A competent, if not repetitive adventure that leaves me wanting more after the great experience that was Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7). Being a spinoff of the main Yakuza series, characters often resemble those from those titles albeit with some occasional spins that fans would likely get enjoyment out of. Combat is standard action fare, with a few options for stances that unfortunately weren't enough to keep me interested. Ultimately, I'm sure I could have pressed on and finished the title but I wasn't quite having enough fun to justify doing so.

I had high hopes for this one after the great surprise that was Jedi: Fallen Order. Thankfully, those hopes were met with improvements on nearly everything that the former did. Stances were a great addition to the combat, and the narrative goes places that feel natural, yet exciting all the same. Unfortunately, the release was plagued with performance issues across every platform (issues which to my knowledge still aren't completely fixed). The experience on PS5 on performance mode was frankly unacceptable on modern hardware, especially given what some other titles have been able to accomplish with the same (if not more) limitations from a technical perspective. Overall, a solid title that could have released to wider praise had it been given more time to work out its performance woes.

Right off the bat, this game is phenomenal. As someone who was originally a Breath of the Wild critic, I finally managed to get into that title shortly before the release of TotK which convinced me to give this one a purchase. Little did I know it would end up being the reigning frontrunner for GOTY in my eyes. Everything in this game from the enormous overworld (which manages to stay fresh and interesting despite reusing the map from its predecessor) to the sheer level of creativity the player is encouraged to employ at nearly every turn makes this a title that will be remembered for years to come just like BotW has been since its release. The expanded narrative coupled with the seemingly endless amount of content packed into this make it not only worth of its $70 price tag, but a game I would consider a must own for any Switch owner, even those unfamiliar with the series (although playing BotW would likely a be a good idea beforehand).

I'll preface this by saying I'm not a fighting game fan. I rented this hoping that it might change that somehow, but despite the flashy visuals and the memorable cast of characters, I've found this genre simply isn't one I can enjoy in the same way I do others. With that said though, I can tell this really is a love letter to the franchise that fans will undoubtedly enjoy. The World Tour mode (in which I spent almost all of my time) was a fun if not somewhat repetitive romp that enables you to create your own fighter and adopt the fighting styles of the various fighters in the game, which while an interesting idea on paper, ends up feeling disjointed and simply made me want to use a single fighter's entire moveset rather than mix and match moves from those I found. Ultimately, while this is a decent entry point to newcomers to SF as well as the genre itself, I don't think I'll be getting into either of those any time soon.

It's Katamari. If you're unfamiliar (which is somewhat likely honestly), your goal is to roll things up with a ball while listening to an unreasonably good soundtrack. It's a weird game, and it doesn't hide that whatsoever. For me, this series is like weird comfort food, but only for a little while. I find the gameplay of these titles to be rather repetitive and only enjoyable in short bursts, otherwise the novelty wears off fairly quickly for me. If you're into bizarre titles with a cult following, I'd recommend picking this one up, although maybe wait for a sale or watch some videos to see if it's your jam.

If you know anything about Kazutaka Kodaka's previous work, you can probably guess what this one's like. Unlike the Danganronpa series (which I'm a big fan of) though, this story moves away from the death game angle in favor of a detective story in which the protagonist solves mysteries with the help of an overbearing death god and other Master Detectives, each with their own unique abilities. The game is serviceable and will hit a lot of the notes fans of Kodaka's past titles are used to, however the highlights don't quite hit the same peaks as the Danganronpa series. I found the latter half of the story to be much more engaging than the former, and the "Mystery Labyrinth" (which is this game's version of trials) left a lot to be desired at times. The switch also struggles to keep up sometimes which is a shame due to how gorgeous the art style looks in a fully 3D setting. The city the game takes place in is always raining, and really is a looker that I could definitely see being a spectacle on stronger hardware. Overall, if you're a DR fan (or just a fan of mysteries in general), this is a solid pickup.