I really wanted to love Biomutant. I first got my hands on it way back in 2017 at Pax West. It had its hooks into me right away with its vibrant world, fast action, and its incredibly recognizable protagonist. While my anticipation grew throughout Biomutant’s long-gestating development, I never hyped it up. Now, after completing it, the finished product has left me mixed, and in many ways has left me uncertain on whether or not I enjoyed it.

Asha in Monster World is a very faithful remake of the 1994 Genesis classic that is infused with charm and personality in both its gameplay and visuals. However; much like the original, it is a rather short affair that could have benefitted from adding more to its offerings.

Granzella has crafted a sequel to a game that honors its legacy well enough but doesn’t feel as good as I think a modern R-Type game could feel. Regardless, R-Type FInal 2 succeeds more than it fails and still offers a fast-paced shooter wrapped in the series’ gameplay trappings.

Knockout City wasn’t a game I was planning on giving the time of day to, but damn if it didn’t sink its hooks into me deep. It’s a fast-paced 3v3 game of dodge ball on rooftops, in sewers, and out in traffic where the action rarely lets up. It’s hard to say the shelf life this game will have going for it, but given the community building around it, it’s likely to at least stay in the conversations for months to come.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is still the fantastical hack and slash romp it was 20 years ago, despite some drastically dated mechanics and visuals. It certainly has its issues, even as a simple 4K re-release, but joined up with a friend in its local co-op mode certainly aids in pushing past its aging gameplay.

Village was exactly what I had hoped this entry would have entailed; the continued use of first-person, with more action-orientated encounters, and a cast of villains that consistently kept my interest, even if a few of them were vastly underused.

Nier: Automata’s road to what it became started here. The enhancements made to Replicant put it nearly in the same league as its sequel, whereas the original was a far cry from Automata’s greatness. The characters, the story, soundtrack, and enhanced combat give Replicant the much-needed push to have it stand alongside some of the best action games ever made.

Cozy Grove’s hand-drawn aesthetic is incredibly well suited to the tone and charm the game exudes. While you’ll have a few graphical oddities of pieces overlapping over one another, developer Spry Fox has crafted a visually stunning and charming experience in Cozy Grove

Deiland: Pocket Planet Edition doesn’t rise anywhere near the top of farming simulators on the Switch, mostly due to some rather poor design choices, yet it is still remarkably charming in its own right and has a calming and meditative gameplay loop that did its best to keep me hooked for at least a little while.

Outriders is a game you'll likely make up your mind over within the first few hours. While the game doesn't take great strides in being wholly original, the sum of its many inspired parts makes for a vastly engaging experience, decked out in its low-budget sci-fi narrative. It's big, aggressive, insanely enjoyable, but only when you're actually able to connect to its online servers.

While Rise lacks the greater detail and openness of Monster Hunter World, the game never feels visually disappointing, and despite the weaker hardware contained within the Switch, it runs and performs beautifully.

Part of the appeal of Monster Trucks are in their larger-than-life nature, seeing them climb over cars, crushing them into heaps of scrap metal, or seeing the insane tricks their drivers are able to pull off in these clunky yet weighty titans. Sadly, that appeal just isn’t anywhere here in Steel Titans 2.

While the artwork and visual novel approach can often work, the combat that is applied here is over before the missions even have a chance at being fun. As it stands, there isn’t a good enough game here to warrant the price, and you’re better off just sticking with the mobile game.

Persona 5 Strikers is absolutely incredible and while it does suffer a bit on the Switch, due to its hardware limitations, I still had an absolute blast visiting with Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves.

When Heavy Metal Machines is firing on all cylinders, the game is electric, fast-paced, and will have you screaming at your TV when your shot has been intercepted at the last possible moment. When the game isn’t; however, it can feel frustrating, bland, and unimpressive.

Hitman III is the evolution of what IOI has had in store for the series, flexing their creative muscle to new heights. This game is a blast from start to finish, an experience you can often get lost in due to the massive variety in which you can solve your objectives.

Super Mario 3D World is a damn good Mario game. It may have some issues with gauging distance due to its oddly placed camera angle, it still excels at offering a wide range of variety across its many stages. The game’s newest addition, Bowser’s Fury, on the other hand, is without question one of the best Mario experiences ever, making this a damn impressive package overall.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox takes a few bold steps into innovating the series by offering up a pretty spacious open-world to explore in the Prison City of Balduq, and its partially connected outskirts. While the graphics engine the series is running on is likely working off fumes at this point, it does just enough to offer up a fun and enjoyable adventure.

The Medium is aptly named, whereas it exists between small and large, it is in much the same way that good exists between bad and great. While there are certainly a lot of fantastic ideas here around this “good” game, it sadly doesn’t capitalize on them as much as it could have. This Silent Hill inspired game can certainly entertain, but it lacks the impact Microsoft needed for its first big exclusive.

Turrican: Flashback as it is, allows new and old players to experience these games on new hardware in a way that allows the authentic experience to shine with a few modern fixes like save states and the ability to rewind a bad jump, or when you’ve pushed into enemy territory a bit too hastily. Unfortunately, the lack of it being a complete collection of the entire series or anything to honor its legacy does hurt the overall package, especially at the $29.99 USD price.