There wasn't a moment of Romancing SaGa 3 that I did not love.

New Super Lucky’s Tale is a competent game but not one which will excite players. It’s got a clear target demographic in mind and delivers on what it promises. At the very least, it’s a marked improvement on the original Super Lucky’s Tale, and is arguably the most immediately playable iteration. Fans of 3D platformers will find that this game can contend just as well as the games of old, but without the benefit of brand recognition and nostalgia, Lucky has a real uphill climb in order to achieve greatness. If you’ve already played the other 3D platformers on the Switch, this one is worth a look.

It’s easy to dismiss Tsum Tsum Festival as being “just” a minigame collection, but there’s value in those – especially on the Nintendo Switch, which is built around the easy sharing of experiences but has, to date, had a relatively minimal application of that potential outside of Nintendo itself. With Christmas parties and the like coming up, there’s going to be plenty of opportunities to break this game out, and it’s one of those that kids can love… but then also holds the kind of nostalgic appeal to anyone who grew up with Disney (i.e. all of us) that allows them to enjoy it too. We don’t see Donald Duck in enough games any longer. I’m happy to have him here.

Initially I was worried that Layton sans the titular professor would be a problem. In the end that wasn't where the issues lay with Layton's Mystery Journey. I'm certainly on board with Katrielle taking over and having the kind of long career that her father did, but Level-5 does need to get some fresh new puzzle-designers in, because with this game they dropped the ball too frequently for a series of this calibre.

Like the very best horror, Tokyo Dark takes a look at real-world issues and tensions in a way that's memorably shocking. There's a strong subtext to Tokyo Dark's story, and its told in a nuanced way, with memorable characters and intense imagery. Cherrymochi is a unique developer that has created a unique thing here, and for that the team has certainly earned my attention for whatever it has coming next.

Incredible Mandy is a great example of design by subtraction, focusing on puzzle-solving and atmosphere and eschewing mechanics which do not contribute to the developer’s singular vision. The result is a game which evokes a particularly introspective sensation in the player – if they are able to afford the game their patience and attention despite the lack of combat or narrative tension, then they will be met with rewarding puzzles and a comforting mood. If this sounds like just what you need to unwind, then Incredible Mandy will be a game you are sure to regard with fondness.

For the first ten hours or so I thought that The Outer Worlds would become a game of the year contender. Unfortunately it ultimately proves itself to be a little too shallow for that, but the combination of stunning vistas, excellent party members, and entertaining gunplay make it much like the 70's and 80's science fiction that it's clearly inspired by: A lot of fun when you're looking to switch the brain off and just unwind.

It is lovely and refreshing to play a digital card game that isn't so desperate to be the next big thing in esports that it tears whatever heart and soul it might have had right out of the experience. I walked into The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game fully expecting yet another attempt to "do Hearthstone" on the Nintendo Switch. I walked away thoroughly impressed with how completely the game surprised me.

If there was forward momentum on the subsequent chapters, or some kind of guarantee that the story will actually be completed, then Corpse Party 2 would be essential. I love this series for its sublime use of horror language and the pictures it paints with words rather than relying on (just) the visual grotesque. But this "latest" entry into the franchise only gets to be great if it's actually finished.

There's nothing wrong with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games 2020. It's presented with verve and for such a large range of mini-games, the fact that there's no true dud in there is impressive in its own right. At the same time, it lacks the competitive edge of the "proper" Olympics title this year, and is a little too feature light for its own good as either a single player or local multiplayer experience. That makes it throwaway. Good fun, sure. Well made, absolutely. But throwaway nonetheless.

Baldur's Gate is a classic and a masterpiece, and its sequel might just be better (depending on who you speak to). Brought together in a comprehensive and complete package, not only do you get hundreds of hours of some of the best RPG action ever conceived, but if you're like me and more comfortable with controllers than keyboards and mice, you're finally able to play this masterpiece in the way that you prefer. There's no other way to say this: by virtue of being two of the greatest games of all time, this combined edition pack is one of the best releases of the year.

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.

Dusk Diver is a noble idea. After all, it's clearly inspired by the likes of Persona, and there aren't many better sources of inspiration out there. I'm also right on board with the setting. Having never been to Ximending, I was quite keen to see what it's like through the lens of this game. I didn't get to do that, though, because the game failed to capture the characteristics or community of the district. It was another hub-style location for another anime game. Throw in a functional, but hardly boundary-pushing combat system, and you're left with something that works, but at this particular time of year, a workmanlike experience is just going to drown under the weight of all the other really good stuff being released, sadly.

