There’s nothing particularly flashy or exciting about Sympathy Kiss. As a slice-of-life narrative, being mundane is kind of the point. With that said it is incredibly well-written and designed, and while the protagonist may or may not match up with your own vision of how to behave in the workplace, the situations she deals with are often very relatable. Thanks to some exceptionally gorgeous art, solid storytelling, and some fun little systems that remind us that life isn’t meant to be all about work, it also ends up being a game of relevance today, and a reminder that the equilibrium between work and play (let alone romance) has become seriously messed up.

I had a lot of fun playing (or, more accurately, replaying) Mario Vs. Donkey Kong. It’s a brightly-coloured, wholesome good time, and the rare all-ages puzzle game that strikes the right balance between making sure that everyone that plays it feels smart, without being condescending about it. As much fun as it is, however, this is one of the most transient games that Nintendo has published in quite some time. You’ll play it, enjoy it, and very quickly forget about it because it is, ultimately, a remake of once of Nintendo’s most niche titles – a title that was niche for a very good reason.

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.

The best art tells us something of relevance to the world around us. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a dark and intense fantasy of ghosts, vengeance, and human resilience through the bleakest of nightmares. It’s unfortunate that it offers such a strong allegory to the real world, yet it does and that makes it all the more thought-provoking, however inadvertent it was for the developers. Thankfully it’s also exceptionally good to play, even as it challenges your intellect and moral core.

Getting right down to it, the purity of Death Mark’s horror to Japanese ghost story traditions is also what makes it so appealing. The underlying mystery in getting to know the story of each ghost provides the page-turning quality – it’s a whodunnit in a true sense – but the dark majesty the aesthetics and direction are what help it stand out as a truly creative work, however niche its audience will be.

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

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.

On one level I am sure that there will be people that appreciate that, after all this time, they finally have a Stargate SG1 game. I just can’t help but see it as a missed opportunity on every level. Stargate was, at its core, a narrative-driven (not action) show about exploring the stars, meeting alien species and embracing science over religion. A more grounded take on Star Trek, basically. An isometric RPG in the vein of Disco Elysium would have certainly been harder to produce, but much more appropriate to the ideology and intent of Stargate than this stealth tactics title. It’s well-crafted and were it not carrying the license it would have been much easier to enjoy. Painted as it is, however, it’s far too dissonant and incoherent to be the celebration of the property that it needed to be.

I refuse to play mobile gatcha games (in part because I know that I’m the kind of personality that would get too hooked on a favourite one if I found one). However, I have always found Granblue Fantasy’s vision and promise particularly intriguing. The fighting game whet my appetite, but Granblue Fantasy Relink has been my first real exposure to the property. Not only are the characters, setting, lore and world building every bit as enjoyable as I hoped from all the promo material I’ve seen over the years, but for a “spin-off” this is a much better action RPG than I was anticipating. While eight years is no doubt longer than Cygames hoped to spend developing Granblue Fantasy Relink, the wait has been worth it and this is, potentially, the start of a very big new property that will rival the best that Bandai Namco, SEGA and Square Enix produce.

While I personally prefer the more textured narrative of Persona 4, the unrelenting focus and intensity of Persona 3 means that it still stands out as one of the greatest and most intelligent video game narratives. The developers haven’t done too much to mess with that (the decision to leave out a “post-game” chapter that was both technically unnecessary but yet well-regarded notwithstanding), and have otherwise focused on modernising both the look and flow of the game to make it the most enjoyable and “clean” version of Persona 3 yet. Persona has a habit of attracting purists, and I foresee the discourse around this remake being particularly volatile. However, personally, I’ll be over there looking forward to the inevitable announcement that Persona 4 will get this treatment too.

As a proof of concept, Reigns: Three Kingdoms is intriguing. As far as allowing players to travel through history (and/or literature) and play out “what if” hypothetical scenarios based on moral decisions, there is clearly a lot of potential here. Is there a future where we can talk sense into Napoleon before he marches on Moscow, or give Romeo & Juliet a happy ending? Reigns could well give that to us. For it to truly work, though, the developers just need to manage continuity and introduce a sense of consequence to our actions when trying to reverse history. That way, when we successfully do achieve something, we can feel like actual heroes in the story.

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

It’s the grandest vision for the series to date, and adds an entertaining dash of culture shock to the exceptional, and unique blend of the best noir this side of Raymond Chandler and the surreal, offbeat, sharp humour. Once again, it really should be the last adventure for these heroes, and yet if the writers at Ryu ga Gotoku have more plans for them yet, be that somehow more sequels, prequels, or spinoffs, I am quite sure they’ll be able to hook us in all over again.

