For now, though, I think it’s pretty telling that while Civilization VII certainly costs a pretty penny, I’ve already found myself going back to play VI when I want to play something that I enjoy. It’s simply not inspiring me, and given that this series above all others has, in a very real sense, shaped my lifelong interest in history, being uninspiring is perhaps the worst mistake Firaxis could have made.

The focus in Claire however will always be the narrative, and it’s that aspect where the game shines brightest. While the gameplay and production values appear weak at first, it’s refreshing when all the design choices can be justified through the story and work in favour of it. Claire: Extended Cut is a great experience which really takes the issues of trauma and guilt seriously. While Hailstorm Games does at times get carried away with moralising, the overall story is effective and comes with enough twists and turns to cover the admission price.

Snack World really isn't my thing. As much as I am a fan of Level-5, the pitch of this one is out, and as such, too much of it falls flat. It's a satirical game that's trying too hard and if it was funny, then the jokes it makes would be directed at its own faults as a game. It's a workable dungeon crawler without being inspired, but unlike the rest of Level-5's library, this one is focused on being attractive to one demographic at the expense of just about everyone else. Where most other Level-5 games are a joy and delight, this one really felt too much like a slog.

This isn't a game with an incredible amount of content, and it's possible to see everything there is on offer after a couple of runs.

I’d only recommend this one for a quick burst and a bit of fun, because it doesn’t offer anything substantial.

The gameplay mechanics and presentation values in Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today are solid, but the puzzles will frustrate a segment of the audience. Worse yet, the end does not pay off the effort to get there.

The real issue that Othercide isn't technical, it's thematic: this is a game that is at odds with itself. Nothing about it suggests that it needed to be difficult like a Darkest Dungeon or Bloodborne... indeed its narrative and themes would have better lent themselves to a much more condensed, intense, and high-impact experience. But that would have also made the game shorter, and so once again we have a casualty of developer obsession to preference content over cohesion. Othercide had all the elements it needed to become something truly powerful. Sadly, it tries to stretch that material too far and forces players into too much repetition, eventually diluting the game's impact and leaving it as something which, as vivid and entertaining as it is, is also just a game.

While Shadow Blade: Reload may not re-invent the platformer genre, it is both pretty to look at and fun to play. With multiple stages, collectables, difficulties, and challenges there’s more than enough ninja action to keep Kuro busy for a while.

Scrap Rush is ultimately a party game which does a little better than the other party game fare available on Switch at the moment. Its mechanics aren’t particularly novel but they are robust enough to support replayability, and there’s a good blend of skill and chance involved with success. The team at Acquire has successfully tapped into a more cerebral game that’s still easy to understand and quick to pick up and play. If you’ve got a group of friends you play local multiplayer with regularly, this has the chops to make it into the regular rotation. That being said, it might not have the staying power of some of the other local multiplayer classics.

Table Top Racing's small issues are not enough to ruin what is essentially an easy, casual party racing game, but they're enough to ensure that it's never going to be remembered as a classic. Then again, it's being sold for a couple of dollars, so you can't really lose either.

You can get these two great existential crises in one package of fourteen minigames for just 6 AUD on the Nintendo Switch eShop. What a bargain!

So this won’t be remembered as a particularly good remake, and it’s tragic, because by itself, outside of the shadow of the game it’s a remaster of, Secret of Mana has its charms.

Even with the small enough growing pain in regards to the framerates, this tiny Janitor’s adventure is one worth having.

While Bardbarian's gameplay isn't innovative, it's tight enough to warrant your attention. The game would have been far more enjoyable as a shorter, five hour title but as is, getting the upgrades needed for progression can take twice that long, and that's more patience than a lot of casual gamers should be required to have.

It’s hard to review Cruel Bands Career without conflating the design’s very intentional dreadfulness with judgements of the game’s quality. It’s clear from just a few moments of play that this game wants to make the player feel bad. That’s the whole schtick. And it is wholly successful in doing so – it’s a fascinating case study for emotionally resonant mechanics and non-traditional game design. And while it’s interesting, it doesn’t have a whole lot to say beyond its cruel exterior. It’s not particularly insightful or rewarding. It’s just a mean-spirited joke at the expense of the player. And even if the joke is well crafted, you’ve got to ask yourself if you really want to be on the receiving end of it.

