The set-up is exhaustive, I'll give it that, but the breadth of the gameplay balanced against the length of the story causes it to feel like I've just played through a tiny sliver that was mercilessly sliced off a larger game with little regard for where it was cutting

This is a classic arcade-style sports game that is more about fun than about simulation and accuracy.

Sparkle is great if only to rekindle some of that Zuma nostalgia right in the palm of your hand.

TipTop: The Last March has a fun core gameplay mechanic, and is oozing with style between the excellent art and sound design. If you've been looking for a good Lemmings-like game on the iPhone, look no further.

I love its assortment of mechanics and systems most of all - they're tuned for guys like me who want more and don't want to be beaten over the head for small errors. But I can also get behind its multitudes of levels, it's super bright and colorful look, and its unique enemies that do provide a level of thought, strategy, and creativity on the battlefield.

It's well worth the price tag and you'll find yourself so empathetic for the rocket's goals that you'll push yourself to finish it no matter how hard it gets.

The game itself gets in the way at times of enjoying the art, but otherwise, The Swords is a worthy experience.

It's all a shame because I really want to like Red's Kingdom. I still like the concept, as sliding puzzle games are just collections of single-level vignettes, and this game transcends that. When you dig into it, and get going with the flow of the game, there's the spark of something brilliant and fun. And Red's Kingdom is gorgeous to look at it. But the flaws are deep, that it's tough to recommend despite its great looks and creative ideas.

Mon Amour isn’t the most complicated or lengthy of games, but it has more depth and heft to it than you would initially assume. If you enjoy score chasing, you’ll especially find a lot to chew on here. Like a classic arcade game of old, it takes simple mechanics and gives you enough to do with them that there ends up being a wide range of scoring possibilities. Take that and wrap it all up in the usual quirky Onion Games charm, and you’ve got a real winner.

If you enjoy the time management/resource management of the aforementioned games, you’ll probably find a lot to like in Train Valley. The unavoidable control issues aren’t enough to bring down the experience too much, and once you get the hang of things you’ll be juggling trains like a professional. The charming presentation is distinctive and attractive, which certainly doesn’t hurt. Between the various maps and seasons of Classic Mode and the more relaxed (but still somewhat tense) nature of Sandbox Mode, there’s plenty to dig into here for puzzle fans. A solid port of a rather enjoyable game.

Lucy Dreaming is another fine addition to the Switch’s excellent library of point-and-click adventure games. The sense of humor is on point, the story is engaging, the puzzles are fair and well-designed, the presentation is good, and the interface is about as competent as you can get for a game of this sort on a controller. It manages to thread the difficult needle of being a love letter to the genre while still being its own game, and as long as you don’t have an issue with adventure games you’ll probably enjoy it as much as I did.

Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition is a great way to play this beloved cult classic, especially for those who want a portable option. While you’ll get a smoother framerate on other platforms, this Switch version isn’t hard on the eyes by any means. The improvements are welcome without overstepping, making the game very easy to get into despite its vintage. If you haven’t played it before, it’s worth trying out. Who knows? You might join the folks clamoring for that sequel. And if you have played it before, I’m sure I don’t need to twist your arm to convince you of the merits of a return trip.

Fans of Shin-chan, Bokunatsu, Attack of the Friday Monsters, or those who just enjoy a bit of slow-life low-pressure adventure will likely appreciate Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation. It could be a little fuller, and I don’t know how to feel about how it wraps up its story, but it’s unique, silly, and nostalgic in all the right ways.

Warhammer Quest, while being an excellent port of a classic board game, is actually an amazing dungeon crawler on iOS, no matter what your experience with the source material. You owe it to yourself to check out this excellent hack and slash experience.

In a sea of matching games, few feel simultaneously as rewarding and as respectful of a player's skill as Rise of the Blobs. It may be soft and jiggly on the outside, but it's hard as nails underneath.

I can't praise Checkpoint Champion enough. It's a fun game on its own, with plenty of challenge on its own. But the social features, gorgeous design, and clever features all push it to a level that should leave other developers jealous: this game is just plain sleek.

If you're looking for a taxing puzzle game that won't demand constant perfection to progress, To-Fu Fury is your huckleberry.

But this sequel takes what was already an excellent game and cleans it up in all the ways that count.

The biggest problem with A Musical Story comes in its gameplay mechanics, though. You play the tunes in sliced out sections, and you have to hit every note perfectly before the game will let you move on. And unless you’re really good with audio cues, you’re going to fail a lot. The worst thing is that once you’ve missed a note, you know you can’t succeed but you still have to finish out the slice anyway. It’s aggravating in the worst way. You never get that feeling of being one with the music that you get with better rhythm games. Great music, an uneven story, and unpleasant gameplay make for a very rocky road trip indeed.

A standout in almost every way. From look to setting to the touch-centric gameplay, it shines, and you can tell this title was crafted with much love from its developers. Any horror fan will be thrilled by it.

Orc: Vengeance is not without its issues. However, these minor annoyances are simply that. Even with these, you're still left with a great hack n' slash action-RPG with plenty of loot, decent controls and beautiful visuals.

The fantastic scoring system and randomly generated levels give the game a ton of replay value.

Tobe & Friends' Hookshot Escape is a fine game and I say this with only a minimal amount of bias – a Dragon Punch-enabled character just makes things so much better.

For randomly generated high score game enthusiasts this is one that's not to be missed.

Qbism is all about perspective, and forces you to think in three dimensions.

With a great menu system driving the entire game, excellent AI, and the ability to micro-manage almost everything you could dream of in a sports game, it's hard to want anything else of a mobile baseball management sim.

While Shellrazer may not have a ton of lasting value, due to not much changing in each area besides increasing difficulty, it's still a great game that's definitely worth your time.

Hackycat is a solid game of kick-ups wrapped in a pretty delightful package—and hey, if you're going to kick cats, make it these ones. They need the help, and you need the cheeseburgers if you're going to kick 'em all.