Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus successfully fuses deep and rewarding turn-based strategy with impressively flexible customisation and some truly excellent world-building.
Urban Trial Tricky mashes together elements of the Trials series, Tony Hawks and Joe Danger resulting in a fairly decent motorbike stunt experience that's fun when you're speeding around and pulling off ridiculous tricks, but is let down by some shoddy level design and an overall lack of finesse. If there was more space to manoeuvre and environmental obstacles and general placement of objects had been more carefully considered, this could have been an absolute blast. As it stands, it's a fairly decent time in short bursts that slides into infuriation a little too often to heartily recommend.
Catherine: Full Body is a fantastic revamp of a bonafide cult classic. With an excellent new character and several new endings slickly inserted into an already highly entertaining narrative – not to mention a slew of fun new modes – this is the definitive version of an outstanding game. If you've never played Catherine before then you're in for an absolute treat, and if you have, we'd say there's enough new content here to make it worth diving in all over again.
Ninjala is a good-looking and impressively tactical free-to-play arena fighter. It's currently lacking in modes and maps, there are problems with how the lacklustre opening tutorial goes about onboarding new players and the rock-paper-scissors aspect of proceedings is sure to be controversial but, overall, the game is off to a pretty strong start. We can't wait to see where GungHo takes its cast of pint-sized bubblegum protagonists in the coming months.
Blair Witch starts off strong, throwing its players into a setting that comes with some pretty terrifying baggage for anyone who's familiar with the film upon which it is based. It's got a handful of fun mechanics, including the absolute star of the show, Bullet, and its story comes on strong towards the end, injecting the final third with some real tension. However, this is also a game that plods along for the most part, making no real use of its spooky setting, instead hemming players into small areas and forcing them to partake in a string of simplistic and rather hackneyed puzzles and busywork at the expense of any real tension. Overall then, Blair Witch is something of a mixed bag; it's not the worst horror game we've played recently, but it also doesn't do enough to earn a hearty recommendation.
Trials of Cold Steel III is another excellent addition to a franchise that gains so much of what makes it absorbing from the huge amount of background detail and world-building that's been achieved in earlier entries in the series. Newcomers should be aware that taking the time out to play Trials of Cold Steel I and II is advised to get the absolute maximum amount of enjoyment out of this one but, even if you're jumping in fresh, there's still plenty to love here once you find your feet. With a massive cast of well-written characters and tons of excellent combat and exploration spread across its epic running time, this is a top-notch addition to the Switch's library of JRPGs.
Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia takes the exact same core gameplay of its 1998 predecessor and transports it into a brand new storyline whilst giving the whole thing a modern lick of paint in the process. The story, although an improvement on the original game, is still pretty bland stuff for the most part and battles are certainly where this one finds its main groove. Those fights may be a little on the slow side and are inherently repetitive affairs, but they're still rather enjoyable nonetheless and give you a reasonable amount of choice in how you take on your enemies and evolve and upgrade your troops. There's a ton of content here and, in the end, the whole thing feels like a pretty successful celebration of what made the first game a cult classic in the first place. It's not going to be to everyone's tastes, however, and if you like your strategy action to be a little more intense, you might want to stick with something like Wargroove or Fire Emblem: Three Houses instead.
Warborn takes the tried and tested Advance Wars formula, adds a bunch of huge Mechs, some overwrought '90s anime-inspired cutscenes and a story that sees you take control of four different commanders as you seek to restore order to the Auros system. There's nothing inspired or unique here; Raredrop Games is playing it safe and straight down the line, but fans of the genre, and most especially fans of massive Gundam-esque robots, will get a solid (if unspectacular) experience out of what's on offer with this one. Just don't expect any surprises.
Ruiner is an exceptionally stylish, brutal and bloody top-down shooter that hurls you unceremoniously into a relentless onslaught of deranged creeps, cyborgs and enormous mechanoid bosses all hellbent on your destruction. A steady drip-feed of new combat skills – alongside a ton of meaty guns and melee weapons – keeps the action feeling fresh, and the game's excellent graphics and thumping techno soundtrack do a top-notch job of bringing the whole thing vibrantly to life. There are a few framerate issues here and there in docked mode – something which has been an issue in other versions of the game – but, overall, this is a super-solid version of a supremely enjoyable and challenging cyberpunk action-adventure.
