Smash Up is a mixed-bag success & lack-lustre design choices, but it has a promising future ahead.

Attractive and engaging to think about, less enjoyable for which to perfect solutions.

A game that excels in its presentation and production, but ultimately feels like nothing more than a hollow experience. Sacred Legends has enough clever hooks to keep you going but nothing to make it memorable.

Nintendo continue to take another safe step in their mobile gaming journey. Fire Emblem Heroes is enjoyable, but largely forgettable.

Though not the most exciting game, and somewhat compromised by its currency, Conflict of Nations: World War 3 has a decent amount of strategic depth.

Kitaria Fables feels like a short and sweet game stretched needlessly long, robbing the game of a lot of the fun it’s cutesy art style promises. But fans of similar genres, and people with a lot of time and patience, might well fall in love with this game.

Pea Ridge by HexWar has some blemishes but it offers an interesting gameplay experience with different problems for the Union and Confederate player.

Swap Heroes 2 is smart, but slight, and could have been much improved if its main mechanic was given the proper room to stretch.

That’s not a deep criticism, of course, and as a logic puzzle Ento is clever enough, but I find myself reflecting back to Zendo with a bit of nostalgia for the forthright inaccuracy of calling the rule the Buddha nature.

A reimaging of a dormant series that straddles the line between homage and invention, but delivers an entry that doesn’t go far enough in either direction. Oddworld: Soulstorm still has plenty to please fans and it looks gorgeous at certain points, but it’s often an exercise in frustration geld back even further by load times, control issues, and brutal level design. Plus he can’t fart anymore, come on man.

Soulvars is a pixel art JRPG that’s definitely not a deckbuilder, no matter what the synopsis tells you. It’s beautiful to look at and fun to play once you get to grips with it.

An ambitious, narrative-driven kingdom management game that doesn't quite manage to pull its two distinct halves together as well as we'd like.

It should be enough to keep you busy for a good long while, so long as you don't tire of the cookie-cutter mechanics.

Drag x Drive can be a lot of fun, but it can also be just as frustrating when it doesn’t want to play ball. For me, it seems more like a showcase of the Nintendo Switch 2’s mouse mode controls than a game that stands out for its own merit. There’s likely an audience for this kind of thing; it’s just I don’t think I’m a part of it.

Eternal Radiance is a nice little visual novel with some mediocre action RPG elements. It features some beautiful CG art and shows a genuine love for the classic anime ARPG genre it’s inspired by, but ultimately falls short in its clunky combat and occasional performance dips.

A short-burst Norse-inspired tale that's fully functional but lacks that spark to make it a top-tier experience. It's worth trying the free-trial, at the very least.

Seen as a first episode, it offers a strong foundation that, if followed up on by more ambitious level design and greater focus on its strengths, could be a real Wild West legend.

Beholder is pithy, with small sketches of character and darkness. Sadly, submission to the game's mechanics means much is lost in the God of efficiency.

An approachable beer-and-pretzels wargame like this one needs to have an inviting user experience that makes it more rewarding to play in short sessions and less of a management chore.

It looks the part, feels the part, but is lacking essential features to make this a genuine Crash Bandicoot experience.

Marble Age can sit alongside other quirky tactical takes like Empire: The Deck Building Strategy Game and provide a snappy, short­-term bit of strategic jerky.

Decent game that’s worth a try with friends. Feels a little light though.

A charming but troubled post-apocalyptic title that I had fun with despite its best efforts, Metal Max Xeno Reborn is a good game dragged down by some silly design choices and a lacklustre presentation. But if you know this is your bag and have a little patience, there’s something really rewarding in here.

An intriguing survival game that forces real-life players to sustain each other as the clock ticks down, one minute (year) at a time.

Project Cars Go isn't the car sim that some people might have wished it was, but despite lacking the breathless thrill of the best racing games, it still manages to be compulsive enough to keep your fingers engaged.

All things considered, I would recommend The Daring Mermaid Expedition only to diehard CoG fans, to someone who is looking for a light, entry-level gamebook or who doesn’t have a lot of time on their hands to really delve into a complicated and multi-layered story.

Deep Paths does away with many of the harsher features of those early dungeon delvers - there is no need to worry about starvation, or losing health by walking into walls. Nor is there a need to trouble yourself managing your supply of torches to avoid being plunged into darkness, as the lantern in Dark Paths seems to have an unlimited supply of fuel. Yet in other ways it is stubbornly old school, which may be a little too much for more mainstream gamers to enjoy. The good news is that the designer is obviously open to improving the game, he has already released an update with an option to make the monsters easier to defeat. A bit of time polishing the interface and introducing an auto-mapping function would really help Deep Paths appeal to a wider audience.

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening continues a long and dependable series in the exact fashion you’d expect, but playing it on Switch is a clunky and unintuitive experience, bringing a charming sim into the territory of irritating micromanagement.