All told, this FireRed & LeafGreen re-release is undoubtedly a lazy way to celebrate 30 years of Pokémon. For the asking price, Game Freak and The Pokémon Company could’ve included some extra goodies, like a hard mode or online functionality. Still, this is the most convenient way to experience the charm of the original Kanto adventure, and going back in time to see how much the Pokémon series has grown gave me a newfound appreciation for all the catchin’ I’ve done over three decades, and all that there is to come. Now give us Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, please.

All told, this FireRed & LeafGreen re-release is undoubtedly a lazy way to celebrate 30 years of Pokémon. For the asking price, Game Freak and The Pokémon Company could’ve included some extra goodies, like a hard mode or online functionality. Still, this is the most convenient way to experience the charm of the original Kanto adventure, and going back in time to see how much the Pokémon series has grown gave me a newfound appreciation for all the catchin’ I’ve done over three decades, and all that there is to come. Now give us Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, please.

It’s easy to get retro fatigue when every month brings another wave of throwbacks. Scott Pilgrim EX, however, is a reminder of why this genre became so popular in the first place. The spirit and execution come together in a way that feels fresh rather than forced. There’s real pick-up-and-play value here, whether you’re going solo or just messing around with friends. You don’t even need to be a fan of Scott Pilgrim to enjoy it. After all, getting a bunch of friends together to battle the forces of evil with martial arts and giant turnips is about as universal as it gets.

Pokémon Pokopia is the freshest Pokémon experience in a long time, bursting at the seams with charm and content that rewards both curiosity and creativity. It’s an easy game to get swallowed up in, even with a few gameplay and progression issues that need ironing out. But as a first go at something different for the franchise, it’s a big win. I don’t know how Pokémon has stayed away from this kind of structure for so long, and I’d easily take a dozen more.

Rave Racer isn't the perfect racing game, by any means; there's not a lot of content and no career mode, but the on-track action is as pure and exhilarating as any you'll encounter in the arcade racing sub-genre. And, in case you were wondering, yes, the game still has the bug which has allowed players to totally smash the game's course records.

Resident Evil Requiem sets a new benchmark for a series that has been pretty consistently great for the last decade or so. By combining classic survival horror with the more action-focused gameplay of RE4, the result is an experience paced to perfection. Add in a lore-heavy narrative and copious easter eggs, and you've got what might be the ultimate expression of Resident Evil…There are a few minor visual hiccups along with some inconsistency in frame rate during busier moments, but the fact that we've got a brand-new flagship RE game running well on Switch 2 should be celebrated. The lack of a Mercenaries Mode feels like a missed opportunity, but I've got my fingers crossed that it eventually shows up.

The Disney Afternoon Collection is a delightful throwback to the '90s, offering up eight mostly great games across the NES and SNES. While you could potentially skip one or two, the lineup represents a particularly prolific period for Capcom, one in which licensed games were — contrary to much of the competition — actually worth your time and money. With a handy rewind feature and the sort of supplemental material you've come to expect from Digital Eclipse, this is a great compilation that deserves a second chance on Switch 1 and 2.

Caves of Qud has a devoted following for good reason. Its world is vivid despite its graphical style — the wonderful music helping out — and its rapid turn-based gameplay is addictive. The hardcore roguelike approach is brutal but makes each run special. This is at odds with the main thread of an RPG quest, which demands that every run is aimed at the same goal. However, that tension provides an energy that’s hard to resist. It’s compressed a little uneasily onto Switch, but can be made to work. Maybe not legendary status on Switch, then, but a tale worth passing down to another generation of console players.

If you’re a super fan of the original game and want every possible version of it, the package totally delivers. But considering how many Rayman games there were, including its sequels and spin-offs, it would have been nice to at least have had Rayman 2 included. The elephant in the room, however, is the absence of the original soundtracks. They have been remixed or replaced across the board with a nice composition by Rayman Origins and Legends composer Christophe Héral, likely due to Ubisoft not fully owning the rights to the original audio.

