Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero delivers a commendable 3D brawler experience even if some visual and performance issues persist. The immense roster is sure to please any Dragon Ball fan, no matter what age or era they entered the franchise. The branching narratives in Episode Battles and the online play are fun staples to the game, and it feels right at home on Switch 2.

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy takes everything good about Gust's 2019 Atelier adventure and further refines it, resulting in the best entry in the long-running franchise to date. This may still be a relatively small-scale, old-fashioned JRPG experience, but it's one that's full of heart, great characters, slick combat and some excellent new ruin-based dungeons. Anyone looking for a relaxed and enchanting JRPG to sink their time into should definitely check this one out.

If you were even half-aware of games news at the end of 2021, you will already be a bit interested in this game. It’s brimming with fun, uniquely committed to co-op gaming, plays solidly and distinctively, and usually discards one cool idea in favour of another before there’s time to get bored. Now-standard graphical compromises have been made for Switch, and the typical perk of playing handheld is questionable for an always-split-screen co-op-only game. Nonetheless, it keeps the frames moving well enough not to undermine its Game-of-the-Year sparkle. It Takes Two and the good old Switch may not be a perfect marriage, but it’s probably worth sticking it out, now that we’re five years in.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is a visually phenomenal upgrade on a PlayStation karting classic, and one that faithfully recreates both its positives (its unique drift boosting system) and its potential irritants (30fps, tricky AI). It does bring a whole new set of issues – mainly lengthy loading times and the fact that playing offline stops you making any progress towards unlocking anything – but while these prevent the game from becoming an absolute must-have, they don’t sour the experience enough to stop us wholeheartedly recommending it regardless.

With a solid new story mode, a greatly improved MyTeam mode and the same high quality of presentation that 2K now brings to the series on Switch, NBA 2K21 is now the new definitive basketball game on the system. The unwanted microtransaction ogre continues to loom over most of the package, ever encouraging you to fork out more cash to accelerate your progress, but as long as you're capable of ignoring this and have the patience to slowly improve your player and team organically, the results will be infinitely more satisfying.

Badland is as dark, brooding, and mysterious as the most sullen teenager, but this seemingly simple game is built on a foundation of ingenious design.

Offering a high degree of freedom and control in not only the creation of a song but in what to do with it once written as well, Rhythm Core Alpha 2 is quite possibly the most complete music package on DSiWare.

Pikmin 1 remains a delightful puzzle adventure that sees Nintendo at its most charming and inventive. Yes, this Switch port is a little bit underwhelming, with just a higher resolution and some new controls to get excited about, but with a core game this good, it's still an experience that comes highly recommended. Over two decades on from its original release, Pikmin's unique brand of magic remains undiminished.

A long lasting and satisfying trivia experience for experienced players and an accessible entry point for those new to the genre awaits those willing to give this series a second chance.

Skylanders Giants is, at its core, a child-friendly dungeon crawler with simplistic smash-everything gameplay, but what elevates it is its understanding of its market. There's plenty of variety to keep kids entertained and loads of things to collect, all wrapped in an appealing package – and the toy aspect is still a stroke of genius, an undeniably cool idea that speaks directly to kids and big kids alike. If you or a younger member of your family is a fan of the series, this could be another expensive Christmas.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure proves an innovative entry into the social sim genre. While borrowing from multiple powerhouse games, it brings a fresh experience that is likely to subvert the expectations of any Animal Crossing expats looking for their next cosy fix.

Cocoon is a fun and addictive puzzler. Its unique mechanics and gameplay had us glued to our screens, and it’s gorgeous to boot. Its lack of story is a minor disappointment, but if you love puzzles and aren't bugged by fast-paced combat, this game will be an easy favourite — even if it flies by all too quickly.

Labo VR Kit is a giant, joyous mess of imagination, creativity and potential. From a value-for-money perspective, the Starter Set is an easy recommendation, and even hardened Labo cynics will likely enjoy the Blaster and trying out the Mario and Zelda VR updates (although those updates aren't enough on their own to warrant a purchase). The Starter Kit offers a great taste of the Labo construction experience and access to most of the pick-up-and-play VR Plaza novelties. If the bug really takes you, of course, it’s easy enough to get the expansion sets. Labo really needs to be explored to be enjoyed – Toy-Con Garage is extremely comprehensive, but isn't the sort of thing you’ll pick up in an afternoon. It’s not without faults, but overall this ‘Nintendo-style solution’ to basic VR is well worth the asking price for anybody with even the tiniest bit of curiosity and brilliantly showcases the versatility of Switch.

You probably already know if you’re going to pick up this game or not; Picross S3 hasn’t changed much from its predecessor and the same will likely be said about the inevitable Picross S4. That being said, we especially enjoyed the introduction of the Color Picross mode here, as it notably builds on the foundation of Picross in interesting and challenging ways, bringing something new to the arguably stale formula. Picross S3 is easily the best entry in the series on the Switch and it's one that we can easily recommend to both fans and newcomers alike. Naturally, those of you that have played the previous games will want to take a minute to ask yourself if you’re down for another few hundred Picross puzzles, but this represents the most bang for your buck in this Switch sub-series yet and stands as an excellent example of how to do a puzzle game right.

