Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (Switch 2)
Capcom didn’t disappoint when it came to Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, either. I also played this handheld on a Switch 2. It quickly became my personal Game of the Show, though I’m a bit biased because I absolutely loved Wings of Ruin and can’t wait for another iteration of what I consider the best creature-battling system out there.
Ditching the customisable protagonist, Twisted Reflection instead stars a man named Leo, the Captain of a group called the Rangers and also royalty of some sort, as his Palico buddy kept calling him Your Highness.
In the demo, he’s tasked with showing a young recruit named Thea — and by extension, me — the ins-and-outs of a complex battle system by taking down some Velocipray and later a Paolumu before a frenzied Chatacabra served as a boss fight that almost wiped my team of a Rathalos, Yian Kut-Ku, and Tobi-Kadachi.
It ran great on the Switch 2’s small screen with little pop-in as I climbed towers to get a better view of the surrounding area. The colourful, sprawling world I saw from up there brought to mind the first time I climbed a Sheikah Tower in Zelda: Breath of the Wild; as such, you can probably guess that I’m super excited to play more when it releases in March 2026.
Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection (Switch 1)
Let’s get the final Capcom game out of the way: Mega Man Star Force: Legacy Collection brings together all three Star Force games and their respective versions; at TGS, I could only sample the first Mega Man Star Force from the Nintendo DS and not the second or the third, which were on 3DS.
I played through the opening moments of the Dragon version where Geo receives a Vizualizer headset that allows him to see the Wave World and meet Omega-Xis, an alien lifeform that helps him take out other aliens invading the Earth. While much of the demo was spent mashing through dialogue — learning about Geo’s missing father, the BrotherBand system, and arguing with classmates — I played on a comically large TV for a port of a DS game and came away impressed with how crisp it looked.
This was especially true of the 3D, grid-based battles that were right at home on a bigger screen. Still, I’ll likely play mostly handheld when it comes out sometime in 2026.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Switch 2)
Yes, publishers other than Capcom had games for the Switch 2 at TGS this year, and one of them was Koei Tecmo’s Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, a follow-up to Age of Calamity. I’m not much of a musou fan, but I am a big Zelda fan; as such, I put a couple of dozen hours into Age of Calamity and am fairly excited for this follow-up.
The first thing I noticed sitting down with the docked version is how well it ran. Age of Calamity was a stuttery mess on Switch 1 and I half expected to see slowdown as I swapped between Zelda, Rauru, and Mineru as they fought through waves of Little Frox and Soldier Constructs before taking on a boss Frox in the Depths beneath Hyrule.
Not only did I use Zonai Devices like Flame Emitters, I also activated team-up attacks between the playable heroes. Zelda and Rauru, for example, each shot a beam of light from a hand that I aimed separately with the left and right sticks.
However, Mineru’s kit stole the show. Instead of dashing, she summons a Zonai Device wheel to ride on, and at the end of her attacks, she’ll often spawn vehicles made up of Zonai Devices to deal sweeping damage over large areas. I’ll get the chance to master her moveset when Age of Imprisonment releases on 6th November.
Once Upon a Katamari (Switch 1)
I haven’t played a lot of Katamari Damacy before, but the fun I had with Once Upon a Katamari at TGS convinced me that might’ve been a mistake. With a huge ball of rolled-up refuse drawing attention in one of the main halls, it was a hard game to miss and the first one I played when I arrived.
I had a grand old time rolling a massive ball around a small Japanese village reminiscent of Kyoto — complete with a couple of pagodas and a castle — on my way to a very unimpressive D Rank. In fact, the staff stepped in and turned on the ‘easy’ controls for me rather than the classic set a couple of minutes in. I didn’t need to admit my failure, but here we are.
Regardless, I had fun jiving to an upbeat electric track that repeatedly assured me that I am a star. Fortunately, I’ll have another chance to get a higher rank when Once Upon a Katamari comes out in under a month on 24th October.
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (Switch 1 & 2)
While Octopath Traveler 0 wasn’t playable at TGS, I did sit down with the PlayStation 5 version of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. While DQ III HD-2D Remake suffered on the original Switch, the Switch 2 enhancements brought it more on par with beefier hardware, so I expect to see this dual prequel follow-up running just as well when it releases on 30th October.
I played Dragon Quest II first, which began in the town of Beran. I immediately noticed how much more involved the party members are in this narrative sequel. You see, we travelled south by boat to a shrine where a mermaid granted us the ability to travel underwater — a new addition to Dragon Quest II that you may have already seen gameplay of already — and each of the party members showed off a bit of personality here. The Prince of Cannock, named Cookie for some reason in this demo, shied away from receiving a kiss from the mermaid, for instance.
