JJtheTexan

As great as Super Mario Maker 2 is - and it is genuinely great - it is perhaps the only Nintendo Switch game with a direct predecessor on Wii U that somehow manages to be inferior to the original. Much of this can't be helped; no game made better use of the Wii U GamePad than the first SMM when it comes to designing and building courses. Using a controller in TV mode works well enough, and there's also the touchscreen in handheld if you're so inclined, but I just wish I could make courses with a mouse and keyboard. The built-in challenge levels are superb. The World Builder is a welcome addition. The new modes are great. All that said, I really miss the many extra characters we got with the Wii U game, like Mario-Kun and Weird Mario. User-created courses are very hit and miss, and mostly miss. You can avoid the all-time top 20, as they are all just identical automatic courses that make loud noises. It's best to find a few active course designers you like and follow them, or at least someone who *was* active a few years ago and made a ton of courses. Regardless, you'll never run out of fun new courses to play! (At least until Nintendo ends online services at some point in the future.)

As "walking simulator" interactive stories go, this one is pretty good. It looks nice on Nintendo Switch and plays just fine in handheld mode. The voice acting is solid and the narrative is pretty decent, without being too predictable. The ending does contain a mild twist / surprise, though I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the way things ended. I highly recommend going in blind if you're willing to give What Remains of Edith Finch a try. Positives: - Decent story - A few surprises - Good visuals and sound design - Feels made with a lot of heart - Length feels just right Negatives: - Pacing can get a bit slow at times - A couple of puzzles / sections can get a little annoying Similar games you might enjoy: - Firewatch - Gone Home - Subsurface Circular

A rock-solid pure arcade baseball romp with lots of customization and high replay value. I recommend either sequel over this one, though.

One of the very best racing games for Nintendo Switch. If you like classic racing games at all, this is absolutely a must-play. Positives: - Lots and lots of tracks - Plenty of cars to unlock - A fun and challenging progression system - Perfect 60fps performance - Outstanding soundtrack - Splendid low-poly visuals - Lots of enjoyable DLC - Tons of replay value Negatives: - The developer was purchased by Epic Games and converted into a Fortnite support studio, so we will never get a sequel Similar games you might enjoy: - Top Gear / Top Racer - OutRun - Hotshot Racing

A perfectly-good pinball game from the experts at Zen Studios, with Star Wars trappings. Positives: - Great pinball gameplay - Lots of tables - Interesting table designs and mechanics that work wonderfully with the source material - No Grogu Negatives: - Only uses music from the original film trilogy (1977-1983), which feels very out of place with tables based on the newer movies - Sound-alikes are used for most voice lines instead of the original actors, and they just sound "wrong" Recommended for: - Star Wars fans who enjoy pinball Similar games you might enjoy: - Pinball FX3 - Star Wars Pinball (Wii U) - The Pinball Arcade

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for Game Boy Color is one of my very favorite games, so I should have been much more excited when this HD remake was announced. Instead, my feelings were tempered by the "plastic toy" art direction. At any rate, I picked up and played this game on release day... and finished it in one session, of roughly ten hours. I have played the GBC version many times, so I had no difficulty finding my way through the remake. I like it, and it's very charming, but I can't see myself picking it up again. I guess I have just too much nostalgia for the simpler 8-bit graphics and music. Positives: - Extremely faithful to the Game Boy and Game Boy Color versions - Outstanding soundtrack - Wonderful story and memorable characters - Great sense of humor; never takes itself too seriously - Perfect Zelda game for introducing new players to the series Negatives: - The art style is not my cup of tea - Maybe *too* faithful to the originals; not much new content here - The newly-added "dungeon maker" is not very interesting - Not very challenging, especially for veteran Zelda fans Recommended for: - Legend of Zelda fans - Anyone interested in trying the Zelda series for the first time You might enjoy this if you also liked: - Any top-down 2D game in the Legend of Zelda series - Tunic - Crystalis

Positives: - Excellent sprite-based visuals, music, and sound design - Reasonably interesting story, though its place in the main series' timeline is a bit confusing - Tough but fair with a good learning curve and a nice challenge - Your floating robot companion Lola is a delight Negatives: - Somewhat iterative from the main Gunvolt games (not necessarily a bad thing) - Questionable portrayal of an ostensibly underage girl that may make some players uncomfortable Recommended for: - Fans of the Azure Striker Gunvolt trilogy - Fans of any Mega Man game, but especially the Zero and ZX spinoffs

It's not the best-looking game on the platform by a longshot, but my gosh is this a technical triumph. The entire game and all its DLC are here, fully-intact. It just works. Yes, you're better off playing The Witcher 3 on practically any other platform, but if all you have is a Nintendo Switch, you'll still have a fantastic time adventuring with Geralt and friends.

