Apex Legends on Switch delivers the full-fat Battle Royale experience we know and love in a heavily compromised state. There's still fun to be had here if you can lower your expectations but, over time, the massive graphical downgrade and niggling framerate and performance issues begin to grate. If you've got no other choice but to play on Switch we'd recommend diving in and seeing how you fare before splashing any cash on paid versions or battle passes but, overall, this is a game that is best experienced on other platforms – at least until Panic Button can steady the ship somewhat with future updates.

Between the surprisingly deep plot for such a simple game, the clever narrative explanation of the mechanics, and enough chaos going on in the discussions to keep you guessing, we had a lot of fun with this one. Gnosia's simple game mechanics and deceptively deep story make it a must-have for visual novel and murder mystery fans; it's just a shame that the music is so poor. Even so, if you give it a chance it's highly likely that you'll fall in love with each member of its diverse cast – just in time for them to kill you.

As a birthday gift from Blizzard to itself, Blizzard Arcade Collection has been put together with some care. Sometimes good things come in smaller packages, though, and a lot of the content here is superfluous. Two of the Definitive Edition games are worse than the SNES titles also included, while Rock 'n Roll Racing’s is so successful that including the SNES and Mega Drive versions has only really added clutter. The result is a need to start every version of every game a few times to work out which one is actually worth playing, which somewhat spoils the party. But, for all those imperfections, there’s a lot to love: it may not be exactly what we’ve always wanted, but it’s the thought that counts.

While it's a compelling package, Citizens Unite!: Earth x Space doesn't excel as an RPG in either of its halves. There's fun to be had, but it's obfuscated to some extent by technical issues and a lack of balance to its gameplay. That said, a lot of love has obviously been poured into this title and if you like your games with a bit of a unique personality, that's very much in evidence here. If you've already played these RPGs before, there's not enough here to draw you back for a repeat play, but new players might find this worthy of their hard-earned cash – if they're willing to put up with some rough edges.

Skyforge is a properly mediocre MMORPG that could, perhaps, have been a reasonable enough little timesink for a bunch of friends or solo players who just want to mindlessly blow through its content without thinking too much. There's no shortage of content here, and the idea of having eighteen different classes to master is an attractive one. However, this Switch port is such a huge disappointment on a technical level; it's such a lazy, janky, stuttery, buggy, low-resolution mess that it's hard to see how anyone could be bothered to stick with it for long enough to properly engage with anything it's got to offer. If you're in need of an MMORPG to play on your Switch right now, we recommend you download and play just about anything else that's available because seriously, this ain't it.

The spiders themselves are wonderfully depicted, with their stop-and-start movements animated to near perfection. There are a decent number of the buggers hidden in each level, but never enough to feel overwhelming or unrealistic; you can easily imagine walking into your kitchen and finding two or three spiders skirting across the tiled floor. They come in different shapes and sizes, with some spawning smaller spiders upon death, and others exploding with impressive force. Catching them can be a hefty task at times, and you’ll often leave each level in utter disrepair as you desperately burn or destroy any object that might be hiding the eight-legged freaks.

Let's cut (ahem) to the chase – this is one of the worst games on the Switch. Its tracks are ugly and short, its vehicles are laughably unresponsive, its lack of any sort of progression system is an insult and the thing doesn't even have a title screen. Whether it's just a bad joke or a genuinely terrible game, our advice is the same: kick this one into the long grass and forget about it.

For people who loved the collect-craft-combat loop of Fantasy Life, this game might scratch that same itch, and it'll certainly take up a fair few hours – even if the "combat" part is missing. Littlewood is an incredibly impressive game for a solo developer, and though none of its ideas go particularly deep, it more than makes up for it in breadth. Fans of the life sim genre should definitely seek this one out.

The single-player Arcade mode is good, and the Missions have a lot of difficulty headroom, but it will sting a little to pay full price if you don’t have an opportunity for multiplayer. Mighty Fight Federation nevertheless remains a very interesting proposition for fighter fanatics craving a new set of mechanics to explore. Assuming the Switch online community grows, or if you have players ready for local fisticuffs, it will scratch an itch other fighters can’t reach.

Astrologaster is perhaps the only time you'll ever get to play through a pop-up book version of London's 17th-century medical history. It's an extremely specific pitch, but when it hits, it hits well – and its musical interludes are as delightful and giggle-worthy as any of Shakespeare's best. Sure, it's not going to be to everyone's tastes, but if you're looking for something a little different and you're a fan of the classic British historical sitcom Blackadder, then you could do a lot worse than give this a spin.