Ghost of Yotei achieves what it set out to, in that it wanted to take what makes Ghost of Tsushima so popular (the visual engine, the combat, Sucker Punch’s open worlds) and transport it to a “barely settled” location where they could give us a rip-roaring, all-American Wild West story. So… good on them for achieving that, I guess. But, as I brace for the inevitable comment moderation job ahead, I gotta be honest and say I just didn’t care for any of it. Or the way it capitalises on the Japanese/Ainu setting rather than tries to work with it.

There is nothing wrong with Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2. If you enjoy Mario Kart, and like Nickelodeon, then you're the demographic for this game, and you'll get a kick from it. There are no nasty surprises in the way the kart racing action is executed, and it's so overwhelmingly competent it would have been something truly special if it was just a little more interesting. Sadly, the really, really good character mashup games are enjoyable even if you're not a fan of the properties, and Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 doesn't quite get that far.

While playing, I realised that Hokko Life is trying too hard to be other games that it never really has the opportunity to grow into its own thing. It doesn’t shine on its own. The devs tried. They really did. Hokko Life is an obvious labour of love. But there is a certain je ne sais quoi lacking… charm, maybe? I’ve played a lot of life sims that made me excited to return, but this one didn’t. I know that a game’s not really hooking me when I’ve got to talk myself into playing it for hours just so I can get my review done in time.

Not a bad game, it is just a frustratingly average game. It knows what it wants to do and sticks to its strengths, it is just that those strengths are lacking for depth and may prove boring for gamers looking for a bit more action in their adventures. Still, if you set your expectations accordingly, there is some fun to be had here while it lasts.

Clea has the foundation that it needs to become something really amazing. The aesthetics are spot-on, and the mood and themes are conceptualised beautifully. The developer has chosen a difficult genre to work with, however, and while Clea is perfectly playable and complete, I would want to see some significant strides with a sequel before it enters the upper echelons of the genre. Nonetheless, it does represent a very different kind of Aussie creativity, and it's very much worth supporting on that basis.

This isn't an especially memorable game, doesn't utilise the capabilities of the Wii U to any meaningful degree, and is nothing more than a brief diversion on the way to something more.

The level design tends to be quite bland, too – unique mechanic aside you’re played what this kind of game is offering in some way before. But still, it’s good, clean, light-hearted fun.

There’s something quite mesmerising as to how such complexity can be played out almost effortlessly by people who practice enough at the game to get good at it, but, frankly, everyone is better off waiting for next year's Street Fighter V.

The problem is that for all of Neoverse's merits - it's a good looking game, with good, balanced mechanics and excellent replay value - it's also ultimately unsatisfying to play. The narrative context is only ever a tease, and without a reason to get into all those fights and collect all those cards, Neoverse ultimately feels hollow. I'll keep Neoverse around for five-minute time-filler play sessions here and there, but I'm ultimately disappointed with this game. It could have easily been so much more than this.

It’s difficult to recommend Tomb Raider I-III Remastered as a thing that people should play. The games in the collection – especially the first one – are classics, though they’re not classics for the way they pushed gameplay or storytelling forward. They’re quite deficient in these areas. Tomb Raider is a classic because it helped redefine the nature of what a digital character could be. Sure, we had Mario and the Final Fantasy characters well before Tomb Raider, but those were closer to mascots. In Lara Croft we had a kind of human-proxy superstar for the first time. To many people, the gameplay didn’t matter. Not when rumours were spreading of nude codes for this new superstar.

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.

Gotcha Racing benefits from an addicting mechanic that elevates what would otherwise be a decidedly average top-down racing game for the 3DS. Racing in short bursts to acquire more visits to the machine is the primary hook here, and it works well enough but I do wish there was a bit more mileage to get out of the racing component itself.

