La Mulana 2 may just be more of the same, but it’s also a home run for a winning formula that nobody else is making nowadays. For players who enjoy complexity and depth, there’s an ocean of possibility here which makes any other Metroidvania look like a puddle by comparison. (Yeah, even Hollow Knight.) It’s humbling for a game to show me what it really feels like to not have my hand held at all: it forced me to swallow my pride, grab a pen and paper, and earn my progress forward. Few games can boast that. And once you’ve braved the ruins of La Mulana, you can bravely look to the future with confidence. Because you’re an archaeologist now.

Shovel Knight is yet another fantastic indie addition to the continually growing Vita catalogue. It might lack Vita-specific extras (and is therefore a pointless purchase for people who already own the game on some other platform), but for old-school retro platforming fans who might have missed out on this fantastic title so far, it's a must buy.

The tracks themselves are spot on, and playing through the cockpit view, it’s easy to get an appreciation on how challenging some of them really are.

A remarkable game that only just falls short of what many have been dreaming of for 30-odd years.

The lack of narrative hasn't stopped me from pouring hours and hours into Sky Force Reloaded, and I don't doubt I'll put in a great many more—I have to perfect every level on Insane difficulty, after all. This is a game that doesn't do anything new, but it takes a classic genre and delivers on it so well that it's hard to fault the lack of innovation. If you have even the slightest interest in shoot 'em ups, this is a game you don't want to miss.

Mario Strikers might come across as limited to some people, especially those that are only really going to get stuck into the single-player game. However, as a multiplayer experience, and whether you’re going to play locally or online, this thing excels in every way. It’s accessible, but also had a learning curve that more serious people will love. It’s laugh-out-loud hilarious for party sessions, while also having the feature set that it needs to get entire clubs to form around it. I can easily see this joining Smash Bros., Splatoon and Mario Kart as a standard part of any multiplayer rotation on the Switch. Most of all, though, this is a Mario Sports title that hasn’t lost the identity of the sport itself after implementing power-ups and Mario character specials. In this way, it stands apart from the Mario Tennis and Golf titles, and that’s a good thing.

Whether it released in 2017 or 1989, Warlock’s Tower would be a timeless classic. It explores rudimentary puzzle elements everyone should be familiar with and, armed with a deep understanding of why they work, introduces a meaningful wrinkle. In a game industry that often relies on deceptively shallow open worlds and filler for the sake of content to market, sometimes we need to take a step back and recognise that one grainy little monochrome screen can hold volumes.

It’s really nice to have Alone in the Dark back in form. And for it to have its own identity. After being such a pioneer, this series has spent so long chasing the horror genre popular trends and trying to read the lowest common denominator that it became little more than a pale imitation of other good ideas. It’s genuinely nice to have something that heads in its own direction, and is comfortable in providing a taut atmosphere and a focus on a chilling narrative rather than visceral scares. You could call it “quaint,” but I like to think of it more like a game Stephen King would like to see rather than another cash-in from the Saw writers.

It's games like this that keep me interested in gaming; creative developers working on creative concepts and telling simple, effective stories in a manner that is only possible through an interactive medium.

It has a very steep learning curve, but once you get your head around it all, it’s incredibly fun.

The developer is clearly committed to providing DLC that is cost effective and adds something meaningful to a group of its players - even if it's only a small niche within its overall player base. You're not going to miss out on anything if you don't buy this DLC pack. But then you might just get something out of the investment if you do.

Pokopia is going to occupy you for so many dozens of hours. Even once you’ve completed the main story and collected all the Pokémon, there’s still the core sandbox to play around with. Where Animal Crossing does eventually become a series of routines that you get stuck into until eventually it becomes dull, Pokopia resists falling into the same box by simply giving you so many objectives for when you don’t feel like simply inhabiting the world. Which is just as well, because we’re all going to need a lot of this kind of calming escapism over the next few years.