Project Warlock is an excellent throwback to the fast-paced, gory strafe-fests of the '90s. It's got tons of big, meaty weapons, magic attack abilities, some light puzzle elements and an endless procession of freakish hellspawn to blow into tiny chunks across five impressively varied settings. Buckshot Software's debut effort is an easy recommendation for retro FPS fans and one of the better shooter experiences currently available on Switch.
The Outer Worlds is a hugely entertaining "Fallout-in-space"-style RPG adventure filled with wonderfully vibrant locations, excellent companions, zippy and hilariously brutal combat and a ton of well-written characters to meet as you attempt to save the colony of Halcyon. Virtuos has made the expected tweaks to graphics in order to keep things as smooth as possible with this Switch port and, although things can look and feel a little rough in docked mode, in handheld this is a supremely enjoyable experience that's entertained us just as much this time around as when we played it at launch, and comes highly recommended to fans of the genre.
The XCOM 2 Collection on Switch is the full-fat XCOM 2 and XCOM 2: War of the Chosen experience. Virtuous has had to knock the graphics right down to the lowest setting, there's plenty of framerate issues and bugs that we've already encountered on other platforms and the not-insignificant – but hopefully very shortly patched – problem with the game's character creation pool, but this is still a highly playable version of the game. If you can make peace with some stuttering and long loading times and aren't too offended by pretty ugly textures here and there, you'll be rewarded with one of the very best turn-based tactical titles currently available. XCOM 2 is nothing short of a masterpiece and now you can play it on the go, which we reckon is well worth any sacrifices made here.
Minecraft Dungeons does an excellent job of taking the blocky world and characters that we all know and love from Minecraft and transplanting them into a light and breezy, kid-friendly action-RPG. The streamlined systems of character building and upgrading here are delightfully easy to engage with, levels are beautifully realised, and randomly generated slices of the overworld and the various mobs and bosses you come up against provide a fun challenge for up to four players to get stuck into. It may not be the most dark or difficult action RPG out there, but for newcomers to the genre, young kids or massive Minecraft fans, this one is an easy recommendation.
Journey to the Savage Planet is a wonderfully unique mixture of No Man's Sky-style exploration and Metroidvania puzzling and platforming with a wonderfully dark sense of humour that arrives here on Switch in a slightly compromised but still eminently playable state.
Never Stop Sneakin' is a lovingly crafted parody of early Metal Gear Solid games that pairs some genuinely funny dialogue and ridiculous characters and cutscenes with its own brand of impressively slick stealth action. Its levels are pretty repetitive and there's quite a bit of unnecessary grinding and replaying of missions in an effort to artificially extend the running time but, overall, this is a fun little title that's perfect for dipping in and out of for a hit of light-hearted tactical espionage action.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix is a strong portable version of a truly joyous rhythm game which loses out a little in terms of track numbers in comparison to the likes of series stablemate Future Tone, but makes up for this with a surprisingly solid Switch-exclusive motion control mode alongside touchscreen controls and a new art style that helps keep things running smoothly as you blast your way through its eclectic mix of excellent music.
The Persistence is a unique and unsettling sci-fi horror roguelite that does an excellent job of transferring its tense atmosphere and absorbing gameplay loops from its original VR form to the Nintendo Switch.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a bland and repetitive grind, a free-to-play mobile game all dressed up like a proper Elder Scrolls title but lacking in any of the adventure, exploration, wit or charm of a mainline entry in the franchise.
Void Bastards is a delightful roguelike romp through a wonderfully unique cel-shaded comic book world full of loud-mouthed enemies and smart-arsed robots.
Huntdown is a delightfully detailed and expertly crafted throwback to old-school run n' gun arcade shooters.