This tedium would be unacceptable in an action game, but Windbound is a survival game. In survival games, death is supposed to mean something. Loss of progress represents the stakes; repetition is the barrier of entry. For players ready to take that plunge, there are some far-and-few-between moments of Windbound which are exhilarating. There’s nothing quite like stalking down the player’s first Gorehorn or Gloomharrow and seeing the game’s possibilities open right up as a reward for some intrepid hunting skills. But that being said, it’s a kind of enjoyment which needs to be really scrapped for and earned, and for most people, I suspect Windbound is going to feel a little too much like work.

Lacking the multiplayer makes it difficult to really get into Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal World Duel Carnival. What's in the game is perfectly functional and the core game is one of the most popular and lasting CCGs for a very good reason, it's difficult to really get into a game such as this that lacks the social experience.

My issues with Arcadia Fallen have to do with my issues with the wider YA narrative genre that it belongs to, but I really cannot stand the tonal inconsistencies, the juvenile writing style, or the complete shallowness of these things and the thoughts they express. It seems that I'm increasingly in the minority here, but I'm not a fan of treating audiences like idiots. However, if YA writing doesn't annoy you as much as it does me, then you're going to really get along with this one, since the presentation is impeccable, and it does have its heart in the right place.

Ghost Blade HD lovingly embraces the history of bullet hell shooters, providing classic substance with modern polish. Though these modern aesthetics proved vexing at times, it’s an experience worth seeing through.

The game simply struggles too hard to make you care about the characters or their situation, and an RPG without a compelling narrative is one that will always feel like it’s missing substance.

It would be nice to see Just Dance further innovate as a series, or it runs the risk of becoming incredibly repetitive going forward. Some new features provide interesting wrinkles in the existing formula, but it feels like the series has plateaued and is in need of a few new moves before the next inevitable release.

Pac-Man’s been through worse, like that Adam Sandler abomination I won’t mention again here. But it feels like gaming’s elder statesman deserves more recognition, and a better museum than this.

I truly wish I had better things to say about Spray Paint Simulator. I do have good things to say: it’s really chill, the graphics are vibrant, the painting gameplay is great, and the options cover a good amount of possibilities. Unfortunately, the game is weighed down by its clunkiness and lack of story. (Yes, even a game about spray painting needs a story.) I would like to say I will go back to it, but I’m left wondering if I’ll ever feel that itch to return.

The loading times alone are simply not worth putting up with, and I’d stop playing for a bit out of frustration. So I’d say The Outbound Ghost is worth playing because the story is actually quite good (and the graphics are charming when they’re not blurry), but maybe not until the developer can deliver the improved version that he’s promising.

It’s a good game if you’re fully caught up with Gundam lore, but even casual fans might struggle to get along with this one.

Necropolis is best taken as a satire. It’s not perfect in that role, but it’s good fun nonetheless, and a healthy foil to the kind of experiences that have become so in-demand with the success of the Souls games. If you’re able to get the full complement of four players together, you’re in for some classically entertaining and self-aware dungeon crawling fun.

By licensed game standards Platinum has been able to use its "Bayonetta framework" to deliver a fine iteration of a classic franchise. What is unfortunate is that all it needed was some more time. Ultimately, all that's wrong with Mutants in Manhattan was that it couldn't meet Platinum's own stratospheric standards.

If only the game played well. While my review of the PC version has been lost to the Internet ether, I did give it 4/5 and if it played well on the Switch here I would have scored it higher. I firmly believe that in concept and theme, Idol Manager is one of the best simulations I’ve ever played. If only it was not so infuriating to play with a controller. This game deserved far better.

If you’re within the niche that A Bastard’s Tale is targeting, you’ll find it plenty rewarding. It takes the “fail better” approach to game design and distills it to its very essence, taking the often repetitious process of dying and retrying and turning it into something captivating enough to endure the occasional frustrations that always come with repeated failure. “Just one more try!”

Dusk Diver is a noble idea. After all, it's clearly inspired by the likes of Persona, and there aren't many better sources of inspiration out there. I'm also right on board with the setting. Having never been to Ximending, I was quite keen to see what it's like through the lens of this game. I didn't get to do that, though, because the game failed to capture the characteristics or community of the district. It was another hub-style location for another anime game. Throw in a functional, but hardly boundary-pushing combat system, and you're left with something that works, but at this particular time of year, a workmanlike experience is just going to drown under the weight of all the other really good stuff being released, sadly.

