$41.99 69.99 / £38.99 64.99
Specifically, it’s the Digital Deluxe Edition of Persona 3 Reload on sale (which comes with a digital artbook and soundtrack), this is an extensive and thoughtful remake of the original and unquestionably the best way to experience this modern RPG classic. Switching between daytime and nighttime activities is a blast, and the streamlined gameplay and slick presentation make even the smallest actions feel satisfying.
Minor frustrations remain, chiefly the repetitious nature of Tartarus, while the lack of FES and Portable content prevents Reload from being the definitive version of Persona 3. If this doesn’t bother you, though, consider it a must-play on the Switch 2.
$17.99 59.99 / £16.49 54.99
Persona 5 Royal is the very definition of ‘required reading’ for JRPG fans.
A deep and moving story, stylish presentation, amazing soundtrack, and decision-driven gameplay all combine to make for an unforgettable and exceptional experience that proves itself to be every bit deserving of the hype and praise it’s already received.
While those who have played this elsewhere may want to consider whether Switch’s portability is enough to justify a full-price double dip, it suits the system perfectly. Persona 5 Royal easily stands as one of the very best RPGs of the last decade.
$17.99 59.99 / £16.49 54.99
Persona 5 Tactica is a thrillingly varied tactical RPG that fans of the Phantom Thieves and the genre should take note of. It’s a little on the easy side, but the varied gameplay, excellent soundtrack, striking visuals, and lovable characters all make for a very easy recommendation.
We’d especially suggest you pick this up if you really enjoyed Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, as we noticed a lot of parallels. It remains to be seen if this is the last time we’ll be seeing the Phantom Thieves don their masks, but if this does turn out to be their finale, Persona 5 Tactica is a massively enjoyable sendoff for the beloved crew.
$27.49 49.99 / £24.79 44.99
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is a wonderful retread of a forgotten classic, smartly polishing up its best parts and modifying its worst parts to make for an overall more enjoyable experience. Though the visuals are just ‘okay’ and the detective gameplay can be a bit plain, the action-packed combat, reworked demon fusion, and interesting story all come together to make for a gripping adventure.
We’d recommend you pick this one up if you’re curious and you think it may be up your alley. We’ve never played anything quite like Raidou, and it offers a very unique take not just on the standard SMT formula, but action RPGs on the whole.
This is also available on Switch 1 with an uncapped frame rate that typically hovers around 30fps. Image quality drops to the screen’s resolution of 720p in handheld mode, but aside from the longer load times, it’s otherwise the exact same game and it feels like a solid port that fits well on the Switch hardware. Make no mistake, the Switch 2 version is obviously the superior pick if you want the best possible experience, but this port still offers a wonderful retread of a forgotten action-RPG classic.
$7.99 39.99 / £7.19 35.99
Samba de Amigo: Party Central brings back the cult classic monkey and all the fun that comes with him, but it does too much in the wrong places. By bombarding the player with no fewer than three different progress bars to level up in, any sense of growth, progress or leveling feels arbitrary and unnecessary.
They feel like an attempt to hide the fact that Samba de Amigo is an arcade game about a dancing monkey that you can dress up in silly little outfits; it doesn’t need to be an RPG, so why make it one? After all, Samba de Amigo is inherently fun—be it with maracas, a Wii remote, Joy-Con, or just buttons.
$14.99 49.99 / £13.49 44.99
Shin Megami Tensei III HD Remaster is indisputably the best way to play this RPG classic, but it’s also rather clear that this nearly two-decade-old game is showing its age.
An interesting story, enjoyable combat system, and engaging demon recruitment and fusion mechanics make Shin Megami Tensei III well worth your time, but the dated visuals, poor quality music, and occasionally unforgiving mechanics hold it back from being excellent.
We’d give this a recommendation to both longtime fans and newcomers, but with the caveat that you might want to wait for a sale.
$17.99 59.99 / £16.49 44.99
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is a stellar example of an enhanced re-release done right – which is fortunate, as the original version was delisted when this launched.
Vengeance’s comprehensive approach to improving the story and various gameplay systems of the original release makes for an experience that’s even more engrossing. Though we were disappointed by the lack of any performance gains here, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is still an extremely easy recommendation for any RPG fans.
Some may consider SMT to be “Persona without the heart,” but SMT V: Vengeance cleanly demonstrates that this old Atlus stalwart still has an abundance of fantastic gameplay and unique appeal. A wonderful game.
$8.99 29.99 / £4.99 24.99
Shining Resonance Refrain is the kind of game that can put on a solid performance, but it’s also abundantly clear that it doesn’t quite have the pipes to hit the high notes; it’s a good game, but not a great one.
