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.

Linn: Path of Orchards looks and sounds fine, but it's such a banal gameplay experience that we can't recommend it in good conscience. It's surprisingly slick, but said slickness is in service of a game that's simultaneously completely unfair and far too easy. Unclear rules, unpredictable deaths and unacceptable controls make this an easy skip. There's potential here, but it's just too flawed to flourish. A sequel that's built from the ground up for Switch could be something special, but for now, it's a reluctant thumbs-down from us.

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.

As part of a card game compendium, Physical Contact Speed would have at least been a local multiplayer game to distract for a handful of minutes at a time. As it stands, some serviceable yet generic music and a 'fascinating' selection of avatars can't hide what's underneath - a bare bones and uninspired package with laughable localization, rudimentary controls and trudging gameplay that quickly sucks the life out of any 'speed' related fun anyone would have during a match. Fold.

At its best, Tower of Babel has some great auto-running action that will have you flying around the screen at breakneck pace, firing yourself to the top of the speed-running leaderboards. Unfortunately, though, the whole thing is let down by some game-breaking issues and a rather lacklustre aesthetic that maybe answers the question of why there has been so little mention of the game prior to release. A frustrating case of a game that could have been excellent but shoots itself in the foot with its many problems, Tower of Babel is best left for another day.

Even without comparing Super Tennis to the real Super Tennis, the game largely falls flat as a compelling sports title. Once you’ve mastered the gameplay (which you most certainly will after 2 or 3 matches), it becomes incredibly repetitive with little incentive to continue other than to see the cool unlockable costumes. If you’ve recently moved to the Switch from another console and wish to learn the layout of the controller, then this is a great way to do so, but if you’re after an actual tennis game, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the third entry in the Physical Contact series looks like it should probably be the third one that you consider avoiding. The Sudoku puzzles themselves are fine, and you could definitely pass the time by going through them, but why bother; the game has too many faults to make it a definitive Sudoku experience and you could just as easily play the game in real, non-infuriating puzzle books. If you are a Sudoku fiend, excited by the idea of having puzzles on your Switch despite our warnings, then go ahead; everyone else, though – stay away!

Steadfast fans of classic arcade titles might find some enjoyment in the traditional action, but the rest of the package is nothing but a disappointment.

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.

Kakuro by Nikoli is straightforward almost to a fault, and value-neutral novelties like local multiplayer make it difficult to justify its asking price. Considering there is only one other kakuro title on the eShop - the rather excellent and more diverse Telegraph Sudoku & Kakuro - Kakuro by Nikoli is by default a decent next step for more of this type of puzzle. However, if this is your first kakuro rodeo then you're better off grabbing Telegraph's less expensive and more expansive offering.

a snooze from the past. Even with perfectly adequate controls, pretty nice graphics and a four player multiplayer mode, the simplistic, repetitive gameplay and unimaginative challenges deliver little fun, moderate action, and a whole lot of regret.

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.

Blue Manchu delivered the goods with Void Bastards, but this follow-up is a disappointing effort that can't match its predecessor's atmosphere, charm, originality or strategic smarts. Instead, Wild Bastards is a strangely bland affair, melding boring top-down decision-making and dull first-person sections. The game never really picks up the pace or gives you anything surprising to work with. In a genre packed full of bangers, this one is pretty difficult to recommend on any level.

On paper a ninja-themed endless runner that allows you to cut through your enemies and use ninjutsu sounds like lots of fun. Sadly the strange animation, a lack of backgrounds, options and variation in characters mars these ideas. In the face of this as well as some technical issues, Ninja Strike: Dangerous Dash is a title we can't recommend.

Skater Cat's concept of speeding up by grabbing cats which you reward with treats is quite a nice idea, but unfortunately the overall package is fairly dull.

While the famous Windows screensaver had a certain mesmerizing quality to it, Maze Maker does not. The environments are bland, the mazes themselves feel repetitive and the online features, while well thought out, don't seem like they'll ever generate the kind of community they need to make them worthwhile. It's a game of good intentions and deserves credit for implementing level creation and online features, but it gets lost when seeking entertainment value.

Quadcopter Pilot Challenge has a good set of ideas, but many of them are executed with realism that strips away the fun - rather like if Pilotwings opted for a simulation approach to make life too difficult.

Ultimately, Real Boxing 2’s gameplay falls way too short of the standard expected on a console like the Switch. Without the option to use the touch screen, attacking with the analogue stick feels clunky, with no weight behind the attacks. It makes the fights feel boring and a bit of a chore to get through. In addition, while the visuals look perfectly fine on smaller screens, pop your Switch into docked mode and it really highlights how janky some of the models and animations look.

It's entirely possible that one day UFO Interactive will crack the code of a genuinely interesting game, but with a sense of humor about as basic as its mechanics - which is to say incredibly so - Johnny Kung Fu still has a ways to go.

