Although I wish it did a better job of being captivating for more than a stage or two at a time, those exhausted with 2D brawlers ought to give it a go because of its unorthodox gameplay quirks and pulsating atmosphere.

It’s always refreshing to come across a narrative that challenges genre norms, while still respecting the genre it belongs to. Him, The Smile & Bloom doesn’t set out to criticise or undermine the otome visual novel, but it does take expectations in a different direction thanks to the way it has been structured. Thanks to that, this is a vibrant and highly enjoyable, intelligent, and thoughtful experience, well worth the price of admission.

For anyone that has been put off the modern direction this series has taken, Zero in HD on our new generation of consoles is the perfect remedy.

Having "unlimited replay value" means nothing when it results in such a grind, and I can't help but think that Rico would have been so much better if it was over and done in a couple of hours, but that bombastic action really had a chance to fly thanks to carefully designed levels arranged to help boost that experience.

It’s not perfect, and it will frustrate many, but it’s a quality, solid effort nonetheless.

My least favourite in the series so far. I assume it will become a very important part of the narrative, but its highlights are few enough and far enough in between with the promise of more to come that it comes away somewhat less than its predecessors.

If nothing else there is genuinely nothing else quite like Ambition of the Slime, and the concept of actually leading weak, largely defenceless units into battle is such a clever way to flip the tactics RPG on its head that it’s well worth looking into for fans of the genre, purely as a curiosity if nothing else.

Root Film tells a wonderfully winding, thrilling mystery in a true Edogawa Ranpo style, but what's more important is that Root Film is a gorgeous visualisation of an often-ignored but deeply valuable part of Japan. If you walk away from this game with a deep desire to see Shimane for yourself, then you've played it the right way.

I do think that if developers want to tackle World War 2 as a subject, they need to go one of two paths. They could take a clinical approach and create a wargames simulator that focuses purely on the strategy. Or they could create a serious commentary that deconstructs and analyses the war. What they should not be doing, however, is presenting the war as a purely entertaining experience. As a work of pure entertainment, Company of Heroes 3 would have been better served tracking a fictional war. However, its quality as a piece of entertainment is undeniable, and for most, that’s going to be all that matters. It also works far better on a console than I would have expected something from the RTS genre to ever do. For those that do find World War 2 to be entertaining, this one’s going to be hard to resist.

At roughly ten times the price that these kinds of games usually ask over in the mobile world, it's difficult to see where the developers have justified the premium price, because what we have with Pokémon Link: Battle is a nice, but ultimately unremarkable match-3 game with much less content (yes, even with 700 critters to catch) than its immediate rivals.

From the opening cut scene through to the various platforming puzzles, Shiftlings feels like more than just a simple platformer with a gimmick. Instead of inserting a joke and then going about the level design like it never happened, here the joke is very integral part of the experience.

Every single locale in the trilogy feels like it deserves a full game in its own right but just as I started to get immersed the story would be over and I would be whisked into a completely different historical period. Long time series fans will still find some enjoyment in the solid stealth platforming mechanics but that’s only if they face the fact that these games are Assassin’s Creed titles in name only.

Kamiwaza is, no doubt, going to be written up as a “product of its times,” but I think that writing it off like that is missing the mark a little. It’s true that even in this “remastered” state it looks like a PS2 game (excellent aesthetics, but primitive technical execution). However, Kamiwaza is an ambitious and boundary-pushing game. By turns surrealistic and funny, sincere and layered, it’s one of the most eclectic and interesting titles you’ll play this year, and it is a very good thing that it has finally been localised. You’ll understand why it never managed to influence too many other developers, but without fascinating and experimental things like this, we’d live in a very boring world.

Perhaps part of the reason I have a higher tolerance for this game is not just that I love the base property, but I also love those old N64 bad 3D platformer efforts. Remember Chameleon Twist on the N64? Probably not, as it didn’t exactly win over the critics and was actually one of the most expensive N64 games. I loved it though. Or what about Glover? Or Bomberman 64? Snow Bros. Wonderland is a bit more modern than those titles, but you’re probably right that it has a dash of that heritage and tradition in it. And so you are probably right that the audience that is going to love Snow Bros Wonderland is vanishingly small. Unfortunately for you, you’ve landed in the middle of a Venn diagram where one circle is “Game Critic” and the other is “Snow Bros. Bro”. And so now your name is going to be attached to a glowing score for the game into perpetuity, because I really did love every moment of this game.

