Demon Turf is a fantastic platformer that's held back from true greatness by sections of dull and repetitive combat. Push through this, however, and you've got a game that rewards daring and bravery, bolstered by wonderful platforming controls that let you string together incredible combos. The visuals are initially a bit jarring, but the character design really shines through and give it a timeless aesthetic. If you're a fan of 3D platformers from the 'golden' N64 era and beyond, this one is well worth a look.
As a combat experience The Legend of Tianding is up there with the Guacamelee! series, showcasing excellent gameplay that allows you to string together multiple attacks and use your enemies' weapons against them. With distinct chapters introducing their own standalone missions, however, the game stubbornly forces you to endure a huge amount of set-up, with long conversations with NPCs and arduous treks across the hub world of Taipei. Trimming this fat would have benefited the overall pacing greatly, but push through this and you'll be rewarded with one of the most thrilling combat experiences we've encountered in a while.
Replaying the levels only serves to exacerbate a nagging feeling that A Little Golf Journey is simply too repetitive. When you move from one set of levels to the next, the visual design changes, with some courses looking genuinely beautiful. This doesn’t change the fact, however, that the terrain simply lacks variety throughout. The game clearly strives to provide a relaxing experience, but in doing so, it struggles to give much incentive to keep playing.
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is an absolute triumph. The narrative and dialogue, which is already wonderfully compelling on its own, has been given a massive boost thanks to the excellent voice acting introduced for the Final Cut. The gameplay features a host of branching paths for you to explore, and while the slow, methodical approach may turn a few people off, this is nevertheless one of the most well-told stories in any medium from the last few years. The performance issues at the time of writing slightly took the shine off things - and we hope they're ironed out soon via updates - but even with them present, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut stands as one of the best RPGs available on Switch.
At just two - three hours in length, A Juggler’s Tale is a lean experience with little fat on the bones (though may still be a tad on the short side for some). Nevertheless, it’s a shame that the developer leant on the same type of puzzle for much of the game, as it makes certain areas feel repetitive as a result. If you’re a fan of games like Limbo and Inside, this is a nice alternative; just don’t go expecting a game of the same calibre or quality.
Aeon Drive isn't quite up there with modern platforming classics like Celeste, but it's pretty darn close nevertheless. While its narrative won't win any awards, this is simply a supporting backdrop to the fantastic gameplay on offer. Bolstered by solid performance and minimal loading screens, racing through the levels feels exhilarating as you jump, slide, and teleport your way through the maze-like environments. With an online leaderboard to satisfy your competitive nature and added multiplayer to boot, Aeon Drive is a speedrunning triumph that absolutely deserves your attention.
All in all, Fisti-Fluffs feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity. The basic premise is sound, and the modes on offer do provide a decent amount of variety, but thanks to poor gameplay and sloppy controls, none of the experience comes together. Add to that the rather bland visuals and limited environments, and you’ve got a game that simply can’t hold a candle to stronger examples of brawlers on Switch.
Residual is a comprehensive survival experience that fans of the genre will absolutely adore. Exploring the procedurally generated planets feels a bit daunting at first, but when the game opens up and starts dishing out essential resources, it becomes a lot more manageable. There are a few teething issues that we hope will be ironed out in time, like the confusing inventory UI, overly frequent need to eat/sleep, and the slightly dodgy navigation controls, but overall Residual is a fun, engaging 2D survival game that can sit proud alongside genre heavies like Minecraft and Don't Starve.
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions is a solid take on the Rocky/Creed franchise, celebrating the wide variety of fighters that contributed to the series over the years. The gameplay is rather basic for the most part, with little deviation in style between the characters, but fundamentally the fights all feel fun and it's incredibly satisfying when you land a knockout blow on your opponent. The graphics benefit well from more stylised art design, but limitations with the arena's crowds do stand out. If you're a fan of Rocky, though, then you'll definitely want to step into the ring and try this one out.
To add a slight downer on proceedings, neon signs adorning crumbling buildings and barren hills in the background rubbed us the wrong way. To be clear, Golf Club Wasteland isn’t a game for children thanks to the colourful language featured on the radio, but a few of the neon signs were just needlessly childish, if not entirely inappropriate. These featured seemingly random words plucked from the urban dictionary which completely pulled us out of an otherwise pretty engaging and deep narrative. Not enough to totally spoil our pleasant little post-apocalyptic walk, but enough to be irritating.
