A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism is just about as complex as management sims get, full of menus, variables, budgeting and countless other aspects that genre fanatics love. It’s far too complicated for your average player, though.

What What Comes After lacks in length, it more than makes up for with engaging character dialogue and a willingness to discuss lofty themes in a balanced and emotional way. This is a visual novel worth flicking through.

Taxi Chaos sadly misses all the charm and fun Crazy Taxi came with. With poor graphics, simple gameplay and a ridiculous £31.49 price point, it’s hard to recommend this arcade game.

Balancelot begs you to be precise but doesn’t give you the tools or means to do so. The idea of being a medieval unicycler shows promise, but ends up being an exercise in just how quickly it can frustrate you.

Despite being labeled a remaster, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning shows signs of its age and rocky development history. It has enough qualities to appeal to fans of western RPGs, but only if you’ve already played the better options available.

Harvest Moon: One World introduces the fun new mechanic of moving your farm around, and it’s made the controls quite smooth. However, the simplified story and static characters could have adult gamers losing interest quickly. A good game for younger audiences.

Monster Hunter Rise is a success built on years of gradual improvements, but it also takes some giant Wirebug leaps forward to deliver an unforgettable and endlessly thrilling adventure. This is a new contender for the best game on Switch.

Astrologaster is a light comedic take on Elizabethan England, with all of its nonsensical religious and social hang-ups exposed to ridicule. Occasional hints of more serious social commentary add some depth, but the astrology mechanism is under-utilised.

PUSS! is a punishing pixel-precision challenge wrapped in psychedelic visuals. It feels far too brutal, and the control methods available aren’t always suited to the task. It is a unique challenge, however, for the brave.

Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse has some juvenile humour that can raise a smile but the repetitive combat, frustrating elements and bland graphics leave the player feeling like a zombie and looking for their own pulse.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection is an extremely challenging game that leaves you feeling both frustrated and rewarded. Players who are familiar with the series will feel right at home with this one.

With its unique take on social deduction gameplay and its unexpected mix of visual novel and RPG, Gnosia delivers an experience that’s unlike any other. Despite being repetitive at times, its narrative engages up to the very last twist – which is extremely satisfactory.

Mail Mole is platforming action in its purest form. Considerably cute, moderately challenging, with gameplay aspects that will keep both newbies and hardcore gamers happy.

There may be little original content in this adventure, but Cathedral collates a lot of classic gaming principles to wrap them up successfully in a retro-inspired Metroidvania tale. There’s plenty of ground to explore. Can you handle one more knight?

Landflix Odyssey is not only a homage to five famous TV series’ but it is also a superbly fun 2D platformer that has plenty to offer and will have you burping a chuckle out time and again!

TOHU is a decent point-and-click puzzler, with attractive visuals and some fun mini-games. A lack of Switch-specific controls and an over-reliance on trial and error hold it back, but patient younger players will enjoy themselves.

Littlewood will charm the pants off you with its delightful world and characters, but mechanically feels like the lite version of more established management sims out there. Providing that’s what you’re looking for, you can’t go wrong with this little gem.

Gather a group of four, and Bonkies will provide many hours of block-stacking fun. However, even the most meditative music can only keep a solo-bonkie sane for so long when the game caters primarily for a local multiplayer audience.

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy is a delightful entry into the Nintendo Switch’s catalogue of sprawling JRPG adventures. Its character, world and story won’t fail to charm you.

A reboot of the series that still stays true to its roots, Bravely Default II is most certainly worth the half-decade we waited for it. This is a must-have for fans of the series and JRPG fans in general.

There is a genuinely heartfelt story to be told between the self-aware blocks of Thomas Was Alone, married with excellent visual and audio aesthetics. A puzzle game with a heart and soul? That’s a rarity.

OctaFight is easy to pick up and play, and needs little time to master. Bombing your opponents off the screen to win is great fun, but with no online multiplayer or single-player, make sure you have at least one friend to battle with.

While performance and visual downgrades make it difficult to recommend the Switch version, Chronos: Before the Ashes is an intriguing and enjoyable rework of a once VR-exclusive title. Its unique ageing mechanic makes it worth looking into for souls fans.

Haven is an incredibly zen and cathartic experience that has a genuine human relationship at its core, with combat that expertly manages to match the airy flow of the overall gameplay. It sets an incredibly high bar for quality.

Although this is not the complete Turrican story, there are nevertheless four extremely playable arcade platform shooters in this collection. Turrican is an iconic 90s series that fits the Switch like a glove.

Glyph styles itself as one type of genre but desperately wants to be thought of as another. This jamboree of various platforming ideas never quite works, even if some players might find joy in its tranquil collectible hunting.

