Nintendo Switch 2 Reviews A-Z

I have mixed feelings about Donkey Kong Bananza. On one hand, it ticks all the boxes you'd want in a 3D Donkey Kong adventure. It has 15 worlds to explore, a slew of moves, fresh new ideas, and a destruction quotient that's off-the-charts. So why am I not loving it?

In order to exhibit the raw power of the Switch 2, Bananza is a demolition showcase. Not only can Kong punch through just about everything in sight, but he can tunnel up, down, and through walls. Doing so unearths gold nuggets, bananas, fossils, discs, and endless other collectable artifacts. You can practically reduce each stage to rubble.

The smash-em-up mechanic is amazing for the first ten minutes or so. Burrowing can be disorienting as Kong himself is often obscured by dirt and rock. In addition, the endless item collecting gets a little old. I don't have the patience to dig for every last item. You need gold nuggets to enable the "bananza" power-up but they're fairly ubiquitous.

The stages feature all the obligatory locales (beach, desert, forest, ice) and they extend in all directions (especially up). Fortunately a helpful map always marks your next destination. There are a lot of ways to travel quickly including gameways and a new "turf surf" move. Just grab a chunk of ground and use it to surf over the muddy landscape.

I didn't find the stages to be particularly interesting. In fact, I found them to be quite ugly, cluttered with endless junk to bust up. Most are populated by rock monsters that fill you in on what your current objective is. For completists there's plenty of bonus stages to complete, including a few that call to mind Donkey Kong Country (SNES, 1993).

What puts this game over the top is that Nintendo polish. The attention to detail is outstanding, with a cute storyline, charming animations, and upbeat musical numbers. There's a lot to explore, the difficulty is low, and the boss encounters are mercifully short. Donkey Kong Bananza has moments but I'm less-than-thrilled with its "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach. © Copyright 2025 The Video Game Critic.

Nintendo continues to pump out unwanted Kirby games like there's no tomorrow, yet I can't get a new Wave Race to save my life. What gives? Judging by the title, Air Riders would appear to be an easy-breezy racer, but it's pretty involved! Upon starting it up I was greeted with a message instructing me to "update via the internet", prompting me to fully extend my right arm and slowly raise my middle finger. I've no time for that nonsense. I bought the cartridge for a reason.

I did feel obligated to work through the tutorials, but didn't realize what I was in for. These things are so tedious and repetitious. Do I really need multiple practice rounds to work on my proficiency in steering? I'm not an idiot! Air Riders uses a mere three buttons, so why are there 29 tutorials? By the time I worked through them all, I had forgotten the basics - and was feeling nauseated to boot!

Kirby Air Riders might be described as a cross between Mario Kart World (Nintendo, 2025) and Super Smash Bros. (N64, 1999). Kirby is a pudgy pink blob who swallows enemies to harness their powers, such as the ability to weild a sword or breathe fire. He races around colorful elevated tracks while standing on a board or floating vehicle. With five opponents and tracks peppered with items and creatures, you can expect all sorts of mayhem between the start and finish.

The control scheme adopts a weird stop-and-go mechanic. By applying the brake when approaching the next corner, you can then shoot forward into the next straightway. This technique works fine on courses with lots of hairpin turns, but in general it's hard to get into a flow. And don't even get me started on having to waggle the thumbstick to initiate a spin attack. That sucks, man.

The high-speed tracks are a blur of elevated roadways and flashing colors. You'll glide over lava floes, splash down waterfalls, and wisp across clouds. Sometimes you'll grind rails like Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm glad the game doesn't let you veer off track or else I'd be flying off every two seconds. I had high hopes for the overhead mode, which offers a perspective similar to Super Off-Road (NES, 1990), but erratic controls and confusing icons render it a complete mess.

What salvaged this game for me was the Tour mode, which distills everything down to a series of small, digestible challenges. There are time attacks, treasure hunts, battles, survival challenges, and bosses mixed in with normal races. There seems to be an endless variety. It's all very easy, producing so many unlockables I got tired of clicking through all of them.

Kirby Air Riders has that trademark Nintendo polish and a staggering amount of content. Unfortunately, the underlying game just isn't very good. When playing with friends, most races were reduced to button-mashing and thumbstick-wagging. Brad remarked how everyone would finish within a few seconds of each other regardless of skill level. I gave Air Riders a chance, but this game just makes me want to chip in for Kirby's retirement party. © Copyright 2026 The Video Game Critic.

Mario Kart World harkens back to the days when a new console would launch with at least one "must have" title. This game qualifies. I didn't think Nintendo could substantially improve upon Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, 2017) but they knocked this one out of the park.

The number of competitors per race has been doubled to a whopping 24. This elevates the mayhem to new levels, especially out of the gate. To fill out the huge field Nintendo had to pad the roster with unlikely racers like the piranha plant, Vampire Luigi, Toad with a hamburger on his head, and obligatory "kid" versions of the main cast. One character that really stands out is Pauline with her shapely red dress and heels. Hubba hubba!

