Asemblance was bottled lightning. Oversight was never going to be able to recreate that, but it comes as close as it possibly can.

There’s not much else I can say, given that any commentary on the story would be a spoiler to the first game, and as much as I can breathlessly enthuse about the aesthetics and presentation, that’s something you’re going to have to see to get a feel for just how well it works despite being so eclectic. Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling is a sequel to a game you should play before it. But it’s also a game you really should play, because it is the most artfully unique and downright entertaining otome visual novel out there. Sweet and Spicy Darling is more of the same, and that’s all it needed to be.

This has been quite the non-review, I know, but then I don’t have anything to say about Persona 3 Reload that I haven’t already said, other than to note that it’s not quite as refined, smooth and slick as it is on PlayStation 5. It’s a slight enough degradation that I have no issue recommending the game anyway, though. More broadly, I guess the retro gamer in me does miss the days when meaning in video games was a collaboration between the player and the limitations the game developer worked with.

If you're under any illusions about whether Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is for a general video game audience, don't be. It's not. It's not even for general RPG fans. Hell. If you enjoy modern dungeon crawlers you're still going to need to be adventurous to get a kick out of this one. On the other hand, the developers of this Wizardry respected the game's heritage, understood the audience for this kind of game, and the uncompromising commitment to delivering for that audience is admirable. Especially for oldies like me that grew up playing these games. The trip down memory lane that Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls provided has been a delight.

Aside from Diablo itself, the clones of the genre have largely slid right back into mediocrity, and I have to hope that a new Titan Quest could be the shot in the arm that can revitalise the interest that genre fans have in it, outside of Diablo.

Heart of the Woods is a beautiful and romantic visual novel, with a wonderfully winding plot and brilliant set of characters. Without giving anything away, the first hour or two isn't indicative of the rest of the game, and once you push through that slow, senseless start, something beautiful, sweet, and, yes, a little sexy shines through the paranormal, gothic and mystery elements.

There is a glut of rhythm games on the Switch already, but none of those subsequently inspired me to pull out my keyboard and brush up on some of the music that I've learned over the years. Pianista did, and while it might not encourage you to take up music lessons, at the very least you'll walk away from this with a better sense of "classical" music. That is something valuable.

Pitched at a delightfully low price for what's on offer, Nexomon is, potentially, the start of an excellent franchise. The developers have managed to interpret everything that people love about Pokémon and deliver an experience that is both familiar, and yet also its own thing. A great sense of humour, some lovely aesthetics and a quality, balanced combat system make for an easy-playing, low-pressure, and very enjoyable homage. I do think that this game will surprise a lot of genre fans who, like me, went in expecting a clone and got something that far exceeds that.

Neva is what happens when you let actual artists make a game. That we rarely get works like this is depressing, but there’s no sense that anything in Neva was produced according to what a suit thought would be best for the share value. Yes, Neva lacks in subtlety, but it is nonetheless a beautiful, heartfelt and evocative experience. It makes it clear up front that its goal is to make you cry, and even though you know what it’s doing, you are going to cry on cue at the end of it.

More than anything else it's nice to see Koei Tecmo continue to support the PlayStation Vita. Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires won't convert anyone who isn't an existing fan of the series, and I've got to admit that after playing the recent Nobunaga's Ambition, I can't help but wish Koei localised the PlayStation Vita version of that instead, as I've already got a lot of Warriors games on my Vita, but nothing that approaches the depth of Nobunaga's Ambition. Those personal issues aside, this is a content-loaded, engaging, and entertaining entry into the Warriors series, and well worth playing for anyone who likes their action a little more cerebral.

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a committed effort by Koei Tecmo to further grow the series and find a new audience. It means that some of the Atelier traditions have been firmly and, on the back of the Ryza series, likely permanently behind. But this new direction is wonderful in its own way. Yumia’s ambitious scope, sense of adventure, quality party of characters, and typically gorgeous music and art direction make for an exciting new chapter to the series.

Kandagawa Jet Girls is a joke in the same way that Senran Kagura and The Bad Touch song that I quoted at the top is: it relishes in being brazen to the point that it knows it's going to draw some eye rolls. It also knows that many of its fans will enjoy both the brazenness and the eye rolls from the puritans - it's edgy like that. But, really, it's great. It's an excellent blend of "kart" racer and jetski playground, and it is built with a level of precision and eye for detail that I think will surprise and impress many. In other words, it is yet another hit of the kind of breezily entertaining experience that, like so much of Takaki Kenichiro's work, deserves more respect than it's going to get.

