreme.

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.

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.

South Park: Snow Day! has a lot of potential with some of its roguelike-inspired mechanics but ultimately fails to deliver an engaging experience whether you're playing it solo or in co-op. Combat feels unresponsive, the technical issues are numerous (on Switch at least), and the writing is some of the weakest in the series.

There’s a lot to be desired for Dragon Quest II, both as a game and as a port. Considering the final stretch of the game, it’s a difficult one to recommend and spend your time on when Dragon Quest III and Dragon Quest XI are on the same system. While it's great that Switch fans now have access to more Dragon Quest goodness than ever before, this one is a reminder that even the best franchises experience growing pains, and is only suitable for diehard Dragon Quest fans only.

We cannot wholeheartedly recommend Gigantosaurus: The Game to anyone. Young children who love the animated show may well get some limited enjoyment out of it, but with poor graphics, a total lack of any discernible challenge, and shocking technical issues, it’s yet another licensed title that feels like it was designed as a quick cash grab. Games like this need to become extinct, and fast.

Castaway Paradise is hardly the first game to take inspiration from Animal Crossing, and it certainly won't be the last — but its unoriginal adherence to the Animal Crossing formula is bad enough, without the added veneer of in-app purchases, hastily reskinned and demonetised for a full-price release. It began life as a Facebook game back in 2014, and it still feels like one seven years later.

Look, there's no way to sugarcoat it — Snow Bros. wasn't worth bringing back. It's pretty much a D-grade arcade game with no interesting hook, and no amount of gussying it up can disguise that. The Monster Challenge mode sounds interesting, but it's DLC. All that was really needed was 'Arcade Archives: Snow Bros,' so that fans could get what they want at a decent price, the game was preserved on a modern console, and we could all just move on with our lives. It's gonna be a snow from us.

While its ambition should surely be commended and the time trials and multiplayer admittedly soften the blow somewhat, F1 2011 is, unfortunately, not the game to remedy matters. Unless you're a fan of frustrating ugly racers with brutally unrealistic and aggressive opponent AI, we advise that you steer well clear of it. Maybe next year, Codemasters will release the game that F1 fans deserve.

RiMS Racing is a super complex motorcycle sim that provides players with a ton of depth in terms of tinkering, tuning and customising. However, once on the track, this Switch port is let down badly by performance issues that make it a frustrating, messy experience. There's definitely a market for this type of in-depth motorbike action on Nintendo's console but, in this state, it's very hard to recommend diving into this particular offering.

There are lots of great ideas here, and every now and then you can see glimpses of what kind of potential those ideas have, but this is a gaming equivalent of what happens when you pull a tray of cookies out of the oven too early, leaving you underdone treats. The core concept behind LEGO Worlds isn’t the problem, but the execution is. Perhaps in future updates (or sequels) Tt Games will figure out how to better refine it, but we would advise you to hold off on this one for now. Creative players will get a little more utility out of this game due to its sandbox mode, but on the whole there’s not much here that you’ll be missing out on by passing.

Vambrace: Cold Souls is one of the best-looking games we’ve seen on Switch – it really is a stunner – but in terms of gameplay, it's a pedestrian affair. Dungeons are boring and difficult, combat is bereft of any real strategic depth or flair and it thinks nothing of wasting hours of your time for zero reward. The story gets off to a cracking start and it's obvious that an amazing amount of artistic talent has been channelled into creating the City of Icenaire and its surroundings, but, in the end, it's all rendered a little pointless by the fact it’s attached to such a monotonous and dreary plod of an RPG.

We won’t mince words here, Summer in Mara has absolutely nothing to offer that hasn’t been done much better in other games that are easily available right now. If you want a cozy farm sim with a pleasant atmosphere, get Stardew Valley or Rune Factory 4. If you want a thrilling adventure you can take at your own pace, get Minecraft or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Even if you’ve played those and are looking for something new, please don’t waste your time or money here. This is not a 'hidden gem'; the alluring presentation of Summer in Mara only acts as a pretty mask for a much uglier game beneath the surface – one that’s keen on wasting your time with no meaningful payoff.

