The Escapists 2 is an ingenious, multi-layered clockwork sandbox that offers you a wide range of routes to freedom. Its tough demands and myriad competing systems can lead to frustration, but a winning sense of humour and knock-about fun always brings you back for another jailbreak attempt.

Embers Of Mirrim is a delightful fantasy adventure with only a few notable flaws. It may be a bit on the short side and have some jarring bottlenecks that pull you out of your enjoyment, but it’s a beautiful game to experience from an artistic standpoint. We would recommend it to anyone who has an appreciation for art in gaming form. Although the gameplay sometimes misses that mark, Mirrim nonetheless stands as a worthy experience for those that are looking to try something a little more thoughtful.

When it's firing on all cylinders, running fast and smooth with massive and beautiful enemies getting obliterated by hundreds of lasers firing in all directions to furious metal guitar solos, RXN -Raijin- is everything an old school shmup fan needs, and a strong call back to what made the genre so revered in the first place. Unfortunately, the game also has some missteps ranging from the tolerable multi-pilot levelling system to infuriating slow down. The structure and chapter length suit short sessions, but may leave some players wanting more to chew on. At times thrilling, and at others confounding, it's a flawed but nonetheless enjoyable straight-up shmup.

King Of The Monsters is simple to play, but with a range of moves available as you fight your way through the different creatures. Outside of aesthetics the monsters largely play the same however, making the fights quite repetitive. The game works well with the five minute caravan mode as you attempt to smash up as much of the city as possible, whilst not loosing the fight to increase your score. There's no long term appeal with the game, but turn off continues and boot it up for a few two-player fights every now and then and it can still provide some entertainment.

Opus: The Day We Found Earth is a lovely little game. At more or less the length of a movie, it’s not going to keep you entertained for the weekend, but it’s perfect for a quiet night in. Digital stargazing is a surprisingly compelling pursuit, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with OPUS - it’s charming, affecting and proof positive that the Switch can be a wonderful storyteller.

Basic in both presentation and premise, Pic-A-Pix Deluxe serves up a dish of picross puzzling that will test your brain capacity but does little to innovate on a well-worn conundrum recipe. Still, with some Switch-specific features - including four-player multiplayer support - and plenty of nonograms to its name, Lightwood Games’ pixel puzzler is right at home on Nintendo’s new handheld home.

The King of Fighters '96 offers the usual enjoyable team battles with a good range of fighters to pick from. This particular entry introduces some nifty gameplay changes to the series. Of course, all of this and more would feature in the ultimately better The King of Fighters '98, but it's a confident entry in the series nonetheless. If you're interested in the ongoing story then The King of Fighters '96 is still a competent fighter, and there's plenty of entertainment to be had in its hand-drawn brawls.

Slower paced than many shmups, Pulstar is still fun to play through as you avoid enemy attacks, take shots at your attackers and look for an opportunity to unleash a charged attack. Despite some elements blending into the background on occasion and moments of slowdown, the visuals in the game are well done. The music is great and enhances the experience greatly. A detachable pod would be a good option to add some choice to how you tackle the challenge and too often you must rely on memorisation to get through the dangers, but nevertheless Pulstar remains an tough yet enjoyable retro offering.

Even with extra content and performance enhancements, a frustratingly limited camera and lack of variety reduce Woodle to a cheap and cheerful but flawed and basic 3D jump and collect-athon. While its cute and whimsical charm and uncomplicated nature make it suitable and accessible to younger audiences, there are still plenty of contemporaries on the eShop that are more accomplished and polished. While adequate considering its price, it's nonetheless an idyllic yet simple little game.

Judging a game on its own merits is very important. However, when a title happens to borrow just about every aspect of its design from an iconic game series, it’s hard not to acknowledge. Claims could be made that a game like this is nothing more than a shameless clone, but thankfully in the case of Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King, the developer has intentionally crafted it with a sense of love and admiration of classic Zelda games. While it’s not as flawlessly executed as the series it draws inspiration from and it doesn’t add anything particularly groundbreaking, it's still a heartfelt tribute to the earlier entries in Nintendo’s long-running series.

The Coma: Recut is interesting in concept, but flawed in its execution. Mixing survival horror with stealth and visual novel elements provides a unique side-scrolling experience. While the anime art style and slow pace might detract from the horror, along with the main mechanic becoming repetitive instead of scary, there is still enough narrative content to get invested in the twisted tale of Sehwa High.

Hiragana Pixel Party is a welcome rarity: an educational game that’s both good fun and an effective learning tool. If you’ve ever wanted to read Japanese — whether for language study, travel, or playing import games — this is a great way to get started, and an enjoyable rhythm-based runner with an excellent chiptune soundtrack besides.

Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure Deluxe fully deserves a place among Nintendo Switch's already amazing line up of local multiplayer titles. It's accessible yet deceptively deep twin stick-based mechanics make for a decent amount of challenge in the solo campaign, even if it's a little on the short side. Even with no online, using bots or getting up to five other friends involved, multiplayer matches are a joy and always thoroughly entertaining. Striking a great balance between cooperative and competitive play styles, It's combination of charming presentation and witty retro humour are sure to keep the laughs coming regardless of player demographic.