Cyber Shadow is a devilishly difficult action platformer that stays perhaps a little too true to its 8-bit inspirations. It’s excellent, in almost every way, but it’s as challenging as they come and that won’t be for everyone.

Much more than a spin-off, Persona 5 Strikers is a worthwhile sequel of the original game. The action-style combat feels at home thanks to many adaptations, and it was great to spend more time with these beloved characters.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is a Double Cherry of entertainment that rejuvenates a Wii U classic while also satiating the appetite of fans looking for a completely new adventure. We’ll never tire of Mario, will we?

A deck-building game that’s forgotten to include a narrative behind it, Neoverse Trinity Edition doesn’t do a good job of making your fights feel meaningful. Only the most dedicated of strategy card game fans will find any joy here.

My Universe – PET CLINIC CATS & DOGS is not the game I had hoped it would be. Instead, it’s a generic and repetitive simulation game with gameplay that doesn’t fit the price tag.

Little Nightmares 2 is one of those games that should only be played at night in the dark. Amazing art design, spine-chilling music, and smooth gameplay. If you like horror, don’t hesitate to pick this one up as soon as you can.

A beautiful world, begging to be explored, with captivating tasks. The interface can be cumbersome, and the instructions vague, but that’s peanuts compared to the sense of exploration and intrigue that NUTS cultivates. Don’t let me cashew ignoring this one!

BIT.TRIP CORE is a musical mind-melter! Pixelated bits are flying at you from all angles. Holding up/down/left/right and pressing A to the beat intercepts the bits trying to pass. The gameplay can get frustrating rather quickly. There is a lot to keep track of, and it will likely take a few trips to the Nether before you get the hang of it.

RUNNER is still a rhythm game: the chiptune music is still just as strong, and you jump, duck, and kick to the beat in order to progress.

BIT.TRIP FATE is a twin-stick rail shooter that is somewhat bullet hell-esque as well.

Another Pong-esque paddle-based game style.

A modern-day musical Pong.

Retro-inspired arcade rhythm games with glorious chiptune music.

Wrestling Empire offers the career mode most wrestling fans are hoping for from a WWE game, but the standard of action inside the ring lets it down. Not quite ‘so bad it’s good’, the wrestling action is just frustrating to play.

SYNTHETIK: Ultimate manages to encapsulate the retro-Sci-Fi boxy aesthetic of games like Starwing, whilst still feeling modern and fresh to current sensibilities. The game can be tailored to your difficulty preference, but the challenge is its own reward.

Heart of the Forest is the perfect novel with which to settle down with your Nintendo Switch and cosy up on a folklore adventure. It may be steeply set in its tabletop origins, but all these elements work brilliantly in the experimental format.

Heaven’s Vault is a truly unique sci-fi adventure game from Inkle, combining a non-linear branching narrative with an ancient language system begging to be uncovered and deciphered. With a good length and plenty of replay value, it’s a story worth diving into.

The Hong Kong Massacre is a challenging game that can often leave you feeling frustrated. Action movie fans may find enjoyment, but issues such as a lacking story let it down overall, and it’s hard to recommend at the current price.

Autumn’s Journey is a mercifully short jaunt into a fictional anime-inspired world. With a narrative on the grim end of the quality spectrum, and no gameplay to really speak of, this title should be one to avoid for most.

Sam and Max Save The World brings the crime-solving duo back for a modern audience and its new lick of paint is very welcome. Annoying flaws are a shame, but it will have you laughing as you go.

Electro Ride: The Neon Racing has a unique enough visual style to successfully set itself apart from other arcade racers on Switch. However, poor vehicle handling and the indecision of which type of core racing audience to appeal to gives it a limited appeal.

Tanuki Justice is a high-quality, retro-inspired, hardcore platformer that vibrates with the personality of the era that it pays respects to. It is very short, but for those that prefer an all killer no filler approach, it’s money well spent.

This pasta based platformer spends more time trying to be funny than being fun to control, but somehow doesn’t quite manage either. There’s some laughs to be had, but the ingredients here don’t work well enough together to make it worth a dip.

Iris.Fall paints a foreboding challenge, guiding Iris and her shadow (with the aid of a cat) through a neat puzzle environment that ultimately may lack the incentive to revisit. But the journey is an intriguing one.

Wingspan is a delightful introduction to American birdlife and complex card games. With beautiful illustrations and cerebral gameplay, it’s one to savour. Hardcore players may find the strategy lacking skill-wise, but this port is an excellent accompaniment to the board game.

More Dark is a game that plays on nostalgia for the 16-bit era, whilst providing you with a modern challenge worthy of any puzzle platformer, even if it does turn the frustration dial to 11.

