Ultimately, how much you vibe with Wrath: Aeon of Ruin will come down to how willing you are to put up with the limitations imposed on you by playing it on a controller, how much you vibe with the save system, and how much you like its level design. There's a very good, incredibly ambitious shooter here if you're willing to overlook some unfortunate flaws, but it's not Quake, and nothing likely ever will be again.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is like a two-dollar slice of pizza you pick up while you’re walking home after a night out in New York City. It’s tasty in the moment, but it will leave you wanting a lot more.
The irony is that Aspyr has done a nice job with remastering the visuals in both games and we enjoyed seeing the results. But the reality is that these games often feel old, they're extremely buggy, and the online play is hit-and-miss. This should have been a slam dunk. Instead, playing Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection made us feel sad. If Aspyr can fix the slew of technical issues, this might one day be worth picking up on Switch. Until that happens, though, the Force isn't with this one.
Rise of the Ronin marries a cool setting, Team Ninja’s mastery of tough-but-fair combat, and smart RPG design, even when map clutter and junk loot can get in its way.
Helldivers 2's combat feels fantastic, its missions stay fresh and interesting, and its smart progression system doesn’t nickel and dime you.
Grime is a beautiful, well-designed, challenging game with a ton of content, but it runs extremely poorly on Switch, to the extent that it's hard to recommend this version of the game if you can get it on another platform. It's disappointing, because Grime does so much right, and developer Clover Bite has clearly put a lot of love into it over the years. But all of that love can't save an action game that just doesn't run well. In this genre, that's a deal-breaker. It's a shame Grime's Switch debut is so rocky, because playing as a rock creature with a black hole doubling as its cranium is really cool. Don't get us wrong: Grime is playable on Switch, but until (or if) things get ironed out with updates, this brutal world is one you might want to avoid.
Despite crashes and some issues with its difficulty curve, The Talos Principle 2's ability to explore both interesting puzzle design and deep philosophy simultaneously is incredibly impressive.
Star Trek: Infinite does a great job of capturing the look and feel of Star Trek, but those enticing bones splinter under the weight of its bugs and glitches.
New animations and improved AI make Madden NFL 24’s on-field action the best it's ever been, but everything that happens off the field is a slog of dated modes and laggy menus that brings everything around it down.
Crash Team Rumble does a great job of transforming Crash into a unique, flavorful multiplayer game with some incredible maps and fun characters, but a lack of modes, some balance problems, and an irritating unlock system means it’s more of a snack than a full meal.
For every great thing Street Fighter 6 does — and there’s a lot of them — there’s some flaw, some annoyance, or a ridiculous microtransaction system. If you’re looking for a 2D fighting game to play online or with your friends, Street Fighter 6 is one of the best around. But almost everything around the fighting itself is flawed in a way it probably shouldn’t be. The fight is all, but we shouldn’t have to deal with all of this other stuff to enjoy it.
In my opinion, the answer is yes. I’ve dumped dozens of hours into Tears of the Kingdom, and I am still in awe of it. It shouldn’t exist, and it certainly shouldn’t be this good. It transcends its hardware, the genre in which it operates, and the series that spawned it. It’s a masterpiece. It’s Zelda. And I can’t wait to see how Nintendo tries to top it.
Diablo 4 feels like a statement game from Blizzard, a “we’re back” for anyone who was concerned after Diablo 3’s rough launch and the middling reception to Diablo Immortal. It’s the sequel to Diablo 2 people have been waiting for, and it doesn’t disappoint. Diablo 4 is a game about legacies, so it’s fitting that in developing it, Blizzard has re-solidified the franchise’s — and its own.
The story of Star Trek: Resurgence does an excellent job of capturing what makes Star Trek work by presenting strong characters and tough decisions. Some storylines lack closure and it doesn’t always run smoothly, but its heart is in the right place.
War has changed, and maybe we have, too. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
A ballet of blades and bullets.
When you're rocking this hard, why stop?
Need for Speed Unbound is a finely crafted ride that's great when running well.
Gungrave G.O.R.E oozes style and has a fantastic combat system, but a lack of variety, aggravating difficulty spikes, and often-frustrating design decisions keep it from reaching its full potential.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a throwback to the PS2-era, but that's part of what makes it fun.