Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is the kind of game that will unfortunately only appeal to a relatively limited demographic. Enjoyable co-op chaos with your friends is the main draw here, but the lack of same screen or even local Switch multiplayer substantially hobbles that appeal. Couple that with simplistic gameplay that fails to provide you with much of a hook to stay with it long term, and you’re left with a rather middling experience that doesn’t do much to incite strong feelings one way or another. Newly remastered graphics and extra content certainly sweeten the deal, but we’d advise you take a good look at why you’re interested in this game before jumping in. If you intend on mostly playing solo, we’d firmly advise you to pass and instead look to the litany of other excellent solo RPG’s on the Switch, many of which are in the Final Fantasy series. If you intend on getting a new multiplayer game to play with your mates, we’d give this a light recommendation and encourage you to evaluate how much playtime you really think this will offer. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition is far from being the worst co-op focused game on the Switch, but it’s far from the best, too, leaving it somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Stop Stress feeds the player's innate desire to smash things by using motion controls to do the smashing, though everything isn't as much fun to smash as it could have been.

Diner Dash is a fun game and a well-executed concept on the PC which could have been faithfully ported to WiiWare simply by swapping mouse for Remote and adding NES-style control for a manual alternative. Instead we have unnecessary use of the Nunchuk and visuals which certainly could have been better rendered on the Wii than they are.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics is a pretty solid, if wholly unspectacular little tactical title. It does a decent job of incorporating events and characters from Netflix's spectacular TV series (and the 1982 classic movie on which it is based) into its gameplay, and fans of the franchise – as well as folk who simply can't get enough of this genre – will certainly find something to enjoy here, especially for the pretty reasonable asking price. In terms of presentation, we would have liked to see something more befitting of the spectacular source material and a few more flashy combos and opportunities to set your team up to blow enemies off the screen in style would have been nice. Overall, however, for such a strange (and somewhat late arriving) TV tie-in, this one really is quite a bit better than we expected it to be. Feel free to add one to the score below if you're a huge Dark Crystal fiend.

As was the case with Rogue Trooper Redux and Battlezone Gold Edition previously, Rebellion has done justice to one of its most enduring franchises here. While Sniper Elite V2 Remastered isn’t the series' high point, it does offer a fine opportunity to sample its most enjoyable features – including scouting entire locations and taking incredible shots at even more incredible distances – on a brand new platform. However, while its long-range action is as gripping as ever, the more traditional run-and-gun sections stick out like a sore thumb, and the absense of auto-saving can lead to some frustrating moments. While it still very much looks and plays like a game from the previous hardware generation, the fact that every element from the original release – including co-op and the entire suite of multiplayer modes – has made the cut makes this is an agreeable – if imperfect – way to practice your aim before the far superior Sniper Elite III Ultimate Edition drops later this year.

Carto's main concept is compelling, but it runs out of steam in the mid-game and succumbs to repetition far too swiftly. It's nonetheless a beautifully-drawn title that's often a pleasure to play, but when it's tedious, it's really tedious. It's arguably the perfect title to play with kids and novices who are likely to be more forgiving of Carto's many shortcomings, but everyone else should approach with a little more caution.

At its launch price this is one of the better mobile-esque values on Wii U - just know that this one's not in it for the long haul.

There's nothing inherently wrong with Active Life Outdoor Challenge. It's a charming enough game with controls that are responsive enough for the most part. Its main failing is a general lack of content, and the fact that the Joy-Con and leg strap combination isn't quite as fun as the original mat the Wii version came with. Ring Fit Adventure won't be sweating over the competition, then, but Family Trainer is still a pleasant enough diversion for fans of light CV.

The New Denpa Men is pretty firmly in the middle of the pack when it comes to Switch's freemium games. Simple, approachable gameplay makes it a great light JRPG for anyone looking for a basic introduction to the genre but, unsurprisingly, it scarcely holds a candle to classically designed games such as Octopath Traveler 2 or Dragon Quest XI. And though the microtransactions and freemium elements don’t get too in the way of progressing the story, they are nonetheless a persistent annoyance that can drag the overall experience down. Still, it costs you nothing but time to give this one a shot and, despite the drawbacks, this is still a fun little RPG that you may find yourself coming back to more than you’d think. If you give it a try and if you’re not too impressed, there’s a staggering number of excellent RPGs on Switch to play instead.