Godstrike in many ways feels like an early access game. There are glimpses of a better game in here somewhere, but the overall unpolished feel of its design and presentation really drag down the otherwise solid controls. Revising (or removing) the time mechanic and honing in on a more distinctive art style could’ve made this one a tentative recommendation but, as it stands, that's impossible. If you want a good boss rush game with similar gameplay, we’d recommend you pick up Furi; if you’re looking for a good shmup, there’s no shortage of those to be found on Switch. Either way, we wouldn't bother with this one unless you've exhausted all other options.

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.

Top-down racers, whilst never boasting the same level of depth as their 3D counterparts, are reliably accessible. They tend to put a playful spin on what is otherwise an often daunting gameplay experience for newcomers, allowing almost anyone to dive right in immediately. Ultimate Racing 2D succeeds in this respect, boasting simplistic gameplay that is incredibly easy to get to grips with. The problem, though, is that it isn’t much fun – at all.

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.

Cosy gaming+hobbits seems like a match made in Valinor, and Tales of the Shire tries hard to meet that lofty goal — but in its current state, at least on Switch, this game is unfortunately almost as much of a slog as schlepping evil jewellery to a distant volcano.

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.

Uses an ineffective gimmick as its foundation and includes far too simple takes on seven sports, featuring some cumbersome controls and tedious pacing to boot.

It really sucks having to rate Munch's Oddysee so low – this version has obviously been made with care, but as the old saying goes you just can't polish a... well... you know. There are a handful of moments where things come together to a limited extent and the Oddworld magic show signs of life, but it's always been the ugly stepchild of the series and the already-on-Switch follow-up was a brilliant return to form – we hope that the existence of Munch's Oddysee on this format is a matter of simply getting it out of the way before a re-release of the much n better Oddworld: New n' Tasty and the upcoming Oddworld: Soulstorm.

Darksiders III on Switch is a poor port of a distinctly average entry in the series. Constant technical issues make fighting and platforming more frustrating than fun, long loading times follow every death and the further along you get, the worse these issues seem to become. It's a shame as we're pretty big fans of the series in general, but if you have any other means of playing this one we'd advise you give this clunky version a miss.

Aztech Forgotten Gods had a lot of potential that is unfortunately wasted. On the plus side, the game is artistically pleasing, with well-designed enemies and a city that at least provides a nice bit of visual variety. In terms of gameplay, however, the whole thing is a bit of a mess, with poor combat mechanics and a daft camera causing way too much hassle than it’s worth. Minor distractions in the form of cosmetic customisation proves a nice little touch, but sadly Aztech: Forgotten Gods’ core gameplay is simply far below par, making this an action game you'll probably want to sit out.

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.

Beenox sure is trying to do well by the character, but it's becoming evident that the studio needs a rest from being the only one churning out Spider-Man titles on a sort-of-annual basis.

With nothing to offer besides some pleasant storytelling, we cannot recommend Sword of the Necromancer on any meaningful level. It’s not horrible, but it’s bereft of both meaningful content and any manner of unique execution. A sequel or heavily-modified relaunch could salvage the game into something much stronger, as the core idea of resurrecting fallen monsters is a decent one, but its treatment here renders it irrelevant. What a shame. This could have been something special. It's not a complete and total disaster – occasionally, when the screen is a little busier, you might feel a flicker of engagement as you dash between combatants – but overall, we'll be leaving this one for dead.

Calico is still a little too buggy for us to recommend. It's fun to ride a huge cat off a cliff in an ice cream sundae outfit, but less fun when you get stuck in said cliff and your face turns inside-out. There's a lot of love in this game, but it doesn't quite outweigh the issues – and given that we've already seen more than one patch issued since launch, we're not convinced the developer can pull this one back from the brink.

This isn't how a game port to a more powerful system should be, and if you absolutely have to sample Mickey's latest adventure we suggest looking to your old system or the Wii Menu.