Absolutely the best way to play Shinobi (as of 2023). Lots of great quality-of-life features and little enhancements, alongside a purist version of the arcade original. Be ready for an old school challenge!

What I liked: - Short and sweet - Good variety - Nice pixel art - The mini-games are reasonably fun What I didn't like: - The story about an angsty teen, growing up in the 1980s and complaining about how miserable they are while using all the cliches from a YA novel - The seemingly unresolved ending I had high hopes for this one, because it sounded like something I would really enjoy. I came away slightly disappointed. Hard to recommend, but worth a shot if you can pick it up on sale.

I can tell the team at MLB Advanced Media really tried their best here. Anyway, play MLB The Show instead. It's now available on Nintendo Switch and other platforms.

Once something of a lost classic, DOOM 64 has never looked or played better. The team at Night Dive Studios did a fantastic job of updating and improving the Nintendo 64 original, while keeping the gameplay essentially intact. DOOM fans will get the most out of this game, but if you're curious about "boomer shooters," add this one to your list. (Just make sure you play the original DOOM and DOOM II first - not for story reasons, but so you can get used to the gameplay. This ain't CoD or Apex!)

I first played Panzer Dragoon: Remake after it received a significant post-launch patch that resolved many issues critics had with it. Therefore, I didn't experience many of the same problems as launch-day players. With that in mind, I did enjoy this sci-fi / fantasy rail shooter quite a bit, though I can see why its appeal is somewhat limited. Honestly, if you never played the original, or have no nostalgia for similar games like Star Fox, you probably won't get a lot out of PD:R. It's short, not too difficult, and its visual style isn't going to win any beauty contests. If you're an older gamer like me, you're the target audience and you might get a kick out of it.

While I still prefer Streets of Rage 2, this long-awaited fourth entry in the brilliant beat-'em-up series is a great return and a challenging romp for veterans and new fans alike. The music is good, but never quite lives up to the first two SEGA Genesis game soundtracks; similarly, the hand-drawn visual style never really gelled with me. Other than that, I had a good time and recommend this one to all Nintendo Switch owners.

Pure arcade-style baseball goodness. I spent a dozen hours or so crafting a league of ersatz MLB teams and their all-time best players, then played through a dream season. Arguably the best sports game on Nintendo Switch.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition arrived at the perfect time for me. While everyone else was playing Animal Crossing during pandemic lockdown, I was just not finding anything new that clicked during that awful time. I had previously tried playing the original XC on the Wii and Nintendo 3DS, but found the controls of the former and the visuals of the latter to be too off-putting. XC:DE fixes all the flaws of the first two versions and then goes a thousand miles further, making for an outstanding and unforgettable experience. The battle system takes some getting used to, but after getting past that initial hurdle, I found myself quickly enamored with the characters and their plights. The voice acting is generally good, though repetitive in battles, and the story wound up being one of my favorites in any game I've ever played. I can't recommend this game enough for RPG fans. It looks great, plays great, and packs some emotional wallops along with a few twists in the plot. The music is excellent and I still listen to the soundtrack from time to time. The new post-game content is fine, but nothing too special.

You get what you pay for, and this game is free. That said, it's perfectly fine and accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: it gives you a reason to get your heart rate up by jumping in place to move a cartoon rabbit. Just don't play this if you live above the ground floor in a multi-story apartment building.

A Short Hike is a short game, but it packs a lot of enjoyment into its roughly 90 minutes of playthrough. I found it to be quite charming and very relaxing; I had a smile on my face from start to finish. For less than the price of a movie ticket, you get a delightful experience that makes a perfect palate-cleanser or just a nice way to kill time on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Paratopic is a short, weird, low-poly "walking simulator" that can be finished in under an hour. I point out all of these facts as positive attributes, not criticisms. I won't say anything else, because it's the kind of game that must be played going in completely blind in order to get the most out of it. The game is $6 U.S. at full price, but it often goes on sale. Regardless, it's worth your money. Try it!