This is a perfectly serviceable visual novel which boasts gorgeous presentation but is held back by its short runtime, lack of narrative ambition and rough edges in terms of localisation. It's not going to make you fall in love with the genre if you're a newcomer, but longstanding fans will be more forgiving of its shortcomings.

Toy Stunt Bike tries to motor the line between technicality and plain old fun and doesn't do too bad a job of it.

Express Raider remains a fun 2-in-1 game, with the fighting stages standing head and shoulders above the shooting ones, which is something of an oddity considering the Wild West setting. As such we recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the original or who played the home conversions and want to have the original on their virtual arcade Switch museum. But if you have an itchy trigger finger, we recommend you buy a ticket to a more steampunk kind of Wild West.

Date Everything provides an ideal dating simulator recipe: charming characters, a light-hearted tone, and an incredibly disturbing premise. Unfortunately, performance issues at launch also provided a significant obstacle, and I had a hard time getting over some of the narrative ups and downs. There’s certainly a lot to sink your teeth into with Date Everything, which took me a little over 40 hours to complete, but I was left wondering if all the time spent was really worth it for the level of depth the game provides.

Missile Command Delta is an unfortunate misfire from Atari. I want to love it; heck, I do love the actual turn-based strategy gameplay found within the various terminals. The problem is that it's surrounded by dull explorative sections and a narrative that just doesn't resonate. There's a really solid foundation here, and I'd love to see Atari explore Delta's mechanics more in the future, but a bit more thought is required in how such an intriguing concept is delivered to the player.

Big Bass Arcade doesn't have much in the way of variety, although its one gameplay hook is surprisingly satisfying while it lasts.

World War Z is an unremarkable zombie shooter that serves up a decent five-odd hours of action if you can find a few friends to play with. It's repetitive stuff; basic and unsurprising for the most part, but this Switch port is solid, managing to provide the full-fat experience without too much in the way of technical issues or other shortcomings. If you're in the mood for blazing through bland masses of zombies with a few friends in tow, this one's got you covered – just don't expect much more than that.

Fatal Fury 2 isn’t a bad game in its own right. It’s a decent fighter, and although the plane-jumping mechanic is clunky, it should keep you entertained. The problem is, it’s made completely obsolete with the presence of Fatal Fury Special on the eShop, further proving that Hamster Corporation’s scattergun approach to randomly releasing Neo Geo games is getting confusing. If you're a hardcore Fatal Fury fan and want to experience the entire lineage, then by all means, give this a download - you're unlikely to be disappointed. However, everyone else should check out the King Of Fighters games for a more comprehensive Neo Geo fighting experience on Switch, or, if there's an absolute need for a Fatal Fury game, get Special instead.

Despite its grainy visuals and a few gameplay issues, Spot It! Challenge milks a surprising amount of hectic fun out of such a passive, and boring past-time - looking for stuff.

When it comes to unique gameplay and classic Yuji Naka charm the title truly soars. Unfortunately it also suffers from frustrating camera problems, a steep learning curve and some frequently aggravating combat.

Those who enjoy utterly dominating a gaming experience and showing off their high scores will likely be content in the challenge alone — others, however, might find their time spent with the game shorter.

Overall it's hard to fault the application too much, especially since it will only set you back 200 Nintendo Points, but you can't help but wish the application had a little bit more to offer and in all honesty it ultimately might be easier to just use your computer to make the postcards instead.

The Teal Mask is a fun diversion for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet players that builds on the base game's strengths, but also exposes its weaknesses that much more. Fortunately, those strengths sparkle and Terastalize into a breezy, fun experience that delivers some rich regional storytelling, great characters, and some fantastic new Pokémon. We wanted more, though — more love and care put into the visuals and the battles. The Indigo Disk has a chance to build on the foundations The Teal Mask has laid, and we hope that's exactly what it will do.

