The Spirit and the Mouse is a truly thoughtful game that proves even the tiniest things in life can make a big difference. With its adorable protagonist, enjoyable missions, and touching message, it’s a sure-fire way to warm your heart on a rainy night.

The Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection invites you to re-experience two of the best narrative games ever made. Better still, the Switch port performs well with only a couple of hiccups here and there, meaning it’s a solid platform to experience the story of Max and Chloe on.

Tunic boasts satisfying and challenging combat, as well as a beautiful world rich with hidden treasures and forgotten knowledge, and revels in slowly giving players the pieces they need to explore its every corner. A delightfully colourful visual language and a beautifully wistful soundtrack also help, bringing everything to life with earnest energy that delivers a sense of childlike wonder that very few games can achieve.

While the core gameplay of Desta can deliver hours of entertainment thanks to nuanced core gameplay and a likeable lead, the touch controls can be a little frustrating and those looking for a challenge may be hard-pushed to find one out of the gate. Still, this game knows its demographic and those who belong to it are almost guaranteed to feel right at home in the dreamscape streets of Desta’s London.

A charming spin on the original’s gameplay, Shovel Knight Dig feels great to play, and the presentation around it is absolutely stellar. Sadly, the rogue-like elements aren’t well-balanced or interesting enough to reward many subsequent runs with little additional content to dig into, so while it’s a blast to play and complete, I doubt fans will be sticking around for long after the credits.

Wylde Flowers is a wonderfully witchy farming life sim with an enchanting story to tell. Soak up the chill vibes and relaxing atmosphere of Fairhaven, as you get close to its residents, get a handle on your own magic powers, and reveal the secrets of this sunny seaside town.

An impressive new franchise from Square Enix, The Diofield Chronicle has a thrilling real-time battle system that gives every moment a tense, and challenging twist. It’s incredibly satisfying to turn the tide of battle with well-calculated moves, and the high fantasy story is told well with interesting characters, great visuals, and a meticulously detailed story.

Potion Permit is a cosy, magical experience that blends the best features of the RPG, adventure, and life sim genres into one soothing, medicinal brew. With plenty of puzzles to solve, potions to distil, and patients to heal, your time in Moonbury is as eventful and exciting as it is stunning.

Bear & Breakfast is a delightful, laid-back management sim with heaps of personality. Despite some fumbles with pacing and controls, it’s an enchanting experience that oozes charm, and offers plenty of unique challenges to explore as you delve deeper into its world. Thanks for the wonderful stay, Hank!

Despite a slightly gimmicky appearance and card packs finally being pulled for all-out gacha mechanics, the well-executed risks of Cross Duel outweigh the issues by offering a selection of varied game modes, each with its own nuance, and a new way to play with the beloved cast of over twenty years of anime adventures.

A remake of an iconic yet obscure horror classic, White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is an atmospheric survival spookfest with plenty of jumpscares and puzzles to explore. While it may rely a little too heavily on backtracking and frustrating chase sequences, it’s an enjoyable blast from the past and deserves a place in any horror fan’s Switch library.

Temtem offers a monster-taming title that has enough to tear us away from the king of the genre, with an attention to detail across all elements from monster design to competitive online battles. With a little more charm, and a few quality-of-life improvements to the solo experience and the MMO aspect, this could be the closest the Pokémon series has ever come to a real challenge to its monster-taming monopoly.

Splatoon 3 will undoubtedly become one of the best multiplayer games out there. But the issue with playing pre-release is you can only spot the potential. It’s inevitable it will flourish, but I wasn’t able to see it in full bloom. Luckily, the single-player is so good it could be worth buying the game for that alone, while the surrounding quality-of-life improvements and various other additions make this easily the best in the series yet.

Onsen Master is an enchanting, mystical experience, with a gorgeous aesthetic and plenty of madcap fun to be had. Though there are some slight fumbles with controls and collision, it offers heaps of fun challenges, along with co-op and PVP modes to keep the gameplay fresh. Visiting the bathhouse has never been so much fun!

Hell Pie is one of the crassest games I’ve come across for some time, and I highly recommend it to anybody in search of a rude, fun, and hilarious platformer. Yes, it has a couple of performance issues, but those are fixable and pale in comparison to the great time this game is sure to give you.

Anno: Mutationem features a fantastic cyberpunk world that’s a joy to explore, as not only does the main narrative offer a certain intrigue, but the side quests you can discover on your travels offer more depth to the bustling cities. Better still, the combat is fluent, fun, and action-fuelled.

Gerda: A Flame in Winter is an important narrative adventure that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with publisher Don’t Nod’s stable of similar titles. Just don’t expect to be smiling your way through this slow-paced and sombre experience.

A new contender for the best wholesome game on Switch, Ooblets matches smart farming mechanics with satisfying creature collecting, and the vegetable critters known as the Ooblets are the star of the show. Dance battles are thrilling, and there are endless amounts of ways to customise and improve every aspect of the game but don’t expect to get anywhere quickly, as with so many different gameplay elements it’s easy to get buried under the workload.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection features 13 nostalgia-inducing games, each of which serves as the perfect reminder of why many of us love 1990s platformers. It’s a worthy purchase for TMNT fans or even just those of you that are after a challenge

Cursed to Golf balances harsh roguelike elements with playful and endearing level design and game mechanics. This, combined with the gorgeous art and excellent tunes make for a beautifully well-rounded package that’s hard to put down.

Idol Manager is a fascinating, tongue-in-cheek business sim with well-written visual novel aspects and plenty of scandals. It’s not for everyone, but for the right audience it’s a brilliantly crafted little gem that prods at the dark, seedy side of the idol scene, and challenges you with some tricky moral scenarios.

While acting as a steady starting point for kids who can’t tell their Pac-Men from their Space Invaders, Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a remaster that struggles to make itself feel necessary, with no improvements outside of graphics and mechanics to enhance the original Pac-Man World’s formula. There’s some fun to be had, but perhaps not enough to warrant a remaster when including a port of the PS1 title in a collection might have made more sense.

While a little lacking in content and options, Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a hilarious and satisfyingly silly game that balances its gameplay nicely between moments of skill and utter mayhem. With a gorgeous culinary theme and stellar presentation, alongside plenty of great rewards to unlock, Dream Buffet will keep players coming back for several helpings for the foreseeable.

We Are OFK is sort of a visual novel that presents itself like you’re watching Netflix. The story is good, the voice acting is great, the characters are excellently flawed, and the cast is effortlessly varied. However, performance issues, tacked-on gameplay elements, and the weirdly indifferent emptiness I was left with at the end made it struggle on a fundamental level.

An incredibly detailed and accomplished game that deftly balances combat with managing your very own occult village, Cult of the Lamb is an amazing game that deserves to be played. But no amount of humour or depth of mechanics can save the consistent and disappointing performance. I pray to Cthulu that some patches can bring this essential title up to snuff on the Switch.

Tower of Fantasy breathes new life into the MMORPG genre, with its bustling, vibrant open world, expansive exploration, engaging narrative, fluid combat, and well-rounded balance between solo and multiplayer gameplay. It’s brimming with potential, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this post-apocalyptic gem.

Mix together the Legend of Zelda, Crash Bandicoot, and Banjo-Kazooie, with a few other ‘90s classics and you get Frogun - a game that may press a few nostalgia buttons, but which provides a unique and innovative experience. I reckon it will be the next big indie hit.

Descenders may not be the ideal fit for mobile, but it works well enough on a touchscreen. As soon as you connect a controller, though, it’s a different story, as this port is so slick it feels like playing on a Nintendo Switch. A top-notch port which is only hindered by the hardware’s interface, nothing else.