None of these issues mean that the game is broken, unplayable, or even put together badly. It's competent. But competent really isn't good enough. More than anything else, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M is disappointing because it could have been a far better game.

Flame Over is refreshing. It has a clever twist on the roguelike by introducing the fire as the primary enemy, that is by far the most engaging aspect of the game. It feels real, it spreads, it’s alive. The first few stages do get repetitive, and it isn’t long before you start seeing the same rooms, as is standard for the genre, but it’s well worth the adventure.

The Fidelio Incident is a game that tries hard to tell a tale of guilt. It mostly works, but unfortunately, it tries a little too hard, with the end result lacking the genuine emotional impact that the work and material deserves. The way The Fidelio Incident approaches the traditional tale of loss and guilt – but importantly not redemption – through the largely unexplored lens of the Irish Troubles is fresh, and the fundamentals are strong enough to make the two hour experience worth the price of admission, if not a necessary investment.

With the superb Final Fantasy heritage to support it and even compensate for the lack of narrative context, as well as some truly exciting multiplayer questing, this is a game I have a lot of time for, and will do so for a long time to come.

Supermassive Game's high concept - an anthology of horror stories - is off to a great start with Man of Medan. We don't get nearly enough horror that aims to be thoughtful like this. The challenge will be to make sure that each game in the series is different enough to reflect a different approach to horror, but things are off to a good start.

A fun little adventure that doesn't really take a lot of chances with a formula that was first established about thirty years ago. That might be playing things a little too safe, but it is also a testament to how good River City Ransom was that three decades later the core gameplay still holds up as an entertaining if somewhat shallow experience.

Enemies and locations are varied enough to keep things from getting stale, a selection of upgrades add a sense of progression and customisation, and though this isn’t a game that could work just as well without VR, it’s implemented well. Really, the gameplay is there to service the story, which is where Archangel shines brightest, and I’m just fine with that.

Trek To Yomi is what happens when you’ve got a compelling creative vision, and build a game around it, rather than the other way around. Everything you see, sense and experience in this game contributes to the overall experience, with absolutely no fat or waste. It’s intense, dark, and unforgiving, but it’s also the kind of haunting experience that will stay with you for a long time to come. If Menchiari continues to work with the right developers, and continues to deliver to this standard, he’s going to be one of the all-time great video game artists.

For every positive thing that Kingdom Come does with its storytelling, setting, and themes, it then lets itself down with childish writing, and then doesn’t help itself out by being so ambitious that, even beyond the bugs, the game has structural issues that are difficult to ignore.

Weird. Colourful. Quirky. Entertaining. Funny.

There was no reason Story Mode couldn’t be a wonderful extension of the Minecraft world, but instead all it succeeds at is pushing me away. After this experience, my desire to play any other Telltale game has gone from high to non-existent.

Warsaw is an interesting concept which does do quite a few things right, but its inconsistency of vision prevents it from achieving the same greatness as the games it was clearly inspired by. Pixelated Milk are at their best when they are holding players in the desperate struggle for survival, where each tactical decision matters a great deal between life and death. But it takes real concentration on the player’s part to make these systems work, compounded by UI issues on the Switch which only further exhaust players. There are plenty of games which set out to do things similar to what Warsaw does, but more effectively.

The presentation is enjoyable and the puzzles and discovery of new powers are genuinely exciting. If you can look past repetitive combat and backtracking and are willing to live with a few technical hiccups along the way, Song of the Deep is enjoyable but flawed, with some unrealised potential around the narrative meaning it was a missed opportunity.

While Abyss Odyssey suffers from a few design choices that ultimately hold it back from greatness, its easily ACE Team’s most playable game to date, which doesn’t come at the sacrifice of the look and feel we’ve come to love with earlier titles.

