Sod's law I started playing this about a week before the announcement it was going to be part of Nintendo Online's membership.

I'm a big fan of Splatoon 2 and this does pretty much exactly what I wanted from an expansion.

A fun little story and lots of cool things to do in a single player capacity, plus some extra guns and bits of fashion for multiplayer.

The setting is cool, the new characters are fun and the way the underground railway/station stage system works is an interesting way to tackle things and keep it fresh.

However hands down most impressive thing is the level of inventiveness there is, something that I and I believe many others associate with Nintendo at it's best.
Sure some of the challenges are a bit like the single player portion of the main game, some are rehashes of bosses and some are plays on the multiplayer modes but out of the 80+ stages I was pleasantly surprised and saying to myself "this is cool" more often than not.

I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but time trials, puzzles and even plays on retro games are amongst the stuff this game offers up and it's great.

My negative takeaways from this package are few and far between.
I worry that whilst I love Splatoon's control and movement systems they aren't always perfect for what some challenges want you to do.
Maybe this is a "git gud" situation and more of a me problem.
My only other issue does come from that though, this game kindly gives you a lot of choice in what stages to do and if you get stuck and fail enough it can give you a free pass to move on.
That's good, that alone isn't where my issue lies and it's more of a question of how difficulty is dealt with.

Sadly due to From releasing a game recently the discourse about difficulty modes is still in the back of my mind and whilst this game does not hold you back for not being good it either let's you through or let's you struggle and I don't find that the perfect answer.

People will argue Souls games have difficulty settings within it by giving you upgrade options, summons etc. and I know that isn't exactly the same but tools is something you have there and really do not have here.

For example in a target practice, can I not get a Silver/B ranking instead of a clear if I get 38/40?
Could I not get a lower rating or some extra time if I fail a time trial instead of just a free pass?

Besides the difficulty thoughts which aren't really a problem and some minor controls gripes this is fantastic.
Obviously worth your time for "free" and definitely worth playing if you need to go trade some stuff to buy Splatoon 2.

Splatters forever.

What do you get when you combine Pikmin with Super Mario?
A game that's not quite as good as either, but is far from a disaster.

Tikykin is a 3D platformer with large open spaces to explore, you play Milo a teeny-tiny human-like person stranded away from home where you are tasked to find parts from a blueprint of a ship you hope to get you home.

Where you are stranded is simply in a house, living here are a whole civilization of bug folk who have turned each of the rooms into their own unique biomes.
Finally it's not just you and the bug folk but also these strange creatures, the titular Tinykin who follow Milo about and can do tasks from carrying things, blowing things up and more dependant on their colour.

So again, the short explanation is it's Pikmin but rather than strategy it's an exploratory 3D platformer and rather than outside you're living your best Micro-man life.

This does come together well, the exploration is fun and the areas are inventive.
Tinykin abilities being more based helping your own traversal than their own (as Pikmin do) means that there are some great ideas. My favourite being the green ones which can stack to form a ladder - which in a game that does have a lot of verticality comes in very handy.

If I had to describe the game in a single word it would be; Pleasant.
Death really isn't an issue, if you fall to far you reappear where you started, there's no combat and the platforming rarely involves any challenge it's just more about exploring and doing tasks for your bug pals in the world.

Sadly though pleasant alone means the game can at points feel lacking, the main challenges end up being collecting things and while entering a new biome the gameplay loop is perfectly addictive when you're finished with the game you're just searching nooks and crannies for "pollen" and not much else.

Personally I also found the game didn't feel quite right, the way Milo controls doesn't feel terrible but sometimes would glide too much and the bubble float mechanic having to tap jump again whilst in the air felt really unnatural to me.
We've had gliding and flutter jumps in these games for years and yet Tinykin felt new but not nice.

There's also a strange mechanical decision with the Pink Tinykin who do the simple act of carrying, either small items individually or as a group much like Pikmin, in that once a group are carrying something they will not let go until they get to their destination.
This is a minor gripe but for a game that feels very free and easy I found this mechanic actually had me worry I'd locked the game.
Even more minor, if you are going to use the mechanic also borrow the idea that using more Tinykin than you need could increase the speed as several times I ended up just waiting on them.

