It's hard to fault PENTAPUZZLE on a functional level — everything you need to have a mildly amusing time is present and accounted for. With that said, we'd caution you to think hard before spending the launch price of $4.49 on something this middling; there are other options that offer similar experiences for very little, and some of them with a lot more content.

Redeemer: Enhanced Edition is something of a misnomer. Yes, it’s the same two-year-old top-down brawler/twin-stick shooter, but there’s very little that’s been enhanced here. Local co-op is technically a new feature for the game but considering its woeful performance on Switch that’s not much of an addition. There’s an attempt to divide skills between two different paths, but with such a barebones approach to stealth, you’ll often just run in, pull limbs off and start dealing death loudly. If these issues can be addressed then those looking for Mortal Kombat-levels of gore will slake their thirst for blood, but until then, its performance remains as battered as your unfortunate enemies.

Touken Ranbu Warriors is a game best suited for players with little experience with the Dynasty Warriors series in general. If this is meant to appeal primarily to fans of the free-to-play games – with far lower expectations when it comes to action games – as a great big slice of Touken Danshi fan service, this will be a great addition to their collection. For players less versed in the world of Touken Ranbu, this is a much harder sell, offering a rote, repetitive game loop that does little to slake your thirst for a more meaningful, evolving game experience. This criticism could arguably apply to all of the Warriors games, but where the bigger license-based games add to the formula, Touken Ranbu Warriors feels like a distillation. In a lot of ways and for certain audiences this is perfectly fine. By this point in time, the Dynasty Warriors machine is a well-oiled, refined and polite product; the video game equivalent of a Honda Civic. But even with a well-loved product as reliable as that, there comes a point when it's just time to get with the times.

Apex Legends on Switch delivers the full-fat Battle Royale experience we know and love in a heavily compromised state. There's still fun to be had here if you can lower your expectations but, over time, the massive graphical downgrade and niggling framerate and performance issues begin to grate. If you've got no other choice but to play on Switch we'd recommend diving in and seeing how you fare before splashing any cash on paid versions or battle passes but, overall, this is a game that is best experienced on other platforms – at least until Panic Button can steady the ship somewhat with future updates.

911 Operator is a fun way to pass the time and its realistic depictions of how to use the emergency services make it all the more commendable. It is, however, repetitive and may not be picked up again after an initial play-through.

Avatar isn't a bad game, it just rarely rises above the average, despite borrowing heavily from some superb games.

Airoheart is a passable game, but hardly one we would recommend you rush out to buy unless you simply cannot get enough of the 2D Zelda formula. It follows A Link to the Past's template so closely that it could never be classed as 'bad', but in a crowded market of homages, tributes, and variations on the theme, it does very little to stand out. We would suggest you pick this up only after you’ve played through A Link to the Past, the Link’s Awakening remake, and both the Blossom Tales games, and you still don’t feel you’ve gotten enough of that specific brand of top-down gameplay. Airoheart provides an adequate adventure, and for $40 at the time of writing, we simply expect more.

With a slick aesthetic, some great synthwave tunes, and intense cybercycling through dilapidated space tubes, Gripper gets a lot right and we enjoyed those parts of it. We can forgive repetitive voice acting, but the other half of the game — the arena boss battles — is egregiously frustrating. The main gripping mechanic fails to work far too often with so much happening on screen, leading to a difficulty level that requires grudging patience rather than player skill. Thus, by the end of the game, our patience for this sci-fi mashup of genres had run out.

If you've got enough patience you'll probably be able to mine for the diamonds in the rough - but the easily frustrated should steer far clear.

The Sega Ages version of Puyo Puyo does the best it can with the source material it has, but that offered fairly slim pickings in the first place. A few optional tweaks to the controls make it a little less frustrating to play, but the reality is that compared to other Sega Ages offerings this has probably had the least work put into it. Puyo Puyo devotees will want it because it’s where the series all began, but everyone else should look into alternatives if they want to keep coming back for another one of those blob-dropping feats.

Deer Hunting King isn’t a broken game, but it does feel a lot like a stripped-down version of the 3DS eShop hunting sims that came before it. The missions add a much-appreciated sense of purpose, though most of them are recycled over and over again making for a distinct lack of variety. If you’re looking for a new 3DS hunting experience, this one might hold you over for the time being, but bigger and better releases are sure to be just over the horizon.

The fast-paced Color-Cade and some of the more complex later levels of Story Mode are quite entertaining, but the lack of lives in the game's main section makes the majority of its stages an extremely tedious affair. Those with the patience to tunnel deep enough will find an enjoyable experience, but overall, this gem is definitely a flawed one.

AeternoBlade isn't a bad game, it's just bland and occasionally frustrating.

We can’t recommend you purchase Shinorubi over other games in the genre, but, in handheld mode, there’s thankfully still something for diehard fans to play for, if only out of curiosity.

Mystery Murders: Jack the Ripper isn’t a particularly bad game, it’s just repetitive, unfocused – and if we’re being honest – somewhat mediocre. It truly does feel like a budget game that would have been released during the 90’s era of PC gaming. Fans of the genre will probably find some enjoyment here but it would be realistic not to expect anything all that memorable. Weak story delivery and mediocre gameplay elements make Jack a dull boy.