Losing the online integration hurts, and because of this the Wii U version is the superior one by a significant margin, despite looking inferior.

There's no denying that Archangel is pretty, but in every other way it's a case of unfulfilled potential.

Pure Chess on 3DS boasts a decent presentation and plays far more competently than many other video game adaptations, but I suspect this port may be the poorest version yet of an immaculate experience.

The open world format really lets LEGO 2K Drive down. It’s disappointing that all those development resources went into a pointless “story” when the developers could have focused on giving players more awesome tracks and cups to enjoy. The underlying racing mechanics are so very entertaining. Instead, though, we have a familiar story: a massive space to “explore” but no meaningful reason to do so. Developers, if all you’re going to do with open worlds is dump busywork on players and use it to pad out the number of hours it’ll take them to finish the game, then find a different format. Not everything needs an open world, and I would argue that arcade “kart” racers are a good example of that.

The biggest problem is that there is no button control alternative to gamepad gyro movement. The game is very playable with these controls, as well as being responsive and sensitive enough to make the quick moves that you'll need to make without being too twitchy, but some kind of button alternative would have been nice nonetheless.

Rainbow Moon is not a good choice for people who are looking for a narrative, but for fans of the old school, punishingly difficult, hardcore JRPGs, this is a nice throwback with an awful lot of raw gameplay behind it.

Raid mode returns, and while it’s not as exciting or fast paced as what we saw in previous title's Mercenaries modes, it adds an incredible amount of longevity to the game.

Between the permadeath aspect, the random floor layouts of the dungeon and the smooth gameplay with retro style graphics, Quest of Dungeons is a blast to repeatedly play through.

Tsugunochi is just a few dollars to purchase, and it is a very pure concept for a horror game. Anyone that’s a fan of the genre should do themselves a favour and pick this one up. As an academic exercise and piece of horror theory, it’s one of those that you do want to pull to pieces and study. This will enable you to better appreciate the way that the better examples of horror work on a psychological and intellectual level.

Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story succeeds as far as a "ghost story" is concerned. It offers up some good and creepy moments to go with some nicely classical point-and-click adventure elements. It struggles as cyberpunk though, failing to engage with the themes that make cyberpunk a distinctive, interesting genre, and proving unable to integrate those cyberpunk elements with the horror. I'm glad I played Sense, but there are too many inconsistencies for it to be something particularly memorable.

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.

It's not the longest game, and doesn't offer anything that will be remembered as a classic game by any means, but the tense atmosphere, striking art style, and challenge, will surely help this game find itself a niche.

Picking up the IGS Classic Arcade Collection is curiosity-worthy. Even among brawler fans, I would guess many of these games are obscure. This is therefore an opportunity to dip into a largely forgotten part of arcade history. They’re also decent games that play well, albeit in a genre that has changed significantly (and for the better) over the years. The lack of “museum” material makes this a disappointingly minimally-featured collection, but it might be fun to bash buttons over for a weekend or two.

I had a really challenging time playing Once Upon Light, and it was enjoyable for that, but at times I felt some levels were too cluttered with content. Hardcore puzzle fans should have an enjoyable experience, but this one isn't really something that more relaxed players will get into.

This is one of those games which you could buy on a portable device and enjoy far more because of that.

For all the good, the reality is that Bleak Sword is in serious need of substance, and the novelty of a “lo-fi Soulslike” on mobile is lost a little on a proper console.

By and large EA Sports UFC 3 is the best offering from the series yet. The standing combat is well nuanced, and most of the choices made for career mode felt like steps in the right direction. Ultimate Team feels a bit out of place and unnecessary, and the overall lack of roster inclusions and modes makes this a slightly more shallow offering, but the key is the combat... which words far better when a fighter is on their feet and not down on the mat. I was engaged for several days, spending plenty of time playing the game, but the reasons that most people continue to play an EA Sports title until the next iteration comes along just isn't as strong in EA Sports UFC 3.

