Round Up: 6 Switch 1 & 2 Games We Played At PAX

Octopath Traveler 0 (Switch 2)

“Octopath Traveler, but with a town builder” is a bit of an odd pitch. That’s where my mind went as I held a Switch 2 unit to demo Octopath Traveler 0, a prequel to an RPG series that’s built up a lot of good faith among old-school RPG fans over its first two entries.

As this still relatively young series is held up proudly as proof of the timelessness of classic RPG elements — pixel art, turn-based combat, a deeply laboured soundtrack, and so on — that this new entry boasts town building as its showstopping new feature felt a little bit more trend-chasing by comparison. Not to mention that in this demo, I was tasked with the customisation of my own party, which flies in the face of the series’ namesake, which is predicated on eight-way, pre-written narratives. “How much story are these random characters going to get?” I could only wonder as I clicked on generic avatar after generic avatar.

To that point, it was only after I finished blindly placing homes and characters onto my plot of land that Octopath 0 started to feel more engaging in ways I could more immediately perceive. (The promised benefits of the town couldn’t be felt in under 30 minutes of gameplay, after all.)

After all the decorum, I left my little town and began exploring. Unlike the last games, your whole eight-person posse joins a battle as you’re attacked in the wild. Every battle screen looked like a moshpit of anime characters, so much so that I found myself button-mashing my enemies to their death (to the disapproval of my Square rep), rather than conducting eight-way permutations of strategy. I get the sense this might only work in the early game, however, alluding to an added depth that could produce a kind of strategy RPG fans could really scale up to.

Luckily, there were elements of the demo that didn’t need any time to coalesce. The gorgeous art direction of HD 2D is looking better than ever, and the HD rumble from just walking around and tapping on things — let alone from the chaotic battles — felt phenomenal on the handheld Switch 2. And yes, we can all rejoice, as the “soundtrack-as-a-character” makes a triumphant return to the series, with musical cues and orchestrations which remain almost distractingly great.

Everything else, however, remains a matter of potential. I look forward to seeing how all these new decisions ultimately gel.

Release Date: December 4, 2025

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Bubsy 4D (Switch 2)

Did you come here to read that a Bubsy game might actually be good? Or were you like most people, hoping to rubberneck another massive train crash? Because I’m about to type that a Bubsy game might finally, actually be good… and I’m worried that you, me, and anyone who loves to hate Bubsy might not have prepared ourselves for a universe with a fun Bubsy game in it.

Speaking of universes, that’s where this sequel to the hilariously maligned Bubsy 3D (1996) takes place. You’re in space, or something like it. A UFO comes and steals some sheep… or, something? Look, it doesn’t matter. It barely even matters to Bubsy himself. It’s all just an excuse to go jump on stuff, which is where that aforementioned good gameplay comes into play.

Helmed by developer Fabraz (Demon Turf), Bubsy 4D takes clear inspiration from the Mario 64 speedrunning fandom culture that’s developed in the wake of that seminal game’s intervening 30+ years. In 4D, Bubsy is tasked with reaching checkpoints separated by obstacle courses that have plenty of old-school platformer challenge, along with old-school ways of outsmarting all of them.

The physics of Bubsy’s moves are comprised largely of the most tippy-top, dopamine-producing aspects of Mario’s long jumps, double jumps, and climbing. In other words, it’s a game where the only way you can move makes you go “Weeee!” It’s all very janky! And the game’s visuals and style reinforce and celebrate that jankiness, though not for lack of a mastermind concept; everything you do in Bubsy 4D is designed to be broken. It rewards blistering speedrunning gimmicks most, yet still feels oddly satisfying any way you choose to hop around.

So when I say this game is weird, and kind of “bad” intentionally, I mean it from a place of deep reverence for the platformers of yesteryear, which Bubsy 4D clearly demonstrates a full understanding and clever embracing of. For once, it feels like Bubsy might be in on the joke.

Release Date: “Coming soon”

Love Eternal (Switch eShop)

After experiencing this impressively produced indie title by developer brlka and publisher Ysbryd Games, I couldn’t quite tell you what Love Eternal is about. But here’s what I can say: this horror 2D platformer makes you feel constantly on edge, quite uncertain, and eventually locked in.

