Digimon Survive is one of the best visual novels to come out so far this year, with plenty of heart and tension to carry you through to the final act. Fans looking for an engaging story with well-written and presented characters that deal with life-and-death situations will enjoy the ride, while players focused on the combat will probably find that the game comes up short. Despite its sluggish, padded start, Digimon Survive is well worth the long wait.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the strangest thing you'll play from Nintendo, bringing with it laughs and creativity in abundance. But even with improvements over the 3DS game, it follows a familiar structure that isn't always enthralling or hilarious.Tomodachi fans will certainly be living the dream with this new entry, but I'm not desperate to keep coming back to my island. A little more variety would've been welcome, but the customisation, and the thought of my cat being best friends with DMC's Dante, will have me peep in every so often for a little pick-me-up.
Despite familiar echoes and mechanical touchstones from other games, Hellblade’s psychological bent and the constant voices in Senua’s (and therefore your) head give it an identity very much of its own.
Out There: Ω The Alliance is a roguelike that takes the terrifying prospect of travelling the lonely stars and makes a pulpy comic book adventure of it. Luck and chance are often as important an influence as tactics and knowledge, but with so much to discover (and enough content to warrant multiple playthroughs) this intergalactic adventure will have you humming that iconic mining menu theme tune from Mass Effect 2 in no time.
The Mystery of Woolley Mountain might have more of a low-rent aesthetic that's more South Park than Monkey Island, but it all ties back into a homemade feel that really sells its quirkiness and sense of personality.
If you’re a fan of Enter the Gungeon, roguelikes, or difficult games in general, Nuclear Throne is going to be right up your alley; we’d give this one a high recommendation.
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...
While it lacks the arcade pedigree that makes other Switch-based shmups so popular, AngerForce: Reloaded has clearly been put together by a team that understands what makes this long-established genre so appealing.
We've been stung before with ports of console and PC games - especially those lauded for the size and intricacy of their worlds - but Panic Button has proved, once again, that it really does know how to do the right games justice within the constraints of Switch's hardware design.
GODS Remastered is an odd remaster. The brand new visuals help give this incarnation of Ancient Greece a far more agreeable presentation with a proper lighting system, some much-improved character models and a soundtrack that helps do justice to the unforgettable original. But peel away those cosmetic changes and you’re left with a once brilliant action-platformer that has not aged well.
GALAK-Z isn't a game for everyone: its rogue-lite nature, its high difficulty level and its punishing policy on death (even in its easier Arcade mode) will infuriate some players who are just expecting a quick blast of non-stop action. Treat it like the slower-paced exploration and survival game it's supposed to be, and your patience will be rewarded with some genuinely satisfying space combat and a wide variety of customisable parts (not to mention its brilliant mech upgrade), all wrapped up in a fantastic '80s style aesthetic.
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is a faithful port of the original that brings every slash of Chaoseaster and every bloody execution to Nintendo Switch in all its glory. While still the inferior entry in the Darksiders trilogy, this first outing is still a robust action-platformer full of satisfying melee combos, open-ended levels and a suitably over-the-top story. Easily one of the most underrated franchises to appear in the previous generation, Darksiders is a solid port that finally unleashes the Apocalypse in handheld form.
It’s not often we recommend you play a Nintendo Switch game on a different platform, but there’s simply no way we could advise you to pick this up right now in its current state.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid isn't some cheap tie into a quarter-century-old franchise – at least not in sense of its core mechanics and gameplay. With a smooth 60fps in all formats on Switch, lots of modes to play through and support for ranked and casual bouts online, it's a decent fighter, even without the licence. However, an ugly yet suitably contemporary approach to content accessibility leaves this game feeling frustratingly spartan to anyone who doesn't invest in a rolling number of ongoing season passes. This seems to be the way all fighting games are going – just look at Dead or Alive 6's awful DLC setup – but it's not a welcome direction.
There’s fun to be had on New Zack Island, although we wish it drilled down on two or three things rather than the assortment of slighter activities it offers. Ultimately, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet is a minigame compilation that you play repeatedly to earn money to buy costumes for busty supermodels.
