Underland is an okay puzzle platformer, but it doesn’t have a lot of new ideas and it really hurts the game over the course of its thirty stages. I ended up relying on a lot of similar strategies, and everything moved a lot slower than I would like. If you’re in the right mood, I could see it being a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon, but you can probably find many more interesting things to play on the Switch.

A person could buy Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for just a little more money, and unless they’re a Nick fan, they probably should. But if you already have Smash and are looking for something else along those lines, this is a good pick-up.

Barring the performance and crashing issues, Disco Elysium – The Final Cut has been adapted to the Switch really well with smart compromises and great tweaks to the interface and controls. My concerns about the UI and text were all put to rest after I launched it and played for an hour. If the technical issues can be addressed, this will be my favorite version of the game by far. It also has me very optimistic about a potential iPad port which likely wouldn’t have these issues.

It takes a lot of risks in service of creating its specific feel, but as long as you’re okay with having conventions challenged within a conventional framework, this should be an easy pick-up.

It’s not unplayable or anything, and the battle system can sometimes be quite engaging. But it isn’t something I would really recommend to anyone either unless they have a lot of time on their hands and have already exhausted better options.

Rainbow Billy isn’t the most difficult of games, but its clever combat and compelling structure kept me engaged through the course of the surprisingly lengthy adventure. The exploration and puzzles are enjoyable, figuring out how to defeat each enemy is amusing, and there are a lot of collectibles and secrets to track down. The writing is solid but can feel excessively positive at times, which I understand is an odd complaint. Still, even if the cloying prose doesn’t do it for you, there’s enough going on here in the gameplay department to make it worth your while.

Tetris Effect: Connected takes what is basically a perfect game whose only drawback is how familiar it is and recontextualizes it with a jaw-dropping presentation and some interesting new modes. I’m aware that the Nintendo Switch has a lot of great ways to play Tetris already, but I think this game does more than enough to justify itself in the face of those. It’s probably not going to convince anyone who doesn’t like Tetris, but apart from those six people it’s hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with this game.

It’s a welcoming entry point into the series, an exciting if often cheesy roller coaster ride, and on the whole a game that somehow makes you fail to notice its flaws because its strong points are so strong. Moreover, it’s different enough that I think even owners of the existing mobile version of Final Fantasy IV will find it worth grabbing.

Death’s Gambit: Afterlife makes a number of additions and improvements to the base game, while maintaining the qualities that earned it a lot of fans on other platforms. The combat is fun and deep enough to keep you engaged, and the platforming and other action elements are well-handled. I also really enjoy the game’s presentation, with some excellent pixel art and great audio. On the whole, it doesn’t venture too far outside of the increasingly established lines of this particular sub-genre, but it does everything it does well enough that it should be of interest to anyone who enjoys 2D Souls-likes.

As an overall package, Hot Wheels Unleashed is better than you might have expected. It does its license justice, and the racing action is more than competent. I’m not really a fan of how much luck plays a role, in terms of what cars you get from the Blind Boxes, in how well you’re able to tackle the campaign. If you get bad pulls, grinding for more chances can take forever. I also feel like some of the longer courses are a little too long, running for several minutes in some cases. Again, there is a big update coming very soon and likely more to come in the future, so some or all of these points could eventually be fixed. I can only review what is in front of me, and that’s a game that is quite good but with its fair share of flaws.

The game has a lot of points to make about morality, and it never feels like it’s preaching. Rather, it comes off like a thoughtful examination of assumptions and the limits of social mores. The city may be forgotten, but this tale isn’t so easily put out of mind.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania retains the core appeal of the series: cute ball-encased monkeys rolling around devilishly challenging stages at high speeds. It ventures just far enough from the specifics of the original games to be considered a truly faithful remake, but those who aren’t intimately familiar with those games or are willing to adapt will find an amazing wealth of aggravating appeal and ridiculous stunts. It’s a great place to get acquainted with the series if you haven’t before, with plenty to offer veterans looking for something closer to the mark than the likes of Banana Blitz.

If you’re looking for a carbon copy of the original game with an improved presentation and nothing else of significance added, I’m afraid you may not like Actraiser Renaissance. This isn’t that kind of remake, and I personally don’t think it should have been. But if you’re fine with something with the flavor of ActRaiser, with the essence of the original but also a personality of its own, I think you will like this game. It has its flaws, particularly in its visual presentation, and some of its new ideas could use a bit more hammering out. But it, like the game it is based on, is a rather unique game that pulls you in powerfully the more time you spend with it. There isn’t a whole lot like this out there, and it’s handily better than other homages like SolSeraph. And hey, that incredible music sure doesn’t hurt.

At first, the Switch version seems fine enough. A clear visual downgrade, but it’s all running reasonably smoothly. But once you start getting to busier battles, more crowded areas, and situations with more chaos, everything comes unglued. The framerate flies all over the place, which is bad in a game whose chief combat gimmick is timed dodging. It hitches up at times, and flatout stops in the middle of the action to do whatever. I recognize the technical challenges in realizing this port on this hardware, but if this is the best that could be mustered, it perhaps should not have been done. We’re left with a heavily troubled port of a rather middling game, and I don’t know that filling in the story gaps is worth dealing with that.