Hellpoint is a reasonably decent sci-fi/Soulslike effort that sticks closely to FromSoftware's well-worn formula whilst introducing a few neat new tricks and twists of its own. The combat here is solid, the space station setting often spectacular and the narrative as enticingly cryptic as you'd expect from the genre. However, the whole thing suffers massively due to myriad technical issues on Switch. Constant crashes to the console's homescreen, a seriously flaky framerate, long loading times and a pretty huge graphical downgrade result in an experience that's infuriating for all the wrong reasons and one that it's almost impossible to recommend in its current form. Here's hoping Cradle Games has some big patches incoming.

Azur Lane: Crosswave is a game that was best left on smartphones. The visual novel sequences are perfectly fine, and the story itself – while utterly bonkers – is interesting enough to keep you engaged, while the characters are both charming and unique. Sadly, the naval combat sequences bring down the entire experience. They’re slow, repetitive, rarely require much strategic thought, and look incredibly bland all at once. This is a game for hardcore fans of the genre only; everyone else ought to look elsewhere for their naval combat needs.

As if it was ever in doubt, Square Enix has demonstrated once again that it understands exactly what ingredients are necessary to make a great RPG. The interesting, risk-based combat is supported by a diverse class system and a well-told story, which all combine to make for an experience that can be tough to put down. That said, one can’t help but feel a consistent sense of ‘been there, done that’ with Bravely Default II; Square certainly could’ve pushed the envelope just a little more with this entry. That aside, you really can’t go wrong with Bravely Default II. This is a well-crafted and expertly-made RPG that is easily worth your time and money; we’d highly recommend that fans and newcomers alike look into picking this up.

A breezier, simpler game than its clear inspirations, what Curse of the Dead Gods lacks in narrative it makes up for in focused, crunchy gameplay. Combat is interesting, exploration is rewarding and the systems in play are sufficiently diverse to make this a winner. It won't consume you forever, but you'll feel far from short-changed by this game of meaningful, divergent dungeons.

Overall, Capcom Arcade Stadium is a very good package filled with brilliant games, each updated with modern functionality. It doesn’t rival the quality of original hardware or the likes of M2’s sublime individual ports of arcade masterworks as seen with the release of Esp.Ra.De Psi, but at £30 for 32 games, it is well worth the price, warts and all.

Taxi Chaos feels very much like a proof of concept; it's certainly evidence that a taxi game has its place in 2021, though it's lacking that vital spark that would truly make it a must-play title. The city itself is well-made, with plenty of sights to behold, but the overall visual design feels a bit generic and lacks its own voice. There are few incentives to play for extended periods of time, so how long the game lasts is largely dependent on your own willingness to climb the online leaderboard. Nevertheless, Taxi Chaos is an admirable revival of a genre that’s been dormant for far too long, and a good foundation for a potential sequel down the line.

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is Tokuro Fujiwara’s love letter to a thirty-five-year-old series that’s famous for burying mortal men, and it’s a job done exceptionally well. By ignoring it, we risk having to wait another thirty-five years for a new entry, and, in a world where so many games have become cinematic, one-button-does-all 3D picture books, that’s an unacceptable prospect. If challenge is what you live for, toughen up, don that mental armour, and take up the mantle like a lance. If you put in the time and effort, Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection will see you reap the most valuable of gaming accomplishments: the prestige of victory.

As it’s a package from 2013 of a game that reportedly sold a million copies, you probably already know if you need to get Thomas Was Alone. If you haven’t played it and you have a Switch then you absolutely must get the demo – right away, no excuses. Its playful elucidation of how games work shouldn't be missed by anyone interested in the medium. The full game gives you a few hours of good platforming with great presentation and a well-told story. And as an artefact of its era of indie games, Thomas Was Alone is a delight. The game can be experienced start-to-finish in a few short sessions and Bithell’s commentary provides a sort of meta-narration to motivate another playthrough if you haven’t heard it before. In short, Thomas Was Alone was pretty great when it came out, it’s held up well and now it’s on your Switch.

Haven is a beautiful game about a relationship that is best in its quiet moments. The conversations and tenderness between Yu and Kay, its two leads, are the lifeblood of the game, and everything else is secondary. Its interesting combat system would benefit from a bit more signposting, and the flying traversal is a fun sci-fi addition to the game that works more often than it doesn't. Still, it's a wonderful experience, especially in co-op, but perhaps one to get on sale.

