Hyper Sentinel is 'neo-retro' executed to perfection. Once you accept that the visual and audio directions are both design choices made to pay tribute to the original Commodore 64 game and sit down to take on your first Super-Dreadnought, you’ll be hooked. Every time you get a 'Game Over', the only thing on your mind will be on how to prevent whatever got the best of you in preparation of your next sortie (while, at the same, time browsing the leaderboards to see how your friends are faring in each level).

Arriving almost four years after the Wii U version, The Fall still manages to offer one of the most engaging takes on the age-old ‘robot starts to feel alive’ concept without feeling tired or rote. Sadly, the limitations of its gameplay haven’t been addressed for this port, so while there’s a great story to be experienced, the game itself remains a forgettable miasma of genres.

Die For Valhalla! is a successful mix of several genres that mainly presents itself as a lengthy side-scrolling beat-'em-up and just like the majority of such games is best enjoyed with friends along the way. There is still a lot to chew for the lonely solo player out there, so if you into the genre and Norse mythology, do consider giving this one a possession. Odin would approve and so do we.

Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?! isn’t anything we haven’t already seen before. Forging and selling weapons is fun once you get into the rhythm of it, and there’s plenty within the potato world to work towards. This is a game that can be played for a few minutes or hours per day, depending on how much you enjoy the genre. What’s frustrating is how this title has been adapted to the Switch. It’s got a clunky user interface that doesn’t really feel compatible with the Joy-Cons and even if you opt with the screen by itself as a touchpad it still feels difficult to complete the most basic of tasks.

If you’re the type to burn through the Louvre in an hour and wait for your companions in the cafe, The Mooseman may well try your patience. If you’re more inclined to wander around with an audio guide, reading every accompanying plaque and information card, you’ll likely enjoy its sedate pace, workaday puzzles and catalogue of artefacts. A clumsy UI seriously hampers the experience but, if you’re willing to work around the irritations at its core, it offers an interesting, sometimes beautiful journey.

In many ways God Wars is like a new Picross game; it’s more of the same. The Japanese folklore narrative offers a slight twist, but the script is painfully dull and repetitive. If you’re dipping your toe into the genre or only have time for one of these, we’d sit tight to see what Intelligent Systems has up its sleeve with the upcoming Fire Emblem: Three Houses. If you’re a strategy junkie after a fix, it gets the job done with all the mechanics and systems you’d expect – but nothing new or novel.

While My Hero One’s Justice certainly looks the part - with all the crash, bang and wallop you’d expect from a game based on such an outlandish anime - it proves to be more style over substance. If the likes of Blade Strangers and SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy have got you in the mood for easy-to-pick-up fighters, this title will easily fit that mould, but for everyone else, it’s a disappointing use of a franchise brimming with quirky (no pun intended) potential.

Rival Megagun may fall short of the standards set by genre masterworks like Cave's Ketsui, Seibu Kaihatsu's Raiden Fighters Jet or Raizing's Battle Garegga. But those are some of the finest pieces of game design of all time, and failing to meet their lofty standards doesn't stop Spacewave's creation being a tremendously fun and rather distinct shmup that really does offer something fresh, and serves as a great demonstration of the Switch's multiplayer prowess in the process.

Toast Time is the kind of game that feels like it could’ve been something truly special if it spent a little more time in the oven; the core gameplay of toast blasting madness is fantastic fun, but the sparse offering of content makes this a game that doesn’t take too long to chew through. If you’ve exhausted all the Mario Karts and Towerfalls for your multiplayer escapades and want to take a chance on something a little different, Toast Time is a great option that’s sure to bring you hours of entertainment; just be mindful of the fact that there are much better local multiplayer games on the Switch eShop.

Though not quite as accomplished as the recent Spyro and Crash Bandicoot remasters, TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD still delivers an enjoyable Aussie-themed adventure. The new visuals are great, but some camera angle fixes and a few more gameplay updates would have been appreciated. However, this is a game that will easily 'TY' you over until the next big release, especially if you're a fan of the original game.

Billion Road makes an intriguing pitch: to combine Monopoly and Pokémon into a family-friendly digital board game. With its bright presentation, varied mechanics, and endless barrage of distractions and rewards, it could be perfect for young families looking for some wholesome couch time. However, there's a critical lack of strategic substance underpinning it all, while the presence of a virtual guiding hand tilting the odds robs the game of the emotional extremes that the true classics manage to evoke.

NES and Namco fans will be happy with the titles on offer here. Some of them have never been released in the west before and the star of the show – Pac-Man Championship Edition – is an entirely new NES port created just for this collection. Each of the 11 games has at least some value, but the bare-bones nature of the presentation is a little disappointing: for a game with Museum in the title, we'd hoped each game would have been celebrated a little more with art and behind-the-scenes info.

Minoria is a great Metroidvania that we’d hate to see slip under the radar amongst the more well-known titles like Bloodstained and Hollow Knight. It’s not quite as feature-rich as some of the other titles in the genre and will only last roughly 5 hours or so, but the combat is so impressive, that we’d urge you to check it out.

Let's Sing Queen is a straight-up, no-frills entry in the series that throws you into the legendary super group’s awesome back-catalogue of hits across the same selection of modes you'll be accustomed to from previous titles in the series. There are absolutely no surprises here and a definite lack of variety when compared to other offerings in the franchise; however, with thirty (mostly) excellent tracks, accompanied by their highly entertaining original music videos and an official app that turns your mobile phone into an impressively robust mic, this is a solid good time for fans of the titans of rock, karaoke fiends and anyone who just loves to warble along to some classic rock anthems while re-enacting the best bits of Live Aid 1985 in the comfort of their own sitting room.

