Accompanying this storytelling is a delightful tap-tap-tap sound as dialogue is spoken, as though the story is being typed out on a keyboard as the player reads along.

Given that this is the first attempt at a very different kind of game for Koei Tecmo, I’d say that Attack on Titan franchise is in good hands going forward.

For all the effort at making Tekken more accessible, Tekken 7 remains, ultimately, a fight club for the most serious of players only.

Getting three in this pack is a nice value, and there is plenty of variety in how they are laid out and play.

Even with all of its Halloween charm, Costume Quest 2’s greatest strength is that it knows its limits. It's a short experience, and it's to it benefit as it never feels bloated. It’s the quintessential bite-sized RPG, wrapped in all the Halloween charm you could ever hope for.

I did have a delightful time with One Piece Odyssey. The best way to summarise it is as a breezy, easy-playing JRPG that you can knock off over several weeks and a few solid sessions. The developers have crafted something blissfully over-the-top and funny, and done One Piece a grand homage to celebrate its 25th year, while at the same time very cleverly figuring out how to make a 25-year-old anime as entertaining for newcomers and those not familiar with Luffy and the crew as it is for those who have watched every single episode. That is some incredible work.

Nothing about Trails Through Daybreak 2 dampens my enthusiasm for the series as a whole. I will be playing the next one the moment it’s available. This is one of the more disappointing Legend of Heroes titles, given that its biggest failing – the narrative – is typically what you want to play this series for – but even on a bad day The Legend of Heroes is a more interesting and entertaining vision and project than most JRPGs can aspire to be.

I recognise that Resident Evil and what I want Resident Evil to be are on different trajectories. I still want the series to engage with the horror of being almost out of bullets and surrounded by a hostile world of very dangerous enemies. I also want more of the dry humour of the B-grade that used to define the series, that both indulges the horror while recognising how silly it is. Resident Evil 3 doesn't give me that, and Resident Evil as a series isn't largely interested in indulging it any longer. Which is fine. I can still kick back and enjoy the empty action and cinematic profile of the new take on the series. What's more, I do realise that I'm in the minority in what I want Resident Evil to be and Capcom has delivered more of what the series' larger base of fans want with this remake. Which is fine. Resident Evil 3 is a very, very fine example of what it wants to be, and anyone who loved the Resident Evil 2 remake should be won over all over again with this one.

While not the most innovative title in terms of modes and menus, FIFA 15 delivers where it counts - on the field of play.

Sherlock's mind is presented in such a way that he is clearly a man treading the line between madness and brilliance, which makes this opportunity to play him all the more riveting and an opportunity not to be missed people who enjoy genuine detective fiction.

Capcom has shown a good deal of skill in refining an already great fighter in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Surely, now, it's time to move on to a proper sequel.

The biggest problem Sony faces is in getting more casual fans to enjoy its baseball games. The hardcore are going to love it, and mechanically, MLB does a great job of giving you ways to fine-tune how you play, the control system that works for you, and so on. This is effortlessly the best baseball game we’ve seen to date. However, what it doesn’t do is make players comfortable with it before throwing them in the deep end. Whether it’s endless statistics and career-altering decision trees in the career mode, the overwhelming experience of having cards and items and microtransactions thrown at you in that mode, or the need to manage an entire team while also dealing with the on-field performance, MLB The Show 22 is difficult to get into if you’re a casual fan of the sport. A simple season mode would have gone a long way to address that, but, for whatever reason, Sony doesn’t seem overly concerned with making its series the catalyst that converts people with a casual interest in baseball into fans.

There’s a clever mix of addictiveness with basic gameplay to keep players going without getting them too irritated about the more difficult levels. Ultimately the experience of playing this mirror's Shiba Kari himself - the game will never be as notable as the heroes that exist in its world, but humble as it is, there is a real sense of satisfaction in clearing that field of long grass.

Temirana might not be up with my very favourite visual novels, but it is entertaining, with good and warm energy behind it. It’s not the ideal entry point to otome as it doesn’t really have a hook beyond “exactly the kind of game otome fans like to see,” but if you are a convert, you’ll find yourself chuckling along with the way it plays within the genre traditions right throughout.

