As a requiem for the franchise, this adventure is a layered, thoughtful sequel. It manages to neatly thread two vastly different gameplay tones together, with each of its elements well-designed to create a cohesive, balanced adventure that serves a variety of needs ... With a steady back-and-forth between moments of sheer terror and outright glee, Requiem hauls you along a story that forces you to reckon with its core message: that even against the encroachment of nightmares, the world is worth fighting for.

Is This Seat Taken? is a game that succeeds on this simplicity, with a strong core idea well-realised in a minimalist art style, and siloed puzzles you can tackle at your own pace. It’s never too complex or meanly challenging, but provides a smorgasbord of light-hearted and moreish challenges with little sparks of humour that keep you charmed by the experience...It does a lot with very little, arriving as a wonderfully well-formed, confident puzzle game with a sense of freshness, style, and pizzazz that marks it out as exceptional.

Across its short runtime, Mixtape makes a deep impact. As much as it’s about the story of three friends trying to savour their last moments together, it also speaks to the great promise of growing up and how wide-open, beautiful and terrifying the world once seemed then. It’s about growing as a person and what that can mean for the people left behind. Mixtape is also about the power of music and how it can help with these fears – how it can be a companion, express inner doubts, excitement and ambition, speak to the soul, or just provide an artful escape. In this exploration, Mixtape is simply magical.

Pokémon Pokopia is entirely brilliant. You'll have expectations. You'll want a cosy, wholesome adventure, with Pokémon given a chance to shine. Pokopia brushes all of those expectations aside with a confident wave, arriving as an expansive, ambitious life-adventure simulator that's absolutely packed with bright ideas, and the execution to match.

Whether approaching the game for the first time with this release, or returning for its add-on Star-Crossed Worlds DLC, there’s so much to this adventure. It’s bright, bouncy, and brilliant, and now even more so with its new features. Modern platformers don’t get much better than this.

In a sea of other modern games beholden to the formula, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a bright, creative new franchise entry that is bold, confident and charts its own wonderful course.

With a grand scope to this storytelling, and visuals to match, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a dazzling experience that surrounds you with its beauty.

It’s a tremendous piece of narrative game design.

In this mix – a subtle, clever humour, a loose but engaging story, and an ample variety of choice in every step – The Outer Worlds 2 is an impressive achievement. It’s a game that frog-leaps its predecessor easily and simply, with a variety of systems all working together to serve a brilliant choose-your-own-adventure experience that allows players to feel like an intrinsic, influential part of its world.

There’s even a seemingly Persona-inspired Velvet Room-type setting in this game – a go-between dimension where you can spend time raising Digimon on a farm, or spelunking into new virtual dungeons...It all adds up to a game that feels incredibly ambitious, wild, and free. Media.Vision has created an adaptation of Digimon that grasps the core of the franchise, and stretches it in every direction. Any idea the team had, it was absorbed into Time Stranger – and the game is all the better for it. It’s constantly surprising, and incredibly creative.

The Séance of Blake Manor is a wonder-filled puzzle adventure that wields its horror aesthetic well, telling a dark and consistently enthralling tale while leaving room for player choice and exploration in every outcome. This home may be haunted, but the ghosts make for incredibly good company.

Esoteric Ebb is a delight and a joy. It’s yet more proof that taking yourself less seriously is when the real magic happens.

This is a game that understands its purpose so clearly. The narrative may borrow occasionally from common tropes, but as each chapter dawns, Goodnight Universe feels more and more like its own thing, with clarity in its intentionality, and how it invites players into its narrative.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch. Having played the original, pre-patched version of the game, I was anticipating some elements of trouble, or at the very least, severe graphical downgrades that would impact my personal enjoyment. To my delight, I got nothing of the sort. This really is an excellent port, and one that reveals just how much better and more robust the Nintendo Switch 2 is, compared to its predecessor. It’s a great sign for the future, too. Third-party developers should be encouraged by this port, knowing the Switch 2 really is capable of handling massive AAA adventures, with only some caveats needed to deliver a good-looking, good feeling experience for players.

It’s so satisfying to move through this world, and to lay waste to Ruse’s army with your incredible moveset, that I can’t help but hope this is just the beginning of Joe Musashi’s comeback.

Whether you’re going pedal to the metal, or just popping in for a casual race or two, Mario Kart World delivers in spades.

Since its launch, Two Point Museum has evolved in some surprising ways, with its museum curation mechanics being translated to an array of settings. Following on from its delightful zoo-themed DLC, Arty-Facts is yet another must-play expansion, with plenty of new content, and a robust storyline to build from.