A fascinating setting, live action combat system, and eye-catching cel-shaded visuals are all balanced by a slightly dampening feeling of mediocrity that never goes away. Fans of RPGs will find plenty to love here — it’s a well-rounded, content-rich game that understands its audience well — but it’s also a very safe RPG.
We’d ultimately give Shining Resonance Refrain a recommendation, especially if you’re a newcomer looking for a good RPG to show you what the genre is all about, but veterans may be a bit disappointed with the final product.
$34.99 49.99 / £31.49 44.99
We weren’t big fans of this on Switch 1 or 2 – quite the opposite, in fact.
Considering all of the ‘new’ content is free for all players anyway, better performance and slightly improved visuals are what you’re getting with Sonic Frontiers – Definitive Edition. ‘Better’ is a relative term, however: Frontiers hits 60fps on Switch 2, but is still plagued by atrocious pop-in. Capcom, Square Enix, and others have demonstrated just how great games can look on this platform, but Frontiers often looks terrible.
With no upgrade path for Switch 1 owners, plus hefty loads and nothing to warrant that ‘Definitive’ label, this remains hugely disappointing. This could have — no, should have — been a free upgrade, or at the most a reasonably priced upgrade.
$4.99 19.99 / £3.99 15.99
Sonic Mania was a true return for the mascot’s 2D ‘Classic’ guise. It celebrates the glory days of the original games while also enhancing their qualities and taking on new ideas. From new areas, imaginative second acts, and some delightful boss encounters, the development team poured a lot of passion and talent into this retro-styled project.
With new characters and modes added in the ‘Plus’ retail version (also available as DLC), some neat tweaks iron out some of the kinks present in the original release. Regardless of the version you pick up, Mania is one of the best 2D platformers in recent memory.
$8.99 29.99 / £8.39 27.99
Sonic Origins is, on one hand, a near-definitive way to experience four stone-cold classics that represent some of the highest peaks of Sonic’s career. On the other, most of these games are already readily available and there aren’t many new features or additions to justify buying them yet again.
For players ready to play these classics for the first time, Sonic Origins is the go-to way to experience Sonic’s 16-bit heyday. Die-hard 2D Sonic veterans may have trouble with the small but noticeable differences between the Classic Modes presented here and the games in their true original configurations.
The cutscenes, museum elements, and missions are all very pleasant but they’re also the minimum you would expect for a series this prestigious and popular – playable Amy and a dozen Game Gear titles are exclusive to the disappointing Plus DLC/Version. Regardless, it’s sure nice to have Sonic CD available in a convenient form on the most convenient of consoles.
Not perfect, then, but great comfort-food gaming.
$27.99 69.99 / £25.99 64.99
As you might expect, this native Nintendo Switch 2 Edition comfortably fixes the graphical and performance problems of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds on Switch 1. The resolution and frame bumps to 1440p and 60fps make this feel like a new game in certain respects, as the whimsical art style and madcap action now pop in a way that the choppy frame rate and blurry resolution couldn’t do justice.
Sega clearly did more than just a simple up-res job, too, with many textures having been replaced with more detailed variants, and more environmental details that help to liven up the area around the main road.
A free upgrade would have been nice, but $10 feels like a reasonable price to pay for such a notable leap over the older version, and we’d suggest picking it up, if only to experience what a great kart racer not made by Nintendo can be like.
If you’re considering the Switch 1 version, it’s ‘alright’ but the poor visual quality and resolution present drag things down and make it feel like a much more mediocre experience.
$17.99 59.99 / £16.49 54.99
We had a few issues with Sonic Superstars — the local co-op could have greatly benefited from split-screen support, and the online Battle Mode feels incredibly shallow and tacked on — but this is the first original 2D Sonic game that feels truly authentic to the Genesis titles without aping the classic pixel-art style.
Zipping through the 12 zones in the excellent campaign made us feel like kids again, but it will also prove a great first Sonic game for new players looking to see what all the fuss is about. Developer Arzest’s reputation has taken a beating in recent years, but this is a strong effort from the studio and a great return for ‘2D’ Sonic.
$17.99 59.99 / £16.49 54.99
Specifically, it’s the Digital Deluxe Edition that’s discounted (including extras like the Sonic 3 movie pack with added Keanu). Whether you should take a punt on Sonic X Shadow Generations for the Switch 2 will depend on whether you already own it on Switch 1 or not. If you don’t, it’s perhaps Sonic’s best 3D game, and this is undoubtedly the best way to play it on Nintendo systems.
If you do, however, you should think twice about double-dipping. It’s already a splendid game on Switch 1, and with no upgrade path or new content, you’re missing out on very little if you skip it. Personally, we’d wait for a sale if you absolutely cannot live without those 60 frames per second.
Speak of the devil: it’s a sale.
