Despite these shortcomings, and the fact that retro RPGs have been done to death, Dragon Fantasy offers a lighthearted and enjoyable take on the genre that practically everyone can enjoy.

The serialized story idea is tough to wrap your head around in a RPG and figuring out a way to balance gameplay with variety and story is going to be a serious challenge moving forward. If they can pull it off, Emissary of War could be something truly special.

Fling a Thing is a sharply put together a package, assembled with a care to simple refinement that we often see in the indie space.

Super Cyclone has some fun ideas, such as the star-gates and alien nests, which ensure the gameplay is more interesting than simply shooting enemies endlessly.

Even though Blockolicious ends up light on the content, it's still a decent little Match-3 game with enough interesting gameplay elements to stand on its own. The visuals, music and overall presentation also do a good job complementing the core gameplay and making the game stand out.

Whether the stars are right for Cthulhu Saves the World may depend on how much you love Lovecraft. If you're just looking for a good retro-RPG, you might want to wait for the patches before giving this one a try.

The main challenge with Ichi isn't so much solving a puzzle - with the tricks at your disposal, solving puzzles becomes largely trivial. The real difficulty comes in solving the puzzles in as few taps as possible.

While it doesn't exactly innovate on the genre, it's still something I find myself coming back to, forever intent on nudging my menagerie over the next performance plateau.

If you're in the market for a new platformer that puts a lot of effort towards replicating an old-school gameplay feel (in all regards) with new-school gameplay ideas, Brick Roll is an excellent game worth checking out.

If the onus is on the multiplayer to give Pocket Titans legs, it needs to be tweaked a little bit, but I think there's more than enough here already to satisfy.

Tit for tat, Spirit Stones isn't quite the same level of quality, but it's certainly good enough and different enough to merit trying out.

This is basically a straightforward shot of pure, distilled Great War Game campaign, served up fully at a more than reasonable price for the amount of enjoyment found within.

All in all, it's a very solid gamebook, and if you've enjoyed any of Tin Man's other conversions of Livingstone's work, it's a journey worth embarking on.

Grinding out coins and unlocking the crazy cast and cool arsenal is an okay way to pass the time, but there's still a certain bland taste to the whole affair that keeps Random Heroes 3 from being anything more exciting than that.

Even with its failings, I still think it's a good game that may not live up to the highest standards of Sid Meier's name, but certainly doesn't tarnish it.

Combining a respectful homage to its source material with a decent battle system and loads of unlockables, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is the real deal in my book.

It's odd to say that a gorgeous game like Last Voyage can be shallow, but it kind of is, albeit in an interesting way.

As a premium game, Lumino City's price feels right on the mark. There's no boosts or IAP involved, you simply need to deduce your way to the game's conclusion. In that sense, it's a perfect pickup for old school adventure fans alike.

Once you've played through Skyhill, you've seen basically everything you need to see. In fact, the same criticism could be levied even if you've only experienced half of it, since there just isn't much here in general to fiddle around with after you've picked up the gist of the crafting system. But since the atmosphere and gimmick are so well implemented, that alone makes this a zombie survival game worth checking out.

Lichtspeer comes with a solid amount of content. The 13 levels alone for $3.99 would be worth it, but there are multiple difficulties to play after that, not to mention the quest for gold medals on each level. If you preordered for $1.99, you're a freaking genius. The developers estimate about 4-6 hours, and that sounds about accurate. There isn't an endless mode, though this would be perfect for mobile in particular. If you like replaying existing content to maximize your performance, then you'll get a ton of fun out of Lichtspeer. Its difficulty and control frustrations mean this is only for patient players, overall Lichtspeer is a goofy good time.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged is just as fun of an arcade racer as the first game, and the various tweaks and improvements to the formula makes it a far smoother experience. It feels like it’s sometimes just a little much for the Switch, with moderately lengthy loading times and some resolution issues, but the actual racing action keeps its speed properly. Some players might run into some issues with the challenging post-game content, but that’s why it’s in the post-game. If you enjoyed the first game, you’ll probably like this one even more. Series newcomers should feel comfortable jumping immediately to this sequel, too.

While Thirsty Suitors feels better to play on other platforms, I’ve enjoyed my time with it a lot on Nintendo Switch over the last week. Outerloop Games and Annapurna Interactive’s newest is an important and memorable experience from start to finish blending multiple genres but remaining awesome throughout.

Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue is a great introduction to the Metroidvania genre for newcomers, but I was hoping for more given the developers’ pedigree. It is possible we see tweaks and updates bring more to the table, but right now Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue is a mechanically solid good Metroidvania, but not a great one as I had hoped for. If you are a Love Live fan, you likely will have an even better time with it. If you aren’t, this is a great and accessible game that might make you a Love Live fan. I just hope Inti Creates does more for this game in updates.

Metro Quester doesn’t do a great job of teaching the player how its various systems work, and it can be utterly merciless at times. Those who have the patience to get through the process of learning the game and can handle the occasional crushing setback will find a fairly unique and highly enjoyable RPG experience here. You’ll have to make your own story for the most part, but the game does a nice job of providing plenty of fodder for those with the imaginations to do that. I went back and forth on this game, particularly in those early hours, but in the end I have to say that I really dig it.

The Legend of Steel Empire is a decent enough way to play a cult classic shooter, even with a few rough points in the overall package. If you’re tired of having your head knocked around by the likes of Gradius or R-Type, you might find this to be the approachable shooter you’re looking for. I appreciate that they made some improvements in the presentation rather than just toss the original game out there, but it feels like there was a missed opportunity to do a little more here.

Outside of including the middling 2010 Rocket Knight and adding in more save states, I can’t really think of many ways Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked could be better. If you know and love the games, you can pick up this set without fear and relive your happy memories. If you’ve never played them before, I think the three high-quality games in this set represent a solid value for fans of 2D platformers. I’m glad this turned out okay, both for fans of Sparkster and those who are about to become one.

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is a solid port of a fairly good, if not spectacular, game. Falcom knows how to write an interesting cast of characters and it certainly knows its way around action-RPG combat, and both of those elements are present here. Tokyo is an enjoyable setting even if it’s getting to be a rather familiar one, and while this isn’t the most visually impressive game around it looks good on the Switch’s screen. Some pacing issues drag the experience down somewhat, as it piles on the quantity without ensuring the structure can properly support it. As long as that isn’t an issue for you, this is a pleasing action-RPG to add to your Switch collection.

Magical Delicacy is a game I should’ve loved given it is basically a blend of a Metroidvania and a crooking/crafting game, but it feels a little undercooked (I couldn’t resist) in parts thanks to some inventory and backtracking issues. While it is a very good game right now that feels at home on Switch, a few quality of life updates and polishing will make it an essential.