In an era where every title feels like it is trying to play catch up to Call of Duty in the FPS genre, Metro still stands out as being willing to take a few more chances. It wants you to spend time in its darkly atmospheric world.

Dovetail Games has carved itself out a neat niche with Train Sim World, and it’s very good at making train driving an experience. With a bit of training (which takes nowhere near as long as in the real world), the feeling of mastering a train and train route is indescribably appealing. However, four iterations in, it’s also time for the Dovetail team to try pushing themselves again. They should be taking that exceptional engine and letting us discover the joys of driving a train through deep Africa, across iconic routes in Asia, or giving us the spellbinding views of Bolivia’s salt flats, as a particularly noteworthy train ride in South America does.

Konosuba was a fun project for PQube to localise. It – like the material it’s based on – is by no means classic, but it’s playful, and often laugh-out-loud funny, even if there are times that you wish you didn’t find it quite as amusing as you did.

Transport Giant takes itself seriously. It’s enjoyable and rewarding, but as a serious simulation, rather than something fun to unwind with on the weekend after a long week’s work. It’s not a game for everyone by any means because of that, but it is the kind of game that will continue to reward you the more you put into it.

Strategic Command WWII: World At War doesn't come across as overly accessible to any but the most hardcore strategy game fan, but that's just the surface of it. Underneath that is a genuinely good effort to capture the many diplomatic and strategic complexities of World War 2, and coupled with quality AI, this is a game that offers armchair generals a lot.

Aside from that energy bar, Record Keeper is a Final Fantasy fan's dream mobile free-to-play game. The combat is simple, but well balanced and engaging, and the presentation and aesthetics are so authentic to the veteran series that it's impossible not to play and get a nostalgic rush.

Megaton Rainfall is more of an experience than a game and one I soon won't forget. It's short, and simple, but asks a good question of the player while also giving him or her plenty of action. It's better with VR, but worth a look in for just about everyone.

Project Highrise is the ultimate example of efficiency. Coming in at around 150MB to download, it's actually one of the smaller games available on the PlayStation 4, and that's because it cuts corners in the presentational elements to focus on the quality simulation. It's a delight to play, and replay, to come up with different tower designs, and I expect that I'll keep coming back to this for quite some time to come.

There is a camaraderie for the heroes built around trust and affection for one another that really resonates and gives the narrative a certain warmth that I enjoyed through to the end.

What impressed me most about Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is its sense of humour.

I like Pinball M. I like Zen Studios’ work and I like the idea of a mature platform for adult pinball games. This launch is underwhelming, however, and rather than mildly more mature than all ages, Zen really should be looking to go all out. Drench our screen in blood, bring in some of the eroticism of horror, and really shock us, Zen. Make Pinball M both mature and comprehensive, and these two platforms of yours really could exist side-by-side effectively.

There's nothing overly serious about Stikbold, and that is where most of the charm comes from. For a game that is nominally about Dodgeball I was overly impressed with how the developers were able to keep the experience fresh and comedic throughout.

With a running length of several dozen hours (and that's if you're rushing), Agarest: Generations of War 2 is one of the biggest, most ambitious JRPG's on the market. Despite being held back by a poor opening sequence, Compile Heart has created an epic, sprawling world for players to sink months of their time into.

Working with a clearly limited budget, Tamsoft has focused on delivering a tight action-combat system, while also relying on the fan service of both Senran Kagura and Hyperdimension Neptunia to see it through. It’s a good couple of hours of genuine fun, with the requisite bath scenes, humour and familiar characters to meet and fight. You can’t help but think that both properties could have grown to become more than this, but taking as it is, it’s still entertaining nonsense, with a heavy emphasis on the “entertaining”. I play enough serious games that require deep analysis, this kind of thing is my ideal break time between them.

Survival games have never really been my cup of tea. However, Minecraft somehow transcends its peers, providing a creative outlet that goes well beyond its simple yet charming visuals with surprisingly deep mechanics when constructing things.