Rather than building on the solid foundations its predecessor set last year, Gear.Club Unlimited 2 slams into reverse gear and delivers racing gameplay that feels significantly more laggy and sluggish than the original. With no attempt made to cut its remaining mobile roots and more performance issues than a drunken West End actor, we just can’t recommend dropping a whopping £54.99 on this unoptimised, clunky effort.

One wonders if the entire Bubsy series wasn’t actually designed as a sort of torture parody; that the intention all along was to pummel unsuspecting children into submission via an innocent-looking, anthropomorphic-bobcat-led platform game. Picture this: some kid in 1993 got Bubsy for Christmas after the sales clerk told his parents that Sonic and Mario were old hat, and this was the hot new thing. That kid either never forgave his parents for the injustice and the playground bullying they endured as a result, or they committed fully to the Bubsy universe and found a happy place within it. If you’re the latter, then this collection is for you. And only for you.

Astro Bears Party plays more like a tech demo that is a few days into development rather than a complete package. The concept is a neat idea, but it seems as if the developer got the absolute basics up and running and then decided to halt work to rollout the title. The amount of content in this game is so underwhelming, as a result, that it’s hard to justify putting any real cash towards it. At best this is perhaps suitable for a few short rounds of multiplayer, or for any younger people who are new to video games. Otherwise you should look elsewhere if you are seeking a new party game on the Nintendo Switch.

The simple fact of the matter is that this game is just too sluggish and doesn't offer up enough gameplay variety to keep most people's interest for more than a few minutes.

The concept behind WWE 2K Battlegrounds is a solid one, but it's let down time and time again by limited and repetitive combat, dopey AI, an excessively locked roster and a series of bewildering design choices that really should have been questioned at some point during production. We hope it eventually gets an improved sequel, but until then, the Switch is still lacking a proper main event-tier wrestling game.

As a single player experience, Gameloft's Texas Hold 'em Poker will provide about as much diversion as a good game of Freecell. The visuals are excellent and the game plays well, but the useless online experience and one-note gameplay prevents us from recommending this game to anyone but die hard fans of this poker variant.

Ultimately, it's an average game diminished by its own bugs, glitches, and largesse.

Shifting World certainly contains the germ of a great idea but it execution leaves a lot to be desired. Uninspired level design, a useless map, poor responsiveness and inexplicable slowdown all come together to make Shifting World feel like an unfinished beta version released at retail. Shifting World had potential, but in its current state, you're not missing much by passing on it.

Despite looking moderately eye-catching in screenshots, Bird Game + ultimately proves to be the game that its title suggests: a bland and frustrating experience in search of an identity. The concept has potential, but a lack of polish and focus means it never really leaves the ground.

Slender: The Arrival is far from the greatest horror game on Nintendo Switch. With the likes of Outlast 2, Layers of Fear, and Resident Evil to compete against, this bland and bare horror title shows its true colours separated from the hype of 2013. Unlike the mystical powers of the Slenderman, there’s nothing compelling here in the slightest, unless you like looking at poorly rendered forestry.

There's an interesting and fun game buried somewhere deep beneath the surface of Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf, but you’ll need to crack the tough, unintuitive armour that protects the core mechanics before you can find it. Unfortunately, you don’t have the privilege of a Thunder Hammer at your disposal – all you have is time, and you’ll need a lot of it to get any real enjoyment out of this rather disappointing title.

Tennis World Tour 2 is a simulation style affair that demands much from its players but doesn't reciprocate with a game that's capable of matching their efforts. Flaky AI and a lack of basic player animations leads to core gameplay here that feels rough and unsatisfying for the most part. Matches often descend into a procession of double faults, there's absolutely zero net play, and no matter how much practice you put in, things always feel like they're out of your control. There is a decent selection of modes here and the fundamental ideas behind the gameplay could have made for a good time, but a lack of finesse in how these things have been implemented mean this one is best avoided by all but the most foolhardy of tennis fans.

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.

Rustler attempts to take us back to classic top-down GTA action in a neat medieval setting but poor performance, shoddy controls, weak humour and a dull, short campaign hold it back from reaching its potential. There are glimmers of good stuff here, a few fun pop culture references, those beat-boxing bards and a good-looking world to stomp around in, but the game underneath is just so underwhelming and uninspired and, in the end, it all feels like a big step back from its most obvious inspirations.

