It’s a smart, genuine little game, with soul and a story to tell, and wraps it within one of the best examples we’ve seen to date of serenity as a play concept.

But it's still a captivating story. Crimson Spires has a web of mysteries that's fascinating to unravel, with a complicated cast that brings drama and humanity to every scene. The love interests are sexy, charming, tragic, and intimidating—traits that all come together to make those romantic moments all the more enticing.

Flockers is a clever game for the thinking gamer and those fans of Lemmings who have been waiting for so long for another quality puzzler in the style. If Team 17 can bring the level editor and level sharing ability over from the PC version in a future update, as well as a touchpad interface, I’d give it that last star.

Reigns is definitely meant for a touch screen, but the PC version plays okay. Press the left/right arrow once to view the selection and again to confirm your choice. But choose wisely, as the game reflects real life in at least one way by not providing an undo button.

The perfect addition to the series. Earth Defense Force 5 made improvements but it still felt like it was slavishly committed to the way earlier EDF titles operated. Iron Rain is different. It finally taking itself more seriously, which may or may not resonate with every player, but the end-to-end revamp in the way the game works on every level is exactly what the series needed to keep pushing forward.

Both fans and newcomers to the series will have immense joy in fighting on this battlefield.

Dokapon Kingdom Connect is a very niche thing indeed. But it’s silly, wacky, colourful and charming. Everyone in the household can have a laugh with it, and putting aside the old school “cheating” AI, it’s mechanically sound. It’s no replacement for Boom Street/Fortune Street/Itadaki Street, but it’s not a bad substitute, and might be on high rotation on your Switch longer than you think.

Between that design creativity and the sheer stylistic beauty of it, Semblance is a game that'll stick in my mind for a long time.

There is an almost unbridled energy to the Naruto show and manga that translates over to the video game medium very effectively. The combat is not the deepest, but there is nuance to learn and master and the story and set pieces help to deliver on that frantic energy the show is known for.

You've got to hand it to eastasiasoft for finding and bringing these fun little fanservicey games to the Switch. Delicious! Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire - I mean, Bishoujo Battle Majong Solitaire! - brings the fan service in spades, but it also plays a really good game of Mahjong Solitaire, and while the Switch has plenty of Mahjong Solitare titles already, none of the others have the pin-up aesthetic going for them. For just a couple of dollars, you can't go wrong here.

If you come at Lethal League looking for a smart, well-designed, quirky, deep, creative fighting game that cuts right to the core of what makes the genre so exciting, you’ll find it in spades.

Definitely take the time to appreciate Project CARS for what it is, as it’s a great game, made even greater with the additional GOTY content.

Minor issues aside, I do think this is the best Far Cry game.

The most impressive thing about Street Fighter is just how playable it is to this day (at least, from Street Fighter II onwards).

The character depth and story detail might feel somewhat lacking compared to newer JRPG titles, but there is an expansive world here that begs for exploration as you grow your characters for future challenges. The overall package is an easy one to recommend.

Infinity 2.0 shows that the franchise is on the right track, and it might just wind up on top.

So many parts of Read Only Memories: Neurodiver make me happy: the sound the Neurodiver makes plus its cute little tentacles, a purple heroine, spunky personalities, and a good mystery make the game easy to pick up and enjoy. Players can add a layer of philosophy to the game by digging into the moral questions posed through the narrative, or stay at the surface level. Either way is good. The learning curve is more than reasonable. A lack of accessibility options (including text and control settings) is a bummer, and not something to be overlooked. Still, Read Only Memories: Neurodiver is a phenomenal psychic mystery game. It’s one I plan on returning to soon.

These games are important because, as the dominant entertainment industry, games are a way to inspire audiences to learn more about something, and the more people learn about cultures other than their own, the better. Mulaka might not be your favourite game in 2018, but what you take away from it will be far more valuable than the couple of hours of entertainment you'll get from it.

The journey is captivating but it's over all too soon, and for all its beauty the game's world feels empty without other characters to speak to.

WWE 2K16 is a return to form for the series, and it is great to see that the development team has managed to right the ship.

