OK, so sometimes I run into titles where I start to seriously consider whether covering them, even if I’m far from complimentary, is somehow feeding the beast. There are dull games, there are bad games, there are broken games, and then there are games that work perfectly fine but were never intended to be much more than empty calorie content, hoping to be posted on sale for a low-low price on a regular basis and hoping to look just good enough that someone will say “What the hell, it’s only a dollar?”. My problem with this is for some people this sort of transaction shapes their view of the indie gaming market in general, and it creates a perception that little has changed since the shovelware heyday that was the Wii eShop.

So, with Risky Roads you have a title that would feel bland and lacking in ambition if you were playing it on your phone, but apparently it just had to be playable on the dedicated Switch hardware to truly appreciate it in all of its mediocrity. Your job will just be to cross the road, using one-button play to simply make your critter turn around and move in the other direction. That’s it in terms of concept, and yet despite being run on hardware that can do some truly amazing things it’s a less compelling package than freaking Frogger, which made its debut in the arcades over 45 years ago!

Just to be clear, there will be other little elements that won’t make every stage play out precisely the same. A balloon will take you higher (though not high enough to avoid being hit by certain vehicles), and a magnifying glass will make you much smaller, so it isn’t as if there aren’t variations. That said, if you were served a burger that had visibly been dropped on the floor, would a choice of a variety of condiments to put on it really manage to make eating it any more satisfying in the end?