The enemy’s AI is non-existent; it will spawn slowly strengthening hordes of soldiers, but otherwise it won’t do anything. If you can get a multiplayer game going there’s a bit more strategy involved, I guess, but there isn’t much of a community wrapped around this one, leaving Korix feeling like a game that had a good idea buried away in there, but fails to give people the VR strategy experience that they’ll be looking for.

If the network was more stable and the game played more to its strengths around one-on-one combat, this would be a game I’d recommend in a heartbeat. It’s still well worth a look even with those flaws, but I can’t help but imagine what could have been.

Horror is an intensely difficult genre to get right. You need to draw players in and immerse them in the experience to the point that they have an emotional connection to the game, and then hit them with things that are not just grotesque, but also deeply unsettling. Horror needs to engage the brain as it engages the more visceral reactions, and that's very hard to do. Infliction: Extended Cut doesn't get there. It's simply too pedestrian and rote to really work.

This is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, but it's not intended as such: Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles could have been so much worse. An anime that has become this celebrated was always going to deserve more than a copy/paste paint-by-numbers arena brawler, and the team at CyberConnect2 have done well with what I'm sure were significant limitations. There's respect there, and an understanding that Demon Slayer is more than a mindless series of fights, even if the gameplay system creaks with age and having been used for far too many other anime tie-ins. Mind you, if nothing else, being able to tear demons a new one with Nezuko has been something I've been looking forward to from day one with this anime, and if nothing else, CyberConnect2 delivered that.

Perhaps I am slightly biased because of the movies, but I felt as though the game was stronger during the latter portions of the adventure - just as I believe Desolation of Smaug was far better than An Unexpected Journey.

All of this leads to a game experience that doesn’t quite feel as polished as it could have been, but with enough of that core R-Type DNA to keep me engaged enough to keep on unlocking ships. Although, once again I come back to that silly title, because even R-Type Final 2 isn’t the final R-Type. There’s DLC to come, and a premium edition just of this game if you’re particularly keen.

After Supermassive Games promised us an anthology that celebrated all the different kinds of horror out there, what they’ve given us instead is a stagnating series of sequels. Do I hope The Dark Pictures continues? Yes. Very much so. I still believe we need an anthology of horror in the vein of Cabinet of Curiosities to explore a wider range of horror in video games. But come the second “season”, Supermassive Games needs to start delivering an anthology.

The base gameplay in Mayan Death Robots is quite entertaining. I certainly enjoyed the pacing, and could appreciate some of the tactical depth lurking beneath its humorous, brightly coloured surface. But lacking online multiplayer as it does, this is going to come across as a severely limited game to too many people for its own good.

Charade Manicas is two individually brilliant games that, combined, are the lesser sum of their parts. I can see why the developers would be intrigued by the combination of the otome and death game mystery genres. I can see the commercial appeal too, given what a runaway success the death game genre continues to be. However, despite excellent production values, a great cast, and a well-written mystery, this particular combination chills rather than delights.

What we have here is a darkly beautiful and emotionally-challenging experience, rather than a game, and completely and utterly essential from a transcendent games as art point of view.

This developer/ publisher understands the Grimm aesthetic and structure better than anyone else out there.

If only that localisation didn't put a dampener on everything by making a full half of the game, and, critically, the context that gives the action purpose, so irritating to sit through. Please, developers. It's fine to have a broken English port for a game where the narrative isn't relevant, but when we're talking about RPGs, make the investment and hire a premium localisation outfit. It will lift your game, significantly. There are, apparently, console versions of Banner of the Maid set to come later. I hope on feedback the team does get a new localisation done, because fixing that issue will add a couple of stars to the score, effortlessly. Everything else about it is truly wonderful.

Slap Them All is by no means perfect. It's shallow, even by genre standards, lacks the all-but mandatory four-player option, has been balanced for two players to the point that it doesn't really work as a single-player game, and fails to give players any reason to give it a second go once powered through. And yet at the same time, it is the best use of the beloved Asterix & Obelix property that we have seen in years and for us long-suffering Asterix & Obelix fans, for that reason alone Slap Them All is a gift.

