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FromSoftware’s upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game, The Duskbloods, is a strange multiplayer experience that just might make me a convert. Writing about a FromSoftware game is almost as daunting as playing one. Games from Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team have a player base deeply committed to dissecting and scrutinising everything from the timing of combat mechanics and the minutiae of menus to world construction and arcane lore waiting to be pieced together. I’m an absolute novice on this front.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 returns with a welcome Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade that brings technical improvements and new gameplay elements. I really struggled with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 when it originally released for the Nintendo Switch in 2017.

Splatoon Raiders reinvigorates Nintendo’s shooter franchise with style, substance and salmon. Sometimes, with a returning series, all it takes is the tiniest sound to give you the feels. It might be the jingle of a treasure chest opening in a Zelda game, the hollow echo that accompanies death in Grand Theft Auto V, or the iconic opening notes of the Halo theme. With Splatoon Raiders, that sense of anticipation returned the instant I reached the game’s first menu.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced sets sail for the past with a fresh coat of paint, but does this lavish modernisation stay the course? By 2016, the received wisdom was that Assassin’s Creed needed to change. After the run of Black Flag, Unity and Syndicate, and despite the different qualities of each title, the sense was that something had to give.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a storybook platformer built on pure curiosity, and one of the most rewarding games on Nintendo Switch 2. The Nintendo Switch 2’s first year has been so generously stocked with first and second-party releases that it was inevitable something would slip through the cracks. For me, that something was Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Caught between Pokémon Pokopia, Star Fox and anticipation for Splatoon Raiders, I only recently found time to peel back its pages.

The final first-party game for Nintendo Switch proves that if you want to send a system off in style, rhythm is the answer. There’s something poetic about the original Nintendo Switch spending its final months resurrecting the highlights of a console it helped to replace. For all the Switch’s brilliance and versatility, the tiny, offbeat games that thrived on the dual screens of the Nintendo 3DS were never a focus for a system built with bigger ambitions. WarioWare has clung on gamely.

Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2 suggests Nintendo has found a new way to revisit its classic games, preserving what made them great while finding space for something new. The debate over what constitutes a remake versus a remaster is one of gaming’s more tedious arguments. Star Fox, Velan Studios’ reimagining of the Nintendo 64 classic for Nintendo Switch 2, is the latest game to reignite that conversation, but thankfully, it offers a new approach Consider the spectrum.

Last month, the original Dragon Quest was inducted into the Strong National Museum of Play’s World Video Game Hall of Fame. The recognition is well-deserved for a franchise that shaped the foundations of the RPG genre and left a permanent mark on video games. Until six years ago, I had no idea about the qualities of the Dragon Quest series, or, frankly, of role-playing games in general. I was not an RPG person and I was absolutely comfortable with that fact.

Nintendo’s collection of memorable game soundtracks has found a new home. Here’s our regularly updated roundup of every album included on Nintendo Music. Nintendo Music offers a range of soundtracks from iconic franchises including Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Splatoon. Although the selection process and release schedule is somewhat unpredictable, new albums seem to be arriving on a regular clip.

Despite its flaws, nothing has come close to capturing the chaotic magic of E3. There was a time when the words “press conference”, “hands-on demo”, and “surprise reveal” all meant one thing: E3. It was the event. And as someone fortunate enough to attend six times – and who followed closely when I couldn’t – I think that E3, at its best, was the greatest video game show there has ever been. E3 wasn’t perfect. It was exhausting, occasionally badly organised, and often overwhelming.