I find the original board game a bit shallow and this video game version is no different, but it’s a decent enough game to play with younger kids.

As such, I think it's worth giving it a shot, especially if you're fond of Tetris on the Game Boy from more than two decades ago and want to see how you deal when the ingrained Tetris formula is turned on its ear.

Apart from its attractive presentation, Super Nanaru is a bit plain as a game. That’s especially the case for those of us who have been playing mobile games for a long time. The large sprite makes the platforming a little awkward at times, and the game’s penchant for dirty tricks is something you’ll either love or hate. Infinite lives and generous checkpointing means even the toughest stages are surmountable, but that doesn’t make it any more tolerable when, say, a bus drives in front of the platforms you’re hopping across and completely obscures them. I can’t say it doesn’t have its charms, but it ultimately didn’t do a lot for me.

If you must have it portable, it's not the worst choice But if you just love the game, there are fine versions of it on XBLA and PSN that are simply easier to maneuver.

A short but entirely enjoyable little top-down action game. The largely timing-based puzzles aren't too mentally taxing and keep the core of the gameplay at a fairly fast pace.

Letris 2 uses what might be the worst dictionary I've had the pleasure of bashing my head against.

If you're okay with the way they've approached the whole freemium thing, Zombie Panic in Wonderland will probably make you rather happy. If not, steer clear.

In summary, Colin McRae Rally is a good game but with the series' heritage, it should have been a fantastic game. Perhaps the reason there wasn't a major fanfare about the iOS release was it was just cash-cow milking experiment.

So, if you're a fan of WWE and its brand of muscle-bound entertainment or just a dude tweaking over the lack of Angry Birds content, I'd say go ahead and give this one a go. I dug it and I'm the kind of guy who often rolls his eyes at Angry Birds references.

Tumbledrop isn't particularly original, but if you're a fan of these types of games you likely have several similar ones on your phone already.

It's a pleasant enough read and the unusual puzzles are a nice change of pace, but it doesn't quite offer the bang for the buck that you would get with many of Tin Man's other efforts.

As it is, The Firm's monotony, gallows humor and lack of depth are holding back an otherwise very beautiful game.

I love falling block puzzlers and there are a lot of good aspects to Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine. It looks good, the controls are responsive, and I respect that it tries something new in the genre. Unfortunately the core gimmick is also what sinks it. It’s too hard to focus on setting up solid combos when you have to deal with all the frustrating traps along the way. Survival often feels like pure luck, and I’m not a fan of that kind of thing in a game like this. Ultimately, I’d just rather play Puyo Puyo.

It might not be the follow-up to A Dark Room you would like, but it's highly likely nothing could be.

F1 2016 is a great game if you only want to do Time Trials but a pretty frustrating one if you like racing against the AI. Codemasters has always had a problem getting the AI to work right in its F1 games, so I'm not really surprised to see the AI in F1 2016 having all these issues.

Once you get past the nice visuals and interesting locations, Men's Room Mayhem is a pretty standard affair as far as line-drawing games are concerned. It's enjoyable, and the thematics are certainly different, but there's really not much new as far as gameplay. Based on that, unless you're looking to revive the glory days of old-school line-drawing, I'd probably suggest taking a pass.

It's certainly not the most interesting revival we've ever seen, and neither does it forge any new ground in terms of a standalone iOS title. I'd never accuse it of being a bad game -- far from it -- but it's simply too pedestrian to get remotely excited about.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a companion game and it feels very much like one. It’s a very average game overall, with the strongest point being its presentation and the weakest being how much of a grind it becomes. It’s hard to recommend to anyone who isn’t deeply interested in Eiyuden Chronicle, and even then something tells me this isn’t going to be a critical piece of lore for the main game. It’s adequate, and given how many excellent games we have on the Switch of a similar style, I’m not sure that’s enough.

True, the gorgeous visuals certainly warrant consideration (especially on newer iOS hardware), and the battle system is filled with potential, but the controls are a huge black mark on the entire experience.

While playing, I thought a lot about game design in general, how it empowers us and enforces the notion that we can accomplish greater things if we work hard enough and stick to a given task or dream. I wish this game actually pounded away at this notion.

I can certainly appreciate Mangobile wanting to try something different before diving into making another hardcore SRPG, and for a first attempt outside that milieu, Earth Vs. Balloons is surprisingly well-rounded.

Huebrix has great puzzles, but the game that surrounds them needs serious work.