An incredible amount of work went into this game. I mean, there’s the original songs, plus diary entries, notes, voicemails, interviews, quizzes… The overall quality of the game is excellent. Yes, I have my qualms with it, mainly with the difficulty and lack of song lyrics. But I can see past the difficulty, at least, to understand the narrative puzzle game that’s in front of me. I wouldn’t quite call it a masterpiece, but I will say that it’s exceptionally unique.

With Erica, Sony shows it's got something different up its sleeve, and its eye on the genre, both things I quite appreciate. The replay value is reasonable. I'll probably play at least once more to make all the opposite decisions. Erica is a solid addition to the FMV world, and I'm excited to see if the developer (FlavourWorks) continues with this genre in future games. The acting is solid, the companion app is a delight to use, and the story is intriguing.

On the hardest levels of difficulty, I win more than 90 per cent of my games in titles like NHL, Madden, FIFA and NBA, but there I have the ability to more directly influence how the games play out. Here, it is about strategy, development and then learning the complexities of the game. This can make it difficult to find success, but I have found that it can be attained if you are patient and willing enough to stick with it.

At its worst, Civilization VI is a game with a handful of bugs and a somewhat lacking AI that is wrapped up in a somewhat cartoon-like package. At its best however, Civilization VI is an engrossing 4X strategy game that has more depth and features than ever before.

Overall, Darksiders is dated and a little embarrassing, but it’s also surprisingly good. It’s a testament to the robust design choices that Vigil Games made when developing their original title, that each of its parts holds up after a decade of innovation in gaming.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is one of the more niche Atlus classics, but the remaster has been well worth the time and effort. There is a dark and culturally interesting heartbeat at the centre of this one, and while I do prefer turn-based combat to this action button-mashy stuff from Atlus, I was more than willing to put up with it for everything else about the game.

It’s a great game for the young ones, and still enough there for older players, but if you’re looking for a challenge, there are some stronger contenders on the 3DS.

The purity and simplicity of what drives this game is appealing, and even refreshing, and the perfect thing for a lazy Sunday afternoon, when you just need to clear your head.

For the first ten hours or so I thought that The Outer Worlds would become a game of the year contender. Unfortunately it ultimately proves itself to be a little too shallow for that, but the combination of stunning vistas, excellent party members, and entertaining gunplay make it much like the 70's and 80's science fiction that it's clearly inspired by: A lot of fun when you're looking to switch the brain off and just unwind.

Don't come into Opus: Rocket of Whispers expecting some sort of hardcore survival simulation or captivating pushing-buttons experience, or you'll probably wind up disappointed. No, Rocket of Whispers is something much better: a game that uses its simple game loop, repetitiveness and all, to tell a familiar but sincere story about loneliness and coping with grief.

It's not going to be forgiving on any level for players in their first couple of hours. Move past that, though, and you're left with one of the greatest examples of sheer precision in rhythm game design, and, let's face it, there's nothing more important to a rhythm game than that.

This is still an excellent little game, and it’s a good fit for the Switch’s portable functions.

Pikuniku is an intriguing game as it takes some heavy concepts and transforms them into something colourfully palatable, with interesting characters and a fun soundtrack.

Senran Kagura Burst's strength is its sheer pace and energy. It's exciting and flashy, and thoroughly entertaining. I haven't enjoyed a brawler this much in a very long time; if only certain writers had given the game a go before dismissing it for something it isn't.

The game looks gorgeous and has plenty of personality, and on the Switch you also get all the DLC, which adds even more value to the overall package. More than anything, though, the ability to detach the joy cons from the Switch unit and get a two player game going anywhere is a brilliant use of the technology, and makes Overcooked feel like it was designed for the console from the very start.

Antstream has won awards like “Heritage in Games” at the TIGA awards, and that best describes the quality of this platform. It’s a preservation library that gives players to play things that they would simply never come across, much less find a way to play. It might not be the “greatest hits” platform, yes, but if spending an afternoon wading through a library of obscure titles and trying things that alternate between happy discovery and dismal waste of time sounds like fun, then Antstream is probably something you’ll enjoy.