Calico prides itself on being a game that ‘makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside’, and of that, it succeeds. Unfortunately, it’s currently let down by a lot of strange bugs and awkward controls.

If there was more competition in the field, Football Manager Touch on the Nintendo Switch could well have been in trouble. As it stands, Sports Interactive has the monopoly and, unfortunately for us Switch Players, it shows.

Mars Horizon is a simple yet addictive strategy sim that takes you to the very heart of space exploration itself. Take charge of your own space agency but be careful as one mistake can end in disaster!

Super Meat Boy Forever makes changes to its predecessor which add to the difficulty but also serve to make things less memorable. There’s immense satisfaction in finishing levels, but bugs throw a dampener on the experience in places.

If you like your gameplay to be repetitive and downhill (albeit with a boost at the end), Ramp Car Jumping could be just the ride for you. There are some fun physics at play, but not enough depth.

Nine Witches: Family Disruption is a short little action puzzle game full of toilet humour and pixelated gory goodness. It doesn’t present much of a challenge, but it makes up for it with a fun little story, quirky characters, and delightful dialogue.

Captain Sabertooth is, on one hand, a pleasantly surprising stab at a 2.5D platformer that fans of the series may enjoy. However, it has too many issues which will only serve to alienate young and old players alike.

DOOM Eternal feels like more of the same of the 2016/7 version previously released on Switch. It’s a bummer that it’s now eShop only, but it’s the same DOOM experience that you loved before, just with some difficulty of movement.

Drawn To Life: Two Realms appears familiar, but when you start to play it, it just falls apart at the seams. Everything that made the originals fun, particularly the touchscreen controls, has been disregarded, leaving a huge disappointment behind.

Empire of Sin is a weird mixture of half-baked ideas and poorly executed concepts. At times, you can notice glimpses of potential, but in its current state the game is so broken that you can have more enjoyment with any other title in the genre.

Descenders offers almost endless fun thanks to fantastic arcade action and infinite procedurally generated levels to play with. Though the move to Switch does come with some graphical concessions, this is a fantastic way to play this sort of game.

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is the coming together of two worlds that complement each other very well. Whilst some modes are superfluous, and others reliant on a second player, the perfect combination results in something fairly special.

Elden: Path of the Forgotten is a hard game, but it is far from frustrating and will please fans of the souls-like genre. The graphics, the soundtrack and the sound effects set the adventure very well, but I missed a narrative better experience, which would complement this game a lot. The bugs hindered me a little, but not to the point of making the whole experience bad. In general, Elden: Path of the Forgotten has some problems, but it's a great game.

Cobra Kai: The Saga Continues is a slavish love letter to the TV show it’s based on, but movie call backs and fan-favourite moments only goes so far. There are far more competent and creative brawlers on Switch.

The Alto Collection is a great addition to the endless runner genre and has everything going for it. I only wish that I would have come away feeling that both games were connected instead of like I’d been playing separate levels of the same game.

Amazing fun and inexplicably addicting, Wildfire is a worthy addition to your collection, especially if you like a good stealth game. However, the game is inexplicably laggy, to the point of annoyance. Fingers crossed that a patch is forthcoming.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a superb new IP from Ubisoft. It may borrow heavily from other titles, but don’t get hung up on it. This isn’t a cash grab. It’s a beautiful game and a quality product, crafted with love.

Star Renegades takes inspirations from different sources to create an extremely engaging turn-based RPG, encapsulated with a beautiful pixel-art style. Unfortunately, constant performance issues take away some of its shine.

While the precision and jankiness can be more frustrating than it needs to be, Area 86 is a fun collection of physics-based escape room challenges that fans of the Portal universe may get a kick out of.

A beautifully designed outing that manages to balance both 2D platforming and interactive visual novel sensibilities. Its stellar graphic novel design inspirations only fall short due to some heavy-handed execution in the writing department.

There are flaws under the hood that hinder Tracks – Toy Box Edition from fulfilling its aim. The user interface feels counter-productive, especially with a lack of touchscreen compatibility. Patience may prove fruitful, but overall, it’s not the smoothest ride.

Blatantly inspired by Resident Evil, Outbreak: Epidemic quickly falls into the ‘knock-off’ category rather than the masterstroke one. It’s dark, dingy and disappointing, and that’s how I felt about myself after playing.

PHOGS! is a doggone delight to play! The enchanting music, outstanding visuals, and simple yet dynamic gameplay will keep you entertained for hours. Whether you’re looking for some soothing solo action, or want to go for walkies with an online buddy, PHOGS! will scratch your puzzle platforming itch.

