The Definitive Point & Click Evolution: Gobliins Collection Switch Review
If you miss the days when puzzle games didn’t hold your hand, and characters expressed themselves through glorious, chaotic animation, then this package is exactly what you need. It delivers an incredible trip through point-and-click history that feels absolutely perfect for handheld play. Getting your hands on an evolution of design like this is a rare treat, showing off how a franchise grows across decades without losing its core charm. Prepare to lose hours managing unique little creatures while staring at beautifully crafted screens filled with pure retro personality.
[Specs] [Gameplay] [Performance] [Settings]
Gobliins Collection Nintendo Switch Review: Specs & HUD
- Developer: Pierre Gilhodes
- Publisher: Pierre Gilhodes
- Release Date: May 2026
- Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure / Puzzle
- UK Store Link: Nintendo eShop UK
- Download Size: 3.2GB download size.
- Bundle Value: Five games in one package.
- Interface Help: As a point-and-click game, you can hover over almost anything and get a name tag pop-up of what it is.
- Interactive Highlights: Gobliins 1 to 3 have d-pad shortcuts so you can instantly change the size of the game screen and change the border art. They also have a button you press to show all the interactive elements on screen.
- Game Select System: The game select menu is the game running in a window with the original box of the game front and back, and that’s both the EU and US versions.
- Retro Bonuses: A beautiful timeline piece with videos from the creator on all things Gobliins and each video has subtitles supported with French voice, there are interactive elements to view each game’s gallery of concept art. Watch each video to earn keys and unlock a bonus reward.
- Audio Vault: Full music player with the albums for each game included.
- Loading Polish: When loading a game, you get a cool animation of the CD or floppy disc going into the computer. Depending on the game and year depend on the computer used.
- Progress Tracking: There is no in-game achievements system or anything.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
The game is you control three different Gobliins, one at a time, and you solve puzzles on a screen-by-screen basis. Each Goblin is unique in what they can do, and they can also have different reactions and interactions with people. Point-and-click gameplay is at its absolute finest here. The puzzles are clever, and with the help system, you can get by without Gamefaqs, but it’s the animation and how everyone interacts with each other that really shine. The games start off 2D, but as you go through the newer games, they become 3D and cartoon-looking. It’s a wonderful collection of the evolution of games.
Jokers in each game are basically I am stuck, help me, mechanic. You have x amount of them, and using one will give a brief description of what to do next. It’s a cool gimmick for a game like this, but the font can make them hard to read. The game design is fantastic and suits the handheld well; the left stick acts like a mouse, and sometimes, especially in the menus, it feels like having a snap to each option would work better. You can quit out of any game and return to the game select menu seamlessly.
Gobliins Collection Nintendo Switch Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Visual Appeal: Fantastic graphics from the 90s to the present.
- Animation and Sound Quality: Some of the best animation work and some of the games have awesome voice work.
- Touch Control Quirks: The game supports touchscreen controls and is the definitive way to play the game, but be warned, touchscreen only works when you do not have handheld boost mode on, so change the settings on your Nintendo Switch 2.
- Speed Protocol: All games allow you to save and load when you want and have near instant loading times.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Control Mapping Limits: You cannot remap any of the controls in any of the games.
- Gobliins 1 Specific Settings: Gobliins settings – floppy disc or cd rom version, video on floppy disc version can be VGA or EGA. Music for the floppy disc can be the Windows or Apple version.
- Gobliins 2 & 3 Audio and Text Filters: Gobliins 2 and Gobliins 3 settings – floppy disc and cd rom version. The cd rom music is an orchestra and voices, and the floppy disc is FM Synth. Gobliins 2 has an option in-game where you can change the font used and the date.
- Gobliins 3 Quirks: Gobliins 3 has an option to mute music, not fonts or anything, but mute music, so weird I had to mention it.
- Gobliins 4 Customisation: Gobliins 4 has in-game settings for border art, music, ambient, SFX, and you can change the name of your characters.
- Gobliins 5 Configuration: Gobliins 5 has game settings for music, SFX, ambient, border art, text speed, linear rendering, and pixel-perfect.
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Gobliins Collection Nintendo Switch Review
Summary
GOOD STUFF
This is a fantastic, incredibly well-produced package that easily ranks right up there with the absolute best retro collections on the market today. Getting five games in a single download with near-instant loading and the freedom to save anywhere is a treat, but the real joy is the loving preservation of history. Booting up games with old-school PC animations, toggling between floppy disc FM Synth and CD-ROM orchestral tracks, and unlocking behind-the-scenes creator videos with keys earned by engaging with the history is just stellar. The screen-by-screen puzzle design feels right at home on a handheld, the helper jokers keep things moving, and the brilliant, expressive character animations hold up beautifully whether you are looking at 90s pixel art or modern 3D cartoons.
BAD STUFF
It isn’t completely smooth sailing, however, as the control setup has some annoying quirks that will test your patience. The complete inability to remap your controls across any of the five titles is a major bummer, and using the left stick as a loose mouse cursor makes the menus feel clumsy when a simple option-snapping system would have been ten times better. The vintage font choices on the Joker help cards can also turn a brief hint into a genuine eyesight test. Finally, the touchscreen controls are easily the definitive way to experience the game, but the fact that it completely breaks and stops working if you have handheld boost mode active on the Nintendo Switch 2 is a bizarre annoyance that forces you to go menu-diving just to make it function.
FINAL VERDICT
Gobliiins Collection is an absolute must-play package for point-and-click fans and an exemplary blueprint for how classic gaming history should be preserved. I completely missed out on these wild titles during their original run, but getting to experience the entire mechanical and visual evolution of the franchise in one place is brilliant. Minor control gripes and weird system quirks aside, the sheer charm, clever puzzles, and rich historical extras make this an essential addition to your digital library.