There’s so much to like about Ninja Pizza Girl. We so rarely get to see glimpses into the team behind a game nowadays, but Ninja Pizza Girl just exudes vibrancy from all its edges that it’s impossible not to be charmed by the wonderful people at Disparity Games.

It doesn’t feel like it was made as a game to be enjoyed, it feels like it was a game that was made to be experienced.

The high degree of simplification seems unnecessary when the studio has successfully pulled off both technical and stylish input modes in the past. The roster, in its non-DLC state at least, is also wildly lopsided towards BlazBlue. It doesn’t have the staying power of the top-tier games of the genre, but it’s still a blast to see these fantasy crossovers play out with friends, so it more than evens out.

Because Tropical Freeze is so charming, and because the platforming is so wholesomely engaging, it's easy to forgive the fact that is really isn't enough of an enhancement on the previous game to be called something new.

Azure Reflections has plenty of challenge to offer the hardcore bullet hell fiends, but with its relative approachability and level of polish, it's also a great introduction to the world of Touhou shooters.

It’s not the longest game, at about ten hours depending on how quickly you puzzle through it. However, there’s a haunting quality to Hob’s Barrow that will stay with you long after you finish playing. It’s a fine example of literary and gothic horror being brought to the video game medium, and that’s something I’ve been asking for more of in video games for quite some time now.

One might not end up being remembered as fondly as some other classics from the formative era of the visual novel genre (you’ll realise how good that pun is when you play the game for yourself), but it is nonetheless a worthy and surprisingly touching genre classic. Thanks to excellent modernisation, it has a high chance of finding an all-new audience now.

The visual update is beautiful, the orchestrated soundtrack is gorgeous, and, let's face it, if a developer were to fully modernise MediEvil, the result would likely lose all of the series charm by bloating it out with endless side-quests, open worlds, and some Very. Serious. Violence (TM). MediEvil is a rare bit of whimsy from modern Sony, and so while it plays a little bit too much like an artifact of yesteryear, it still got me smiling.

What you need to know is that the frame rate is up to the task the action throws at it, and the controls are slick and feel really good. You’re a fast and ridiculously competent hero, and the power fantasy in this game is very real. Koei Tecmo no doubt developed this quickly after seeing how popular Vampire Survivors is, and while it’s not exactly pushing boundaries, the team has done a great job bringing its exceptional Warriors properties to the formula. This is a game I’ll be returning to for quite some time, as stress relief if nothing else.

Garrett is a wonderful character, and the city and plot of Thief hold all kinds of potential, the game looks gorgeous on the PlayStation 4 and is mechanically very tight, but all of that potential is dampened by the developer's somewhat overzealous desire to dictate just how the game should be played.

Rive is excellently made, and I had a great time flying through space alongside Roughshot. It’s clear that the developers behind it were passionate about making the best experience possible. Rive holds its ground among the best 2D shooters available on PSN – it’s a title which I would readily recommend to anyone with a free afternoon and an affinity for twitch gameplay.

Without a doubt NBA 2K17 is the best basketball game on the market so far.

Supermassive Games has brought the Dark Pictures Anthology back with style and panache. Directive 8020 suffers from being a little too generic in concept and letting itself down with gameplay elements that are at odds with the cinematic quality, but the game does work as popcorn horror and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I thoroughly enjoyed each separate segment (except one) as discrete gameplay units and distinct slices of Resident Evil history. But as a coherent overall experience and statement of intent, Resident Evil Requiem is a mutated beast left to exsanguinate on the floor.

A lot of it is very standard genre fare, and as most people have played at least one Mystery Dungeon title in the past, you know what you’re going to get… at least in terms of how it plays. What distinguishes Mado Monogatari is its extreme enthusiasm and relentless humour. With a joyful art style, hugely entertaining character design and a painfully catchy and exuberant soundtrack, Mado Monogatari ends up being more memorable than it has any right to be. It’s been a stressful couple of weeks for me with an almost overwhelming workload, but whenever I loaded this up I found myself smiling and relaxed almost immediately afterwards.

