All of this might sound critical of Iwakura Aria, and I guess in one way I am disappointed in this, but only because it could have very easily been another House in Fata Morgana. The intensity of the themes are there. The art is right up there with the best VN art I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. The writing is beautifully eloquent, and this is a rare visual novel that I would happily pick up as a proper novel, where it would stand strong on any bookshop’s shelves against any of the literature on there. Even as it is, Iwakura Aria is better than 99% of the other visual novels out there. It’s essential as-is, and right on the cusp of being a masterpiece, and that’s ultimately why I’m disappointed that it doesn’t quite get there.

Death Stranding does belong in an art gallery more than it does sitting on consoles next to more traditional "games". As I sit here to write this, I am fully convinced that there are going to be plenty of reviews from my peers that veer to the other extreme as far as their scores go. And fair enough, because as a “game” Death Stranding doesn’t do much. But as a work of art, Death Stranding is something mesmerising, intelligent, and powerful, and we never see this kind of work within the big budget, blockbuster space. This was a rare treat to play, and I rather like this new-look, independent Kojima.

Salt and Sanctuary is a solid homage to its blatant source of inspiration. It doesn't supplant its predecessors, but it does an admirable job nonetheless, and offers players a moody, intricate, and fundamentally enjoyable dark fantasy experience.

That aside, Asmodee continues to demonstrate why it is the best digital board game developer going around. Gloomhaven itself is a little insular compared to the likes of Game of Thrones, Arkham Horror, Ticket to Ride, Pathfinder and Lord of the Rings, so I suspect it will appeal to a narrower band of players than some of Asmodee's other adaptations, but the faithful quality of that adaptation and the stellar production values make it an easy sell to existing Gloomhaven fans, and the ideal way to those that were intimidated by the size (and cost) of the box when they've seen it in their local game store to give it a go in the first place.

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

Although Spyro the Dragon and its subsequent two sequels haven’t aged as well as one would hope, Toys for Bob has done a good effort to put out a remaster that does the nostalgia justice. Control and design issues were part and parcel to 3D platformers from the era, but while can't be celebrated except when viewed through an incredibly thick pair of rose-tinted glasses, the overall series remains charming, delightful, and well worth checking out for interest's sake, if nothing else.

The team is pacing Loathing releases out nicely, too. Four years between Loathing games is a good rate, to ensure that the jokes don’t become stale to the player. See, more than anything else, playing Shadows Over Loathing has reminded me, yet again, just how much I enjoy the zany antics of these silly stick figures, and apparently this humour remains relevant no matter how old and jaded you become. The video game industry is better for having developers like Asymmetric in it.

If a polar opposite of the cynical “conveyor belt” approach to game design exists, it’s in the form of Super Hydorah and its slew of dextrously designed levels. Though it can be challenging in the wrong ways at times, it serves up a solid challenge for shoot ‘em up aficionados. On the whole, it’s a game that embraces the teachings of the genre behemoths while offering its own thoughtful tweaks.

For the most part, Control is a resounding success. It carves out a unique identity in its gameplay, and its interconnected story receives the torch passed from previous titles by its studio. It wears its influences on its sleeve, and is all the better for it. Even if the run time is a little shorter than other big budget games, there is a density and richness to Control’s design which is easy to appreciate, and the game tends to linger in your mind for much longer than any other Triple-A game of recent memory. Even if it has its flaws, and even if it left me wanting more, I put down my controller as the credits rolled feeling deeply satisfied: and that’s something we should cherish if we ever want the gaming medium to move forward.

So there are some very clear positives and very clear negatives to Little Nightmares II. The narrative is quite good, solid with lots of meaning flowing beneath the surface. The gameplay is mostly simple enough, the settings are ugly-pretty, the music enhances everything. Basically, it does wrap into a neat little package that can be unwrapped in layers. I can't ignore the issues, though, mainly with the lack of options and repetitiveness that can happen with failure. Still, Little Nightmares II does in fact feel like a conclusion to the first game in the series, yet still manages to turn it into a never-ending story so that someone else would be able to continue with the world. In that sense, it's actually quite clever.

Mario Party has been a multiplayer mainstay for me since right back with the original on N64. To this day the first three are on high rotation thanks to the N64 Online app. It’s really lovely to see Nintendo find creative form with Super Mario Party Jamboree by producing something that largely focuses on the basics. The new maps are excellent, the range of minigames is a delight, the bonus modes are fun, and the energy is playful and joyous. I went into this thinking it would be Nintendo’s equivalent to filler leading into the Christmas season. Turns out it was much more than that and this is a major project that everyone that enjoys multiplayer should pick up.

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.

Laden with meaning (and in future articles on Digitally Downloaded I'll be writing plenty more about that meaning in the weeks, if not years to come, I suspect), this game uses poetry as its basis and executes on that vision so well that it is, effectively, interactive poetry.

