The game fully understands what makes it fun, and it does everything it can to empower the player to see that with as few restrictions as possible.
Honestly, the nicest thing I can say about Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is that it's over in two hours. It is at least technically playable with some interesting mechanics. But even if you are specifically looking for a wave-based, arcade-style turret game, I'd still stay away. This game offers little of value and is fun only if I stretch that word beyond its absolute limit.
The Last Remnant is an interesting experiment in expanding the traditional turn-based battle system, but there are enough annoyances in that system and weaknesses in its setting and characters to keep this from reaching the heights it's clearly reaching for.
The Forge is a disappointingly brief and underwhelming add-on to an excellent game. What is there is technically good, but hard to recommend as content that Square Enix is asking you to pay for. I'd recommend holding off to see if the rest of the season pass is worthwhile or if you should pass on it entirely.
Semblance lets you deform your platforms to solve puzzles how you want, but it limits your tools so severely that the promise of that idea is wasted on mediocre puzzles. It has a neat look, but like its core mechanic, it wears thin even before you get to the end of your two hour trip through the game.
The team at Lienzo has built a beautiful and fascinating glimpse into an overlooked and forgotten culture that is immediately endearing. The game they built to support that, though, is disappointingly shallow and clumsily constructed. It's nice to see game development coming out of Mexico, and I look forward to what they are able to do next, but Mulaka doesn't have the chops to make the game worthwhile.
Torna: The Golden Country is an ambitious addition to an already enormous game, but by stripping away many of the features on the sides of the experience, you're left with a game that never quite finds the highs present in the original game. The story was fun, if hammy at times, but worth seeing. I only wish they had taken better advantage of the excellent changes to combat here to deliver more on the faster-paced combat rather than the dull and laborious side quests.
Figment's mechanics are woefully underdeveloped, but the rest of the game is so cohesive and often brilliant that it's difficult to dismiss out of hand. The ambient soundtrack, and especially the boss songs go a long way and are worth playing through the slight, five hour game to hear if that interests you at all. If not, the gameplay can be downright boring at times.
As an anachronistic curio it fits well among a growing stable of small, simple experiences to take on the go. Getting it off the phone and onto dedicated game consoles lends it an air of importance that the game design doesn't always back up, but it has an endearing style and gratifying challenge enough to warrant reuniting the two oft-imperiled blobs.
There are enough small grievances I have with the game that hold it back from being truly great, but the tone and setting are so charming that it's hard to be too mad at it. If you want to do some peaceful meandering during your commute, the Switch version is easy to recommend.
Need for Speed Heat has a great visual style that smartly leans into the tuner culture that helped set the series apart in games like Most Wanted and Underground. Unfortunately its sluggish progression and weak online offerings keep this from reaching the heights of the series.
If you want to explore a mysterious, puzzle-filled world, you could do much worse than The Eyes of Ara, but its transition from PC to Switch leaves plenty to be desired. It is perfectly functional as a solid adventure to keep you busy on a long road trip, but this version is a tough sell for anyone with an adequate computer at home.
Concrete Genie, much like its main character Ash, is good-natured and warm, but also a bit flat and one-note. The game, in spite of a late-game gameplay pivot, never truly manages to engage beyond its admittedly charming painting mechanic.
World of Final Fantasy Maxima is by no means perfect (it, in fact, has many notable flaws) but I had a fun time indulging in my love of Final Fantasy and with a Pokemon twist. This new Maxima add-on only makes the overall experience better, but is a fairly light package for anyone that played the base game already. If you were champing at the bit for any new content, then this gives players some new monsters to collect, but it ultimately is more additive than transformative.
For a game that deals with this large a scale it often feels small and lifeless outside of the boss fights. It is, though, a visual showpiece that offers a stiff challenge. And while playing it on the go probably won't make this worth a return trip to Ginnungagap, it is definitely a great game to add to your Switch library if you've not checked it out before.
While not as deep and rewarding as the material it's riffing on, Reverie's ode to Zelda presents a charming trip through New Zealand folklore that's worth checking out.
The depth on offer in Cities Skylines is staggering, which is why being able to pick that up and take it with you is so exceptional. There is a limit to how successfully the console version is able to emulate the PC experience, but it does a good enough job that I can't recommend the game enough to the Switch owner hankering for a city building game for their favorite hybrid console.
Despite some gripes about the translation from PC to console, The Banner Saga 3 does an admirable job wrapping up a grim tale of separation and loss. And it does that with challenging and fun tactical battles as well as fascinating player choice throughout.
Not content to simply remake these games, this collection offers a nearly complete (sorry SNES Aladdin fans) look into these games and what made them so special. If you weren't a fan in the 90s, you won't be persuaded now, but for older players looking to tap into some sweet nostalgia or a new generation discovering these for the first time, this collection hits all the right notes.
Sayonara is an experience first and game second, so it is not one that should be played if you are only interested in the high scores, but if you take the game as a whole, then it can be deeply rewarding.