A fantastic game. I've played a lot of games that emulate the design of Castlevania to varying degrees of success, but few that do this good a job of engaging with the theme 's that underpin that series. In doing so, Momodora carves its own special niche within the Metroidvania world.

Deemo is a very gentle game. Its minimalist aesthetic aims to connect with players emotionally rather than intellectually or physically, and the end effect is akin to sitting down at a piano and playing a favourite song; but not for the benefit of an audience, and not as an examination or other test of musical skill. Sometimes people play music purely for the joy of music, and that’s what Deemo succeeds in tapping into. Sometimes, just sometimes, people play music simply for the joy of it.

Everything else about NEO is sublime, though. Once the introductory ten hours are pushed through and the game starts proper, it’s an efficient burst of energy and excitement, with one of the best soundtracks you’ll ever find in a game, one of the most explosive, dynamic combat systems you’ve played in a JRPG, and a colourful, energetic, and exciting celebration of Japanese youth culture and Shibuya itself. No doubt this will be the final roll of the dice for TWEWY as a franchise, and hopefully, it has done enough here to graduate from cult status.

This game manages to mix some quite serious themes in with its plentiful fanservice and Compile Heart trademark sense of the ridiculous.

The thing that often stops people short with game development is that the programming side of things can be intimidating. To this day the logic and process of software development throws me into a spin every time I look at it... and I do create games. They might be visual novels, sure, but they're games. I've always felt like I should know more about programming, but I just can't do it. Game Builder Garage might be pitched at a younger audience - and I can genuinely see Nintendo selling a bunch of Switches to schools for use in the younger grades as an introduction to the all-important education space - but the systematic clarity with which the tutorials of Game Builder Garage are arranged, and then the ease of use and accessibility of the software to play around with afterwards, makes it the best introduction to programming that I've come across, for anyone of any age.

Whereas any other series would be derided for a sequel that was merely more of the same, Overcooked 2 demonstrates the series’ strong core mechanics and delivers another stellar experience to be had with friends. There is a very clear vision here, and it works on every front.

By drawing inspirations from Mexican culture respectfully, the development team have created a tight platformer that includes some very clever writing and satirical looks at other games in the genre, and it is quite possibly one of the best platformers of 2018.

It’s simple enough to pick up and play while waiting for the bus, yet also deep enough to put in marathon sessions when you should be asleep.

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.

Overwatch is not typically my kind of game. Not by any measure. But the fact that I’ve been having so much fun with it that I’ve been playing it over some other games that I worship (but can’t quite mention yet) is testament to just how well Blizzard has done with this one. Bravo guys – someone has finally created a shooter I care about enough to actually want to play after finishing the review.

Deathloop is a game that takes the ideas driving the immersive sim genre to new heights. Purists may take issue with the way it breaks from some of the genre's traditions, but what it offers instead is something unlike anything else out there: a cleverly implemented time loop system that feeds into everything else, and opens the doors to a whole lot of new opportunities for the creative problem solving that sits at the heart of these games. That it does it all with a sense of style and confidence that few other games can match is icing on the cake.

If nothing else, the simple reality that Shenmue is again a living franchise is, all by itself, something truly amazing.

As an adventure that does just about everything right in the fun and technical sense, CoE's most valuable triumphs are its sense of humour and accessibility; whether you’re politically knowledgeable or oblivious, and if you have a near-romantic relationship with turn-based RPGs, you will risk yawning through a filibuster if it means becoming the Vice President of this world.

All together Utawarerumono is a lengthy game, and while I usually advocate for games to be shorter, in the particular case of this series, I do think the narrative justifies the length and experience that it's looking to share.

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

Hundred Days is a fascinating little experience. I didn't expect it to be a graceful little anti-capitalist dig, but I rather love that it is. It didn't discourage me from wanting my own vineyard one day... but it certainly reminded me that I never want anything I do to become so big that I stop caring about it, and it's a rare quality for a simulator - or any game - to subvert the expected experience to deliver a powerful message like that.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is wholesome. It's a little naive in the way it presents the "grass is always greener on the other side" perspective on country living, but this series has been kicking around since the Super Nintendo and always gets away with it, on account of being so sweet and good-natured that it's impossible not to love.