Tekken 8 is, without a doubt, a highly polished gemstone of a fighting game, and it offers players the opportunity to demonstrate some truly elite skills through the aggressive, offensive-first focus on the combat system. But outside of the overly serious, hardcore fighting game community, it’s difficult to see this capturing the imagination of many. A lack of humour, creativity, narrative and personality makes it clear that Bandai Namco’s only real interest was making sure that no one was offended by the game and therefore it will be the headline act at fighting game tournaments for years to come. Luckily for the developers, they hit the brief and it almost certainly will be exactly that game.

Another Code: Recollections is a “memory” that should be valued and now, thanks to this release, will avoid “fading” for some years to come yet. You can argue that it highlights fundamental weaknesses in puzzle and adventure games, where developers feel such an urgent need to make sure players don’t get stuck (and subsequently give up on the game) that they ensure the game basically plays itself. Recollections is certainly an easier experience than the games it is a remake of. But the real value of Cing’s cult masterpieces has been the stories they’ve told and the evocative and rich ambience of the storytelling environment, and the remake, here, builds on those qualities in a remarkable fashion.

The Monty Mole Collection isn’t extremely expensive, and that’s perhaps its saving grace, because examining its fare won’t set you back a lot. But in the shadow of far superior collections that genuinely pay homage to why retro gaming is so important to not only be preserved but played, this is definitely second-rate. Monty may or may not be innocent, but he deserved better than this.

Even if you love The Last Of Us 2. Even if you think it’s the Citizen Kane of video games. Even if you think that Shakespeare himself would have thrown in the towel after seeing this game, realising he could never compete with it as a storyteller, you must surely realise that a game that is four years old and is readily available on your current console doesn’t need the remaster. Surely you understand that this is a ridiculous excess, done purely to milk revenue out of fans, and that it’s particularly frustrating given that Sony is sitting on dozens of incredible properties. That it would rather leave all of them on ice and inaccessible to release this indulgence just isn’t acceptable.

I think I would have appreciated My Next Life as a Villainess so much more if I was an existing fan of the property. Otomate seems to have created something that is a fascinating observation of the otome genre and a very funny, character-driven “romance” story to go with it. Unfortunately, too much of that washed over my head. While I totally respect that developers of games can assume that players have read or seen something else first, and that their game is a continuation of an existing story, I would suggest that giving newcomers the option of a 10-minute summary to catch up first would be a helpful way for those of us coming in fresh to at least understand the basics before we’re thrown in the narrative deep end.

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

For all its warts, though, it’s also a genuinely interesting and intense mind puzzle. I have no doubt that Metro Quester will not sell as well as Kemco’s usual by-the-number SNES-era JRPG clones. It isn’t as instantly accessible or familiar. But if Kemco published more games like this it would be a publisher to respect and pay closer attention to. These kinds of quirky, different, and memorable experiences are what we need to see more of.

I’ve seen more than a few people express surprise that Terra Nil is a Devolver Digital-published work, and I’m really not sure what they understand about the company. This is a game that gently reinforces a fundamentally positive and progressive view of the world and does so by transgressing the status quo and challenging expectations of both genre and theme. That has always been Devolver’s MO, and Terra Nil is perhaps the most important and timely project in its catalogue to date.

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.

It might only be a single game, and that game might only be a single hour’s play long, but people who have a genuine love for the history of video games owe it to themselves to pick this up. Trip World DX works as a museum exhibit and charming little curiosity, and there are far worse things to do for an hour than this.

Born of Bread looks like a game that will be easy to love. The art in screenshots looks lovely, and Paper Mario-inspired titles are always welcome. It’s a lovely formula that lends itself to a lot of joy. But the developers completely misfired on this one. It comes across as a flat fan project that had original art assets dropped in at the last moment, rather than a cohesive creative work with its own identity, and, sadly, it’s one of the dullest games I’ve played this year.

If Xuan-Yuan Sword III: Mists Beyond The Mountains had a working localisation, it would be essential. After all, it’s not often that you get to play a RPG from the 90’s for the first time these days. The classic turn-based combat is well executed, the Pokemon-like monster-capturing system adds nicely to the base formula, and the real-world and real-history backdrop is something that I wish more RPGs did. But it’s so hard to follow the plot, worldbuilding and characterisation when the localisation is this undercooked, and these elements are all so important for the RPG genre in particular. I do hope that one day, someone has the opportunity to give these games a high-quality localisation, because it is obvious that they deserve it. Until then, unfortunately, this classic is only for the patient.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is an exceptional return for one of Square Enix’s most under-appreciated properties. With Pokémon going through a rare period where it’s not meeting nearly universal acclaim, perhaps this is the big opportunity for this series to finally break through, some 25 years after it first launched on Game Boy Color.

