Maid of Sker ends up excelling in its atmosphere, as it absolutely nails the feeling of tension during the more competent stealth sections. While it doesn’t move the genre in any direction, this is a horror experience that will make for a fun evening for genre lovers, but it might lose you with its narrative.

Bye Sweet Carole is a visually captivating horror puzzle adventure that channels the charm of 90s animation with a twisted fairy tale atmosphere. Set in the mysterious Bunny Hall, players follow Lana Benton through a surreal narrative filled with clever puzzles, eerie enemies, and creative transformations. While the game dazzles with its presentation and imagination, its lack of narrative clarity and occasional gameplay frustrations hold it back from greatness.

A must-play game for any fan of SpongeBob. Its witty dialogue and constant references to the show makes for hours of entertainment during every moment of gameplay. Looking past the aged mechanics and lacking multiplayer mode will provide you with a substantial 3D platforming experience, which is something that I can’t say we get too much of. I can only hope this quenches the series’ thirst so that we can get a much need adventure that only builds off the foundation that this game established so many years ago.

Rune Factory 5 is a thrilling, addicting experience boasting countless events and mechanics that will hook you for hours on end. It excels at making players feel accomplished and satisfied with their feats while also providing recurring goals to pursue. Further, its likable, extensive cast aids in the pleasant friendliness of the simulation genre. The over-simplicity of its gameplay ideas and its deficient performance and graphical presentation can disenchant some players. However, if you manage to look past those factors, Rune Factory 5 is a standout Switch release.

WILL: Follow The Light delivers a visually striking and emotionally driven sailing adventure that shines brightest when it embraces the loneliness and danger of the open sea. Its lighthouse routines, weather systems, and immersive boating mechanics create a strong sense of place, while the narrative explores grief, family, and isolation with genuine ambition. However, uneven pacing, awkward controls, and inconsistent storytelling often interrupt the emotional momentum. There is a compelling game hidden beneath the surface, but the journey toward its payoff can feel frustratingly unfocused.

The Signifier is visually creative and quite a remarkable experience that ropes you into its mystery and keeps you guessing long past its rushed ending. It uses visual creativity that comes with the very concept of memory and dream exploration and creates some unique puzzles. While at times it came off as disorienting, those moments were in the minority and still kept me wanting more, flaws and all. Consider checking out this game the next time you’re looking for a mystery.

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream is an SAO fan’s dream and an action RPG fan’s nightmare. While the rewards provide a nice dose of dopamine across each match, there’s not enough content here to justify fans of online action games to invest themselves in. The story might hold you for around 10 hours, but after that, you’re looking at hours and hours of grinding across the same handful of maps and missions, completing uncreative daily quests and begging for something new. Still, the action gameplay is incredibly addictive, but the support needs to show up as fans did on day one to witness the cringy emotional drama of SAO, one more time.

Ninjala has a ton of potential to become the next big multiplayer experience. While its single-player experience leaves a little to be desired, playing online with others is a ton of fun. There’s a nice balance found in the game’s premium items, but much of what it does right can be found in the free offerings. Hopefully, continued support by the developer will iron out any rough patches to make this a longlasting online experience for Switch owners.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is an excellent, beautiful horror experience that works on modern platforms. From a game design perspective, it works brilliantly to guide the players through the nightmare with minimal confusion. However, the gameplay hurts the pacing with slow-moving characters, control issues, and repetitive structure, making you spend too long getting through it all.

At its core, Nanotale is certainly enjoyable. The simple act of typing being morphed into an RPG format sets a sturdy foundation for a fun experience. Further, the adventure is one that I genuinely felt attached to. It’s a shame that so much weighs on this, though, from soft locks to unoptimized systems and choppy framerates, a handful of offputting implementations hinders this overall decent idea for an adventure.

I’m delighted Spike Chunsoft and MAGES have finally brought this highly-desired game to the West after over a decade. Still, it should’ve been treated with more care, so here’s hoping they address these problems with patches in the near future.

All in Abyss: Judge the Fake does a respectable job of tackling this gambling card game trend by combining it with a good old-fashioned death game. The game doesn’t take that lightly either; each scene is well crafted and goes the distance whether you can stomach it or not. The pacing is just right for a story you may not be completely attached to, and there’s enough here to enjoy even after you’ve cleared the game, that is, if you want to play more Texas Hold ‘Em and be the cutest card player in the region. I promise I’m not being cringe, that’s exactly what Asuha’s goal is. Anyway, I had fun, but don’t expect too much depth.

Ravenlok is a surface-level action experience but a memorable fantasy adventure. It does its best to balance these genres for seasoned gamers to appreciate, but the target audience will likely be younger players. That’s not to say I didn’t find beauty in this fairy tale. The characters and world design leave a lasting impression making this a great way to cap off the Voxel Trilogy.

Demon Turf has a lot to offer in its platforming design that challenges the player at every corner. It’s a shame that it becomes repetitive upon multiple visits, but the charm of these characters adds loads to the overall experience. It’s a platformer, not much more, but it doesn’t need to be because it’s got attitude, so hail to the Demon Queen, baby.