The challenge here is strong enough for an adult, but I'm not sure an adult is going to be able to tolerate the monotony of both the humor and the gameplay for as long as the game is asking the player to.

Squid Drop won't set the App Store ablaze as the next fully featured console-like game, but it offers a good dose of simple fun if you're looking for a new high score time waster.

As it stands right now, Isaac Newton's Gravity is a fairly basic physics game with better than average graphics and controls which can get a little finicky at times.

As it stands, there's no attention paid to its replayability aspects and too little to the types of environment its players might actually be trying to enjoy the game in. Based on that, I'd recommend giving it a pass or, at the most, checking out the ad-supported free version and see if it's your cup of tea.

Don't go in expecting much more than a non-threatening time waster, and you might have a good enough time with the pigs. Failing that, a bacon sandwich will probably set your sense of justice right once more.

Unfortunately, I just found this game to get tiresome by a certain point. The story is one we’ve seen a million times before, the requests you have to fill for the NPCs just feel like an unending grind, and while the blacksmithing is fun it’s not really enough to carry the whole game on its back. Throw in a fair number of unpleasant bugs like randomly disappearing inventory items, and While the Iron’s Hot seems like it needed a bit more time in the fire.

You have to give the devs credit: they really tried to make it work.

The reality TV-style presentation remains a highlight, but the actual gameplay bits get repetitive. A shame, as this Switch port is excellent from a technical standpoint.

That said, if it's on sale, you're looking for a serving of JRPG, and you don't mind if said serving lacks spice, Link of Hearts will probably serve you well enough.

Mega Drift falls into a lot of the same trappings as other free-to-play arcade games, but it's worth a shot if you're into smoothly animated racers. It's not going to blow you away with the ability to drift like a madman, though it's a nice reminder of a neon-filled subgenre of the past, and '90s kids will get a kick out of it.

I love platformers; they are what originally introduced me to gaming as a kid. There is some genuine fun to be had with MoBu.

The campaign mode is amusing enough but not really worth the price of admissions alone. Battling against other players is more fun, provided you can find opponents. Still, there’s a certain thrill to seeing giants battling it out, especially if you pick up the Ultraman DLC. This Switch version has some performance issues when the action gets hot, but it’s not unplayable or anything. Probably not the optimal way to play, though.

In the end, Cracking Sands ends up being a title recommended to racing fans that are looking for a title with a wealth of content. That's pretty much all it has going for it as the visuals aren't particularly inspiring, the controls aren't as precise as I'd like, the weapons-based gameplay, while fun, can easily become too hectic.

PO’ed: Definitive Edition is just what it says it is. If you’re going to play the game in any form, this is the best way to do it. Nightdive doesn’t miss often with its KEX Engine reissues, after all. But do you really want to play PO’ed? That’s the difficult question. Even in its era, it wasn’t exactly a barn-burner of a first-person shooter. It’s a very bizarre, unique game, and if that’s your jam then by all means give it a go. Hardly essential reading, but I’m sure someone out there is thrilled to see it.

I didn't have a bad time with Trouserheart. The premise was silly fun, it wrapped up in an amusing way, and it's not offensive to play by any means. That said, it's very light on content and substance in general, with simple, shallow gameplay, limited character building options, and a small number of stages.

Words for Evil can certainly use a lot more work on its basic mechanics, but you could do a whole lot worse when it comes to word games. If you happen to be eying this one, just make sure you've exhausted Bookworm to the highest degree.

It's very clear a lot of work went into Rakoo's Adventure, which makes it quite regrettable how little game came out. It seems the moral of Rakoo's story is that sometimes love just isn't enough.

Difficulty spikes abound, movement through the world is slow even on horseback, and there’s a lot of cumbersome backtracking that is only made worse by that plodding pace. The voice acting is painfully bad, and that hurts a story that already isn’t the greatest. Bob and weave around all of that, and you may find things to like here. The battle system is excellent, and there is certainly a bit of clunky charm to the game. Promising, but in the end it falls well short of its potential.

For those of you who really dig the art style and like getting lost in puzzling worlds, Ghost of Memories is probably worth checking out at some point. For the rest of you, waiting for a potential sequel to iron out the aforementioned issues is probably for the best.

When playing previous Tap Tap Revenge games, I've always had issues with tap feedback as well as the occasional slowdown and jittering (making note paths seem not as smooth). Unfortunately, Tour doesn't seem to do much to alleviate those concerns.