Saros understands exactly what motivates players, and presents all the tools you need to experience the joy of triumph against the odds. Even when it presents a frustrating road block, there is always the opportunity to move through it, with persistence key to enjoying the game’s many, ever-twisting challenges.

On Nintendo Switch 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder's stages pop with vivid colours, and the action looks fantastic. There's a layer of crispness here that really elevates the colour palette of the original game and its sense of charm. The upgrades make it well worth replaying the adventure, or challenging yourself to collect each and every hidden item.

Ghost of Yotei is a game of great beauty and great violence, its disparate parts weaved together in a sweeping, lush narrative about the transformative power of revenge. This is a journey that treads in the footsteps of Ghost of Tsushima, while charting its own course, telling a winding tale about a warrior-ghost who wanders a harsh, unforgiving world in search of solace.

Metaphors aside, Death by Scrolling is undiluted fun. It’s simple enough that anyone can play – but not so simple that everyone can survive.

In a world of swift movement, KuloNiku: Bowl Up! is an opportunity to take a well-earned cosy gameplay break, but one that allows for consistent achievement and a real sense of satisfying progression.

It understands that humans are at the heart of superheroics, and that a magical suit is less important than a desire to uplift everyone around you, and to help them realise their potential. To see past their flaws, to see what they can become. To save the world, one person at a time.

Even advancing at a wicked clip, the DLC’s plot is well-balanced, and it consistently provides new reasons to return as new features unlock and the dark, gothic story unfolds.

With its lovely cast of characters, all with their own tiny personalities and intentions, and the freedom to forge friendships, romance and make enemies, it’s a delight to vibe within Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. While this game isn’t as meaty as anticipated, and you’ll need to find your own sense of play, it’s entirely loveable, and easy to invest in.

Whether you’re keen on the game to improve your fitness (and it certainly helps there), or you’re just looking for an excuse to groove along to a thumping beat, Just Dance 2026 Edition will serve you very well. After all, we can always do with more excuses to groove.

While there are many layers here – it’s a Paper Mario homage, it’s an original fantasy adventure and it adapts beloved IP – each idea is given time to evolve. There’s a delicate balance required, and developers Sleepy Castle Studio and Wing-It! Creative have managed it very well indeed.

If you’re somebody with a knack for code-cracking, whether solo or in a team, Escape Simulator 2 is a wonderful translation of real-world escape rooms, with strong themes pairing with tightly-designed puzzles for an experience that’s well worth tackling. Keep your head on straight, and your brain waves humming, and electrifying mysteries await.

Baby Steps has given me some of the best – and worst – moments I’ve had in a game in quite some time, and I felt richer for both the good and the bad experiences I had with it.

While a loose structure and light story elements means there’s a lack of push for progress, Donkey Kong Bananza allows that feeling, and provides ample reasons to take your time, to smash everything in sight, and to see what you might uncover. It’s best played without a sense of time limit, to open your eyes to the possibilities of your journey.

Overall, the mix of these five new mini-games makes The Jackbox Party Pack 11 an incredibly strong Jackbox experience. There’s a wonderfully cohesive style in this particular pack, and each mini-game feels well-designed for fun, party-based antics. It also hits all the activities that make a Jackbox game fun – there’s a drawing game, a trivia game, a funny writing game and more. It’s all in service of a multiplayer party experience that absolutely brims with a bright joy.

While it doesn’t feel entirely essential – really, it’s for those who enjoy the supernatural side of the game, or just want a pretty new town to roam in – Innisgreen and everything that comes with it gives Enchanted by Nature such a lovely sense of charm. If you’ve ever dreamed of fairies and meadows, it’s a simple, wonderful delight.

Plaza is a game of tight little systems all working together, to create a joyous mini-game collection that brims with good vibes. For those who played the Corner Shop games, it’s a nostalgic return to a simpler time. For anyone who hasn’t, it’s an ultra-cosy experience with enough cuteness and novelty to be entirely endearing.

While this game isn’t as much of an upgrade as its predecessor was, it still offers plenty for players looking to live out their wrestling dreams.

Even in our own little fishbowls – whether physical, as in Covid lockdowns, or metaphorical – we must all make the same effort to climb past grief and hopelessness, and work through our own feelings and memories. It’s the only way to be there for our friends and family, and to keep proving our worth – if only to ourselves and nobody else. Raw and realistic, this game is a beautiful tale of overcoming and becoming.

We could all do with the injection of charm that Dogpile offers, delivered so well in a beautiful cartoon art style, and with those all-important, synergistic game mechanics. This is pure, encapsulated delight that’ll leave you buzzing with a happy glow.

