Two numbers, read together
E is for Effort: how much you have to learn, remember and keep track of. C is for Challenge: how hard it is to beat, and what failing costs you.
They're separate on purpose. Road 96 is low on both. The NES classics need no learning at all but will happily destroy you. Tears of the Kingdom never punishes you much, but it asks a lot of your brain.
Medium effort, gentle challenge. That's Dave the Diver.
Effort scale
Challenge scale
Game score
Game score
8.5 How good the game is, full stop. A great game can still be a bad fit for a Tuesday night, and the OTG rating tells you that part. The ring fills up with the score.
Mood
Three words for how the game feels: sunny, lonely, smoky. Every mood is a link to all the games that share it.
Docked vs handheld
Every review says how the game feels on the TV and in your hands (text size, comfort, battery) and which one I'd pick.
Six things I look at
Looks
Art style, colours and atmosphere. A game with simple graphics can still score a 5 if it's lovely to look at.
See them rankedSound
Music, sound effects and voices. The stuff you'd notice with your eyes closed.
See them rankedStory
Story, characters, or the feeling of a world. Low scores just mean there isn't much of one, which is fine for some games.
See them rankedChill
How well a game lets you switch off after work. Not the same as easy: some hard games are weirdly relaxing.
See them rankedControls
How good the game feels in your hands, and how much the menus and buttons get in the way.
See them rankedPerformance
Frame rate, loading times and bugs, as I played it on Switch 2.
See them rankedSix things behind the E
Time to first fun
From the title screen to the first moment I'm actually enjoying it.
Systems to juggle
How many separate things I have to keep track of by the time I'm a few hours in.
Coming back after a break
How long it takes to feel back in control after some time away.
Reading and menus
How much text and menu digging there is, docked and in handheld.
Tutorial
How long it is, and whether it teaches by doing.
Cost of mistakes
What I lose when things go wrong: seconds, minutes or hours.
Your energy sets the limits
This is about your battery after a day of work, not the Switch 2's. Low energy shows games up to E2 and C2. Half energy goes up to E3 and C3. Full energy allows anything.
Then each game is checked against your time. The best fits get an S, then A and B. Anything below that goes into "Not tonight", with the reason.
How every game is played
- On my own Switch 2, on the TV and in handheld.
- I play a game for a little while, after work and on weekends. No guides, no 100% runs.
- I judge it the way it feels on a normal evening, not how it feels to a pro.
- Every review shows when it was last updated, because patches and Switch 2 upgrades change things.
Who plays
I'm Aruaks. I was born in the 90s and grew up on the NES (Super Mario Bros. 3 was my first obsession), then The Sims and Age of Empires, then a lot of Nintendo 64, with Ocarina of Time as my favourite. Some GameCube, and the odd PlayStation game. Now I play after work and on weekends. I'm definitely not a pro: I care how a game looks and sounds, and I'd rather finish a lovely small game than give up on a huge one.
Honest and unpaid
Nobody paid for these reviews and no publisher sees them before they go live. The scores and opinions are my own thoughts after playing a game for a while. If I didn't like something, I'll say so.