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With how stellar a package the Vows of the Virtueless proved to be upon release, the expanded and feature-packed Disgaea 7 Complete should be a slam dunk of a recommendation to any tactical RPG fan - but re-releases are rarely that simple. For anyone who missed out on the original the first time around, this version is every bit as great and stands tall as the ultimate, feature-complete iteration of the game.At the same time, there's no denying that the handful of brand-new content additions fall on the niche side and mostly serve those who want to live and breathe Disgaea 7 for their next hundred-plus hours of game time. Even stalwart fans who loved the base game may want to think twice before dropping the price of admission on this updated version and starting from scratch for a couple of post-game goodies.
Sonic Racing: Crossworlds is a genuinely excellent game, but the Switch version is just 'alright'. The dynamic track designs, high replayability, and thrilling visuals all combine to make for a game that - judged purely on that content - stands as a strong competitor to the dominant Mario Kart series.But the poor visual quality and resolution present in the Switch version drag down the overall experience and make it feel like a much more mediocre experience. I'd still give this port a light recommendation; it's a fair choice if Switch is the only platform available to you, and ultimately justifies the price of admission. Otherwise, I'd suggest waiting to see how the upcoming Switch 2 version pans out, or picking it up now on another platform.
Galaxy 2 on Switch includes the same additions as the first game. It introduces Assist Mode to give newcomers a leg up, and if you're playing co-op, Player Two can use the mouse controls on Switch 2. It also suffers from the same quirks: the gyro controls, although perfectly serviceable, never feel quite as good as the original Wii controls, though some of the camera issues in the original perhaps aren’t quite as prevalent here.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a comprehensive audio-visual update of a classic series opener, with great characters, a world that you'll want to explore, and deep combat with a wealth of options. The updated style runs best on Switch 2, with only the odd stumble in docked performance.
Star Trek: Resurgence is a modest enterprise, but Dramatic Labs did a stellar job of capturing the qualities of the show, specifically its '90s era, with all the strengths and weaknesses thereof. As with the show, technically, you may notice some rough edges, but the creators have worked wonders with their resources. The visual novel stylings here suit the material, and it's got it where it counts, with excellent writing and performances across the board.Non-Trek fans won't get half as much out of it, and you may not be tempted to go back for a second playthrough. But if the current crop of Trek shows isn't quite scratching your itch, Resurgence does a great job of transporting you back a generation.
Supergiant Games is five-for-five with Hades II, a huge, triumphant sequel that manages to diverge mechanically and offer more challenges and variety than its predecessor. It helps that it's nearly faultless on Switch 2 in particular.Sometimes there's a bit too much going on, and in shooting for a bigger, more tragic story, I think it's lost a bit of heart. But, quite frankly, I don't want time to stop because if it does, I won't be able to play Hades II anymore.
I don't want to let my moan about the final boss overshadow the review. There's still a fun game here, and a lovely remaster of a well-loved platformer. The things it does well - the personality of Pac-Man, friends, and enemies in the cut scenes, the variety in the gameplay - shine brightly. For those with nostalgia for the original, I'm sure you'll enjoy your 'Re-Pac'-aged version. It's been made with love. For non-fans, however, this is a more difficult purchase to justify.Arguably, the price is a little steep for what's on offer, and some lingering retro-frustrations in the execution of the 3D platforming and boss fights might sit badly with an audience expecting a game with the finesse of more modern alternatives. Sure, even Donkey Kong Bananza has its share of cheap deaths, but the truth is Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac isn't in the same league. Short, sweet, prettified, retro, and not for everybody; those are the keywords here.
Yes, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles cuts content from the War of the Lions version, and it's a shame. However, put this one issue aside, if you can, and you've got a fantastic - and fantastically thoughtful - revamp otherwise. Meaningful QoL changes meld with delicate gameplay nips and tucks, CPU enemy tune-ups, and a smoother-flowing experience overall to deliver a game that's pretty much impossible to knock.Fans will be fully absorbed into the story all over again, enjoying the new flow of the narrative and experiencing the whole thing so wonderfully well-acted. Newcomers, who're less likely to be bothered by the missing content, well, they can just get busy lapping up one of the all-time great tactical RPGs looking and playing better than ever.
EA's Switch 2 football debut is a night-and-day difference from its half-hearted Switch one, setting a great precedent for the future of the series. EA Sports FC 26 delivers a fully-featured version of the game, and while it only runs at 30fps and has a gated-off Ultimate Team mode which doesn't tap into the series' larger crossplay community, it still plays a fantastic game of football and offers more game modes than you'll ever know what to do with.
With Death on the Nile, Microids Studio Lyon has settled into a great formula for a Poirot adventure: a supporting playable character brings novelty and gives the moustachioed star room to ham it up as a lightly comic persona. Some mildly disjointed pacing and a dozily relaxed speed might put some people off, but if you want the cosy feeling of curling up with a good mystery novel, then this is absolutely the game for you.
