Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a brilliantly executed best of bullet hell shmup ideas wrapped up into a phenomenal package. It is the very best shmup money can buy in the whole Switch game library (plus it will cost you about half what it should!). Even if you don’t particularity like shmups - or if Japanese bullet hells are not your particular favourite flavour within the genre - exposure to the insane lightshows provided by this game might just turn you into a die-hard fan.

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.

The overall racing experience falls flat on its face primarily due to the cheap and nasty in-game physics that make the vehicles handle like trucks.

Damascus Gear Operation Tokyo is a competent slice of mech/dungeon crawler action fest that will mostly serve those who love both genres well. Other gamers might want to look somewhere else for their Switch action fix.

Simple to play, Magical Drop III is hugely entertaining as you frantically move about firing balloons to make lines or ideally set in motion a combo. Magical Journey would be better if you could compete against human opposition, but it's still fun (particularly in its Japanese incarnation) and adds additional replay value to a game that already gives you ample reason to return many times over. Magical Drop III is an excellent choice for Switch-owning puzzle fans.

Guilt Battle Arena is a lot of fun while it lasts with frantic, fast-paced action that forces players to act quickly in the heat of battle. Our main issue, however, is that everything that the game has to offer can be seen very quickly, and the desire to keep picking up the game, again and again, isn’t as strong as we’d initially hoped. Fun in quick bursts, but lacking slightly in gameplay content, we’d urge you to place this one on your ‘maybe’ list.

Make no mistake about it - Flinthook is a really well crafted, charming and fun experience. To a certain extent, however, it feels impeded by the constraints of its genre. It is one of tightest action platformers and addictive rogue likes around, but due to the randomly generated levels, you will encounter the odd frustrating spike in difficulty or structurally very similar areas in close proximity.

The Trail: Frontier Challenge is too much of a barebones experience for us to give it anywhere near a solid recommendation. The act of getting about is minimal when it comes to interaction, and the performance issues turn the game into far too much of a slog. The skill tree and the art style itself are two brief high points, but they’re not enough to make us recall this trip through the countryside with any degree of fondness.

Packet Queen # features a new, enjoyable type of puzzle gameplay that has you making fast decisions on the fly, and can start to feel pleasingly addictive, but a lack of content and a completely unnecessary story mode that ends in disappointment make the title fall short of greatness. For its relatively low price the game isn’t a bad option for passing the time, but the puzzle gameplay itself needs to be placed within a much better overall package than it is currently to truly impress.

Bleed 2 is a game that prides itself on giving the player a memorable and distilled experience that gets at the heart of what makes arcade games great. Those looking for a deep well of diverse content will find themselves dissatisfied, but those looking for a game about raw, fun gameplay will find more than enough satisfaction in the nearly endless options for replayability. We’d give Bleed 2 a strong recommendation; it combines charming presentation and tight mechanics to provide an experience that’s as focused as it is enjoyable.

Bridge Constructor Portal is a fun and engaging puzzle game that does a great job of appealing to players of all skill levels while offering a relatively hefty amount of content. Though it sometimes feels like an awkward port and it doesn’t always make the most of the crossover potential, it gets the core mechanics of puzzle solving right, and there’s more than enough quality here to satisfy those looking to scratch that itch on the Switch. We’d give Bridge Constructor Portal a strong suggestion to anybody looking for a fun puzzle game on the eShop; this is a game that constantly makes you think outside the box, and there’s nothing else like it available at the moment.

A competent and authentic 8-bit experience, A Hole New World will be enjoyed by many a retro fan out there, but the some of its mechanical elements are faithful almost to its detriment. Travelling between the dual worlds is cool, but utilised without much ambition or variety. While certainly not a bad game, the methods employed to enforce difficulty feel cheap and frustrating, rather than motivating or rewarding. A few of the bosses are visually impressive, but there isn't much here structurally or gameplay wise that particularly stand out . If you're looking for another title with more nostalgia and 'traditional' challenge rather than sadistic, fast-paced, twitch-based platformers, then A Hole New World is an adequate game that will bring back many memories of the 8-bit era, for better or worse.

Subsurface Circular is a landmark moment in interactive storytelling. The elegance of its escalation is simply unmatched, as it tells a story that makes you feel like you’re in completely over your head, and yet still perfectly believable. The characters you meet along the way all feel unique with their own personality, which makes interacting with them a test of wit and cunning as you use the conversational mechanics to their full effect. There’s nothing quite else quite like Subsurface Circular, and when that uniqueness is combined with the phenomenal narrative at hand, you have all the ingredients for a simply unforgettable and very special journey aboard the subway.

Fear Effect: Sedna is a flawed amalgam of disparate parts. It fails to wholly convince as an action, strategy or stealth game, and the delivery of its story is a little stilted. However, the sheer variety of its mix and its fresh visual style may prove enough to keep you playing through.

