A decent start. The microtransactions aren’t massively intrusive, the energy system isn’t too debilitating and the stages aren’t Candy Crush Saga-style efforts where it’ll take you 70 goes to get lucky enough to eventually clear them. These are all qualified by the word “yet”, though, and that’s the thing to bear in mind as this game evolves on a fortnightly basis. It’s yet to be established whether this is the sort of mobile game that lulls you in with a false sense of security and then, later down the line, hits you with ridiculously difficult stages that will almost certainly need power-ups to clear (we see you, Dr. Mario World). For now, though, we’re happy.
NES and Namco fans will be happy with the titles on offer here. Some of them have never been released in the west before and the star of the show – Pac-Man Championship Edition – is an entirely new NES port created just for this collection. Each of the 11 games has at least some value, but the bare-bones nature of the presentation is a little disappointing: for a game with Museum in the title, we'd hoped each game would have been celebrated a little more with art and behind-the-scenes info.
The second Namco Museum Archives compilation is far more eclectic than the first. Vol 1 had more of the typical classics you’d expect from a Namco collection, and while that may seem a bit boring and predictable the reality is that they were classics for a reason: most of them are more fun to play. While there are still some great titles in here – Rolling Thunder and Mappy-Land are highlights – the general quality is lower than that in the first volume. The only reason you should be opting for this one over the first is if you’re sick to the back teeth of Pac-Man and Dig Dug and are looking to discover some lesser-known NES games.
Elements of Burnout Paradise are starting to show their age now, but nobody can argue with the quality of its actual racing action. If you can put up with its various niggles and quirks and don't mind the astronomical price (relative to other systems), it's easily one of the most entertaining – and certainly one of the fastest – racing games on the Switch.
Compilation games like Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics always have a variety of hits and misses depending on your own personal taste, but there's a wide enough variety of board, card and action games here that you're sure to find a number that will appeal to you. Everything's presented with charm and warmth (terribly-written cutscenes aside) and there's an enormous amount of content on offer, whether you plan on playing solo or with others. The perfect game for lockdown? Quite possibly.
At its core, Golf With Your Friends is still a decent golf game. Get an online multiplayer game going with some similarly-skilled pals and you'll have a great time making your way through its weird and wonderful courses (don't even get us started on the Worms course and the jetpacks you can get). Its main problem is that every time you change these optimum conditions – playing with strangers, playing offline, playing solo, playing with a mix of experts and beginners – you're going to get diminishing returns from your experience. As long as you take the title literally, you'll have fun.
Whether you're a shmup fiend or a complete amateur, there's fun to be had here.
80's Overdrive may be wonderfully presented, but its problem is that price-wise it's sandwiched between two similar games that are better.
An action-packed arcade title with a greater focus on offensive play than the likes of After Burner. G-LOC's first-ever home release is a welcome one. It's got a couple of frustrating stages and, as is the case with most arcade games, it has longevity issues, but as long as you don't mind playing the same short series of stages over and over again to edge yourself up the online rankings, it's a good way to pass 10 minutes at a time.
Panzer Dragoon: Remake is a decent take on an all-time classic that goes some way to modernising it, but doesn't quite nail the landing. Awkward controls and a visual style that's a clear improvement but could still look much better result in a game that's mainly for fans of the original who are curious to see how it would look with a new lick of paint.
A gorgeous platformer that builds on the original without ruining what made it so special. If you have Game Pass, there’s no reason not to play this.
At its core, this is a clever take on football with a genuinely entertaining turn-based system, and if you aren't careful you could spend countless hours working your way up the leagues. That said, its short matches always leave you wanting more (and not in a good way), and the completely random player names make it feel like you're paying a premium price for a clearly low budget title.
There’s a genuinely brilliant game hidden away somewhere in AO Tennis 2, but you need to have the patience of a saint to put up with its horrendous frame rate issues and the impact they have on its already tricky stroke timing system.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is one of the most colourful, approachable and downright endearing RPGs you'll find on the Switch. Its new story chapter, music tracks and character assists improve on the original to an extent, but not enough to greatly affect its overall quality. Thankfully, what was there was already fantastic, meaning those who missed out on it the first time around really have no reason not to get stuck in now.
What's here is entertaining enough, but you're likely to have lost interest within a month; if ever there was a series that Nintendo should have turned into a mobile game instead, it's this one.
The third Football Manager on Switch is a relatively minor upgrade to an already entertaining and compelling game. The controls are still unwieldy and the new features, while welcome, aren't exactly transformative: as such, we'd usually recommend you consider buying last year's game for a slightly lower price. However, since Sega's pulled the 2018 and 2019 editions from the eShop, you don't have much choice but to pay full price for this one.
Gensou Skydrift is one of the few karting games on Switch to come even slightly close to Mario Kart in terms of its racing mechanics, and when it all comes together it's a fun time. Unfortunately, the lack of meaningful single-player content and the fact that the online is dead on arrival means this should be strictly considered a local multiplayer game if you want to get your money's worth.
Buried deep within Neverwinter Nights' loins remains an entertaining, engrossing and lengthy RPG adventure, bundled with oodles of extra campaigns and one-off adventures. But to enjoy that you're going to have to put up with some of the most stuttery, bug-riddled nonsense we've seen on the Switch. Fun and frustrating in equal measure.
Yet another fantastic rhythm game to add to the Switch's ever-growing repertoire. It may be a tad on the expensive side, but its core mechanics are rock solid, its minimalist visuals are a treat to behold and the fact it's got to much to play through and unlock means you'll be happily tapping your toes to this one for months.
We like Hello Kitty as much as the next guy, but unless the next guy's 7 years old they're not going to be able to squeeze much fun out of this one. Nothing it does is particularly terrible (other than its odd drifting mechanic), but everything's so slow and so easy that a huge proportion of the Hello Kitty fanbase will be bored to tears within the two short hours it takes to unlock everything.