Life is Strange: True Colors is one of the better newer game ports in recent years on Nintendo Switch. In a lot of cases, there are big caveats to buying a newer third party game on Nintendo Switch. For Life is Strange: True Colors, there have been downgrades, but they are smartly done to preserve most of the experience and deliver an excellent portable experience. Life is Strange: True Colors has already seen further improvements following launch with a recent update. As the franchise’s debut on the Switch platform, Life is Strange: True Colors is just about everything I wanted from a port.

It’s not as abstract a world as Portal, and feels out of place, but if you can ignore all that silly window dressing, there’s a good game with great voice acting to enjoy.

It’s a little hard to deal with initially, but the game is forgiving enough with its difficulty options that you should be able to get the ropes sooner or later. Once you do, it’s tremendous fun. All up it’s not the longest game around, but you certainly won’t regret the time you spend with it.

Simply put, Bullet Time gets a lot of things right when it comes to dual stick shooters. The controls, presentation, customization and replayability are all well done.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is as charming as it ever was, and the various additions and improvements to this remake certainly make it a definitive experience for those coming to the game for the first time. Those who got their fill of the original might find there isn’t enough new here to justify the purchase. For my part, I’m happy to see this game come back, but I can’t help but wonder if I wouldn’t have been just as satisfied with the oringal game being added to Nintendo Switch Online instead. Perhaps a new installment is in order?

Even with all of the frustrations I had with the platforming in Arise: A Simple Story, everything else here is so good that I feel good about recommending it. The emotional journey is outstanding, and unlike a lot of other narrative-focused games, Arise packs in a lot of gameplay to go with the story. This Switch port makes some minor technical concessions, but it’s quite good on the whole. A straight run through will only take you a few hours, but hidden collectibles make it worth taking your time to explore. A Simple Story it is, but there’s something to be said for simplicity.

With a bunch of different paths to play through and endings to reach, it’s worth doing a replay or two just to feel things out a bit more. I wish the overarching plot was a little more engaging, but I found enough in the moment-to-moment to keep me quite satisfied.

A great game worthy of a play through. If you have any interest in top down shooters, and you're a fan of extensive unlockables, check it out.

I highly recommend Magic Touch. It's something I'd recommend to casual players, as just tracing glyphs is simple enough for anyone to get into without needing to be intimidated by old-school platformer mechanics.

Any Landing is a fun and unique game, and I again want to applaud the developer for their very customer-friendly approach to IAP.

Overall, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales on iOS is an essential for any fans of The Witcher 3 and Gwent. If you don’t like card games but enjoy the world of CD Projekt Red’s Witcher the storytelling here will more than make up for that. You can even play on a lower difficulty to skip encounters if you just want to experience the story and world. The writing and story are strong enough to even make this worth it for those who don’t know anything about The Witcher since this is a standalone experience. With a few fixes and improvements, the iOS version of Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales can easily be the best way to play it.

For now, I think Biz Builder Delux makes for a nice bit of fun for sim fans looking for something they can pay once and fully enjoy in a genre buried in free-to-play giants.

Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is excellent, but it is a few updates away from being truly special. Right now, I absolutely recommend it if you’re willing to learn through experience though. It also feels like a nice middle ground between Balatro and Luck Be a Landlord in terms of how much luck plays a part in your run. If that sounds good to you, I urge you to give it a shot. I hope to see it come to mobile and console in the future.

I ended up enjoying Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo more than I expected. It is a more traditional otome game, but one that never overstayed its welcome. I remain impressed with how creative the developers and designers get with bringing aspects of the setting into the game’s interface as well. If you’ve been wanting more like Hakuoki on Switch, Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo is worth your time and money.

Overall, though, it’s a pretty fascinating little slice of motorcycle racing that’s not quite like anything I’ve played before.

Of course retro junkies will no doubt find room for subtle strategy, and use patience to their advantage in the climb to maddeningly high tallies. Even then, in the hands of less committed players, you'd be hard pressed not to get at least 1001 fun-filled attempts out of this one. I'd buy that for a dollar - and so should you.

Overall, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered is a fantastic re-do of a game that had lots of room for improvement. SaGa fans will eat it up, and even if you’ve played the original you may want to check this out for its new content and additions. The look of the game may turn some off, and there are certainly some awkward carry-overs from its PlayStation 2 origins. It’s also a SaGa game through and through, and that’s either going to have you jumping with joy or running for the hills. Only two left now before they have to make a new one, right?

SteamWorld Heist II isn’t as novel as the first game, and it more or less keeps to what worked before. It can be a little difficult at times, and you’ll always have to be vigilant for gimmicks because some battles are fond of them. The job system is a treat for people who enjoy searching for broken combos, and the overworld exploration breaks up the action while helping to better establish the setting. If you enjoyed SteamWorld Heist and are ready for more of that gameplay, plus some more of that enjoyable SteamWorld lore, you’ll get what you’re looking for with this one.

It’s been great seeing so many new games that throw back to the classic arcade era and actually seem to get it. Murtop is another one. Its roots may be a little too obvious, and I continue to bemoan the lack of online leaderboards in games like this, but it has a great presentation, plays well, and has an enjoyable scoring system to learn and master. That’s pretty much what I’m looking for in a game like Murtop, and as a result I can heartily recommend it to fans of vintage arcade games.

This is a great slice of game from top to bottom, but it truly feels like only a slice.

There are moments of incredible beauty in both Subnautica games, and I’m happy that they can now be experienced on a handheld screen. If you have to choose between the two games, I’d recommend the first game over the second. That said, I’m sure playing that original will eventually lead you to the follow-up anyway.

Fixeight is the only non shmup in this collection from Bitwave Games. The 1992-released vertical run and gun game from Toaplan had never been brought to any console or modern platform until this new release, and it has been very interesting to play as a fan of Out Zone from a prior collection. I liked that quite a bit, and Fixeight has been a noticeable improvement in many parts. It isn’t essential if you only care about Toaplan’s shmups, but I’m glad it was finally released on PC. It also plays without issues on Steam Deck.

If you like your board games with some wine on the side and a shot of zen relaxation, Tsuro should hit the spot.

Astronut looks fantastic visually, with charming character designs and Retina Display support for 4th generation devices.

Provided you enjoy old-school turn-based RPGs, the sheer bang for the buck of Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection is hard to beat. If you’re just looking for one, then the third one is probably your best bet. While I still think the true experience is best found on Nintendo DS, these remakes are a good alternative for those who don’t want to dig up twenty-year-old hardware and some absurdly expensive second-hand games. I hope this is laying the foundation for a new game in the series, as revisiting these games has whet my appetite for further adventures.

With its imaginative art style, large amount of content and decent gameplay, Monster Island is definitely worth checking out for any puzzle aficionados looking for a new title.

In spite of a few moments where it feels like it's taking on a little too much too quickly, I found The Sea Eternal to be a very compelling gamebook that gives you good reasons to play through multiple times.

The art style is bright and happy, the music suitably atmospheric. Characters are cute and reasonably well-rendered.