Afterimage is in that zone where nothing is outright horrible about it, but it’s just a little boring and plain. The strongest points in its favor come from just how much of it there is and the great art design. Add in some generally poor image quality, some clumsy interface choices, and the aforementioned lengthy loads and you end up with a game that is a little tough to enthusiastically recommend. This might be worth investigating on another platform if you’re a Metroidvania die-hard, but this Switch version isn’t the game at its best.

If you like SEGA, you might want to rotate SEGA Heroes in as your game to play when you only have a few minutes to kill and don’t want to put in a lot of effort. In that context, it’s innocuous enough, and every so often you’ll get to add Knuckles to your party, so that’s cool. But I wish the core puzzle gameplay had had half as much thought and attention to detail put into it as the monetization systems seem to have received, because then we might have something pretty great instead of a generic game with a lovely SEGA label slapped on the tin.

There isn’t much here to recommend it specifically over other similar efforts, but it’s not a bad way to spend a quiet evening.

Garden Story has a lot of problems running on Switch, at least in its current form. They range from extremely lengthy load times to outright crashes, and I’m afraid to say that I ultimately wasn’t able to complete the game due to the latter. I’m sure it will be patched eventually, but it’s being sold right now. If those problems can be sorted out, I think this game will appeal to fans of things like Blossom Tales or Ittle Dew, but for now I can only recommend proceeding with the greatest of caution.

Though the puddings themselves would object to this characterization, think of Pudding Monsters as a tasty snack-it might not keep you fed for long, but it'll get you through a break or two. ZeptoLab has executed the recipe beautifully; it's just too bad it was rather bland from the start.

RWBY: Arrowfell reminds me of a lot of WayForward’s other licensed games in that it’s amusing enough to play but not much more than that. It has a few interesting elements but nothing big enough to help the game stand out. It’s certainly better than the average licensed game, but it’s not up to the level of the developer’s best fare in this genre. RWBY fans should have a nice time, at least.

Despite my misgivings, Sentinels of the Multiverse is entertaining. It has an aura of desperation in fighting a superior enemy and really drives home the threat level of the 4 included bosses.

Slowdown issues aside, I found O2Jam U to be a fun little music game. There are enough initial points to sample all the songs, and the decent amount of options ensures some replayability.

The dramatic changes in art style and game mechanics are probably going to leave the many fans of the first game scratching their heads, but nothing the game does seems all that likely to pull in anyone else.

Daisy Mae's Alien Buffet is a fun survival shooter with tons of weapons and a cool atmosphere to it.

The more I played Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, the more I questioned who it’s supposed to be for. It leaves too much of the of-its-time original game intact to be a good choice for new players. It changes too many things that probably should have been left alone to work as a hit of nostalgia. With SEGA’s own fantastic SEGA AGES release of Miracle World available on the Switch for a fraction of the price, this game should have been free to take bigger chances on modernizing the gameplay as much as it updates the presentation. In the end, it’s a weird mid-point that may appeal to some (but not all) hungry Alex Kidd fans and very few others.

If you're even slightly weary with the whole JRPG idea, I'd steer clear of Grace Of Letoile, though. While its plot is unusual and its specific mechanics are unique, the overall trappings are about what you would expect at this point from the Kemco assembly line.

Fading Fairytales is a very, very simple game that's great for newcomers who want to acclimate themselves to the strategy genre.

First-person platforming is a tough thing to get right on a basic level, and the more that is asked of the player the harder it is to make it all work. Even in its beginning stages, Cyber Hook leans heavily on a swinging mechanic that doesn’t always work as you might expect. It’s not a big deal when you can easily try again, but that safety net disappears soon enough. I’m not opposed to games asking the player to perform ultra-challenging feats of parkour. In fact, I rather like it. But if that’s the ask, the game really needs to get its fundamentals right. That’s where Cyber Hook misses the mark. I think players who are very, very patient will find something to like here, but it strikes me as frustrating for all the wrong reasons.

This is a good free title, and I think some of you will have fun with it, but it does get somewhat repetitive after a while. Still, you can't really complain about spending nothing for an hour of fun, so from that perspective I'd recommend that you give it a whirl.

I’ve played worse turn-based tactical RPGs than Redemption Reapers, and perhaps some of my disappointment was on me for expecting more. But I can’t help but feel like there could have been something special here if the story was properly fleshed out and its various design choices worked better together. Instead we have a game that pushes against you in a lot of unpleasant ways, almost to the point where it feels like it wants you to stop playing. With how many solid entries in this genre the Switch has in its library, it’s hard to recommend this one with any real vigor.