Centipede: Recharged is an interesting variation on the familiar game, and while it lacks some of the progression elements of Missile Command: Recharged, it makes up for it with extra modes and a more solid arcade feel. I do wish the standard gameplay mode used the lives system of the original, awarding extras for reaching certain score thresholds. Apart from that, the worst thing I can really say about this is that I don’t think it’s better or sufficiently different from the original, making it feel somewhat redundant if you have access to that game through whatever means.

G-Darius HD is a full-featured port of a terrific game, and a great way to experience this classic for the first time. The capture ball mechanic and beam dueling add some fun twists to the familiar mechanics that just about anyone can appreciate. Just keep in mind that this is still a Darius game, and as such will not go easy on you. With all of the options and extras included in this version at your fingertips, you just might be able to pull it off.

On the whole Diablo II: Resurrected still has enough of the old magic left in it to be worth playing today, twenty years later. Thankfully, the developers realized that and largely left things untouched. Most of what has been added is optional even if you don’t find it welcome, and beyond that the only troublesome new bits are a few bugs that will hopefully be fixed. The online/offline character business may cause headaches for those who like to play both on the road and with others, but beyond that I have trouble finding many nits to pick with this remaster.

Some of its new ideas could use a bit more hammering out, and I’m not sure it needed as much expanding as it has received. But it, like the game it is based on, is a rather unique game that pulls you in powerfully the more time you spend with it. There isn’t a whole lot like this out there, and it’s handily better than other homages like SolSeraph.

There is a lot of potential here and despite the glitches and bugs I encountered, Metallic Child is worth getting if you’re a fan of action games and are after something new on Nintendo Switch. After a few updates addressing these issues, Studio HG’s newest release will be an essential for fans of action games and roguelites.

It’s a decent enough time, and the second character comes in at just the right time to help maintain interest for the rest of the game. It feels very much like the indie action-platformer that it is, but it works well enough. It’s at its best when it’s focusing on its core elements, as its attempts to differentiate itself just don’t quite work. If you’ve got room in your heart and library for another platformer you’ll likely forget about a week after you finish it, Rift Adventure will serve your needs even if it won’t teach you much about taxes.

The racing in Cruis’n Blast truly reflects the game’s arcade roots, focusing on fun over-the-top thrills over any sort of realism. As long as you are okay with that, you’ll likely have as a good of a time with this Switch version as I did. I do wish there was support for online multiplayer as not everyone is going to have willing players in their vicinity, but I guess if a casual player was going to join in on any racing game without Mario in it, it might be this one. It’s colorful, silly, fast, and stylish. Raw Thrills did just about everything it could to make this home version the ultimate way to go Cruis’n, and it certainly does a good job of scratching an itch.

There are probably more broadly entertaining Square Enix RPGs you can buy on mobile, especially if you’re looking to splash out a cool twenty. But if you have cozy memories of huddling under your blanket with a flashlight or sneaking a quick bit of grinding at school, Collection of SaGa FF Legend will honor those feelings of nostalgia. If you don’t have those warm fuzzies but happen to have enjoyed the recent SaGa releases, you’ll also want to check these out. They’re not always fun, but they’re certainly interesting.

You can have a great concept, nice visuals, and plenty of novelty, but it’s all for naught if the game doesn’t feel good to play. Unfortunately, SkateBIRD has a lot of issues in that regard. The physics lack weight, which I can forgive to an extent because they are birds. The ridiculous camera is harder to get past. Anytime you’re near pretty much any object, the camera has a tendency to start going haywire, making it hard to point yourself in the direction you want to go and really easy to fall off of raised surfaces. Your birdie boarder also falls off its board at the drop of a hat, and between that and the camera you can end up in some very frustrating situations. All of the charm in the world isn’t enough to save this one.

The overall visual design looks really rough and low-cost, with the only relief coming from switching over to the classic style where possible. There’s a solid tribute to the original Boulder Dash here, with plenty to keep you busy for hours on end, but you’ll have to ignore a lot to enjoy it.

Razion EX is another high-quality shoot-em-up in the Switch’s library, with a distinct flavor all of its own. While it’s not the most fully-featured of releases, it has all of the important options and modes you would want in a game like this. The different difficulty modes are well-balanced, and whether you’re going for score or survival there is a good time to be had here. Shoot-em-up fans of all sorts will find things to appreciate in this game.

Oddly, the online leaderboards for the Score Attack mode seem to be non-functional at the moment. Hopefully those kick in sooner rather than later, as players will eventually want to migrate over to comparing with each other. Even without that feature functioning, Espgaluda II is another highly-affordable conversion of one of the better arcade bullet hell shooters.

It’s not quite enough to propel the game to the must-have status of some previous WarioWare titles, but there’s still plenty here to like.

This is very similar to the Puzzletronics game that QUByte released a few weeks ago, but puts a car and traffic twist on the idea. You need to swap the tiles around to create a clear path for the car to reach the goal. In the beginning, it’s as simple as putting the right shape of road pieces where they belong. Soon, you’ll be dealing with things like tunnels, traffic lights, and bonus pick-up items. The difficulty ramps up nicely as a result, and those elements help differentiate this a little from Puzzletronics. Like that game, however, this is a relaxing puzzler to unwind with for a couple of hours.