What's frustrating about Toby: The Secret Mine is that it feels like it's actually trying to offer more than the sum of its parts, but just doesn't quite pull it off. It feels too bogged down in its inspirations to present any exciting ideas of its own, and while it's visually stunning at times, even this apes off superior titles that came before. Some challenging platforming and decent puzzles make it one to consider if you're looking to give your Wii U one last Nindie hurrah, but otherwise we'd recommend waiting on a digital sale before diving into this dark adventure.

In trying to incorporate 3D environments and ideas from the Wii U title, Dimps has rather tied Sonic's red boots together, causing him to often stumble and fall.

If you’re a die-hard fan of the studio, then perhaps Code Shifter is worth a look if you find it on sale someday. Otherwise, there isn’t much to see here.

Taken on its own merits, Goooooal is a decent digital approximation of a specific tabletop toy.

If you’re desperately on the hunt for the next Enter The Gungeon then give this one a pass, as there’s simply not enough depth or variety to maintain interest past an hour. The Switch iteration is desperately lacking the online functionality, which ultimately results in a stripped-down version of an already lacking title.

Metal Slug Attack Reloaded removes some of the worst bits of the original mobile game’s mechanics, but the scaled-back roster and brutal difficulty spikes highlight the excessive grinding needed to make these kinds of games profitable and will probably fail to satisfy any but the most hardcore fans of the original. For better or worse, this feels exactly like a mobile game that has been ported to the Switch, warts and all.

Electronic Keyboard is an interesting curiosity, but not something worth sticking with when there are better options on the platform.

All told, Tiny Hands Adventure manages to provide an okay platforming experience, but not one that we’d particularly recommend you jump for. The current price puts it in the same ballpark as plenty of other much more polished platformers on the eShop, and considering the forgettable presentation and uneven level design, there’s not much here that’s worth your time. You could do much worse than Tiny Hands Adventure, but you could also do much, much better - especially on Switch.

When everything comes together, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is definitely far from the worst witch – the premise is pleasant, the visuals and art are cute, and short runtime means there’s no fat that needs trimming. But it’s almost completely unmemorable at every turn. Delivering parcels as a witch should be fun, but lacklustre characters and too much back-and-forth make this delivery service simply adequate.

Fans of the genre who enjoyed City Mysteries will find a safe pickup here, but others might find more interest perusing old issues of National Geographic.

SKEASY is not going to keep many players' attentions for extended play periods at a time - its gameplay is as simple as simple gets. Some who are looking for an uncomplicated few-minute filler or a way to just chill a bit, however, might find the powder to their liking.

If we were tallying solely based on the content of the package, it would do well. If price isn’t an issue and you didn’t purchase the previous release already, you can add three digits to the scoreline, as this is certainly the superior of the two collections. But our primary job as reviewers is to provide information that helps you decide on how to spend your disposable income - income you’ve no doubt worked very hard to accrue. Since the entire release structure and its exploitative nature is so distasteful, however, we feel genuinely loathed to award a lofty score that indicates glowing praise.

Though its expressive fix-'em-up modules and its detailed manual made us want to love the game, we left Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop feeling frustrated, having been beaten down repeatedly by punishing, sadistic mechanics and unfriendly controls. It's not a great sign when you come away from a roguelite not thinking "One more go," but rather, "Please, no more."

Invasion of the Alien Blobs! isn't a bad game, but it's pretty much the textbook example of a limited gaming experience. If tapping coloured circles is enough for you - as there's really nothing else here - then it may be a fun time-waster. But if you're looking for anything more than that - including the basic ability to resume your game where you left off - you're headed for disappointment.

Inazuma Eleven Strikers has some undeniable strengths, specifically when two or more players gather with the express intention of enjoying some mindless fun. Kids and big kids alike will get a kick from the cheerful visuals and bombastic special moves, making it a game of football as imagined by hyperactive five-year-olds. The charm struggles to last, however, with older gamers likely to become more irritated than excited as the hours drift by. Younger gamers may have more patience and enjoy it for longer; it really depends how much you like tornado shots and giant god-like goalkeeping hands, over and over again.

Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris takes forever to get moving. By the time the training wheels come off, players will likely have switched off in frustration. Pacing is a big issue for the first half of the game, with hours spent in unskippable cutscenes or repetitive tutorials before the best features become available. There is a decent game locked away behind the multiple missteps and technical issues, and if you've got the requisite patience and high regard for the source material, there are things to like — most notably the smooth, engaging combat. The problem is that getting to it feels like work rather than play.