Mercenaries Blaze: Dawn of the Twin Dragons is the tactics game for fans of tactics games. It has an interesting story and a single-minded focus on just delivering a simple and easy to follow SRPG experience that’s free of any extraneous plot or gameplay elements. This is its greatest strength, but it’s also its greatest weakness. Those of you that need a little more something to go along with the deliberate and measured pace of a tactics game will be left wanting, as Mercenaries Blaze: Dawn of the Twin Dragons is just 'OK' in this regard. We’d give this a recommendation to anybody who’s looking for a short and simple SRPG, but would also say that with the caveat that you manage your expectations before jumping in.

Hitman 3 is a fantastic conclusion to one of gaming's truly great trilogies and, with this Cloud Version, Switch players get to join in the fun in an experience that delivers the goods – so long as you've got the bandwidth to handle it. The expected, unavoidable technical shortcomings of streaming a game over the internet – input lag, visual dips and framerate issues – are all present and correct to some degree but, on the whole, if your broadband setup is up to the task, you'll find that a perfectly playable version of a slick and addictive stealth title awaits.

Skate City is a laid back, chilled out alternative to the more hectic skateboarding action of the likes of Roll7's OlliOlli series. The various tricks and skills here won't take you long to master, putting together little runs through Los Angeles, Oslo and Barcelona feels satisfying and the overall aesthetic suits the rather simple, straightforward nature of proceedings. However, there's an undeniable lack of actual challenge and variety here, alongside a few niggling framerate issues on Switch, that result in a game that's reasonable enough value for a quick bash, especially given its budget price point, but one that won't last anyone beyond the most avid of skateboarding fans for much longer than a couple of hours.

Risk System is an impressive game where it counts, and that’s in its taut, thoughtful and challenging gameplay. The polish of the design reminded us of the excellent run n’gun Bleed, with its focus on dodging and retaliating in linear stages, but of course here applied to the shmup genre. Other than higher ranks, there’s not much to rush back to in Risk System’s six short stages, but they’re sufficiently difficult enough to last genre non-veterans a good while. Absolute pro shmuppers may find it a little too breezy, but players of any skill level will be able to appreciate the exceptionally solid game on offer here. We say that there’s no risk of buyer’s remorse with this one.

As a solo game it's an easy pass, but on multiplayer we can see it clicking with the right group. It didn't set our world alight, but its simple charms may just work for you and your mates.

If you enjoy party games but aren’t too keen on the board game mechanic seen in titles like Mario Party Superstars, then My Singing Monsters Playground offers up a more streamlined experience that focuses purely on the minigames themselves, which might prove perfect for families with younger gamers. If you’re looking for a meatier experience, however, the lack of any overarching campaign harms the game’s overall longevity. Frame rate struggles in some of the more chaotic minigames, but for the most part, developer Big Blue Bubble has cooked up a nice addition to the party genre here.

Nonetheless, Beyond a Steel Sky magically brings its 1994 ancestor back to life. The style, the humour, the chirpy dystopia are all revived. However, a lot has happened since that first golden age of adventures, and if you want a creative addition to the indie-fuelled inventiveness of the modern genre then you should look elsewhere. This is a game that remembers exactly how great things were in 1994, but isn’t much interested in how great they were last week.

Hindsight does what it does with technical and artistic aplomb. The story is eloquent, mature and moving, and the core mechanic of diving into objects creates perfect madeleine moments that boost the experience beyond many other story games. It only asks for a few hours of your time and repays the investment generously.

The main issue, however, is the game's performance, with some levels (such as the train) feeling like they play in slow motion at times. We also experienced crashes a few times throughout our post-patch playthrough — and we had to wait for the day one update thanks to the constant crashing of the unpatched version. Hopefully things will continue to improve over time, but if you happen to get a physical copy of the game, make sure you update it.

Elderand is another solid entry in the Metroidvania genre, though it doesn’t push any new boundaries where gameplay is concerned. It does manage to stand out somewhat thanks to its strong enemy design and worldbuilding, as well as a good soundtrack. For a debut game, it’s impressive to see something as well realised as this, but there's precious little here you haven't seen elsewhere in this crowded genre. Perhaps it needs a second entry to fully live up to its potential.

Echo Generation is a fun homage to several different flavours of genre greats. An exceptional aesthetic and sound design balances the eerie with the nostalgic well, and good writing goes some way to making up for dull mechanics and lacklustre progression.

Over two decades after its original release, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter still brings a decent amount of fun from the galaxy far, far away. The updated control scheme and visuals undoubtedly make this the best way to experience Jango Fett's backstory. But Aspyr's sparing upgrades can't hide a noticeably dated game underneath. With repetitive combat, occasionally confusing level design, and a regularly iffy script, this is a prime example of how far gaming has come in the past 20 years. It's a product of a simpler time, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

The thing is, Castaway most reminded us of inferior Zelda clones from back in the '90s. There’s just something about the slowness of the character that we found a bit frustrating. The overall simplicity of both gameplay options makes it difficult to fully recommend to anyone other than die-hard genre fans. There are no NPCs to talk to, no quirky alligators, villagers, or owls to add variety to the experience - all that’s left is an incredibly short and unoriginal, if pretty, action RPG.

While no one expected it – and we dare say that no one asked for it – Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package revives an often forgotten open-world adventure on a new console generation, complete with a huge amount of cosmetic and expansion DLC. While it's showing its age mechanically (and in terms of taste), in visual terms it’s a robust sandbox filled with outlandish activities, hyperactive ideas and the kind of diverse mission design most open-world titles fail to fully realise. With support for both local and online co-op, this version of Saints Row’s best outing is a steal. We might not ever get a Grand Theft Auto on Switch, but this is probably the next best thing.