While this type of game has obviously been done better and bigger in the decades since, old school gamers will love stepping back into this world. Modern players may find it interesting but not vital.

It’s a huge gaming bundle and everything you want from a football game. Fans will be sad to see this console icon go, but with a new look next year there is the potential for EA to freshen things up and deliver something even better.

The quality of life improvements made can’t cover up the fact that this is a lazy port of a game that deserves better.

Dying Light 2 doesn’t feel original in the slightest, it is bested elsewhere in visuals and gameplay, but as a total package there’s a lot on offer. And gamers will get their money’s worth out of this zombie-bashing post-apocalypse fearfest. It is a game that leaves you with a constant but strangely addictive edge-of-the-seat sense of stress like a strong horror movie. And plenty to discover in a dark, menacing future world.

A strong and much-wanted tennis game that helps to fill a gap in the sporting gaming market.

The story unfolds at a nice pace that allows you to dip out and into side quests throughout the map to become a part of a wider nation-shaping arc. Rise of the Ronin is another cracking PS5 exclusive.

WarioWare has absurdity at its heart. And the speed of the game, plus its generous amount of wildly differing micro games, make it a fun title to play over and over with pals. In solo gameplay I suspect the dazzle will wane once you’ve tried all the micro games a couple of times. That’ll take less time than you think as they’re so frenetic and over so quickly. But Nintendo has done another good job here giving players a unique new game that the Switch hasn’t seen before. Well worth a look.

If you’re looking for something different, a bit like a touchscreen mobile game, but one that is unique and will test your puzzle skills, give it a go.

All in all, it’s a worthwhile update if you liked the original game – and perfect for families with kids.

Overall, there have been better Call of Duty games in the past, particularly around the single-player campaign. But Black Ops Cold war gets both the multiplayer mode and zombies just right and those are the ones that really count most for fans.

FC24 doesn’t miss the Fifa branding at all and there’s endless enjoyment to be had here, both solo or with pals either on the couch or online.

It is bombastic, dude-bro all-in fighting from start to finish and there’s months of replayability with the online multiplayer. It’ll get gun game fans not only through Christmas but most of 2023 too because it’s so damn moreish. For that reason it’s not only a top-tier game but one with huge value-for-money.

This is an incredible game that is well worth experiencing, but there’s an elephant in the room. The Switch price is £35.99, which is sure to demoralizing consumers as it’s more than double the Steam price, for a port that doesn’t improve on the original. There aren’t even touchscreen controls, which would have been a perfect addition for the Switch.

Surge 2 improves upon the predecessors ‘Dark Souls but sci-fi’ vibe with a much more interesting world and social commentary. But the series still feels a little rough around the edges when it comes to communicating with the player. Menus are awkward to navigate, and upgrades and systems can be a little hard to comprehend. Despite this, the combat is still great fun, and exploring Jericho City is an intoxicating blend of excitement and trepidation.

It’s not perfect, it feels like the start of a new genre rather than the definitive conquering of one. In time I can imagine garden based versions, bigger and bigger tracks with loops, jumps and hills, and a raft of copycat games.

This reworking of a PC hit makes it a highly approachable, massive role-play action title that is as welcoming to new players as it is MMO experts hell-bent on sinking hundreds of hours of gameplay in. The fighting is fun and the world building is extensive. Well worth a look.

Labyrinth City is fun, puzzley at points and packed full of chuckle moments as you dissect the lovely world around you. But the game is a bit of a one-trick pony and it won’t be too long before you tire and move on to another Switch game.

This is an excellent start by the Ubisoft bods and I suspect the inevitable follow-up will fare better once more varied gameplay is added into the mix.

If you know Mortal Kombat, you can smell the ‘twists’ and ‘turns’ a mile off, and though it’s great to see some underloved characters get their turn in the limelight, the whole experience underwhelms from start to finish.

Ghostwire Tokyo is a good game. It nails atmosphere and looks next-generation on the PS5.There’s clever use of the new controller options. But when it comes to video games, gameplay is ultimately everything and this title simply won’t blow you away.