What could have been something lasting, something real, is instead a two dimensional narrative which brandishes plot twists and visual trickery to camouflage a lack of rich storytelling. Nonetheless, I would still highly recommend Stories Untold to writers and game developers: there are ideas in the first few episodes which are fascinating, and I’m dying to see where No Code’s metafictive experimentation might take the text adventure genre.

Vectronom is well made and attractive. It's got a strong sense of minimalist style, and as difficult as it is, it's also entirely fair, and once you've learned its rules and behaviour, it becomes comfortable, albeit difficult, to play. At the same time, this game crystalises some issues with how rhythm games as a whole handle music, and while its various stages are well designed enough, there's nothing truly memorable in there. It's an indie game that wears its heart on its sleeve, but unfortunately also struggles to stand out as anything but a textbook example of an indie title.

Sorcery Saga is a solid roguelike with a big heart, lots of content and a hefty challenge, but its repetitive gameplay and occasionally hostile design choices makes it a niche pick.

The big question is: what, exactly, is the target audience for Breakpoint? I can find things that I personally like, as well as moments I can identify as hat-tips to devoted genre fans. I just think that, in its attempt to be a tactical-action-open-world-sandbox-looter-shooter-online-squad-based-co-op, it collapses under the weight of all the hyphens. The disparate parts which Ubisoft tries to cram together are too different for a coherent game to form. I imagine the hardcore tactical FPS fan doesn’t want looter-shooter mechanics, and vice versa; anyone who likes this Breakpoint for one reason will hate it for some other reason. But at least Ubisoft did make the narrative less egregious this time around.

Despite a lack of originality and questionable controls I found myself coming back to Giga Wrecker Alt to tackle that puzzle, overcome that boss or just explore its world. If you are looking for a ground breaking new entry in Game Freak's reserve or something similar to the Pokémon titles then this may not be the title for you. However, Game Freak's team has stepped out of their comfort zone and developed a game with some rather satisfying qualities which may just tide you over.

I’m struggling to recommend this due to its length. It can be completed within an hour. Not that it's a bad hour, but there are games cut from the same cloth that boast tens or hundreds of hours of playtime from individuals, such as Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac, with the roguelike features that are practically par for the course these days.

I am quite sure that some people will absolutely love the intensity of the horror and dark fantasy that infuses Lords of the Fallen. As cartoonishly silly as it comes across by trying so hard, it is technically impressive. Similarly, the game is perfectly solid mechanically, and while it does have some issues with pacing and the design of some boss battles, it is, for the most part, very playable. I had more fun with this than I think it deserved, and while I’m not sure whether I was laughing with it or at it most of the time, I was definitely laughing and having fun with it. Who knows? Perhaps satirising the self-seriousness of dark fantasy was the entire creative point and if so, bravo developers, you nailed it.

I had fun with Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami, but then I am a hardcore fan of classical roguelikes. I still play Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon every once in a while, and I am looking forward to the next Shiren the Wanderer a great deal. Given that the fan service is neither fun nor sexy enough and the game doesn’t do anything else to stand out within its niche, it’s not my favourite roguelike. But I don’t regret having played it by any means.

The use of the gamepad is by far the most enjoyable aspect of Affordable Space Adventures. In fact, it's so well done that it's close to being the best use of the gamepad on the Wii U so far. Sadly the game is held back by some serious game design choices, and while it's still playable, it's just not the kind of game that deserves to be remembered as a classic.

You've got to ask yourself: if you're looking for quality pinball, would you not be better off playing a pinball title that offers actual quality? And if you're looking for something sexy, would you not be better off looking for something actually sexy? Peach Ball is broadly entertaining, but it's hardly a pinnacle in either case.

While it's shallow and has an overly narrow focus, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is good fun, and serves as excellent, entertaining fan service for the Marvel faithful. Get a group of friends together, and this is a glorious throwback to the days of couch co-op adventuring, with the development team even throwing in a camera that very nearly ruins the experience. That is true commitment to recapturing the essence of playing games from yesteryear, right there.