The biggest problem that DioField Chronicle faces is probably its theme. Post Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Game of Thrones, the new Lord of the Rings TV series, and all the rest, you’ve got to wonder whether dark Euro-fantasy is starting to wear thin on audiences. With that being said, the elevated presentation and abstract qualities of the game will hopefully help it find an audience even among those that are bored of the standard approach to the genre, and the relatively fresh take on real-time combat will hopefully help intrigue people. When you consider that 2022 has arguably been the best year of all time for the sheer quantity of excellent JRPG releases, the fact that DioField Chronicle comes across as a fresh and different approach to all of them is a truly impressive feat.

Hitman 2 is suave, amusing, and delightfully silly. It has all the blockbuster sensibilities and refinements, but a willingness to be different and, critically, laugh at itself. And, like I said at the start of this review, it doesn't treat its players like idiots. There's no forced path or endless pile of hints to the point that the game almost plays itself. Hitman 2 lets you play your own way, and it's all the more rewarding as a result.

It's truly impressive just how substantial the Anabasis expansion is; by rights it could be an entirely separate game in the Battlestar Galactica Deadlock series.

It’s rare that we have a game that genuinely deserves to be called “elegant”, but Root Letter is that game. It takes a romantic, nostalgic idea, wraps it up in a mystery that is fun to piece together, and does all of that within the context of one of the most beautiful examples of anime art you’ll ever see.

Bladestorm has a unique flavour, and it's one that takes a while to really settle in. But, once you get into its rhythm it has just the right mix of history and fantasy elements so that it does respect to one of the most fascinating periods of historical conflict, while letting you have some fun with it too.

The tactical turn based action lends itself well to the free-to-play strengths, in collecting characters and then grinding them up to become powerful. Set against the quality, albeit generic story background, what we’ve got here is a full-featured and lengthy tactics RPG to make those train trips that much more bearable.

The inconsistency of these two underground classics might make the compilation facade seem like a wasted opportunity, but being realistic here, both of the two titles in the Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 1 would not have got a release without being bundled together in this gimmick. Whether you have fond memories of having played either, or simply never had the chance to previously, you'll find quickly that both games represent a creative energy that we rarely see these days, and in both cases the experimentation largely works. You're not likely to see anything like these two again, so don't miss the opportunity.

Tactics Ogre Reborn is the essence of one of video game’s true masterpieces. On this, the second remake, it has proven that it is functionally timeless, both in terms of storytelling and the quality of play. There weren’t many tactics JRPGs around before Tactics Ogre, and those that were largely looked to Fire Emblem for inspiration. Now, though, the isometric combat system that so many tactics JRPGs use these days was inspired directly by two classics – this one, and Final Fantasy Tactics. We have a lot to thank Tactics Ogre for, and Reborn demonstrates just how playable it still is.

Aside from the drop in technical fidelity, the Switch port of Xuan-Yuan 7 doesn’t miss a beat, and it’s actually one of the more impressive action RPGs on the console. I do hold out hope that eastasiasoft and Softstar can achieve a similar miracle with Sword & Fairy Together Forever, because that’s on another level entirely and is genuinely one of the finest releases this generation, but having Xuan Yuan VII on the Switch is a big box ticked.

This is a warm, funny, moving visual novel, with a delightful cast of characters to get to know and potentially fall in love with, dressed up in a loving celebration of arcade history.

It's quite unfortunate for the sake of the game that Utawarerumono just happens to come out in a rare period when there are a lot of tactics RPGs to choose between. Fire Emblem and Disgaea both have far higher profiles, and those respective games will get the bulk of the attention, but for something a little more beautiful than Disgaea, a little more humorous than Fire Emblem, and genuinely focused on the narrative, Utawarerumono is my pick of the bunch.

Once again Dontnod has crafted a world ripe to explore, as it is set three years after the events of Life is Strange and still within Oregon the world is full of references to the original game, even within this brief pre-release teaser. Fans of the series will play this and find themselves completely relieved of any lingering concerns that they may have had that Max and Chloe are no longer the focus of the series, with Captain Spirit proving the Life is Strange universe - and Dontnod's on mastery over this kind of storytelling - is bigger then just the original protagonists.