Performance on Switch 2 isn’t as impressive as RE7, unfortunately. Although visuals and frame rate remain consistent in docked mode, there are a few issues present when transitioning to handheld. It still looks great, but you’ll definitely notice a few stutters here and there, particularly when exploring exterior environments like the central hub and reservoir...I still very much recommend playing Village. Its gameplay and pacing are excellent, and there’s one very specific moment that remains one of the scariest in the series’ history. When compared to RE7’s superb story and the wider franchise lore, however, Village is a bit of a narrative anomaly that I’m not convinced will stand the test of time.

On Switch 2, the visuals remain largely consistent with the game’s initial release on PS4 and Xbox One. You’re not going to get any fancy ray-tracing here, but it’s nevertheless a gorgeous-looking game, whether you’re playing docked or handheld. Similarly, load times are kept pleasingly brisk and there were no noticeable drops in frame rate throughout, making this a wonderful way to experience one of the series’ best entries. Ultimately, if you refused to play Capcom’s ‘Cloud Version’ of RE7 on Switch 1, then your patience has finally been rewarded. In time, I suspect this entry will be looked upon with as much reverence as the original, and I urge you to add it to your library.

The platforming elements of Love Eternal are delightfully frustrating fun with a limited set of mechanics put to creative and clean use. Multiple levels had me holding my breath, gritting my teeth, and cursing the wayward god who founded the whole endeavour. The hand-drawn levels are as beautiful as their challenges are frustrating. Unfortunately, an overly ambitious narrative coupled with a strange mid-game shift mars the game's myriad charms.

Blazblue Entropy Effect X's convolution will be a turn off for some, and for others a dream. There are some questionable design decisions in its lack of a visual combo counter, diminutive sprites, and stop-start upgrade screens, and the average action gamer will feel swamped by its narrative and overload of possible configurations. At the same time, it’s an undeniably impressive in scope: a mathematical formula of character building that's as flexible as it is complex. Boomers should probably step away, but for those who live to mine roguelikes to the nth degree, it’s something of a treat.

Super Bomberman Collection showcases some of the very best gameplay that Bomberman has to offer. Between the various games on offer, there are dozens of hours of exciting couch multiplayer battles to be had, demonstrating that it doesn’t take the latest and greatest tech for a game to simply be fun to play with others. Though the lack of native online is disappointing, the great gameplay coupled with some robust museum content that honors the legacy of these games makes this one a no brainer—especially given the relatively cheap price. If you’re looking for another game you can pull out on game nights with friends, I’d highly suggest you pick this one up.

If you’re also a fan of the oppressive, grim nature of the original game, The Mermaid’s Curse might also give you a bit of whiplash. Lots of scenes take place in broad daylight, with seemingly no sign of anything weird or supernatural. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the story involves exploring past events, historical context, and interrogating various characters. You’re certainly not going to be using curses every five minutes to kill an NPC, and overall, it never feels particularly unsettling or scary. It’s still well worth your time, though, even if it doesn’t match up to the original.

It may have all the same bones as the original version, but Ys X: Proud Nordics on Switch 2 is undoubtedly the way that this landmark action-adventure title deserves to be experienced on Nintendo hardware. Not only are the visuals improved, but the major performance bump makes everything from striking down enemies to simply navigating menus an absolute joy. The new gameplay additions, ranging from new story scenarios to tough-as-nails dungeon crawling, are nice to have as well, even if they ultimately feel like a small speck awash in the sea of gameplay variety that Ys X already contained. This enhanced version's siren song may be too faint to lure back anyone who forged through the original release, but newcomers and prospective fans owe it to themselves to answer the call and embark on the definitive version of this grand adventure.

Neither the visuals nor the gameplay has aged as gracefully as 1080, but Hamster has done good work in presenting the snowy vistas and demanding gameplay for the modern day. Cool Boarders is a blast to play for short sessions, especially if you loved it back in the '90s, and while a couple of extra options might have been nice, this is the best way to play this beloved early entry in the ‘extreme’ sports genre.

If you’re at all a fan of the more RPG-focused Mario RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play Escape from Ever After. It may be over a bit too quickly, but the writing, charm, and gameplay mechanics all come together to make for something you won’t want to miss.