Easy to pick up and play, The Last Blade may at first seem a simple fighting game but you'll soon discover a good range of fighting options as you employ a mix of defensive and offensive tactics to see you through. Fights among the well-balanced cast of characters are hugely entertaining whether putting together a series of moves, interrupting an attack with a well timed deflection or simply stopping your opponent's assault with a kick to the face. Its excellent sequel will make an appearance on Switch in the future and should you only wish to have one Last Blade game, you'll need to decide if you prefer some extra characters and the EX mode to the balanced fighter lineup in this first game. Ideally, they'd be bundled together, but even on its own The Last Blade is one of the best picks for Switch-owning fighting fans.

The limited content in Stern Pinball is nonetheless well-crafted and certainly accurate when compared to real pinball. The issue is it's a rather simplistic game.

If you've never jumped in to the enchanted world of Sparkle, this is as good a place as any to start. It's a polished, competent match three game with decent production, plenty of stages and addictive ball blasting action, even if it is very derivative and repetitive. For those familiar with the series or the genre as a whole, Sparkle unleashed is merely a slight variation on more of the same. With Sparkle 2 already out on Switch, as well as it being released for every other system in all the known kingdoms, Sparkle Unleashed is another solid, if unremarkable addition to the console's library.

Frederic: Resurrection Of Music has plenty of personality to its name, even though the lack of content stops it from being the headline act when compered to other genre titles on the eShop. Still, seeing maestro Chopin coming back with a magical piano to play remixes of his own work and battle against rapper gangsters is certainly an interesting angle. The overall presentation visually is decent, even if the voice acted cutscenes are cheesy and overly long. An intriguing curio that simply needs more content considering the asking price.

There’s no denying Tiny Troopers Joint Ops: XL offers a lot of bang for its buck - over 60 main missions and a ton of undead-slaying quests see to that - and its bite-sized nature fits Nintendo Switch down to the ground, but ultimately it’s an exercise in quantity over quality. There’s fun to be had in its caricature take on war, but its light sprinkling of other genres and low-rent presentation is retro for all the wrong reasons.

It isn’t quite perfect, and there are several small areas where we feel the game could be improved, but ultimately we had a great time playing through the adventure and enjoyed the core mechanic.

Ultimate Edition is a fantastic port of a fantastic game, and it fits perfectly on the Switch. Deep, engaging gameplay and stylish presentation combine to make this one of the standout indie releases of the year; this is a great example of a well put-together game. If you are at all a fan of strategy games, or are just looking for a fun diversion to occupy your time over the next couple weeks, pick up this game. It puts a neat twist on standard turn-based strategy gameplay, and stands as another fantastic entry in the SteamWorld series.

It's not been the smoothest of journeys to release for Dimension Drive, and nor will yours be through its initial twelve stage campaign, but it is a polished and engaging shooter that asks more of each player. This is definitely not a 'turn your brain off at the door' kind of bullet hell experience, but it's worthy of the effort. Failure will be frequent, and frustratingly so in the early stages, but it's not cheap and beating a section or level never feels unattainable. There is a specific type of coordination required that will take time to perfect, and for some it might overwhelm, but Dimension Drive is a game that can be as rewarding as it is demanding.

Super Mario Bros. being playable on a Nintendo system is not particularly surprising, but that it should first appear on Switch in its VS. incarnation is a welcome bonus. The excellent gameplay, catchy music and a large chunk of the levels are still present, but the new stages make for a different feel that muscle-memory won't get you through. Those levels may have since appeared in The Lost Levels, but their inclusion here alongside changes to existing levels (including a different solution to a multi-path puzzle) make for a still enjoyable but tougher alternative way of playing, with highscore chasing also adding to the fun thanks to the online leaderboards. Even if you can play through the regular version of the game in your sleep, VS. Super Mario Bros. is an excellent - and challenging - choice for platforming fans.

Bloody Zombies brings a fresh visual style and a couple of interesting touches to the classic scrolling beat-'em-up. Unfortunately it doesn't flourish where it matters most - the quality and scope of its combat. There's still a fair amount of mindless fun to be had in local multiplayer, even if Bloody Zombies lacks the fluidity and variety to become a true regular on your co-op Switch game roster.

Working through levels bashing bad guys and boss characters is an idea that often works well, and in Top Hunter it works very well thanks to the various ways you can dispatch your foes. The two plane setup also adds to the entertainment, being used to avoid dangers and providing some quick back-and-forth jumping as you and the thugs try to smack each other in the face. There's not a lot of immediate replay value from the arcade mode when cleared, but the usual Hi Score mode is a fun way to try and improve; whenever you do return to Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy, it should provide an enjoyable adventure.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli is a reasonably proficient side-scrolling shooter that grows somewhat tiresome through repetitive combat and unpleasantly clichéd character design. It's an enjoyably brainless diversion - especially in multiplayer - but it's one that only really works in small doses.

As you might have guessed, we really like Crawl, and we’d bet our collected stash of gold and wrath you will, too. It’s great fun in single-player thanks to some aggressive AI that will hound you at every moment, but that consistent danger takes on a new lease of enjoyment when you and three of your friends are jostling for XP and that all important killing blow. Couchplay doesn’t get much better than this on Switch.

Hammerwatch carries the torch for Gauntlet with aplomb. It takes its concept and magnifies it into something richer and more thought-provoking than Ed Logg could’ve ever imagined. It can be played and enjoyed by anybody, from the lone adventurer to ale-soaked mates and everything in between.

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.