When it’s firing on all cylinders, The Princess Guide is a somewhat deep, satisfying action game with vibrant visuals and humorous, whimsical storytelling. Unfortunately, it’s bogged down by trying to shove overengineered combat through a thick UX fog. After yet another “mission” that consists of moving on the map to intercept three enemy skirmishes to completion, a reasonable player might wonder: Is it worth $40 to praise-or-scold each Princess through a couple of hours of sword-swinging? This quirky game may meet the particular sensibilities of some, but others should probably pass on this one.

The gameplay is as tight and enjoyable as ever, and there's a simplicity to the game engine which makes it incredibly appealing – while it lacks some of the improvements seen in recent fighters, this simplicity somehow makes for a purer experience and one which is more accommodating to genre newcomers to boot. Sadly, Capcom's attempts to add value to this likeable yet aging template fall totally flat.

Overall, Pokémon: Magikarp is a fascinating package. It has great style, but it severely lacks in gameplay. It feels like the epitome of a generic mobile title with a Pokémon twist, which is somewhat unfortunate. With no gameplay other than feeding the fish and playing "whose stat is bigger?", there's just unfortunately so little to the game. It's definitely something fun to play on the bus or the train to kill time, in a style similar to other mobile games that have you looking after animals or buildings, but it just lacks the depth that we've come to expect from the other Pokémon mobile titles such as Pokémon GO, Pokémon Duel and Pokémon Shuffle. While it's easy to recommend having it on your mobile device, it's hard to recommend paying for microtransactions.

Coming to a suitable conclusion on 3D Thunder Blade is a difficult proposition; on one hand it's clearly the best of the 3D Classics on a technical level, but on the other hand the source material wasn't a particularly top-notch game to begin with.

Translating a set of revered gamebooks from the ’80s into video game form was always going to be something of a challenge, and while the version that’s made the jump to Nintendo Switch under a new name doesn’t bring anything particularly different to the tabletop party, developer Asmodee has retained the evocative world-building of Ian Livingstone’s books while adding in some helpful features. It’s a little lacking in the looks department, but if you fancy taking a trip back in time to RPG questing of old, Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy certainly offers plenty of retro adventures of its own.

Clocking in at a fairly short six-to-eight hours, Lego Horizon Adventures offers up frequent, brief bursts of fun with its excellent combat encounters. However, this is wrapped up in an experience that feels way too shallow and repetitive to recommend to anyone other than the most enthusiastic Horizon and Lego fans. It's clear that the intention is to woo new, younger gamers to Sony's flagship franchise, but if you already own Zero Dawn and Forbidden West on PlayStation, we can't see any reason why you'd want to check this one out. Mind you, if all you've got is a Switch, then this endearingly light-hearted introduction will have to do for now. It could have been so much more, though.

Tank Troopers is exactly what you would expect from a game about tanks. Adding to this is the fact the title manages to adhere to Nintendo's family-friendly criteria while at the same time filling the void when it comes to the lack of shooters across the company's current generation of hardware. The problem is, despite solid foundations, the title falls short simply because it does not offer online functionality. It's this one glaring problem that lets Tank Troopers down. Beyond technical limitations, it is hard to guess why this would be left out of a game that is dominantly focused on player connectivity. Unless you have a close group of 3DS companions you can play with locally on a regular basis, Tank Troopers is hard to recommend sorely for its single player mode.

For a 200 point side-scrolling shoot-'em-up, Z-ONE is not bad, but it lacks anything to make it stand out as a must-have title.

Soccer Story delivers a colourful, charming take on the 'sports adventure', bursting at the seams with earnest effort and care from the development team. It's a fun experience, though it doesn't reach the heights of the genre's most famous release. Bugs and hitches pop up occasionally too, but if you're seeking some light entertainment and happen to love football, its cute visuals and charming world make it worth consideration.

There's fun to be had in Suicide Guy. There's a nice variety of situations and environments and exploring each stage can be a blast. The technical problems are what ultimately drag Suicide Guy down. Still, if you can get past the bugs and glitches, there's a nifty little puzzle game waiting for you on the eShop.

There's nothing terribly wrong with this game, as short-lived as it may be, but the full experience doesn't quite reach its potential - it's worth consideration, nevertheless.