Refind Self is a compelling narrative experience. One that you might just learn something about yourself from in the process. It might not be scientific, but it’s one of the better pieces of introspection we’ve seen coming out of game development.

I enjoyed SteamWorld Build a lot, but it’s not essential. Perhaps that’s why, 13 years later, This overall property is still searching for that breakout hit that will elevate it from indie charmer to a major property. The elements are all there: the theme, the quality aesthetics, and the maverick ability to move between genres while interpreting them in an accessible and engaging manner. But the developer really needs to figure out how to tell a compelling, deep and purposeful narrative with all these components. It’s the glue that’s missing from making SteamWorld memorable.

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

As long as you’re patient, there’s a lot to enjoy in Gothic 2, from the quest structure, to the scope of the world, and detailed plot, the world is filled with secrets and discoveries to make. It is clear to this day that were Gothic 1 provided the vision, Gothic 2 is when Piranha Bytes really converted. To this day you could argue that this is the team’s finest work, and the closest it has ever come to climbing out of the “Eurojank” space to simply sit next to Bethesda, BioWare and Obsidian in the upper echelons of the genre (historically, at least).

There will be a very small audience for Barton Lynch Pro Surfing. People who want an effort to build an accurate and serious simulation of the sport will likely find something admirable about the attempt. As limited as it is, there has been a real and genuine effort to create something authentic. However, as the first effort at a proper surfing game in quite some time, I would hazard a guess that even the hardcore surfers would have just liked something fun to play, even if the developers dialled back the attempt at realism just a tad.

Persona 5 Tactica is an excellent addition to the overall Persona 5 property. What at first looks like a cheerfully whimsical bonus spinoff ends up being something that adds to the core themes of the base game, and is impressive in the way it does that. It also backs up with some of the sharpest “fast tactics” play we’ve seen in the genre. I just wish the concept and theme were written better, and I honestly never thought I would say that of a Persona title.

My Time at Sandrock’s issues are due to its ambition and sheer density of what you can do. I would expect a Yakuza title to have similar issues on Switch. But then the developers aren’t putting Yakuza games on the console. I am quite sure that this game is a fine experience on other platforms. However, the developer decided to release it on Switch, and therefore this version needs to be assessed in isolation. In short, it is just not a good game on this specific platform, and the developers should have made a judgment call to pull this version when it was clear that it wasn’t going to work. That way we wouldn’t have been subjected to it.

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

Howl is an earnest effort with a strong aesthetic and creative vision. It’s easy to imagine that it’s going to find an audience among people who pick it up on a whim – because in screenshots and video, it does stand out – and then find themselves absorbed in the puzzles. Unfortunately, while it does get challenging, Howl outlives its welcome, and the strange decision to deliberately add repetition into something that should have focused on forward momentum really hurts it in the end. If it was half the game it would have been twice as impressive.

Concealed is visually impressive and borrows intelligently from the aesthetic of manga books. I also know from piecing the narrative together that in its native language, the story is both chilling and effective horror. This game therefore could have been great in English too, and it’s such a tragedy that the single most important quality of a visual novel was overlooked in the way that it has been.

We could argue back-and forth about whether Nintendo should have simply released the original Super Mario RPG on the SNES app that online subscribers already have access to. The visual update is delightful, but outside of that Nintendo has changed so little that you could play the two games side-by-side and barely notice the difference in the experience. And yet, it’s also one of the all-time great games from the SNES era, and so whimsical and playful that, ultimately, Super Mario RPG is a worthwhile for no other reason than it’s an excuse to play it again.

It is the one game like this that reminds us that games are an art form. The only question is whether you’re looking to experience a true work of art, or have a bit of fun. If you fall into the latter camp, stay well away.

Does Liberation reinvent Elite in new and startling ways that will drive forward the space trading/combat genre? No, not really. But not every game has to be some big new innovative masterwork either. Liberation is shamelessly retro; while Miller claims inspiration from original Elite the visuals evoke (at least in me) more of a feel of the way that Elite II: Frontier had me badly hooked in its Amiga 500 incarnation back in my university days. Sometimes, being fun is enough, and Liberation manages that well enough as long as you’re already a fan of stripped-back space warfare.

