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If you're intrigued by visual novels and their potential to delight, then the Pixel Pulps series is arguably the best possible place to start. Bahnsen Knights is the third entry and it's pretty damn wonderful. With its tighter emphasis on gameplay, it's arguably the best of the three, though that would be like choosing your favourite child. It's okay to love them all. Bahnsen Knights is an easy recommendation, and one which becomes even stronger if you're interested in horror and weird tales.
Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is a cracking sequel that brings meaningful change to the series' core combat, adds rollback netcode and three strong new characters to an already enthralling roster, and all looks, sounds, and plays every bit as good as its dazzling predecessor. Chronicle mode has been axed, and it's a shame it hasn't been replaced with something else, but this remains a top-notch effort, a deep and addictive anime fighter that should please long-time fans and interested newbies alike.
Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal is a solid Switch port that offers up several quality-of-life updates that, if you're a newcomer, will make your first experience with Agent 47 much more palatable. Not all of it works perfectly, and there's no denying that certain aspects of Blood Money have aged considerably since 2006. That said, once you get to grips with it, Reprisal offers up almost limitless replayability and fun as you hone your assassination skills. Minor performance glitches aside, it's a port well worth checking out.
With so many fleshed-out characters to get to know through its Papers-Please-lite gameplay, there’s good reason to grant Lil’ Guardsman entry to your Switch.
The Legend of Steel Empire remains a faithful reimagination of the original release, even including the end credits gag. It will take a medium-skilled player less than an hour to do a complete loop but it is such a good time, that can't be considered a fault. While it doesn't quite enter the bullet hell pantheon of other shoot 'em ups on Switch, it is certainly worth the shelf space in your collection and might be the perfect excuse to dust off your arcade stick in 2024. Maybe one day down the line we'll get a proper 16:9 sequel handled by the original HOT-B staff, but in the meantime, this is a welcome return for the original.
We genuinely can't believe how lucky we are that these games exist, let alone that they've been lovingly polished up for the Switch. This is some of the best writing you'll find on the console, and it's a steal for all three games plus extras. A couple of bumps here and there are to be expected with such a wealth of content (three games, DLC, and extras), but they barely leave a dent on the brilliance of this well-written and beautifully illustrated trilogy.
Another Code: Recollection's biggest addition to the original DS and Wii experiences, besides the slick new graphics and fully explorable 3D environs, is its all-new navigation and puzzle aids. With the obtuse nature of some puzzles now a triviality - should you find yourself stumped - there's now no difficulty spikes or annoying moments to hold you back from a two-part tale that's very much worth diving into for fans of slow-burn point-and-click titles. Their pacing could have done with some more work, but this collection is as good a return to Ashley's world as fans could have hoped for.
Unfortunately, while Turnip Boy Robs A Bank is an easy recommendation based on its gameplay and visuals, the Switch version currently struggles significantly under the weight of its fast-paced mechanics and busy encounters. If there are multiple enemies on screen or there happens to be a bunch of trip lasers blocking your path, the frame rate will drop to unacceptable levels for lengthy periods, making large chunks of your heists feel like you’re moving underwater. We were told this would be fixed via a day-one patch, but it's still MIA at launch. If these performance issues were eliminated, we'd have no qualms in telling you to don your best balaclava and get ready to bag some cash.
The saving grace is that Shinorubi works far better in handheld mode. It doesn’t look as displeasing, the boss designs are pretty heavy-duty, the frame rate doesn’t seem to be as messy, and your ship, while still overly quick, can travel the screen with greater ease. If you’re playing it portable, there’s some fun to be had with its various modes, of which it’s stuffed to bursting: boss rushes, caravan trials, a Muchi Muchi Pork-inspired rebounding pig score game (more interesting than the default, honestly), and a three-loop Journey event. The music, too, if you enjoy endless guitar solos, is well-executed and appropriately heavy.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a slick return to the roots of this franchise that serves up clever 2.5D action wrapped up in a delightful art style and satisfying story. There's a smart balance here between old-school levels of action and challenge, moreish combat, and neat puzzles, all mixed with accessibility options and fine-tuning that open things up to newcomers and casual players. We knew Ubisoft Montpellier was a pair of safe hands and the team hasn't let us down, serving up the first must-play of 2024 in a Switch port that absolutely does the business.
