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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Honestly, it's hard to see how they can fix Batman: Arkham Knight to a satisfactory degree, and it feels like a step too far to have even included this final chapter in the collection for Switch. A great ending to an amazing trilogy, but just completely broken for now.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is an enjoyable monster-catching RPG that combines charming visuals with addictive gameplay to make for a genuinely gripping experience, making it feel like the long wait since the last entry to leave Japan has been worth it. Even so, its general lack of ambition and struggles with performance issues hold it back from greatness-it's very good, but it's also definitely got its issues. If you're at all a fan of Dragon Quest or monster-catching RPGs, we'd suggest you pick this one up, though perhaps wait a few months to see if Square can sort out the worst of its performance issues.