Bare Butt Boxing delivers short bursts of frantic and accessible fun with some clear room for improvement. Playing against real people will certainly elevate the experience, seeing how rudderless the game’s CPU fighters are. But given how simplistically it controls and the sparse game modes on offer, we can’t see it having the staying power to be anything more than a game night palate cleanser between rounds of more established, better party games.

Offering a simple three-button setup World Heroes 2 may not offer quite as many offensive options as other fighting games, but there's a good range of fighters and bouts can still entertain. Subsequent games in the series would add to the gameplay, however, with the already available World Heroes Perfect being the top World Heroes option for best of three round fights. What this game does have over the next two instalments is the revamped Death Match mode that provides a fun alternate way of playing as the energy bar moves back and fourth during the battles and you avoid the hazards or try to use them to your advantage. Fights can often go the distance with the marker shifting to the victor in the final moments. World Heroes 2 may not be the best fighting game available on Switch, but it can still entertain.

While My Hero One’s Justice certainly looks the part - with all the crash, bang and wallop you’d expect from a game based on such an outlandish anime - it proves to be more style over substance. If the likes of Blade Strangers and SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy have got you in the mood for easy-to-pick-up fighters, this title will easily fit that mould, but for everyone else, it’s a disappointing use of a franchise brimming with quirky (no pun intended) potential.

Lego 2K Drive is a racing game that so nearly reaches its potential, but it steps on a few stray bricks along the way. The core driving feels good, the Story mode has plenty to do, and the creation tools are legitimately impressive. However, it's let down by technical shortcomings, a lack of sharing options, and somewhat slimy monetisation. The foundations of a really great arcade racer are here, but poor optimisation in this Switch version and certain design decisions mean it's unlikely to overtake the competition.

Good times are buried within Edge of Time but it feels a bit too rushed and incomplete to swing through with a smile. Beenox has proved it has the chops so hopefully Edge of Time is a mere sophomore slump rather than indicative of Spidey's future - otherwise we're going to need one of those time portals.

The three stories aren't terribly long, but they're nonetheless enjoyable; if you've enjoyed the Flips series so far then you'll likely enjoy what's on offer here as well.

Cosmo Fighters shows some promise with its solid gameplay, but its lack of any kind of charm, personality or innovation makes it a difficult game onto which to latch.

At the end of the day, Fairy Tail is not a great RPG. Shortcomings in storytelling, pacing, difficulty, and performance all add up to make for a less than stellar experience which consistently seems to waste its potential. The well-made combat system and the adherence to the tone and content of the source material give occasional glimpses of the much greater RPG that Fairy Tail could be, but alas, it’s never really given the chance to spread its wings. We wouldn’t recommend you pick this one up, especially given the wealth of excellent RPGs available on the eShop right now, but we say that with the caveat that fans of the franchise will get a lot more out of this game than newcomers.

If you enjoy looking at and landing bass, and don't mind the rough edges, Fish On 3D is a decent catch.

You won't want to place it in your tomb for use in the afterlife, but it'll make a fairly entertaining diversion until you get there.

A good book for more imaginative children when compared to a lot of the horror-based titles, The Folk of the Faraway Tree is a fun read even now. The repetition of content from the previous Flips release is disappointing however, so be warned if you're planning to buy both titles.

With Super Toy Cars, you either embrace the weird physics and accept that this is a cheap, silly experience, or you don’t.

Although we may sound quite negative when discussing the game, FIST: Forged In Shadow Torch really is worth playing; it just has so much potential that it doesn’t quite reach. It rides on the cusp of greatness so often, while not quite making it over the hurdle. We can't wait to play a sequel because if it was iterated on, FIST could be something really special. Sadly, due to the technical issues associated with this Switch version such as the unbearably long load times, it’s let down even further. Overall, a promising foundation that we hope leads to better things in the future.

Should you buy Megadimension Neptunia VII? Well, that depends on a few major factors. Can you stomach shamelessly pervy leerings at the bodies of the many females featured in the story? Are you okay with playing a poorly-optimized game that’s not very graphically impressive to begin with? If yes, then you just may be surprised at the quality of the gameplay that lies at the heart of this RPG. Despite its shortcomings, Megadimension Neptunia VII can be a fun game to play, and though there are plenty of better RPG’s to pick up on the eShop today, it’s impossible to deny the niche value being offered here. We’d lightly recommend this one, but with the important caveat that this is the kind of game that’s ideal fodder for buying on a big sale in the future.