True to its name, Mario Kart World expands the scope of the franchise with connected tracks spanning one massive continent. You may notice a certain haziness on the horizon. While in the past this "fog" might indicate a hardware limitation, in this case I think it's intentionally used to emphasize a sense of distance.

The vehicle selection includes all sorts of crazy cars and motorcycles. Flying off of a ramp causes your vehicle to sprout wings, allowing you to effortlessly glide through the air. Likewise while traveling through water your vehicle transforms into a speedboat of sorts. The simple three-button controls are accelerate, slide, and "use item". I noticed when power-sliding it takes a while for the turbo boost to kick in, probably to prevent players from "snaking" through the course.

Some tracks have fixed themes like a tropical island, ghost town, or a Chinese village. Others have contiguous segments covering a variety of themes. One minute you may be splashing up a jungle river, then you're rolling through a pirate ship, and then you find yourself in a zebra stampede on a savannah. The visuals are beautiful. When speeding near a roaring waterfall you can practically feel the spray.

The variety also extends to the soundtrack. One minute you're listening to big band music, then guitar rock, and then an Irish jig. Some of the music was inspired by past Mario Kart games. The same can be said of the tracks which reprise familiar locations like a farmyard or the rickety wooden planks of a haunted level.

The addictive grand prix mode offers eight circuits with four tracks each. The difficulty is fairly low, especially for Mario Kart vets. The knockout mode adds drama as competitors who can't keep up are gradually eliminated. Free roam mode lets you freely explore the track locations, locating Peach Medallions while performing random "missions". The more you play, the more characters and vehicles become unlocked.

If you enjoyed any of the past Mario Kart games, Mario Kart World blows them out of the water. Whether playing solo or having your peeps over for split-screen mayhem, this is arcade-style, pick-and-up-play perfection. This game in of itself could justify owning a Switch 2. © Copyright 2025 The Video Game Critic.

I've always loved the idea of pitting Nintendo characters against each other on a dynamic board sprinkled with minigames. Previous Mario Party titles had issues with pacing and game quality, but Super Mario Party Jamboree seems to have the formula down to a science.

Jamboree offers about a dozen modes, but I prefer the classic Mario Party mode. You get a nice selection of boards that range from a race track to a shopping mall to a volcanic island. Each has its own quirks and surprises. For example, the island has a periodic high tide that floods certain areas and a volcano that spews lava on certain spaces.

Each turn consists of rolling a dice, using items, and traversing a board with branching paths. Your goal is to collect the most stars by the end of a set number of turns. You also collect coins to purchase items like pipes, traps, and double dice. A ten-turn game (the minimum) is said to run about 90 minutes but in my experience you can squeeze in a game in well under an hour.

Concluding each round is a four-player minigame and they vary in quality. The "guess the key" gate game is dumb luck, but "bricks over lava" is pure genius. Other highlights include a treasure-diving game, and one that has all four players running for their lives from an Indiana Jones-style boulder. Certain mini-games are motion-based, but you can disable these if you please.

I love the dynamics of players teaming up to usurp the current leader. Each game concludes with a fun recap, complete with charts and graphs. Bonus stars are awarded at the very end for random accomplishments like using the most items or moving the most spaces. These create a wildcard factor that can lead to an upset. When playing against friends we were out for blood, but I also enjoyed playing solo against the CPU.

Navigating each board can be time-consuming because certain spaces trigger animations, such as a volcano erupting or a man-eating plant chomping on you. It's not a problem however, because Jamboree gives you a fast forward button! They thought of everything!

The additional modes are almost too numerous to list. Koopathon pits 20 players against each other, jockeying for position on a map of a city, playing games to win coins to advance spaces. Bowser Kaboon Squad lets four players join forces against a Godzilla-sized Bowser, but I found it tedious. Likewise the ability to "fly" by extending your arms in Paratrooper Flight School sounds fun but can be exhausting. Toad's Item Factory is a series of motion-controlled puzzles that are both ingenious and madly additive. Rhythm Kitchen offers cooking games you play to music, and those sizzling steaks look amazing!

Just when I thought I had seen it all, I realized there was a separate Jamboree TV mode! Presented like a Price Is Right gameshow, this is a new kind of Mario Party game that uses the "mouse functionality" of the Joycon. Just lay the controller on its side and you can guide a pointer with precision - even on a padded surface!

This mode incorporates a rollercoaster ride where you take aim at flying Koopas and ghosts while traveling to your next mini game. The mouse-based games are pretty good too! Some are very basic like knocking on doors to find matching residents, or throwing a net to catch fish. My favorite was air hockey. It's so much fun, it could be its own game.

I don't like paying $70 for a cartridge, but Super Mario Party Jamboree serves up a substantial collection of entertaining games. I get the impression Nintendo had several party games in the works and opted to shoe-horn them into one cartridge. These games have universal appeal, and you never even have to go online. © Copyright 2026 The Video Game Critic.