Lethis had potential. The idea of a steampunk city builder is appealing and does delight the imagination on premise alone. In execution, though, there's virtually nothing of the steampunk concept, beyond the aesthetics, and the game is so stiflingly limited in how it plays that it becomes dull before measure far, far too soon.

Nothing about this game is particularly bad or warrants criticism, but at this point the lack of ambition or innovation makes play sessions feel more tedious than anything else.

For my first experience with the Luigi's Mansion series, I had such a good time. Boiled down it's a fairly simple riff on GhostBusters, but Luigi's Mansion has been produced with such a sense of humour and eye for detail that it has a personality and uniquely Nintendo quality all of its own. Halloween always brings the deluge of seasonably-themed games, and so many of them aim for a true kind of horror. Nintendo tops the pack this year with something that revels in the silliness of the season, and it does so with panache.

The core product still has a good deal to offer. Unfortunately a bevy of technical and gameplay issues give the impression that Visual Concepts needed more time with this title. I imagine that 2K20 will continue to receive patches and support that make it better, but in its current state it is impossible to recommend this over last year's version of the game.

What is important is that I came away from this game very happy. It's a joy to play, the overall experience is video game comfort food, and I don't think I'll ever get bored with the way Gust approaches the alchemy systems with the same sense of experimental creativity as the alchemy in the game itself.

Perhaps I'm wrong with about all of this. Perhaps the developer made the right move in paying for the official PBA ten-pin bowling license. Perhaps all that energy that went into license development so that half the game's feature list on the Nintendo listing can trumpet the real-world authenticity will translate into big sales for Farsight Studios. If that is the case I reckon I'm going to go out and acquire the world croquet championships because there is clearly a big untapped market opportunity in this licensed hyper-niche sports game market.

The visual update is beautiful, the orchestrated soundtrack is gorgeous, and, let's face it, if a developer were to fully modernise MediEvil, the result would likely lose all of the series charm by bloating it out with endless side-quests, open worlds, and some Very. Serious. Violence (TM). MediEvil is a rare bit of whimsy from modern Sony, and so while it plays a little bit too much like an artifact of yesteryear, it still got me smiling.

With Conception Plus you get a really wonderful, albeit uncompromising and traditional roguelike dungeon crawler, with all that that entails. That's not where the game's strength lies, though. Conception makes clever use of anime tropes and fan service to drive home social satire that's particularly pertinent to Japan at the moment, and only going to become moreso over time. It's by turns fun and silly, but it's also much smarter than you may have assumed from the box and concept.

It doesn't really matter how well Summer Sweetheart actually plays, though, because it's such an poor concept, and its executed so clumsily, that it's just not worth touching.

Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers biggest problem is that there are so many more memorable JRPGs available on Nintendo Switch. It's a sweet little entry-level game, and is refreshingly brief in length and scope. It also has a streamlined, nearly retro approach to its combat, and it has fun with its time travel theme. It might not be particularly profound, but it is sweet and cheerful and has a really good soul.

It’s charming nonsense, and with plenty of additional options to replay levels to challenge yourself further, it won’t be a game you’re done with in a hurry either, once it has its hooks into you.

I can't recommend this game enough. It tells a cracking Shinto werewolf story, and the drama of the game's "courtroom" scenes are every bit as compelling as we've seen in the likes of Danganronpa and Lost Dimension. The presentation is a little on the pedestrian side, but don't let that put you off exploring one of the hidden gems of the genre.

Mary Skelter 2 is more of the same, but given that no one else out there would touch this combination of fairy tale, fetishistic horror, and anime fan service, I can't complain one bit about what Mary Skelter 2 is. It's the sequel to one of the most original and memorable dungeon crawlers in recent memory, and that too makes it one of the most original and memorable dungeon crawlers in recent memory.

Silk is a noble idea, presented nicely, and once you get the hang of it, the sheer scale of the game, as well as its exotic themes, make it a wonderful blend of history and adventure. As with many ambitious indie games, however, its ambitions clearly outweighed the capabilities of the team. While this may well be one of the largest environments ever created, and it's a rare example of a game that does that for a reason other than just providing content to players for the sake of content, a lack of refinement and context to the exploration leaves Silk feeling like a far lesser experience than its ambition deserves.

The Witcher 3 tells an excellent story and offers a massive, epic adventure, but the compromises made to this Switch version mean that this is a (significantly) lesser version of one of the most respected blockbusters out there. In doing that, a little of the magic and prestige behind The Witcher itself has been scrubbed away.