In conclusion, as a small downloadable title there is much to like about Strike Suit Zero; its story is interesting if awkwardly told, and its gameplay is finely-tuned and worth revisiting.

Given the consistent rush towards the safe option in gaming today, the possibility of Dark Souls 2 meaning something special to you makes its worth checking out, even if you might well hate every second of it.

Thus while these remakes do not offer much new, they are remakes of such high-quality games that they are worth revisiting, or visiting for the first time.

It is seems a shame the game didn’t launch before Christmas – on this evidence, with its kid-friendly content and rock-solid gameplay, it had the potential to have cleaned up, and help Microsoft move a bunch of additional Ones off the shelves in the process.

Licensed games are difficult, comedy games even moreso, but the Stick of Truth makes it look easy, and that’s maybe the biggest surprise of all.

As an experience, I’d definitely recommend Jazzpunk. It still fits in the, “Wandering Around Game” style, however its comedic sensibilities are great and its treatment of other video game styles are a love letter to gaming in the most fun, madcap way that Necrophone Games could have thought of.

It’s a fast-paced, hugely over-the-top experience, and it should put a big smile on your face for the vast majority of the time you spend with it.

If you can look past the sub-par graphics and keep up with the demanding control tempo, you’ll find a robust beat-em-up with tight and interesting controls, entertaining movesets and a strong cast of characters.

Ultimately Hoplite is not a game based to any great extent about discovering new content or unlocking secrets; while some abilities are added to the roster for completing achievements, it does not have the complexity of hidden mechanics that its close comparator 868-Hack does. Instead it is, bluntly, the more “accessible” game and perhaps as a result the truer evocation of retro gaming. Its rules can be learned very quickly, as any good short-playing game should, and yet it still has elements of deep strategy, choice and randomisation to provide a motivation for chasing high scores.

All in all, Freedom Cry is an excellent addition to Assassin’s Creed IV.

It is suitably complex mechanically to be challenging on a level beyond simply long fights with tough enemies, and tells a solid story reminiscent of the older Final Fantasy games from which it draws design elements.

A Link Between Worlds is a beautiful experience: a fun retrospective of former Zelda glories while providing enough innovation to stand out on its own.

It isn’t without issues, and it doesn’t do anything particularly new or special, but it’s that doesn’t stop it being a fun, charming way to spend a few hours.

Thus while not being a visual spectacle in the way something like Killzone is, Resogun demonstrates well the potential of the PS4 as a console; its capacity for impressive particle effects and handling of many more physics objects at once than past consoles is shown off to the full.

Soul Calibur II HD Online illustrates this perfectly: with the core game given nothing but a face lift, it remains a great fun experience, even if it’s the exact same experience that it provided ten years ago. The new features add very little, but then there’s very little that needed to be added even ten years ago, and therefore it remains to be seen whether similar tales of swords and souls will continue to be eternally retold.

Overall, then, FM2014 is a quality product; an enjoyable entry point into the series for new players and customisable enough for series veterans to add or remove the features they want to make the best experience for them.

Flawed and silly, but also ambitious and heartfelt, this is a game with a clear vision, like it or not, that follows through with utter conviction to the end.

Roguelike games have become increasingly popular of late and it’s great to see one which rewards you for all the time spent by allowing a form of character progression. It’s mitigated to a point by having you lose all your money before entering a castle and each purchased bonus makes all the others more expensive.

Puzzle elements are integrated incompletely with the platforming elements, and while both have moments of retro-inspired genius neither is quite sufficient to truly stand alone.

Grand Theft Auto V is the rare entertainment experience that simply won’t let you down.

It’s a fascinating experience and one of the stranger topics for a video game.

It’s easy to overlook a lot of what makes Brothers unique from first glance, its unassuming style belies a title with a lot more on its mind. But stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with something really quite special.

Ultimately the game feels like a risk, an antithesis of much of what gaming currently aspires to be, but it also uses the medium to its advantage, to tell a personal story in a new and innovative way. Hopefully it leads to more developers stepping out in a similar fashion, and together pushing the medium forward in equally interesting and unexpected ways.

It’s not a complete overhaul of the series, but it’s an entry that intelligently pushes Animal Crossing into new areas of control and creativity.

The Last of Us is the type of game that could only be crafted by a developer willing to take risks. Were Naughty Dog to have thrown its money at yearly iterations of Uncharted, it would likely still have found its audience, but with The Last of Us it has struck out in a bold new direction that asks some very big questions about some of the fundamental aspects of videogame culture and the relationship that exists between gamer and game.

For now though this collection is the perfect excuse to experience some of the best, most unique games of this generation and either encounter them for the first time, or dive back in for one more play.

Regardless, if you like exploration, stress, permadeath, free-roaming games and don’t care about how the arm hair on your man looks, then this is definitely a game for you.

CastleStorm represents the best of its muses’ ideals – namely those belonging to the tower defense genre and Angry Birds – and fuses them into something specially made and distinctly enjoyable. Minor quirks don’t leave a damaging impression, either, which can’t be said for every joyously destroyed playhouse castle you’ll come into contact with along the way.