There are very few games I consider to be truly worthy of a perfect 10 score. Hades is one of them. Read the critics' reviews if you want to know why; all I can say is I simply could not stop playing this game until I had 100% completed everything it had to offer, dozens and dozens of hours later. When I wasn't playing Hades, I often found myself wanting to play Hades as soon as I could. It has one of the most sublime gameplay loops I've ever experienced. I cannot wait for the sequel!

Absolutely brilliant, and the most fun I've ever had in an online multiplayer game. I will never forgive Nintendo for deactivating and delisting it FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.

I enjoyed Astro's Playroom far more than I expected I might. It's so much more than a tech demo; it is an outstanding game in and of itself that is absolutely worth your time. Yes, it does make far better use of the DualSense controller than any other PS5 game I've played, but even without the incredibly satisfying haptic feedback and clever use of other features, it's just a fun time overall. This is as close as any Sony game I've played comes to capturing the joy of a 3-D Super Mario title, and in some ways it surpasses Nintendo's best platformers. A shame it's so short, but it's free, so who's complaining?

I loved Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, and this enhanced port improves on it quite a bit. Gameplay is faster, tighter, and more crisp - the increased speed of the action alone makes the game so much better. Throw in the surprisingly great (but short) Bowser's Fury, and you have a can't miss package. A must-play for every Nintendo Switch owner.

The final iteration of this game on Nintendo Switch ended the way so many real baseball games do: quietly and anticlimactically. It's also a lot like my favorite team, the Texas Rangers: it looks okay, but not great; it runs, okay but not great; it plays okay, but not great. It's just there, giving MLB fans who don't own a PlayStation console (prior to 2022) a chance to play an MLB simulation with modern rosters and rules. Anyway, I got about halfway through a 162-game season when it abruptly crashed in the middle ****, and I never played it again. If you're looking for pure baseball action on the Nintendo Switch, I recommend Super Mega Baseball 3.

I *love* Pac-Man, and this might be my favorite way to play. It combines elements of the 1980 arcade classic and newer iterations, particularly Championship Edition, with the 99-player "battle royale" format Arika first established with the sublime Tetris 99. If you have any love for Pac-Man, you will get a kick out of this frantic, competitive version. My only complaint is that the active player base is far smaller than Tetris 99, and most games these days (as of 2023) are a handful of humans competing against several dozen bots.

Yet another victim of the bursting "live service" bubble, Super Bomberman R Online was gone too soon. It's a pity, because this game could be a lot of fun when playing with friends and strangers alike. Sadly, it apparently wasn't profitable, because Konami pulled the plug after less than two years. The good news is they haven't given up on the brand, and another Bomberman game is on the way (as of 2023). Hopefully they get it right this time.

Cruis'n Blast *is* a blast. No, really. This is pure, unadulterated arcade fun. Anyone can pick it up and learn the basics immediately. This is one of those games that wants you to enjoy every second, and goes absolutely over-the-top with its visuals and gameplay. The quick races are also perfect for the Nintendo Switch itself, as you can get a few rounds in when you have only a few minutes to play on the go. I can't recommend this game enough. Just get it!

MLB The Show looks about as good as we can expect for what is essentially a PS5 game crammed onto PS3-level hardware. No, it doesn't compare well to the beefier platforms, but it is certainly better-looking than the R.B.I. Baseball series ever was, and it's adequate, especially in handheld mode. Gameplay-wise, this version is basically on par with the PS5 and Xbox. I just wish there was a basic, no-frills "play the season" mode - I am not interested in all the RPG elements of developing a custom player, nor did I care for the condensed season that forced me to play entire games with only one position player or randomly shift me to the minors. I just want an old-school, arcadey baseball game with MLB players and teams. Is that too much to ask?

This is fine, I guess? Most of the games included have not aged well at all, with the exceptions being The Ninja Warriors, Qix, and to some extent, Halley's Comet. The rest are just not that much fun to play today. The collection also lacks any special features to speak of, with each game just being the Arcade Archives version -- basically the arcade ROM with a few variables, such as difficulty and display settings. It's hard to recommend this collection to anyone who is simply curious about Taito's early output. Unless you have real nostalgia for at least three or four of the included games, I'd skip this collection.