If you’re looking for a simple, fun, somewhat shallow arcade-like game for your Switch, Knights of the Rogue Dungeon is definitely something that’ll satisfy that need. It's over quickly, but this is an overall enjoyable experience—though we’d recommend you try the iOS game first to see if this is really for you.
Despite its technical flaws and short gameplay, we found ourselves unable to put down Terra Nil on Switch. The simple act of rebuilding a broken and polluted world is so satisfying and well-crafted. From the moment you put down your first wind turbine to watching your airship remove any evidence of your hard work, the game gives you a sense of hope for our own climate crisis without needing to explicitly say a word. This is pure relaxation in video game form and is worth picking up, particularly once that promised first patch is rolled out.
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX is an excellent callback to simpler days, featuring authentic retro visuals, tight level design, and a surprising amount of variety for such a small package. It’ll only last you a couple of hours at most, but anyone who misses the days of the OG Game Boy will want to give this one a look. It’s lots of fun, plenty charming, and a great use of a fiver.
Hammerwatch II picks up right where the first game left off but its narrative and technical shortcomings make it feel like the rough draft of a fantasy epic rather than the final version. The open world is big enough to get lost in for hours at a time and you will die repeatedly while doing so. Still, if you need a game to do a bit of mindless grinding in, the combat is fun and easy to pick up, which keeps this sequel from being a complete disappointment.
Palia isn't really anything special, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. There's a fun gameplay loop to engage with here that fans of farm sims will be sure to enjoy, and though the MMO elements feel rather underbaked in this pre-1.0 release, the microtransactions don't feel overbearing and there's enough solo-focused content here to make it worth trying out. It would be tough to recommend you pick this one up were it a full-price retail release, but you're sure to get at least an afternoon or two of good fun if you choose to try it out. At the end of the day, it costs nothing but time and storage space to give Palia a shot; we'd suggest you download it and see if it's for you-especially if you can't get enough of farm sims. We'll be back to see how this shakes out in 2024.
Potion Craft is bound to be a gem for the right audience and is ideal for dedicated completionist crafters who enjoy sim games with strategic elements and cosy, magical aesthetics. It's a heady concoction, just one that doesn't go down very well on Switch.
Tasked with saving a business rather than allow it a peaceful death, DoDonpachi DaiOuJou strove for excellence back in 2002, and achieved its goal. Whether fuelled by desperation or a desire to one-up the competition, the balancing and execution here comes closer to perfection than any other in the bullet-hell sub-genre. When you tap into its rhythm and begin to bend the game to your will, Hypers raining down, giant lasers decimating the screen amidst an epic hell-storm, it's poetry: the kind of unbroken euphoria and beat-by-beat accomplishment that gaming was created for. And, if a game can be played infinitely, its power and genius never diminished, its achievement never lessened, when does a 10 stop being a 10? Never.
If you can overlook the technical challenges – and we could – Outer Wilds remains a wondrous experience on Switch. With almost no gating and a free rein to investigate a rich corner of the universe, it captures the quest for learning in the most direct way possible: the only reward for progress is knowledge. Starting with no information at all, you come to understand the intricacies of this little solar system better than its inhabitants. Having soared through such an epic, introspective, and existentially inquisitive adventure, we probably came to understand ourselves a little more, too.
The Indigo Disk takes a few steps forward for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. There's some genuine challenge, a nice variety of activities, and a fun new world to explore in the Terarium; if you love Pokémon, you'll absolutely enjoy what's on offer here. But the DLC drops the ball in terms of narrative, offering an unsatisfying and rushed conclusion to Scarlet & Violet's story, along with the grindy BP system and those ever-present performance issues. It's fun at best and disappointing at worst, with a lot of missed potential left on the picnic table.
Born of Bread is a fine spiritual successor to the Paper Mario games of old, with a lighthearted story, hands-on combat system, and charming characters all coming together to make for a worthwhile experience. That said, it can feel kind of rough around the edges with a long list of bugs (at least at launch), confusing level designs, and occasionally oddly paced story. We'd recommend Born of Bread to any fans of Mario's traditional RPG adventures, as the positives here do outweigh the negatives, but just bear in mind that this loaf feels like it could've spent a little more time in the oven.