Secret Neighbor is, in theory, a meaningful and intriguing spin-off from Hello Neighbor, introducing multiplayer elements that really should work quite well. In practice, however, the game suffers from poor controls, unremarkable environmental design, and quite frankly, its own player base. Matches turn into insufferable spectacles of chaos, and even when players commit to the game's rules, it's still completely unbalanced, favouring the incredibly powerful Neighbor each and every time. Even if you're a fan of asymmetric multiplayer games, you're better off skipping this one.
All in all, Rush Rally Origins is a great little rally game if you keep your expectations of the graphics in check. From a gameplay perspective, it’s more than capable, and offers improvements over the original game in spades. Despite the easy vehicle handling, the game is nevertheless challenging with smart AI and strict time trial targets (which we’re told will be slightly altered in a patch, along with various other tweaks to visuals and performance), and is perfect if you’re after a fun, easygoing arcade driving experience.
Despite its obvious visual shortcomings art of rally is still a nice looking game regardless; the gameplay, of course, shines through brightest, making this one of the most authentic, challenging rally titles in some time. The incredible music makes the price of admission worth it alone, and if you’re after a surprisingly nuanced, deep rally game, this is the one to go for.
Greak: Memories of Azur is a solid platformer by Navegante Entertainment, delivering a well realised world with interesting characters, gorgeous hand-crafted visuals, and intriguing environments that beg to be explored. The combat can be a bit hit and miss at times, and the distinct lack of co-op play - despite the ability to switch characters at will - feels like a missed opportunity. As a story-driven adventure title, though, this one is absolutely worth a punt.
Despite the lack of any real challenge, Ayo the Clown is nevertheless a nice alternative to the usual go-to platformers on Switch. It’s got a wonderful, uplifting soundtrack, with several tunes you’ll be humming long after completing the game. Granted, if you’re a Coulrophobic and the mere thought of playing a game featuring a clown causes you to break out in a cold sweat, then you might want to steer clear. For everyone else, though, this is well worth picking up if you’re a fan of breezy, easygoing platformers.
Ultimately, the gameplay starts off strong, but quickly feels a tad 'samey' after a while. Exploration is encouraged, but the game's 'dungeons' normally require you to wipe out all enemies within one area before allowing you to progress to the next, leading to some lengthy and repetitive sessions of scouring every inch of a dungeon to find the boss. The game also often shifts into a scrolling 'shmup', with Colette riding on the back of a broomstick, but even these sections can lack variety at times.
With its unique use of portals, Unbound: Worlds Apart is a great platform title with a flutter of Metroidvania in the mix. The framerate can be a tad annoying, chugging along at frequent intervals, but thankfully it's never quite disruptive enough to ruin the experience. If you like portals (and come on, who doesn't?), then this is definitely a game worth checking out.
Out of Line tries to straddle the line between being an emotional narrative-driven experience and a consistently engaging, challenging puzzle game; unfortunately, it struggles to accomplish either. Far from a bad game, we'd absolutely recommend Out of Line for the younger audience who may want to dip their feet into the puzzle platform genre, but for those seeking something a bit more taxing, then you might be better off looking elsewhere.
Boomerang X features instantly gratifying gameplay that will get its hooks into you immediately. Its arena-based combat encourages you to keep moving and flying through the air in order to avoid death, with your boomerang acting as a kind of portable teleport or hook shot. The overall difficulty is a bit tame for the most part, which incidentally means the game is a bit on the short side, but there's plenty of potential for repeat playthroughs and speed runs thanks to the fun, addictive gameplay. If you're a fan of frantic, fast-paced first-person action, then this one will be right up your alley.
We love free stuff, and Sky: Children of the Light is perhaps the best experience you can get for free on the Switch to date. The visuals are simply stunning, whether you're playing in handheld mode or on the big screen, and the variety of the game's different worlds provides more than enough incentive to explore. The social aspect is solid, and the game's unique ability to foster bonds with complete strangers is frankly a marvel. The only real downside is that the gameplay is so simplistic in nature, so we're not certain it will keep players around for long to experience any future updates. If it does grab your attention, however, then a magical experience awaits.