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Skyforge is a properly mediocre MMORPG that could, perhaps, have been a reasonable enough little timesink for a bunch of friends or solo players who just want to mindlessly blow through its content without thinking too much. There's no shortage of content here, and the idea of having eighteen different classes to master is an attractive one. However, this Switch port is such a huge disappointment on a technical level; it's such a lazy, janky, stuttery, buggy, low-resolution mess that it's hard to see how anyone could be bothered to stick with it for long enough to properly engage with anything it's got to offer. If you're in need of an MMORPG to play on your Switch right now, we recommend you download and play just about anything else that's available because seriously, this ain't it.
Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia attempts to shoehorn the long-running franchise into a Pokémon Let's Go-style affair aimed at younger players but does so with absolutely zero care or charm. This is a lazy, repetitive, basic game that slowly erodes your patience and goodwill with sloppy mechanics, a tiny roster of samey monsters and a world that reveals itself to be entirely devoid of character or life. Avoid.
Each level is also beatable within 5 minutes, meaning you could finish the story in just over an hour, though considering the extremely low price point, that’s more forgivable. Ultimately though, whilst the N64-era aesthetic will appeal to some, Macbat 64 just isn’t worth your time. Diploducus Games seem to be relying on little more than nostalgia as it’s selling point, but when it utterly fails to deliver on gameplay, we can’t recommend this to even the most die-hard platforming fans.
We won’t mince words here, Summer in Mara has absolutely nothing to offer that hasn’t been done much better in other games that are easily available right now. If you want a cozy farm sim with a pleasant atmosphere, get Stardew Valley or Rune Factory 4. If you want a thrilling adventure you can take at your own pace, get Minecraft or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Even if you’ve played those and are looking for something new, please don’t waste your time or money here. This is not a 'hidden gem'; the alluring presentation of Summer in Mara only acts as a pretty mask for a much uglier game beneath the surface – one that’s keen on wasting your time with no meaningful payoff.
Indiecalypse just isn't any fun to play. Maybe the very act of making these gaming parodies play so badly is a deep meta joke in and of itself. In which case, you got us. But we think the real joke is on the person who drops good money on this game.
If we sound like a broken record criticising this VR conversion, that's because its central problem is so all-encompassing that it destroys the product. Sure, you could have fun with this if you're a committed fan of Five Nights at Freddy's and its lore, but we'd advise against it otherwise. As with many VR games, the immersion and novelty factor papers over the cracks of the limited gameplay. When that escapism is taken away, all that's left is a sub-par minigame collection that isn't even as good as the individual games it cribs from – and it's a lot more expensive, too. We get the impression that the sole reason this game exists is to capitalise on the fact that the Switch has such a large market share.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a bland and repetitive grind, a free-to-play mobile game all dressed up like a proper Elder Scrolls title but lacking in any of the adventure, exploration, wit or charm of a mainline entry in the franchise.
It really sucks having to rate Munch's Oddysee so low – this version has obviously been made with care, but as the old saying goes you just can't polish a... well... you know.
The odds are quite good that you will never get the chance to play Cooking Mama: Cookstar, and that’s probably for the best. Beyond its status as a curiosity item in the wake of the mess surrounding its release, there is absolutely nothing about Cooking Mama: Cookstar that justifies the price of admission.
We cannot wholeheartedly recommend Gigantosaurus: The Game to anyone. Young children who love the animated show may well get some limited enjoyment out of it, but with poor graphics, a total lack of any discernible challenge, and shocking technical issues, it's yet another licensed title that feels like it was designed as a quick cash grab. Games like this need to become extinct, and fast.
In sum, Arc of Alchemist is not worth your time.
Don’t waste your time or money on this poor approximation; go download Puzzle & Dragons for free on your phone for a much more enjoyable experience and save your money for much more worthwhile releases for the Switch.
Decay of Logos is a mess. It looks bad, has some crippling performance issues and is stuffed full of nonsensical and overly-punitive gameplay systems that make every minute you spend with it feel like a slog. The world that Amplify Creations has created here does occasionally feel like it could be an interesting and worthwhile place to explore, but there are just far too many bugs and problems that get in the way of you settling down to enjoy this game in any way whatsoever. Avoid.
Thief of Thieves is an awful video game. It's tedious and clunky, has broken AI, awful dialogue, miserable characters and a boring story that has absolutely nothing of interest to say or add to the heist genre.
If you're new to visual novels, and curious, then go somewhere else first; Root Letter: Last Answer could put you off the genre for life. But if you're a visual novel fan, you've played all the other interesting ones on the Switch and you absolutely cannot wait for another – and if you've considered maybe just going outside or watching TV or lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling and you still can't wait for another – then you could take a look at Root Letter and just hope you find it so bad it's good.
.Put aside your affection for Adam Blade's novels and just play one of the many other amazing RPGs on Switch instead.
Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip is everything you've come to expect from a lazy movie tie-in. Its gameplay is mechanically competent but it's bland beyond belief, short, cynical and lazy. It has the most tenuous of links to the actual film it portrays and is ultimately a very basic twin-stick shooter with a tired-looking Zombieland skin tossed carelessly on top – it also costs far more money than it has any right to. If this was a free mobile game you might get an hour or two of braindead time-wasting out of it, but as an almost full price console release, it's pretty much indefensible.
Gun Gun Pixies is a bad game. It’s a terrible third-person shooter, a clunky platformer and an incompetent visual novel, all wrapped up in an embarrassingly puerile attempt at titillation.
Bullet Battle: Evolution does not bode well for the future of online shooters on Switch. With it looking increasingly unlikely Call of Duty will ever return to Nintendo hardware, it falls to other studios to fill that gap. Unfortunately, undercooked messes like this one don’t help the cause. A free-to-play shooter that’s riddled with disabled microtransactions that bottleneck progress, this is a clunky effort that’s in dire need of some proper optimisation and a complete overhaul of its progression systems and balancing.
Kotodama could have been a perfectly fine mystery school adventure if it didn't leave you blindly groping in the dark through repeats of repeats for a tiny morsel of fresh content.