Just progressing through the game normally is okay: killing hundreds of zombies at a time is hard to make boring. But the meta-game struggles.

Did you like Partia? If so, hop on board. You've got 22 more missions and some story resolution, and it's a marginally better game if only in subtle ways. Did you find Partia lacking? Then you're going to want to skip this one, because everything Partia did badly is still an issue here. If you haven't played Partia and are curious about this game, then go pick up the first one for a lower price, as it's not substantially different and will give you a perfectly good taste of what to expect from its sequel.

Overall, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a decent beat-em-up, but not much more than that. This franchise has had enough serious lows that I think this still falls somewhere in the average zone, so I think I can give it a soft recommendation to Double Dragon fans. The roguelite structure does the game no favors at all in my opinion, and while the presentation is nice it does sometimes feel like it’s getting in the way of the gameplay. Not a bad dust-up, but not a great one either.

If multiplayer was working properly, Tank Riders probably would have been a game worth checking out. The controls, while annoying, were workable, and the different types of weapons offered some variety in taking out opponents. Unfortunately, without multiplayer, all you're left with is the too-short single player campaign which can be completed in a few hours and simply doesn't have enough content to carry the whole game.

So, relatively simple controls without near the depth found in their previous title. The game also ramps up a bit slower in difficulty than I had hoped, and like all survival games can get repetitive.

It's on the cusp of something really good with the battles, but the lack of variety hurts that end of things the same way it hits the whole game.

Stickman Rush is a bit of a one-trick pony: It looks wonderful, and little else.

Endless Memories is the kind of game that probably would have cleaned up in a less-crowded Metroidvania landscape. It’s a decent game whose biggest sin is being unable to properly manage its own size. Massive games in this genre can work (see Hollow Knight) but they need to take some precautions lest their sheer size and backtracking requirements end up boring the player. If you don’t mind a game that probably should have gotten off the stage hours before it actually does, and can cope with the fact that bad luck might leave you fighting goliaths with a butter knife, then feel free to give this a go.

Dream:scape is so close to being amazing that it's hard for me to say this, but the problems just killed what enjoyment I would have otherwise had.

Long term, In Fear I Trust has great potential with an awesome story- Particularly as they figure out where the plot is going in future episodes. In its current form, it's pretty buggy, and would have benefitted greatly with even a little bit of extra time baking inside of the proverbial development oven.

As such, if you enjoyed the first game, I'd strongly recommend getting in on Doom & Destiny Advanced even in the rough state that it's in. It still has a long ways to go, but I'm feeling confident about its chances of being better than the original in the long run.

Sure, the physics kind of blow and you'd ideally like to see more out of its constituent components, but there's a simple pleasure to making bridges that jive in the game's world. Give it a spin.

I hated Sonic Dash when I first played it. I did. I was sick of runners and I didn't like that the newest Sonic game had to be a runner. Well, guess who's still playing Sonic Dash? I hate to say it, but I gladly finished every mission in PAC-MAN DASH!, and should the developers release new content, I'll likely download the update and give them even more of my time, if not my IAP dollars. Once you accept that it's terrible, it's really not so bad.

If you don't mind games that are very rough around the edges, this is an action-RPG roguelike to check out. But it's not the best experience.

Like most Gameloft's titles, it's a small-scale rendition of a bigger console experience that's worth playing for all the collectibles, missions, and upgrades, despite several shortcomings.

MetalWars3 has all the parts to a mech game. In fact, it has many parts to what would make a good mech game. The upgrades you pick actually affect how you play the game, there can be actual nuance to the mechanics, and the things coming into your eyes and ears are rather pleasing. The problem is that as you keep playing it, the game begins to undermine itself, and you long for one of the speedier pinewood racers.

But after countless deaths, I'm convinced that it's not just me, that there are flaws with Hyper Trip that mar the game's appealing concept.

It's a brainless sort of fun, the kind you can easily waste many unsuspecting hours on. So, if you've been aiming for something new to keep you occupied during a particularly laborious stretch of the day or during your daily pilgramage to the Porcelain God, you should really give Major Mayhem a shot.

In reality, Frontline Commando 2 isn't quite the game the first one is, and isn't even half the game D-Day is.