You play as Maya, “a suburban child stolen from her family on the whim of a lonely god…escaping a castle built of bitter memories,” or at least that’s what’s going on according to the press release. As far as the demo goes, all you really know is that you’re a sleeping girl who gets called down from her room to join her family for dinner. Teenager stuff. Before you can sit down and eat, though, your mom asks you to go pick up a ringing telephone — yes, a landline, really accentuating the “bitter memories” part of the game’s description. It’s a fruitless task that rewards you only with a dial tone and an empty dinner table upon your return.

Then you go outside. Your house is magically burned to the ground. The atmosphere is morose and an ugly kind of blue. Lacking any alternative, your adventure begins as you head right, giving way to a series of 2D gravity platforming challenges that borrow most heavily from indie classics VVVVVV and Celeste, except with an added nagging stress that something is very, very wrong.

It’s that upsetting undercurrent that makes Love Eternal conceptually exciting well beyond its gameplay influences. Without spoiling too much, it’s a very bold game that feels free to mess with you however it pleases, whenever it pleases.

Release Date: “2025”

Table Tactics (Switch eShop)

What Table Tactics currently lacks in total polish, it makes up for in deeply amusing physics-based gameplay, the kind that kept me glued to my demo — as if I need another “just-one-more-turn” game in my life.

Those familiar with tabletop RPGs will have a leg-up on this action-strategy game, but honestly, despite the game’s menus borrowing from the complexity of that fandom, you don’t really need any experience with TTRPGs.

The game presents you with a literal table that you strategically cover in battle units: archers, swordsmen, catapults and the like. In typical medieval fashion, bad guy units begin to flood the table in waves, which you engage with in turn-based combat, not using hitpoints, but physics. For example, using my catapult, I sent a literal marble through the air and right into a pocket of enemies. It sent them all flying but one, which wobbled and survived like a stubborn bowling pin keeping me from a strike.

Using not much more than geometry, Table Tactics brings an excellent dose of action into a genre that is typically monopolised by number crunching and rules, which is giving my attention-deficit-brain a strategy game to actually look forward to.

Release Date: TBD

Woodo (Switch eShop)

What sets Woodo apart from other ‘cosy’ games is obvious at a glance: holy heck, this adorable little puzzle game looks stunning, punching way above its weight in the graphics department. It’s quickly obvious what a labour of love this is for developer Tiny Monks Tales, a tiny team of three, with the care and attention put into every single pixel.

The premise is far less complex than its visuals. You follow the tale of a little fox named Foxy, or at least you do once you click and drag pieces of her into the appropriate places to build her. That’s the gameplay; you get presented with a wooden, lifeless diorama of a scene, which you spin around in order to hunt for the exact location where every item in your inventory should go, almost like building a Lego set with light suggestions rather than instructions. Placing the right piece into just the right spot brings it to life with colour, often triggering a calming narration designed to feel like someone reading you a kid’s book.

It’s an extremely relaxing and charming game, akin to kicking back and painting little figures. (And frankly, it might be perfect if you want to gateway your little ones into painting Warhammer figurines.)

Release Date: “2026”

SacriFire (Switch eShop)

The love affair between modern-day game devs and turn-based strategy feels never-ending these days, but SacriFire is a game that aims to blend some new ideas into that original RPG recipe.

The game has been in development for several years, and this latest coat of paint from developer and publisher Pixilated Milk really showed off how far the game has come. The whole experience is gorgeous to look at with its 2D and 3D blended art direction, and it’s equally interesting to play, thanks to its real-time RPG mechanics where battle only moves whenever you do.

In the demo, after some basic RPG set-up, you find yourself in a dynamic battle where health and data are propped up above the characters as you run around a given circle to fight. Enemies shoot their shot (literally), which only move across the screen as you move your character within a circle, everything completely freezing when you do. It produces a sort of slow-motion bullet-hell kind of dodging and weaving.

For comparison’s sake, Xenogears was offered by the developers as a major inspiration, though the unique battle system reminded me of the recently released indie gem Arco, with a little bit of Kingdom Hearts (if it were on the Sega Genesis) vibes — two very high compliments.

It’s also worth noting that it’s hard to tell with limited exposure how the full soundtrack will sound, but it is highly anticipated, as SacriFire is being helmed by none other than Motoi Sakuraba, composer of such OST gems as Dark Souls, Golden Sun, Star Ocean, and yes, Mario Tennis.

As for how the story holds up — “Ezekiel Ridan, a young priest, struggles to keep his faith as the world he loves is threatened by a war between gods and demons.” — we’ll have to wait and see, as SacriFire is nearing release early next year.