The Reigns system feels perfect for the adaptation, providing clever choices in the quests presented, a housing narrative and the encouragement to forge on. You will fail over and over in your path to success, but with endlessly rewarding progression and always-surprising encounters, the blows are softened...In this game, Geralt embarks on yet another very worthy adventure, with his signature dry humour contributing to funny, ridiculous and heartfelt encounters along the way. Take caution as you travel and you’ll have a warm, lovely time here.

Despite being in development for several years, Pragmata arrives as a tight, prescient and timely adventure with plenty of thoughts to share about what our tech-infused future might bring.

Simplicity can be beautiful. Hidden around the World understands this intensely, delivering an experience that is quiet, cosy and entirely wonderful. For a break from the real world, or just an opportunity to pet some cutesy critters, this is one small journey that’ll take you far away.

It makes the puzzles in Little Problems a real challenge to solve, but they tickle your mind as you progress. While some solutions are simple, others are head-scratching, and in the mix of clues you’ll eventually find your answers resolving. It’s a wonderful, satisfying process, and one that gives Little Problems a real spark. This game doesn’t do much different from others in the puzzle-mystery genre, but with its warmth, and the depth of its many challenges, it’s a wonderful adaptation that’s well worth playing for puzzle enthusiasts.

For organisers, and anyone looking to bask in the glow of Unpacking, Whisper of the House is a wonderful, cosy organisation sim that shines, especially when it’s cute, strange, and unsettling.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is not complicated. It’s an old 90s arcade game but designed with a one-time payment in mind rather than needing a constant stream of coins. It’s relatively easy to finish but the moment-to-moment experience of playing it is hugely satisfying. More than anything, it makes me want to pick up a huge anthology of fun old Marvel comics and enjoy some convoluted plotting.

Borderlands 4 is a wildly enjoyable romp, with a raft of systems that work smoothly together. It's not without friction, in terms of its high challenge level, but it all serves a greater purpose, feeding into a cohesive and mature narrative about escaping tyranny.

It’s not entirely revolutionary, but with a sleekness in its racing, and plenty of ways to shake up the status quo, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds arrives as a bright, creative new kart racing game, with plenty of charm to make an impact.

LEGO Voyagers is a great, small, relatively straightforward co-op experience. It’s something you could play with someone who has never finished a game before or your gamer buddy who finished Elden Ring five times, and both of them would likely enjoy the experience equally.

Longevity is a touchy subject in this day and age, as many live-service titles have struggled to keep up with the gaming landscape. Marathon, for a while, looked to be one of those one-and-done that would be lost to time...Fortunately, Bungie has crafted something that proves that wrong, but looks to get better with each update. While not a single-player haven or easy-to-enter title, what you get is a great multiplayer extraction shooter that many should get in on as soon as possible.

It’s in the steps of this journey that In the Dark shines, as it delivers a warm, cosy parable about making space for others, even – and perhaps especially – when they find it difficult to accept love.

In its best moments, Skate Story is just an unbelievably cool game – and that totally makes up for the slightly more tedious sections.

Don’t think too deeply about Kirby Air Riders, and you’ll be swept away, quirks and all.

It remains compelling, despite its flaws, thanks to a steady, beating heart, and a joyful design that makes you want to forge onwards, towards a brighter future for all your tiny robot friends.

The world needs more simple, fun games. In Survival Kids, young players can learn problem solving, whether solo or with friends, and learn to puzzle their way through a variety of ever-more-complex terrains. While older players will find the lack of challenge grating, there’s ample fun in letting go, and indulging in light-hearted exploration.

While the game’s story is applied relatively loosely here, and you may occasionally feel bogged down by reams of dialogue, it’s a wonderful game to explore in bites. By design, it’s very bizarre, but with a wholesome approach and a wicked sense of humour, it’s also a very endearing experience.

Accept its oddness, and Don’t Stop, Girlypop! will find an easy place in your heart.

From mini shoot-outs to cute little outfits and architecture, it presents a bright, semi-historical world to live in, complete with a tiny saloon and a jail cell for those who break the law. While Cattle Country isn’t quite unique in the world of farm and life simulators, it does just enough differently to make it a warm and wonderful experience.

It’s the sort of game you’ll be thinking about long after the credits roll, as new revelations dawn. While it’s only short, its message is resonant – and in era where, globally, work and the need to hustle has become more pervasive in our lives, it delivers a message of resistance that everyone should hear. Play is powerful, and entirely transformative. We only need to remember how to weave it back into our lives.

Dear Me, I Was… has launched at a very low price point ($11), which feels appropriate for what is, essentially, a lightly interactive short film. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, and, right now, maybe the most visually gorgeous Switch 2 exclusive, even if it’s not pushing the hardware particularly hard.