The brevity and minimalism do make it hard to take Dark Echo as more than just a novelty, but it's no doubt that the game's dark corridors hide some bright ideas.

A love letter for fans, a final send-off for some beloved characters and fitting conclusions to endearing storylines. The likeable characters kept me interested and never left me feeling as though the development team had gone to the same well too many times, despite some reused locations and bosses. If you are okay with a considerable shift in overall gameplay, exchanging actual exploration on world maps for doorways leading to more focused events, then Trails in the Sky the 3rd is going to be highly satisfying.

It’s not perfect and has some thematic inconsistencies that let it down, but it is a gorily beautiful game, and as far as I’m aware, it’s the first one to have exploding testicles.

The team is pacing Loathing releases out nicely, too. Four years between Loathing games is a good rate, to ensure that the jokes don’t become stale to the player. See, more than anything else, playing Shadows Over Loathing has reminded me, yet again, just how much I enjoy the zany antics of these silly stick figures, and apparently this humour remains relevant no matter how old and jaded you become. The video game industry is better for having developers like Asymmetric in it.

This is the best Sonic effort in years as the developers managed to blend the things that made classic Sonic games so great in the first place.

This is a game designed to make you smile the whole way through. It doesn’t need to challenge you, or to make you prove your expertise – it’s there to remind you of idyllic childhoods, exploring forests and caves and give you that sense of wonder that you once experienced through the old-school top-down adventure game genre. We rarely celebrate games because they are simply, unapologetically joyful, but Reverie is a great place to start, if you’re looking for joy.

I love the Pixel Pulp series due to the storytelling and art. So I definitely like the visual novel part. But I get so very frustrated with most of the mini-games. I’m in this weird place where I have to juggle which is more important to me, narrative or gameplay. And honestly, narrative will win out every single time. Bahnsen Knights is a curious, creepy celebration of the pulp fiction genre. I have really enjoyed seeing the developer grow over the three games in the Pixel Pulp series, and I cannot wait to see what it does next. I bet nobody will see it coming.

With the exception of the poor localisation, Ruku’s Heart Balloon is the epitome of good-naturedness, and has actually been built with confidence and expertise around that. Whether this is the very first game you’ve ever played (I can’t imagine too many toddlers read DDNet, but hey, welcome!), a parent looking for a way to connect with your kids, someone with a non-gaming spouse or an esports professional that is looking for something that’s going to give them a break from those toxic communities, Ruku’s Heart Balloon has a little something for everyone.

NHL 19 is not a perfect game - but for hockey fans it is pretty darned close.

It takes a familiar, played-out sci-fi story and uses mechanics and interactivity to give it a fresh, insightful spin. It’s not as nuanced a take as this sort of story needs, but you can’t argue with how well Divide’s approach works at its best.

Super Bomberman R makes a great party game if you have your hands on some extra Joy-Cons or Pro controllers, and playing with up to eight of your friends or at a party can be one hell of a time. The online options are also there if you want to play with friends or with strangers around the world. The boss battles even manage to make the single player game worth playing though, and that's almost unprecedented for the series. It's games like this that show the Switch is more than just a Zelda machine.

Focused as it is on simply giving players a good time, Dragon Quest VIII enjoys an X-factor quality and remains fun on the iPad despite the very odd choice to force players to play the game on an odd and uncomfortable device orientation.

I wonder if the writing enamoured me so much that it hampered my enjoyment of the rest of the game. The combat and dungeon crawling is fine, above-average even, but it often felt like an impediment to Rise of the Third Power’s excellent story. Nevertheless, I had a great time with Stegosoft Games’ latest offering. The team's love for the JRPG genre is shining through, and their ability to spin a great narrative helps the work lift well beyond what you usually get from "RPG Maker"-like projects.

Overall, Omega Quintet is a game that good-naturedly tries to punch above its weight.

If you enjoyed the original Legend of Grimrock, odds are you will feel right at home here. It is bigger, more polished and provides greater variety than its predecessor.