This somewhat interesting take on Tetris is a simple, fun game with barebones customization, an unappealing presentation and a very affordable budget price.

Flutter Away is relaxing but uninspiring. It does an excellent job of setting up a peaceful atmosphere that just gives you the space to check out some butterflies, but it’s also over nearly as soon as it starts, and there’s not a ton else to do on a subsequent playthrough. If you're looking for a cozy one-and-done experience to disappear into for a bit, Flutter Away delivers before making good on its title.

Lichtspeer is mechanically simple but stylistically demented. Set in a world that throws more neon at you than a dodgy warehouse rave, its arcade style gameplay is certainly repetitive, but satisfying enough to keep your interest for a while with the solid spear-hurling gameplay at its core. The addition of co-op multiplayer is well implemented, both enjoyable in its own right and extremely easy to jump in or out of. It's a short, repetitious experience, well-suited to the Switch's portable nature, but its occasionally unfair difficulty is used to pad the game out. Additional content and a bit more variety would make this über compelling, but it's still a good time so long as you keep an eye on your blood pressure.

If you’re a fan of the anime, Spy x Anya: Operation Memories will feel like a relaxed, slice-of-life side-story, complete with wholesome, adorable moments and some fun interactions between the characters you love. The stakes are low and the gameplay is perhaps too easy, but it's a good way to unwind after a busy day. Between the wealth of minigames to choose from – some of them actually quite good, others lacklustre – and the dozens of outfits to put the Forgers in, anime fans will find a way to play that suits them.

What it does, it does well, so if you happen to be in the super niche market for an inexpensive DSiWare Nintendo metronome or always wanted to play Donkey Kong with an instrument or by clapping and yelling then look no further.

As it stands, it's merely a decent Frogger game.

Gameplay is simple but not massively varied. It doesn't get dull, however, and there's certainly fun to be found in striking a balance between completing the levels quickly and plotting a route to maximise your point-scoring; online leaderboards add to the replayability. It's not quite the lost classic some would have you believe, but Arcade Archives Sky Skipper can still entertain with its animal-rescuing, gorilla-bombing shenanigans.

For its relatively low price, The Ramp does control reasonably well, and although the range of tricks on offer is undoubtedly quite limited, there's plenty of fun to be had here if you're not bothered about gaining scores or doing tasks like collecting S-K-A-T-E tokens. If you're after something a bit meatier, then you'll be better off going for something like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, or OlliOlli World, but The Ramp does have a certain minimal charm which we enjoyed.

What it does, it does well – probably better than expected, in fact – so if you happen to be in the super-niche market for an inexpensive DSiWare Nintendo instrument tuner then look no further.

Under the right light, Looksley's is a beautiful, inventive and fun game that will keep you occupied for a good long while and charmed the whole time. It's a shame, though, that such a potentially wonderful experience is marred so badly by an oft haywire camera and a lack of replay value once each stage is complete.

88 Heroes: 98 Heroes Edition took on the gargantuan challenge of cramming 98 playable characters into a single game, and while we commend the attempt the results have been a little shy of heroic. There's so much diversity to the size, shape, and moveset of each hero, that it comes at the cost of a more tightly designed set of levels and challenges. There's a lot of personality to every aspect of its presentation, and the heroes themselves are fantastic fun to mess around with, so it's just a shame that it falls a little short overall. If you're looking for something thoroughly silly and don't mind it being a short lived experience, then this is almost gr8, but don't expect much in the way of replayability m8.

For 200 points Sudoku! 50 For Beginners is a pretty sound purchase: it has enough to keep the player occupied for a decent amount of time and really is a very good introduction to Sudoku.

It almost feels like Manifold Garden might have fared better as a "walking simulator" at times; its infinitely-folding environments are works of art from any angle, and it's a little difficult to appreciate them when you're solving yet another samey block puzzle. Still, it'd be churlish to mark it down for being a game when solving its riddles isn't unenjoyable by any stretch of the imagination. We just found ourselves a little impatient to be done with them so we could hurry into the next astonishing panorama of abstract, impossible imagery. Manifold Garden is a lovely game, but sometimes the "game" bit gets a little in the way.