I must say I really enjoyed building and running my own Jurassic World park. It's not perfect, and certainly given the heritage of the developer in theme park games we possibly could have expected a bit more from it, but you just never know what DLC and the ongoing development promised of the game might bring.

The authentic Taiwanese ghost stories, an intriguing university campus to explore, and a fun – if B-grade cheesy – cast make The Bridge Curse 2 well worth your time. There are also some genuinely memorable monsters and eye-opening scenes. This is one of those super-niche horror games that you’ll be glad you discovered.

What Siralim is, ultimately, is a great deal of fun for a very select audience, and it gets there because it straddles the line between being something authentic, and something that understands that some design elements are best left in the past.

Football Manager is for people that care for an excess in spreadsheets and data, and for all its shoddy presentation and poor optimisation on the Vita, it's absolutely brilliant at all of that.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness will probably not be remembered as one of the PlayStation 4’s finest. It’s greatly let down by technical issues with a camera that actively works against the game’s strengths: the epic sense of scale and the beautiful presentation. Dig beneath that, however, and you arrive at a game with an enjoyable narrative, fun characters, and a solid action JRPG combat system – all the stuff that’s actually important, in other words.

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! is a good game, and it’s absolutely fine fare if you don’t already own a version of Taito’s venerable series. The new quirks don’t break anything fundamental, and that’s for the best in terms of maintaining series quality. At the same time, the new modes don’t add a lot.

There are times when complexity can be a good thing, if it’s done well. Against the Storm gets that much right, giving us a challenging and also rewarding city builder with a compelling replay loop that will have you playing right through the night for weeks at a time.

Battle Cats has endured, successfully, for many years now for a very good reason. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times you play it on different platforms, either. You pick up a “new” version of it, such as with Battle Cats Unite here, and you get lost in it all over again. If that’s not classic, then nothing is, and now it has multiplayer.

Castle Crashers Remastered is an outstanding brawler that has some addictive progression hooks built in, creative levels and enemies and is best experienced with a group of friends where you can laugh and rib one another through the experience.

It’s easy to dismiss Tsum Tsum Festival as being “just” a minigame collection, but there’s value in those – especially on the Nintendo Switch, which is built around the easy sharing of experiences but has, to date, had a relatively minimal application of that potential outside of Nintendo itself. With Christmas parties and the like coming up, there’s going to be plenty of opportunities to break this game out, and it’s one of those that kids can love… but then also holds the kind of nostalgic appeal to anyone who grew up with Disney (i.e. all of us) that allows them to enjoy it too. We don’t see Donald Duck in enough games any longer. I’m happy to have him here.

For all its early-stage failings, Exist Archive is an excellent game once it finds its groove. As long as you go in knowing what to expect and knowing it will get better eventually, it's a game I'd recommend to anyone who likes JRPGs.

Rogue Singularity is perfect for the Switch. Levels are short and sharp, making it ideal for instant pick-up-and-play, and if you're going to invest in this one, you're going to need every moment to refine your skills that you can find. As I said, this really isn't my genre, so I don't know where it will sit in the estimation of those who do play a lot of platformers that set the difficulty level to "sadistic," but I can say that I had a great time with this particular example of that sub-genre.

Gigantic Army is a great new entry for Astro Port's line of shooters. If there was one complaint to be had, the game does stand on the short side of the spectrum although there is a refreshing lack of filler.

On the one hand, the base game itself is so good, and the extra stuff doesn't mess with that. On the other hand, the extra stuff doesn't do much for the overall experience.

There’s not too much in the designs that you won’t have seen in just about every single platform game out there, so you get your requisite forest levels, ice levels, factory levels and so on – but it all hangs together well.

Constant C is filled with creativity, laughter, deceiving level design and ruthless platforming segments; it’s charming aesthetics only mask the brutality of the gameplay that’s hidden beneath the surface.

Penko Park was considered something of a hidden gem on the PC. I don’t know how it’s going to perform commercially on the Switch, but as a game concept, it’s much more at home on Nintendo’s handheld. Its biggest strength – the incredible creativity of the monsters that you’ll be taking photos of – really does make it worth your time, even if the game really could have done with finding an identity of its own and distinct from Pokémon Snap.