Zombie Vikings is basic brawler, but it's a basic brawler done right, and is quite funny in the process. And, really, that's all most people are looking for from this genre. There are far better examples out there of it, but as a Sunday afternoon killer, this one is nonetheless almost as worthy as Thor himself.

Hero Hustle seems like it could be the result of Tetris taking hallucinogenic drugs and playing Sudoku printed on rainbow paper while kung fu films run in the background. Maybe it’s not so inexplicable after all. There is so much going on at any given point, but I still can’t stop (and won’t stop) trying to fight my way to the top.

The only thing really lacking here is the personality, which is a shame, because Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing was full of personality, and BlazeRush could have been a new contender if it followed suit.

I can't see this lighting up the iOS sales charts, and I struggle to see how people without a wireless gamepad will be able to work through it, but otherwise, it's a decent, entertaining classic action JRPG to add to the collection.

The concept was there, and I so badly wanted to enjoy it. Unfortunately, caring about the contrived cancer plotline would have only been possible if so much of my time wasn’t taken up by wondering how DigixArt has taken a great mobile game and made it somehow less accessible on a more powerful device.

Overall Cryptark is a great, albeit limited, fast paced experience. While it could have benefited from having a greater narrative scope and dialog between the characters, the action and replayability will be more than enough to keep you going for a long time.

Paper Mario: Color Splash is an endlessly charming, cutesy journey that represents a greater achievement for the art directors and script writers than Intelligent Systems as a whole. It’s a shame that such a talented studio opted only to tweak the flawed Sticker Star and, as a result, dull and unbalanced gameplay often holds back this whimsical romp. As one of the final Wii U titles, though, it’s certifiably hilarious and might just warrant a second look.

Dice Legacy does have some interesting ideas under its belt, and I’m excited to keep exploring the various strategies and play styles that its robust tech tree has in store. I find the experience quite taxing with how much improvisation and compromise it demands, so I’m saving it for a time where I’m in the mood for careful, organised play. If the idea of a strategy game with an unusual twist piques your interest, Dice Legacy is a great game to pick up – on PC. As enjoyable as the game is, the poor optimisation means Switch owners would do well to look elsewhere.

Barring performance, predictable design and somewhat low production values, Bridge Constructor is still by all means a proficient puzzle game. Successfully latticing wood and metal and cabling to ferry lorries across a steep ravine feels great, and especially if you managed to cut costs and earn a high score. Furthermore, mechanics and optimisation which encourage player experimentation and reward creative thinking makes Bridge Constructor a satisfying journey for puzzle fans on the PS4.

There's still a game in there that can delight, but it is a lot of work to align yourself with the vision now.

Legends of Amberland succeeds in capturing the appeal of those old Gold Box-era RPGs from SSI and their ilk. This was my childhood growing up and as such much of what the game offered fit like a particularly comfortable and well-worn glove. Unfortunately, the developer also decided that for whatever reason the game would have every issue from the RPGs of yesteryear as well, and it's an odd thing for a developer to do - capture the same aesthetics and rhythms of retro games, fine, but why go to all the effort to also emulate all the flaws that the genre has moved on from for good reason?

The level design is generally good, albeit quite generic. It’s not like Butcher has many surprises for the players, but the action flows nicely and the game knows how to be punishing without feeling unfair. All in all, it's a generally smooth game let down by its idea of scale.

Qbeh-1: The Atlas Cube is an interesting block puzzle game which unfortunately feels like it's compacting a few similar ideas together which makes it feel unfocused at times. However it is generally a clever little game, with interesting puzzles, a beautiful art style, and soothing background music.

This is the kind of game that's so easy to overlook. Lacking things such as overwhelming charm of a Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, the exquisite fan service of an Omega Labyrinth, or the sheer depth of a Siralim, One Way Heroics Plus lacks an X-factor that allows it to stand out. If you are a roguelike fan and give it a chance, however, it has its merits. Those merits are buried deep under poor optimisation for the Nintendo Switch, sure, but they're there, and for the persistent and patient, this is an enjoyable, rich, challenging example of the classical roguelike.

The game is simple and fun and can pose a challenge to anyone who wants to find everything in the game. The developers had some really good ideas with the moon phases and to use real world time and weather. I think in the context of a more in-depth and purposeful game, that kind of feature would be distinctive and potent. Hopefully some other developers were paying attention.