I don’t want to take anything away from this game, though. I have enjoyed Star Ocean: The Divine Force more than any game in the series since the third one. The developers have calibrated just about everything about this game perfectly, from the classically entertaining JRPG plot and characters, to the incredible aesthetics and superb pacing. The Divine Force is by no means a short game, but it has a way of making the hours fly past so that it never feels like it’s dragging on your time. Yes, the combat is a little unrefined and too pacey for its own good, but it’s still very playable, and totally worth dealing with to enjoy the most exotic JRPG of 2022.

Ultimately, Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders is a perfectly competent point-and-click detective game, competently ported to Nintendo Switch. It's more difficult to deliver a "great detective" story in a way that feels appropriate to the character and the players than most people would think, but the developers have done an admirable job here overall. Just do yourself a favour and resist looking up a guide. Not all the puzzles are perfectly executed, but for this game to have the right impact on you, you really do want to be solving each puzzle without assistance, even if that does mean that you feel like your Poirot's IQ has dropped a couple hundred points.

While I have some issues with the way Deception IV explores its themes, it is nonetheless a very fine and entertaining game, and I can guarantee you that there is nothing else quite like it on the PlayStation 4.

RE;Birth 1 is a damned fine JRPG. It's silly, it's charming and it's irreverent, but it's also a package that's been wrapped up in a clever, rich combat system. This was the start that the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise deserved.

Despite these criticisms, Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin gets the fundamentals right, and provides a highly effective and engaging streamlined RTS that feels like it a genuine effort to modernise the classic approach to the genre. The MOBA-like battle maps and focus on constantly-moving aggression might put those players off who enjoy a more defensive tactics, and the whole thing will be over way too early if you’re not prepared to get involved in the multiplayer, but no one can deny that this is a flashy and exciting skirmish-level Warhammer game that sits nicely within the broader library of grand strategy, RPG, and action titles that use the license these days.

With infinite ammo guns that need no reloading, Tower of Guns is an immensely satisfying (albeit brief) gaming experience that is as engaging to play, as it is stunning to look at.

South Of The Circle is a beautiful game that tells a wonderful little story, and is backed up with a genuine effort by the developers to explore cinematic techniques for dramatic effect. When the alternative in video games is typically the equivalent of bland, rote Hollywood productions, South Of The Circle stands out as something different. Different is and always will be interesting. I’m just glad the developers backed the interesting techniques they used with a fascinating story.

As good as it looks, though, The Callisto Protocol is bad horror that has nothing meaningful to say and struggles to have a single original moment within it. I know that there are people out there saying that the game was “rushed out” to meet a deadline of “releasing before the Dead Space remake”… and perhaps it was! That might explain the performance issues on other platforms. However, that’s not really the problem with it. What lets this game down is that the core theme is broken to its foundations, and even if it ran perfectly at all times, in a best-case scenario, all polish would have ever done is ensure that it was entertaining enough to play. It was never going to be a horror experience that anyone remembers, even five years from now.

Coming to Captain Tsubasa as a fan of football, but knowing nothing of the anime and manga, I had no idea what to expect from this game, but I was more than impressed. Tamsoft, a company better know for little skirts-and-panties games like Senran Kagura, spinoff Hyperdimension Neptunia titles, Onechanbara and School Girl/Zombie Hunter was up against it with this game. After all, how do you compete with the might of EA and Konami without going so far into the realm of arcade experiences that the game is no longer recognisable as the sport? Tamsoft genuinely managed to figure it out. Captain Tsubasa is a back-to-basics football game with excellent pace and considerable verve. It's not just for existing fans of the anime or manga; this game is perfect for anyone who wants to enjoy clean, entertaining football action with their friends without having to first send them off to a college degree to learn how to play.

Gamedec isn’t quite a masterpiece, but it’s a clever and noble attempt to do a non-combat RPG. The cyberpunk and noir themes will never get old, and the complex decision trees invite multiple play-throughs and approaches to the mystery. It’s certainly a game that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Battle Princess of Arcadias is a beautiful game, and it has a truly charming narrative and set of characters.

