An easily accessible little oddity with nearly unlimited appeal. It serves as a classic example of old school game design enhanced by the Wiimote’s motion controls.

The seeming futility of combat is balanced by ingeniously designed battles, action sequences, puzzle and platforming elements. The game is never difficult enough to alienate its mostly young target audience, nor does it ever feel overly simplistic, and as with all LEGO games it's full of humour and personality.

Psycho Pigs remains an arcade game despite its makeover, and is best played in short and frantic bursts. It is a good example of a simple and fast-paced game to play without too much commitment; this is certainly a reasonable option for quickfire fun.

Deadly Premonition Origins is chock-full of major issues that in any other series would be reason enough to be cautious of its upcoming sequel. Despite this, the characters and the world of Greenvale are more than enough to make you forgive its fundamental technical flaws, as you can’t help but fall for an absurdly fun narrative and a protagonist that keeps you invested throughout. You may play the game and utterly hate it, but we'd advise you at least give it a chance. It's such a strange and captivating experience that we wager many of you will become lifelong fans regardless of its myriad problems.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II does a solid job of building on the foundation of its predecessor, capitalizing on engaging combat, player-driven storytelling, and deep character-building systems to make for a satisfying and very replayable RPG. The downsides of this Switch port are that it’s rather buggy in its launch state and the game is often content to simply repeat the ideas that made its predecessor successful without adding to them in any notable way. We've got hopes that post-launch improvements will come alongside the upcoming (and free) Sith Lord Restored Content DLC — a very welcome addition that will really complete this package. Despite its faults, we’d still give KOTOR II a strong recommendation, though we’d suggest you play the original game first and then move on to this one if you still want more.

If you need something you can play for hours at a time, however, your best bet is to ignore the in-game shop altogether; take the money you'd spend on an afternoon's worth of Jewels, put it towards Pokémon Battle Trozei instead, and let the endless supply of Poké-puzzles tide you over between Shuffles.

While its runtime is noticeably short for a JRPG of this style – especially when compared to the classics it so closely resembles – Shadows of Adam is still a really enjoyable experience while it lasts. The constant topping up of your AP makes every battle less challenging than other similar games in the genre, but it does give you far more options to be creative in the midst of combat. With a strong menagerie of monsters to battle, a really catchy soundtrack of chiptunes and a set of funny if not wholly memorable characters, this bite-sized adventure is a perfect fit for Nintendo Switch and the legacy of the SNES.

If you’re looking for an affordable and fun game to pull out during a party, then Spin The Bottle: Bumpie’s Party will definitely provide a great deal of laughter and fun.

If you like Fallout Shelter and you want something with a few less smiles and a few more painful deaths, Sheltered will tickle that morbid itch. Managing its multitude of interconnected systems requires a deft touch, and while its difficulty isn’t for the faint of heart, there’s a real sense of accomplishment in keeping your growing troupe of survivors alive for days on end. While not as effective as other forays into the well-trodden post-apocalypse, as well as being a victim of its own procedural generation at times, there’s still a morbid curiosity to its pixel art survivalism.

Pang Adventures offers a tense and instantly enjoyable ode to a timeless arcade romp, and one that’s bound to engage and reward players who enjoyed it 30 years ago as well as those discovering it for the first time on the eShop. The support for online play is a real bonus, as many puzzle games of this ilk are want to simply plump for couch-play only, but for all its colourful chaos you are left hoping for something a little less predictable. Fans of the original will love it, but they may also lament the fact that more hasn't been done to update this classic series.

Kona is a walking simulator that makes an admirable attempt to increase the usual level of interactivity and player agency. While not all of those attempts pay off, and it suffers from some disappointing technical issues, it remains a highly absorbing and atmospheric adventure-survival experience.

With a greater variety of stages and events, and further expansion to the online leaderboards, this could have been a real classic, but Proun+ is still definitely worth a look for anyone that doesn't mind retrying a course until they get it juuust right.

While it might not share the intricate levels and levelling up mechanics of Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition, Akane balances out its lack of topographical variety with a simple yet challenging set of rolling objectives and an increasingly tough variety of enemies to slay. Death is constant in those first few hours, but persevere and you'll discover a hack 'n' slash survival game that rewards precision, position and quick-thinking. With a brilliant chiptune/synth soundtrack and an art style that wears its influences front and centre, Akane has plenty of charms for those willing to learn to wield its blades – even if it does become slightly samey over time.

