The platforming is rock solid, and as I noted, I love the theme with a passion. I would like to see WayForward do something more narrative-heavy with Shantae, as I think she would be a spectacular lead in a RPG or similar, but as it stands this is my favourite 2D platformer series of all, and I'm glad to see that it's now on PlayStation too.

Coupled with the bright, colourful art style and cheery soundtrack, I honestly struggle to see how anyone could play one of these games and not enjoy their time with it.

Something of a let down for me when compared to the last couple of episodes.

Despite the odd frustration, Yoshi’s Woolly World is an incredibly fun romp. It has been a long time since the world got to see a console Yoshi game, and the fact it hearkens back to its SNES roots better than the recent handheld attempt is a joy to behold. This is one of the best platformers I have played in a long time.

Despite some questionable use of characters, the narrative in Batman: Arkam Knight is engrossing. The city of Gotham is appropriately sprawling with a great deal to do. Combat is smooth and fluid, even if driving the Batmobile is not, and there are several good hooks for progressing Batman's character that reward you for the time invested in the game.

But for newcomers to the Warriors franchise, I can't think of a better title to introduce you to the history, characters and action, either on PlayStation Vita for Nintendo 3DS.

These small gripes aside, for the most part all five games in the The Jackbox Party Pack are a lot of fun in a party environment, and because just about everyone can join in without having access to a controller, this gets to be one of the best inexpensive local multiplayer games to have sitting on the PlayStation 4's hard drive for when friends come over for drinks.

Adventures of Pip is a solid platformer with a clever little gameplay mechanic, but ultimately doesn't do all that much with it. That being said, away from the mechanics, it was also good to see one of these retro-themed platformers do something more with the art style than simply have it as window-dressing. Adventures of Pip actually turns pixels into part of the gameplay, and that's neat.

In theory I would love a game like Fossil Fighters, but while I was willing to forgive the original on the Nintendo DS as a good-but-flawed new IP, by now the game should have a far more refined identity by now. There's still potential in Fossil Fighters, but the series needs to head back to the drawing board for a thorough rethink.

While it seemed a bit weird that Capcom had not originally included Devil May Cry 4 into its HD Collection a few years back, the Special Edition is worth a look for fans of the series on the PlayStation 4 as a stand alone game, thanks to the visual upgrades and new character scenarios.

For now, though, this is a fine multiplayer experience to have sitting on the PlayStation 4.

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.

Kholat is an atmospheric adventure game that is creepy but really should not be labeled as a horror game. With a wonderful art style and amazing sound effects, Kholat should still please horror fans and adventure game fans alike.

It one of the most immediately playable games at release I’ve ever encountered, with very few bugs or design flaws. You, dear reader, now have the power to become an all-powerful Overseer yourself. It would be a mistake not to.

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.

I strongly suspect that, a hundred years or so down the track, Steins;Gate will be remembered as a truly classic narrative, for it is both entertaining and intelligent. Your grandkids may well be playing this one for their high school class assignments, and that's a pretty neat thought.

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.

Looney Tunes Galactic Sports isn't bad. It does what it set out to achieve. The problem is that it lacks any ambition to do anything more than a cash-in, and this game really isn't going to be remembered as the finest project Sony backed on its PlayStation Vita platform.

Lord of Magna is pure comfort gaming. It wont dazzle you with its production values, nor will it break your mind over its philosophy or test your skills at JRPGs with its difficulty. Instead, just like the hero's obsession with adopting new people into his ever-growing "family," this is a game that you'll develop a deep and personal attachment to, because it was built with a purity of intention that is so rare these days, and tugs on the heart strings in just the right way.

Despite these irritants, The Escapist remains light-hearted fun. It's not an especially meaningful or rich gaming experience (and of course, it doesn't try to be either), and it won't be remembered a decade from now as a classic, but it's honest entertainment that does on some level tap into one of the more enduring subsets of the crime fiction genre.

There are animated cut scenes and visually appealing visuals, but the raw lack of innovation in a kind of game that is rapidly showing its age really does let it down.