Despite some re-release shortcomings, SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium remains not only a charming piece of history, but a comprehensive fighting game with impressively taut elasticity. Bursting with move-sets that accurately mirror the arcade counterparts from which they’re derived, it represents the moment that a legendary rivalry thawed out and shook hands, and a fanfare for SNK’s excellent but ill-fated handheld. There also remains something special about having so many faces from so many different series occupying the same screen space, and in such good spirits. Seeing pocket-sized Kyo and Chun-Li battle it out on her Great Wall stage or Ken and Ryu’s fireballs trailing across Krauser’s cathedral is an experience worth revisiting. It’s an object of both its time and format, and you need to be prepared for that; but SNK versus Capcom? That really is the match of the millennium.

A very pleasant and enjoyable surprise, Blue Fire is an auspicious debut from ROBI Studios. Only the performance issues, mildly sloppy combat and high difficulty are points of contention, and the latter will certainly depend on your point of view. Developed with passion and skill, this is a world you can lose yourself in that'll reward you the more you play and the better you get. It's uncompromising in its difficulty but doesn't resort to cheap tricks and "gotchas". The graphics are appealing and, crucially, clear as day. This is a fantastic experience overall, even if it isn't made up of the most original pieces. It's gameplay first and once you're traversing the infinite space of the Void stages, everything else basically just falls away.

Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos is a delightful Zelda-inspired roguelite that's chock full of secrets, surprises, and some top-notch dungeon crawling action. There's an excellent central hub area to evolve and expand here, lots of fun little side quests to indulge in and a well-designed overworld that takes full advantage of your hero's ever-growing armoury of weapons, skills and gadgets. There are perhaps a few too many skill trees and upgrade mechanics for our liking and the story is entirely forgettable, but overall this one comes highly recommended for co-op and solo adventurers alike.

Cathedral is a well-made and enjoyable action-platformer that’s sure to please fans of the genre, as it showcases lots of strong level design, tough difficulty, and plenty of rewarding secrets. Even so, there’s a sense that something is missing here to take the experience a step higher, as it’s the epitome of ‘just’ another entry in an already crowded genre. All the same, we’d give Cathedral a recommendation to anybody who enjoyed Shovel Knight (or its many imitators) and is looking for something to hit that same appeal. Cathedral very likely won’t be your favourite action-platformer, but it’s got more than enough going for it to be worth your time and money.

Perils on Gorgon is a well-written and highly enjoyable expansion to The Outer Worlds that provides lots of interesting new background info and lore whilst whisking players off on an engaging eight to ten-hour long sci-fi mystery. There's nothing new here in terms of mechanics, no great big surprises or new gameplay additions, but it sure does feel great to get back together with the crew of the Unreliable in a Switch port of Obsidian's sci-fi RPG that's been patched into a much more playable state in the months since it initially released.

Neoverse Trinity Edition succeeds at being an enjoyable deck builder, but it does so in a way that's seemingly desperate to highlight its limitations. It runs embarrassingly poorly at times, and does almost nothing to ingratiate the player to its many systems, all of which must be puzzled out more or less from scratch. While this is far from ideal, it's not enough to totally kill the game's appeal. Robust strategy is both possible and necessary in order to progress much beyond even the second boss. If you vibe with Neoverse Trinity Edition, it'll last you a while. It's just very, very difficult to get to grips with this bizarre, confusing game.

Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves one crucial question when it comes to Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing: do we really need yet another reminder of the truly awful situation we’re all still in? The story being told here is an uplifting one, but it’s also stuffed with terms we’ve become all too familiar with over the course of the past year: social distancing, flattening the curve, remote meetings… we could go on. Games are – perhaps more than ever – a means of escapism, and Serenity Forge’s new title strays a bit too close to reality for our liking. We’d probably recommend other developers try again in a few years time when the dust has settled.

Gal*Guns Returns is a so-so remaster of a tedious on-rails shooter that features dull, unchallenging and highly repetitive action set against a cringe-worthy story that's neither titillating or in any other way engaging. This is a very short and basic game for the asking price, and one that it's hard to see anyone outside of hardened (no pun intended) Gal*Gun fans deriving even the slightest amount of enjoyment from.

Heaven's Vault is a game deeply concerned with the past, how it affects the present, and whether or not it can predict the future. Its fantastic translation puzzles and intricate story are often overshadowed by its unfortunate need to constantly pause and load, sadly denying it the higher score that it otherwise deserves. Aside from these technological issues, Heaven's Vault is a world that's beautifully realised, with a mystery that you'll be thinking about long after the game is done.