A simple game, but that's not a bad thing. The warm, welcome graphics and fantastic music are the perfect frame for a game of this type. It's simple but it's fun, and at the end of the day that's all that really matters.

Goodnight Universe is an enjoyable and quirky narrative adventure game that feels like a satisfying follow-up to the deeply emotional experience of Before Your Eyes. Isaac’s supernatural adventures are as entertaining as they are heartwarming, and though it isn't terribly long, it makes full use of every moment. The only major drawback here is that the Switch 2 doesn’t support the eye and face tracking control style of the PC version at launch, which notably does take away somewhat from the core experience. All the same, I’d suggest you pick up Goodnight Universe if this one has already caught your eye. It provides a memorable narrative journey and is the sort of game that you’ll still be thinking about long after putting it down.

If dealing with frustration to reach high points is an acceptable sacrifice of your gaming time then this is worth strong consideration, but be under no illusions — this isn't the definitive Sonic experience we may have desired.

On an eShop that seems to become more rife with Metroidvanias by the day, Sundered seems to fall somewhere in the middle to front of the pack. Though the repetitiveness means it doesn’t hit the same kind of highs that Dead Cells or Hollow Knight reach, Sundered still manages to offer a delightfully creepy, challenging, and content-rich experience that genre fans are sure to enjoy. If you’re not a fan of procedural generation, stay well away from this one; otherwise, we’d encourage you to give it a shot.

The King’s Bird is a tightly designed precision platformer whose gameplay loop consists of retrying the same frustrating areas until reaching the satisfaction of conquering them. Lather, rinse, repeat. The moments of flying through a dreamscape and sticking the landing are a true delight, at least. For fans of hard-mode platformers, this may arrive as a welcome treat and worth sinking a handful of hours into for that sweet payoff, but those with other tastes may want to keep looking elsewhere.

While it's nice to finally have a "proper" Call of Duty game on a Nintendo console that makes convenient if simple use of the GamePad, it's a shame that Black Ops II isn't one of the series' best.

PixlCross is a simple but entertaining game. If you like Picross you'll instantly know if this one is for you. It doesn't add any innovations to the genre, but the simplicity with which users can create and download new puzzles is great.

It's a great starting place if you've never played a game in the series before - if you want a light-hearted game to enjoy with a group of friends, regardless of their skill level, you could do a lot worse than this.

An ode to the arcade hack-'n'-slash genre, Abathor offers an old-school experience, for better and worse. There’s extra novelty in taking the four-player co-op anywhere with an undocked Switch, simple controls mean that four Joy-Con are more than comfortable, and the gorgeous pixel art looks great on the smaller screen. It sounds great, too, and co-op is huge fun with a few couch-based adventurers.

Dementium II is a decent game with lots of interesting elements combined with a surprising amount of impressive technology, but sadly it just comes together in a very bland, uninspired way.

A lot has changed since Harry's first year at Hogwart's, but we can't say the same for the LEGO series, which employs the same tricks as it has for years with few innovations.

TurtlePop: Journey To Freedom is an interesting first exclusive Switch offering from Zengami, but it's sadly lacking focus. There are several superior individual options of all the genres represented in this game already out in Switch's library, but if you do decide to take a plunge into this adventure, make sure you take someone along for the ride.

Murder on Eridanos is an entertaining final slice of DLC that leans into the narrative elements of Obsidian's action RPG, delivering plenty of well-written dialogue and characters in the process. Yes, the combat is pretty much played out at this stage and the whole thing feels a little bit too linear, but this is still an enjoyable return to one of our favourite action RPGs of the past few years that's well worth picking up if you enjoyed the core campaign.

If you're looking for a quick shot of good quality, classic 2D shooting action at a budget price, then this is a game for you.

I don’t want to let my moan about the final boss overshadow the review. There’s still a fun game here, and a lovely remaster of a well-loved platformer. The things it does well — the personality of Pac-Man, friends, and enemies in the cut scenes, the variety in the gameplay — shine brightly. For those with nostalgia for the original, I’m sure you’ll enjoy your ‘Re-Pac’-aged version. It’s been made with love. For non-fans, however, this is a more difficult purchase to justify. Arguably, the price is a little steep for what’s on offer, and some lingering retro-frustrations in the execution of the 3D platforming and boss fights might sit badly with an audience expecting a game with the finesse of more modern alternatives. Sure, even Donkey Kong Bananza has its share of cheap deaths, but the truth is Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac isn’t in the same league. Short, sweet, prettified, retro, and not for everybody; those are the keywords here.