Release Date: Q1 2026

And now for a handful of games not yet confirmed for Switch, although we (and indeed their makers) have our fingers crossed…

Rebounder

As a professional game reviewer, you get exposed to so many games that you rarely get stunned into submission. So on that rare occasion when it’s a game’s graphics that stop you in your tracks, you do your best to communicate it with words. But honestly, I implore you to just click on the trailer and watch it, because nothing besides moving pictures can do Rebounder true justice.

This game is like if the Cowboy Bebop intro was a video game. This game is like if the grainy comics of a 1930s newspaper were magically animated on the paper, Comics Code Authority badge and all. This game feels gritty, surprises you with off-the-wall animations screen after screen, and feels ice cool. Reader, I don’t want you to stop reading, but please go watch it in action.

Sadly, it’s just a fact that a lot of people are going to be stuck watching someone play this game, rather than playing it themselves; Rebounder’s gameplay is absolutely brutal. Whatever exists of a plot is centred around space-industrial labour extraction, as you’re a sort of coal miner of the future. That sets up the core idea of spelunking to grab these little floating orbs scattered around 2D obstacle courses, which you can grab and carry, and which have the bouncy physics of a basketball. They allow you exactly one double-jump before they expire back to where you grabbed them from.

Thus, what begins as a simple double-jump to the next room quickly evolves into elaborate off-the-wall self-passes through dangerous twists, turns, and spikes. You will die over and over again. People had to look away from the screen out of sheer frustration while I was playing. Though for anyone who loves outrageous Mario Maker levels and old-school platformer challenges, Rebounder is heavenly the way it makes you feel like a Harlem Globetrotter in space. Whether you are a fan of the genre or not, keep an eye (or two) on this one.

Release Date: TBD, Switch version TBD

Hyperbeat

Rhythm games can sometimes feel like a simple way to get started in game development — build some menus, grab a song, and build the entire experience out on rails. Hyperbeat, an upcoming indie title from co-developers Alice Bottino and Chancellor Wallin, is having none of that; it’s narratively ambitious from the first screen on, and it never stops being extra wild, weird, and interesting.

The demo started with a strangely gripping scene between your low-polygonal character and a crow. Then followed an amusing character-building menu where you choose between irreverent but awesome neon styles. Oh, and it’s also worth mentioning your character’s walking animation, which consists of, I wanna say, three or four frames. In all, this low-fi, retro style might be easy to emulate, but it’s difficult to really make this style one’s own the way Hyperbeat does with ease. For those with an encyclopedic knowledge of video game history, I have to go back to 1999’s Vib Ribbon for my nearest point of comparison between narrative, graphics, and sound.

All of this stuff happens before you get even a single note of music — you know, the actual game itself — which is ultimately delivered in the form of your stick figure creation flying through a cylindrical tube aiming for octagons and arrows to slash at, hopefully in perfect time with the music. Something about how the gameplay flows in Hyperbeat really gets at your dopamine, because it’s all so extremely satisfying the way it comes at you so quickly. The fact that missing notes doesn’t make the experience stumble to a crawl goes a long way to making you feel like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, majestically pointing things into existence — in this case, a dope-ass techno beat.

Hyperbeat might sound a bit unassuming of a title, and its creators are still green, yet this is somehow one of the most satisfying rhythm gameplay loops I’ve ever played. I truly can’t wait to play (and hear) more of it.

Release Date: TBD, Switch version TBD.

Echo Weaver

From the developer of the Pikmin-like indie title The Wild at Heart now comes Echo Weaver, a self-described “MetroidBRAINia” title that plays like Metroid, but on a time loop.

It’s a little hard to keep up with that description, just the same as it is to understand what’s happening when you first start it. You play as a “weaver” in a labyrinth not unlike any Metroidvania you’ve ever played. But unlike Metroid itself, the game is technically beatable from the very first screen, earning its “MetroidBRAINia” description by the way you learn from your mistakes as you go.

You will do this in speedrunning fashion, as the flow of the game picks up steam until your sad, untimely death, after which you teleport back to your previous save point on a time loop, armed only with the knowledge of what you did wrong. When it all clicks, the gameplay unfolds like a clever speedrunning action piece where you bound over explosions, outsmart booby traps, and simply knowing what the door password is the next time around

It’s like if the classic movies Aliens and Run Lola Run had a baby, which of course would be stylistic and fast. Not a bad combo.

Release Date: TBD, Switch version TBD