For everything it sets out to do and accomplishes relatively well, Ultra Hyperball presents the same challenge in terms of recommending it that some of the other indie multiplayer games have had. If you and (probably more importantly in terms of long-term play) your friends buy into the hook of the game and will invest in getting the hang of the timing and controls there’s the makings of some fun local play. The problem is that having the right group of people is more key to the experience than the game itself. With simplicity can come accessibility but it doesn’t always equate to long-term challenge. At its relatively low price point, people will just need to decide whether it's something that looks appealing to eat up some hours on your own and with the other people you play with.

Underfeatured for the price. It's not bad, but it's just not worth thirty bucks.

Ultimately, Honeycomb Beat’s greatest asset and biggest shortfall is its inherent simplicity. The game is great to pick up and play anytime, but players may bore quickly depending on how much time they want to spend contemplating the puzzles. While its shiny presentation helps pass the time, its lack of interesting game modes does not.

While the background tunes are enjoyable and obscure, they don’t match similar title like Lumines(which seems to have been an influence). If you want to experience old-school gaming with a new-school twist, Space Invaders Extreme is EXACTLY how you do it.

Build-A-Bear is a fantastic idea, but that idea best left in the real world. This virtual version of it is a wasted effort.

DBZ: Extreme Butoden has good intentions, and overall is a polished fighting game. I just wish the execution was a bit better.

I really wanted to like Legends of Ethernal, but it nearly ended up being the most frustrating 2D game I played this week. It’s a very modern experience in a lot of ways, but it also drug up some very unpleasant memories of NES games that were designed to not be beaten in a rental period.

It is truly one of the powerhouse titles on the DS, and everybody should give it a try - especially Naruto fans.

RemiLore just doesn’t have enough variety to stay interesting for more than a few minutes. Though the characters are mildly entertaining with an impressive amount of dialogue to flesh out their interactions, there’s just too much you need to put up with to get to the good parts of the game. Rogue-lite and Action RPG are two crowded genres, and RemiLore unfortunately decided to tackle them both without covering even the basics of what makes either interesting in the first place.

Game & Wario is a very disappointing outing for a series that has pushed new hardware in zany yet inventive ways a number of times before.

Much of the enjoyment of what my friends and I affectionately call “Settlers” or “Sottlers” (don’t ask) is the social element of chatting, taunting, teasing, and laughing while gathered around a table. One potentially neat thing is that you earn experience points while playing, and by leveling up you can unlock new tile, game piece, and table themes, but earning some of these bonuses can take a lot longer than you are likely to want to play. Catan on Switch doesn’t have that, so unless you really enjoy playing board games against A.I. or have the patience to wait for potentially unsatisfying online competition, you are better off building the largest army or longest road somewhere else.

The game never develops into a solid experience, thanks to a host of design flaws that clash directly with the impressive technology.

Samurai Warriors: Chronicles does not bring a lot of big changes to the core gameplay, but the extra features and tweaks make it a worthwhile purchase for fans of the series, as well as someone who has never even played a Warriors game before.

Graded on the "it's only a DS game" scale, it's not a bad effort. But where is the track editor? Where is the online play? Why is the main single-player game so repetitive and soulless?

Everything about the game feels like it needs just a little bit more polish, especially the tilt sensor. What could be a very innovative and fun mechanic to add to a platforming game ultimately falls short of its goal and only manages to hamper the gameplay.

Though the game lacks depth, it is, however, a good introduction to the controller and a decent party game for kids. For those who already have their fair share of Wii Remotes, Wii Play: Motion isn't worth paying for.

Mega Man Star Force, despite all the changes they have made to the Battle Network formula, still feels, plays, and looks like its ancestor.

Even though game is lacking on extra stuff, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary is still Namco's best compilation package ever.

In the end Brawl isn’t necessarily a bad game, it’s just a hodge podge of ideas that individually may work but somehow when they’re mashed together it doesn’t seem to congeal. There’s obviously been effort to inject some personality into things but at the same time, what makes each character distinct ends up detracting a bit from the ease of handing someone a controller and having some fun. With the voice work, it’s also obvious that the single-player story mode had some investment but the glorified tutorials with somewhat bland play and wonky AI failed to leave a very positive impression. Just from top to bottom the overall effort plays out as pretty average, though its stuttering periodic performance issues make it more difficult to redeem.

I'm mostly disappointed in Super Cane Magic Zero. The fun, dumb world and deep RPG mechanics could have hooked me, but the punishing repetition and clunky combat kept me angry through almost all of my playtime. An extremely specific group of hardcore goofballs could have fun with Super Cane Magic Zero, but most players can find a better use for a group of friends.

Aka’s heart is in the right place, and it may have an audience with players looking for a breezy, slice-of-life game. Unfortunately, playing the game offers too little of an incentive for how challenging it is to control your red panda friend. While it may be true that a good deed is its own reward, such a proverb doesn’t lend itself well to the medium of video games. There are some worthwhile moments to be had in this world, but they’re just too few and far between.

Dokapon Journey is a good game, and while it is heavily inspired by its console cousin there are enough differences that keep it from being a shameless console-to-portable port.

While the most dedicated players will find a game containing dozens of hours of grinding and challenge to overcome, most are likely to encounter repetitive and simplistic gameplay with no major story to reward their endeavoring. Many will no doubt find the final main game dungeon to be too great an obstacle to overcome. Without nostalgia to buoy its lackluster gameplay loop and online functionality, Crystal Chronicles is one caravan ride you may want to skip.

While Gardening Mama comes very close to being a leader in the series, glitchy controls and gameplay that can become tedious and boring hold it back from being a truly enjoyable title.

Unfortunately, especially where control and complexity come into play, what works well in mobile is generally pretty mediocre on the dedicated gaming hardware of the Switch where the competition has set the bar far higher. If you’re truly bored of Mario Kart and looking for something to kick around for a while, or are less bothered by floaty controls than perhaps it will scratch an itch for you. Nonetheless I would have a difficult time recommending it for the majority of gamers out there.

Not a terrible game, and it does have redeeming features, but the game design is rather lacking in ingenuity and variety. Most players will find this game to be too repetitive and too easy.

Even without prior knowledge of the Persona series, it’s hard to walk away from this game without criticizing the quality. A boring story, uninteresting characters, and a soundtrack that begs you to play with the sound turned off are just a sample of the myriad reasons to avoid The Caligula Effect. For a select niche, the incredibly fun combat system may be worth overlooking all of the faults, if at least for a few hours. While I had a terrific time beating my opponents into dust, everything else is just too egregious to recommend to anyone.

Overall, the game looks nice, but there's nothing truly beautiful about it. The gameplay and story are solid, but nothing really stands out.