If it gets patched and put on sale, I’d say go for Fall of Porcupine, as it’s informative and memorable. But this charming, albeit short game with a lot of heart put into it deserves better than the bugs it has. I don’t think I can recommend it in its current state. The worse patient Fall of Porcupine needs to cure is itself!

Brawl Chess is strictly adequate. It’s hard to screw up chess badly, but as a video game, the aspiration in this take (or lack thereof) is pretty average. While targeting kids with a cartoony, less violent take on the Battle Chess formula is noble, overlooking a tutorial is a head-scratcher, to put it mildly. DLC is also highly questionable at best. Think long and hard on this one if it isn’t on sale.

Gem Wizards Tactics has some fun tactical battles going on with cute-looking characters. While the design elements can make it harder to enjoy, if you’re in the mood for a simple version of Fire Emblem and can grab it on special, it could be worth a go.

Radio Squid has varying moments of charm with its monochrome look and fun chiptune soundtrack. But, sadly, it falls short due to a beat-based shooting mechanic that continually works against you and feels half-baked.

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is an unfortunate step backward. It’s a fun, but very vanilla entry in the long-running series. The launch content doesn’t match the launch price, nor does it compare favorably with other arcade games available on the Switch eShop.

A sanitized retelling of the legend of Zorro with simple controls and an innocent sense of humor that largely achieves its goals as a companion game to the new cartoon.

With only one style of gameplay, just over a handful of stages, and only six characters that look generally the same, the $9.99 asking price just doesn’t seem worth it. Gurgamoth felt more like early access or a test demo than a full game.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are fine enough remakes for reliving some memories and sharing them with the next generation. But beneath the glow of nostalgia, there’s a carelessness about their build that makes them fall short of expectations.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are fine enough remakes for reliving some memories and sharing them with the next generation. But beneath the glow of nostalgia, there’s a carelessness about their build that makes them fall short of expectations.

Black Widow Recharged has too high a price, too little going for it, and too many bugs (the last of which is at least somewhat appropriate, I guess).

Crypto by POWGI is a clean and simple game featuring 180 cryptograms comprised of well-known famous quotes. It does what it’s good at effectively, but there isn’t a lot to differentiate it from puzzles you can find for free online.

Rather than being a game for the whole family, My Universe – PET CLINIC CATS & DOGS is very much for younger kids. I can see them enjoying it for a couple of hours before the repetition cements itself. But this is a $29.99 game, and there’s no way to justify that price. The quality isn’t high enough for what ends up being an average game in most respects that kids will grow bored with.

If you haven’t played A Short Hike yet, you might get into Haven Park for a little bit. But it’s a game that seriously needs more original ideas and better implementation of ideas in general.

I’ve genuinely attempted to click with Berzerk: Recharged (and the Recharged series overall). But, after many weeks, it’s clear I never will. This game doesn’t deliver what it promises, which is a “revival of an arcade classic.”

Wizard of Bug is a goofy title for this Sokoban game with a twist. It loses some of its early goodwill through needless plot, an unbalanced difficulty curve, and many more oddities. Locking content behind beating the game was also a sizable mistake. You can check out the demo if you like. But this release demands constant focus, and don’t be surprised if it really struggles to keep yours.

Claybook is admittedly ambitious. It’s also quite a nice looking and unique game, with commendable user features. Yet it struggled to command my attention, lacking elements to maintain interest beyond a few minutes at a time. The community creations do help here to an extent, but the overall experience needs to be tightened, and perhaps reigned in a bit.

There would be a good story to be had if Tharsis was developed to involve more than just trying to survive a few rounds. The theme of surviving on a spaceship and figuring out how to keep everything—and everyone—together should make for a good game. Unfortunately, Tharsis fails on too many points to be really worth playing.

Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers starts off great, with a promising story and fun enemies. But the longer I played, the weaker it became. It’s a simple game (move from point A to point B in a linear fashion) and a short one by RPG standards, so kids might be entertained by it for a while. But the story ultimately resigns itself to cliches, and the backtracking and repetition combine to make this just an average game, at best.

I get that this is more like an interactive story than an actual game. But I’d like some more interaction and less story. The reality of Evans’s life is just a little too close to home for me, but this would be a good learning experience for someone trying to understand depression and other mental health issues.

Alex Kidd was more or less usurped by Sonic the Hedgehog as SEGA’s golden boy, and it’s not hard to see why. This platformer may have rendered some fun in 1986, but considering it’s a direct remake, it’s still a clunky platformer that has not aged well. If you’re an Alex Kidd fan, this is nothing short of a must-have, the QoL improvements make it a little more playable, and it’s one of the best-looking remakes on the Switch. If you need a satisfying platforming fix, it’s hard to recommend this classic title.

Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash boils the elements of the show down to a fighting game that’s likely to appeal only to fans of the show. Even to them, we have to suggest there are many fighting games out there to better occupy your time.

Thief of Thieves: Season One offers a good crime thriller with superb writing, but is bogged down by janky AI and a serious lack of polish in its gameplay sections. For those fans of the comic or those looking for just the story aspects you might have something worth looking at here, but stealth fans should look elsewhere.

As it is, the levels in Dyna Bomb, while not bad, aren’t fun or interesting enough to sustain repetitive trial-and-error gameplay. So, this is an average Switch game at present, one that could be quite good if it had a bit more polish. Perhaps a welcomed patch will arrive, with options that push this game’s mobile origins further to the backside. Meanwhile, despite a number of positives, I’d wait for a sale if the game strikes your fancy, as it doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression right now.

Shapeshooter is an interesting concept for an action shooter. However, it is too repetitive, often, and the difficulty is unbalanced. On the other hand, the controls and graphics are smooth and easy to look at.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a game with good ideas but bad implementation. While this story is scaled-down and has a unique twist to combat, this entry is riddled with bugs, monetization, and timers that can make this game a drag.

Fight’N Rage reminds you of a classic ‘90s arcade game, though the controls don’t hold up. Otherwise, with nostalgic graphics and music, it’d be a great game.

Arrest of a stone Buddha was way too repetitive for me. I didn’t get into the story, and the gameplay was overall frustrating. One thing I did enjoy was the retro graphics and the ambient soundtrack. If you want to checkout Arrest of a stone Buddha, I recommend waiting on a sale.

Although it tries to shake up the shooter forumal, Redout: Space Assault doesn’t fully succeed, with a lack of clear instructions and a control scheme that’s not intuitive. Although there’s plenty of action, it’s not as satisfying as it should be to shoot your way through space.