Still, taken totally at face value, this isn't a great game — and regardless of what kind of comment the developer is trying to make, that is surely all that truly matters at the end of the day.

We hear life has some really cool photorealistic visuals and built-in voice chat too.

With a short main game and no multiplayer, Brain Drain is nothing more than a passing, casual experience to be enjoyed on one's lunch break or while waiting for the bus. At home on your Wii the game can still provide some brief amusement for fans of puzzle games, but we suspect you'll find better things to do.

Ultimately, The Hand of Panda is a rhythm game that almost manages to achieve mediocrity.

While JV Games has added some very nice improvements to their original Pong Toss concept, unfortunately it's still very much the same game and one that still doesn't translate well into a video gaming experience.

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.

SpongeBob and company may prevail in the end, but Plankton's already had his true revenge: an uninspired, repetitive game that does nothing with the boundlessly bonkers potential of its legendary license.

If you go into it expecting some platforming action and a storyline you're going to be disappointed. However, if you go into it with an open mind, full of imagination, you'll find a world where you can write the story for yourself and try to discover the meaning of the events in your thoughts.

Bang! gives you the absolute bare minimum and while its presentation is colourful and chirpy the core game mechanics are stale and dated.

Empire of Sin is undoubtedly an excellent idea, a clever meshing together of management sim and turn-based tactical action that's set in a hugely compelling era of Chicago's criminal history. There are some cool mechanics here, too; the well-executed overworld map of the town, the gangster black book with its complex relationships and those tense sit-downs with rival ganglords. However, all of this promise is held back by copious technical problems, game-breaking bugs and management and combat systems that feel half-baked and scrappy. There are more patches and updates planned and we desperately would like to see this one sort itself out but, as things stand, it's virtually impossible to recommend – and it remains to be seen if future updates can bash it into shape.

Let's Create! Pottery suffers from unresponsive controls and uninspired presentation but, more importantly, it also suffers from not being very much fun.

There's certainly nothing wrong with celebrating the past and polishing up classic game concepts for modern consumption, but Double Dragon 4 is a prime example of how not to do a revival - which is ironic when you consider that the WayForward-made Double Dragon Neon did a much better job back in 2012. The use of NES-style graphics isn't a negative in itself, but too little has been done to refine and improve gameplay which, even back in the late '80s, was showing its age against a new breed of slicker and more enjoyable examples of the genre. The co-op focus of the Switch and its Joy-Con controllers does at least mean it's easy to rope in another player for a trip down memory lane, but this is nonetheless a crushing disappointment given the incredible potential of the franchise, and should only be purchased by diehard Billy and Jimmy fans.

Lack of proper instructions, sluggish presentation, and various oversights make Tales to Enjoy! Puss in Boots a mundane experience that really feels like it's short on the care needed to educate and entertain young children.

Fans of the ScaryGirl character may like being able to import pre-made characters, but other than that we suggest sticking with software that's more robust.

What hurts Rorrim the most is the lack of imagination and design ideas on the developer's behalf. A game such as this has a lot of potential, but simply creating level after level isn't always enough. It still feels like an unfinished game due to the basic presentation, and has no allure as a result. Functional - but incomplete.

The experience lacks the qualities of the Nintendo original, and doesn't provide any noteworthy additions to the tried and tested formula.

Even with its bright eyes and squishy smile, we can't recommend this to anyone until it's recalled and patched.

Aenigma Os operates as one would expect a tile-matching game to, but realistically does nothing to set itself apart from the pack. There are many other games available elsewhere that offer this type of experience, and are not half as generic. While there is plenty of content on offer, it should have been condensed into a couple of modes, considering most of them are essentially the same.

We hate to complain too much about a game with such an affordable price, which has the intention of wholesomely entertaining and educating young children, but there are so many other far better options on the market at comparable prices. Tales to Enjoy! Little Red Riding Hood is innocent software, and it’s not exactly broken, but it ultimately isn't of a high enough quality to merit a purchase.

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.

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.

This is a game only young players will likely enjoy on the whole, while others will be left scratching their heads as to how a show with so much personality churned out such a dull game.

While there's nothing drastically wrong with it, Puppies World 3D is still a mixture of niggling flaws, missed opportunities, humdrum presentation and broken promises; the kind of shovelware that has plagued the industry for years, never aspiring to go above and beyond what has already come before it.

Absolute Brickbuster is by no means bad: it controls just fine, and it does everything it promises to do, but unfortunately that isn't much, and it doesn't deliver anything surprising in addition.

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

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.

The 3DS edition of How to Train Your Dragon 2 is less expensive than its Wii U counterpart, but it's still a tall retail price to ask for a muddy, repetitive adventure.