Sadly, apart from being really, really ridiculously good-looking, Fashion Dreamer just hasn’t got much going for it. With no real reward mechanism to encourage you to think about fashion, and nothing stopping you from building up an extensive wardrobe of clothes simply by jumping online for a couple of minutes here and there, there’s so small of an incentive to actually play. Especially once you’ve found an outfit for your character that’s so cute that you don’t feel the need to mess around with it any further.

Thankfully we only have to wait three months for the next “proper” title in the series to land. While Like a Dragon Gaiden might have been disappointing against the astronomically high standards of this series, I have no doubt whatsoever that January 2024 will deliver another bold step forward for SEGA’s gritty urban epic.

There’s not much else to say in this review. The big feature in Football Manager 2024 is the inclusion of Japanese football. That alone makes this version of the game the definitive edition. Putting that aside the rest of the game is another decent refinement to the best sporting management game of all time, and while it sometimes feels like Sports Interactive rests on its laurels, as no one else is ever going to have the engine or data to compete in this particular niche, the reality is that when the base game is this good, tweaks from one year to the next are enough.

Nintendo’s had a bumper year, so I’ll forgive it for some filler (especially when there’s also the Super Mario RPG remake on the way yet). WarioWare: Move It! achieves what it sets out to by providing players with a bunch of microgames that use the Joy-Cons and motion control in an inventive and silly manner. You’ll enjoy the boundless creativity in coming up with so many microgame ideas. In addition, you’ll enjoy the colour and humour at first. And then, about an hour later, you’ll be done with it for good.

As I said at the start of the review, Star Ocean 2 is the masterpiece of this series. As a hardened, die-hard Star Ocean fan, I can even excuse the fifth entry in the series in my head, and almost no one likes that one. However, the second occupies a particularly special spot in the upper echelons of the genre. With this remake, Star Ocean The Second Story R, the original has been modernised in the most clever and appropriate way, maintaining all the great qualities that people remember from the PlayStation 1, while giving the aesthetics a luxurious overhaul that makes the game comparable as an artistic endeavour to the finest of the genre today. This is, simply, not something that someone with even a passing interest in JRPGs should overlook.

Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is bright, bubbly, and whimsical. It’s also reasonably challenging, since it’s actually not easy to be as mechanical as a metronome, especially when there are as many visual distractions as this game throws at you. Consequently, between this and that also good quality Animal Crossing clone on Apple Arcade, Hello Kitty is having quite a good year in video games.

Spider-Man 2 is as dumb as a bag of bricks, but that’s the norm for blockbusters. What it gets right is emotionally manipulating players to become invested in it, backing that up with one of the slickest combat systems we’ve ever seen… and then giving us two entirely different characters to enjoy that with. It is a true spectacle and while I wish that we, as a community, demanded better from narratives in video games, I couldn’t help but have fun with this one once I shut my brain off and just embraced it for the silly thing that it is.

The real question with Archetype Acadia is whether it justifies its length. With 1.6 million words in it, it’s three times the length of The Lord of the Rings. Or to mention another post-apocalyptic, dark tale filled with moral conflict, Archetype Acadia is roughly 26 times longer than Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. While it’s an imperfect comparison to make between visual novels and novels (by their nature, VNs do need to be longer), there’s just no reason that Archetype Acadia needed to be that long. It’s good, and at times even great, but slimming it down and focusing on delivering greater intensity through the art and story beats could have elevated this game to the highs of the genre.

There’s so much to like about Inescapable. The concept is solid and the developers seem to have had the right intentions. The vision is there. It’s also horny as anything and why the heck not? We don’t really have a Danganronpa-like that made the obvious observation that a bunch of super-hot young adults, trapped in a kind of “paradise,” are almost certainly going to get it on. It’s just unfortunate that this is a 15-hour game that takes about 10 hours to start getting to the point, and from start to finish it’s simply not written well enough to demand the player sit through that.

Konami could have done more, for sure. There are several titles that really could have been included in this collection for the sake of completion – Metal Gear Solid 4 remains locked to the PlayStation 3, while MGS Acid and Twin Snakes look pretty set to be lost to time at this point. Sure, MGS V remains a viable product in its own right, but Konami really could have filled us in on the rest...With that being said, the original Metal Gear Solid trilogy isn’t just a trio of great games that people have strong nostalgia for. They’re genuine masterpieces and deserve to be preserved into perpetuity. This collection is a perfectly adequate way of preserving them for this hardware cycle.

Crymachina asks probing questions about the nature of humanity through the lens of machines, and its conclusions are evocative, emotive and ultimately quite uplifting. It does sit in the shadow of a giant of a game that already canvassed exactly the same subject through exactly the same lens. However, there’s a greater warmth to Crymachina that makes it more relatable than the relatively academic NieR: Automata. Throw in some vividly memorable art direction and what we have here is a JRPG that might surprise people with just how memorable it proves to be.