TOHU does a lot of things right and doesn’t really do anything seriously wrong, but I found myself feeling very ho-hum about it in the end. The art is really nice and I enjoyed many of the puzzles. But as pretty as it is, there’s something very “generic point-and-click adventure" about the game that keeps it from truly standing out. Touch controls work well enough but note that if you’re playing docked you’re going to have to deal with a relatively annoying cursor-based interface that doesn’t work all that well with a controller. There’s so much obvious love put into this game, but I’m not sure all that personality is enough to make this anything more than a fairly standard take on a well-worn concept.

This really comes down to whether you consider the Genesis version of Tinhead to be worth five dollars. It’s not a bad game, though it can be aggravatingly difficult. But it’s also not a particularly good game beyond its well-done visuals. The kind of thing you would end up renting when you arrive late to the rental shop on a Friday night and have to choose from what’s left. It’s very typical of Western platformers of the time, with massive levels full of mysterious bits and bobs to collect and some unclear visual cues. QUByte’s presentation does the game no special favors, but it’s serviceable enough to enjoy Tinhead‘s merits, such as they are.

Dwarf Quest mostly succeeds at being a breezy, casual Roguelike, but it isn't very long (about as long as a single complete playthrough of 100 Rogues) and it feels like the first chapter of a longer story (the game's website promises a final confrontation with an undead wizard that is nowhere to be seen).

Lith is a decent game for patient puzzle fans.

As it stands, give this cute, and fairly harmless shooter a try if you're itching for some competitive combat on your mobile device.

Because many of the levels are basic, it turns the game overall into an abstracted version of Olympic ice skating. You could take the most boring route and skate in a complete circle. Or you can opt for something stylish, showcase your moves and fling Ivy about to take home the gold. The decision is yours.

To sum this whole review up, it all comes down to whether or not you have a controller. If you do, then getting this excellent version of the game for such a low price is a steal. If you don't, it's not the most expensive curiosity, but that's all it is for all but the most dedicated and patient.

Still, if platforming is your bag, don't let grinding or opening your wallet keep you from missing out on Ms. Splosion Man's gorgeous, fast-paced, and rewarding adventure.

’Gods Among Us’ comes off as more of a companion app for the console version than a stand alone title, and as it hints so tantalizingly at what could’ve been, that’s the real injustice.

Busway Islands – Puzzle is a relatively gentle puzzle game that can occupy you for an afternoon or evening. It doesn’t have much new to offer, but what’s here is done well enough to not get in the way of itself. Not something I would rush out and recommend, but if you’re in the mood for some light entertainment, this isn’t a bad choice.

You'd have to be a diehard fan of Breakout-styled games in order to check out Transformoid.

At the end of the day, while Dead Trigger 2 is a nice improvement, it’s still overly repetitive. The new variety of enemies and different mission options are nice, however, the basic structure is still the same, and if you found yourself getting bored quickly with the first one, you probably will with this one.

The strong presentation ensures that The Doom Beneath has a little something over the average gamebook, but that's really all it has.

It's admirable that Candy Curse doesn't contain any IAP, but at the same time, I'm not sure everyone is going to be engaged enough to actually complete the entire affair. With some more diverse level layouts and quests it would be an easier pill to swallow.

If you are a fan of the arcade game and just want to play it at home, then yes, Wrath of the Mutants is a full win. Buy it, be happy. For everyone else, it’s impossible to deny the fact that both Shredder’s Revenge and the Cowabunga Collection are available on the Switch at comparable prices and offer considerably better takes on this exact concept. Indeed, given how many exceptional beat-em-ups there are on the platform, it’s very hard to recommend this one. It’s okay, but “okay" doesn’t really cut it at this stage.

Heavy Metal heroes is a fun game, it's even a good game, there's just not enough meat to it's metal bones.

It truly feels like a game that tries to do too many things at the expense of giving any one of those things the necessary polish. Still, everything is properly functional and the game certainly has its charms. RPGolf Legends isn’t a must-have by any means, but if you’re looking for something to tide you over while you wait for Sports Story, this will keep your belly full for a while.

For each of the game's faults, there's usually something else that's equally deserving of your attention, and that means it's definitely worth your time to at least check out.

Hopefully, Deep Silver will release the other two Secret Files games on iOS so that mobile gamers can experience the series the way it was meant to roll out. In the meantime, this one, like many spin-offs, is for the die-hards only.

Milo & Me comes off as a very ambitious game, and I appreciate that, but there's a lot of work to do design-wise before the idea can shine to its full potential.

If you're on the hunt for something simple and odd, and you have a fair bit of patience, you might want to give Boshi a try. I think it's going to turn off more people than it catches, but the latter group should get their dollar's worth out of the game.