Overall Tinykin is a lovely little game with a nice world to explore and check some lists off. It doesn't really break any new ground but does a good job of making a new cocktail of previous ideas without making it taste disgusting.

If you can get this for "free" via Game Pass and the like it's definitely worth your time - I completed it over a weekend.
If you want it for the Switch I'd possibly wait for a sale, although at time of writing it's basically Christmas so why not use a voucher if you got one as a present?

Like many great sci fi series, Citizen Sleeper has an intriguing world but it uses that not to just tell cool stories with space ships, robots and AI, but to tell meaningful stories reflective of our world and make us ask ourselves important questions.

Citizen Sleeper is fantastically written with barely a foot wrong. The music is wonderful, it gave me some FTL vibes but with a layer of creepiness.
The table top RPG mechanics it uses aren't quite as solid as Disco Elysium, but the whole dice placement system does make it feel more tactile and like a board game which I really enjoy.

I mention Disco Elysium and it's tough not to compare, whilst Sleeper is more of a visual novel as apposed to Disco being a CRPG the big tent poles that hold up the identity of the game out side of setting are quite similar.
Sadly this comparison isn't favourable for this game but comparing to what is one of the best games of the last decade (maybe longer) will always be a tough fight.
I will add my own personal comparison is also unfair, I never got the chance to play Disco Elysium until "The Final Cut" and not that I'm against just quietly reading but voice acting can add a lot.

If you liked Disco I think you'll enjoy this, just don't expect as many choices or to shape your character as much as that.
However expect a much more compact game which can definitely be a pro.

Overall I would recommend this game.
It doesn't hit that potential GOTY height for me like it has for many others, small irritations in mechanics and production stop me from calling this a best in class, but they're so small I don't even want to go into detail.

Another gem on GamePass and another which doesn't need an Xbox or a powerful PC, my laptop ran this no problem.

Move around, have insanity take place, watch numbers go up, find things to help find more things, watch numbers go up more.

I understand it's addictive, I've spent far too much time on it, I don't get people calling this GOTY or the like.
Maybe people want what this game does well more than I do, I don't feel I need games boiled down to such a simple level to have the enjoyable addiction this can bring.
Maybe I will never understand.

It's good, it's fine, I'll probably play more. It's free or something like £3 on PC, time melts away, but it doesn't do enough for me. It's not trying to, or at least what it does do I think people claim to be a bigger deal than it is (secret levels, characters and the like).

Is this game a one-stick shooter, a clicker, a puzzle?
It's an anomaly that's for sure and I respect it.

Great writing and a nice twist on the murder mystery formula.

Looking through the achievements I didn't get there does seems to be a decent bit of variety in what you can do path wise within the game which is smart for a game that is based mostly on dialogue decisions.

The score I've given may seem harsh but for what it' aims to do it succeeds it's just that it's not all that exciting, not enough meat on the bone for me.

I'm not one who needs a games length to be long but if a game is short I want it to surprise me with more than just the initial set up and little else.
Presentation wise it's also fine, it looks nice enough and the music choices are good but once again no wow factor.

Sadly time loop games can't completely avoid repetition but being purely text based choices is what makes that con much more apparent even with the smart option to fast forward to make the same choices again this still felt like a lot more of a chore than I would have liked.

Overall I would recommend to give this game a go but I'd either grab it on sale or cross your fingers for it to be in a future bundle of sorts.

On paper Shephy is a game I should love, a solitaire card game with an extremely strange aesthetic of multiplying sheep while avoiding natural and some less-natural disasters.

A high score chasing mode as well as an extremely strange single player story that includes multiverse hopping and some extreme dread... but with sheep, gives me what I'd want to dip my toes into.

So it's inventive but is it fun?
Well that's why I've binned it off for now.
It's not really.