Psikyo's Samurai Aces plays a lot like its Gunbird and Strikers titles. As they were both great shmups, however, seven more levels in that style is no bad thing. Dealing with attacks and utilising your own offensive options leads to varied and enjoyable gameplay and the changing pace of combat keep you on your toes as you anticipate the next attack. With no credit/life limited mode included, the hi score leaderboard is flawed unless you and those using your Switch agree on what settings to use. It is a well put together shmup however, so whether playing alone or with a friend Samurai Aces is fun to replay whenever you choice to boot it up.

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.

Super Toy Cars is a decent enough tabletop racer that will have fans of the classics like Micro Machines taking a quick nostalgic trip down memory lane, but it never manages to live up to the games from which it clearly takes its inspiration. You’ll get some fun out of throwing your car around the cute tracks, but the temperamental physics and inaccurate contact between your car and its surroundings has the potential to frustrate players before that happens. Not a bad game, then, but one that is a few grid positions behind its competitors.

Outlast is a generous package of finely crafted survival horror thrills. It looks and sounds great on Nintendo Switch, and while its brand of hide-and-seek gameplay occasionally falters, it'll still keep you playing right until the grisly end.

Mulaka offers a truly intriguing insight into the culture and mythology of the Tarahumara people, but is let down by some frustrating gameplay issues. Exploring and puzzle solving is a simple but enjoyable affair, and there are elements of the combat system that show real promise, but some oversights surrounding the game’s pacing and controls leave quite a lot to be desired. If you’re interested enough in learning about the topic it wouldn’t be unwise to give the game a go despite its flaws, but players looking purely for great gameplay might want to ponder over it a little longer.

Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated is not a good game. It is not a bad game. It is a game. A harmless time-waster that will neither bring a revolution nor it will end the world by its quiet presence on the Switch eShop. It is, however, hard for us to recommend it at the current price point considering there are far more viable options content and gameplay wise for the same price. What we have here is yet another incredible kusoge whose existence made us remember not to take life too seriously. Plus the title did remind us to replay the Sensible Software developed classic Cannon Fodder. In conclusion: Paper Wars: Paper-thin Fodder.

Grid Mania doesn’t attempt to revolutionise the puzzle genre in any shape of form, but the things that it does well help to create a solid brain teasing experience. The four game modes offer an excellent initial set of levels with escalating difficulty, and then three distinctive twists on that core mechanic that could all even warrant their own game. Presentational setbacks aside, Grid Mania is well worth your time if you want to feel like a genius.

As the first otome game on Switch, Men Of Yoshiwara: Kikuya is both excellent proof of concept and an enjoyable piece of electronic erotica in its own right. With a memorable cast of courtesans, a generous amount of content split over several discrete routes and sub-scenarios, and affection-based unlockables, there’s plenty here to keep you busy and blushing. The backgrounds and music give off a bit of a budget feel, and occasional text encoding issues and some steep (but infrequent) quality drops are blemishes on an otherwise well-written script, but overall, we’d certainly recommend a trip to Kikuya for otome fans.

Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition lives up to its namesake and offers both solid single-player and co-op platforming action for a rather sensible price. If you played and enjoyed the previous versions, there are enough new additions to warrant a new visit while players meeting Watt and Volt for the first time will find this a rather pleasing package whose only really fault is the fact that is landing on a console with a library filled with several other exceptional platforming games.

Escape Trick: 35 Fateful Enigmas offers a decent puzzling experience, but its refusal to innovate or even introduce anything fresh into the game long past the halfway mark seriously dampens things. There is fun to be had here, but expect things to get repetitive and frustrating all too quickly.

The Final Station is a unique journey among the current Switch library you will not want to skip on, especially if you managed to stay away from the original PC release up to this point. World building and plot is brilliantly delivered by numerous little details of which we have rarely seen developers explore with such efficiency to deliver so much tension and sense of urgency from the player. Despite linearity, when you do reach the end game you can immediately jump into the The Only Traitor DLC included in the Switch version, which will enable you to experience the same events under a new character. Make sure you don’t miss out this train ride.

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.

Ace Of Seafood is proof that even bad games can offer some entertainment value, and if you don't find the idea of massive, laser-shooting fish battling ghost battleships amusing, then you probably need to check your pulse. While we can't possibly recommend Ace of Seafood wholeheartedly, we also can't state categorically that you should avoid it; despite our frustrations we still had a surprisingly good time trying to rule its post-apocalyptic waters, and chances are you will, too.

Radiation Island is a good survival horror premise that sadly never delivers. We are unsure if the game will continue to see future support and updates to better streamline the entire experience, possibly leaving it in this limbo state on Switch forever and as such our final score reflects the game’s current state. It's a shame Atypical Games decided to bring this game to Switch before other games in its catalogue as it sets a dangerous precedent on the eShop. Buyer’s beware: the titular radiation is the least of your worries on this island... but that hole it will leave on your wallet most certainly is.