I’d kill for a Jackbox Party Pack launcher, from which I could launch whichever games in packs I already owned during gaming sessions, rather than having to both remember which pack they were in and then launch that pack’s interface. In fact, I’d pay for just that alone, Jackbox Games. How about it?

Hellboy: Web of Wyrd looks the part. It’s a gorgeous game and I was really hoping that it would deliver the vision for the character and comic in the same way that it captured the aesthetics. Sadly, instead, we got a stodgy roguelike that largely misses the point of what either Hellboy or the roguelike should offer. Equally sadly, we continue to wait for a truly great Hellboy game.

Dementium is not even slightly entertaining and all the developer has achieved with this re-re-release is broadcast that their original game wasn’t ever anything more than a gimmicky novelty. What an incredible own goal when Dementium did actually have something of a legacy from people nostalgic for the DS.

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.

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is a return to form for the series. What had become a formula so bloated that it lost sight of what actually made the series good has been simplified to make it more engaging. What you get here is an efficient and clean historical action game. One that gives you the chance to explore a less-travelled part of history from a part of the world that people are usually too busy demonising to explore as a setting. Ubisoft would benefit from writers who understood how to convey narrative efficiently, but in every other way the more focused and streamlined experience that Mirage offers makes it the most cohesive entry in this series for a very long time.

I realise that Asterix & Obelix isn’t as commercially valuable as, say, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or the Fate anime property. It’s never going to attract a major project from a top-flight developer. Nonetheless, there are small developers who have taken the iconic French comic and done something that shows respect; at least they have done their best. There is nothing like that in Asterix & Obelix: Heroes. It’s a cheap and tacky cash-in, and everyone involved in it over the years (the 40th book in the series comes out this year!) deserves better than this.

The next step for Big Ant would be to start capturing the nuances of the sport and convert excellent ball-to-ball action to give us the full match experience, when events that happened in the 10th over can impact on how bowlers, batters, and the crowd itself behave in the 40th. If Big Ant can get there, make it feel like tactics matter and results are less pre-determined and arbitrary, and then they will produce a cricket game that will finally move from the cusp to sit alongside EA, Sony and 2K’s sporting titles in offering something that truly understands and captures the spirit of the sport.

Gothic is getting a full remake, which will release in 2024. I actually expect that to be good, because the developers can use the modern tools they have to modernise and restore the original vision of the game. Unfortunately, though, that’s the final nail in the coffin for the original. Unless you have a very academic reason for wanting to play an artefact of B-tier game design from the early turn of the century, there’s just no reason to play this port.

I generally like the “filler” titles in the Dragon Quest franchise. Dragon Quest Treasures was a delight, as was Builders, as was the VR game that I played in an arcade in Japan. This is a versatile property and most of the developers that work on it clearly enjoy what they’re doing. But Strash is different. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth as it comes across as cynical, and derivative to everything but Dragon Quest. Most egregious of all is that somehow, despite being based on a well-regarded Dragon Quest anime, it genuinely seems like the developers failed to understand what makes Dragon Quest a uniquely special property. If they did understand it, they comprehensively failed to articulate it. I’m genuinely disappointed, but, on the plus side, I fully expect that the upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters game will completely right the ship. The great thing about this series is that even in its lowest moments, it never takes long to bounce back.

Fate/Samurai Remnant doesn’t require you to know the Fate series to play, but it will convert you to a fan by the end of it. It’s written well, gives you an interesting world to explore, and has a clean combat system that never wears out its welcome. Given that this does take place in an entirely new chapter for Fate, Type-Moon now has a bunch more characters to spin into mechanise for this money-spinning behemoth and, as much as I hate admitting this to myself, I’d be all in for all of that. Fate/Samurai Remnant has reinvigorated my love for the property all over again.

With some excellent new modes, fun collectibles and unlocks, and some of the most well-executed Bomberman gameplay we’ve seen in years, Super Bomberman R 2 is a genuine return to form for the classic franchise. The quality of the new modes is genuinely surprising, and it’s all designed according to the kind of multiplayer that is popular right now. In other words, this represents the best chance the 40-year-old venerable franchise has to find a new generation of fans yet.