With its hugely appealing setting, rendered gorgeously well and near-blockbuster production values, Anno 117 might not be Ubisoft’s biggest breadwinner, but this is a confident and well-considered step forward for the series. When you think about what distinguishes a great city builder, you’d have to say that near to the top is when you can pan the camera back and feel like you’ve genuinely built something, and taken a couple of buildings and roads and turned it into a thriving city. The very best city builders make you want to learn about urban planning, and with Anno 117 it comes with a second benefit – it’ll make you want to learn more about what made the Ancient Roman cities tick as well.

Much like the Street Fighter collection before it, Capcom Fighting Collection is a truly stand-out effort to preserve not only the games that were included in the collection, but the artistry and stories behind them. You don’t even need to be a fan of the fighting genre to appreciate just how valuable this approach is to retro compilations… and the unfortunate downside to this effort is that it makes every other retro compilation seem so pedestrian by comparison.

It took Nintendo just three releases to turn Splatoon into one of its biggest and most valuable properties, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s not complex: Splatoon is something that almost everyone can enjoy. For those who want to be competitive, the blend of weapons, items, and abilities gives the game plenty of nuance, and there’s a true curve from beginner to excellence. For those that just want to jump in and have a blast, it’s a game that’s welcoming, has an excellent single-player mode to onboard you, and never feels like it’s punishing you if you spend less time playing it than others. At a time when online play is becoming increasingly hostile to anyone who isn’t willing to make the game their entire hobby, it’s nice to have a company like Nintendo remind us what it’s like to have simple, uncomplicated fun in online multiplayer.

The biggest developers out there would be hesitant to try and take on such a task as emulating one of the most distinctive approaches to game design, and to do something different with it, to boot. That Salt & Sanctuary mostly succeeds at that goal is just so incredibly impressive.

I went into Void Terrarium a little apprehensive. With every indie out there scrambling to call their game a "roguelike", and with so many Mystery Dungeon roguelikes on the Nintendo Switch already, it can be difficult to muster up enthusiasm for yet another one. NISA and Furuya Masayuki surprised me, though. From the gentle subversion of the nature of progress in roguelikes, to the razor-focus on a sweet, paternal-style relationship between a robot and his ward, told with minimalistic elegance, Void Terrarium is a mature, different, and interesting take on the genre.

But for myself, who liked every aspect of Olija, the whole package is a flawed but thoroughly impressive ride. There is a lot to enjoy here, in a game which lets the player feel alienated and disempowered one moment, and then agile and dangerous the next. It wins even more points for the way that it perfects the cinematic platformer formula which has a lot of nostalgia value, but not a lot of modern interpretations. I love that Olija arrives as a palette cleanser to the Metroidvanias and the rogue-lites of the side-scroller scene, and I wish all the success for it.

Rome: Total War on iPad is an absolutely cracking game that further establishes the tablet platform as the go-to place for strategy gaming on the go. Now we just need to get a proper Civilization (perhaps a port of the second), and a Europa Universalis onto my iPad and I'll be one truly happy camper.

It’s different, it’s creative, it’s stark, and I loved every second of it.

I strongly expect that this game will be used for years to come as a ‘textbook’ case to educate developers about how to compose a story by not resorting to screeds of text or long loops of audio (in the form of simulated manuscripts, letters, voice recordings etc.); almost tauntingly, in one story, the letter-being-read crutch is used, but subverted ingeniously through the gameplay.

There's no real criticism that can be levelled at this game. It's niche, but in servicing that niche Desert Fox combines a near-perfect AI with a brilliant interface and the perfect historical battle to serve as the basis of the game. Serious strategy fans couldn't ask for much more.

This is the kind of game you want to have on your iPad. It's perfect for sitting down at the pub with on a lazy afternoon and plowing through a few in-game months of strategy while chugging through a beer or ten. It gets even better if you can also jump online and patch strategic wits with another human armchair general.

Few games are this intelligent, and even fewer hold the player in such high intellectual regard. Plus it's fun, and nearly impossible to put down.

These are two remarkable, classic games that have held up as well as any other retro JRPG, and one of them hasn’t actually been released in the West in a very long time (Lunar 2’s last release outside of Japan was on the PlayStation! You owe it to yourself to pick this up, because, in every way, these are truly vintage JRPG classics.

This isn’t a game which cracks easy jokes about weed culture; it doesn’t underestimate the finesse involved in the craft; but it also doesn’t shy away from criticising the shadier aspects of the industry either. It’s a truly fascinating look into a mythologised trade, and it’ll be a test for the most seasoned of tycoon fans.

