It plays as a great mix of both, though lacking some of the tactical strategy of a Fire Emblem title. Warriors is a strong addition to the Nintendo Switch’s library of action games, though it suffers a few technical issues in handheld mode. The thick of a battle can be frantic and stressful on the player and the console, but never too much to ruin an exciting, fast-paced experience.

A game of inconsistent highs and lows. The simple joy of interacting with a colorful, childish world serves to remind us of a different time for video games. But when stuttering camera angles send you plummeting off a high platform, the lack of polish is painfully obvious.

The game’s multiplayer foundation is undoubtedly solid, but it lacks supporting elements that would compel esports enthusiasts, let alone Rainbow Six fans, from investing time in Siege many months from now. Whatever time you do manage to spend, there are rewards to be found through tactical planning and execution that you can’t find in any other shooter.

The slinking sensation of the fascinating control scheme makes it easy to recommend Snake Pass to casual fans and hardcore gamers alike. The soundtrack from Rare alum David Wise adds a soothing atmosphere to quiet moments and ramps up steel drums and pounding rhythm as the player tests their snaking skills. As the grass sways and the cartoony characters start chattering, it becomes hard to resist the charm and obvious love that went into this unique take on the genre.

The experience is meditative and relaxing, with no real combat, and Fe feels unlike anything else because of it.

Battleborn is a game that could really benefit from offering a free demo that doesn’t expire like an open beta test. Battleborn is dense enough to be easier to sherpa someone through rather than try to explain how the game works, and giving away a free taste might be all it takes to convince a friend to hop on board.

There is no denying that Days Gone is visually impressive, heightened by expressive motion capture and a lifelike wilderness. The signs of life that should make for a great experience are all there. But in every shining sunset, detailed human face, and open clearing, I couldn’t find any shred of soul.

Playing No Man’s Sky is very similar to my experience of playing Minecraft. I will spend months exploring a Minecraft world, gathering coal and iron and diamonds to make the weapons and armor, brewing the potions and enchanting the gear I need to keep me alive. I go on mapping expeditions to chart the entire world. And then I invariably spin up an entirely new Minecraft world so I can start over again from scratch and enjoy the thrill of discovery.

I wish the makers of Detective Pikachu made more bold choices, especially early on. I wish they would have infused every scene with even more personality. But when the plot works, it works. Reading-age kids will probably enjoy it, as will Pokémon diehards. But for everyone else, other games offer more pleasures more quickly and more often. Sorry, Detective. Maybe your story will turn out better on the big screen.

Beyond my issues with the controls, the final boss, and leaning too heavily on fandom rather than redefining these characters for a fresh audience, what bums me out about Star Fox Zero is that for me it lacks the special something that defines a Nintendo game.

Unfortunately, the act of doing all this research and genetic splicing amounts to the same level of involvement as a mobile clicker game. It’s just plain tedious. No one is saying that science has to be exhilarating, but it should at least feel more fulfilling than snoozing your morning alarm clock.

If you are seeking a challenge, look elsewhere, but for anyone after a fun and simple jaunt into a classic that lives up to its predecessors, this game is the perfect fit.

With beautiful maps and strong shooting gameplay at its core, there was potential for this experience to be fantastic. But without serious work and a fundamental relaunch of the progression system, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is an incredible disappointment.

Maiden of Black Water is decidedly an example of a game where genre experience and fandom has everything to do with its appeal. Games like this are fan service at this point, and Maiden of Black Water strikes all the correct notes.

State of Decay 2 is simply so full of bugs that it would make even Bethesda on a bad day blush, and it routinely puts a damper on its players’ investment, whether it be through architectural glitches, poor A.I. (like in the case of Mandy), or just a failure to load the appropriate materials to finish an objective.

Anthem wants to be the kind of game you and your friends log in to every day. The foundation is laid in a way to track weekly objectives, discover new sights, and build toward significant unlocks. The problem is, despite the undeniably beautiful vistas it offers, almost nothing in Anthem is exciting. The flight mechanics and character mobility are a joy to control, but so is Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Uprising succeeds in putting gamers at an exciting point on the Star Wars timeline, and it’s easy to get attached to your character. However, it doesn’t offer much in the way of information about what’s happening in the galaxy at large, which might be a disappointment to fans who had hoped for more.

Telltale’s Game of Thrones should be the end of any debate as to whether or not Telltale can apply its adventure game formula to any adaptation you throw at it. I saw things in Telltale’s rendition of the Game of Thrones universe that rivaled the awfulness I’ve seen on the show. I jumped from playing the post-apocalyptic Fallout 4 to playing Game of Thrones and didn’t feel like I was killing any fewer people.

It’s not a particularly pleasant experience—but it is uncompromisingly captivating.

As an odd, seemingly disconnected but nonsensically intertwined chapter in this franchise, it just falls flat. To play Darksiders III is to engage with a relic of a bygone era, when stiff mechanics and empty space defined the action-adventure genre.

Victories in ReCore, whether they were rooted in platforming or combat skill always felt satisfyingly earned, and that for me was enough to balance all the frustration along the way. But if I hadn’t enjoyed the Disney-like tone of ReCore’s story and had not genuinely liked the game’s characters, my patience for ReCore’s shortcomings would probably have strained to the breaking point.

The detective role-playing conceit makes Call of Cthulhu more than competent. Coupled with a compelling, unnerving take on Lovecraft mythos, the majority of the game is quite enjoyable.

The most damning thing I can say is I felt like Crackdown 3 knew I didn’t care about what I was doing—and never went out its way to even try pulling me back in.

This lack of confidence is the ultimate undoing of Survive’s story. For every unique idea the game presents, it almost immediately backpedals into a generic, played-out conceit.

This game could suck a lot of your time—and battery life—if you try to max out every conceivable level and configuration for every tour.

I found Jupiter and Mars to be a thrilling and thoughtful experience. It clearly communicates an important message and manages to be equally fun and charming. For the approximately five hours it took to reach the end credits, I was absorbed by impressive visuals and a weighty narrative. I came away with complicated feelings, and I can tell that was intentional.

The game is far from unplayable, but the persistent problems make it impossible to recommend for people who plan to play alone.

While the bosses are truly wonderful monstrosities to behold, the most frightening thing presented in Sinner is a game that’s damned to live with few original ideas.

I have a lot of patience for VR control schemes with wonky elements. Developers are still figuring out how best to create games for VR. But there has to be a valuable experience to balance out the frustration those control schemes can create, and other than a single moment of empathy for a suffering animal that I don’t think would have been possible without VR, The Assembly failed to deliver that experience.

Despite some flawed execution, the core concept of Has-Been Heroes is strong enough to recommend the $20 downloadable title. It isn’t quite the endlessly re-playable adventure implied by constantly changing maps and a rotating cast of characters, but the bite-size dungeon crawling action is perfectly suited to a portable option like the Nintendo Switch.