Die for Valhalla! can be appreciated either as a surprisingly complex action RPG or just a fantastic casual beat em’ up. Whichever way you see it, Valhalla is a welcome addition to the Switch’s growing RPG library.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy is fine for the most part. A sharp presentation and fun gameplay mechanics ensure that you keep playing for hours. That being said, the first game really shows its age way too much. The overworld structure and boring minigames really don't hold up anymore. Another problem is that the games don't do a good job of explaining you anything. If you are a Naruto fan, and can overlook these issues, you might find yourself happy enough.

While Super Volley Blast is a local multiplayer game to its core, it’s a nicely crafted one that also has enough of an attempt at a single-player story to be entertaining there as well. This is a good arcade sports experience and is very much worth checking out if you want some good Switch multiplayer escapades.

If you are looking for a simulation game to spend some time with on the Switch, Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?! may do the trick. Just be warned: it’s painfully average, not bringing anything new to this genre, and super slow. I feel like this genre is better suited for PCs or even tablets rather than portable gaming systems because it feels too cluttered for the Switch’s screen and not comfortable on any television.

The Mooseman was a beautiful adventure that gave me an appreciation for a culture I had never been aware of before. The art and story told through The Mooseman kept me extremely engaged for my relatively short time with the game. Overall, The Mooseman is a game that offers a fun puzzle mechanic wrapped in a pleasing package.

If the plot was more compact, and delivered more compelling story beats, the slow battles would be more tolerable. If the battles presented unique challenges and were more expediently resolved then the story could afford to be less engaging. The fact of the matter is neither is compelling nor are they offensively poor. Despite logging dozens of hours, I don’t care about these characters nor do I feel like the battles have changed dramatically in a very long time. A fan of this genre would get some fun out of God Wars, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t, but the fun to tedium ratio is just far too low. Instead, take a look at better examples of the genre, such as the two Disgaea games already on Switch.

Joggernauts can be viewed a couple of different ways, with its best side being the party multiplayer. It’s deliriously silly in a way that matches Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime in tone and style. This is built for four friends messing around and trolling each other trying to progress through difficult platforming challenges together. It falters a little bit in longevity and as a solo experience, but those elements are more secondary to the raucous fun in multiplayer.

I had a lot of fun playing My Hero One’s Justice, but all of that fun came from the charm of seeing the characters I love on screen. I was already satisfied being able to take down opponents online with a Detroit Smash, but I probably would’ve been disappointed with it if I hadn’t spent my summer watching the the anime and eventually starting to catch up with the manga. My Hero One’s Justice is all about style over substance. If you aren’t already attached to the students of U.A., this game probably won’t be changing that any time soon.

The competitive aspect of Rival Megagun works really well, and shooter fans who are interested in the local competitive experience might find a lot to like about this game. The online leaderboards and collectable cards add some long-term play, too. However, the lack of players online, the random unlocks, and the pedestrian shoot-‘em-up stages leave a lot to be desired. Some may find good value here, but I can’t wholeheartedly recommend Rival Megagun to a general Switch audience.

The trial-and-error gameplay of Shred! 2 is solid, and there’s always a sense of achievement and hard work once a level is finally cleared. Seeing the camera pan out as a large jump is executed is also a really cool feeling. There’s plenty of levels to choose from and the customizable options give the experience a nice, personal touch. Moving with the controls never felt quite perfect, but doesn’t render the game unplayable. Shred! 2 is simply a pretty solid, fun game that has its moments once you look past its issues.

All in all, while I was honestly a tad skeptical by its initial concept, I found myself slowly falling in love with it and having a good time slowly going through each level and playing multiplayer with my friends. If you’re a fan of mindless arcade fun, I’d definitely recommend adding it to your library.

Skyhill is not the most impressive survival game I’ve played, but it still manages to have its charms. While the story and translation may be lackluster, the art is still charming and it manages to shove a large amount of replayability into such a small package. A successful run may take you no more than around two hours, but you’ll likely find yourself going back for another crack either with different perks or on a higher difficulty just to see how far down you can get.

Eagle Island is rife with outrageous promise, but despite its beautiful art and sound fundamental controls, everything else on the periphery falls short. This is an elegant trip that is overburdened by pratfalls and reiteration.

Ichidant-R comes as a gigantic bummer despite being a super neat and novel game that I never knew about before this release. The mini-games are enjoyable and the aesthetics are neat, but the fact that the Mega Drive options, including an RPG-lite mode and a multiplayer board game, are completely in Japanese renders those enticing options as non-starters. Unless you’re looking for a reason to try to learn some Japanese, this is hard to recommend, even if the basic arcade mode (that’s actually in English) is enjoyable.

I have some misgivings with Voxelgram. It comes at the Picross 3D throne and misses in some respects, but in a world where virtually none of this type of game exists, this is a precious gem. This game succeeds well enough to capture the majesty of Picross 3D on Nintendo Switch. While I’d love to see more charm and smoother controls, I’m just thrilled to be playing one of my favorite kinds of puzzles again, and with the prospect of procedurally generated puzzles, I’ll hopefully always have more to go back to when I feel the urge to chill out to a good puzzle. Even with just the 170 base puzzles though, Voxelgram is an enjoyable puzzle game.

Even with a handful of mild problems, Billion Road is a fun local multiplayer board game on Switch. The most notable potential drawback is that it is at its best when you have two-to-four players that are all down for some whimsical yet strategic tabletop nonsense. If you have a few friends at home or nearby to play Billion Road with, dive into the Japan-themed board game mayhem.