With its predecessor containing over four times more puzzles at the exact same price on the eShop, and with its most glaring issue curiously still present in this new release, it's hard to recommend Kids over the original Color Zen.

Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper is an uninspired port of an excellent game. There are missed opportunities regarding the Wii U's unique features and the slow down, frame rate and draw distance issues make this version the least appealing on the market. It never breaks the experience completely though, and its bonkers narrative and absorbing hack 'n' slash action is so engaging that's it's easier than you might think to look past the limitations and enjoy the oodles of content.

Shadowgate on Nintendo Switch is very much the same reboot we saw on PC back in 2014, taking the same mix of puzzles, difficulty and exploration the original was famed for and mixing it up with some enhanced conundrums and much more appealing presentation. Even with the updated visuals, Shadowgate still has a clunky UI, however, the button mapping on Switch does help negate this issue a little. Problems aside, this is a faithful remake that retro fans will lap up, although newer players might find this elder gaming statesman has teeth that bite a little too hard.

Biomutant has a solid core. Unique enemy designs, a wide variety of weapons to use in combat, and flexible, fun combat are all highlights, but an arduous narrator and a monotone story filled with repetitive quests and tasks weigh the experience down. Pair all of this with the unpleasant visuals and low-quality textures, and we have to wonder if the game should have waited for Nintendo’s next console. The actual gameplay experience is great, but instead of feeling like a polished handheld version of the game, Biomutant feels like it has been rushed out the door and left standing on the porch a bit dishevelled.

It's a shame it's so brief (about the length of an actual horror film) so we cannot recommend paying full price, but if you can get it for a budget price it'll make for some frightening fun at your next party.

Mercenaries Blaze: Dawn of the Twin Dragons is the tactics game for fans of tactics games. It has an interesting story and a single-minded focus on just delivering a simple and easy to follow SRPG experience that’s free of any extraneous plot or gameplay elements. This is its greatest strength, but it’s also its greatest weakness. Those of you that need a little more something to go along with the deliberate and measured pace of a tactics game will be left wanting, as Mercenaries Blaze: Dawn of the Twin Dragons is just 'OK' in this regard. We’d give this a recommendation to anybody who’s looking for a short and simple SRPG, but would also say that with the caveat that you manage your expectations before jumping in.

Tallowmere is a solid budget roguelike that offers approachable yet deep combat and a fantastic amount of replayability, at the cost of becoming stale with time due to repetition. Although that core gameplay is rather fun, the visuals and soundtrack are offputting, and fail to adequately present the much better underlying game mechanics. We’d mostly recommend Tallowmere to fans of the roguelike genre, or for those looking for a pretty good game at a low price. There are definitely some blemishes and shortcomings that prevent the experience from being anything memorable, but you’ll probably find enough entertainment here to justify the purchase.

inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories has modest ambitions but mostly achieves them: it tells a small number of unchallenging short stories, set in a 1993 Japanese retail context. Its atmosphere carries it a surprisingly long way, but not far enough to overcome how thin the experience actually is. If you're excited by narutomaki, hanko ink refills and passing business cards with both hands, then consider proceeding to the cash register. If not, you may just want to leave without buying anything.

All in all, Music On: Acoustic Guitar offers a good variety of chords and, unfortunately, a clumsy control scheme.

Ultimately, Wave 2 Of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe doesn't quite knock it out of the park. We know we've been bashing these courses left, right, and centre, but when it comes to Mario Kart, we have pretty high standards, you know. However, none of the tracks on offer are straight-up bad; most of them just feel like "b-side" filler when compared to the main tracks created specifically for Mario Kart 8. There's still a great deal of fun to be had here, particularly when you crank up the difficulty to 200cc. We have to keep reminding ourselves of the bigger picture, too; we've now got sixteen new courses for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and we're not even halfway through yet. We've still got a ways to go.

If you haven’t played a game in the Arkham series yet, you’d be better off starting with the superior Arkham City; diehard fans are sure to get some surface-level enjoyment out of Batman’s latest outing, but disappointment is sure to set in when examined too closely.

