Shaun Musgrave

If you’re someone who only does their gaming on Nintendo platforms, you would likely only be familiar with Blue Reflection via Blue Reflection: Second Light’s release on the original Nintendo Switch. Developed by Gust, the series consists of two full-sized console RPGs, an anime that bridges the story of those two games, and a mobile gacha game that was not exactly a big success. All of the games are built around an all-girls high school setting where high schoolers-turned-magical girls help people deal with their emotional problems by beating up monsterized manifestations of said issues. You know, the usual.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was not the first game in the series to hit home consoles. Morrowind beat it to the punch when it released on the original Xbox in 2002. Oblivion is, however, the game that made the Elder Scrolls series a big deal on consoles, the way it had been for a long time on home computers. Its huge success was dwarfed by its sequel’s world-beating run, but there are many players out there whose first port of call in Tamriel was via Oblivion. Last year, the game received a remaster on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Windows. They’ve had to wait a little while longer, but Nintendo Switch 2 owners can now have their own adventures in Cyrodiil via this port of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

Nintendo Switch 2 owners have had to catch up on a lot when it comes to Street Fighter 6. Arriving alongside the launch of the console, Street Fighter 6 was thankfully made available with a handy pack that included the first two packs of DLC characters. Not long after that, the Year 3 DLC started to roll out. A little over a year later, we now have Year 4 getting going. Serious fans of the game are probably grabbing things as they come out, even if only the character packs. How about for everyone else, though? Does Year 4 look to measure up to past offerings? We don’t have much to go on yet as only the initial salvo is upon us, but let’s have a look at it anyway.

Those who rode the Nintendo Switch roller coaster over the years probably know all about the concept of the so-called “Miracle Port”. Basically, they’re games making their way over from more powerful hardware that come in well above most expectations. In some important ways, the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t struggle quite as much as its predecessor did with ports from its more powerful competition. Even so, it’s no PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series in terms of power. Thus, it too gets to enjoy the excitement of “Miracle Ports”.

What a complicated little affair this is. 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X is a horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up that was originally released on the PlayStation exclusively in Japan in 1999. The game shipped on four CDs, and that might strike a person as odd for a shooter. Why would such a thing need over two gigabytes of space in the SD era? Well, it’s because it includes several thousand video clips that play around the gameplay. Opening themes, intros, outros, ending themes, previews of the next episode, and even some faux commercials are liberally peppered throughout the game with one goal in mind: to recreate the feeling of classic 1970s robot anime shows.

Everything has its cost, and I’d argue that one of the costs of FromSoftware’s massive success with the Souls series has been King’s Field. I mean, who knows? Maybe it will come back at some point. I suspect that there is just enough overlap between King’s Field and the Souls formula that we’re unlikely to see the former again anytime soon, though. The thing is, for however much the two have in common, there’s quite a bit that they don’t share. If you’re into the particular vibes of King’s Field, you’ve likely got a serious itch waiting to be scratched again. Perhaps you might be interested in Verho – Curse of Faces, a game that is so uninterested in hiding its source of inspiration that it straight-up name-drops it in the shop description.

Once upon a time, Jaleco released a game called Formation Z. It was, by and large, a fairly generic scrolling shoot ’em up that had one very powerful gimmick working for it. You played as a robot that could transform into a ship. Look, it was the early 1980s. This was still a relatively new idea. The game was more than a little broken, but you could change between robot and ship form more or less at your leisure. That was enough then. Here in the enlightened modern era… well, it’s still cool. Maybe that’s why we’ve seen two revivals of Formation Z recently. FZ: Formation Z comes by way of R-Type Final 2 developer Granzella, and it plays things a little straighter than Final Formation did.

One of the big missing pieces from the original Nintendo Switch was FromSoftware. We got a port of the original Dark Souls early on and then nothing more. Not even a port of The Adventures of Cookie & Cream! It’s hard to say what the future will hold for the Nintendo Switch 2, but between the upcoming Duskbloods and this port of the megahit Elden Ring, we’re already eating better than we did last generation. Elden Ring Tarnished Edition

Capcom’s Onimusha series had a rather strange life. Originally conceived as a ninja take on Resident Evil for the Nintendo 64, Onimusha was next pitched as a Sengoku-themed game for the first PlayStation console. After reaching around the halfway point of development, the team decided to switch the game to the then-upcoming PlayStation 2 console. It ended up serving as one of Capcom’s first big releases for Sony’s juggernaut, and with its success it seemed like the publisher had a new mainstay franchise. Just one console generation later, Onimusha was gone.

Metal Gear has always had a curious relationship with Nintendo’s consoles, one that largely existed outside of (and to an extent against the wishes of) the creator of the series. Fortunately, the Nintendo Switch has been included in Konami’s latest efforts to keep the franchise from slipping entirely into the mists of the past. A few years ago Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 brought a bevy of stealth action adventures to the Switch, and now