By the time I finished The Last Campfire, the sun was already popping up and I felt a strong sense of melancholy. I don’t often get moved by a video game from an emotional standpoint, but this was definitely one of those times. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking journey that the industry needs more of.

Overall, Miden Tower suffers, not from just being generic, but also lackluster. It’s not enough to say that it has the feel of a cheaply-made mobile RPG, because mobile RPGs have shown they can have polish. There are many quality indie RPGs out there that look cute, play well, and endear themselves. This isn’t one of them. For those reasons, Miden Tower is hard to recommend, especially at the $21 price point.

Monster Hunter XXL is tailored specifically for those who want a bawdy Choose Your Own Adventure with light RPG elements and lots of replay value. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll find it here, and at a pretty good price point considering the quantity of content. It’s not a game for kids, though.

The Origami King might suffer from the same Achilles heel that Paper Mario: Color Splash and Sticker Star did of eschewing conventional leveling systems, but the combat here is infinitely more intuitive and less contemptible. It might not be the best Paper Mario game, but The Origami King is absolutely a true return to form and a wonderful adventure any Switch owner should consider playing.

Overall, it’s hard not to like what Full Metal Furies does. It’s a perfect storm of great ARPG gameplay, brilliant storywriting, and a lot of heart. At $19.99, it’s well worth the 15-20 hours of fun. If you’re looking for a true 1-4 player couch co-op brawler, this is a great one.

It might not be packed with content, but Missile Command: Recharged is an engaging new take on an arcade staple. The action is faster than ever, prettier than ever, and the introduction of upgrades and an online leaderboard provides reason enough reason to come back for more. I never factor price into a review (I’m grading the quality of the game, not its value), bit I would like to point out that Recharged is only a few bucks, so it’s not a huge investment for a bite-sized portion of entertainment. Recharged isn’t the most thrilling arcade title in the eShop, but it’s dependable fun that Atari fans will especially like.

Overall, while Star Horizon isn’t high art, it’s an otherwise interesting little mindless space shooter that gives you enough things to do to be worth a couple hours of diversion.

Ruiner has some flaws and isn’t perfect, but is still an incredibly fun and beautiful debut project from Reikon Games. Encouraged by the success of Ruiner, the studio is working on an FPS sci-fi game, but I do hope they’ll give us more from this series. There’s so much more to explore, so much more to Puppy and Her’s story, and a second game could easily build upon the very strong foundation of the first. Ruiner is a fantastic addition to your Switch library and definitely worth your time.

Despite its flaws, though, Curious Expedition is a fun adventure and a well-crafted experience. With deep gameplay mechanics, lots of characters to choose from, and a high replayability factor, this is worth a look if you like exploration adventures.

Multiple game modes help to keep the player coming back for more. Story mode is where the narrative unfolds, which is told in gorgeous cinematic stills featuring the same art style as the rest of the game. Arcade mode tasks players with beating the story line using no continues; die and it’s back to the beginning. Boss Rush and Battle mode round things out, and all of it (with the exception of Arcade mode) can be played at different difficulty levels. It’s always a challenge to bring a franchise out of dormancy after so long, especially one as lauded as Streets of Rage. What Dotemu and partners have done is such a masterful expansion and resuscitation that I’d be willing to say that the series is officially theirs, and that they have collectively made brawlers a part of the conversation in game development for the first time in years. Bravo. Buy this game.

Really, PONG Quest as a whole would probably benefit from more time in development. It comes across as incomplete on occasion, with gameplay that might be very engaging with a faster pace of movement and another gimmick or mechanic to go along with the special balls. The dungeon crawling is similarly half-baked, offering a sense of exploration not quite on par with even a game like Adventure on Atari 2600. Even with these shortcomings there’s still enough to enjoy that retro gaming fans or even longtime Atari aficionados may want to give PONG Quest a chance, but for everyone else there are more inventive games of this ilk to consider playing.

Overall, this is one of those games that’s going to appeal based on your tastes. If you like a punishing twin stick shooter that pretty much sends you back to square one each time you die, you might like this game. However, if progress is important to you, you’re probably going to find this game to be pretty frustrating after a while, especially if you make it deep into the stages and then end up having very little to show for it. That will go a long way toward determining if the $14.99 price tag is worth it.

Gals’ Fighters might fly under many people’s radars, but it shouldn’t. This is fighting game that deserves to hit a wider audience now than it did in 2000 by being on Switch. If you’re looking for something different but with the quality and pedigree that SNK is known for, Gals’ Fighters is worth a download.

Overall, this is a really solid game. For a modest price tag, you get a deep RPG with town-building elements that will give you many hours of exploration and questing. There are some rough edges to the game that take a little bit of the luster off the game, but what remains is still plenty enjoyable. If you like the idea of questing in a 2D world against goblins, orcs, and other creatures of high fantasy, all while saving the world, this is a game worth picking up your axe for. Recommended.