I know I've said this at least a dozen times now, but I do think Shantae deserves better than the platformer genre. She's just too good of a character to waste on a genre that doesn't really do narrative. Give her an RPG or something, WayForward. In the meantime, though, while this might not be the biggest release of the year, it's certainly a worthwhile celebration of one of the most niche - but loved - platformer heroes out there.

It deserves to be noticed too; it’s not the greatest ‘Monster Hunter’ game out there, but it is gorgeous and has a lot of interesting, unique ideas going for it.

You should be left feeling bubbly after playing Grow Home. It's not perfect in execution, but given it was never meant to be a commercial product, it's easy to see why Ubisoft couldn't resist turning it into one - it's a bright, charming and original little game that has an irresistible sense of happiness to it.

This is not a perfect game and its ideas are all over the place. It's rough around the edges, the overworld is tiny and it's over all too soon. I can in full confidence say though, that I've never played a more interesting open world title.

John Wick Hex is a fascinating example of a developer making compromises in order to make the game fit with the license. Sometimes those compromises are quite substantial indeed. They also end up being a non-issue, however, because in delivering a true John Wick experience, Mike Bithell and his team have given us something intriguing that adds to the film property. That is a refreshing change when most licensed tie-in games simply look to capitalise on a popular thing to the profit of the developer. For something based on such an unapologetically dumb film property, there is some truly intelligent and thoughtful game design that went into the making of John Wick Hex.

Xmas Shooting is a delightful little game, and a great way to get into the spirit of the holidays. For the hardcore shoot ‘em up fans, it won’t bring anything new to the table, but it has plenty of challenge and fun to offer in a bite-sized package. Despite the difficulty, I'd even recommend it to people who don’t normally like the genre. The sense of silly fun and surprisingly poignant story are reason enough to give Xmas Shooting a go and try to overcome the challenges that it throws at you.

I do admire Returnal. From aesthetics and atmosphere, through to its structure, this is a game that is confident, and even brave in the “blockbuster” space that it will be playing in. You can see that the team at Housemarque had a creative vision and were prepared to lose players over it, in return for delivering a purity of that vision. And as a result, this is the first original PlayStation 5 title that I’ve found compelling, given that Demon’s Souls was a remake. When I look at why I find it compelling, it’s for the effectiveness of the horror and the slick vision for action games that it offers. Scratch beneath that surface and the game doesn’t say much to justify its existence, and it is going to be far too challenging for a lot of players, but within its fairly narrow scope, for the audience that it was made for, Returnal is going to be a vividly entertaining ride.

QV is another puzzle-shaped feather in the eShop’s cap. Its brainteasers successfully balance accessibility with sophistication. Its vibrant art style and subdued soundtrack evoke pensiveness. However, it’s the small cast of characters and playful comedy that truly solidify it as exceptional. I wish the developers doubled down on these low-key moments since they breathe new life and context into the underlying puzzle game. Even so, QV is an adventure I won’t soon forget.

So there are some very clear positives and very clear negatives to Little Nightmares II. The narrative is quite good, solid with lots of meaning flowing beneath the surface. The gameplay is mostly simple enough, the settings are ugly-pretty, the music enhances everything. Basically, it does wrap into a neat little package that can be unwrapped in layers. I can't ignore the issues, though, mainly with the lack of options and repetitiveness that can happen with failure. Still, Little Nightmares II does in fact feel like a conclusion to the first game in the series, yet still manages to turn it into a never-ending story so that someone else would be able to continue with the world. In that sense, it's actually quite clever.

If you are holding out hope for wholesale changes and improvements, I think that is probably a little unrealistic based on the annual release cycle and you will come away disappointed. Personally I look forward to the fresh roster updates, appreciate subtle tweaks to a series that I have been playing yearly for more than twenty years and thoroughly enjoyed the two major modes additions.

You're not going to forget your time with Detective Pikachu in a hurry, and those memories are going to be all very positive.

I came away from this year's version of the game convinced that the development team put its focus on the right area. That is to say, the gameplay. The results are obvious, and for those who decry the annual release cycle as nothing but a roster update, they are not giving enough credit to the locomotion improvements and continuing Longshot story.