Earthion is a terrific piece of work. It's more an accomplished production, arguably, than a shoot 'em up of incredible highs, but at the same time, that's part of its charm. It has a different feel thanks to its shield system and mid-stage upgrade rungs, and this is a refreshing and welcome change from the norm. Much of the fun is in figuring out the order of bolstering your ship and the little tricks that various weaponry affords when faced with tricky junctures. It does some things other shoot 'em ups don't do, and is all the more standout for it.At the same time, it fails to achieve some things that other shoot 'em ups do so well. Nonetheless, Earthion is a treat of a game: a bold new Mega Drive work that sits in the upper echelons of the console's broad catalogue, and shouldn't be passed up by fans of the genre or wonderful 16-bit works.
While I adored Lego Voyagers' visual style and emotive design of the main bricks, I often found the actual puzzles underwhelming, and the game ended just as they started to get interesting.If you ever find this on sale and want to just enjoy an evening with someone, this is a clever little co-op adventure with surprisingly touching themes. But when it comes to the difficulty of the main puzzles and the amount of content on offer, Lego Voyagers feels a few bricks short of a full set.
Ultimately, disappointing visuals aside, there’s a lot to like here. It definitely falls into the ‘cosy horror’ sub-genre, with spooky yet charming aesthetics, haunting music, and engaging puzzle-solving throughout. With Halloween on the horizon, it could be the perfect little primer for younger gamers.
Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush feels like a split banana. The new roguelike mode is a lot of fun, gelling surprisingly well with the game's core mechanics and giving me a welcome excuse to swing back into my beloved Bananza, but the other half of the deal, DK Island, left me feeling a little short-changed with its lack of appeal outside of the new game mode.Bananza constantly reminded me of Odyssey as I played through the base game, and now it seems, much like its platforming predecessor, I'm going to be forever thinking about the DLC potential that never was.
In Strange Antiquities, Bad Viking expands the rich world of Strange Horticulture – this time in an antique shop specialising in the occult. The puzzles are cryptic but rarely skull-cracking, forming an addictive gameplay loop: who knew hunting down magic antiques to solve customers' conundrums could be so satisfying?The whole thing is cloaked in a gripping mystery narrative, which you can influence with the right (or wrong) occult oddity. And with the possibility of multiple endings, replay value is high – at least for those of you who want to see just how much strangeness is in store.
Hollow Knight: Silksong's beauty is beguiling, hiding an interior that's deliberately harsh but endlessly rewarding. Everything feels deliberate, pushing you to learn, improve, and perfect, or simply just explore a little more. And what a world it is to dig into.Somehow, Team Cherry has surpassed my expectations tenfold and delivered a mesmeric blend of balletic combat and movement with persistence, joy, and an incredibly invigorating map at the centre. I've never felt better surmounting the challenges put in front of me, and I'm already raring to do it a second time.
It's a Switch release, although those playing on Switch 2 will need to, uh… consider not for now. The game frequently freezes, sometimes indefinitely, and although Wales Interactive is fully aware of this, the team is currently unable to apply a fix thanks to the lack of dev kits. Performance on Switch 1, mind you, is mostly fine. I experienced one of the aforementioned freezes, but it wasn’t a particularly lengthy one.
One wonders if the entire Bubsy series wasn't actually designed as a sort of torture parody; that the intention all along was to pummel unsuspecting children into submission via an innocent-looking, anthropomorphic-bobcat-led platform game.Picture this: some kid in 1993 got Bubsy for Christmas after the sales clerk told his parents that Sonic and Mario were old hat, and this was the hot new thing. That kid either never forgave his parents for the injustice and the playground bullying they endured as a result, or they committed fully to the Bubsy universe and found a happy place within it. If you're the latter, then this collection is for you. And only for you.
Although Cronos: The New Dawn doesn't quite reach the heights of Bloober Team's excellent Silent Hill 2 remake, it's nevertheless the result of a studio that has levelled up significantly from the days of Layers of Fear and Blair Witch. It's a celebration of survival horror, paying homage to all the genre greats effectively, although failing to do anything truly original.That said, the setting and story really help elevate the experience. This is a solid Switch 2 version (assuming a rather unpleasant bug gets fixed soon), and there's real potential here for Cronos to become a central pillar of the genre going forward, should Bloober choose to expand upon it in the future.
NBA 2K26 on Switch 2 fails to deliver the 60fps gameplay we've all been holding out for. It also runs at a lower resolution than I would have expected, and its online modes, thanks to no cross-play or cross-progression are ghost towns.However, if this is your only platform, and if you are okay with 30fps, there is still a huge festival of basketball to enjoy here. This is a game packed full of fun modes, and it'll teach you everything you could ever need to know about the sport whilst giving you some fine on-court action to boot. Here's hoping for a patch down the line, but 2K26 comes off as a great game underperforming on Switch 2 at launch.