Lies Of P is a decent Soulslike, but it does squander the main opportunity that it had to differentiate itself. The “dark Pinocchio” theme is intriguing and the developers went about it with the right spirit, but struggled to convert it into something as thought-provoking and deep as it should have been. Take that out of the equation and you’ve got a Soulslike that’s a little heavy-handed in how it makes players engage with it, in a world that looks more inspired in screenshots than it is to actually journey through. Ultimately, as enjoyable as it is, Lies Of P stands testament to just how difficult FromSoftware’s formula really is.

The Isle Tide Hotel is a visually striking, unsettling FMV game with a memorable cast. Its gameplay is generally par for the course, as are its settings, but its really the story and the variety of branching paths that make it memorable. It doesn’t feel like a chore to discover new paths. While I can’t spoil any of the story branches, it’s worth noting that I didn’t encounter a single unenjoyable one in six of seven playthroughs. The characters you encounter all seem a bit… off… in the best possible way, and some are more nuanced than others. I’ll definitely be revisiting the game soon.

The expanded Utawarerumono franchise might never elevate beyond the most niche of niche properties, but it is a wonderful, positive contribution to video games, and Monochrome Mobius continues translates this from a blend of visual novel and tactics to a traditional JRPG with complete success. This is a beautiful, heartfelt and sweet little game that, at around 30-40 hours, doesn’t outstay its welcome. It also reminds you that sometimes a determination to tell a good story really is better than AAA-blockbuster production excesses and flashy and overly complex gameplay gimmicks alike.

I’ll never get sick of NewZealand Story. Most of the other titles are interesting as a curio, too. The quality of the ports for all of these titles great thanks to Hamster’s technology. However, as a package, this is a woeful excuse for a compilation, and that’s particularly surprising given that it came from the same publisher that gave us the Space Invaders Invincible Collection. That was one of the very best retro collections on the Switch. One I play almost weekly to date. “Disappointing” that Taito Milestones 2 lacks the same effort doesn’t begin to describe what I feel it.

Reading back through this review it sounds negative, but that’s because I’m coming to it from the perspective of someone who generally plays single-player and is passionate about the skill tester side of rhythm games. Samba de Amigo is one of those rare rhythm games that isn’t expressly for me. I do love its quality as a party game, and a drinking game, and so it’ll stay firmly in my Switch’s memory. It’s just that, even despite the cracking soundtrack, it’s also not going to join the rotation of rhythm games I use to de-stress and tune out of the world with.

The Science Adventure series has always been the “AAA” of visual novels, offering production values and sheer confidence in the experience that is well beyond what almost anyone else can achieve. Anonymous;Code is, apparently, the end of its particular series, and that’s a massive pity, simply because I don’t think I could ever get sick of this kind of creativity. However, as an anthology of stories, the Science Adventure series are a masterwork within video games, and Anonymous;Code is the perfect, thought provoking, intelligent “page turner” to end things on.

With Armored Core VI, FromSoftware has demonstrated, yet again, that it has few peers when it comes to intelligent and thought-provoking action. You’ll need to be faster on the draw and quicker with the reactions to survive this game’s bullet ballet-like approach, but you’ll also need to be smart and precise, and there’s elegance to complement with the visceral sound of metal rending. Sadly, that’s all FromSoftware has delivered this time around, and for a company that has mastered the ability to give truly memorable context to its worlds, characters, and battles, the shallow hollowness of this experience is truly disappointing.

Sea of Stars deserves to be played, and almost everyone who does play it will enjoy it. It’s a JRPG made for JRPG fans by people who truly love the genre. There’s even something admirable about how steadfast it is in being a classical homage. The sad reality is that most pastiches that lack the self-awareness to break free of being pale homages are doomed to fade while the classic works they ape remain eternally relevant, but for now, in 2023, if you’ve got some time to spare you could do far worse than Sea of Stars.

I consider the value of these sports management simulators to be an opportunity to teach the nuances of the sport to laypeople. By understanding the underlying tactics and management structure that goes into those on-field or on-track performances, you do come to a much deeper understanding of the sport itself. Football Manager understands this, but F1 Manager doesn’t quite. Not yet. The presentation of the information is accessible and even elegant, but this is an enormously complex sport, and the developers haven’t found a way to translate this so it’s palatable to people who aren’t already deeply invested in the sport. As enjoyable, comprehensive, and well-designed as F1 Manager is, there’s still work to go to get it to the standards of Football Manager in supporting people to develop a passion for the sport.

When my biggest criticism of a game is “the font isn’t quite right,” I know I’ve played something pretty special. Radiant Tales doesn’t subvert the otome genre. It is not meant to challenge the audience to think deeply about things. It is, simply, a well-written and well-meaning romance story about a troupe of performers and a highly magical adventure they embark on together. It’s like the non-steamy end of Harlequin novels, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone benefits from a little romantic fantasy at times.