Fairy Fencer F probably will not gain the same kind of following that the more satirical Hyperdimension games have garnered over the years, but it is by all rights a solid effort that manages to surprise in pleasant ways while still providing some familiar mechanics that make the title approachable.

I just suspect that in the world of board games, anime fan service aesthetics are something that heavily limits the number of gaming groups that are going to be willing to play. Not everyone likes fan service, and if even one person is put off by Heart of Crown’s characters (particularly the lolis), then that’s a group that’s never going to vote to play it on game night. Therefore, as I’m not a fan of playing randoms online, Heart of Crown is likely to be a single-player only experience for me, and that’s a disappointing way for an otherwise excellent game to fall short.

Thumper is a very good rhythm game, if obscenely difficult, and that should make it appeal to any fans of the genre. But it’s a lot more than that, too; it’s an experience unlike any other, one that pushes the bounds of pure audiovisual immersion even with its standard 2D display – to say nothing of its VR capabilities – and that makes it something that I think everyone should at least try.

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest is a genuine quality free-to-play game. As with all match-3 games, it's not the most in-depth or complex experience available, but the Magic: The Gathering license is used well, and the aesthetic design makes is the perfect casual time-waster for those train trips or quick breaks.

It has just enough little nuances to set it apart from the vast ocean of similar puzzle games available across the digital oceans and it’s yet another solid indie title in Vita’s ever-growing catalogue.

Still, Ninja Pizza Girl is a fine little 2D platformer with a personality all of its own, a good sense of humour, and a strong message to share.

Sitting squarely on the "fun for the whole family," end of Nintendo's spectrum, Super Mario Party is a joy. It's colourful, cheerful, and good-spirited, and backs that up with excellent board and minigame design. After a few iterations that were too experimental for their own good, Mario Party is back in form, and that has made me really happy.

Moving Out is a simple game with an easy to understand premise, and even without its superficial similarities to games like Overcooked, it’s likely to be welcomed warmly by any couch of friends. SMG Studios has designed an interesting set of challenges for teams to tackle, textured with interesting gameplay gimmicks that are just as likely to elicit a groan as they are a chuckle. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to share a game like this, which is just so effortlessly fun in every facet of its design.

As a stand alone game it doesn't quite work, but with so many diverse characters with their own motives at play, they do make for a fascinating lot. I am really looking forward to seeing what Episode 3 has to offer.

It's not the longest game, but it is a wild and entertaining ride while it lasts.

The narrative of Masochisia is terribly fascinating. It tackles issues that are definitely not for minors, and the heavy use of graphic and unsettling imagery are not for the easily offended. In fact, there's very little about this game that makes it recommendable, seeing it is easily one of the most upsetting and visually distressing video games in existence.

It's one thing to simply recreate the table, it's something else - and something valuable, to give fans of the form that bit of information and context that helps them to appreciate what they're playing that little more...Otherwise, everything you expect from Zen Studios is applied to the Williams tables; robust and comprehensive online leaderboards, plenty of alternative ways to play, and optional powerups to unlock and upgrade that both help to get you better scores, and mark out the progress that you're making.

Screencheat is my favourite local multiplayer game on the PlayStation 4. It’s a nice, small, download that I’m going to leave sitting on the harddrive for whenever I have friends over, and while that might not happen on a weekly basis (I like my space, okay), each and every time I pull the game out, it’s going to more than validate its worth.

Rune Factory 5 plays things pretty conservatively, and it’s the better for it. It’s a comfort food kind of experience, and while this might cost it on store shelves given that it has been released at the tail end of so many excellent, intelligent, innovative, and big RPGs, it’s a game of simple delights and pleasant experiences. Sometimes, that’s enough.

One of the finest iterations in years. While it lacks the outright ambition present in Natsume’s recent interpretation of the franchise, it utterly nails the atmosphere and offers impeccable trimmings that just might win over fans experiencing barnyard burnout.

