Mortal Kombat has always continued to evolve over its 25-year history and 11 is no different. Despite the weaker hardware, you've still got the Mortal Kombat experience - it just doesn't look as good as what you're getting elsewhere. If you can put that aside and forgive the game online pain for forgetting it's on a handheld, you've got a terrific Mortal Kombat game in the palm of your hands. I don't know why I ever stopped playing these games.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a joy to see out 2020 while we wait for the next Zelda.

For fans of classic adventure games, pixel art lovers, and players who appreciate world exploration over narrative complexity, I cannot recommend Under The Island highly enough. It’s a delightful journey worth taking, whether you’re solving puzzles in a strange greenhouse or feeding treats to helpful critters in snowy caverns, the experience always feels personal, inviting, and thoroughly engaging.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a brilliantly niche title. Apart from Jet Set Radio 20 years ago, it seems no one has attempted to capture this kinda 90s/2000s skater-graffiti counter-culture in a video game since. And I'm glad that Team Reptile did, because Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is just what I was hoping for! Fully sick!

Tumbleseed is just a game about concentration and survival. Simple to understand, incredibly hard to master. There’s a variety of different approaches to the levels, depending on your play style, and no matter what, the game will always give you a challenge.

Golf Peaks is a great little experience for a couple of hours, think of it as like a movie or book you read, enjoy and maybe pick up another time in the future. Once you've nailed the mechanics of the game (which they introduce so well), you'll breeze through the game in no time at all. A great chill out game.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond delivers three-quarters of a great Metroid Prime game. It captures so much of what makes the series so fondly remembered by fans. I would hate for people to miss the opportunity to experience it, but it's a shame that some parts don't feel like they respect the player's time. For all my grumblings, I was still on board for most of this intergalactic adventure, though some late-game obstacles bring you to the finish line with a little less of a smile. Beyond gives the world more Metroid Prime, for better and for worse, but there is still plenty here that makes the journey worthwhile.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is nearly everything you would want from not only a racing game but a Switch port as well. Paradise City is a car playground and filled with fun. The Switch port looks, runs and sounds almost perfect. Glad to have Burnout back on a Nintendo system, and in such good form.

Side Order is an entertaining change to the more typical Splatoon style, encouraging different ways to play and to embrace variety. Hardcore Splatoon players will likely still make mincemeat (or is that chum) of the Spire. It will offer a tougher challenge for more general players, and to see the game properly through you’ll be making a bunch of attempts at the Spire. If you want more Splatoon in your life then you either have this or should get the Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass, especially if you want something more outside of the online/multiplayer side of the game.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a classic adventure book brought to life in the most spectacular fashion. It’s an absolute joy to play, aesthetically beautiful, and a perfect fit for the stop-and-start nature of the Switch. It has a few performance issues, and it could do with maybe a little bit more polish, but that’s easy to overlook when the experience on offer is so fulfilling. Tin Man Games has delivered a faithful representation of a classic story, in a fashion truly worth of the Fighting Fantasy name.

Tomba is a product of a bygone era, resuscitated and presented as it was, with no nostalgic filters on top. The good here outweighs the bad, but there’s no denying that it looks, feels, and plays just like Tomba did on the PS1. It’s one of the more impressive sidescrollers of the era, with some bold ideas that were well ahead of its time, but the usual frustrations and limitations are present too, as they rightly should be.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a fitting follow up and upgrade on the previous 3DS game. It’s easy to grow fond of your island of Mii’s and their Hot Dog obsessed ways, helping to guide them through the ups and downs of a digital life. There is something for players who want to cover the world with their art and creations, or for players who just want to see what goofy things the Mii residents will get up to next. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is much more joyful than the potentially sarcastic saying it is titled after.

For those who can look past its quirks, it will be an unforgettable experience. It wears its heart on its sleeve with all the care put into its combat and world landmarks, and with all the unique things it tries. Even some of its flaws can be endearing, like the NPC sound bites that have become memes amongst the fanbase. It’s an experience that has never been replicated since and I can only hope that the team can finally work on a follow-up after all this time.

My Friend Pedro is a wild action-packed ride, where there is no such thing as too excessive. With hours of unleashing hell on a bunch of ne’er-do-wells is good and all, managing to do it while obtaining an S grade is a tougher task. Pedro might not be a grand narrative experience, but it brings everything else to the party. Some of the one-off levels might not work so well, but they are far outnumbered by those that do. If you’ve enjoyed the trailers or enjoy run based puzzles solved by shooting people, then My Friend Pedro is for you.