Those gripes aside, this is one of the most feature-rich, complex, aesthetically interesting and different dungeon crawlers, and the perfect cumulation of everything the little series has built up to. As an added bonus, players can also enjoy a full visual novel that Idea Factory has just thrown in there, as fan service, for these characters. The irony is that the "fan service" bonus has less sex-themed material than the base project is not lost on me, but if you enjoy the characters from the main game, then this little bonus adds a nice texture to the overall package. The background art and re-drawn character sprites (into school uniforms, since this VN is a school-themed tie in) is all gorgeous, too.

Moero Crystal H does what it sets out to so well - be an outrageously perverse work of extended sex humour - that if you can enjoy that, on those terms, you're not going to find something more amusing on a console, likely ever. There's something almost noble about that purity of vision.

Although the satire doesn’t localise as well as I might have liked, the game’s not as straightforward in its perversions that a surface level analysis makes it seem, and I’ll be disappointed if there aren’t at least some people that recognise this.

The fact is that Secret of Mana is to me what Chrono Trigger is to most people who were into JRPGs on the SNES, and Collection of Mana has been a truly wonderful trip back through my very fond memories for this series.

It’s a little annoying that so many people will play Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and not then take it upon themselves to learn something about where the game comes from. To suggest it’s an “action tower defence” game is doing it a disservice. No. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess uses the action tower defence mechanical framework to share something an authentic and meaningful interpretation of Kagura through the video game medium. Capcom previously did something similar with Okami, only to have people limit it to a “Zelda clone.” But just as Okami had something sincere to say about Japanese spirituality, so too does this game. Hopefully, at least some players are inspired to learn where this game comes from.

The Forsaken Maiden is not really a sequel or successor to the first Voice of Cards. There's no effort to build on the previous game. Instead, The Forsaken Maiden exists in parallel to the first Voice of Cards, as another module to sit on the virtual bookshelf of adventures. I only hope that Square Enix is being rewarded for these and the plan is to fill many shelves with many more parallel modules like this. I will forever find the time to more Voice of Cards if it's going to keep being like this.

I’m definitely returning for Ghostpia season 2. It’s not just that this game looks quirky. Quirky aesthetics are plentiful. It’s that Ghostpia does something purposeful with the quirkiness, and uses it to enhance a pretty affecting and soulful narrative. I checked in with limited expectations and was thoroughly impressed. PQube picked a real winner here (at least in the artistic sense, who knows how many copies it’s going to sell).

Watch Dogs 2 does a great job of demonstrating the potential perils of a too-connected world and improves upon the first game in multiple ways. This is not a guns over brains game - there is an interesting topic at play here about our society's dependence on technology and Ubisoft deserves credit for exploring this theme. The characters and narrative are leaps and bounds more engaging than the revenge tale the original game tried to paint.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is exactly what the doctor ordered. It's light-hearted, hugely entertaining, and made with a real eye for detail that helps elevate the overall experience. After the disappointment of the recent Sonic one, this has put everything in the world right again.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going to be the most ambitious game that you play for quite some time. It’s truly spectacular for its scope and the many multifaceted dynamics that ensure that nothing about it, at any point, becomes routine or rote. It’s also frustrating, archaic, and a mess in so many other ways, but the developers left nothing on the table in making this, and it’s hard not to admire such brazen creativity.

Bad Apple Wars hit every note I've come to expect from Otomate.

This is the absolute best episode of the season, with meaningful choices and memorable moments. No Going Back is a solid payoff to an otherwise sometimes uneven season.

The Mega Man Legacy Collection on the Switch is the best I’ve played yet. With extra challenges, a rewind feature and some of the best emulation of the Nintendo Entertainment System I’ve seen. This is a must-have collection for sure.

While it’s a stretch to call it a great and memorable game, because it doesn’t really do anything to stand out in terms of gameplay and design, the concept of This Way Madness Lies will stick with you. I would have perhaps liked a little more emphasis placed on the magical girl aesthetics, since, aside from the transformation sequences that doesn’t come across as well as it could have, visually, but that aside, this attempt at asking the question “what if Shakespeare invented magical girls?” is a resounding success. It is the perfect little game to play in between the endless stream of overweight content we now need to deal with.

Gorogoa is quaint, expressive and beautiful, delivering a lush narrative full of different potential interpretations carried by game mechanics which challenge players to think in unfamiliar and creative ways.