Sniper Elite: Resistance is well made, and offers a strong challenge for gamers who like a slower pace to their gun games than the likes of Call of Duty. It offers nothing particularly new though and isn’t top tier when it comes to both gameplay and graphics.

Pixleopus has made a triumphant return with Concrete Genie; from your very first brush stroke you’ll be so swept away by the colour and narrative that by the time it’s over, you’ll want to jump right back in again to paint the town red, and blue… and green.

Afterparty runs a little short, with the narrative concluding around the five-hour mark. It would have been nice if some of the islands offered a little more content, especially as some are much more important to the story than others.

If you stick with it, No More Heroes 3 is great fun, packed full of enjoyable gameplay and frantically memorable moments.

Observation is a game that has a deeply captivating story with a lot of heart, which makes it worth playing for those who love the mysteries of space and artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, some aspects, such as SAM’s janky controls and unenjoyable space sequences made an otherwise enjoyable game, feel weighed down by space debris.

This game is a very decent alternative racing title for the Forza fans to try. And with a lack of titles in general until the new Xbox and Playstation consoles hit shops this winter, it is worth trying out good strong games like this even if they're not accompanied by the blockbuster telly adverts you'd expect from bigger budget hits.

Everybody’s Golf VR is an excellent first outing for the series if a little on the thin side in terms of content. Thankfully, what’s there is fun and rewarding, and well worth a look for fans of the series or the sport.

Despite a few issues with a lack of upgrades in some areas, Saint’s Row The Third Remastered is a great way to dip your shoes back into the franchise and remember why Saint’s Row 3 helped the series find an identity, allowing it to go on to do bigger and better things in Saint’s Row IV.

It's Castlevania in everything but name and fans of Igarachi's earlier work will find a lot to love between excellent combat and rewarding traversal. The Switch port is harder to recommend at present, but the game is likely to be among the console's best after a patch or two.

Not a great title for single-players but definitely easily pickupable gaming fun for one of those lighter evenings with friends.

God Eater 3 is an excellent Switch Port of a great action-RPG and is stuffed to the Aragami gills with content. It's the perfect "pick up and play" game for your commute while offering enough depth to play for hours of an evening in order to earn that next upgrade. Happy hunting, AGEs.

With that lovely Nintendo animation and colourful visuals it looks amazing on both the Switch screen and the bigger docked TV. A solid but not outstanding effort by the Nintendo peeps.

It's a near-miss from John Wick Hex, then, but it's got heart, and I'm gutted this gamble didn't work out.

It’s not quite up there with the Fallout series but delivers a unique and highly challenging first-person action experience.

Ultimately, this is a difficult, stressful game, but a fun one if you can pull off some epic stealth takedowns and are happy to quietly chip away at a mission, rather than go in all-guns-blazing.

It’s a great shooter game, CoD always is, but it's not the best in the series and the overly used WW2 backdrop is wearing thin. The pandemic would have played a part in this and kudos to the developers for still delivering a big game despite the lockdowns.

If you['re] bored by cricket you’ll likely be bored with this game too. However for the fans, there is now a really good cricket game to enjoy, one that’s packed with gameplay, customisation, and a real love for the real game.

The gameplay itself and choices made to affect the branching storyline are a little too subtle and rarely taxing. It’s really there to aid the storytelling and build out the lore, like an interactive movie. As such there can be long stretches where the story slows or gets bogged down and it feels a little chore-like to keep grinding on.

This was clearly a labour of love. The team creating the Elder Scrolls Online sure love the world of Tamriel, and it shows when they’re able to create a great chapter that stands on its own merit; even when it’s standing on the foundations of the fifth game in the series. Greymoor has a short but exhilarating story that left me ready for what’s to come in the future. Western Skyrim is gorgeous and a joy to explore. It gothic setting is a refreshing change in ESO, and if what’s to come is as good as this, I’ll happily find myself coming back to enjoy what’s on offer.

Dead Island 2 is a first-person action RPG that’s packed with as much dark humour as it is body parts.

Switch owners will find plenty of content to chew through, particularly with friends, and while it may be the gaming equivalent to a Hulk Smash, that isn't to say that it isn’t a rollicking good time.

