Don't let Polygod's low-poly aesthetic fool you - this is no amateur hour shooter experience.
There's plenty to like about Next Up Hero. Turning death into an applicable AI co-op mechanic is a neat spin on a game with a high death turnover, and its cartoon art style complements an impressively large menagerie of monsters to kill. Unfortunately, there are inherent problems with balancing and some disastrous technical problems. Its grinding takes too long, melee characters are all but pointless due to the high damage output of enemies, and those technical issues make committing time and effort a constant risk.
The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode One's pacing might be all over the place - leaping from intense walker showdowns to sombre moments of reflection, and back again - but it's still the best the series has been in years. Clementine's character continues to evolve and grow with nuance, and the changes to character controls make navigation and combat far more palatable. While it'll be a bittersweet goodbye to Clem and AJ when we reach the final episode later this year, it looks like Telltale could be giving one of gaming's most nuanced and well-developed heroines the farewell she deserves.
While Morphies Law lacks the grandeur of Splatoon 2 and the F2P gratification of Fortnite, there's no denying that its mass-shifting gimmick has legs - giant ones, at that. It just needs the right kind of post-launch TLC from its developer and some smart adjustments to both net code and player progression. With added gyro controls making the most of those Joy-Cons (should you want to gather mass via motion controls) and support for local play with up to eight players (as opposed to online's four), this indie shooter has the potential to grow into a genuine sleeper hit.
Four years on, and Kero Blaster is just as engaging and rewarding as it was when Pixel first unleashed from within the Japanese indie scene. It doesn't just look like the classics that made the genre such a pillar of gaming three decades ago, it confidently recreates the deep mechanical prowess of Contra and its ilk, with just a sprinkling of modern persistent systems to make it more palatable to newcomers and replayable far beyond those first few hours of froggy firefights.
A slice of Viking strategic combat right out of the heart of Scandinavia's indie development scene, Bad North joins the likes of Element at the vanguard of a new wave of smart yet intrinsically accessible real-time strategy titles. With enough enemy variance to convince you you're playing an interactive episode of the Vikings TV show, this endlessly entertaining sea of bitesize battles will teach you to fear - and love - the sound of the oncoming horde.
It's still an awkward fit for console controls, but the game beneath them is worth the effort nonetheless.
While its fun for a time in single-player, Claws of Furry is definitely a brawler with two-to-four player fights in mind. With an abundance of enemies on-screen at any one time, it's the kind of game that's going to be twice as fun with someone sat next to you.
Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition finally puts Heart Machine's obtuse yet engaging throwback where it belongs - in portable Nintendo form - and it makes for the definitive version. With a handful of exclusive features, a two-year-old game suddenly feels new and fresh - and with a silky smooth frame rate and every boss, secret and upgrade from the original here for you to experience, the Nintendo Switch's indie library just got even better.
There's no denying it - this is the most accessible 2D fighter we've played in years. If you're new to the often impenetrable world of twitch-style brawlers, this serves as an ideal way to learn the craft and feel powerful without too much work. Not every one of its crossover fighters gels as well as the others, but it's still an empowering experience for beginners and intermediate fight fans. However, if you're looking for a purposefully nuanced combat system with a bit more bite, you're probably best sticking with BlazBlue's mechanical purity.
Realpolitiks really wishes it was something as grand as Europa Universalis, but in reality, it's more akin to the Tropico games or a souped-up Football Manager. You have a lot of systems to manage, but the choices you make within these systems aren't as open as we'd like and you're left spinning countless diplomatic plates without the agency befitting such a seat of power. The end result is a grand strategy game that struggles to find a middle ground between accessibility for newcomers and long-term investment for genre veterans.
While its setup does make it look like one of those soulless endless runners that fill mobile app stores, The VideoKid overcomes that hollow association by offering up a nostalgic love letter to the characters that defined a decade. The random layout means you'll never get the same run twice, but once you've played each section of its celebrity-filled suburbia a few times, you will start to notice plenty of bits being recycled as you head to your final destination. Still, with high-scores to chase and new character skins and tricks to unlock, this modern Paperboy has earned its pay packet.
While its crude looks and disparate gameplay elements can make for a spartan experience, there's still something bizarrely compelling about Lifeless Planet: Premiere Edition. There's nothing particularly remarkable about its occasional platforming and simple environmental puzzle solving - and its story never truly offers the payoff its mysteries set in place - but you'll still enjoy the short time you spend with it. An ambitious little curio, even four years after its original release, but one that sets its sights a little too high for its own good.
While its rinse and repeat Diablo-lite gameplay can get a little repetitive after extended play, there's no denying how much fun it is to return to the world of Yo-kai Watch. Whether playing solo or via local or online co-op, Level-5 has taken all the hallmarks of the series and made it even more accessible to newcomers and seasoned monster hunters. A fine way to see off the series on 3DS, and proof the Yo-Kai series is strong enough to tweak its formula with a spin-off and still maintain that quintessential Japanese magic.
The poor voice acting will make you cringe, the broken combat will make you rage and the visual compromises will likely make you put your console away and have a well-earned lie-down.
Like so many action-RPGs before it, Moonfall Ultimate is driven by the minutia of its combat model, but considering battles often rely on one attack (regardless of weapon) and a handful of special moves, you're left feeling oddly unempowered and frustratingly disconnected. There's your usual mix of quests to undertake, various medieval-style locations to explore and loot to collect, but none of it ever offers an interpretation you haven't seen done better elsewhere; while the game calls upon the likes of Golden Axe and Dungeons & Dragons for inspiration, it never hits the same heights. A serviceable experience, but one that won't linger in the memory for long.
It's impossible to not be caught up in Planet Alpha's charms. The product of one man and a small indie team from Denmark, it's a game that runs remarkably smoothly considering the detail of its environments and the vibrancy of its art style. The platforming won't blow you away - especially if you've become trained in the twitch arts of Hollow Knight and the like - but with some brilliant puzzles, a rewarding balance between endangered stealth and peaceful exploration and some of the most intense set-pieces we've ever played on Switch, Freedom Planet has secured a place as one of 2018's most important indie releases.
If you're new to fighting games - or you're simply in the market for something that feels like a bona fide arcade fighting experience - there are few titles as easy to pick up as SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. Its busty and over-sexualised characters might not be to everyone's taste in 2018 - and the use of Dream Finishers definitely won't be of appeal to purists - but look beyond the garish colours and there's a tag-team brawler with real potential, not to mention plenty of hilarity.
While its core systems don't rewrite the rules of the genre, Fernz Gate's wholesome RPG mechanics will whisk you back to a 16-bit era where plucky little sprites and enchanting chiptunes were the order of the day.
Azure Reflections is a fine addition to a small-yet-gradually-growing style of shmup on Nintendo Switch. With a handful of Touhou-related games already on the platform, this addition should keep fans of the project happy with its witty dialogue and pretty character models. However, with a vast library of shmups and bullet hell shooters already available on the console - and many offering far greater content and more accessible mechanics - Azure Reflections is (much like most Touhou titles) hard to recommend to anyone bar die-hard fans.