I had a great time playing The Inner World and was sad to say goodbye to its wacky denizens, the cheeky humour and the fairytale world of Asposia.

While that might sound like a catastrophic weakness for a tactics game, it’s really not and hidden well. Look at how compelling Advance Wars or Final Fantasy Tactics is despite the simplicity of the enemy AI and the actual on-field tactics. Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector aims for a similar casual tactical feel as those kinds of games, and, thanks to the excellent and authentic depiction of the grimdark 40K universe, nails it. This is just plain good tactics play, and sometimes that’s enough.

In terms of giving the fans what they want, I’m certain Naughty Dog has nailed every part of the brief that it was given. Uncharted 4 shows a truly masterful eye for detail and is near perfect in mechanical execution. It’s also presented with cinematic brilliance. My issues with the game are less about it in isolation than it as representative to the broader AAA-blockbuster space. I am increasingly uncomfortable with the superficiality of these games, and the way that they work so hard to hide just how passive you are as a participant.

A Block and a Hard Place is my absolute favourite episode in the Minecraft Story Mode tale to date, and I certainly look forward to what surprises may be coming my way when the conclusion is released.

Tacoma gives the player space to get to know its characters, and really know them deeply, which is why its moments of melodrama become so much more compelling than anything else we’ve seen in the gaming medium. It is indeed short, I will concede that, and it is not open even by walking simulator standards, but what Fullbright has delivered is rich, affecting storytelling that’s truly worth experiencing.

A nostalgic experience that is worth playing if you are a fan of the 16-bit JRPG era. The cast is full of wonderful characters, the plot interesting and the battle system engaging. The whole game is wrapped up in a ten-twelve hour experience which was the perfect length to see the story out.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn’t as good as the original reboot, but feels more like a complete package than Rise of the Tomb Raider offered. Peru is represented beautifully, and with some jaw dropping landscapes coupled with very detailed character models, Tomb Raider remains an immersive adventure with just a few faults keeping it from being a true great.

In this day and age, it's actually quite refreshing to see a game like Peggle 2 being released. As much as I am a fan of open-worlds and thrilling narratives, Peggle 2 offers a bright cheerful alternative to most of the games on the market today. You just have to be willing to give it a chance.

Games like Hidden Agenda are what we need to see more of. The game itself isn’t perfect, but it is a perfect example of games that try new ways to tell a story. Full credit to Sony for trying something new with the mobile phone linking system.

I'm not the world's biggest fan of platformers, but I very much warmed to Grapple Dog. The thought and passion that went into every element of the experience is explicit, and it's hard not to fall for its wiles and charms. I do think the developers lost sight a little of how they wanted people to play this game, as the speedrunning quality of the movement system does feel at odds with the way the game also asks you to carefully explore levels, but that's really splitting hairs here. Grapple Dog is a bold, confident, and often inspired take on a genre that is as oversaturated as they come.

It's an excellent simulation of an excellent sport. With most other sports properties out there aiming for intensity, action, and excitement, having the laid-back, strategic pace of golf is a nice alternative, and this will likely be a game I keep coming back to for some time to come simply for that change of pace and undemanding nature.

Space Marine 2 is a game that will appeal to just about anyone who likes action games. This thing is fast, very furious, and intense. It doesn’t give you long to breathe between throwing more hordes at you, and thanks to that single-minded ferocity, in both single-player and multiplayer it’s a hoot. I don’t think it does a particularly great job of capturing the spirit and intent of the tabletop game and lore, but then again, whenever I was playing I was also having too much fun to care.

While the Pinball FX3: Williams Pinball: Volume 3 is not the best of what Zen Studios has to offer, this has been my favourite of the three Williams sets so far. The tables all have interesting twists that make them unique from one another and they are faithful recreations of real-world tables.