All of this writing might be for nothing as the odds of most people being able to play Cookstar seem low. The digital version is still vapor and physical copies are unavailable from the publisher and the majority of retailers. It’s unclear if Cookstar will warrant fans selling entire Switch consoles with the game downloaded as was the case with the Silent Hills Playable Teaser on PlayStation 4, but it nevertheless might take extraordinary measures for the average fan to play Cookstar. For those who do get the chance, especially if they’re a fan of Cooking Mama, they can do a lot worse. For everyone else, this is a mostly middling effort that might have risen above with greater polish and ambition from all involved.

There’s an earnestness to Rogue Corps that makes it even sadder to see the game fail as it has. There have been updates since the game launched, but nothing thus far has been able to elevate Rogue Corps to the standard of quality set by past series installments. If Konami wants to modernize its franchises for future generations, the message should be clear: fans want what made those classics so endearing to begin with, not misguided radical redesigns.

It sets out to tell a story and does it astoundingly well. I found myself melancholy when all was said and done, and although I’ll likely never get to hear more about the lives of Delilah and Henry, I’m grateful for the summer I got to spend with the two of them. Firewatch seems to want players to understand that sometimes, life is about the moments you’ll never get back, the decisions you can never unmake. I’m glad I chose to spend that night in the woods with Campo Santos’ inspired first effort.

Overlooking the flawed storytelling, fans will find six games stuffed with content and gameplay to enjoy. In the Zero series, players are treated to the same zippy run-and-gun platforming adventures that the X series did so well. Zero can be upgraded throughout each entry, with a number of both permanent and temporary buffs to take advantage of. The Zero games are notoriously challenging, but the Casual Scenario mode and Save-Assist features do a lot to ease the difficulty for those that are interested in a reprieve. This collection is a perfect way to spend some time and it’s highly recommended to consider giving it a download!

With additions like terraforming and crafting, the player’s capacity for expression and customization is greater than ever. Coupled with a huge array of neighbor animals to form bonds with, as well as activities to partake in, New Horizons will keep players busy for a very long time. Times are tough for many right now, but perhaps a trip to this digital world will be enough to offer some respite from the storm that is reality.

RE5 has lost none of its luster a decade later. On Switch, some of the graphical bells and whistles have been slightly diminished, but that’s offset by a bevy of control options and the ability to play the game anywhere. With plentiful modes and content to tackle, RE5 should keep fans busy for quite a while. What’s more, for series diehards there’s a ton of extra content (including an entire written history of Resident Evil) to parse through. Extra costumes, DLC, Mercenaries Mode— this is a very complete and generous package. It might be more action-focused than what came before it, but RE5 is still very much a game from the classic mold and deserves a play.

No piece of gameplay is wasted, so no piece of gameplay is redundant or filler. It was an absolute joy entering into this world, a world teeming with life and activities and things to find. Shin’en made waves with FAST RMX and will hopefully do so again with The Touryst. This is a real gem that every Switch owner should seek out and download.

Unfortunately, the technical issues perhaps make the Switch a less ideal way to experience this adventure. Yet, this version still ultimately delivers the story and characters that really make the game worthwhile.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 is one of the best games I’ve played in years. I spent every moment of its campaign gaping in awe at set piece after set piece. Raging dinosaur skeletons, suites overrun with plants, a kaiju battle, and a towering pyramid in the sand are but a handful of the sights to take in while playing Luigi’s Mansion 3. I never thought that the original Luigi’s Mansion could be trumped, but Next Level Games has officially outdone Nintendo with this gorgeous, wonderful video game. Bravo.

It certainly offers a wealth of content as it contains two already sizeable games and they even manage to weave some interesting stories while incorporating good gameplay ideas. Unfortunately, all those pluses come with their own fair share of minuses, with the most damning creating significant pacing issues. Far too often, you are dragged away from the main story to deal with repetitive and uninteresting filler. These problems ease up a little bit once you make it to the second game, but they are still present even if it’s not quite as bad. So, while there’s plenty to love in the games, you will have to work your way through some genuinely boring and annoying stuff to reach all of it.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition isn’t quite perfect: it suffers from somewhat muddied visuals and slightly unresponsive controls at times, but they still don’t totally detract from what is one of the most engaging, entertaining, and fun games I’ve played in a long time.

I never had the pleasure of playing The Ninja Warriors in the arcade or on SNES. I did, however, spend more than a few summer nights with a handful of quarters in a bowling alley arcade, giving my all to beat Magneto in Konami’s X-Men. The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors perfectly conjures up those memories with a wonderful soundtrack, gorgeous graphics and tight controls. It’s not a terribly long experience, and some will find it a bit too easy, but it’s a wonderful experience regardless, whether played solo, or with a friend. While arcades have become few and far between, it’s nice to know the spirit of those classic games continues to live on.

Whether you’re someone who played Link’s Awakening before or someone who never has, this is one of the best entries in the series and should be played by all. Don’t sleep on this one.

For an industry notoriously bad at preserving its history, it’s shocking to see a compilation like Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King. After all, how often do we see Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and Game Boy versions of the same game all together on a single cartridge? Though the omission of Capcom’s Aladdin is certainly a bummer, it can be easily overlooked in a package this robust. While I can already think of other Disney titles I’d like to see receive a similar treatment (Toy Story!), I would love to see other publishers offer similar packages for classic games. This is a model the entire video game industry should get behind. Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King is the new gold standard for compilations. Long live the king.