This game is perfect for anyone with a love of stories, puzzles, and fixing things alike, but I highly recommend everyone take a quick peek at it. There’s an even balance between story and puzzle so I doubt you’ll find it lacking in any one area. Assemble With Care is truly one of the best apps I’ve played in far too long and really left me wanting more even though the story was wrapped up quite well. No matter if you’re still in your parents’ house or already having children of your own, I feel confident in recommending this game to each and every one of you.

Barring the font that makes some aspects of Horgihugh and Friends feel cheap, the only problem I have with the release is the price point. While an expanded version of a game should cost more, the price point for the North American version is a bit too much for it to be an easy recommendation right now. There are so many quality shoot ‘em ups for half of the asking price, that I can’t recommend this in its current state without that big caveat. The retail release being more expensive is understandable given cartridge costs, but this is definitely too expensive for what it is on the eShop.

If you’re looking for a polished and good introduction to 4X games, The Battle of Polytopia is more than worth it. If you, like me, weren’t sure how The Battle of Polytopia would play with a controller, download the free demo to see how you find the UI. The developers have done a good job with the scaling across docked and handheld, and having full touchscreen support for handheld meant I had a much easier time moving to Switch.

Strayed Lights has a lot going for it thanks to its exquisite presentation and inventive combat mechanics. Unfortunately, its ideas start to lose their shine well before you reach the end of this several-hour-long adventure. It’s still a fun, unique game, but I couldn’t help but feel it suffers somewhat from being all dressed up with no place to go. If you really like the look of it, feel free to give it a chance. There is certainly something to it. That “something" got a little too played out a little too quickly for my liking, however.

Its more modern selection of titles will probably appeal better than the first volume, and shoot-em-up fans in particular will find a lot to like here. There are a couple of outright clunkers in the selection, but I’ll at least grant that they are interesting clunkers. Certainly more good than bad, and if you enjoy playing arcade classics I think you’ll get your kicks here. That said, if only a few games in the list appeal to you, there might be some merit in checking out the individual Arcade Archives releases instead.

If Madfinger can fix the crashing and save-game deletion issues with a patch, they're still left with a repetitive, but lovely looking shooter. There are hints of true quality in the boss fights and some minor sections of the campaign, but the majority relies on a simple, corridor design that's hard to find engaging for very long.

If I have to say who this game is for, it’s probably best matched up with people who enjoy adventure thrillers and also like shoot-em-ups. Even for that somewhat narrow range of players, it’s more of a good game than a great one.

It's a quick and dirty port of the four-year-old PSP version of the game, which itself was based on a thirteen-year-old Playstation game. For fans of the original, you'll get pretty much the exact game you expect, albeit with some performance issues on some devices.

The level designs are solid and moving your little mole around in them is pleasant. You’ve got a very typical hub structure, a lot of familiar types of levels, and various secrets tucked away for you to find. While the character designs and music let down the overall presentation a little bit, the graphics are bright and colorful, and everything runs quite smoothly. This probably isn’t going to rock anyone’s world, but if you enjoy the genre I think you’ll have a lot of fun going through this one.

Despite my issues with the performance, and I’m more annoyed by technical issues than most, I ended up adoring Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. It joins Monster Hunter Stories 2 as my two favorite monster collecting games. It has heart, charm, and one of the best gameplay loops in a monster collecting game. I hope we see some patches improving the performance though, because that’s the only thing holding this back.

A note on in-app purchases: the free, ad-supported version of Beastie Bay is robust and enjoyable and, as far as I can tell, in no way different than the paid version. $4.99 strips the game of advertisements and lets players use their iDevice's portrait mode. Portrait mode is, admittedly, the superior way to play Beastie Bay, but there's an inordinate amount of well-designed, well-executed fun to be had for free.

Homo Machina is yet the latest example of how even within some pretty narrow constraints in terms of setting and mechanics, it's possible to craft a pretty excellent world that is both amusing and rewarding. You might even learn something along the way, but kids, please don't use it as assistance for your upcoming biology test, because something tells me you're not going to pass it if you do.

Clickers are all about progression, and keeping the player interested for as long as possible. Nonstop Knight hits that point way too soon.

Whether in your own crypt before you go to sleep, or at a family dinner with ghoulish relatives, Le Vamp is a charming, clever runner worth checking out. If your last flirtation with the genre was with something like Punch Quest [Free], this may just be one worth sinking your teeth into.

Lunar Racer is already a fun title which I'll be playing for a while, but it feels like it could be much more. Here's hoping for more levels coming, an extra game mode planned & the possibility of online multiplayer mode.

Cannon Cat is precise and easy to play, it's fast, and it's a lot of fun.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a game worth getting for anyone looking at grabbing their next relaxing experience on Switch. I was afraid of technical issues given recent games from Marvelous on Switch, but this is the best Story of Seasons on the platform, and well worth its asking price. As someone completely new to this entry, the developers have made it feel good enough to be a brand new game as well.

If the developer can sort out the Game Center and control overlay problems, I really wouldn't have anything to complain about with Double Dragon.

It's not the deepest game out there (nope, no complicated decisions about who to abandon and who to save here. Just point and shoot), but it's definitely en-gross-ing in all the right ways.

A rather rock-solid and fun adventure game well worth sinking the handful of hours it will take to fully explore and enjoy everything this point-and-clicker has to offer.

As noted above, there are a few areas for improvement, but I don’t think they detract too much overall. Simply put, I highly recommend that folks pick it up.

It's an interesting game, but one whose structure is decidedly up for debate. But it is worth a download, if only because it has the greatest victory song ever. It is glorious and you have to hear it for yourself.

Reviewing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp feels like a necessary formality more than anything else. It's a game with over a year of hype behind it, the Nintendo seal of quality stamped on it, and it's from an IP that couldn't be more beloved. I'd recommend everyone giving it a shot, as you can play for quite a long time before hitting any kind of free to play limitations... And who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with the Animal Crossing universe and be one of those people to pick up a 3DS just to play New Leaf.

Wizard with a Gun has a lot of potential. It absolutely could reach the highs I expect from a quality Devolver Digital-published game, but right now it feels like it needs more time in the oven. I love the visuals, movement, and music, but it feels a bit too grindy and lacking in other ways. It perfectly suits the Steam Deck though, and I recommend getting it to play on Deck over even PS5 if you have the option right now.

Relic Rush may not have the length or variety to propel it to the upper tier of iOS casual games, but it's still worth a shot for folks looking for a simple platformer to try.

The Knight Witch is a very well-made game that takes two very different genres and binds them together with a fair bit of success. You really have to be into both Metroidvania-style games and bullet-hell shooters to get into this one, but if you can check off both of those boxes without much thought, then this is a slam-dunk pick-up. It’s not the lengthiest of games, but it’s certainly quite satisfying thanks to its solid gameplay and charming presentation.

It’s understandable why Sherlock Holmes The Awakened isn’t as polished as some of developer Frogwares’ previous Sherlock Holmes releases on Switch, but the poor performance and various rough edges add up to make this a weak version of a decent enough mystery adventure. The horror aspects don’t land very well, but figuring out the what, where, and how of each case is still quite satisfying. Mystery fans may well be able to put up with its issues, but they’d be well-advised to grab it on another platform if possible.

There are a lot of clever ideas in this game, but the game exhausts most of its tricks well before it ends. I think it’s still worth playing, provided you enjoy RPGs to begin with. It’s just unfortunate that a game that blasts out of the gates with such vigor ends up so flat in its closing hours. Add in some technical issues specific to this version, and you have a real hit-or-miss affair.