Games like these may be designed exactly for short bursts of play, but when mission objectives consist of the same requirements, with a dull story that lacks quality sprinkled in between, there's barely any fun to be had.

Lost Ember attempts to be an artistic experience, yet struggles to be an enjoyable game. The story is uninteresting and predictable, the gameplay is boring and sometimes frustrating, and the huge performance issues on Switch makes this game close to unplayable at times. While there is clearly potential here, Lost Ember fails to deliver on nearly every front. There are plenty of other artsy games on Switch to pick up over this one.

A Normal Lost Phone is a tough game to recommend. The concept is intriguing and there’s a genuinely interesting narrative at the center of the experience, but it’s all so fraught by poor execution and mediocre presentation that we can hardly suggest you pick this one up. You could do a whole lot worse for three bucks, but you’re also getting exactly what you pay for and nothing more. If you have some credit leftover in your account from another eShop purchase and feel like distracting yourself with a mildly entertaining adventure game, this one may be worth a look, but you’d best take a pass.

Inkub is a decent game that unfortunately outstretches itself. While tower defense titles live or die by the strengths of whatever flourishes or mechanics they add to the genre, Inkub piles them on indiscriminately and then sinks from the weight.

Although we welcome the presence of new tricks on the DSiWare service, the two presented here aren't really up to scratch.

Try as it does, Bounce & Break never rises above unremarkable and ultimately feels hollow.

As far as word puzzles go, Mega Words is a pretty bland experience. It does what it sets out to do, but it doesn't particularly excel or do anything new or otherwise noteworthy. Hardcore word puzzle fans only need apply.

With the exception of new categories and a colour swap, Word Searcher 3 is literally the exact same thing as Word Searcher 2. If you are absolutely in love with word search puzzles, couldn't get enough of the other Word Searcher games available, and have an extra 500 Points, feel free to purchase this game knowing that its aim is to provide alternate, rather than better, content.

Much like its Wii U counterpart, LEGO Jurassic World for the 3DS has a lot of potential, especially when considering the source material, but fails to deliver on almost every front.

If you're a die-hard fan of Olympic shooting you can give it a try, but we'd suggest choosing any one of a myriad of other games on the Wii featuring target shooting instead.

Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed is a button-mashy, overly simplistic fighter that's aimed at young kids but doesn't even manage to lift its game enough to satisfy a junior audience on any level outside of very basic fan service. There's a serious lack of modes or variety here, especially for the not-insignificant price tag, and what is included is let down by a lazy story mode and some shockingly simple enemy AI. Serious Zoids fans may derive some fleeting pleasure from seeing their favourite characters battle it out, but, for everyone else, this is a mega-hard sell and a fighter that absolutely fades into insignificance when compared to other examples of its genre.

Those looking for a simple yet challenging experience will be happy with this collection and will have over a thousand unforgiving challenges to keep them busy. This quantity, however, won't matter to the majority of players, who will likely get too frustrated to continue after about ten or so.

Putting our opinion on the cynical Ryan phenomenon to one side, the resulting game is nevertheless a slightly below-average kart racer that handles reasonably well but generally underwhelms, from the pitifully small number of tracks to the uninspired, floaty-light weaponry. Give your kids a Mario, Sonic or Crash racer instead; they may be young, but they aren’t stupid.

Mainlining fails to really provide any interesting commentary on its chosen subject matter, revelling instead in caricatures we’ve all experienced a hundred times before; stuff you’ll have seen done better in any Grand Theft Auto game that has parody websites involved. Its gameplay too often degenerates into trial-and-error and lacks any sort of consequences for the player getting things wrong, which renders the whole investigative process pretty much pointless. On Switch these problems are married to a control system which is, in short, terrible, and will likely see you reaching for the off switch long before you’ve reached the end of your investigations.

Blowing up cars is entertaining, but the game somehow manages to fumble this core concept with way too many irritations: dull graphics and repetitive missions and objectives are bad enough, but even they could be overlooked if the game's control scheme wasn't so bad. Transformers: DotM - SFE is over in just about four hours, but after struggling with its cumbersome controls, you may be thankful to say goodbye to this scrapheap.

Looking past the unbalanced difficulty for the player controlling Charla, poor graphics and extremely limited amount of content, there are some fun ideas that work well as a party game. Unfortunately that won't be enough for most and the launch price seems way too steep for a game that doesn't have any real replay value.

Overall Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle feels half-baked.

Beyond its educational value, though, Parking Star 3D is like real-life parking: stressful, tedious, and makes you regret not using public transport instead.

With its simple aspiration to be a digital instrument, Keytari succeeds at what it strives to do, but it's very hard to justify splashing out for an app that does so little.

Kids and kids-at-heart may get a thrill out of seeing dinosaurs kinda-sorta duke it out in 3D, but the game itself fails to offer much beyond its really simple structure and fight mechanics, both of which get old just a little too quick.

There are so many other puzzle games on the 3DS that are far more enjoyable and engaging, so we suggest you look elsewhere unless you really, really like word searches.

There's simply not enough content in The Trash Pack to justify its price, but we will say that the mini-games - forgettable as they are - control well and serve their modest purposes. It's a release that suffers not because it does anything particularly wrong, but because there's almost no reason to recommend it. Die-hard fans of the toy line may enjoy adding this to their collections, but we doubt anybody else will be impressed.

A bit of a let down and feels like a step backwards in terms of gameplay as the game itself is little more than one massive scavenger hunt with most of the storyline progressing through bland, boring cut-scenes.

If you truly miss this type of game it may be for you, but the vast majority of players will be better served saving their hard-earned cash.

Farm Frenzy is a bland time and resource management game with limited content and flawed execution. There are plenty of similar, better options on DSiWare, so try one of those instead or you'll end up udderly disappointed.

There’s an argument to be made here that the low entry price is perhaps reason enough for the experience you’ll be getting with Micro Pico Racers. Ultimately, though, racing games need to be fun, and this really isn’t that fun. It’s a shame, because the game isn’t broken in any way, and actually runs very well for the most part. But the gameplay just isn’t up to scratch, and you’ll be better off leaving this at the pit stop.

Pixel Hunter is a great concept that unfortunately falls flat and fails to deliver. Bland level design, average gameplay, an unmemorable soundtrack and a lack of any interesting narrative or purpose combine to make a game that's likely to be a pass for most 3DS players. If you would like to play an engaging sidescrolling shooter, we highly recommend you check out the great options on the Virtual Console instead.

If you played and enjoyed Glory of Generals and are looking for more, this is exactly that - for everyone else, we'd recommend conscientious objection, or defection to Advance Wars' colourful camp.