Again, it’s essentially an enhanced port of a free-to-play mobile title. We also know QubicGames can do better than this – with the likes of Robonauts. This one, though, is more in line with the limitations of Astro Bears Party. Given its simplicity and bright presentation, it’s best recommended for a younger audience.

The music is awesome, the characters are quirky and the story, is a little like 'Lost', but none of this can lift the game above an interactive story with a poor puzzle mechanic at its core. Let's hope Suda's next DS outing, The Silver Case, fares better. This one is strictly fans-only.

Dream Trigger features some really unique and original gameplay ideas - maybe a few too many for its own good - and ultimately tries to do too many things at once, overwhelming the player with its rather steep learning curve. Toss in the barrage of game crashes and you're left with a game that had a lot of potential that was never in the vicinity of being reached.

Dungeon Munchies is the kind of game that feels like it might be good in another two or three years. Despite the shoddy visuals, awful performance, sloppy movement mechanics, and unoriginal crafting systems, it feels like there could be a good game somewhere in here. With a few tweaks, this combat system might have some promise, and the core loop of crafting—fighting—repeat seems like an interesting riff on the main idea of Monster Hunter. Unfortunately, that potential has yet to fully present itself here — this is an Early Access release with all the issues and lack of cohesion that implies. We’d recommend you pass on Dungeon Munchies, and instead suggest either looking into Dead Cells or Dragon: Marked for Death. There are some quality traits here, but it’s not enough to redeem Dungeon Munchies.

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.

If you already have a soft spot for Stubbs the Zombie, you’re going to have a perfectly fine experience here. But we wonder why on earth anyone would hold a candle for a game this obviously flawed. There’s some ambition here for sure, but something is always working against it. You can’t lose yourself in its mindlessness because your character is too weak. You can’t really formulate a decent strategy using your powers because you can only gain access to them through the rote melee combat. The jokes didn’t make us laugh. The premise is fun but the gameplay simply doesn’t do it justice. We’ll say it again – in order to make Stubbs the Zombie fun at all, you have to possess one of the firearm-wielding humans, thus transforming it from a load of baffling nothing to a pretty dull shooter. Please, no more resurrections for Stubbs. Let the man rest.

While Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir has a genuinely interesting premise, it's let down early by its own technological limitations, and the disappointment is fairly consistent from there.

If you're looking for the next Stardew Valley, this doesn't even come close. Harvest Moon: One World is a poor imitation of what the series once was, and it feels more like a rushed mobile game than a full-fledged Switch game. These games have always been about chores, but this one feels like a chore to play. In our opinion, your money is better spent on something that respects you as a fan of the genre.

Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is a poor Switch port of a disappointing entry in the long-running spin-off series. This is a hugely downgraded version of the game, with seriously dialled-back visuals failing to put a stop to consistent frame rate issues during the heat of battle. With a lack of gameplay modes, zero multiplayer options, terrible AI and cosmetic customisation options gone AWOL at launch — Koei Tecmo choosing instead to go the DLC route — this is a truly lacklustre package, a bargain bin affair with a premium price tag, and a Dynasty Warriors game you can feel quite comfortable skipping entirely.

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.

On paper Whipseey is a lovely tribute to the days of the Kirby games, but when the entire game is shorter than just the first world of Kirby's Adventure – which is already available as part of the Switch Online NES collection – we just can't recommend you spend your money on it. If this was a free demo teasing a full adventure we'd be demanding you play it, but if this is really all there is that's incredibly poor.

Cloudpunk on Switch is a hugely disappointing port that struggles technically and ultimately fails to deliver the game in a satisfactory manner on Nintendo's hybrid platform. Merge Games have made drastic cuts all over, with a massively reduced draw-distance sucking much of the life out of Nivalis, volumetric effects missing entirely, pixellation rampant and a framerate that still chugs along in the face of all of these concessions. If you've got a PC capable of playing this one we'd highly recommend you play on that platform as this is an adventure that's well worth experiencing in its original form. This particular version, however, should probably be avoided.

Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia attempts to shoehorn the long-running franchise into a Pokémon Let's Go-style affair aimed at younger players but does so with absolutely zero care or charm. This is a lazy, repetitive, basic game that slowly erodes your patience and goodwill with sloppy mechanics, a tiny roster of samey monsters and a world that reveals itself to be entirely devoid of character or life. Avoid.

Ice Cream Surfer gets some of the basics right and offers players a crazy, wacky world, with colourful locales and varied, interesting enemies. Unfortunately, the game built around that world is just not particularly fun to play, with little challenge, poor presentation, some annoying gameplay quirks and almost no replay value.

Lets the series down; it feels more like a tech demo than anything else – there's no replay value because high-scores and full games have been removed, and then you have to be content with the fact that there are only 20 microgames to play (instead of the hundreds available in every other WarioWare!)

If we sound like a broken record criticising this VR conversion, that's because its central problem is so all-encompassing that it destroys the product. Sure, you could have fun with this if you're a committed fan of Five Nights at Freddy's and its lore, but we'd advise against it otherwise. As with many VR games, the immersion and novelty factor papers over the cracks of the limited gameplay. When that escapism is taken away, all that's left is a sub-par minigame collection that isn't even as good as the individual games it cribs from – and it's a lot more expensive, too. We get the impression that the sole reason this game exists is to capitalise on the fact that the Switch has such a large market share.

More thought was required to bring the Splinter Cell experience successfully to the 3DS, and the square pegs and round holes development approach has undermined the overall experience. There is some enjoyment to be had for series veterans, but most gamers would be well advised to play the original instead.

One game you’re probably going to want to avoid; even massive Pokémon fans should approach this with trepidation.

Hysteria Hospital leaves a pretty bad taste and a craving for some morphine to make the painful gameplay disappear.

With a hands-down fantastic soundtrack, a boat-load of charm, and a genuinely insightful celebration of the game development process, there's the ghost of a very good game buried somewhere inside. But confusing design choices, recurring glitches, and boredom that sets in far too quickly make it tough to recommend.

Skyforge is a properly mediocre MMORPG that could, perhaps, have been a reasonable enough little timesink for a bunch of friends or solo players who just want to mindlessly blow through its content without thinking too much. There's no shortage of content here, and the idea of having eighteen different classes to master is an attractive one. However, this Switch port is such a huge disappointment on a technical level; it's such a lazy, janky, stuttery, buggy, low-resolution mess that it's hard to see how anyone could be bothered to stick with it for long enough to properly engage with anything it's got to offer. If you're in need of an MMORPG to play on your Switch right now, we recommend you download and play just about anything else that's available because seriously, this ain't it.

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

Hellpoint is a reasonably decent sci-fi/Soulslike effort that sticks closely to FromSoftware's well-worn formula whilst introducing a few neat new tricks and twists of its own. The combat here is solid, the space station setting often spectacular and the narrative as enticingly cryptic as you'd expect from the genre. However, the whole thing suffers massively due to myriad technical issues on Switch. Constant crashes to the console's homescreen, a seriously flaky framerate, long loading times and a pretty huge graphical downgrade result in an experience that's infuriating for all the wrong reasons and one that it's almost impossible to recommend in its current form. Here's hoping Cradle Games has some big patches incoming.

Plättchen: Twist 'n Paint is the videogame equivalent of trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time; there are too many elements to consider in tandem for this to be considered to be much fun.

Commandos 2 - HD Remaster is a disappointingly lacklustre port of a real-time tactics classic. This is a game that's showing its age in many ways but, with the right tweaks, some decent control implementation and squashing of bugs, it could have had its moment to shine with modern audiences. As it is, the irritations and annoyances expected in revisiting a game of this vintage are exacerbated to no end with shoddy, unwieldy controls, unexpected performance problems and a general lack of care. The graphics have been updated here, but everything else remains much as it was – with the added frustration of bugs, glitches and long loading times.