Is this an essential update? Not really. I would argue that the Switch 1 version of Civilization VII isn’t worth playing, and so if you are going to play the thing, you should upgrade. Nobunaga’s Ambition is already an excellent game, but you’re not getting much extra if you already have it and all the DLC on Switch. There’s also no upgrade option like there is with Civ VII, so you’d need to shell out for a full-priced game if you wanted those mouse controls. But then, on the other hand, I’ll still be playing Nobunaga’s Ambition: Awakening a year (and longer) from now.

Thanks to a deep narrative, exquisite morality mechanics that make every decision equally weighty and meaningful, and sublime characters, inXile has given the game a genuine shot of living up to the legacy of one of the greatest games of all time.

Billion Road isn't perfect. The interface makes it difficult to track some of the finer points of detail, particularly around property ownership, and a lack of minigames and other events of excitement mean there's a draining level of downtime in the game where you're just waiting for your next turn to roll around. However, for the board game enthusiast this is a true Japanese experience. Under the bright colours and ridiculous wealth being thrown around (you'll be worth billions in just an hour) lies something that has clearly been created by people who love the unique micro-cultures with Japan, and the sheer delight that you have in simply travelling across the country.

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.

Hades is an end-to-end delight, from one of the most vividly creative studios going around. Supergiant Games has taken a genre that is overused to the point of exhaustion, and found a way to make it interesting all over again. It's a game that plays on the primal, viseral sensations of movement and rhythm, but it delivers it with such precision that it is nothing short of hypnotic.

As a relatively low-price collection of three retro JRPGs that will last you for a long time (if only because each offers dozens of hours of classic grinding), the Collection of SaGa is obviously niche in terms of its demographic, but these are games that are very easy to love. It would have been nice to have some of the features that more comprehensive retro collections have – digital art books, histories, music players and so on, but no-frills or not these are valuable, pioneering pieces of video game history, and they’re both worth owning and persevering with.

It might not be as completely over the top as some of Compile Heart’s other work, but it’s a load of fun for the studio’s fans nonetheless, and its relative subtlety might just help get it over the line for people who find the Hyperdimension games just too silly for their palettes.

Between time, weather, AI, career, suspension, tires, brakes and more, the amount of customisation in Project CARS 2 is completely insane.

I don’t think anyone who looks at Tokyo Clanpool will be under any illusions about whether it’s for them or not. The game wears its charms on its sleeve and delivers a quality and consistently amusing, if somewhat mechanically standard, dungeon crawler behind it. It’s unfortunate that the “censorship” of a small part of it will cost it within the small niche audience for the game, but just know that it’s a far better game than you might see in the user reviews. They’re upset about the removed elements. What’s left there is highly enjoyable if you’re there for a frivolous, silly, charming and funny dungeon-crawling JRPG, rather than the touch-em-up minigame.

Dragon Quest VIII isn’t the perfect port in coming to the 3DS. It is, however, very close to the perfect classical JRPG.

The Zelda series has moved through a number of different narrative genres and thematic cores over the years. Some are dark or abstract. Others aim to be more high fantasy or whimsical. Some are grand adventures while others are more focused. Skyward Sword has always sat a little apart from the others, because while all other Zelda games give the impression that you're experiencing current events through your Link-avatar, Skyward Sword instead leaves the impression that you're witnessing the retelling of a great legend of antiquity. As such there's a primeval quality to it that informs its beautiful aesthetic and gives it a wonderful and different sense of adventure. I might have issues with the motion controls (let alone the sub-standard effort that Nintendo made to implement button controls), but nothing can detract from the core quality of this wonderful adventure.

Boxboy! is confident, assured programming. It’s brave to make a puzzle game in which players control a box with two little slits for eyes. It requires the confidence of the entire development team that they’re going to be able to imbue character into the experience despite the minimalism, and that the level design and puzzles would be interesting enough in their own right to maintain the player’s interest.

A really quite brilliant game. There is fan service in there, and some people will look at that and the anime trappings and not be able to move past it, but underneath this exterior lies a heart that is in many ways the precise opposite of what you might be expecting. It's almost - dare I say it - feminist in the critique it provides over the way that women are treated in this fairy tale world.

So Pikmin 3 isn't the massive game. It never has been. It wasn't on the Wii U, and it's no "bigger" on the Switch. What it is, however, is a load of fun, and the charm is irresistible. Have we had more impressive remasters of games that were, to be frank, more impressive in the first place? Sure, but Pikmin isn't meant to be "AAA" and it doesn't try to be. Whether you've played this game previously or not, it's still a charming delight.