The game itself is somewhat of a puzzle and figuring that out including interactions between the cards and when to play them is the standard fun you'll get out of most card games, however it all feels quite basic and feels very reliant on your draw.

Variance is a part in card games that puts a lot of people off and who can blame them, most people would like to win because they used skill not luck and the same goes for losing.
The positive thing about variance however is that in a head-to-head game it can give anyone "just a chance" regardless if they're a beginner against a veteran and people love an underdog story.

Your opponent in Shephy is just a timer and being only you have the luck of the draw variance here just leads to bad or even annoying.
I found myself wanting to mulligan(draw a new hand) so often and you can with a pause and a couple of clicks but it felt so needed I wondered why it wasn't just a single tap?

That alone isn't my only gripe with the game.
The presentation is clearly mobile based but bar the unique and cute art for the sheep and what is used to convey the story this game looks extremely basic.

Music is repetitive and doesn't sound looped properly and the few sound effects there are seem extremely obnoxious.
Admittedly these things would be fine on silenced phone sat on the toilet but this is a console release.

Oddly I would say if this in a sale and you have the coins in your Nintendo wallet to grab this for "free" then I'd say you should actually check it out because it's so odd.

Should you use real money on it, even just a couple of quid? I wouldn't bother.

There's so many other card games you could be playing instead some of this.

I'll kick off with the positives.
Good music, the special stage especially slaps plus we've also got a Sonic Rush stage so tunes are here.

It's nice that they decided to pluck different stages from across the Sonic catalogue for this version compared to the console version.

That's it though, otherwise this game is mostly a shiter.

The choice of levels are mostly worse, the two versions of Sonic play too similarly especially because they give Classic Sonic the Adventure (onwards) homing style attack.

So many checkpoints are made so that without going a little back or a boost you can't actually make the next jump or you walk straight into something.
Added to this is that the hit registry is not very precise.

I was glad to not have all the mini games the console version had because a lot were crap but having nothing makes this game feel very bare bones.
I've been playing Game Gear Sonic games recently and this doesn't have much more content than them.

Oh also I ended up skipping the cutscenes because the basic nature of them made them extremely boring, it's not as if the dialogue was ever strong but when that's all you've got... no thank you.

Definitely worth the price (FREE) and time (less than 90 minutes) for what is a good joke containing many smaller decent jokes based on another game.

The bits where it changes what you expect and the ending punchlines are worth it alone.

It's hard to say this and be serious considering most of the puzzles but some were a little too trial and error, plus also don't try and put a proper puzzle in your joke puzzle game.

Maybe this deserves a higher score? How do you rate parody anyway?

My favourite Sonic game on my Game Gear and I can still see why.
Starts off very easy but chucks you in with cool looking enemies, class music and interesting new power ups like jet boots from the go.
The game hits a big difficulty spike in Act 2 of Mecha Green Hill Zone due to death pits and the slight slipperiness of Sonic.

I didn't manage to get all the Emeralds this time around but the gimmick this time being collect 100 rings, get teleported to what I would call a trial stage and get through that is fun.

Probably the most comfortable Sonic game for GameGear, definitely at a point where the devs had learned what works in 8 bit over 16 and what helps on handheld.

They did it, they made Kirby in 3D and it's really good.

A joy from beginning to end that only builds on ideas and cool shit throughout until you get to a mega silly climax and unlock even more interesting cool stuff to do.
At it's peaks it touches the inventiveness that the best 3D Mario games hit.

Difficulty wise if you just want to get the game done it's a breeze, but if you want some challenges there's levels to it that for me topped at the final boss on the final bonus event.
Coming straight off of Elden Ring a "hard game" I was loving playing something easy but that boss gave me more trouble than a good 90% of that.

I heard on a podcast recently someone quote (and I'm paraphrasing) that Kirby even at it's best due to it's own in-built restrictions could only ever be an 8/10 and whilst that may sound reductive I think it may be right...
...or I thought that.

A few tweaks to this game, building a little on mouthful mode for example could prove to be right "up there" and the potential for quality in a sequel has me excited.