$9.99 39.99 / £8.74 34.99
It may not be saying much but Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is the best the series has been in almost two decades and newcomers are bound to find a lot to love. Clearly the team has true passion for the franchise and it’s packed full of content, new ways to play, and there are so many extras and improvements that never existed in the original.
Unfortunately, the engine beneath it all isn’t quite up to the job. What they’ve achieved with Unity simply isn’t on par with the originals and while the main game is still enjoyable, many of the party games are severely hindered. For us, this one is feature-packed, but not top banana.
$5.99 39.99 / £3.74 24.99
Two Point Campus is a masterclass management sim game bursting with creative new ideas and a wholly original approach to success. Its wholesome ‘invest in students and they’ll invest in you’ strategy is a beautiful way to put a positive spin on an otherwise NPC-exploitative genre.
Dampened only by some technical issues, it still manages to be a standout amongst its peers and shine brightly at the top of the class.
$20.09 29.99 / £16.74 24.99
Two Point Museum might be the best Two Point game to date. It’s smart, funny, good-looking, and packs in more mechanics than you can shake a stick at, all without feeling overwhelming or too much to handle.
It’s got some performance-based blemishes on Switch 2, and the lack of a mouse mode at launch feels like an obvious omission. Still, the final package is an incredibly entertaining one that fans of management sims would be mad to skip.
$4.99 19.99 / £3.99 15.99
As game with over a decade on the clock, Valkyria Chronicles still holds up impressively well; this is some of the best strategy action that gaming has to offer and having it available on the go is an enormous plus.
Although there are some minor balancing and performance issues, Valkyria Chronicles offers up an emotionally-gripping, beautiful and fun strategy experience that offers a considerable amount of value for the price of admission.
We’d give this one a high recommendation to anybody looking for a quality strategy RPG for their Switch; it may be marginally rougher than Valkyria Chronicles 4, but you really can’t go wrong here.
$11.99 19.99 / £9.59 15.99
For the asking price, it’s hard to find much to fault with Virtua Fighter 5 on Switch 2. The slick, 60fps gameplay is approachable enough for newcomers, but with layers upon layers of depth to uncover, dedicated fight fans will find plenty to enjoy. Multiplayer is still the main draw, but thanks to the addition of World Stage mode to complement Arcade Mode, solo players are well-catered for.
It remains to be seen just how lively the online community will be, but with features like cross-play and rollback netcode included, it’s likely this one will stick around for a while. With other fighters seemingly constantly battling one controversy or another, Virtua Fighter 5 sticks to what it knows best: solid, grounded combat that’s endlessly satisfying.
$27.49 49.99 / £24.74 44.99
Yakuza 0 is the best of the traditional-styled Yakuza games, with the most complex story and interesting characters of the lot. It’s also the ideal place for newcomers to get started with this weird and wonderful series.
The new multiplayer mode in this remastered Director’s Cut is a little throwaway, for sure, and the fights do get repetitive (turn-based Yakuza FTW), but otherwise, this is a phenomenal 4K/60 port of an epic adventure that’s now probably our favourite way to get down on the mean streets of 1980s Tokyo and Osaka.
$17.99 29.99 / £14.99 24.99
This beefed-up version of Yakuza Kiwami is effectively the same game, but Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio took advantage of the newer console’s specs for a much smoother, crisper experience that now hits 60fps.
Some aspects can be a little grating, for sure. Boss fights go on for a little too long at times, while the overall pacing isn’t quite as satisfying as Yakuza 0; this is fundamentally a 2016 remake of a 2005 game, and the developers have polished the series since then, ditching features and mechanics that don’t quite work here.
Still, it doesn’t feel quite so bloated as some of the later entries, and it still flexes a peerless sense of style at every opportunity. Playing Kiwami portably on Switch 2 is a joy. Also available on Switch 1.
$17.99 29.99 / £14.99 24.99
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a wonderful experience on Switch 2. The improved visuals and streamlined mechanics make for a delightful gameplay experience bolstered by a compelling narrative at its core.
There are so many ridiculous minigames to keep you entertained, and exploring Kamurocho and Sotenbori remains enjoyable five or even fifty hours into the game. It stands alongside Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut as one of the finest entries in the series.
$35.99 59.99 / £32.99 54.99
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a fair series entry, but one that’s tainted by poor pacing and a recasting controversy that simply didn’t need to happen.
The main story has a lot to offer, but it’s also bloated with way too much side content getting in the way of the core narrative. Dark Ties feels like a nice antidote to this, but we’re not sure whether this alone would be worth the purchase for anyone but series die-hards.
If the recasting of Goh Hamazaki doesn’t bother you, and if an overabundance of side content appeals, you’ll enjoy this more than we did. Ultimately, however, Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is the weakest of the series on Switch 2.
Will you be grabbing any of the above games on sale? Let us know in the comments.