The world is beautiful to explore, and apparently, it was created by building actual dioramas of the various environments and then scanning them into digital data. It's the perfect way to capture the isometric perspective of those PlayStation 1-era Final Fantasies, while also ensuring that it looks modern and a deliberate homage to those classic games of yesteryear. On every level, Fantasian is aware of itself, and also confident that there are still people out there that love the classic qualities of older JRPGs in such a way that they can deliver. It's a confidence that I certainly believe that the team behind this game has every right to hold.

This is the best iteration of the game so far, but your mileage may vary depending on what system you are playing it on. The experience was far better on the New 3DS, and those who liked the underwater battles of Monster Hunter 3 might bemoan their absence here.

I think that is perhaps the testament to what Telltale Games does best with its stories - when the team can put an emotional punch in there that simply resonates for hours or even days at a time. This was an excellent episode that did precisely that for me.

What Rayark does so well is emulate the experience of playing a musical instrument. VOEZ isn’t easy, and the icons flow in quick and furious, but as you master each track, your fingers start flowing across the screen, and the experience is pure, visceral elegance. Supported by a stellar soundtrack that has some of the best music I’ve ever heard in a rhythm game, VOEZ is essential stuff.

Ratchet & Clank is a return to form for the series.

There is a superb foundation here for what could become one truly special franchise.

It really is little more than a direct port of a really wonderful game, with only the most superficial of enhancements. That being said, Dragon’s Crown Pro is a direct port of a really wonderful game, and it’s still the most sublime, brilliant fun, and it only gets better the more people you share it with.

Historical fiction is a quick way to my heart, and while, if I were inclined to make a historical fiction game set in ancient Rome myself, I would probably go with some kind of retelling of Caligula’s story (note: I swear it’s so much more interesting than the popular stories would have you believe), I found this to be interesting and engaging experience on every level. The tactical action is challenging and deep, the management side of things is robust, and the story that it weaves will keep you invested, even 40 or more hours into it. This is an early game of the year contender.

"Indie" visual novels are a dime-a-dozen these days. If even I can make them, then anyone can. What's harder to do is create a visual novel with a distinct (and interesting) personality, and which has either something substantial to say or is downright funny. Lached Up Games is very much about the humour, and combining an ochre Aussie sense of humour with a heavily fanservicey Japanese aesthetic is certainly distinctive enough that you've not played anything like what this developer produces. You probably should play the original Max's Big Bust before getting into the sequel, but the second is bigger and better (in every way), and it is, put most simply, pure entertainment.

I love The Alliance Alive HD for so many reasons that the laughably simple gameplay was a non-issue. The characters are vibrant, the world is fascinating to explore, the aesthetics are gorgeous, and the game perfectly straddles that line between indulging in nostalgia and modernising what it needs to to retain relevance. It's the kind of game that looks like it would be easy to dismiss or overlook as being something too indebted to yesteryear, but in truth it deserves much greater respect than that.

Far bigger in scope than any of its predecessors, Megadimension Neptunia VII has nevertheless managed to retain its focus over what fans enjoy about the series most; its humour and its fan service.

I’ve rarely been as delighted in simply immersing myself into a game as I’ve been with GNOG.

This seems like the type of title that would have been a potentially risky endeavour when it was first brought over to North America, but now Phoenix Wright is one of the most recognised DS properties out there. It would be great to see more like it.

For my first experience with the Luigi's Mansion series, I had such a good time. Boiled down it's a fairly simple riff on GhostBusters, but Luigi's Mansion has been produced with such a sense of humour and eye for detail that it has a personality and uniquely Nintendo quality all of its own. Halloween always brings the deluge of seasonably-themed games, and so many of them aim for a true kind of horror. Nintendo tops the pack this year with something that revels in the silliness of the season, and it does so with panache.

Many people may simply look at King’s Quest and think it’s cashing in on an old series and taking advantage of the revival of point and clickers. It is so much more. The Odd Gentlemen is such a small team, but Creative Director Matt Corba should be given some sort of award for his work with this game. He, and his team, handled the canon of the previous games beautifully, while managing to weave an entirely new and just as endearing storyline into it. The team might not have had an IP like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones to work with, but King’s Quest does everything right.

