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.

FIFA 18 is not the video game manifestation of the beautiful game I would have liked it to be, but as general entertainment, it is still pretty good. It is the equivalent of watching a silly comedy: anyone can do it for hours and hours, and although they won’t come out better people for it they will not feel like they completely wasted their time. Yours truly likes FIFA 18’s tactical leanings in particular, but I don’t think real life football needs to worry about the virtual outdoing the real yet. At least not till FIFA’s 2018 World Cup edition.

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.

SMT IV: Apocalypse is a really smart and thoughtful game on the wrong platform entirely, for what it wants to offer. It’s easy to spot the compromises to the vision that the development team needed to make to have it all fit the platform, and while it’s still an essential title, it’s difficult to sit back and not wonder just how much more it could have been.

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.

Perfect for train rides or boring business meetings, Reigns: Game of Thrones is so much better than any other attempt to bring Game of Thrones to video games so far. This is principally because unlike the various attempts to make RPGs and strategy games out of the property, Reigns understands one thing with crystal clarity: Game of Thrones is about making brutal decisions, and then being brutalized for it. This game nails that theme perfectly.

Despite Ni no Kuni not being enhanced on the Nintendo Switch; it is still a stunning game with a great soundtrack and enjoyable gameplay, and it holds up as well in the present day as it did originally in 2013. The story is emotionally touching and is a must-play for JRPG fans who own a Nintendo Switch.

It is impossible to put down.

Lumines is at its best when it's pure immersion, no frills. Throw on a really good headset, turn the volume right up, load up a playlist of your favourite music, and melt deep into the beats, thudding rhythm, and hypnotic colours. Lumines is a puzzle game, but the action becomes so driven by feeling and rhythm that it's not really fair to call it something so simple; at it's best Lumines is a game you don't think about. It's a game you feel. And Lumines is so perfectly good at that all the developers needed to do with Lumines Remastered is stick the exact same game on Nintendo Switch.

Almost everyone knows what a roguelike is, and Shiren the Wanderer is a classical roguelike in every way. However, Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is one of the most perfectly executed, impossible-to-put-down examples of the genre, and for that reason it’s essential.

DmC might have been better received had it been built under a different name - at the very least it might have escaped some scrutiny from fans of the original games. That being said, what DmC does provide works well and this latest iteration is the best reason to give the game a chance if you have not yet done so.

Cozy means something different to everyone. For me, a cozy game is about a welcoming atmosphere, no death, and a slow pace. That description fits Botany Manor to a tee. The world is so lovingly crafted, the grounds so abundant and colourful, that I’d like to stay there forever. I have screenshots of every room I’ve been in because they are perfectly decorated from every angle. The logical puzzles require careful observation (and sometimes backtracking once or twice) yet are somehow simultaneously quite straightforward. Botany Manor is exactly the kind of cozy puzzle/gardening sim that I’ve always wanted, save for a couple small bothers. I’m already eagerly anticipating my return to the manor.

Bloodstained is absolutely, unapologetically a game made for Symphony of the Night's many fans, and it lives up to that legacy better than I ever could have hoped for.

This is a meaty game, and for people that enjoy good anime plotlines and fun characters, it's essential.

And so, at the end of nearly 5,500 words of review, everything that I’ve written leaves me in a conundrum. On the one hand, just with The Last Of Us 2, I found the moment-to-moment gameplay of Ghost of Tsushima to be excellent and massively entertaining, if a little derivative at this point in time – the open world genre as a whole does need some new ideas. Tsushima doesn’t do anything that will surprise you if you’ve played any of Sony’s other first party games in recent years, but it does it all in a way that’s as refined and sharp as a samurai’s blade, and that is fundamentally enjoyable. I can’t stress that enough – this game is fundamentally enjoyable. However, as much as I had issues with The Last Of Us 2’s narrative, it was an American story told by Americans, and it had a thematic and tonal resonance as such. It was consistent and uncompromised. Ghost of Tsushima by contrast is a wild misfire with every narrative element it attempts, and it boils down to this: Sucker Punch decided to do a historical epic inspired by Kurosawa… and produced something that fails as both history and as a pastiche of Kurosawa. There are going to be a lot of people that love this game, but I don’t think that should be overlooked, nor dismissed as irrelevant to the quality of this both as artwork and entertainment product.

Overall Super Mega Baseball 4 is immensely disappointing and an unworthy successor to its predecessor. SMB 3 was a genuinely fun and clean playing arcade baseball game, and never needed to be more than that. Now, though, it seems like the series is being positioned as a viable alternative to the MLB license. The new game modes, efforts to bring real-world names into the fold, and aesthetic shifts all seem to be designed to pivot Super Mega Baseball to become something to take more seriously and commit more time to. You know, like MLB The Show. Unfortunately, these new additions are directly at odds with arcade good times and now, thanks to the influence of EA in all likelihood, we’ve been dumped with a series experiencing an identity crisis.

I’ve played a lot of visual novels in my time, and a lot of them are favourite games, but I’ve got to say, as a student of Japanese history, and a lover of good storytelling, Hakuoki is right up there with my favourite games ever made. Any game that, after finishing, I can put down and say to myself “if that story was presented to me as a novel I would have loved it just as much,” is a good game, as far as I’m concerned.

On the one hand, the Yakuza Remastered Collection is "just" a re-release of three games, with relatively minimal effort having gone into the updates. On the other hand, it's three superb games within an astounding collection that allows you to play the entire series from beginning to end, whenever you find a cool 500 hours or so to sit down and work through it all. In that context, the 200 or so hours that the Collection represents is a major chunk of some of the best action you'll ever find in video games.

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.

I don’t remember the last time I was so interested in a story labelled as “romance,” but then came Clannad and everything changed. I never know a romance story could be so engaging, so multifaceted, and so emotional.

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.

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.

It certainly suits the more lighthearted and comedic narrative, and the dungeons themselves are nothing short of breathtaking in design.

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

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.

To summarise it simply, it’s about how RE’s limitations add measurable impact to your choices. It’s about the exploration and puzzle solving sans omnipresent hand-holding. These concepts are rare attributes in today’s AAA gaming scene. And when laced with enhanced visuals and a friendlier control scheme, RE HD Re-master becomes a precious survival experience for the nostalgic and a necessary one for the newcomer.

The level of storytelling once it makes it past the more clunky moments makes the whole experience worthwhile. The conclusion itself made me forgive the game for all the awkward moments that came before it. And, after playing through all five chapters in quick succession, I can guarantee that that is the best way to appreciate the overall narrative.

While the game makes great use of the 3DS overall, the one area that is worth mentioning is that it lacks any 3D at all, which and it did surprise me, but the game still looks great and the dual screens work very well having the persistent map at the bottom.