Many will see the score at the bottom of this review and immediately write off Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. However, there is something genuinely brilliant buried deep inside this Switch release, beneath the lingering issues with pacing and narrative design as well as the myriad painful “enhancements” Nightdive Studios has dumped on top. To cut through all that, you will need a great love for Blade Runner and cyberpunk, saintly patience, a walkthrough on hand, a strict requirement to play on console rather than PC, and a pair of rose-tinted glasses. If you have all those things then you may still see life in this game’s eyes, but we don’t need a Voigt-Kampff machine to tell this version from the real thing.

We suspect this game was rolled out with a minimum staff and development time so as to maximize profits in the tradition of the worst sort of licensed games. But in spite of all of that, with simple mechanics and classic board game style play, it can become quite addictive.

In single and two-player Battle Mode, Lego Battles: Ninjago provides a simple, approachable RTS that can make for a fun, uncomplicated and challenging experience. However, the main adventure can be tedious and disappointing, level design is lacklustre and warrior classes lack enough variety to make for a rich and subtle strategic experience.

In trying to enhance such an archaic video game experience, Bigben Interactive has merely formed a glossy patina on what is essentially an outdated video game experience, and despite its decent visuals and modern additions, this does little to break the mould; it finds itself lost in an ever-growing sea of Breakout clones.

Overall this is a decent release, but its flaws hold back the fun seen in its console-based big brother.

While simple, easy to pick up and fun, this game never feels above average. It's just too generic and limited, and the steep difficulty slope in Match Machine mode further quashes its potential.

Has-Been Heroes is a game that is full of great ideas but gets dragged down by poor execution. The way it combines RPG and roguelike elements with basic tower defense gameplay has so much potential that it unfortunately can't live up to in the face of imbalanced difficulty curves and unwieldy controls. It feels much more like a proof of concept that, with time and updates, could some day lead to a great adventure.

The bright, flashing lights - and admittedly catchy thumping club music - coupled with an eye-watering amount of modes and game/bot customisation isn’t quite enough to dress up what essentially feels like a promising idea that’s vastly undercooked. A little more time in the oven - and with a more appetising and interesting main course - and Disco Dodgeball could have been a much stronger option on the small, but rapidly growing menu of online-focused games for Switch.

The Wii U version of Sniper Elite V2 is really just a bad port that we can't recommend to anyone who has access to literally any other version of the game.

Good times are buried within Edge of Time but it feels a bit too rushed and incomplete to swing through with a smile, and the 3DS version's technical deficiencies don't help unearthing the fun at all.

The mix of gameplay styles works fine, but the game is quite simple with neither style standing out among examples of each genre. It's a tough game with the limited range of your weapon and the lack of continues being the biggest hurdles to completion, although successfully speeding through a section is very satisfying. It can entertain and the usual online leaderboards add some replay value as you take on the world, but Arcade Archives: Heroic Episode is unlikely to be a game often played on your Switch with so many retro goodies already available on the eShop.

A barbed look at today's society that lacks an end-product of sorts, Mosaic is a short experience that seems content with telling us what's wrong with our lives without really going any further than that. There's a vital message trapped within the game somewhere, but it never quite gets out, and the experience ends up being depressing rather than entertaining. That might have been what the developer was going for, but ultimately, it doesn't make for a particularly interesting video game.

Once a technical marvel, Zero Tolerance Collection is now severely dated. Fans who live to relive days gone by might get a kick from diving back into the Planet Defense Corps facility, and the new Underground set of levels is a nice, if limited, bonus extra. But tweaks to provide an updated graphics option, improved frame rates, audio tracks, and true button remapping would have been greatly encouraging for existing fans and newcomers alike. As it is, this collection is largely just a ROM set thrown into a lacklustre zip file, with a frustrating level of non-effort.

When all is said and done, Paul's Monster Adventure is not a bad game, but it is insanely short and does absolutely nothing significant for the player.

Nothing more than an average, overpriced WiiWare offering. It certainly has a few good ideas up its sleeve, but due to the pitiful controls the positive aspects are pushed to the background. It is a shame to see an otherwise enjoyable game ruined by an awful control scheme; even more so when you consider that this issue could have been solved by adding other interface options, such as support for the Nunchuk or Classic Controller.

Devil's Third is tricky to recommend, ultimately. There's undoubted fun to be had online, but at the same time this is an action game that sells Wii U gamers short. It's packed with good intentions and ambition, but Valhalla Game Studios was unable to execute its vision well enough. The devil is in the detail, and that's the problem.