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.

Varney Lake was, at its heart, exactly what I expected it to be: a mystery story, a horror story, and a coming-of-age story all rolled into one neat package. There’s even some surprises in there. Playing Mothmen 1966 first was definitely useful for referencing characters, but it’s not absolutely necessary to play it first. The developer did a wonderful job at creating an immersive experience while confined to the visual standard it set for itself. I’m eagerly awaiting the final title in the series: Bahnsen Knights is about a cult. I’m also awaiting further news on the recently-announced Pixel Pulp physical edition for Nintendo Switch, which I will definitely be adding to my collection.

If you enjoy the turn-based combat of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, then The Dragoness is one of the better and more faithful interpretations of that very specific style. With Heroes of Might & Magic itself dead at the hands of a publisher that we don’t even want to revive it, this scratches an itch and at least tries to pick up and run with the baton. Does it stumble here and there along the way? Yes, but it’s moreish despite that, and the homage is so genuine that it’s difficult to not find it charming despite its warts.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is one of those games that could only come from Japanese culture. There aren’t many other cultures that see an inherent spirit and soul in a mascot, and to most of the rest of us, mascots are tools to use for branding and marketing, or otherwise become famous because of their association with a product like a film or a game (hello Mario and Mickey Mouse). It’s rare that a mascot IS the product. But that’s what has happened with Hello Kitty. Before today, most Kitty games came across as a cheap effort to extract more cash from that lucrative product, but Hello Kitty Island Adventure is different. This is a genuinely worthwhile use of your time, and the fact that it’s “free” but also free of microtransactions, thanks to being an Apple Arcade title, makes it all the sweeter.

I never thought I’d see Cricket Captain on the Switch. Cricket Captain 2023 should have stayed on platforms where I wouldn’t have been tempted to pay for it. What a waste of money.

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

Sword & Fairy Inn 2 is enjoyable. If you’re in the mood for a hyper-casual “simulator” and if you know the characters, so much the better. As someone who enjoys the Sword & Fairy main series a great deal, I don’t regret spending time with this, but at the same time, I do want better fan service spinoffs than this.

Disney Illusion Island is both enjoyable and entertaining, but just as the action in the game zips by with slick efficiency, so too is your memory of the time with it going to be breezy. If you’re able to use it as a way to bond with family or friends, then it’s going to have much more value than as a single-player experience. For those playing solo, expect plenty of charm, but given that it has been developed so that the youngest of children can enjoy it, there just isn’t much substance to it.

Sailing Life has depth, and if you can deal with its rough edges, you may appreciate the grand vision and intent behind it all. I would buy Sailing Life 2 in a heartbeat if the team polished the foundation up and got a better translation team, worked on the consistency of the aesthetics, and made the breadcumb trail less obtuse. Unfortunately, as unrefined as this is, it’s very difficult to imagine this finding much of an audience.

There is a lot to admire about Ed-0. Conceptually it’s spot on, the gameplay is taut, albeit “classical”, and the atmosphere is thick and entertaining. Unfortunately, it’s also a story of missed opportunities, and what could have been a truly stand-out experience ends up being just a flashy B-grade roguelike. Is it worth the time investment? Sure. Is it going to be something you remember for many years to come? Sadly, no.

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.

The point is that those Dandori Battles really elevate the Pikmin 4 experience. Without them, what you’re looking at is a perfectly pleasant but too-iterative addition to the Pikmin series. However, with them, Pikmin 4 becomes the finest execution of the Pikmin philosophy to date. With any luck, Nintendo will see this as an opportunity for a dedicated spinoff, and continue to build on the excellent foundations it has established here.

Not many people might end up playing all the Legend of Heroes titles, but for those that are dedicated, this is an unparalleled epic experience, with each new entry adding more to the overall body of work. Reverie, here, is the culmination of so much that has come before and consequently it is enormously rewarding to play through.

Thankfully the colour and humour of Atelier Marie prevent it from becoming dry, despite the clear parallel to real-world work structures. While the jury’s out on how appealing this will be to the Ryza fanbase (in particular), Marie Remake has been an opportunity for me, a hardcore Atelier fan that came to the party in the middle and who loves the “classical” approach to the series, to catch up with the game that started it all. I can see the progression from Marie to Rorona and beyond, and Gust has definitely gotten better at executing the core idea over the years, but even right back then, at the genesis of the series, Atelier has really been the most wholesome comfort food.