Space Ribbon is not without merit – and the closer it inches into F-Zero’s slipstream, the better it gets – but a terribly humdrum beginning, lacklustre implementation of items and a central mechanic which forces you to slow down to speed up makes it a tough proposition. There’s fun to be had if you persevere but considering how the alternatives provide pretty-much instant diversion, this makes you work too hard for it.

Those playing will certainly find some decent moments, especially those of a younger persuasion - that is, if they can maintain their attention through all of those dialogue boxes.

Ultimately, whether you play within the company of others or not, what's on offer is a well-presented but simple and highly repetitive package.

For children dead-set on becoming vets when they grow up, Me & My Furry Patients 3D is worth a try, but for kids who just want cute animal fun, you're better off sticking with Nintendogs.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a game that is brimming with great ideas that are, sadly, poorly executed.

Diehard fans of hidden object games will likely find much to like in City Mysteries.

We'd always rather see something aim high and fall short than settle for another dime-a-dozen action/platforming experience, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed certainly sits closer to the former. A Heartful of Games has made some noble swings here and some of them pay off - heck, nobody expected the Persona mission structure in this TMNT game. Unfortunately, all this ambition is overshadowed by performance issues that make even its most approachable elements feel like a chore. It's a fine welcome for younger fans keen to kick some shell after watching Mutant Mayhem, but this joint requires some serious scrubbing if it is to live up to its big-screen counterpart.

Venture Kid is the sort of game that understands how blatantly it borrows from previous genre luminaries yet makes no effort at even attempting to surpass them; this is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ sort of experience. Bearing that in mind, it’s inevitably the kind of game that you’ll spend a few hours on, think “Well, that was… fun”, then move on and never return to it. Still, it does what it sets out to do – copying the Mega Man formula – and, when viewed as the sum of its parts, it does a reasonable job. If you’ve played all the Mega Man games to death and simply must have more, you could do a lot worse than playing through Venture Kid. If you don’t fall in this camp but are still looking to scratch that retro action platformer itch, then we’d suggest you pick up one of the numerous Mega Man collections already available on the eShop instead. Why play the imitation when you can ha ve the original?

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion feels like a return to the old days of licensed video games. The developers took a classic genre in the turn-based RPG, boiled it down to its core mechanics, and plastered the Adventure Time setting and characters onto it with far too few original ideas. Even though it feels like a faithful recreation of the show’s personality and charm thanks to the original cast and solid writing, the uninspired gameplay drags down any goodwill it builds between encounters.

Completely average in every way. It has a few control related quirks that certainly rub us the wrong way, but overall the game's biggest crime is that it doesn't attempt to provide much of an experience at all.

Cutie Pets Pick Berries will not cure your fever for muscular wildlife, but it will give players a fun little diversion for a little while and some fun Miiverse stamps to use.

Big-budget video games can sometimes seem like faceless products of giant corporations, but when it comes to indie titles there's much more personal accountability.

If you're absolutely dying for a game of skee-ball, this may tide you over until you're able to get to an arcade and play the real thing.

What we have here remains a fine collection of games and an interesting demonstration of the first decade of the Kingdom Hearts series. If you have a reliable enough internet connection, this is almost as good a way to play Kingdom Hearts as any other. If you don't, absolutely leave it on the digital shelf. We'd like to score Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD ReMix on the assumption that you can run it, but that's not necessarily an accurate representation of what many people's experience is going to be, and our experience — with robust and rapid internet — was patchy. If you have any other way at all of playing these games, we recommend you do so. Ultimately, this is a great package delivered in the worst possible way.

Animus: Harbinger is a good idea; a boss-rush-style Dark Souls mobile game that could have been a perfect fit for the Switch if its combat, levels and enemies had received a higher level of polish. As it is, for the budget price, massive fans of FromSoftware's brand of action may find some enjoyment here, but overall the stuttering performance, unreliable hitboxes, bland levels and shoddy AI all add up to make this one a pretty hard recommendation for anyone else.