It's a bold move for Natsume to develop a game that strays away from the series' conventions and tries new things, but the overall experience is lacking the polish and charm that the Harvest Moon name has come to represent.

No beating around the mulberry bush with this one: My First Songs is nothing more than a glorified karaoke machine.

Pared-back gameplay options, outdated visuals, and lengthy loads are par for the course for 2K on Switch, but the fact that NBA 2K25 feels like a lessened experience on even last year's disappointing entry is a real turnover for the series. Sound the buzzer and call for a substitution, it’s time we brought ‘Switch 2’ on.

This one is short, shallow, and frankly too easy to keep anyone interested for long.

Word Searcher 4 is basically the same game as its predecessors.

Not even the feel good act of saving puppies can rescue this game, and it doesn't help that the little pups aren't even endearing.

It's a game of Blackjack, no more or less.

While it has its brief moments of fun, Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers is a mediocre side-scrolling beat ‘em up that doesn’t do the genre or its license justice. While its visuals pop, the lack of plot or voice acting - along with a tepid control scheme - make the game feel more like a cheap cash-in and less like a competent gaming experience to all but the most ardent fans of the cheeky stable of Cartoon Network properties.

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.

The Forbidden Arts feels like a game from the early GameCube era, but not a particularly good one. Whilst the dungeons are vast and varied, and the platforming mechanics competent enough, the combat really brings the whole experience to its knees thanks to poor enemy AI and half baked elemental mechanics that make the entire experience feel very repetitive. Add to that the lacklustre graphics and empty overworld, and this is a game that only the most ardent of fantasy enthusiasts will enjoy.

Overall, this probably isn't the brawler you're looking for.

While Mecho Tales looks to be a loving homage at first blush, upon further inspection that it’s actually just aping its inspirations instead of integrating them into something refreshing or new. The presentation lacks personality and charm, the level design is rote and arbitrary and controlling your given protagonist never clicks. Despite the intricate visuals and unusual design, there’s nothing on offer here that is genuinely compelling from a gameplay perspective.

Despite having a year extra to work on its own addition to the genre, Visual Imagination Software’s agricultural offering fails to outdo Farming Simulator at its own game. There are things to like about Professional Farmer: Nintendo Switch Edition – including the more realistic harvest cycles and the deformation of soil when tilling and ploughing a field – but even the presence of a faithful digital pooch isn’t enough to keep this semi-handheld offering from being towed back to the garage from whence it came.

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.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to emulate another game’s success, as long as it’s done effectively. Paper Dolls Original borrows every horror trope under the sun, but fails to implement them in any meaningful way. It’s painfully boring, and considering its price is comparable to other, more accomplished horror games on the eShop, you’d be best off leaving this ghost in its mansion.

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 surprisingly plain 'Adventure' rapidly becomes boring unless you're in it for the sheer intellectual challenge of solving each puzzle.

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.

It’s only 500 Points so you get what you pay for, but we’d almost rather Big Blue Bubble go back to add more content and up the price a few hundred points to give us more reason to play. Useless unlockable dart designs, new games, something. You’re better off spending the money on a cheap dart board or, failing that, a few boxes of sharp pencils to throw at the wall.

While it offers a briefly entertaining alternative to an already impressive selection of first-person shooters on Nintendo Switch, Paranautical Activity soon reveals itself to be as low-fi and forgettable as its appearance on WiI U in 2016. Even with its performance issues, the similar and far superior Immortal Redneck is a far stronger option if you want to explore roguelike dungeons through the prism of an FPS.

The irony is that Aspyr has done a nice job with remastering the visuals in both games and we enjoyed seeing the results. But the reality is that these games often feel old, they're extremely buggy, and the online play is hit-and-miss. This should have been a slam dunk. Instead, playing Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection made us feel sad. If Aspyr can fix the slew of technical issues, this might one day be worth picking up on Switch. Until that happens, though, the Force isn’t with this one.

Rhythm games and zombie slashers both have the potential to be a lot of fun, but their marriage here in Zombie Slayer Diox is one of conflict, and the weaknesses of both genres are far more vividly on display than the strengths.

The final word is that no one should walk into this game expecting anything other than a barebones word search game, and that is exactly what Digital Leisure has provided here.

DYING: Reborn - Nintendo Switch Edition really can’t decide if it wants to be a puzzle-solving escape room title or an unsettling descent into the nightmare of survival horror. In the end, the former takes over and the latter occasionally pops its head up for a half-hearted ‘boo’. With a couple of hours of content per playthrough, its sub-£10/$10 price tag doesn’t quite sting as much as it could, but unless you’re really desperate for a point-and-click distraction and you’ve played everything else on the eShop, this is a room that’s better avoided than escaped.