I spent a bit of time floating about on my way to rescue other mermaids from a monster invasion, picking up gear from sparkly spots underwater much the same way I did in Dragon Quest III and battling classic Dragon Quest monsters by turning the battle speed up to Very Fast and setting all members to Show No Mercy, as Rubiss intended.
I did jump over to Dragon Quest I after that, a game I have little experience with, and travelled as the solo hero chasing down good old Robin ‘Ood after he stole the Thief’s Key from a shady merchant. Regular enemies didn’t stand much chance against my hero, equipped as he was with a Thorn Whip and a Zap spell, but facing Robin ‘Ood and two of his lackeys alone made for a difficult fight that I couldn’t overcome.
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam (Switch 1 & 2)
You may remember I included Level-5’s Professor Layton and the New World of Steam in last year’s roundup alongside a full hands-on, which would normally disqualify it for this one like it did Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. However, this time around I got to explore a different section of the game while using the Joy-Con 2’s Mouse Mode to solve puzzles in the American city of Steam Bison.
I unfortunately found the mouse control awkward and a little painful while standing up to play. Regardless, I managed to solve three puzzles and talk to quite a few denizens of Steam Bison while Layton searched for Luke before the demo clock ran down; this feels like a much more ‘alive’ setting than previous Professor Layton games.
Quite literally the first puzzle in the game did confound me, though. It required searching for something unusual on a statue on the town square, but it wasn’t so much of a puzzle as it was a trick. I won’t spoil it, but it requires you to more or less ignore the instructions (click and submit an unusual spot on the statue) for something a bit more obscure.
The next puzzle, however, required me to drag-and-drop cogs onto a barge to ferry them across the river in the proper sequence, and that one felt much more Professor Layton-esque to me. Unfortunately, we’ll all have to wait to see the strength of the puzzles for a while, as it’s been delayed to sometime in 2026.
Little Nightmares III (Switch 1 & 2)
Stuart Gipp reviewed Little Nightmares II for Nintendo Life quite well back in 2021, and the third entry looks to improve upon the last in every way. While I played the PlayStation 5 version, I found the 20 minutes I spent with this little horror game equal parts disturbing and charming.
It does, however, seem like a game primarily designed for co-op. As the demo began, I had to choose between two characters: the bow-wielding Loss or the wrench-wielding Alone. I went with Alone, and fortunately the AI was functional enough to control Loss as we worked together to solve puzzles and avoid grotesque, brutish enemies in a haunted circus environment.
At one point, Loss had to shoot the head off small zombie men for me to whack with my Wrench. In another section, Loss automatically went to pull a switch at the precise moment I turned a crank to power it. Still, it seems very much like a game you’d need to play with a friend to get the full experience.
If you do have a friend in mind, you don’t have long to wait to give Little Nightmares III a shot – it comes out on 10th October.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide (Switch 2)
No, really—I was shocked at how much SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide channelled that Nintendo 64-era collectathon energy when I played a PC version at TGS. But if you played SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated or SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, you probably know better than me that these are some top-tier 3D platformers.
As always in Bikini Bottom, something’s going awry: this time around, the ghastly Flying Dutchmen curses SpongeBob and the townsfolk when his order at the Krusty Krab takes too long. This, of course, turns SpongeBob and other townsfolk into ghosts.
After a short tutorial, the game handed me control of Patrick as I made my way to rescue SpongeBob, jumping, gliding, collecting coins, and bopping evil ghosts throwing buckets of chum at me as I did so.
While this wasn’t the Switch 2 version, you can expect to play SpongeBob’s latest absurd adventure for yourself fairly soon: it comes out on 18th November.
D-Topia (Switch 1 & 2)
Annapurna Interactive doesn’t often miss as a publisher. With games like Sayonara Wild Hearts and Stray under their banner, I took note when I saw their brightly lit booth on the TGS showfloor. While one of their games, Demi and the Fractured Dream, channelled Wind Waker energy, I came away most intrigued by D-Topia.
In it, you assume the role of a young man as he arrives at a place called — you guessed it — D-Topia that markets itself as a utopia that maximises human happiness and comfort. Your character is assigned the number 046 and sets off to work as a Facility Mechanic, which entails solving problems for local residents.
This usually involves some kind of logic puzzle: the ones I experienced were math-based, requiring me to move numbered blocks to their proper spot. However, certain obstacles like lasers and unmovable blocks make this a bit more challenging.
I expected things to get a little creepy but only found a talking mouse that claimed higher intelligence than humans; that said, the conclusion of the demo hinted that someone — or something — is investigating 046. I’m curious to see what that’s all about when it releases sometime in 2026.
And there you have it – 10 games coming to the Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 that stood out to me at Tokyo Game Show 2025. It was much harder than last year to curate this list into just 10 games, and as more developers get a hold of scarce dev kits, Maybe we’ll have to make it a list of 20 games next year!
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