For a new IP, Nintendo has done everything right in Splatoon. It has forged a game that has an identity that is uniquely its own in a market and genre that is absolutely saturated in me-too nonsense, and has shown us all that there's no reason that a shooter should stick to template: it's okay to be different.

It's a good start to the franchise, with opportunities to expand upon the world there, add some story context and hopefully flesh out the experience further.

Operation Abyss is a thematically unique dungeon crawler, with some great systems underpinning it, and some of the best level design in the genre to date. And for all that, it's a real, genuine triumph.

The irony of the name "Desktop Dungeons" is that the game is infinitely more suited to the iPad.

A very competent, but ultimately unremarkable game.

The team at Telltale Games has done a spectacular job of creating a compartmentalised story that runs parallel to the books and show that fans know so well.

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.

I hope I'm wrong with that suspicion and Gamebook Adventures 11 is a true return to form for the series, because while Lords of Nurroth is a fun concept and narrative, and yet another rush of nostalgia for fans of the gamebook genre, it's not quite up to the standard of the series' finest.

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.

It's not the most artful, the most intelligent, or the most important, but it's certainly going to be the most spectacular. And I know for a lot of players out there, the spectacle is all that matters.

Ultratron is a good arcade game with the simple goal of surviving as long as possible in order to avenge the human race and earn a good score to brag about while doing it. While it might not do anything we haven't seen before, it is a fun time for those that love the retro style.

Axiom Verge is a near-flawless indie game that is sure bound to entertain you with its wide array of creative weapons and deep exploration that, at the end of which, rewards you handsomely.

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.

It's a horribly generic platformer that tries hard to be some kind of homage to the genre's greats, and ends up being a pale imitation of them all. Sure it's cheap as chips on the Nintendo 3DS, but that doesn't mean its worth the time investment.

The art is some of the prettiest I have seen in a game in a long time. It might not be the most innovative game out there, but given it comes from a small indie team, it does achieve what it sets out to do admirably.

Toren really is about its narrative, and that is arthouse gold. Like the finest of foreign cinema, this game challenges how the wisdom behind blockbuster design would dictate a game should be put together. It's constrained by budget and, perhaps, a lack in confidence to go all the way and risk complete innovation, but it's a beautiful, emotive, and powerful experience, and it's going to be one of my games of the year. If not one of my favourite games ever.

In terms of the gameplay, level design and overall pacing, The Old Blood has learned a handful of lessons and made the appropriate tweaks to improve the play experience from its predecessor. Unfortunately some of the spark that make last year's game oddly inspiring is gone, which makes it decent fun for shooter fans, but ultimately unsatisfying for anyone beyond that.

What I have to emphasise here is that the base puzzle game of Puzzle & Dragons is so, so addictive. Backed with a simple, pleasant aesthetic and speedy mechanics that mobile games specialise in, it's easy to watch the hours fly by without really realising you've been playing for so long.

Spartan Strike is an stylish little package, and is being sold for an amazing price. As such, 'true' Halo game or not, it is easily one of the best games to come out on the iPad this year.

Sayonara Umihara Kawase+’s mental gymnastics are every bit as sadistically soul crushing as they are cunningly compelling and this two-spirited nature poses a serious entry barrier.

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.

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

For people who are looking to build a JRPG as a hobby, or a youngster not quite ready to learn proper coding, the RPG Maker 2003 remains a spectacular tool, all these years later. It provides a platform that allows genre fans to indulge their creativity, and makes the tools so easy that anyone, regardless of programming skills, can create something.

Any good wargame should provide a sense of historical authenticity to the player, and helps enlighten them about the military strategy of the era. Gettysburg achieves that with clear authenticity and understanding of the tactics of the era, and while the iPad doesn't lack for quality wargames on it, this is another one worth adding to the playlist.

Perils of Man provides a solid point and click experience that will immerse you into this fantasy story and definitely racks up enough game time to make the small price tag worthwhile.

It's rough around the edges, but it's an intense and even emotional experience, and still one of the better examples of a zombie survival game.