Game design this smart and simple is just plain refreshing in a market saturated with so much overcomplicated nonsense. The presentation is also surprisingly good, with major points going to the detailed sound effects.

Flashback on Switch is the definitive edition of a truly special science fiction platform/puzzle solving/shooting video game that already more than proved itself to be a 16-bit classic. If you were too young to play this the first time, this package will give you the best possible way to experience it with current hardware. For veteran gamers, Flashback has lost nothing of what made it special all those years ago. Pass the holocube, please.

Despite some nagging issues that we hope to see corrected for the next time around, it's well worth playing as there's nothing else quite like it on WiiWare.

Compelling to a fault, with a hypnotic and exhilarating central conceit, Grindstone is a tiny bit special. Hopefully, it won't be dismissed by players for being a mobile port, or being mistaken for a "match-three" game akin to Candy Crush – it's not. A full-featured, elegantly designed experience, Capybara's action-puzzle-tactics game is a tiny marvel and we'd strongly recommend it to any and all Switch owners. Ever-so-slight resource exhaustion is the only thing letting it down, but it's easily forgiven when smashing seven shades of shawarma out of creeps is so flipping fun. We say it's time to reverse that well-worn idiom and put your yes to the Grindstone.

Despite a few minor issues, Bloomtown: A Different Story is a game that’ll stick with you long after you put it down. The blend of comforting and creepy is masterful, and the game presents a surprising amount of challenge in places. With everything from boss fights and puzzles to intricate crafting and skill-building, there’s a lot to get excited about here. Bloomtown was clearly made with a lot of love and attention to detail, and it’s the perfect pick for anyone who enjoys rich stories paired with riddles and tricky, turn-based combat.

Both classic Dragon Quest RPG and Minecraft-style building sim, Dragon Quest Builders takes just enough ingredients from each side of the developmental kitchen and gently stirs them into a dish that never manages to overpower either of its core mechanics. If you’ve ever wanted to try Mojang’s ubiquitous hit but found it a little too intimidating in its vagueness, then this is the alternative for you. Fun, empowering and Dragon Quest to a tee; Its combat and camera can be a little erratic, but they never manage to derail your new building adventure.

The ever-expanding Switch eShop has no shortage of excellent platformers under its belt, and while Unruly Heroes may not be the absolute best of the best, this is still one of the finest platformers we’ve played in a long time. Stunningly beautiful art direction coupled with diverse level design and well-paced gameplay makes this one an easy recommendation for both longtime platformer fans and for new players looking for an easier game to get into. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but Unruly Heroes hits all the notes that it needs to, and it’s more than deserving of a spot in your games library.

It’s difficult to determine whether this game was made for superhero fans or to those who already enjoy the game series, but Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure finds a good balance that should appeal to both crowds.

While it may appear to be fairly frivolous at first glance, at its heart it is a substantial experience, well balanced to be either dauntingly complex or an RPG-lite, depending on the player's wishes.

We’re used to seeing Wii U games transfer to Switch, but for Ultra Smash to have moved across without a substantial makeover would have been disastrous. Aces, wonderfully, is anything but that – it’s a superb arcade sports game that’s generous with its suite of player options and only occasionally guilty of being a little cheap in its Adventure Mode. The presentation is spot on, and the core tennis action is absorbing whether you’re trading simple strokes or firing off special shots. Some animations and voice overs are identical to Ultra Smash’s, but everything around them has been overhauled to quite splendid heights. This is something of a Switch Port Plus, then – not quite a whole new experience, but so improved as to be near unrecognisable next to its preceding title.

If Switch 1 is your only means of playing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, you’re not going to have quite the same experience, but if you’re not looking to upgrade anytime soon and you’re keen to jump into Samus’ latest adventure, it's well worth picking up, as there's a fantastic game to be had. Just keep your visual expectations in check after seeing all that delicious Switch 2 Edition footage.

If you are a fan of the Alien movies, relish Metroidvania exploratory gameplay and appreciate side-scrolling retro pixel art design, Aliens: Infestation delivers on all three counts.

Even if it doesn’t necessarily revolutionise the series, it still expands on it. In some cases it is hard to enhance given the source material. It has all the necessities including global leader boards, multiplayer action and fills each table with enough content to justify purchases – including challenges and a levelling system. With the game free to try out, there’s no harm in downloading it and taking a look at what the definitive pinball experience on the market offers.

While reminding us just how much we’d love to see FTL on Switch, Everspace manages to carve out an impressive identity for itself. With gratifying space combat, an addictive ‘rogue-lite’ core loop and even some light, entertaining writing along the way, it performs admirably – if not flawlessly – on Nintendo’s console. Overall, we had a hell of a time with it and this port does a cracking job of preserving the full experience on a handheld. If any of this sounds remotely enticing, we’d heartily recommend investigation.