Embr has the potential to be a good time, a slapstick bit of carnage with friends that provides a decent amount of missions to blast through and plenty of unlockables and variations on modes to keep you and your party of first responders busy. However, on Switch this potential goes almost entirely unrealised as the online component of the game is a bust. Get a few Switch-owning friends to set up a match and you may find some fun here but without crossplay, and factoring in a few other gameplay irritations, this one is quite hard to recommend on Nintendo's console.

Headsnatchers is a cool premise let down by really poor controls. The multiplayer modes are pretty decent as a whole, with some of the more simplistic objectives providing the most frantic fun, for a little while. On the flip side, if you enjoy single-player experiences, avoid this one at all costs, because the one solo mode available is an absolute chore to play thanks to wonky movement and awful platforming mechanics.

If you find the prospect of dragons fighting each other intriguing and you have money to blow, then it might be worth looking into this title, even though it's a bit of a steep gamble at 800 DSi Points.

We can't pretend this isn't a disappointment. After promises of updates and improvements to this classic title, what we've got is something that we'd honestly not recommend to either prospective new fans or enthusiasts of the original Alex Kidd. We're inclined to think this may have been something of a rushed release, but that's pure speculation based on some of the more lax features (there's a lot of new dialogue but almost all of it is awkwardly written, with typos and errors). Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is not horrible by any means, and you might have fun with it until you run up against its irritating issues — unless you use infinite lives, in which case you'll finish the game in two hours, tops. If this was supposed to be Alex Kidd's big comeback, we're sad to say that we don't think we'll be seeing that Alex Kidd: High-Tech World remake any time soon.

Run Run and Die may look deceptively cute, but with a title like that we suppose we've only got ourselves to blame for underestimating its difficulty.

WRC Generations marks the end of a series that has never really hit cruising speed on Switch. Like its predecessors, its look and feel are subpar and while it has a lot of content, it's a struggle to enjoy it fully given how many compromises you have to make. After a lot of time spent with it, you’ll finally start to see results, but this is a game that perhaps requires too much compromise on the player’s part to appeal to anyone but the most ardent rally fans.

Perhaps Nikoli is too pleased with its hand-crafted puzzles to mechanise them with video game conventions, but lacking the will to really embrace its new medium ultimately will keep these puzzle packages from hitting their potential. Slitherlink by Nikoli suffers from the same indifference as previous - and likely future - releases, making it a tough sell for someone looking for more than just paper puzzles.

Europa doesn’t ask much of you, but left us asking lots of questions. The story feels half-baked, the controls are clunky, and we’re still unclear on the objective. The beautiful backdrop is its best feature, and it’s very relaxing to play in parts. It’s hard to recommend this game because there’s nothing it does terribly, but there’s nothing it does terribly well either. Every element present here can be found elsewhere, and better – with no need to travel to a moon of Jupiter.

My Time at Sandrock is a decent new entry in the farm sim genre, though not one that we’d say you need to play. To its credit, its mixture of open-ended farming, crafting, socializing, and questing is compelling and could easily drive dozens of hours of gameplay if it gets its hooks in you. However, everything My Time at Sandrock does has been done elsewhere, and better. Couple this with the mess of technical problems at launch, and you’ve got a game that has its draws but does very little to demonstrate that it’s worthy of your attention. If you’ve already started and finished several farms across the likes of Stardew Valley, Harvestella, and Story of Seasons, and are looking for something new — and you're not too bothered by bland presentation and technical hiccups — then My Time at Sandrock could be a decent way to keep working the land. That said, we’d recommend you wait for a deep sale, ideally several months from now once time proves whether those patches ever come.

All in all, Akihabara is a fun blend of genres that uses its Tetris-inspired roots to produce some fine puzzling. However, the lack of modes, repetitive gameplay, and poor presentation make this one for the more hardcore puzzle fans alone.

NORTH is not a video game, per se, at least not in the traditional sense. It is an interactive piece of electronic art one can choose to indulge in order to better understand the plight of refuges. As such the messages might escape those who are too young to understand the real-life parallels or those who are too old and with prejudice too care. If you like cyberpunk science fiction and don't mind experiencing simulated oppression, give this a shot. There is certainly nothing quite like it on the eShop and for the asking price and a mere moment of your time will give you modern society conundrums that will haunt you for years.

Playing Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff is a great way to introduce young gamers to the decidedly difficult Metroidvania sub-genre of platformers, but anyone looking for a challenging or fulfilling experience will be sorely disappointed.

Bugsnax is a game that is brimming with potential, but struggles in actual execution. Capturing hundreds of adorable snack-themed creatures sounds like such a great idea, but the lack of memorable characters, a frustrating control scheme, repetitive gameplay and numerous technical and design problems, particularly on Switch, makes for a somewhat lukewarm experience. There is certainly fun to be had here, but once you’ve played for a few hours, the magic fades and you’re left with a disappointing game that doesn’t live up to expectations.