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If you're looking for a hidden RTS gem on the Switch, CastleStorm is unfortunately not going to change much for you. It's a perfectly serviceable game with a lengthy campaign and plenty of customisation, but it lacks defining mechanics that inspire or excite players.
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War may not play like other 4X games that you're used to, but it treads a perfectly acceptable path of its own that fills the stomach, albeit not quite to satisfaction.
I began Detective Gallo feeling quite peckish for some good point-and-click action. Unfortunately, though, the game has me migrating elsewhere, as Detective Gallo's cockiness as a character was very grating, and I found myself beginning to moult as a result.
While it doesn't offer a whole lot to do and risks getting overshadowed by bigger party racers like Nintendo's own Mario Kart, Chiki Chiki Boxy Racers is good for an afternoon of fun with up to eight players.
Nippon Ichi continues to be one of the more experimental developers within traditional JRPG genres. Disgaea has always offered a fundamentally different approach to tactics JRPGs, and the two Witch and the Hundred Knight titles did interesting things with the action JRPG. Being different means they're not for everyone, but Labyrinth of Refrain is perhaps the developer's most mature, nuanced, and interesting effort yet.
Still, the developer deserves props for doing something genuinely interesting in a staid genre. Shadows: Awakening is familiar enough, but it has some enjoyably unique mechanics that help to elevate it, and a world to explore that's genuinely captivating. It would be great to see the developer get a chance to do more with this franchise.
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It's quite impressive that SEGA has been able to take something so revered as Valkyria Chronicles, and do it justice with the fourth title in the series.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is for people that enjoy a well-written fantasy story, and one that they feel like they have a role in making. The open-ended approach gives players a lot of agency in weaving their own stories, and this is backed up through the character development and combat systems, which at all times reward creativity, and punish those that are not really paying attention. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is very much a love letter to the RPGs of yesteryear, and it's a proof of how enjoyable those games can still be.
Hyakki Castle puts up a welcome challenge and offers players something rooted in a very authentic Japanese (Shinto) spirituality. It's an artifact of the country and comes from the same place that the likes of Okami, Nioh and God Wars does. It's truly amazing that the Nintendo Switch has had three of those four released on it in the span of just a couple of weeks.
That being said, Realpolitiks is a really delightful game to have for on-the-go play, on a console that I would never have guessed would end up with something like this on it.
Spider-Man was never not going to deliver on its promise, and as much as I enjoyed my time with it, I still hold out hope that at some point the industry will start to question whether empty, superficial fun really is the peak of what its biggest projects can offer.
That makes Death's Gambit worth seeing past through its more frustrating moments. It may not quite have the finesse of its inspirations, but it delivers a world that's no less fascinating to explore and bleak (though also hopeful, somehow) story that deserves to be uncovered.
Punch Line is a effective as a satire and parody. It's obviously only going to appeal to people that are that immersed in Japanese culture that their sense of hyperbole comes across as amusing and surreal, rather than just silly, but then this is very much an insider's parody of a type of anime that only the most dedicated (and therefore, likely aware) fans of anime in the first place. For that niche Punch Line is pitch-perfect.
There's still plenty of fanservice in Nekopara; the girls have good taste in underwear, that's for sure, and there's plenty of flirtatious dialogue and risqué implications, but it all comes across as playful, and reinforces the rest of the game's silly tone. And for that, it's absolutely delightful.
The racing market is a crowded one, but F1 is pure racing, and the sport doesn't get much more exciting, or strategic, than this one
As a first effort out it's genuinely impressive, offering a clean and enjoyable combat system that can also be used to introduce new players to the joy of modern 2D fighters. I firmly believe there's a role for fighters like that in the market, and Blade Strangers is a very fine first effort indeed.
Dragon Quest XI is, from end to end, an iconic example of everything that Dragon Quest has stood for since way back in the 80's. It's charming and has a colourful energy that makes it very hard to put down.
Warhammer Inquisitor: Martyr succeeds in giving players an action RPG experience that manages to combine the action of a 'Diablo clone' with the Warhammer 40K license.