As a game it's still great, even if this isn't necessarily the best place to play it.

Whether you are a Marvel fan or a PSVR fan, Iron Man VR is well worth your time and money. It's immersive, tactile, and full of charm. Few other VR games will make you feel as powerful or leave you feeling so satisfied with the time you have spent in a virtual space. The loading sections are a bit too frequent for my liking, but they never impede what is a fantastic virtual reality experience.

While there are more detailed JRPGs out there, Kakarot scratches the itch of both Dragon Ball and JRPG fans alike.

It’s nowhere near as complex as Fifa, none of it is, but this game knows its strength is in the moment-to-moment arcade action and really wants you involved in that as much as possible with little distraction. For footie fans, this is a bit of a no-brainer. It’s very much a crazy Nintendo version of that sport.

The gameplay is so simple and effective that you can drop in for short bursts without having to worry about long load times or system updates like you do on bigger console games. Well worth a look if you like to test your mental mettle.

There’s absolutely nothing in Rogue City you haven’t seen before, done better elsewhere.

Team Sonic Racing brings an interesting dynamic to the kart racing genre. While its team-based gameplay offers a new dimension of tactics to players, it lacks refinement and ultimately doesn’t do enough to escape the shadows cast by other prolific kart racers.

It's a game that's constantly reminding you that it is a game released in 2009, with its dated single-player mode and boring missions. The upgraded particle effects help the game show the destruction on the Switch very well here, but 'Wrecking Crew' is where the game shines, and proves it is very much worth your purchase here. Incredibly fun, great for party-passing, and being able to play this mode on the go only makes me recommend 'Red Faction Guerrilla' even more.

While it doesn’t quite meet the lofty standards of those early-2000’s entries, it’s definitely the best Need for Speed we’ve seen in quite some time.

This remaster doesn’t bring much in terms of new content, and visual changes that are headlined aren’t done as well as they should be. In that regard, it still holds up as a great Assassin’s Creed game that is worthy of any fan’s money.

All in, a wonderful title that brings back a lot of memories for those of us who have been gaming for a while, while creating a whole new ‘this is cool’ feel for newcomers. Either way, it brings friends and family together and will spark as many laughs in your living room as frustrated yelps when you’re beaten into submission by a five-year-old.

There’s not much by the way of emotional connection to this game. It’s old-fashioned, cliched in its storytelling and I found myself constantly hitting the skip button to get to the actual fighting. But overall, Stranger of Paradise is a nice brawler on the Playstation and Xbox.

This is the racing equivalent of EA Sport’s not-Fifa football franchise FC24...It now delivers all the same realism, audio and visual fidelity while also never losing sight that it’s a good video game that will keep players coming back for more.

The real enjoyment came when mixing up the two elements of conversation and combat. The way that the game allows you to make some really difficult choices in how you go about on the island give a real feeling of importance.

Avatar is a good game that could have been a must-buy had it doubled down on offering very different missions and experiences. That said, if you want to experience a lush world and really dig the movies, you should definitely give this a go.

Minecraft Legends is gaming at its best - fun, welcoming, evolving, easy to play but endlessly difficult to master. And best played with friends. You’ll be continuously tested by this game and it takes its forebears’ core mechanics and adds them neatly into a new-but-familiar mix of action and strategy.

Ultimately, this is a difficult, stressful game, but a fun one if you can pull off some epic stealth takedowns and are happy to quietly chip away at a mission, rather than go in all-guns-blazing.

While there some tweaks that could be made that would perfect this title, these are vastly outweighed by the game’s sheer amount of style and substance. If you’re a fan of Hotline Miami, or in fact, any top-down shooter, then God’s Trigger is a must play, especially if you have a spare controller and a player 2 to hand.

Maneater is like a joke that had a great punchline, but is milked for all its worth afterwards.

Superb zombie-slaying combat and enjoyable motorcycle gameplay are integrated perfectly with a well-paced story. But the game’s major highlights are the terrifying zombie hordes which are unlike anything seen in a videogame so far.

