Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a fantastic and faithful remake of the beloved GameCube gem with enhanced visuals, reworked music and quality-of-life improvements elevating this classic to the same standard as modern Switch games. Whether you’ve never played it before or you want a dose of nostalgia, The Thousand-Year Door is an essential purchase for Mario fans.
Princess Peach: Showtime! is a charming and simple adventure. It’s best suited to young children, with a variety of fun level designs to keep players entertained throughout. A low difficulty level and shallow story will prevent Peach from outshining ventures from Kirby and Yoshi, but it’s still great to see the Princess taking the spotlight once again.
Super Mario RPG is a gorgeous reimagining of the SNES classic. Those looking for a dose of nostalgia will be pleased that this is a faithful remake, with just enough tweaks to make it more accessible to a new generation of gamers without diluting the magic of the original.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is exactly what you want from a sequel, building upon the web-swinging traversal and thrilling combat with numerous upgrades, while also making the most of the PS5’s cutting-edge hardware for improved visuals and instantaneous loading.
We play every game we review through to the end, outside of certain exceptions where getting 100% completion, like Skyrim, is close to impossible to do. When we don’t fully finish a game before reviewing it, we will always alert the reader.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t stray too far away from the hugely successful template of Breath of the Wild. But by reinforcing its predecessor’s strength for experimentation with the new building mechanics, while also telling an engaging story and opening up new locations to explore, this is a perfect sequel to the greatest game to ever grace the Nintendo Switch.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is a faithful adaptation of the Game Boy Advance classic, with charming 3D visuals giving it a welcome facelift. With the gameplay mechanics largely untouched 22 years after the release of the original however, Advance Wars feels rusty and basic compared to more modern strategy games on the Nintendo Switch.
Horizon Call of the Mountain is a must-buy purchase for any PlayStation VR 2 owners, with a full-length adventure featuring thrilling climbing mechanics and engaging combat. And best of all, the interactive world looks absolutely incredible in 4K thanks to the power of the PS5 console.
Engage isn’t the best entry point into the series, and is rather shallow in terms of story and character development, but the combat is enjoyable enough alone to keep players engrossed until the end.
God of War Ragnarök is a spectacular sequel, retaining the same ultra-satisfying combat as its predecessor, but with a more grandiose story to boot.
Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope provides the same enjoyable turn-based combat as its predecessor, with some minor tweaks to make it more accessible to a wider audience. A greater focus on the Rabbids opposed to the Mushroom Kingdom feels like a backwards step though, with the slapstick crossover comedy failing to sparkle this time around.
Splatoon 3 feels like a fresh coat of paint for the series, with a new story mode as well as additional weapons, stages and enemies. With the main multiplayer modes largely unchanged compared to Splatoon 2, series veterans may feel aggrieved that there aren’t any substantial upgrades or new game modes. But Splatoon 3 still offers spades of fun and will no doubt be one of the leading multiplayer titles on the Nintendo Switch.
Saints Row now feels like a mediocre open-world action game, becoming just like all of the games at which the series used to poke fun. Mission objectives are bland and repetitive, while the story is boring and lacks cohesion. Worst of all, the slapstick jokes rarely land and are arguably more cringeworthy than they are funny.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a great action RPG with an outstanding story. The characters are likeable with engaging arcs, while the cut scenes offer jaw-dropping spectacle.
Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is a thrilling take on the football genre, with more end-to-end thrills than FIFA could ever hope for, as well as the chaotic energy that the classic Super Mario items provide. But a stingy offering of single-player modes mean that this is only really worthwhile for those wanting to dive into online multiplayer.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an absolute joy to play.
Ghostwire: Tokyo introduces a creepy take on Tokyo with a fascinating exploration into the themes of death and spirits through the lens of Japanese folklore. But the combat can be both boring and frustrating, while the open-world map feels a little too formulaic to offer any joy in exploration. With so many superior action RPGs already releasing in 2022, it’s hard to recommend adding this to your wishlist.
We haven’t played Total War: Warhammer 3 enough to give it a final score just yet, but this is still a very promising game after 10-hours of play, with the new factions featuring great new mechanics to make every playthrough feel completely different. The story campaign has also seen improvements thanks to the new ‘survival battles’, while it’s also great to see Creative Assembly improve diplomacy and making it less intimidating for newcomers.
Horizon Forbidden West is a superb sequel, adding even more robot monsters to slay while introducing a deep crafting and upgrade system that creates a rewarding Monster Hunter-style gameplay loop.
I’ve had a lot of fun with Dying Light 2, mainly dues to its fantastic parkour platforming and engaging story that can be shaped by your in-game decisions. Those hoping for a terrifying zombie slasher will likely be disappointed, but the thrill of escaping a zombie horde by hopping from rooftop to rooftop ensures this is still an exhilarating action game.