Fate/Extella is a near perfect port of an excellent PlayStation 4 game, and the best Warriors game that hasn’t been developed by Koei Tecmo. It’s likely to be the only game of its kind on the Switch until Fire Emblem Warriors lands, and it’s the perfect kind of game to have on a portable console to unwind with on the commute home after a long day of work.

Even when the overall challenge of living a day in Octodad’s shoes bears too much weight, the game is amusing enough to quell most of the frustration.

Prinny 1 & 2 will endure on and be remembered, if only because they have that infamous challenge level and the highly amusing approach the developers took to address that. Who doesn't want to throw a thousand-strong horde of Prinnies at a problem? Scratch beneath that surface are two platformers that are more bluster than refinement, relying more on humour than adventurous design to keep players interested, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it does need to be noted that as far as the platformer genre is concerned, these efforts are neither stand-out nor inspiring. You might not have favourite levels or scenes by the time you've ground out victory across these two titles, but as raw entertainment, they really are hard to put down. As a double feature, NISA is providing real value and entertainment, and hopefully plenty of people are willing to tackle the challenge.

The game is about as long as a movie, making it short at three or so hours in length, but I enjoyed the ride. The gameplay is a tad weak due to the puzzles being very easy to figure out, but realistically you are in this one purely for the storytelling. Also, the game has a satisfying ending which a lot of games seem to be lacking these days.

I found it challenging, but rewarding, vibrant and dynamic without being beyond my skillset. I don’t necessarily understand – nor agree – with people criticising the game for trying to be a streamlined dogfight simulation, but at the same time I don’t think this game has nearly done enough to push it forward.

The sheer weight of content that is packed into the game can't be understated; this is a big, chunky game that demands a lot of time to work all the way through it, but every step of the way is a truly entertaining one.

Toybox Turbos is a good game for beginners and newcomers to racing games. It presents an easy learning curve, but later levels can be a little more challenging. It's a lot of fun to play and in ways it may remind players of the Micro Machines toys and video games from the past.

The environment and the art style work well together to create a tense experience, yet this tension however is lost with a somewhat simple approach to game design, a shame to what is a quality horror game.

What lets Uno down is the online infrastructure. There aren’t many players, for a start, and it hurts the appeal of playing online when it ends up being against one human player and two AI. You may as well just play the single player, especially considering how frequently drop outs happen. Conveniently this happens most frequently when the other human player is close to losing. There doesn’t seem to be a punishment in place for that. At least AI players have honour.

Transformers: Battlegrounds did the right thing in eschewing the Hollywood "mature" efforts and the games that tried to piggyback along with those to give us a true Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic. It was also right to go with a turn-based tactics game, rather than yet another action effort. What this game does is add to the Transformers property and demonstrate that it can be more versatile than the folks in suits have been pushing for over quite some time now. It's certainly not the "XCOM clone" for people that come to XCOM for the nuanced tactical strategy, but it's a nice, light little game and, for someone like me who grew up loving Transformers, only to watch the series be driven into the ground in recent years, it's nice to have something nostalgic to some very fond memories that I had as a kid.

It’s unfortunate that Lone Ruin came about two years after the jokes about every indie doing a pixel roguelike became exhausting. It’s well-made and undeniably entertaining, but there’s so much competition in this space and the developers didn’t seem overly concerned with doing something that would actually differentiate their game. So yes. This is a mechanically very solid production that I can recommend to people that like difficult action roguelikes. Unfortunately, I’ll also likely forget about it by the time the next one of these comes along, and that’s probably sometime next week.

A truly entertaining little strategy game. Offering just enough complexity to test a player's strategic thinking, it's backed by steady, effective aesthetic direction and a mass of scenarios that almost - almost! - make up for the lack of multiplayer to make for one of the finest indie games so far in 2015.

Knack 2 also outstays its welcome, and the developers didn't seem to know when or how to finish it.

Variety in stories and settings could have gone a long way to making Siege Survival Gloria Victis a more compelling game. As it stands, while those who enjoy a mix of strategy and deliberately melancholy narrative threads may find it engaging for a while, it’s all a bit too uneven to really recommend.

Despite those small issues, I can see this game developing a strong core audience that will play it for quite some time to come. It's simply too groovy, colourful, and cheerful to resist.