In MakeRoom, you can simply create and vibe. That’s all this game is, and all it needs to be. Once you accept that, you’ll find yourself in a cosier world, where anything feels possible.

There’s something soothing about BALL x PIT. Losses rarely feel too dispiriting and that part of your brain that enjoys seeing the numbers going up is well-served. Some of the elements dictating how you progress through the game are a little frustrating but it’s all worth it for those moments where you bounce your balls just right and a swath of approaching enemy forces are wiped out in seconds.

As a solid tennis simulator, with layers of novelty to differentiate it from its nearest competitors and plenty of unique modes to conquer, Mario Tennis Fever is an absolute racket. While odd in parts, it remains charming and bright-eyed throughout its many rounds.

Kiln deserves a chance to go further. It’s got incredibly novel, cool ideas about character building in its menagerie of quirky pots, along with a customisation system that feels tactile and very creative. Even lacking variety, there’s explosive charm in its gameplay and a sense of moreishness that some competitors lack...The world of multiplayer gaming, particularly in 2026, can be brutal. Here’s to hoping Kiln can survive the fire and come out stronger on the other side.

Get to know this expansion’s many parts, and you’ll find a bounty of activities to enrich the lives of all Sims in your household – whether that means learning a new skill, or taking time to relax in Gibbi Gibbi Point, and beyond.

With bite-sized gameplay, bright and colourful characters, and a lot of imagination in gameplay, Lego Party! is a game that won’t necessarily surprise adults, but will provide a welcome party experience, and one that’ll absolutely delight younger kids. Even being outside the target audience, I can see the fun, and how it lit up the eyes of my niece, with clever choices elevating this significantly.

It’s a cool experiment, and one that demonstrates the uniqueness of the Nintendo Switch 2, but it’s unlikely to have the staying power intended. With a reasonable price point, the barrier to entry is low, but those who do dive in may find an experience that wears thin in the long-term.

I played the Nintendo Switch 2 version of TR-49, and I wish I had stuck to the PC version. It’s not just that the interface design suits the PC better – using a controller works, even if it’s a little inelegant – but the game runs surprisingly poorly on the system, with long stuttery pauses and many moments where the game would freeze unless I went back to the Switch home menu to re-enter the game.

With its sense of flash and dazzle, All’s Justice frequently inspires euphoria as you flit from one battle to the next. The action is breathtaking, to the point where it often paves over the game’s lesser elements.

While some of my appreciation is clouded by my disappointment in what Royalty & Legacy could have been, rather than what it is, I can still see the care that’s gone into this pack’s overall design, and it does add plenty of neat, smaller features that make Sims life more meaningful.

Tales of the Shire isn’t quite the game I wanted it to be, but for the hours I wandered Bywater, I still came away dreaming of my new, cosy life in The Shire.

As it stands, it’s hard to recommend Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour as a paid title. With very niche information delivery, it’s a very interesting game, for some. But for everyone else, it’s a quirky oddity with few key draws to make its hardware breakdown feel essential.

Demonschool is a game I appreciated more than I enjoyed. It’s a collection of great ideas, brilliant artistic choices and fun moments but they don’t quite stitch together into a game as good as the one you imagine from the screenshots and GIFs. There’s definitely something here; when I’m not actually playing Demonschool, I think of it more fondly than I do when the controller’s in my hand. It’s still worth playing if you have a soft spot for cool indie games with impeccable style, and can forgive them when they don’t quite hit the mark.

Here is a game that attempts to revisit what made the original Life is Strange so popular, that sacrifices the integrity of Double Exposure and its boldest ideas, for a softer, less punchy adventure, with fewer things to say. Seeing Chloe and Max together again is aggressively nice, but Reunion leaves so many threads dangling that it’s hard not to question what the game could’ve been instead.

I enjoyed playing Syberia Remastered, but I can’t bring myself to recommend it when the original game is right there and has held up quite well. As a product of its time, it’s a little easier to forgive – or at least work with – some of its flaws. Ultimately, the fact this new version sits awkwardly between a remake and a remaster means that it doesn’t quite feel like either.

Screamer is a game of half measures. It’s got an anime style that doesn’t extend beyond the menus and cutscenes, a cool drift mechanic that isn’t put to good use by the dull track designs, and a long story campaign that just doesn’t hang together in an interesting way...It feels like a game where the final product perhaps isn’t what the developers set out to make, or where restrictions have prevented it from realising its potential. It’s a shame – a story-focused, anime-style racing game with cool drifts and deep interpersonal conflicts between a diverse cast could have really been cool.As it stands, Screamer is screaming for some significant tweaks under the hood before it’s totally roadworthy.