Also I like the bit where the pink ball sucks up the things and he becomes the things and you control the things, that is good, I like that.

Abandoned: I thought this would just be shelved but sometimes you just have to admit to yourself that you are never playing that game again.

As a huge fan of the Sonic Team Racing games on the 360-gen I was hoping this would at least be a good laugh to run through the campaign.

Sadly they came up with one, I think actually good, unique idea and filled the game with shite but not actual content.
Somehow after two good games they've made they game feel worse and the tracks less inspiring - you'd think that may be because instead of Sega as a whole it's just Sonic but genuinely there's enough Sonic they could theme more closely to and it'd be good.

I will finish this with a positive.
I like the "Team" mechanic" the simple follow each other's line for boosts along with sharing power ups is actually quite fun and something I came away from the game thinking "Mario Kart should just steal this as a mode".

Sonic Chaos' sequel feels as many steps forwards as it does back.

I'm a fan of Nack the Weasel/Fang the Sniper's design but sadly you barely see them or even, number three of the "triple"; Knuckles at all.

The graphics are a little nicer, the new gimmicks including snowboards and minecart rollers are good but sadly it has more performance issues and a little more in the way of tough bits that feel more format based difficulty than anything to do with skill.

The music is cracking and the third act of zone 2 is still fantastic, I'd almost say "cinematic" at least what a GameGear can pull off.

Overall I had a good time with it but I think a smidgen less than Chaos which is probably the best GameGear Sonic game.

The original Pokemon Diamond is what got me back into Pokemon in a big way.

Having already completed that game, caught all the legends and done a fair whack of the 'dex and then doing all this again on the Platinum version years after I felt I needed to do something different with my Brilliant run.

Here comes Nuzlocke.
If you'd like more details of my runs then check twitter but part of the decision came in with hearing that this version was easier than the originals.

In both a blessing a curse of QOL changes, exp share is from the start and HM's are no longer the same with no need to waste a space on your active team so you can Fly, Rock climb etc.

For the most part I don't find the game being easier due to these conveniences an issue.
I might be an old git but Pokemon games are still leaning towards a younger audience.
Plus veterans of the series can always create their own challenges.

The style of this remake is going to be a kind of marmite situation.
I appreciate the idea, I like it giving us that DS look but with some shine and I appreciate it shouting "I'm a remake" loudly with it by not looking like Sword/Shield or Legends Arceus.

3D movement in it is a nice touch but the environments feel odd collision wise due to the original grid nature.

So if I like the updates and loved Diamond then why is my score as low as it is?
Well not to sound like the "dexit" lot but lack of certain content.

I get this is a remake of Diamond but it really should be a remake of Platinum, the two versions stuff is less and less important and while doing a remake why not remake the more "complete" game?

Also with a remake if you're updating some QOL things and not keeping the game purely the same why not take a look at some of the problems the original had?
A quick example is lack of Fire types, if you don't start with one you're down to Ponyta.
The Underground gives some limited extras I believe but until the post game that's you.

I could list more but as is the way with the Pokemon Company there feels like so many cut corners and ignored parts that I can't help think "lazy devs" and I'm not the sort to usually say that.

Overall still one of my favourites in the series, if you fancy a more traditional Pokemon game for your Switch then dive in.

And finally, doing a Nuzlocke is a laugh. Give it a go.

A point and click with modern escape room vibes.
There's a story in it but unlike your classic point n clicks in definitely feels secondary and that's fine.

Plays well and looks lovely on the phone.
Searching rooms for clues is mostly on the right side of fun/tedious with a great hint system that works wonderfully as a reminder of what you were doing if you stop mid chapter.
Which in the later chapters you are going to need.

As the game progresses the levels are larger, more rooms to go back and forth through and there is definitely a line of "that's enough rooms" that it crosses at points.
Warning if you have poor short term memory (codes, patterns) because this game does keep some important information logged but it's inconsistent and I found myself more than once scribbling down a code or some shapes.