Super Kickers League is an inoffensive attempt at the arcade football sub-genre, but it lacks the excitement, fluidity and personality of the games it emulates. Now Nintendo, about that Mario Strikers Charged follow-up...
The Red Strings Club tells a brilliant cyberpunk tale that's full of big ideas and tough moral questions. Its gameplay sections are a little too flimsy and repetitive to keep pace, but you'll want to play through this memorable adventure nonetheless.
A precise, challenging, laser-focused platformer that lacks the joyful sense of movement, ingenuity and sheer generosity of its inspiration. Awesome Pea might emulate the look and feel of the Game Boy classics, but it lacks their soul.
Fimbul creates an appealingly grim Norse folklore-infused world to adventure through, but its core action is simply too weak to seal the deal. Its pacy combat can be brutally satisfying, but it's also shallow and repetitive, while the game struggles from a technical perspective. There's a promising world at the heart of Fimbul, but it needs to be married to a more fluid and fleshed-out game.
Q.U.B.E. 2 is an accomplished first-person physics puzzler that learns a number of wise lessons from Portal in terms of mechanics and world building. The puzzles are smartly executed with a well-judged learning curve, while the story adds a welcome dose of context and intrigue to proceedings. Well-travelled gamers will instantly recognise its influences, but there's nothing else quite like Q.U.B.E. 2 on Switch.
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a charming platform-puzzler with a captivating fairytale aesthetic that can't help but draw you in. Unfortunately, things take a dark turn thanks to clunky mechanics and uninspired level design. The lore is fantastic and the presentation remarkable, but ultimately, it's hard to come away from this game feeling anything but disappointed.
It's not at its absolute best on Switch, but New Star Manager still provides the deeply tactile Yang to Football Manager 2019 Touch's stat-heavy Ying. It plays a more intuitive and portable game of tactical footy than its illustrious rival, and it also packs a lot more depth than its basic presentation might suggest.
A fixed-camera 3D platformer that's charming enough in its own modest way, but limited ambition and a series of glitches keep Elli well short of the genre's greats. If you have any work left to do in Super Mario Odyssey or Yooka-Laylee, you probably don't need this.
Simultaneously hardcore and casual, HoPiKo is a pick-up-and-play speedrunning platformer delight that demands the utmost precision and perseverance from the player. It's not for the easily dissuaded, or for anyone looking for anything other than a manic arcade experience, but those who dig its frantic ways will find it very hard to stop snacking.
Beholder's dystopian world provides a grimly satisfying management playground to work in. It's got plenty of heart – albeit a rather scorched black one – and it forces you into making genuinely interesting moral and ethical decisions, which should be enough to see you through the tiresome grind, muddled signposting and rather flakey controls.
A dazzling, thrilling action-platformer with a potent cocktail of combat and platforming components, all set in one of the most appealing game worlds around. It's not a massive progression from the original, and its sheer relentlessness can prove tiresome, but Guacamelee! 2 is a real celebration of a sequel.
This is another dauntingly deep yet strangely conflicted sports simulator from the undisputed champions of the form. Football Manager Touch 2019 is the series at its peak, but it remains a sub-optimal Switch experience; if you can play it on any other platform then we'd recommend you do so, but if Nintendo's machine is your only option, then, by all means, give it a spin – just be prepared to find yourself occasionally frustrated by the many awkward concessions that have been made to get things running on the hybrid console.
This is an old-school 2D shooter that serves as an effective tribute to the classics while successfully managing to inject some fresh ideas of its own. Super Hydorah doesn't reinvent the side-scrolling shmup, but it does kit it out with some cool new gadgets. At $19.99 / £17.49 it's perhaps a little on the pricey side, but fans of the genre will see this as money well spent.
Mother Russia Bleeds is a proficiently-made side-scrolling beat 'em up that ultimately fails to drag this already limited genre forwards with any great new ideas of its own. Add in a wearyingly mature aesthetic and you're left with an oddly downbeat button-mashing action game; fans of the genre should wait for the forthcoming Streets of Rage 4 or download Capcom's superb Beat 'Em Up Bundle.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is an elegant mix of 2D adventuring, simple logic-based conundrums, and effective storytelling. Its puzzles are a little uninspired, while the game's QTE segments can grow rather tiresome. But Ubisoft Montpellier has told a poignant story with real spirit and invention, and that makes this an easy one to recommend.
Zarvot offers the kind of tight arcade-shooter action that lends itself well to epic local competitive scraps; what we have here is a charming, eclectic package that goes all-out to appeal to both solo and social players. It's perhaps a little too scattershot in its mixture of styles and tones, and not all of its ideas hit the target, but there's a whole lot of heart and humour to Snowhydra's little box of tricks, and that goes a long way.
The Escapists is a cute, challenging, and potentially rewarding sandbox game that refuses to hold your hand. Releasing it after the much more refined sequel doesn't prove flattering, however. If you've played The Escapists 2, the original will feel like a notable step back. If you haven't played The Escapists 2, that's the game you should go for.
This Is The Police 2 is a distinctive and multi-faceted management sim with a fresh tactical edge. However, its list of punishing demands, perpetually scarce resources, and sluggish storytelling can sap the game of joy and momentum. There's a lot to do, and a fair amount of that is fun, but it feels like the game's many systems and demands are competing both for scarce virtual resources and your strained attention. In that sense, you'll come to relate to Sharpwood's put-upon new Sheriff all too well.
Broforce is a hilariously explosive 2D action-platformer with a memorable catch-'em-all cast of action movie caricatures. The action may be a little one-note, but when that note is as big and bold as it is here, you'll be all-too-willing to disengage your brain and engage your trigger finger. After playing through the seemingly unending series of critically-acclaimed, high-brow 2D action titles on Switch, this is the perfect way to unwind.
A surprisingly immediate, console-centric ARPG with a gleefully tactile combat system, Victor Vran: Overkill Edition has its fair share of rough edges and a slightly discordant tone, but is nevertheless a highly entertaining way for Diablo fans to while away the hours until the real deal arrives on Nintendo's console.