I was concerned that D3 Publisher and the development teams behind EDF were losing sight of the purity of vision behind what they were doing. Iron Rain painted a bleak vision of the future of the series. Thankfully, the developers themselves seem to have realised what a misstep Iron Rain was, and the team at Yukes has pivoted a full 180 degrees with World Brothers. This game is just such great fun.

Mad Max's greatest strength is in many ways the title's most significant weakness as well. It is immediately familiar, reminding of the Batman titles and Shadow of Mordor - games that I am very much a fan of. Unfortunately on the whole, Mad Max is not as good as those titles either, coming up short in its narrative, controls and combat to create a less engaging overall experience than those titles.

The ease of which you can get into Hey! Pikmin is both a blessing and a curse - it doesn’t do a lot to distinguish itself as a title, which is fine, but that also doesn’t make it particularly memorable.

There's nothing wrong with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games 2020. It's presented with verve and for such a large range of mini-games, the fact that there's no true dud in there is impressive in its own right. At the same time, it lacks the competitive edge of the "proper" Olympics title this year, and is a little too feature light for its own good as either a single player or local multiplayer experience. That makes it throwaway. Good fun, sure. Well made, absolutely. But throwaway nonetheless.

Farming Simulator 17 is a game that I would almost argue should be put into schools, because I see real value in using it to highlight what the life of a farmer involves, and that would in turn be valuable in raising awareness around the kinds of challenges that food supply faces in the years ahead. It’s still a game, don’t get me wrong, and a simple, but effective one at that. It’s also the most accessible it has ever been thanks to tutorials that actually work. But beyond that, Farming Simulator 17 is the best kind of game; it’s a game that offers more than just entertainment.

In most other regards Arslan is a fairly standard Warriors experience, but between the strong, epic, narrative, gorgeous setting, and the varied bunch of really enjoyable characters there is more than enough here to justify its place among Koei Tecmo’s growing stable of licensed work.

The real appeal of the game is in its presentation. The music is light and bouncy, the visuals are bright and colourful, and there's plenty of humour in the way units animate. I can't describe in enough detail just how happy it makes me to finally have a full-featured shooter game that is bright and pleasant; though I have no particular problem with serious and grim shooters, it's nice to have an option for when I'm in the mood for something happier.

Big Ant is, effortlessly, the world’s premier independent developer of niche sports, and Lacrosse falls squarely in its beat. It’s ace and I love it. Now.

Candlelight isn't a long game but it kept me entranced throughout the entire playthrough. It's a fantastic example of a simple idea executed very well, with extra effort spent in ensuring the player will have a good time. This isn't a game which you will get excited about - but in some ways it's even better than that. This is a game that you can get comfortable with, that will help you relax, and will make you look at platformers in a new way.

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.

With every new iteration Football Manager seems like your decisions and strategy are more accurately reflected in the on-field performance and results of your team, and that consistency and reliability is ultimately what's important in making this series such a strong outlet for storytelling.

While the games themselves are functional and worth a chuckle, the best experience relies on the player being familiar with the source material.

The Church in the Darkness has much more value as an idea and as a story creation tool than it has as a game.

Curious Expedition 2 might not be too much of a step up from its predecessor, but then it also didn’t need to be. The original was already an excellent foundation in the way that it provided players with a challenging roguelike focused on exploring exotic lands and discovering incredible wonders. Now, with Curious Expedition 2, not only is that gameplay fine-tuned and refined, but the art matches the wonderous beauty that your characters are meant to be witnessing.

With any 4X strategy title, there’s a learning curve, and Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening is no different in that regard. There’s so much depth to the strategies, stats, and nation management that it will take some hours to learn your way around. However, an efficient interface and an excellent approach to the historical storytelling make this the most accessible Nobunaga’s Ambition we’ve seen in the series’ 40-year history. What’s more, it’s a genuinely excellent alternative to a textbook for anyone that wants to learn something about a period of warfare every bit as fascinating as the Napoleonic Wars, the Three Kingdoms era of China, the civil war in America, the Roman campaigns or the Mongol conquests.