There's a healthy number of items to unlock, characters to level and modes to play will keep you coming back for more. It's a pity then that it's burdened by some painful attempts to demand players throw in some extra cash for the DLC.

On the one hand, the sheer quality of the game is evident in bounds, and as a homage to the mighty Baldur's Gate, it continues on the excellent trajectory set down by its predecessor. On the other hand, those loading times really are so bad that I neither enjoy my time with the game, nor want to play it. Of course, a patch could resolve that and then the main criticism of the review would be rendered redundant. Sadly, I do need to review what's placed in front of me, and you're all better off playing Baldur's Gate again than slogging through this in its current state.

Unfortunately if you attempt to play The Crew by yourself, are hoping for simulation racing with loads of detailed cars or state-of-the-art visuals, The Crew will likely disappoint on those items. This turns The Crew into an interesting experiment that only makes for a decent game.

With great music, satisfying gameplay and a lot of replay value, Chime Sharp is definitely a puzzler worth your time. It’s a colourful journey through a world of vibrant melodies, with a degree of challenge sure to test even the most seasoned of genre fans. Whether you’re looking for short bursts of play or an afternoon of high-score hunting, Chime Sharp is not to be missed.

Konami would do well in scouting out a new development team to handle the next Yu-Gi-Oh! game. With the last couple being workmanlike but unremarkable efforts, it's difficult to shake the feeling that without an overhaul the star of this particular CCG is only going to fade further. And that would be a pity, because the core card game remains one of the most strategic that we've ever seen.

Hunt the Grey Wolf gives fans of the game a reason to don their rifle one more time so they can try to hunt down one of history's most notorious figures. It is a decent, if unspectacular diversion worth playing if you are a fan of the core game.

If the developers were to take the tower defence sections and spin that into an entire, dedicated game, Aegis Defenders could be really something worthwhile. That side of the game is truly enjoyable. But it's let down by trying to be something more than that, and the platforming and "exploration" elements just don't gel well with the good stuff to make this game as cohesive as it needed to be.

Handholding aside, and beyond failing to offer something truly above and beyond its predecessor, the multiplayer offerings are superb, and Swords & Soldiers 2 is good, reliable fun. It won't likely be a game you'll remember a decade from now, but as a weekend buster, you could do far worse than this one.

The shooter sections feel out of place, and they almost feel like they’ve been included to flesh out the already short campaign. Which is a shame, because the action is perfect.

We do need more games that go out there and bravely tell stories of deities, cultures and heroes that people wouldn't be aware existed. Aluna is brave in that not only does it do that, but it even goes as far asto make a very dry joke about how obsessed the entire industry is with telling the same stories over and over again. Unfortunately, while Aluna is blessed with some gorgeous art, a brilliant protagonist, and a wonderful setting, it squanders so much of what it does by being an incredibly safe Diablo clone in execution. Aside from a few technical issues with the Switch, Aluna is a perfectly competent and focused Diablo clone, but the game and creative energy behind it promise more which, to our great disappointment, the developers have failed to deliver.

Obviously, your own mileage will vary. If you're into arcade stuff, No Stick Shooter will excite. If your persona is after a game to clear your mind of the latest 150 hours plus of a JRPG turn based saga, No Stick Shooter will delight. And if you’re simply wondering where you fall on the arcade spectrum these days, No Stick Shooter will give a better start.

Disney Magical Dice isn’t quite the immediately addictive experience that its Crossy Road predecessor is, but it is still a highly entertaining little mobile game, and it’s really difficult to resist that Disney magic.

What’s in Tamagotchi Plaza is well-made enough and entertaining, particularly for the younger audience, but this is a very limited and shallow game that somehow manages to lack the meaning and intellectual value of Tamagotchi themselves. As an opportunity to play a few little minigames with your favourite critters, it has value, but as an experience where you get to hang out in the world of these mascots, Tamagotchi Plaza is lacking badly compared to the likes of Hello Kitty Island Adventure or Disney Dreamlight Valley.