What players will find when picking up Watch Dogs: Legion is a game that is prepared for a long post-launch game-as-a-service experience. The additional DLC announced so far leans into the strengths of the game and established ideas that the series does well. The beekeepers, paintball guns and magician tricks all bring a sense of playful humour to the series, but it is worth noting that anyone who is (rightfully) tired of Ubisoft's content approach to games is going to find this one a very content-driven game.

I'm not sure just how much of my love of Legend of Grimrock is because of a sense of nostalgia, or a consequence of great level design. The game offers intricate maps and some classic crawler action, and it's as good a second time through as it was the first. Having this game on my iPad for play on the go is this retro 'crawler fan's dream.

As accessible as I’ve ever seen serious strategy gaming, Knights of Honor is still strategically interesting, gorgeous to look at, and still offers plenty of challenge. It hasn’t been compromised in any significant way for the sake of accessibility, and really, this is just a very good example of a publisher finding a genuine and worthy niche to occupy within a very mature and saturated genre.

If being humiliated and demoralised by in-game defeat is synonymous to Mel’s downfall, achieving victory in battle is a feeling equivalent to earning a billion dollars just for punching your life-long nemesis in the face.

I think this game would have been better on Wii U, because I don’t think people pick up a handheld console for eSports, but as a free-to-play game, this is one of the better that the console enjoys.

A lack of complexity holds back the game’s replay value and competitive edge, but the sense of style more than makes up for it.

Planet Zoo is to zoo management games what Planet Coaster is to theme park management games—a spiritual successor to tycoon games of days gone by, with more depth and more freedom for creativity than ever. Some of the more complex elements can take a while to really click, but when they do, Planet Zoo becomes an engrossing experience.

Nero is a beautiful contrast between light and dark, love and pain. It's not a fast-paced game, but rather a reflective, insightful, and emotional experience that is a very different kind of game that what we're used to.

It’s addictive, it’s charming in its retro design, and it absolutely has the “just one more go” thing about it that can turn a short play session into a marathon.

The ultimate success story is that Bandai Namco can take Pac-Man as it is in its basic form and still find amazing new, and very modern, ways to apply that formula.

As someone who does enjoy poker and likes fan service, Poker Pretty Girls Battle checks off all the boxes, and as a budget-pitched Switch title, I had a ball with this. It's the perfect low-demanding game to play while watching TV or between more dense games, and given that I've been playing murder mysteries like Famicom Detective Club, the grindy (however delightful) New Pokemon Snap, and the existential nightmare that is Shin Megami Tensei III on my Switch recently, Poker Pretty Girls Battle has been the perfect "in-between" thing. It also gets even better with a couple of beers... just like the real thing!

Spider-Man has all kinds of tricks to silence and distract his opponents, and while the AI is far too static and rote to make for genre-defying stealth missions, playing around with the extensive Spidey toolbox in these scenes never got old. In fact, because the stealth and combat sequences are all explicitly built around allowing Spider-Man the creativity to use his full range of abilities, it’s no coincidence that these moments where the game genuinely feels like the proper Spider-Man experience that everything should have been.

The social commentary in this game is pretty spot on and I got more than my own fair share of laughs, even at my own expense at times as some jokes hit close to home. The fact that this is an RPG that plays really well and has a solid and surprisingly deep battle system is just the icing on the cake.

The story is fun, the graphics are out-of-this-world impressively retro, and the controls have been updated for modern computers and controllers (or keyboards, if you so chose). I found myself completely immersed in the castle’s world — except when the audio cut out — and plan on going back again soon.

It shows that none of the main Assassin's Creed games are going to age particularly well, but it also does a good job of highlighting - when freed of the expectations that come with being a blockbuster - that the real strengths of the series are far more subtle than the graphics or size of the cities that it renders.

Disney, as with Activision, is going to face stiff competition from Nintendo with its Amiibo line (which taps into the same sense of nostalgic loyalty as Disney Infinity, in fact, and is a bigger threat to it than Skylanders). But Infinity 2.0 shows that the franchise is on the right track, and it might just wind up on top.