Assuming concentration is a problem worth solving (an assumption lacking the solidest of foundations), I will argue there are better, significantly more efficient, ways to address it than through another game from a device that's otherwise a regular dopamine provider by its own rights.

Hopefully the story can use its established foundation and these moments of emotional investment to drive the story forward as House Forrester attempts to survive the challenges circling in around them.

Kitaria Fables is a warm, genuine delight. It’s not trying to tell you something deep about the world. Nor is it looking to spark debates over hard modes or subversion. It’s not aiming to challenge, belittle, insult or offend. The game’s just there to give people of all ages a chance to go on fun little quests together, as adorable little animals, with a garden of veggie delights to look forward to coming back to. It might just be the sweetest and most innocent Rune Factory or Harvest Moon I’ve come across, and that’s really saying something, since this entire "genre", such as it is, is entirely built up around wholesomeness.

On the surface, Akane is a super difficult game that requires absolute dexterity with a controller. It has some fantastic ideas which sadly are all cancelled out by mechanics and design choices that fight against the good stuff. It looks gorgeous, and can be enjoyed in really short spurts, but unfortunately there’s just not enough substance in this game to consider recommending it above the vast array of games available on the eShop right now.

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.

It's clear that the same effort that went into historical research in other Assassin's Creed games did not happen here. Rather, it's quite obvious that the team did an afternoon's research on Wikipedia and called it a day.

Paperbound is an incredibly fun game that gives a gravitational spin on the same kind of competitive insanity that inspires Smash Bros. or Towerfall. Its amazingly simple aesthetics work well, and the simple nature of the game means anybody can pick it up and have a crack at it.

I don’t know if Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is going to turn me into a fan of these mecha games, but I certainly enjoyed the combat and design enough that I’m keen to check out some more to see if I do like something about the genre after all. Just be aware that the performance is pretty suspect at times. If you can handle that, then this is certainly an ambitious and entertaining sci-fi game for on the go.

Like a lot of of titles in this genre, Ark: Survival Evolved has a steep learning curve and requires quite the time - and possibly financial - investment. But once you get into the rhythm of it, the endless need to survive, set against the simple satisfaction of slowly building up your capacity to do so, makes this a game that could well turn into a hobby for you, all in itself.

GRIP is an enjoyable racing game that is constantly hampered by bare-bones presentation. The core driving is a lot of fun, but when races and battles aren’t presented in a fun manner then it relies on the gameplay to be constantly engaging. The gravity mechanics are certainly cool to see, but they aren’t exactly innovative or game changing enough to overcome the shortcomings after the initial allure wears off.

Tempered at the edges as it might be, Onee Chanbara Origin is still crass and skimpy, and an explicit work of nostalgic grindhouse for anyone that remembers that genre. Additionally, short as it may be, it's genuinely well-made for what it wants to be: a mindless action game. It's just that the tempering at the edges means that it's not as pure as something like School Girl/Zombie Hunter, and therefore won't replace it as the best trash grindhouse this generation has given us. What it is, though is more than enough to remind us that we may well get very little of that in the next generation, and to make no bones about it, that's very disappointing to me.

Once I’m actually playing, I have a ball with this, because it is, in a very real sense, a cultural phenomenon. Never has a game managed to get people to flock over to specific areas of town like birds to seed. People point to it being too simple as a game, but really the game bit is barely relevant. What is relevant is that this game has people out and about, socialising and exploring. There’s a group experience event going on with Pokemon Go, and it’s addictive to simply be part of the collective.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX will be one of Nintendo's most niche titles of 2020. With that being said, I fall squarely into the Venn diagram that makes the target demographic for this game, so I loved every second of it. As a fan of Pokémon, Mystery Dungeon roguelikes, and whimsical, light-hearted, and wholesome art styles, Rescue Team DX clicked with me on every level.

Eiyuu Senki is, of course, a very niche game, but it's a worthy one. Like Tears to Tiara 2 before it, it translates from adult entertainment into a "legitimate" game very well, on the strength of its strategy gameplay, and while you're not getting Shakespeare from the narrative, as long as you're able to enjoy these kinds of anime tropes, you're going to have a really good time with this one.

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.

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.