I Hate This Place is a game that oversells itself in the trailer and undershoots on the Switch, but still manages to be very enjoyable. The performance issues, visual compromises, and pared‑back crafting leave their mark on much of the experience, yet the core loop of sneaking, crafting, and blasting through strange supernatural threats has enough bite to carry it. When the action flows, it’s easy to see what the developers were aiming for. It just depends on whether you’re willing to look past the rough edges to enjoy what does work.

With Reanimal, Tarsier Studios delivers its darkest, boldest work yet. Expanding on the Little Nightmares formula with non-linear exploration, striking audiovisual design, and bombastic set pieces, this is an imaginative horror experience that confidently delivers its vision while offering accessible co-op play that fans of the developer have long clamoured for.

Mario Tennis Fever serves up my favourite game in the series thus far, by finding an addictive balance between Mario's madcap antics and real-world tennis fun. Streamlining superpowers into Fever rackets makes everything easier to parse, and keeping player movement relatively restrained makes for tennis matches that retain an exciting flow without constant slo-mo interruptions…The adventure mode is a letdown, and solo players don't have a ton of options, but there's depth and strategy at the core here that should see this one ace things online for some time to come.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a fair series entry, but one that's tainted by poor pacing and a recasting controversy that simply didn't need to happen. The main story has a lot to offer, but it's also bloated with way too much side content getting in the way of the core narrative. Dark Ties feels like a nice antidote to this, but I'm not sure whether this alone would be worth the purchase for anyone but series die-hards. RGG Studio fixed some visual blemishes in time for launch, so that's good news. Unfortunately, it seems Kiwami 3 will forever be associated with the recasting of one of its main antagonists, a controversy that undeniably affected my personal enjoyment of the game. If that doesn't bother you, and if an overabundance of side content appeals, you could probably add a point to the scoreline.

Made for RPG lovers by an RPG lover, Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass uses every tool in the RPG Maker toolbox to put together a purposeful, devastating, and beautiful game that never puts the kid gloves on. Yes, it’s a little simple-looking, and the difficulty can be a little frustrating early on, but this is just the surface of a rich adventure with tons of secrets and challenges to uncover. The reward may be tears, it may be laughter, or it may be a new weapon, but it’s always worth it.

Despite being another in an ever increasing genre stable, The Perfect Pencil brings a uniquely twisted world to the genre. Its mysteries can be a bit dense, but the eerie atmosphere, complex themes, and strange landscapes make it worth exploring.

Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined proves to be a strong revisit of a classic, trimming the fat and including welcome additions to make for a magical experience that no fan of classic JRPGs will want to miss. Though I’m hesitant to call this the 'definitive' version of the game, given the content cuts, I would certainly say it’s the most fun version yet. Combine the more engaging pace of the narrative with some nice gameplay updates like moonlighting and those gorgeous visuals, and it’s tough to argue that the previous versions are more enjoyable.

Thanks to the sublime writing, fantastic voiceovers, and a level of animation you'd usually expect from a big-budget streaming series, Dispatch is the kind of superhero drama that draws you in with the sexy characters and funny one-liners, and hooks you until the bitter end with the potential of its ever-changing arcs. The lack of any visual censorship options on Switch is a strange one, and some will undoubtedly find things lacking in the gameplay department, but I'm already gearing myself up for a potential 'season 2'. It won't be for everyone, but if you're like me and it clicks, it really clicks. Is it too soon for a 'rewatch'?

If you can make peace with a lack of multiplayer outside of online leaderboards, alongside the fact that digital triggers aren't ideal if you're after precision throttle control (grab a GameCube NSO pad to swerve this issue), Grid Legends on Switch 2 serves up an excellent package of slick and satisfying 'simcade' action that looks and plays wonderfully well in both docked and handheld. With lots of options in terms of graphics and accessibility, and all previously-released DLC included, this is easily the best racing package of this type that's currently available on either of Nintendo's Switches and a real blast for solo racing fans.

Even in its attempts to swing big and do something different, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade respects where it’s come from. The classic's pro-revolutionary heart is still intact, and it’s never afraid to get a little weird and funny. The Switch 2 version makes impressively few compromises to get this gorgeous-looking game running on the system – even at 30fps, this looks and feels fantastic. The fact that everything from the PS5 release is preserved in such excellent fashion here is remarkable, and it makes me excited (and anxious) about Rebirth’s incoming port.