A Fold Apart is a unique experience in terms of what is on offer from a puzzle-solving aspect, with the paper-folding brain-twisters allowing for an enjoyable experience from top to bottom. Pair that with beautifully-crafted environments, vibrant colors, and a compelling story and you have a game that plays and looks great. If the performance was on point, this would have been one of the premier puzzle experiences in the first half of 2020. Still, A Fold Apart is one to pick up and play if you can look past the framerate issues.

It is overall hard to recommend Namco Museum Archives Volume 1 aside from checking out old Famicom and NES versions of games. The two major exceptions are Pac-Man Championship Edition and the previously Japan-only Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. If you want to see a neat demake of a great Pac-Man game or a cool never-before-seen Namco platformer, by all means go dive into this collection. But aside from those two games, there isn't much here but NES and Famicom versions of arcade games.

Ancestors Legacy is a title I’d love to see a follow up of on Switch. It places the groundwork for a legitimately great RTS implementation on consoles while lacking in a few key areas. The removal of multiplayer certainly hurts it’s long term appeal but the variety of single player options help to make up for it. The controls are excellently adapted to a controller, and bring up relatively few issues in terms of unit control. I do wish the core design allowed for more diversity in terms of unit production and strategy, but that hasn’t kept me from having some great matches. While some of these issues are inherent to the game while others are exclusive to the Switch version, none of them kept me from enjoying my time with it. Ancestors Legacy isn’t perfect, but it just might be the best RTS experience on Switch.

Even though Minoria does little to distinguish itself from similar titles, it remains a fairly satisfying playthrough. Lasting 5-8 hours, its campaign tells a largely forgettable narrative, but the action segments are enjoyable and the boss fights quite thrilling. A lackluster leveling up system means you won’t ever really feel all that strong; maybe the issue is that even the most basic of enemies are incredibly dangerous at all times. Fortunately, retrying after death is decently quick, and checkpoints that save your progres and refill your incense charges aren’t uncommon. Even though it’s not a must-own title, Minoria is quite competent and will likely appeal to fans of the genre, in particular those who enjoyed its predecessor, Momodora.

Even though there may be a time when more people have better online access and cloud gaming becomes viable for Switch owners, such is not the case today. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes, a Poirot, or a Phoenix Wright to see through the disgraceful disguise that is Hitman 3 - Cloud Version. Seek out the genuine Agent 47 article elsewhere.

It’s a laid back, short session skateboarding game with a great style. Unfortunately, it does feel like a mobile game with its simplistic gameplay loop, reused challenges, and few maps. Despite its limitations, I found myself returning over and over again to try to 3-star every challenge long after I maxed out my stats. That’s what Skate City brings to the table. A breezy, no-stress experience that’s addicting for 15-minute intervals. If you are looking for some low pressure coffee shop skateboarding, this is the game for you.

The running time is around five hours, and there are four different endings depending on how much you do in the final act. The game was already getting really frustrating with the clunky platforming by the third chapter, so it was really a massive slog at the end. By the time you reach the end there isn’t much of a reason to go back and try for the other endings since they aren’t that much different. There are some cool ideas here, but the execution never fully loads in.

As a game, Hindsight isn’t difficult to play or frustrating to figure out. Rather, it asks us to consider what questions we might ask our loved ones when they’re gone, perhaps nudging us to start that meaningful work now, while we still have time. If you’re looking for an experience that’s light on gameplay but heavy on the heartstrings, Hindsight is very much a sight to behold.

Thankfully, even when the going gets repetitive, the vibes of Paradise Marsh are off the charts. The tone-setting music from Disasterpeace (Fez, Hyper Light Drifter) is tremendous, and the chunky 3D world is stylish and wondrous. A handful of mysterious in-game achievements encourage further exploration of the world beyond catching the bugs. Your time in this paradise might be short, but it’s memorable and enjoyable.

Decarnation is a game with a lot of potential that it just doesn't realize. There are absolutely good points to the game, such as its fantastic sprite art for the environments around you or the grotesque monster designs you encounter throughout, and the plot is also at times very relatable to anybody else going through a similar downward spiral in life, but this is not enough to counteract the overly long minigames or the unfortunately lackluster puzzles. This is made a bit worse by the fact that the game hits the point where most stories of this type usually end, and then keeps going for upwards of an hour, doggedly refusing to roll credits in favor of a drawn out series of epilogue scenes. I really wanted to like Decarnation–it was near the top of my list in terms of most anticipated indie titles for the year–but sadly it just did not deliver the experience I had hoped. It is not what I would necessarily call a bad game, but it is one held back by its multiple missteps along the way.

Echo Generation is a fun, unique way to spend 8 or so hours, and I don’t regret my time with it at all. It’s a charming experience full of engaging gameplay and fun secrets to discover, and should a sequel ever come out I’ll be first in line to discover those secrets as well.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is simultaneously a fairly mediocre Star Wars game, while also being one of Aspyr’s best efforts. It still isn’t perfect, but it is largely an improvement on the original release, which I cannot always say for their ports and remasters. The Switch version specifically gets nearly all the new graphical features while maintaining 60 frames-per-second. While you may have forgotten just how repetitive Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is over the last twenty years, this is a pretty solid way to play it, so long as you can put up with a slightly shorter version of Jango Fett than you’re used to.