Generally speaking we get a very well crafted and well rounded story-driven video game here that’s a fitting end to the Max and Chloe arc. If you love this kind of narrative game then it’s well worth a look.

Modern Warfare 2 is the technothriller action blaster you need right now, and it's shown why it's still one of the best entries in the Call of Duty franchise… even if it is a bit silly.

Kudos for coming up with an imaginative new way of pulling people together online that feels fresh.

While it isn’t quite as engrossing as Wii Sports of way back when, it is a strong showcase for the sheer whimsy that Nintendo can wield when it wants too. It might be something of a novelty rather than an immediate addition to your console library, and you might not come back to Labo VR for hours and hours, but it’s incredible toy-cons and magical games will definitely be something you show off to anyone willing to put their head in the back of a bird.

The Sinking City has an incredible atmosphere that really grips the darkest parts of your mind. Oakmont feels hostile, unwelcoming and full of secrets, but the game makes it clear that it might cost more than just your life to find out what they are. While it stumbles with its characters and combat, The Sinking City is a great first step into the supernatural detective game.

It’s not too taxing and the gameplay is easily conquerable, meaning older gamers should probably avoid. And while it does get very samey after a while, the storytelling is always funny and the extra element of putting yourself in the game adds to the lols.

There’s around 40 hours of gameplay in here, and loads more if you want to properly explore every part of this devastatingly dark land. It looks medieval, dark, like a bloody horror film and it plays tough.

Overall, a decent effort by the Sega team and they should be praised for their future vision for the series. Let’s hope the next title will really nail down that speed without visual compromise to give Sonic the next-generation game he truly deserves.

Is it a fun classic side-scroller that’s worth £17 of your money? Yes, if you like or liked these games and want something both fresh and classic all in one joyous colour bundle.

Lego Horizon Adventures is a lovely looking title that will be instantly familiar to Lego game fans while different enough to offer a new challenge to Horizon fans.

Ultimately, Code Vein is a somewhat campy, but fun, breath of fresh air in a genre that has felt a little stale outside of games like Sekiro. The companions are fun, if a little one-note at times, and the combat is brutal, but exhilarating. If you like what you’ve seen so far of Code Vein, there’s no reason not to try it out.

There’s little new in this game, it treads previous ground from other titles, but it is neatly put together and will appeal to a limited audience.

The witty writing and unique premise still make Beat Cop a street worth investigating. It has plenty of questions to post on morality (just how far would you push your agenda on the people that look up to you?) but makes it silly and accessible enough to never become too dire. Its a riot, and well worth a routine inspection.

Overall, we have a fantastic new open world title to enjoy here. One that is very English, packed full of wild and interesting characters, each with their own story to tell. It’s a huge step forward in that regard and one that should be celebrated as it shows a way forward for video game development. And while many elements in gameplay and story may feel familiar, they work really well and the amount of things to do, see and experience are truly amazing.

Overall, one of the most fun golf games I’ve ever played. The side games really make this title shine, not the basic traditional golf you’d expect in this package. Battle Golf is really the star element here and shows how you can turn what is, for some, a rather dull sport and give it a real video game excitement that’ll appeal to all.

While the overall offering here feels fresh, all of the various elements of The Gunk have been done before. From the puzzle solving of various Tomb Raider titles to the Uncharted vibe of the lush backdrops and the Luigi-style hoovering up, none of it individually has been done better than the many times before. But as a package, this is a nicely put-together game and a great little addition to the Game Pass’s ever-growing library.

It plays really well, you almost feel that bat in your hand as the ball does what you want it to, and the intensity of the competition is as real as any squash court. Add in a cool throbbing soundtrack and you’ve got a very nice VR title here for the new headset. And probably our favourite VR multiplayer so far. The only downside is that it is a bit of a one-trick pony and I came away a little headachy at times from, my fault, overplaying.

Ideal for kids, its a great game to bond over between parents and children with a bit of old-fashioned gamepad swapping.