WRITHE is a tiny little budget blaster that nails its old-school aesthetic, is refreshingly straightforward in what it attempts to achieve and has a genuinely fun sci-fi setup. However, scrappy enemy AI that feels badly judged and, more often than not, just straight-up unfair holds the whole thing back, resulting in a shooter that lacks balance and never manages to find itself in the addictive groove it needs to in order to encourage players to stick with its fiendishly difficult combat.

If you find Ecco the Dolphin a bit dull, Hungry Shark World is an ideal antidote – what it lacks in finesse it makes up for with vicious energy. The gated content is doled out a little slowly, but the base gameplay is fast and satisfying, if a little repetitive. However, it's the interminable loading screens that truly destroy the pace and hamper the arcade-style fun, making this one hard to recommend.

It is difficult to recommend this game against a stable of outright fantastic platformers already available on the Wii U, at various price points on the eShop, but patient players looking for something new might find a satisfying game beneath the lack of polish.

Unless you’re a fan of hidden object games, there’s little to be found at Ravenhearst Manor that will draw you in to the genre. Being brutally honest, even if you are a fan of this type of game, this entry in the Mystery Case Files series contains more than its fair share of issues and well-intentioned, yet poorly thought out sections to push it to the top of the genre’s tree.

Whilst the number of games implies a lot of bang for your buck, their limited duration and simplistic nature might limit long-term appeal and we think a "less is more" approach, featuring fewer games with deeper play mechanics and goals would have been a better development route.

The good points of Mugen Souls Z are certainly there, but it does its best to keep them from you for entirely too long. With a tutorial that drags on for hours, a frustratingly repetitive plot, and walls of dialogue that feel endless, only the most dedicated fan will have the patience to enjoy the game. Unless you love grinding and crafting more than plot, this is probably one you should avoid.

NBA 2K24 is less a continuation of what made the series good on Switch and more a downgrade of what has come before it. Even with how smoothly this one plays on the console, with some clean animations and a sprinkling of improvements to MyTeam being the real MVPs, all of this is overshadowed by just how watered-down this year's entry feels. With none of the new game modes making the jump to Switch apart from the disappointing Mamba Moments, a severely lessened MyCareer and a model that continues to be plagued by microtransactions and long load times, the 2K franchise on Switch has never needed more of a boost. If you are after a basketball game on the go, last year's offering is a much better option.

Lacking the bells and whistles of other titles, Star Force provides basic shooting action. With a good variety of enemies (and their attacks) to contend with it can still provide some entertainment, but the difficulty mostly feels annoying, rather than providing an enjoyable challenge. The audio can prove to be a further irritant and although Arcade Archives Star Force can be fun at times, it's unlikely to offer long-term appeal especially with so many high-quality shooters already on Switch.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a perfectly enjoyable narrative adventure, but one which we’d strongly suggest you play elsewhere unless Switch is your only means. Timeline-hopping antics, a compelling murder mystery, and a cosy atmosphere all work strongly in this one’s favour, but the Switch’s hardware limitations lead to an experience that feels notably blunted due to the various visual cuts that had to be made to fit this one on the humble handheld. The story itself is a fine adventure that fans (especially of the first entry) may find worthwhile, but the value proposition on Switch makes it harder to justify that $50 price tag. We wouldn’t say to outright avoid the Switch version, but we’d suggest you wait for a deep sale before diving in.

There’s a decent core game here, but the graphical issues of the first game are still intact and frustrating, and the save system might drag things down depending on how and where you tend to play.

There is a good game in Paper Cut Mansion, but it would need at least a year polishing and refining what's here to make it worthwhile. As it is, the interesting concept and excellent art direction can’t make up for shallow gameplay and clunky mechanics. Nothing in this game is terrible, but there are far better roguelites out there to spend your time and money on.

Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World was clearly once an incredibly daring visual novel, but some of that sense of mystery is done a disservice when revisiting the concept via this remake. Games like Steins;Gate or the Danganronpa series have since eclipsed it. That said, there’s nothing as expansive or daring as Yu-No’s branching timeline system, which still comes across as impressive even today. Despite all of its archaic design elements, cringeworthy perverted dialogue and now-bland characters, you can’t refute the fact that the modern visual novel genre would simply not exist without Yu-No. It's just a shame that this remake feels like it has lost some of the soul of its original release, with nothing but bland character designs to refresh it for a modern audience.

With a patch or two, this one could be worth investigating, but for now, maybe stick to other platforms.

We're not sure where things went wrong, but Mighty No. 9's finished product is just a "mega" disappointment.

The driving and shooting are both unsatisfying, the mission structures lack variety and the writing shows off every negative stereotype under the sun.

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.