Shadows of Adam is an enjoyable but familiar JRPG. It doesn’t do anything overly surprising, but its fun combat mechanics and humorous writing largely overshadow a by-the-numbers story. It isn’t overly challenging, but sometimes it’s nice to step away from the grind and the random battles and take on something more leisurely. Those who long for the plethora of similar titles from the SNES days will find a better than average adventure here that outclasses many of the budget releases currently on the eShop.

At its core, it’s still a super fun and well-crafted puzzle game. Despite issues with spinning up new players for the intended online eSports puzzle world, Puyo Puyo Champions has a smooth interface and a decent amount of options. It’s much more streamlined and optimized for multiplayer, though. This is a great option if you want to play this puzzler online against pros or locally with friends. If you crave a more light-hearted romp, Puyo Puyo Tetris is still available on this system and has a daffy story mode. Champions is primarily for the lionhearted.

The level of production found in Masquerada is above and beyond what I would have expected from a small team of 15 artists, programmers, and designers. From the impeccable writing to the beautiful music, everything about this game feels polished. Each and every character you meet is interesting and well developed, and the adventure is perfectly paced. Anyone with a passing fancy for RPGs and who loves a well thought out and engaging story would do well to give this title a look.

In a lot of ways, Final Fantasy X-2 could be considered the superior title to Final Fantasy X. The battle system has more variety, the tone is more upbeat and fun, but without the context of the events that occur in the first game, the story just won’t make a lot of sense. I definitely recommend exploring Spira during what should be the eternal calm, but not until after you’ve actually defeated Sin.

It effortlessly blends tabletop and video games into an enjoyable experience that claws at what both can excel at. Creating characters, exploring overworlds, battling through dungeons, and doing it all with a friend or two is a fun time. The roguelike design also helps make it a little more varied, making this great to break out at a game night. In a way, it’s like a tabletop campaign without a dungeon master. In the ideal circumstances, it’s electric and even just as a solo game, it’s a good ride.

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! caught my interest with its presentation and gradually won me over with a surprisingly comprehensive and diverse set of levels that are challenging without being unfair. If you can ride out an initial hump of stress in learning how to play, then much like leaving work at the end of a long shift, you’ll find a strong sense of satisfaction cooking and serving delicious digital food.

The clumsy button controls make this a less than ideal Switch game. While the value proposition across both platforms is similar, it’s worth noting the first level is free on mobile. Maybe try it out there and if you’re still curious, hop over to Switch and play it handheld. It’s not worth trying any other way and it might be worth playing for the wanton death and puzzles.

I'm not mad at Shakedown: Hawaii, just disappointed. Vblank demonstrated a deep understanding of mechanics-based story cohesion in its last release, but that seems to be forgotten here. The disconnect between plot and play in Shakedown leave both shallow and underwhelming.

Ultimately, it serves as an unexpected but welcome send off to a game that sadly ended too soon. For the faithful, attach that giant plastic Arwing to your Joy-Con one last time, and head back into Atlas.

There’s no shortage of arcade shooters on the digital shelves of the eShop and because of that, it can be difficult to stand out among the masses. That said, Hell is Other Demons separates itself not only with stunning visuals, but with its wonderfully designed campaign mode. I prefer how upgrades work within the campaign more than the arcade mode, but the fast-paced arcade action is still a blast to play. My chief complaints have been addressed in a post launch patch, making this a strong experience front to back.

Mortal Kombat 11 is an incredible fighting game, and Shiver Entertainment’s work in porting the game to Switch is beyond impressive. I wish that I could’ve enjoyed playing it so much more, but the arduous grind for cosmetics permeates so strongly through the backbone of this game that picking it up to play at all can be frustrating. NetherRealm has promised a patch to make the grind easier, but all it seems to do is increase the rate you gain currency without removing the always-online restrictions. I hope that someday they relax a bit more and make Towers of Time more playable on the go, because right now I can’t recommend Mortal Kombat on Switch nearly as much as I want to.

Overall, I’d say I like World Mission as a fun game to pick up once in a while, watch DB characters beat each other up, and enjoy a Japanese arcade experience on the go. For longer play sessions, the game can sometimes dip into monotony, but as far as fanservice-powered Dragon Ball spin-offs go, you could do a lot worse.

An excellent triumph that takes the idea of a roguelite Zelda and turns it into something distinct and wonderful.

Overall, VA-11 HALL-A on the Switch is a marvelous port that works far better than I ever expected it to. The new controls may take some getting used to, but after a few minutes tinkering with them I found they came pretty naturally, and overall the game has kept the charm and likeability that drew me to it back in 2016. Gameplay may get a bit stale after long sessions of play, but for small relaxing wind-down sessions at the end of the night, you’ll find no better place to be than in Jill’s head during yet another shift at the bar.

Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World is a unique spin-off that I quite enjoyed. Not everything works about the title, like the investigations and opening portions of the adventure. Particularly the latter could've been so much better by not throwing me into an unskippable tutorial. Once you get handed the reigns over the journey, it is a surprisingly fun town management game I couldn't stop playing.

Homo Machina is a one trick pony, but one that has been tremendously cared for. The puzzles are fun, and the fact that the human body is controlled by little people is a neat touch.

While I did wish the controls were better, I did like the puzzles a whole lot.

As an experience, it did the trick somewhat convincingly, but don't expect anything majorly engaging during your playthrough.

Dig Dog is effective in how straightforward it is. You’re a dog. You dig. Go get those bones and survive. Part of me wishes the experience were smoother and more polished, but I also appreciate how raw Dig Dog feels.

GIGA WRECKER ALT. lacks the charm and fun of previous Game Freak titles. I found playing through it more of a slog than a fun way to spend a dozen hours.

A number of different modes, including a franchise campaign, challenges, and tournaments, provide a variety of play options, but ultimately the gameplay just isn’t all that compelling. As a silly multiplayer game that you’re looking to have some dumb fun with a group of friends, Super Blood Hockey succeeds. For a hockey experience worth sinking countless hours into, the wait continues.

Unless you are terribly nostalgic for the games in this package or a die-hard shoot-em’-up fan, I can’t fully recommend it when there are such better value propositions out there.

BoxBoy+BoxGirl is a successful and enjoyable puzzler with enough new additions in co-op and the rectangular box segments to feel fresh and new. While some aspects of BoxBoy’s design are well-worn and overdone in the fourth entry, the entire package is endearingly charming with its minimalist presentation and clever twists that make most retread portions mere bumps in the road that don’t detract from the overall fun.

Picross S3 is another solid entry in Jupiter’s long-lasting Nintendo-centric series. While the lack of touchscreen support is still disappointing, the puzzles are as good as ever and the addition of Color Picross is presented in a smart way that makes me wish more of the puzzles made use of the new hook. Maybe we’ll see that mode expanded on when Picross S4 inevitably hits in 2020.

Shadow Blade: Reload is not a terrible game by any means, but it doesn’t do anything to make it worth playing over others in the genre.

I loved my time with Pitfall Planet, but felt that the experience was a tad short as I neared the 100% completion mark after only 6 hours. The difficulty of levels climbed slowly but steadily over that time period and I felt a few more hours with the ever increasingly complex levels would have been nice. However, that shouldn’t detract from what is presented in the package as it is a tightly designed cooperative puzzler that can compete with the best in the genre.

This experience is not for me, and I suspect a lot of players will feel the same.

My time with SteamWorld Quest was thoroughly satisfying, and in between playing lengthy Final Fantasy ports, I was glad to have a more compact experience close at hand. Rather than running out of steam, Hand of Gilgamech plays its cards rather perfectly.