Until Dawn is a very, very fine game, with a quality, intriguing, and intelligent narrative rolled around the concept of player choice. It's also another example of why Sony is the best blockbuster publisher out there because it's happy to do stuff that breaks away from the safe conventions of expensive games.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a novel take on the ADV genre that is worth playing, even if it can be finished within a weekend. It makes you think, and not just when it comes to solving a case: its commentary on society, social media and the genesis of urban myths has left an impression on me after finishing the game, along with that spectacular ending.

Mario Party 10 isn't a classic game, and it certainly does have any meat or lasting value to it beyond being the most casual of party games that you pop out for a quick bash once in a while. But that Amiibo integration is pure gold, and short of Square Enix following up on the Wii's Fortune Street (or Boom Street, depending on where you live), this will be the best digital board game released on the Wii U during its life.

The Ark of Napishtim is still great, in short. Long time fans of the series will appreciate the visual upgrade and first time entrants to this chapter should find themselves at home, especially if they have appreciated some of the other entries in recent years.

Tokyo School Life is a romance visual novel, about a period of time in people's lives that tends to be very nostalgic (and therefore good source material for storytelling). It has moments where it resembles a standard fanservice-heavy visual novel, but it doesn't take long to realise that that's not what the developer was aiming for at all. Instead, Tokyo School Life is a sweet and charming story of warmth and good characterisation... and an earnest and genuine attempt to highlight everything that is great about Japan.

W.M.D is a fun game, loaded with tons of content that should keep Worm fans and newcomers alike very busy. The series still has that sense of humour that it is so well known, while constantly adding in new features to deepen the gameplay experience. This one, in particular, is a really well formed game, and deserves to be on high multiplayer rotation for a long time to come.

Pandora offers a stiff challenge, and will keep space-faring strategists happy until Civilization: Beyond Earth breaches the event horizon later this year.

Nitpicking aside, Rhythm Heaven Megamix is still the definitive rhythm game for the 3DS. With a quirky sense of humour, simple gameplay and a jubilant aesthetic, this is a game sure to delight all players while training their sense of rhythm. After a week of playing, I found myself subconsciously tapping along to any music which played around me with impeccable timing, and if that’s not a glowing recommendation for this game then I’m not sure what is.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III manages to miss the mark with the narrative in the campaign, despite what looks to be genuinely good intentions, but the tight gunplay mixed with cooperative options and customisations still made the experience fun, if somewhat shallow despite the solid campaign length.

Of course, it would be unfair to expect Empire of Angels IV to be an equivalent experience to Disgaea, and I don’t. Empire of Angels’ strengths are its streamlined tactics engine and its fan service, and the game delivers both of those with exceptional proficiency. It’s just a pity that the localisation stops me from enjoying the characters as much as I think I might have otherwise – everything sense I have tells me that in its native language Empire of Angels IV would be quite the out-there good time. As it is, though, the game's just lucky that it's gorgeous enough and plays so nicely that it got its hooks into me anyway.

Sega 3D Classics Collection doesn’t have the finest selection of mainstream hits Sega could have assembled, but that curious nature is precisely what makes it so special. Had only the most beloved fan-favourites been given the 3D makeover, I simply wouldn't have walked away with the same sense of awe.

Throw in the superior character portraits, art, and musical score and Mercenaries Blaze represents a confident step forward. Of course, it’s not of the standard of a Fire Emblem, Disgaea or God Wars, but for people that enjoy the core gameplay loop of the tactics JRPG – and it is a very compelling one – Mercenaries Blaze is a lean and effective example of it.

Good stuff. Coupling a downbeat, grim pulp fantasy narrative with enough alternative routes that you'll want to play this a couple of times, and throwing in a combat system that fits on the PlayStation 4 like the most comfortable glove you've ever owned, Lone Wolf finds itself comfortably at home on console, and this more than makes up for my disappointment with the iPad original release.

One of the most beautiful games ever developed, and backs its aesthetics up with some of the finest Lovecraftian narratives that we've seen in interactive form. It's a compelling argument for games as art, in other words, and not just because it makes for some awesome digital postcards.

And in to those players attuned to punishing difficulty and high expectations, Neko Navy feels like three soft hackysacks and an earnest request to have fun. Anyone can play it, anyone can enjoy it, but for the lovers of the SHMUP genre, this is home.