Shovel Knight is yet another fantastic indie addition to the continually growing Vita catalogue. It might lack Vita-specific extras (and is therefore a pointless purchase for people who already own the game on some other platform), but for old-school retro platforming fans who might have missed out on this fantastic title so far, it's a must buy.

Cube Creator 3D was an interesting attempt to bring the Minecraft experience over to the Nintendo 3DS. While not offering anything overly new, it gets the interface right and makes use of the hardware well.

As a paid product, The Charnel House Trilogy fails to deliver on its promised horror.

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.

There is nothing that redeems Excave II: Wizard of the Underworld.

The Weaponographist is a solid game to play if you're ever in the mood to dwindle a few minutes or hours off the boring day you're having. The pick-up-and-play quality, easy-to-understand nature and lightweight gameplay all come together to make The Weaponographist an easy recommend for everyone.

The game is unforgiving when it comes to the AI, and some players can learn from this while others will be destroyed constantly, which is unfortunate. With some tweaking here and there and adding difficulty levels, BRAWL could be amazing.

The gameplay is fast paced and satisfying, and the short game length means you won’t get too attached to your player character. I would say that Quarries of Scred is built to promote short play sessions, but the sheer addictiveness means it’s hard to stop playing once you start and the sheer difficulty of the gameplay only adds to this.

A truly fine racing game, and for PlayStation 4 owners this will be the first next-generation racing game of worth for serious revheads to sink their teeth into. Racing beginners, or people who are used to racing games where powerslides are enough to get around corners may feel very frustrated with this one at first, but I can't think of a racing game that is more worth taking the time to get to know, and master, than this one.

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.

Monster Combine TD isn’t totally polished or totally original but it bears the markings of an eShop sleeper hit. If you’re in the mood for portable tower defence action with a comedic twist, Collavier has you covered.

While the graphics are nothing special and the controls may give you a hard time despite the game being controller-compatible, the story and gameplay are well worth an entire playthrough at least once.

Yes, it's had far more effort that's been put into its presentation than any other example of the genre I can think of, however by its very nature this is a very limited genre, and Infinity Runner just doesn't do enough to prove its merits beyond an iPhone time waster.

Hakuoki is a memorable, deep, and rich visual novel, and one of the finest examples of that particular genre that has ever been produced.

The great problem in creating a game that so emphatically invites comparison to a classic series is that it will be compared to that series. Elliot Quest never had a hope of comparing to those games, but it does a decent job as a modern homage to them.

It is sharp, witty, intelligent, and just the right shade of nasty -, and is a true inspiration for future open-world action adventure games.

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.

Anyone who has fond memories of playing Dungeon Keeper will find War for the Overworld to be a nostalgia trip. It’s not as advanced as it could be at a technical level, but further fixes and updates could lead to an improved experience.

While Convoy could easily and mistakenly be wrote off as another 'clone', one of the most challenging and grittiest indie titles of the year would be missed out on. If Mad Max: Fury Road turns out to be half this good, I'll be set for life.

The 3DS isn't the kind of device I would have expected to see such an intense, in-depth simulation game. A-Train 3D is by far the most complex, in-depth and involved game you'll find on Nintendo's handheld, and while it's a very niche title, it's also a very good one that perfectly executes on all of its many systems.

It looks fine and plays flawlessly, but there is one issue that I find with the game. It’s on the Wii U. There is a 3DS version as well, so it may have been a case of the developer finding it easy to port to the system, and there very may well be the audience for word search games on Nintendo systems. But I can't see why people would sit in front of a TV to play a word search game.

Dialing the difficulty up also provides a real test of anyone's management abilities. So look past the satirical elements of Tropico 5. The humour is there, and it's funny, but the real strength of this series - especially with Sim City falling off the map completely in recent years - is that it plays so, so well.

Painting Workshop has alternatives all over the market, several of which are superior and offer some kind of inventive extra, but despite this it works brilliantly as an introductory doodle station.

There's nothing actually wrong with the game. It's just that I can't see many people getting meaningful value out of it.

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.

As a handheld game on the Vita, it feels too complicated, confused and overall not polished enough. It feels like a console game crammed into a handheld that can’t handle the pace, and being that this is now the fourth entry into the MLB series on the Vita, I don’t see this changing any time soon, unfortunately.