New Pokémon Snap is a delight to play. It's bright, colourful, and overflowing with personality and while it does become a little too "grindy" for its own good, the core gameplay hasn't evolved much from the N64 original, and that's a very good thing indeed. Nintendo may have launched this in and around a lot of big blockbuster stuff (Returnal AND Resident Evil Village has been a big win for Sony over the last week), but then those games are so darned hardcore that New Pokémon Snap is exactly the antidote to them that I have needed.

F1 is my preferred format for racing, and I would argue that Codemasters as given more respect to the F1 license in building it up over the last few years than anyone else. F1 2020 is on the cusp of being a top-flight annual licensed sports game like 2K's NBA, EA's FIFA and Sony's MLB The Show, and it has managed to get there without nickel-and-diming consumers to anywhere the same extent. This year's edition might be iterative on the track, but the off-track improvements show that Codemasters hasn't yet run out of ideas yet either.

I hope this is just the start for Pathfinder in video games, and I like the future that Kingmaker promises. It's a major time commitment, sure, but Pathfinder: Kingmaker has the kind of narrative arc and development that perfectly captures the essence of playing a tabletop RPG, only in digital form. That's something that I haven't really felt since the era of Baldur's Gate itself and for that I really appreciated what the developers have achieved her.

Ultimately though, I just want to play the story mode over and over. The missions in Mafia: Definitive Edition are artfully made – they’re eventful, emotionally rich, and deeply fascinating in their representation of the human psyche. It’s the exact same appeal as watching a movie like The Godfather, and wondering just what the characters must be thinking as they hold a gun up to another man’s face. Mafia: Definitive Edition’s narrative means something. It forces players to critically assess the life and crimes of Tommy Angelo as he tells his story to a police informant. Do we, the player, forgive him? Do we understand him? Could the impulses which drove him to do what he did, also exist within us? These questions were in the original Mafia, buried beneath the complex gameplay and 2002 era production values – but in Definitive Edition, they’re right at the forefront, staring the player in the face. Hangar 13 have done an amazing job in modernising Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven into a truly powerful narrative experience, one which I hope that fans of the original will be pleasantly surprised by.

It has taken me an age to review this game – it was released a month ago – because one of the good things about a slow-paced slice-of-life visual novel is that you can mess around with it in between playing other things, but it has never been far out of my mind as I’ve played it. To fully appreciate it you’ve got to be comfortable with glacial pacing and an earnest attempt to take something that looks like it should be fanservicey and give you something to think about instead. Calibrate your expectations just right and SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky may just surprise you.

AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative is an exceptional game that hits the same beats as the original, while introducing plenty of fun new characters and a winding, complex plot that is going to keep you second-guessing right to the end. If only we had more games that respected the intelligence of their players like this one does.

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

Not Tonight is a deeply relevant, thoughtful experience. It comes from a place of genuine frustration with the way too much of the world is behaving at the moment, but manages to channel that frustration into something productive - a satirical (however darkly), deeply sympathetic game, that's both entertaining and has a strong point to make. Is it a little too infatuated with Papers, Please? Yes, but you could do far worse than create a breathless homage to a game that great.

The tactical strategy on offer is complex and rich enough that you’ll want to master it, and the touch interface works so well that this is really the definitive version. In a year loaded with quality Aussie-developed games, Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy flew a little under the radar, but it deserves notice as one of the best games we’ve produced in quite some time.

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

Altogether, Crimson Spires was a surprise. “Otome VN with vampires” is – and I say this with all the love in the world for both otome and the gothic – something so utterly trope-y that I had no interest in playing it. Even after reading Matt C’s review on this very website, I had no interest in it. Given that (other Matt) is the only person on Metacritic with a review of it, I suspect that many other people were put off with how blandly common the elevator pitch is. But then you start playing it and it really gets its teeth into you (sorry, I almost got to the end of the review, but I just couldn’t resist a pun). Superb characterisation, a richly woven tapestry of mystery and the smouldering sexiness of it all combine to make Crimson Spires noteworthy. There’s even a reason to buy it on Switch if you owned the PC release, since this version includes a new game plus mode with even more content to bite down on.

While I say that RPG Maker FES is more limited than its PC brethren, it still enables plenty of creativity.

There's really something for everyone in this title regardless of your experience in RTS games, with a great story, heaps of different ways to experience the game's content for all skill levels and for those who want to be the very best, there's a gauntlet of tough opponents just waiting for you.