Volume’s score is great and the composer, David Housden, has done a fantastic job. The audio direction and design really impressed me with the memorable voice acting and sound effects throughout. It is always great to have a composer create a soundtrack so good, that it is actually interesting to listen to even outside the game.

Even without the multiplayer, however, Battle Worlds Kronos is a unique, deep, and rich tactical strategy game. It’s not something I ever expected to see on my home consoles, but it’s nice to see, because as much as I like my wargames, I really do prefer to kick back in front of the TV when I’m in the mood to play games.

I’d describe Sticky Business as a wholesome game. It looks like one, and it plays like one. It’s lovely for there to be no violence, no conflict, just stickers and stories. It’s not a terribly long game (it took about ten hours to get all the Steam achievements), but it was super fun and exactly what the marketing promised. I’d love to see it on Nintendo Switch, but that’s mostly because I want everything I love to be available on that platform. The sticker design and packaging processes were almost soothing, and I oddly did love trying to fit as many stickers onto a page as possible. If you’re in the market for an innovative cozy game idea, Sticky Business just might scratch that itch.

Risk of Rain makes an effort to critique the one-man-army story, by tossing around the idea that maybe, just maybe, the survivor isn’t the hero we assume them to be. It’s not the most nuanced criticism, but it’s still an important one, and the element of solitude is a key component of that.

One thing’s for sure: if you're not Nintendo hardware equipped but wish to taste forbidden fruit, then at least until Zelda goes mobile World to the West is probably one of the finer ways to to experience easy going, family friendly, lightly puzzling and very cute gaming. I certainly loved it, and if I was to offer personal advice in two words I would simply tell you: Go West!

What Tamsoft nailed was the core action brawler gameplay loop. This game plays every bit as well as anything else Tamsoft has created, and the Hyperdimension coat of paint over the top is just gravy.

Aside from excluding a vast swathe of the world from having the same opportunity to take control of their favourite teams as most Europeans do, Football Manager 23 Touch is a substantial step forward for the developer. For perhaps the first time they’ve figured out how to make the enormity of data that you’re going to spend hours looking at and tweaking playable with a controller. It might not sound like much, but that must have been a monumentally challenging UI effort, and the development team really did nail it.

Rabi Ribi has so much more going on under its hood than mere screenshots can contain. What some will invariably dismiss as a cash-in on cute anime girl aesthetics is actually designed with greater foresight and craft than many AAA titles. Thoughtful world design meets bullet-hell mechanics in this endlessly endearing hotchpotch of ideas from all across the spectrum. Not everyone will appreciate Rabi Ribi’s more hardcore tendencies, but those who do may will be swayed into making this game their life.

I wasn’t really playing Hyakki Castle for the “gameplay” so much as the opportunity to run through a gauntlet of stunningly-rendered yokai, and the game really scratched that itch. This is the first game for Asakusa Studios, and with it, the team has announced itself as a real talent, and a group of artists and coders with a real understanding on how to meld Japanese tradition with very modern gameplay.

While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot doesn’t really do anything new “overall”, it’s still an amazing time because of the way that everything has been put together. Those new to the series and long time fans alike have plenty to find and enjoy, as the pacing is just right to both let you relive some of the iconic fights of the series, and just live a little with your favourite characters.

Then again, you’re not playing the pretty boys game for the leaderboard glory. You’re playing it for the pretty boys, and eastasiasoft has delivered to the same standard as the predecessor. I hope these games have been enough of a success for them to encourage more down the track, because the diversity in raw, unmitigated thirst is appreciated, and I would like to see the series break out of little casual puzzle games so they can fully run with that. Let’s talk about taking these great characters you’ve got and their potential for a visual novel, EAS. I’m up for it if you are.

It might not have the charm of Harvest Moon, but there’s a purity to the experience in Farming Simulator 18 that also means it avoids the irritants.

You’ll need to love old school dungeon crawlers like Wizardry to get much out of these games, and if you do like those kinds of games you know that you’ll love these (and you would have likely played them on the PSP before anyway). There’s nothing wrong with any of this. It’s pure comfort food for the genre faithful, and it’s a particularly generous and well-layered slice of cake.