There’s a lot of joy to be found in Paper Mario: The Origami King, but its shallow combat and monotonous nature makes for a glib experience that crumples under pressure.

Total War: Attila is a complex and diverse strategy game that will offer returning Total War fans their fair share of ups and downs.

Terrifying, addictive and constantly engaging, Darkwood is a joy to play and begs for multiple runs no matter how scared you are.

The emulation is perfect, the extra features are great and the Switch is the perfect system for this bit of nostalgia. Unfortunately, the collection of games is a little lacklustre, with the real standouts games that we’ve seen bundled together many times before.

With the freemium model, SMITE is worth trying out if you’re a MOBA fan with an Xbox One. There’s zero risk, a massively deep game to jump into and a surprising play-style that actually makes the genre fun, instead of a reason to daydream about drowning the people on the opposing side for rushing you.

Rhythm action at its finest, Avicii Invector celebrates the life of a musical genius with an adventure across the stars that is challenging, enjoyable and euphoric in its celebration of an icon’s legacy.

Knockout City is both easy to pick up and deviously simple in its design, hiding a layer of complexity behind more casual gameplay that fans will discover the more they become invested in it. There's some standard launch-month polishing left to be done still, but Knockout City lands more hits than misses with its high-stakes gameplay and cunning combat, resulting in a multiplayer experience that's both fun and intense at any given moment.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is Lord of the Rings turned up to 11. Improving on nearly every idea from the original Shadow of Mordor game, it’s a gargantuan sequel in both size and scope.

Whether you’re a long-time Yakuza fan or just coming to this series, Judgment is well worth the investment. Boasting a cracking story, oodles of content and a fantastic fighting system, this spin-off can keep you glued for days… possibly months.

Autonauts is a colourful, creative and energetic game of automation and colonisation, whose cute facade is home to some truly engaging coding that never gets too complex.

Excellent combat and the joy of customizing a character keeps this as a strong entry in the franchise, even as it is undercut by a lackluster story and underwhelming humor. Level design is mostly great with some uninspired moments. Definitely still worthwhile for kids, but not necessarily as intriguing for adults as well.

As with the first game, LocoRoco 2 Remastered is an unremarkable remaster of a delightfully charming game. The game’s bright and colourful visuals pop in higher resolutions, and the music comes to life through bigger speakers than the PSP offered. It’s a pity that like other PSP remasters, the cut scenes are a blurry mess, but that’s a minor complaint.

It may have a few inconsistencies that can otherwise hamper the fine action in front of you, but this is the Wolfenstein return that for the most part, manages to mix deliciously old-school violence with a new generation of visuals and storytelling.

Despite a few issues and a dearth of modes, Firewall Zero Hour is the best multiplayer shooter available on PlayStation VR, and one of the platform’s best games. It’s exhilarating, immersive, tactical team-based fun, and one of those rare VR games that I’ll keep playing long after finishing this review.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is an ambitious exploration of the Star Wars universe that succeeds in delivering both compelling combat and characters, even if it suffers from tedious exploration mechanics and a lack of polish.

Despite some annoyingly prevalent fan-service and clunky fetch quests, Shantae and The Seven Sirens won me over with it’s beautiful realised world, charming characters and thoroughly polished metroidvania design.

Valfaris is a frenetic, violent homage to classic shooters and heavy metal, with satisfying gameplay and challenging boss encounters, it’ll be appreciated by anybody looking for something fun to head-bang to.

Terrifying, challenging and disturbing, STASIS is a nightmarish descent into the unknown and the kind of horror game that stays with you even when the end credits have rolled.

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors is that kind of slice of classic cake that brings with it the pros and cons of a bygone era, but at least it’s the kind of game that makes you lust for the nostalgia-tinted days of funnelling coins into an arcade stand and engaging in some cathartic mayhem. Easy to pick up action, retrotastic visuals and a chance to feel like a hero with a power fantasy that works delightfully well on the Nintendo Switch.

There’s a lot to love about South Park: The Fractured But Whole. The action is clever, the humour is even smarter and the quiet little mountain town is still as charmingly familiar as ever when you’re not busy farting your way out of danger.

Effortlessly charming, fun for any age and an imaginatively designed spectacle of origami originality. Yoshi’s Crafted World is fine art fun on the run or at home.

Although Prey’s combat and narrative fail to fill the shoes of the games they’re so obviously taking inspiration from, the visit to its Talos I space station is a marvel in interconnected level design and presentation. This is environmental storytelling and mechanical tension done to a tee, even if Prey is working hard to try and yank you out of its immersion far too often.

If you are keen for a heart-pounding horror game, you could do far worse than Until Dawn, even if it doesn't fulfill its true potential.

New Pokemon Snap captures the magic of the original game without ever losing focus, expanding on that game with a vastly increased collection of Pokemon, colourful zones to explore, and a few other interesting developments behind the lens. It's a delightful adventure that imagines the world of Pokemon as a lively and cathartic safari.

A whimsical and charming adventure, LittleBigPlanet 3 makes a few welcome changes to the core game; namely new characters and new powerups four our old knitted chum, Sackboy. With an even more robust set of creation tools, it's a game of limitless possibilities.

For over twenty years, Pokémon has been a source of joy and adoration. If Pokémon Let’s Go is an indication of where the franchise is headed in the future, it’s easily going to enjoy another two decades of love from a whole new generation of fans.

Unflinchingly tense and grueling, Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation is a better sequel to Ridley Scott's original movie than the film that followed it. Dripping with as much atmosphere and attention to detail as it is with acidic Xenomorph spittle, it's hardly let down by its weak narrative and unnecessary padding.

An excellent addition to the 3DS library, Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright offers the best of both franchises in fantastic bite sized portions.