Because I was so emotionally invested in the game, I started to lose time while I was playing it. I don’t think it’s an overly long game, but I do think that its length will be wholly dependent on how good you are at understanding its logic and puzzles. It wouldn’t matter if it was over in an hour, though. The game is deep, meaningful, and powerful. It’s reflective, different, and beautiful. It may well end up being more divisive than Ueda’s previous masterpieces, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a masterpiece, from one of the industry’s true auteurs. Play this game. Even if you hate it, it’s going to broaden your horizons around what games are truly capable of.

There’s so much to like about Ninja Pizza Girl. We so rarely get to see glimpses into the team behind a game nowadays, but Ninja Pizza Girl just exudes vibrancy from all its edges that it’s impossible not to be charmed by the wonderful people at Disparity Games.

This was a really nice treat for Koei Tecmo to drop onto Steam out of nowhere. It’s a well-optimised port, and it plays as well as it did a decade ago. With Koei Tecmo revisiting its backlog like this, I hold out hope of being able to play Samurai Warriors 3 again at some point.

Essentially, Trails of Cold Steel III is just more Trails of Cold Steel, but with a bunch of new characters, some new ideas for the narrative to explore, and some welcome design tweaks. I mean that as an absolute compliment, though—Cold Steel and Cold Steel II are two of the best JRPGs in recent memory, so having more of the same is hardly an issue. I'm still not entirely sold on the idea of the original Class VII being pushed to the background for much of this game, but the new Class VII are fantastic additions to the roster who bring a lot of new ideas with them.

Seeing as the game is free to play however, if you have any interest in the genre at all, there is no reason not to give Duelyst a try and see if its distinctive stylings suit you or not.

Fundamentally, though, MLB the Show 23 is a good game. MLB the Show 22 was a good game. Adding the Negro Leagues mode was noble from Sony (and no doubt the kind of goodwill-generating progressive addition that will keep the licensor happy with how Sony is treating the IP). However, the misstep with the World Baseball League and a complete unwillingness to build on any mode but the awful Diamond Dynasty also make this year’s The Show unacceptable. If you missed last year’s iteration, then you can add a couple of stars to this score, because for you, it won’t be one of the most cynical annual iterations that we’ve seen in sports games for quite some time. For the rest of us, though. No. Not good enough.

The Golden Realms Expansion does not reinvent the Age of Wonders III wheel, but it does an excellent job of adding content to an already fun title that already had lots of replay value. With that being said, it would have been nice to see the expansion address one of the real issues I had with the first game - the limited combat variety for a feature that is meant to be the game's real point of differentiation.

The story is fun, the graphics are out-of-this-world impressively retro, and the controls have been updated for modern computers and controllers (or keyboards, if you so chose). I found myself completely immersed in the castle’s world — except when the audio cut out — and plan on going back again soon.

I don’t think we need the Suikoden series to “continue” any more than we need someone to go out and write a Water Margin 2. I have no idea if Konami is using this release to gauge interest in a proper “reboot” or new sequel, and being honest, I don’t think we need that. Frankly, I’m not even sure we need the rest of the series to be re-released from here (though I also wouldn’t say no to that). We should just appreciate that Suikoden and Suikoden 2 are remarkable achievements, both as literary adaptations and entertaining video games to play, and that quality and worth has not diluted one bit in the years since. Play these, love them, and then do yourself a favour and go and read Water Margin too.

Gorgeous art, an excellent soundtrack, a massive epic narrative that actually feels earned thanks to the strength of the writing and characterisation, and an exciting, tactical combat system. Yeah, it is, quite genuinely, an 80+ hour game, but that’s what the Christmas break is for, right?

Vermintide II feels like a predictable step in a fantastic direction.

Nintendo first released a Clubhouse Games way back on the Nintendo DS, about 15 years ago now. It was a brilliant example of the company's ability to appeal to a broad audience then and now, a decade and a half later, the company has backed it up resoundingly. Putting aside the presence of Ludo - which will forever be the worst board game ever made - 51 Worldwide Games is a pristine package of some of the most valuable cultural properties we have, and it is truly masterful at explaining even the most complex of them to a completely new audience. This is a rare opportunity to learn something about artefacts as wide-ranging as Chess, Mahjong, Hanafuda, and Mancala. That's not something you should miss out on.

Gnosia might not be a new concept – there are so many video games out there that feature death games with deception at the core of them. Last year’s Quantum Suicide even set the scene in space and had a less-than-benevolent AI pulling many of the strings, just like Gnosia does. But Gnosia is something rare: it is really, truly different. The developers wanted to take this common-enough concept and craft something that was truly their own, and not only have you got here a game that you won’t forget in a hurry, it’s also going to have you actively thinking about just how smart it is for some time to come.

The puzzles are a fun twist on the pre-existing formula, the temple backdrop is an interesting setting and the new monsters are a welcome challenge.

The world class presentation, excellent execution of modes and gameplay mechanics really do make NBA 2K19 the best sports game around.