Zool Redimensioned takes a classic game and makes it so much better. It’s an easy recommendation for platforming fans, even with so many other great games available in the genre. Sure, it carries some baggage from a bygone era where far too many games were trying to be Sonic, but this new release gives some measure of identity to a cult classic. Whether you’re a fan from the old days or simply after a well-designed platformer, Zool Redimensioned is quite literally the student textbook on genre fundamentals.

I appreciate how easy Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is to pick up and play. I’d recommend it to fans of chasing high-scores in the arcade, especially if you liked the original Bubble Bobble. However, past the nostalgia, there’s nothing that will keep you playing for much longer after you get through this incredibly short experience. Throw in the high price tag, and I’d say that you’re better off blowing a few quarters at an actual arcade then bringing this experience home with you.

The story is filled with emotional and meaningful moments, even if they interrupt the pace a fair bit. While the combat and world design can get repetitive, there are plenty of cool moments in terms of boss encounters and learning new abilities. So if you’re after a comfortably paced and unique Zelda-style adventure, then Arietta of Spirits certainly won’t disappoint.

From visual dynamics alone, Kukoos has a very promising appeal, especially to those for a younger audience. With a wacky storyline and eye-catching environments, it would fit decently into the 3D platformer genre. But the opening for that spot diminishes greatly, given all the technical issues in the gameplay and the plot progression. With aggravating limitations and a lack of polish, I can’t imagine Kukoos to be a platformer that would stick in anyone’s mind. 

The balance between fun interactions with the Touken Danshi combined with the easy-to-understand Musou combat all adds up to a really nice experience, if you were looking to immerse yourself into this Sengoku Period history from an interesting perspective. If you’re a Japanese history nerd who also enjoys Musou games that definitely have you think outside the box, definitely give this one a try!

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP brings the beloved 2012 zombie-slaying classic back with smoother combat and new content. Protagonist Juliet Starling’s journey mixes humor and action, though the game’s pacing is slowed by overly long stages and gimmicky minigames. While boss fights underwhelm, the satisfying upgrade system and campy charm make it worth revisiting. The remake introduces quality-of-life improvements and additional cosmetic options for players to enjoy.

As far as celebratory packages go, Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections gets the job done, but not much more than that. The story implementation is lacking, with awful recapping of the original content, while the rest of the game is simply more Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm. If you’re a diehard fan of Naruto and the Ultimate Ninja Storm games, then what’s here will likely engage you, but there’s little reason to return to these if you’ve played through them before.

Eternights is a true labor of love from a small team of developers that set out to create something for themselves. It just so happens that it’s also one of my favorite games of 2023. If you can look past the juvenile character moments and flimsy early plot devices, you’re in for an awesome experience that delivers quality action combat, hilarious character skits, and a very strong final Act. It’s an experience I won’t soon forget and one that doesn’t demand too much from players to play till the credits. The wait for this release was genuinely worth it, and I’m happy to see this ambitious project come together so brilliantly.

Fans of the previous Reigns games will enjoy this new title which improves on certain aspects from it's previous entries and adds new mechanics to keep the series fresh. With new deeds and goals to reach, Reigns Three Kingdom will cause players to spend countless hours completing every task at hand as they live through the final years of the Han Dynasty... If they manage to live that long.

Song of Horror tries its best to be a swan song of survival horror and acts as a return to form. However, frustrating puzzles and random deaths cause unexpected hang-ups on the experience. Yes, I remember when saving was limited to Ink Ribbons, but at least there was a choice in that feature. Still, there’s a lot to enjoy about this episodic nightmare.

Phantom Breaker: Omnia is a cacophonic mess, and if you’ve got local friends and want to play a janky anime fighter, then this is literally the best game of all time. The lack of basic quality-of-life additions found in modern fighting games, as well as aged and clashy sprite work almost feels lazy when every other addition improves the experience. It makes me question why the game wasn’t rebuilt entirely to start. The only way this game is remotely feasible online is through using Parsec on PC, as the game will not be getting rollback netcode. Despite all of this, I really enjoyed the game and had a total blast playing. Probably due in part to being able to play as some of my favorite fictional characters and I hope I’ll be able to play it with some friends down the line, as well as 100% the title. But I think I’m going to be one hell of an outlier with this experience.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash packs fun moments across its limited set of mini-games. While I wish there were more content, what’s here has enough quality to warrant a few hours hanging out with Tokai, I mean the Horse Girls. The pixel art is gorgeous, and the in-game rewards with new characters on the way showcase that there are plenty of ways to enjoy this chaotic party game.

River City Girls Zero is a fine and largely inexpensive preservation of a long-lost title from the massive Kunio-kun chronology, even if the actual title itself is far from being a lost classic that you need to play. At best, the game serves as an interesting origin story. So unless you’re a diehard completionist, then you’re probably better off just waiting for the eventual launch of River City Girls 2.

Sadly, Deliver Us Mars could barely get us to the planet of Mars itself, let alone deliver it. It’s a shame that a game that was already delayed once for further polishing still came out so rough. The constant frame drops, screen tears, glitches, and poor animation rendering are only the cherry on top of inconsistent puzzles and terrible lighting. There is something special underneath all that jankiness, though, with a focus on engaging storytelling and increased verticality (compared to Deliver Us The Moon). Still, KeokeN just couldn’t land this one right.