Anyone who fondly remembers the original Saboteur! will get enough out of this Switch release to scratch a nostalgic itch. Everyone else will be frustrated by its archaic controls, the half-hearted way it offers it graphical filters and the general clunkiness that comes with a 33-year-old Spectrum game. That it costs £6.29 / $8.00 on Switch but only £2.39 on Android and 99p on iOS merely adds insult to irritation.

Quite simply, Helmet is boring and without any real challenge.

As interesting and unique as the visual presentation is, it's still not quite enough to cover up the many gameplay flaws that rear their heads rather frequently throughout the game.

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.

Fans of hidden object games are better off leaving this one at the bottom of the deep blue sea.

Consider Darts Up as a game you’d play with some friends not too keen on taking anything too seriously – much like the pub sport it emulates.

This will probably be held up as anti-intellectual in some way, or part of the crowd who scream every time they see a "walking simulator" (a grossly reductive label), but really, this just isn't good art. Of course that's subjective and sure, maybe you'll be profoundly moved in a way that we didn't experience, but we'd wager it's unlikely. It's a game that seems to coast along and then just... fizzle out with no major revelation or real hook. What's a generous word for that? Meditative. It's meditative. Really meditative. Sort of like... sleeping.

Set in pretty landscapes with a storyline full of theoretical potential, The Deer God had us highly intrigued during the first few moments of the game. Unfortunately, though, this instantly faded away and never returned; the repetitive nature of the core gameplay, which mostly consists of just running to the right over the same platforms, meant that we lost all interest in discovering the answers to its philosophical questions.

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.

As far as lazy rehashes go, this one is at the absolute top of the list.

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.

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.

Harvest Moon: My Little Shop is really good at what it does, and what it does is bring the tedium of working in the food service industry right into your home.

To the uninitiated, it may kill an adequate amount of time due to its familiarity and the Nintendo Switch's local multiplayer-focused hardware, but any redemption 2048 has over its predecessor in terms of actual fun is eradicated due to the general production values and quality of its presentation. While the derivative tile puzzle gameplay is solid if unspectacular, dragging and dropping all of the avatars, skins and menus across from SPEED gives a good idea of the quality on offer in presentation. The merits of the Switch hardware with this format also can't rectify the lack of modes, slapdash interface or general lack of imagination on display - a disappointing title all around.

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.

Spot the Differences: Party! isn’t worth time or money unless you're an enthusiast that adores these kinds of experiences. It performs one trick and one trick only, but that trick isn’t very good in the first place; even for its simplistic genre, it does little to liven up proceedings.

In an age where the majority of us have regular access to electronic devices that handle these same tasks in a far better way, a 3DS application that's below par is a very tough sell.

We really wanted to like psyscrolr; it's a beautiful game with a lot of love put into its presentation and design. Unfortunately, it's impossible to recommend in its current state.

Timothy and the Mysterious Forest is absolutely a case of style over substance. It definitely looks and sounds the part; the developer has gone to clear lengths to emulate the feel of a classic Game Boy game. The problem is that when attempting to emulate the difficulty of a retro adventure title, they’ve gone one step too far and made the game a chore to play thanks to a number of unreliable mechanics and unfair enemy encounters.

It's difficult to review a title like Toon Tanks; it's a serviceable little game that doesn't pretend to offer anything special, and it's hard to fault Petite Games when the price is as low as it is, especially considering other heinously priced recent releases. But unless you really have a hankering for an over-simplistic, old-school, repetitive arcade-style game, Toon Tanks just doesn't stand out enough from the crowd in an increasingly busy market.

Bruiser & Scratch proves that no matter how good a developer's intentions and ideas are when they set out to create a video game, if the end result isn't enjoyable, it's basically all for naught.

Art of Fighting was certainly visually impressive when it arrived in 1992 with large sprites, a good camera system and a (simple) story that works well. Unfortunately the game is quite limited, with only two of the ten characters available in the single player mode. The strong attacks are awkwardly implemented and whilst the spirit gauge could provide an interesting way of playing, it is quickly forgotten about as you move to fight against the CPU's repetitive attacks. There are some good ideas here and a two-player fight can provide a little entertainment, but SNK would produce more successful fighting games after this. Some of them are available on the Switch (for the same price) and would be a better choice than Art of Fighting.

If you're looking for an application that will help you actually organise your life and manage your time, you might want to look elsewhere. While Nintendo Countdown Calendar provides the base for something great, it falls remarkably short of actually being useful.

For the right price and the right audience, Prehistoric Party could be a fine way to pass the afternoon, but aside from the presentation, it's mostly a disappointing experience. The mini-games on offer vary wildly in quality, and even the best of them are derivative and largely forgettable, while the board game frame is slow and uneventful. Younger fans of the movie might very well enjoy the settings, characters, and charming musical score enough to deal with the monotonous gameplay, but uninvested players should head elsewhere for their party game fix.

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.

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.

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.

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.