Football Manager Classic is an incremental improvement on the previous games in the series on the iPad, but between those improvements and the updated roster, people who belong to its niche will find this absolutely essential stuff.

House of Caravan delivers just over an hour of fun, or a bit longer if you struggle to find things like I did. Its intriguing story and 1900’s atmosphere keeps you engaged long enough to be able to feel accomplished once you finish the game, however, its puzzles never reach their full potential.

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.

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.

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.

Blue Estate is a fun little shooter that has a sense of humour, but ends too soon. I did enjoy the game but also did feel that it got a little too repetitive. If you're a fan of on rail shooters this is sure to please. If not, it still might be worth a whirl, since it is priced appropriately for what it offers.

Stealth Inc 2 was not only something different, but it was something different that worked. It isn’t easy to merge several styles, but Curve Studios went for it and it more than paid off.

This is, effectively, an independent game from a small, creative team. And it’s a massive success at being that. It’s a deep JRPG mixed with both satire and humour, it’s something you haven’t seen before, and most importantly: it’s fun. Real, genuine fun.

As a completely free game on PlayStation Plus, Woah Dave! is brief, throwaway fun. There's nothing wrong with it, but its sheer lack of content means I wouldn't want to spend anything on it.

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.

Boxboy! is confident, assured programming. It’s brave to make a puzzle game in which players control a box with two little slits for eyes. It requires the confidence of the entire development team that they’re going to be able to imbue character into the experience despite the minimalism, and that the level design and puzzles would be interesting enough in their own right to maintain the player’s interest.

Thematically, I find a lot more to appreciate about Dark Souls 2 than Bloodborne, it must be said.

I would happily recommend something like Rogue Legacy to anyone, because it's a game that transcends its genre to become something special. La-Mulana never quite achieves that, so it's only ever going to be a cult favourite.

With regards to the artwork, the designs of the Ironcasts and Steamtanks themselves are noteworthy. The backgrounds, however, are very, very bland and simple. Repetitive buildings and uninspiring scenery make for a visual experience that doesn't do the concept justice.

While I was very late to the Borderlands party, this "HD Remaster" of the two later games in the series have converted me to the franchise. If the FPS genre moves this way en masse (and we are seeing that happen with the likes of Destiny), then I might just be converted to the whole genre yet.

Plot aside, Reel Fishing is a very specific game for a very specific audience. It's a reasonably casual game, but at the same time it can't be expected to appeal to anyone who doesn't "get" the appeal of fishing. But for people that simply want to toss a lure into the water, then this is a good way to get away from it all for little while, and for an inner city dweller like me, that's a bit of escapism I appreciated a great deal.

A game with much unmet potential. After clearing out the same area for the twentieth time, players will realise just how little effect they have on the gaming environment.

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

As a spiritual successor to some of my favourite RPGs of all time, Pillars of Eternity does those games justice with its ultra-traditional story, presentation and mechanics. But I recommend other people check it out as well, as it offers a sprawling world to explore, and a fantastic cast of companions to interact with, making it the perfect example of a retro genre done right.

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.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D doesn't really belong on the Nintendo 3DS. In fact, Nintendo would have been better off going the other way and doing a "HD" version for the Wii U in the lead up to the next Monolith Software release on that console. But, that aside, this is a classic game, and having that experience on the go is not a bad bonus reason to purchase the New Nintendo 3DS.

With minimal export options, even Art Academy is going to struggle to appear to people as anything more than a bit of gimmicky fun. And Art Academy doesn't have the same interface and functionality issues as this does.

All the levels have the same basic objectives; kill all the goons, destroy all the drugs, and repeat. In later levels the game will add hostages who will get in your way. Killing hostages will understandably lower your score, but have very little value to add to the experience beyond that.

While it’s a slightly limited experience, Vietnam ’65 impresses with its novel mechanics, interesting setting and entertaining gameplay. True innovation is rare in the wargaming world, but this title has it by the Huey-load. And, with its super-budget price, this is one game that all strategy fans can afford to try.