Absolute Drift: Zen Edition is easy to pick up, but can be tricky to master. Once you get the hang of the drifting, there is plenty of enjoyment to be had with high scores to chase, even without an online multiplayer component.

It may look the part, and it may even manage a reasonable shot at a puzzle platformer, but YesterMorrow’s parts don’t really combine smoothly enough to produce the gameplay experience that this sprawling, challenging adventure deserves.

Cake Bash nails its aesthetic, but while the quality is there, there isn’t a great quantity of content, so the experience gets stale quickly. Still, with local and online multiplayer, it remains a perfect quick pick-me-up – especially for families.

Fuser succeeds as a celebration of dance culture, as well as being a great DJ simulator, helping to bring your sets to life, making DJing a blast and providing the buzz of giving the crowd the night of their lives.

Put on your dancing shoes ’cause Just Dance 2021 is here to show you how to move. With superb visuals and varied choreography, it’s only a lack of online play and a limited core song list that hold it back.

Battle Hunters takes the classic real-time strategy formula of classic RPGs, blending it with a generous roster of quirky heroes. Finding and levelling them all up takes time, but is the perfect basis for multiple sessions of short burst play.

While intriguing, Dreamo’s mysterious narrative and environments don’t feel particularly connected to the core puzzle gameplay. Luckily, the well-designed challenges and puzzles alone make it worth checking out if you’re a fan of these sorts of relaxed, first-person puzzle games.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a celebration of the Kingdom Hearts that has come before, and a tease at what it next has to offer, albeit not in gameplay form. Addictive, nostalgia-inducing rhythm gameplay is at its fullest in this cohesive and chunky package.

Cue the sirens and smooth jazz and prepare for a wild ride: from car chases to burning boats, femme fatales to hard-boiled detectives, Chicken Police – Paint It RED! is the game you didn’t know you needed, but you definitely do.

Bake ‘n’ Switch is a fun game that is slightly flawed by its repetitiveness and online issues. As amusing as it is though, I fail to see why I would purchase this over the likes of Overcooked and Overcooked 2, which have cheaper price points.

Franchise fans and simulation junkies alike can rejoice at Jurassic Park Evolution: Complete Edition’s move to Switch, save for the visual quality, which took a noticeable hit. Three expansions full of intrigue, Challenge mode, and Sandbox ensure endless replayability.

Monster Truck Championship is a variable ride. There are some interesting management elements and truck upgrades to explore, but the actual racing feels oddly lightweight. Fans of the source material may find more to enjoy.

Improving everything good about the original while cutting the bad, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle spends a lot more time being a fun action game and gives you plenty of new ways to tear enemies apart for good measure.

For series fans, it’s a no-brainer; this is the best version of No More Heroes to date. As a newcomer, despite a lacklustre open world and some incredibly dull grinding, NMH still held my attention with brilliant writing and memorable characters.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has overcome the seemingly insurmountable task of respecting the IPs that it was based upon whilst also carving its own identity. It’s original, it’s inspired, and it’s a Game Of The Year contender.

Sniper Elite 4 is a joy to play. Even as we approach four years of the Switch, it has been under-represented in terms of realistic World War II-focused shooters. This satisfies that itch and then some. When levels are over an hour long but you never get bored, that’s a marvel.

Filled to the brim with content, this game has enough to keep you playing for hours on end and coming back for more. A sports sim done right. Pure Pool is pure brilliance!

Wallachia sticks to the 16-bit gaming template – warts and all – to deliver a fun ride for fans of retro 2D scrolling adventures. Repetition may limit the appeal however; this is a Dracula story that perhaps lacks bite.

Vampire’s Fall: Origins is a huge game filled with quests galore that will keep you busy for hours. Performance issues should have been resolved but overall do not detract from a fun RPG made by fans for fans.

Fall in love again or for the first time, make some new friends or don’t, in Later Daters. A fresh perspective on a genre dominated by a more youthful perspective. If visual novels are your cup of tea, and you want a new experience within the genre, then pick this one up.

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout aims to rekindle the campy military antics of the celebrated American toyline. The result is a shooter that’s serviceable, yet wholly unsurprising in its execution. You can go at it alone, but it’s more fun gunning enemies with a friend.

The Tropico series was long overdue on Nintendo systems, and Tropico 6 is a stellar example. While it’s a little overcomplicated and unexplained in places, it’s a super deep and satisfying experience. No recount needed here.

A must-play for any fans of the long-running web series, Angry Video Game Nerd 1 & 2 Deluxe is also enough of a hardcore platforming challenge to interest fans of the genre looking for a tongue-in-cheek throwback to NES days.