Ubisoft’s city builders tend to be good: Anno was released on console just last year and it is a genuinely good time. But then Anno respects the player’s intelligence and allows them to make mistakes and try things along the way. The Settlers: New Allies wants you to play like an automaton, and the inflexibility and lack of variety in this game become draining far too quickly. It’s a treat to look at, but it’s a sour thing to play, and it’s immensely disappointing that we’ve waited 13 years for this.

The aesthetics are reasonably pleasant (though I prefer the look of the “proper” Richman games), but Richman 4 Fun should have stayed on mobile. It’s about as interesting as Monopoly, if Monopoly lacked the simple, clear social critique and your opponent had dice that were weighted to basically give them what they wanted. It takes a lot for a board game to be less interesting than stock-standard Monopoly, but Richman 4 Fun has lived the impossible dream and achieved just that.

With all that said, this is an incredibly niche sport. It’s impressive that as much effort is put into doing it justice as Cyanide puts into the Tour de France. The developers get better at it, year after year, and that’s an encouraging sign too. I hope they’re profitable enough to continue with the series, because you can’t help but believe that they’re right on the cusp of this series hitting the A-tier of sporting properties.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m too picky about farm sims. I justify that by saying that all I want is a functioning game. I don’t expect some crazy story to bring you to the farm. I don’t expect perfection. But I do expect things like auto-saves to save often enough, the game not to crash, and farming itself to be pretty chill. I experienced none of that in Everdream Valley. I wanted so badly to like it, too. But instead, it feels rushed or incomplete. I don’t doubt the devs had all the best intentions, but it’s too big for its britches. It has potential, it just doesn’t feel like a fully polished game.

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.

I might not be much of a Sonic fan, but I know that if Square Enix had done the equivalent of this to that Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection, I would have blown my top. I did give the lazy effort to bring the mobile ports of Dragon Quest 1 – 3 to Switch a piece of my mind, and I don’t see that SEGA’s done any better with the Game Gear games here. The good news is that if you’ve already got Sonic Origins, then you’ve got all the bits of Sonic Origins Plus worth playing.

The creative team behind Danganronpa and, now, Rain Code, are a rare group in video games. They know how to entertain – I didn’t even mention the “replacement” for Monokuma in this game, but Shinigami the ghostly reaper is somehow even more brilliant foil and source of sadistic humour than the iconic bear. But under all the hyper-colourful art, the mysteries that would give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money, and the sheer energy and panache of it all, they also offer something intensely thoughtful with a strong and blunt message to share. As much as I loved Danganronpa, by the end of the third in that series I did think they were running out of ideas. As it turns out, all they needed was a new creative playground.

There’s room for improvement, and it’ll be interesting to see how that takes shape, given that they’ve said the plan is not for annual sports game style releases, but instead iterative development over many years. Maybe adding in a cage match, smoothing out some of the games’ slightly rougher animations, even if they are hand-drawn, and adding commentary would be good for a start. Yes, I know, I’m asking for them to add in even more DLC, but it seems like that’s what they actively want to do here, and it might just be the right approach for the challenger brand.

There is a lot to like about Loop8, and there’s the sense that the creative team put a lot of work into the symbolism and theming of it. They shot for the stars. Unfortunately, it fell slightly short, and while it’s interesting and different, it never lives up to the clear potential it had. But that’s also okay. At least they tried something different. Gaming wouldn’t be worth it if people didn’t take a creative risk every once in a while.

It's far too early to determine where Final Fantasy XVI sits in the ranks of Square Enix’s venerable series. However, this is an engrossing, entertaining and, most importantly, fiercely intelligent game. The developers have taken the AAA-blockbuster budget they had to work with, and used it to craft an experience with a strong, provocative and timely message, and then have that backed up with some of the most entertaining action combat we’ve ever seen. Not a second of the game’s runtime is wasted, there’s not a single dud character, moment, or scene, and the plot is a riveting epic "page-turner.” If only more blockbuster games were like this, game development would be a far more mature art form.

I can see what they were going for with Park Beyond, and they did get achingly close to it, but right now, and at least in its console variant, it’s not quite a recommended game without a little bug stomping and AI fine tuning. Also an option to switch on total bastard mode, so I can be the truly evil park operator of my dreams wouldn’t go astray, Limbic Entertainment. Just a thought, you understand.

A Wonderful Life on the GameCube was perhaps the most perfect execution of the Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons) ethos out of all in the long-running series. As such, it’s the one that also generates the strongest pathos. Heart-meltingly warm good-naturedness, mixed with a perfectly adequate remake make this wholesome masterpiece relevant all over again. With the state of the world being this lousy, these little escapes are more valuable than ever.

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.