It’s faced-paced, well acted and packed full of thrilling fun. And while it’s certainly not the best FPS we’ve ever encountered, it will scratch that itch until the big boys come out to play in the run-up to Christmas. Gamers should enjoy its change of pace and it’s a shame there was no attempt at a multiplayer as I suspect that’d be this game’s shining mode.

Where this game perhaps falters most is where most horror games do – the filler gameplay in between being spooked, which at the end of the day, might boil down to an individual's personal patience and tastes.

Now that you have already paid for both expansions, let’s hope The Crown Tundra is a better experience all around.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission is not for everyone, but if you can push through the tutorial and put in a few hours, it's a content-rich, bonkers, colourful battler that fans of the franchise will enjoy. Just take note - its power level may vary for those that aren’t deeply rooted in the franchise.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is a must-play for anyone that appreciates horror gaming at its finest, for anyone that enjoys picking away at how a game is put together, for anyone that's got even a passing interest in finding the best storytelling vidoegames have to offer.

The sequel offers up new targeted weapons, combat companions and more adventuring intrigue than you can shake a stick at. With a grounded world full of robots and characters in a variety of biomes, this is well worth a download if you’ve hopped on the Apple Arcade train.

Loading times are faster and the whole title feels a lot smoother, more polished thanks to its next-gen makeover. For those who didn’t like the title in the first place, I’d say avoid. But if you’re intrigued, and you have a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription, it might be worth you trying out the two-hour full game trial on the service before purchase. For those with the original, it's a bit of a no-brainer to download and resample this version.

While it looks cool, and the music is outstanding, there’s not enough here to keep players chugging along for too long.

Mario & Sonic's latest Olympic outing is more of the same, without any real innovation. The new additions of retro and dream events don't fundamentally change up the formula enough to feel like truly meaningful additions, though online multiplayer does add much needed longevity.

We’ve all moved on a bit from these games generally and their appeal, while a flash of fun, lies in hours rather than days of gaming. Beat-em-up fans will not be disappointed. But more casual gamers will quickly get everything they can from Final Vendetta and move on. Fun but a limited joy.

Vertigo has done a top job in distilling the strategy genre while making it feel like a fun and natural VR experience. It’s accessible not only in its design but the way you interact with this world and its many moving pieces.

Sea of Solitude is a haunting journey into loneliness, with Kay’s character arc perfectly encapsulating the feeling of being lost and adrift. With its abstract and metaphorical style, the game is a truly emotional experience, one which perfectly captures the inner turmoil of a soul mired by loneliness sending out a desperate SOS.

Erica is experimental in design, and because of that, some things just aren’t going to work out as well as you would hope. But despite both its big fault and barely noticeable flaws, Erica is an interesting, immersive and well-realised experience.

Battle for Bikini Bottom is like comfort food. It’s easy to indulge and uplifting in all the right ways. Like a childhood blast from the blast, it’s quickly easy to see why this licensed platformer became a cult-classic. It’s hard to judge whether it will find an audience now. The platforming genre is gearing for a new renaissance with the upcoming Ratchet & Clank and Crash Bandicoot 4, but maybe this is should be seen as a love letter to a bygone era and transition from the old to the new.

Once the novelty of a new game fades, what we’re left with is a failure of a title that simply loses itself after the first hour or so. And you end up going in bizarre circles without any sense of satisfaction.

Overall, a unique and fresh-feeling multiplayer shooter. One that’s neither graphically outstanding or anything other than well-trodden gameplay-wise. However its unique hide-in-the-dark style and fun chaos are well worth a look for such a good price.

It’s a shame we didn’t have this a year ago in lockdown for some family fun. In that regard it’s missed the sweet spot. But overall you’ll find in Papa’s Quiz a fun little quiz game that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is a great addition to the Bubble Bobble franchise, but it's expensive for what it provides. A solid afternoon of gaming will get you to the end credits, but you'll return to do things a little better than before.

My Hero One’s Justice 2 is a treat for fans of the series. For non-fans, it’s a capable over-the-shoulder arena fighter, with a host of fun and very different characters to avail from. The game does run into some performance issues on the Nintendo Switch, where frame rates can drop during bigger set-pieces, but it’s a fun and enjoyable play all the same.