Port Royale 4 is a wonderful game, and the compromises that were made to bring it to Nintendo Switch are minor and easy to overlook. This is the kind of simulator that you can end up spending hundreds of hours with, and as one of the rare genres that aren't over-represented on the console, this is an excellent first port of call for genre fans looking for some on-the-go thinkies.

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.

With a core gameplay loop that is this utterly intoxicating, it's hard not to love AAC. It's an addictive and elegant score-chaser that has the power to bring newcomers into the shmup genre, as well as the legs and tail to truly satisfy shmup veterans.

I went into this expecting little more than a second-tier spinoff from the “real” Monster Hunter, and I’ve walked away with it being one of my favourite JRPGs of the year, in a year that has included Bravely Default, NieR, Atelier Ryza 2, and Scarlet Nexus. That is some incredible company to be in.

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

Severed is the kind of game that I hope ends up on school and university “reading list.” Not because a particularly well made game (though it assuredly is), but also because it’s a masterpiece of theming and ambient storytelling. Games this evocative are rare and special indeed.

Toukiden is the most beautiful and playable "Monster Hunter clone" to date.

A truly entertaining little strategy game. Offering just enough complexity to test a player's strategic thinking, it's backed by steady, effective aesthetic direction and a mass of scenarios that almost - almost! - make up for the lack of multiplayer to make for one of the finest indie games so far in 2015.

The World Ends With You's strengths are in its narrative, which is genuinely different and consistently interesting, and the verve and style with which it pulls it all off. There's reason for existing fans to play the game again, because it has an all-new chapter to work through, and there's certainly a reason for people who haven't previously played it to give it a go, because to this day, nothing else has quite managed to offer what The World Ends With You offers.

I have deep and irresolvable issues with Horizon: Forbidden West, and it largely boils down to the game being an empty blockbuster that will chew up a lot of your time, but not do anything meaningful with it. However, that's all Horizon ever wanted to be and criticising Horizon for not being a great work of art is like criticising a reality television dance show for not being ballet. For what it is, Horizon is impeccable. Most importantly, it builds on the success of the first game in a way that I am quite certain that those who loved Aloy and her first quest will find even more to love about this one.

Miitopia is the right kind of silly nonsense. It's oddball, but never random for the sake of randomness. There's method to the madness, and in giving players such control over the experience, Miitopia ends up becoming something resonant on a personal level. Part of the reason I had so much fun with this game was because I had a direct hand in crafting what I experienced. I rarely laugh out loud as much as I have had with this one, and that is more impressive of a feat than Nintendo will get credit for. It's hard to get humour right over something as extended in length as a JRPG, and Nintendo nailed it.

Sundered proves that procedural generation and smart, hand-crafted level design are far from mutually exclusive. The combination of the two, and the way the play off each others’ strengths makes this one of the most engrossing Metroidvanias I’ve played in a while. The random approach to regular combat leaves something to be desired, but epic boss fights more than make up for it. If you have even the slightest interest in Metroidvanias, this is a game you need to play.

428: Shibuya Scramble is storytelling via video games at its finest. The multiple parallel stories, the twists and turns, the characters, each is reason enough to pick up this title despite the initial release being a decade ago. It plays with ease, allowing you to completely lose yourself if the story of Maria’s abduction and the ten most important hours spent trying to save her.

I cannot emphasise enough how captivating A Normal Lost Phone is.

I like games that are able to explore serious ideas in an entertaining and subtle fashion. If you weren’t aware of the academic weight that drives the two titles in The Nonary Games, you wouldn’t be missing anything. It’s not essential to understand how game theory works, how it explains human behaviour, and why that’s all relevant to the deeper themes that 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward explore. If you want to take it, simply, as a cracking series of visual novels with sublime puzzle design, you can do that. But, if you’re like me and do take game narratives seriously, then these two are right up there with the best in the industry, and sticking them together into a single package makes them completely essential.

If you've ever wanted to learn Shogi, then this is the most accessible learning tool that we've had released in the west. By the end of it, you'll be comfortable enough with the game to start playing the real thing. As to whether that's enough to justify the steep asking price, think of it this way: I believe you learn a lot about a culture by the games it plays, and Shogi is a deep and enduring cultural artifact of Japan. So, if you do have a genuine interest in the country, its history, and its culture, then I would suggest that learning Shogi is important... and learning opportunities of this standard are few and far between.