WarioWare Gold serves as both an excellent tribute to the series’ fifteen years of absurdist humour as well as the perfect entry point for new fans. Comprising of some of the best microgames the series has had to offer, WarioWare Gold represents the best way to experience the zany eclecticism that is WarioWare. It’s just a little bit of a shame that if you’re not into chasing scores, it’s all over all too quickly.

Resident Evil Revelations will probably fool you into thinking that it’s a perfect bridge between the more action orientated modern titles and the earlier horror orientated ones with it’s creepy setting, but be warned, it’s not. As a Resident Evil game, Revelations is ultimately quite a forgettable experience. As an overall experience and package, it represents tremendous value at a great price with heaps of content, and easily the best way to experience Revelations on any of the home consoles.

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour is a time capsule of mid-1990s shooters, jokes and game design - for better or worse. If you're a long time fan, there's more to see than just the game, and it's great to jump back into the Duke 3D world. If you've never played Duke Nukem before, you're in a for a treat. Grab your bubblegum for this one.

Eastward is a masterful title sure to put Pixpil on the map. The pixel art and animations are top notch, the characters are brilliantly well-written and the story intriguing. The gameplay is perfect blend of RPG and action-adventure and there’s so much game to play. Not to mention the entirety of Earth Born. Eastward should be high on any indie fan’s watchlist!

With the Switch release, the game has improved somewhat with its performance, however it still has long loads, just not as frequently. If you don’t mind stepping back in time, with regards to the gameplay, compared to the recent Lego titles, you will find enough humour and variety here to entertain you or your little ones.

Altogether, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is an awesome little package. Monkey Craft were expertly able to resurrect Klonoa after an extended hiatus with flying colours - a lot of colours in fact. This game is sure to be a hit with long-time fans of the series and young kiddies looking for a bright platformer full of charm. Go Klonoa!

Death Squared is another game on the Switch that's not easy to play, but it is fun. Like other puzzlers on the console, it's not dependent on playing with other people but you'll get the most out of it if you do. Anyone can pick up and play this game, but they're going to swear and complain when they do, both at the game and the people they're playing it with.

There is a lot of love in this collection. It is great to see almost everything from the first twenty years of the franchise on display, from all the great stuff to all the really rubbish stuff. However, it still feels a bit like a work in progress. I have had this game for a few weeks, and the Switch versions only just got patched to match the other versions, and there are still things to tidy up. This is a fun collection, and the jank is part of the charm. It always has been with Mortal Kombat, but there shouldn't be new jank added to it, it's got enough.

The amount of fanservice in Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition will be enough to make any Zelda fan weep, and the gameplay is enjoyable enough that people after some light action gameplay will find a lot to like as well.

Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy is an impressive remaster and a terrific way to re-play the trilogy that brought many of us fond memories and proved that Nintendo weren’t the only ones who could create an endearing and enduring mascot platformer.

Everspace: Stellar Edition works as a fun space combat game and as a run-based rogue-lite, it even comes with DLC not available with the original game so there are lots to do as you make your way across the universe. Getting into dogfights (the space fighter kind, not the horrible kind) and flying through large shipwrecks scratches an itch that the Switch has left itching for too long, and fortunately, there’s plenty of hours you can sink into it (that said I would also love the Rebel Galaxy follow up!). While it doesn’t run and look as great as other versions, it still runs pretty well and besides some minor hard to see visuals, it’s great for handheld too. If Starlink wasn’t enough space fighting, definitely check out Everspace.

Two games in, it’s clear now that the Legends subtitle is for experimental ideas and gameplay concepts. Pokémon Legends: Z-A experiments a lot, taking big swings with its action combat system and smaller, more focused world, but it’s a very successful experiment and hopefully a sign of great things to come for the Pokémon franchise. Minor quibbles aside, Legends: Z-A very quickly became my favourite Pokémon game in the modern era, and probably the best Pokémon game in years.

A 2D pixel art puzzle platformer that is a cut above the rest. With fantastic world building and atmosphere, Olija’s cinematic experience flourishes in delightful ways, yet is restrained where it counts.

Get this one for Colour Picross - it's great fun and worth a bash if Picross is your thing at all. If you're new, get this for the great amount of content. It'll keep you busy for 30+ hours and it's only $15! No-one's going to judge if you skip Mega Picross though.