There’s no escaping the fact that Strike Suit Zero is a let-down, despite the promise of this enhanced edition. The Director’s Cut has fixed issues with checkpointing and, in terms of content, is certainly a generous package on Switch, but the game never escapes the fact that its central conceit isn’t satisfactorily delivered upon. With better mech controls and some more time and care put into delivering more varied missions this could have been a great little space combat game, but as it stands it’s hard to recommend to anyone other than diehard space jockeys.

Ice Cream Rider Is far from being a terrible game, but several alarm bells ring when you get down to playing it. We can't recommend you give this a spin unless you are a fan of the source material or accept its shortcomings as part of the budget price point.

You need to have a high frustration level if you are going to play this game. This is the type of game where the races are usually close and the chance to win or lose it all at the end is almost always a possibility. While this can be fun when it works your way, it is incredibly frustrating to be on the losing end.

Ah! Heaven isn’t a bad game, but its simplicity tends to hinder the overall quality. It’s very short, easy – save for a few dicey jumps – and holds little replay value. If it were a longer game or if there was a bit more variety in the provided gameplay, then this one would definitely be worth playing. As it is though, it’s difficult to recommend a game that is this far from heavenly.

There are a few changes to the football formula, but SNK's arcade version of the sport can still provide entertainment. Caravan mode gives you a different way to play, though it lacks the replayability offered by a shooter with that mode. The regular arcade mode doesn't give players much of a reason to return once the cup has been won; a lack of options and teams limiting the game's appeal. The quick-play nature brought about by that lack of options works well for two-player matches however, and if you are looking for something simple and fun to play to play with a friend, then Super Sidekicks can provide a quick footie fix.

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow is a bit ho-hum. The majority of its quests feel inconsequential and the battles normally see you scampering away as if the former half of the fight or flight reaction never existed.

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a charming platform-puzzler with a captivating fairytale aesthetic that can't help but draw you in. Unfortunately, things take a dark turn thanks to clunky mechanics and uninspired level design. The lore is fantastic and the presentation remarkable, but ultimately, it's hard to come away from this game feeling anything but disappointed.

Unless you’re a die-hard fan of the original or the TRPG genre in general, you’re probably safe to give this one a miss or just lower the difficulty of the combat to enjoy the story. Despite the strengths of the setting and the characters, the gameplay becomes more frustrating than fun and won’t keep most players engaged past the first few hours. It’s a shame because there is a brilliance to telling the same story from two opposing points of view, but that gets buried beneath poorly implemented mechanics. Unfortunately, modern visuals and sound can't salvage gameplay here that feels too random to be satisfying.

Rose & Camellia Collection gets away with a lot of its technical imperfections simply because of the strength of its concept and its solid presentation. The music and art style will keep you interested for at least a few hours – which is all it will take to complete the story mode. However, the bizarre anime logic can’t distract you from the frequent loading screens or the frustratingly imprecise controls. This one is worth picking up, but only if you catch it on a good sale.

Given its advanced age and the fact that SNK released so many sequels and other fighters, it should come as no great surprise to learn that Fatal Fury hasn't aged all that gracefully. The big, bold sprites still look great but the animation is poor, and the fact that you can only play as three characters drastically curtails the game's long-term appeal. SNK would refine the series as the years went on, culminating in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, perhaps one of the finest one-on-one fighting games in existence. Fatal Fury is therefore interesting as a historical piece or purely for nostalgia, but newcomers should probably avoid it and pick a more worthy example of the genre.

A greedy price tag, poor performance and an incredibly short campaign make Goosebumps: Dead of Night more likely to be dead on arrival. It's a shame, because it's a well-constructed and entertaining lite survival horror adventure that's probably perfect for kids. Even then, we'd recommend either waiting for a deep, deep sale, or simply renting the excellent 2015 movie. There's a lot to like here, but unfortunately, it's buried under a lot of ugliness. Much like, say... a scary ghoul! Wooooo! Or something.

There’s a surprisingly good game waiting inside Sky Ride, ready to burst out and consume all your free time. It never quite manages to get there though, and its woefully undercooked and unfinished feel makes it all the more frustrating that, given more development time, it could actually have been a bit of a hidden gem. Instead, it’s a weird one-trick pony that may keep your interest for a while but quickly gets repetitive.