A game so impenetrable that it seemed designed to make you walk away ... Demon's Souls. A game so impenetrable that it seemed designed to make you walk away ... Demon's Souls. What does my love for impossibly difficult video games say about me? From Demon Souls to Baby Steps, challenging games keep a certain type of player coming back for more. Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox?

The Switch 2 is nearly here, which means the original Switch is entering its twilight years. It's been eight years since Nintendo released its revolutionary hybrid console, and while many fans have spent the last couple of those itching for the device to be replaced, now seems like an opportune time to look back at what its legacy may wind up being (while acknowledging that it still has some life ahead of it). Instead of bleating on myself, though, I turned to the rest of the Engadget staff to see what comes to mind when they think of the Switch, as just about everyone on the team has played with the console. We've collected our reflections below -- some take a bigger-picture view, some are more personal, some contradict others' experiences entirely. There's plenty more that went unsaid. But I think that's part of the Switch's beauty; it's a device that's resonated with so many, in so many different ways, in its near-decade on the market.

It's a question that's plagued our greatest minds for almost three decades. Yes, she appeared on the cover of the Face magazine next to the tagline "bigger than Pammy" in 1997, and yes, in 2006 lad mag FHM created a whole TV special designed to find the "real" tomb raider. But what does science say? In a world where American academics can't use the word "women" without jeopardising their scientific funding, it's a relief that a gambling site called Casino Days is willing to do this important work, recently ranking "The Top 10 Most Attractive Video Game Characters According to Science". Using the so-called "golden ratio" – which determines how beautiful someone is by measuring their facial features – the company has found that Lara Croft is the second most attractive video game character in the virtual world.

I grew up on two of the most classic games in the Legend of Zelda series: A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. And while there have been a handful of Zelda games with the classic overhead view, those have been mostly relegated to systems like the Game Boy Advance and the 3DS. Mainline Zelda games that are a big event in the gaming world are in the 3D style so successfully introduced to the series way back in 1998 with Ocarina of Time. All this is to say that it's been years since I've played an entirely new Legend of Zelda game in the style of those classics I love so much. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (out tomorrow) has brought me right back.

Unlike Princess Peach, waiting in a castle to be rescued from Bowser, Zelda has never been a damsel. She has always commanded magical power, even in the early days of the series, when she would enlist green-clad swordsman Link to save the kingdom. For the last couple of decades, since 2003's Wind Waker, Zelda and Link have been something of a team; they are friends, companions, a powerful regent and her loyal knight. But still we, the players, have always taken Link's role in the story. Echoes of Wisdom is Zelda's first star turn in the series that bears her name.

After decades of serving as the named inspiration for the beloved franchise The Legend of Zelda, the series' titular princess is finally getting her own game. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, releasing September 26 for Nintendo Switch, gives Zelda her very own hero's journey after Link goes missing. But it does not, sadly, give her her own sword. Players have been clamoring for Hyrule's favorite princess to take the lead in a Zelda game for years now, or at least to be playable in games like Tears of the Kingdom. Excitement around Zelda's triumph was immediately evident on X after Nintendo announced the game Tuesday during one of its Direct presentations.

In the years since The Legend of Zelda's 1986 release, director, producer, and co-designer Shigeru Miyamoto has described the game as an attempt to replicate what he felt during childhood explorations of the countryside outside of Kyoto, Japan, where he was raised. In making the first installment of what would go on to become one of Nintendo's most beloved series, his foundational memories of inspecting foreboding caves or happening upon unexpected lakes provided a framework for what would become a global sensation. Three decades later, when a team at Nintendo sought to rethink Zelda's design ethos after years of working within an increasingly calcified format, its members returned to that first game and its sense of free-spirited exploration for inspiration. The result was 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which, more than any series entry before it, imparted a feeling that players were wandering an expansive fantasy world as awe-inspiring and invigoratingly dangerous as the mental landscape of a great childhood adventure. Breath of the Wild tweaked the past games' more confined environments and gauntlet of clockwork puzzle levels--dubbed "dungeons" by players--by offering a sprawling landscape dotted with smaller, discrete challenges broken up by long periods spent simply figuring out how to climb mountains or descend into far-off valleys.

In The Legend of Zelda, Hyrule is a land constantly imperiled by maleficent lords of shadow, cataclysmic volcanic eruptions, and an intangible sense of paranormal gloom that sucks the will to live out of every man, Zora, and Goron. Its nations are stratified across the land, and all of them live under the muzzling bounds of an autocratic royal bloodline. In other words, the people of Zelda need a free press, and in the newest game of the franchise--called Tears of the Kingdom--Hylians have discovered that occasionally, the pen is mightier than the sword. Those who embark on the adventure will discover ancient vistas, glorious ruins, and, most surprisingly, a proud celebration of the power of journalism. At last, Link is asking the tough questions.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is perhaps the most anticipated addition in the popular series - and it's easy to see why. The epic earthy adventure takes gamers to new heights by literally spanning across both land and sky to uncover the secrets in the kingdom of Hyrule. Much like the predecessor Breath of the Wild, gamers step into a world of discovery and exploration, but now hero Link is given the ability to harness new powers. These new abilities allow our protagonist to fuse together a variety of objects to build vehicles - from cars to rafts, gliding jets and even hot air balloons. One gamer even recreated a Trojan horse for Link to hide inside and avoid enemies nearby.

The release of a new Zelda game is always a major event worldwide. Ever since 1986, when famed Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto first attempted to capture in code some of the wonder he experienced exploring the Kyoto countryside as a child, Zelda games have been pushing the boundaries of what's possible in virtual worlds. Look at any best-games-of-all-time list and you'll see Zelda in the Top 10, often more than once. But 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was particularly special. Launching alongside the Nintendo Switch console, which has since sold more than 125m units, it was perhaps the best realisation yet of the promise of boundless freedom and adventure that video games have been dangling in front of players' noses for decades.