Where the first Toukiden was very solidly in the Monster Hunter tradition, this one edges that much closer to a hybrid JRPG/ Monster Hunter experience, and I couldn’t be happier about that. This is exactly what I want from a “Monster Hunter clone.”

It is hard to shake the feeling that Monster Hunter Stories 3 is going to slip under the radar, and that would be a real shame. This is not merely a charming sidestep for Monster Hunter fans. It is a confident, ambitious JRPG in its own right, with strong storytelling, smart systems, and a clear identity. For the first time, the spinoff feels every bit as essential as the main series.

The collection of games itself is just such incredible value, covering off such a broad range of SEGA's history when it was at its very finest, that anyone missing out on this is doing themselves a real disservice. Heck, for the three Phantasy Star games in there alone I would instantly recommend this package. That series was every bit as good as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest back in the day.

There’s something about the title – The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story – that makes me think this one game may only be the beginning of something wonderful. Maybe the Shijima family has more mysteries? Maybe other families need Haruka and Eiji to solve their mysteries? Maybe I’m just so obsessed with the game I need more of it? Yeah, that last one sounds pretty plausible. But the game is basically foolproof (unless you mess up really, really badly, which in my experience isn’t terrible likely), it’s in the FMV genre, it’s a whodunnit, it plays like a novel reads… who doesn’t want more games like that?!

Megadimension Neptunia VIIR is an odd duck, being sold heavily on the VR features, even though they are so overtly tacked-on, but whatever the development story behind that, Compile Heart has gone back and substantially improved the gameplay engine, to the point that this is genuinely one of the better JRPGs out there. Making it all the more pity that a lot of people won’t see past the low budget these games are made on, and their love of underwear.

The Wandering Village is the kind of game that you can end up spending a lot of time in, and may just leave you feeling reflective and pensive. It doesn’t do that by bludgeoning you with a narrative lecture. Nor is it over the top or excessive in any way. It’s really very subtle and sedate. Yet, by anthropomorphising the earth as a giant, gentle beast, and giving it a personality, The Wandering Village really does make a stark point of just how cruel we humans can be to our one and only home.

Catherine is a rare game - it's one that handles sex themes with maturity and nuance, and then folds gameplay elements into the narrative themes that are enhance the core narrative. There's nothing superficial about anything in Catherine, and while I can't compare to the original release on PlayStation 3, I can say that, for anyone who cares about games as an artistic medium, it doesn't get much better than this.

To say that The 25th Ward is niche would be an understatement, but that’s what’s so impressive about it. It respects the intelligence of its players, allowing them to wade through the feverish surrealism that the game often depicts, and melds that perfectly with a traditional noir thriller than Raymond Chandler himself would have been proud of. Goichi Suda might be known for his action games today (and they’re usually very fine games in their own right), but what I wouldn’t give for him to go back for another spin or two at the visual novel.

Stellaris is an aesthetically beautiful and rich in storytelling, and I'm fully enamoured to it. It plays beautifully on console, and it's the kind of game that's impossible to put down once you start playing.

The teams behind these Warriors games are also clearly comfortable with the Nintendo Switch as a piece of hardware, and One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 might be three years old now, but the Switch “ultimate edition” really is the ultimate edition.

LittleBigPlanet 3 is not a perfect by any means, and since it is a platformer at heart it may not appeal to those who are not a fan of that particular genre. However, it is a well-designed game that lacks some polish but at the same time presents a world of possibilities.

I wish more horror games were like Layers of Fear 2. It's a mature and intelligent understanding of the deeper and more meaningful elements of horror, and while I can have as much fun as anyone creeping around a Resident Evil game and shooting the ugly monsters while being startled by the jump scares, it's something like this that I end up reflecting on well after I've finished playing, and this is the kind of game that I return to when I'm looking for an actual horror experience.

Both transgressive and subversive, Hotline Miami and its sequel are both much smarter games that I’ve seen some quarters give them credit for, and brought together into one package for the Switch is a good bit of the ol’ ultra-violence.

Labyrinth of Zangetsu isn’t the longest dungeon crawler (though if you choose the “hardcore” difficulty mode, prepare yourself for a grind that chews through some hours). It is, however, one of the most imaginative examples of the genre in recent years. I find it most similar to Dark Spire, an old (and, sadly, nearly forgotten) DS dungeon crawler. Just like that one, Zangetsu is a fundamentally retro-themed dungeon crawler that plays like a modern game, making it far more accessible than, say, trying to tackle the original Wizardry in 2023. And, as an added bonus, it has an absolutely incredible art style.