Genuinely good fun, and a true retro rush for people that grew up with classic RPGs.

Bravely Default didn’t need fixing, and simply rescuing it from the 3DS is more than enough. This is a beautiful, heartfelt, and wonderfully classical JRPG, and as much as I love Mario Kart, over the past week, I’ve wanted to play this one so much more.

It's a completely individual title that slides in nicely with what I shall, in the future, refer to as D'Avekki lore; it can be played alone, or it can be played before or after the other two titles in the "series," but any way you play it, it's a standalone experience. The noir feeling of the narrative means that choices aren't always delineated as "right" or "wrong", but, rather, a choice between bad and equally bad. The supernatural aspect somehow fits perfectly with the noir aspect. The gameplay is new yet familiar, with the developer mixing up how choices are made by going from text to video in a way that makes it perfectly clear how to play. Koehring and Cunard play off each other wonderfully, building off character stereotypes from past films and fiction when the men were "manly" men and the women were "dainty" ladies. Thanks to the trophies, it is relatively easy to explore all dark corners of the game. Basically, this is another D'Avekki hit game that I will probably never stop referencing or wanting to discuss.

When a game nails the gameplay this cleanly, everything else that OlliOlli gives players is icing on the cake.

Coming to Captain Tsubasa as a fan of football, but knowing nothing of the anime and manga, I had no idea what to expect from this game, but I was more than impressed. Tamsoft, a company better know for little skirts-and-panties games like Senran Kagura, spinoff Hyperdimension Neptunia titles, Onechanbara and School Girl/Zombie Hunter was up against it with this game. After all, how do you compete with the might of EA and Konami without going so far into the realm of arcade experiences that the game is no longer recognisable as the sport? Tamsoft genuinely managed to figure it out. Captain Tsubasa is a back-to-basics football game with excellent pace and considerable verve. It's not just for existing fans of the anime or manga; this game is perfect for anyone who wants to enjoy clean, entertaining football action with their friends without having to first send them off to a college degree to learn how to play.

Thankfully, this is a remaster of one of Square Enix’s all time classics, and it’s not arrogance from the developers at all in crafting a game that will take over 100 hours to complete. It’s a simple, and entirely appropriate confidence in the quality of the work that led the developers to craft such a lengthy quest back in 2000, and it remains every bit as worthy today.

We all need games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and while I don't think it's perfect by any means, and some of the new elements this time around come at the expense of what made previous titles so wonderful, the winning charm is still there in full. This will be Nintendo's biggest game of 2020, and with good reason - everyone who has been looking forward to it will be absolutely delighted by what Nintendo has delivered.

Five Dates basically has what I want from a game at this exact moment in time. There's no violence, no screaming, no heavy machinery, no building, no wandering around trying to find things. Instead, the focus is on creating relationships, whether or not they turn into friendship or dating or a lifelong love. The gameplay is easy to follow since it's all just making choices, and if you struggle with that you can even pause the choices so the game doesn't carry on without your input. I'm not going to lie, I was initially worried about how the quality of acting would be through the performers shooting themselves through an iPhone, but it's pretty darned good. Good enough for me to momentarily think someone may be my match, despite already having a wonderful match in the real world (I cannot emphasise how awkward this made me feel, but he found it amusing). There are a few things that I'd love to change if I could, but otherwise, I'm quite impressed at the feat of conceptualising, writing, shooting, producing, and developing a video game in eight months.

Armello really does a very good job of blending board game mechanics with video game technology to create a fun experience that should appeal to fans of both.

Anyone who doesn’t have this on their Switches for the Christmas party season is doing themselves – and frankly, everyone around them – a disservice.

It's addictive stuff, all up. I've been playing Zen Studio's various releases for years now - in fact, aside from Hatsune Miku games I can't think of anything I've played more than these, and with the Nintendo Switch I imagine I'll continue playing long into the future.

While it shares a significant amount of DNA with the first game, the clever maps, huge unit roster, and brilliant skirmish generator make Battle Academy 2 one of the most entertaining tactical-level wargames on the market today. It’s war without the snore. Don’t miss it.