This is an exceptional port of a hugely underrated game. The character art is one of the most critical features in the game, and on the much larger PC screen the art is vibrant, detailed, and attractive. This alone really makes Monster Monpiece’s PC port the definitive version. Hopefully this is not the last we see of Compile Heart producing CCGs.

Whether you were a witness to its glory in its original context, or whether you’re just reading about it for the first time in 2020, Vanquish is an experience worth having. Its desire to subvert entrenched shooter tropes in both its mechanics and its story, leaves it feeling a breath of fresh air to those who have been jaded by how samey the genre can feel. If you like your games to demand mastery, and to reward those who unlock the potential within its mechanics with an undeniable feeling of coolness, then Vanquish is absolutely worth your time.

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.

Phantom Doctrine did come out of nowhere to become a truly enjoyable and memorable experience. If you had have told me six months ago that it would be possible to take the pulp sci-fi, raw entertainment of XCOM and apply it to a Cold War espionage narrative, I wouldn’t have believed you. That’s exactly what has been delivered here, though, and I hope it has the chance to surprise plenty of other people.

For all I know I’m the only person left on the planet that cares about Snow Bros. and Toaplan’s legacy in single-screen platformers. Nonetheless, it is a bit of arcade history and this is preserving a property that was almost lost. I’ve had an absolute blast playing through this, the new levels are great, and now there’s an outside chance that there might be all-new Snow Bros. adventures on the horizon.

I’ll be committed to Train Sim World for quite some time, I suspect. Give me some DLC train routes through Asia (especially Japan), and I’ll be all the happier. Give me one or two routes of the Sydney network and I’ll buy them just to gloat to Sydney Trains that it is possible to deliver passengers to their stops without a three hour delay. I’m oddly proud of my virtual train driving skills.

There are enough changes in a variety of places that make this the best offering the series has had in several years and should satisfy new fans, yearly players and those who fall somewhere in between.

A charming, entertaining, and effectively endless game offers the same kind of value and quality that has made Puzzle & Dragons such a highlight of the mobile and free-to-play markets. This is certainly my favourite mobile game of the year.

Thanks to its laid-back, low-pressure vibe, aesthetic warmth and overall wholesomeness, Guardians of Azuma captures the comfort food quality of the entire Rune Factory series. Meanwhile, thanks to a vastly improved visual engine, accessible interesting combat, and an exceptional setting, it also takes a strong step forward from its predecessors. This is the strongest entry in a beloved series, and made all the more special because, after the original developer of the series closed shop, it looked like the entire series was dead for several years. This is a pretty good statement that there’s still so much more that it can offer yet.

If I had to sum everything up in one thought, it would be to stop what you’re doing and dive into the Deadfire archipelago. With brilliant storytelling, character development, places to see and many ways in order to do what is needed, there’s no shortage of adventure to be had. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is a fantastic experience and honestly should be a must for any admirers or lovers of the RPG genre.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited is the kind of game that can ruin sleep patterns and kill productivity. But it's all worth it because it'll keep you chuckling right up to when that favourite Prinny hits level 9999, dood.

Soul Hackers 2 is a smart, evocative, and classically dark game from the Shin Megami Tensei tradition. It’s not going to turn heads like Persona 5 and SMT V did, but the developers seem to have realised this and taken the opportunity to deliver a harder-hitting and more thought-provoking narrative. To me, that’s Atlus getting back to its core vision for the broad and extended SMT property. That’s what I want from this series.

As I’ve said a few times in this review so far, Arc System Works are masters of the genre, and Guilty Gear Strive is a showcase of that mastery. It might not be the most comprehensive fighting game out there, and I do think the developers have made a mistake in giving up on drawing new players into the franchise with a story mode that assumes you’ve been playing Guilty Gear for years. However, those quibbles melt away the instant you get into the action itself. There’s no other word to describe it: it’s sublime.

That balance is why its predecessors were so popular, and that's why the sequel is certainly going to be a major hit.

The team at Telltale Games has done a spectacular job of creating a compartmentalised story that runs parallel to the books and show that fans know so well.

It's one of the most compelling stories to come from a videogame in years.