It's not going to be forgiving on any level for players in their first couple of hours. Move past that, though, and you're left with one of the greatest examples of sheer precision in rhythm game design, and, let's face it, there's nothing more important to a rhythm game than that.

This is still an excellent little game, and it’s a good fit for the Switch’s portable functions.

Pikuniku is an intriguing game as it takes some heavy concepts and transforms them into something colourfully palatable, with interesting characters and a fun soundtrack.

Senran Kagura Burst's strength is its sheer pace and energy. It's exciting and flashy, and thoroughly entertaining. I haven't enjoyed a brawler this much in a very long time; if only certain writers had given the game a go before dismissing it for something it isn't.

The game looks gorgeous and has plenty of personality, and on the Switch you also get all the DLC, which adds even more value to the overall package. More than anything, though, the ability to detach the joy cons from the Switch unit and get a two player game going anywhere is a brilliant use of the technology, and makes Overcooked feel like it was designed for the console from the very start.

Antstream has won awards like “Heritage in Games” at the TIGA awards, and that best describes the quality of this platform. It’s a preservation library that gives players to play things that they would simply never come across, much less find a way to play. It might not be the “greatest hits” platform, yes, but if spending an afternoon wading through a library of obscure titles and trying things that alternate between happy discovery and dismal waste of time sounds like fun, then Antstream is probably something you’ll enjoy.

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.

It doesn’t feel like it was made as a game to be enjoyed, it feels like it was a game that was made to be experienced.

The high degree of simplification seems unnecessary when the studio has successfully pulled off both technical and stylish input modes in the past. The roster, in its non-DLC state at least, is also wildly lopsided towards BlazBlue. It doesn’t have the staying power of the top-tier games of the genre, but it’s still a blast to see these fantasy crossovers play out with friends, so it more than evens out.

Because Tropical Freeze is so charming, and because the platforming is so wholesomely engaging, it's easy to forgive the fact that is really isn't enough of an enhancement on the previous game to be called something new.

Azure Reflections has plenty of challenge to offer the hardcore bullet hell fiends, but with its relative approachability and level of polish, it's also a great introduction to the world of Touhou shooters.

It’s not the longest game, at about ten hours depending on how quickly you puzzle through it. However, there’s a haunting quality to Hob’s Barrow that will stay with you long after you finish playing. It’s a fine example of literary and gothic horror being brought to the video game medium, and that’s something I’ve been asking for more of in video games for quite some time now.

One might not end up being remembered as fondly as some other classics from the formative era of the visual novel genre (you’ll realise how good that pun is when you play the game for yourself), but it is nonetheless a worthy and surprisingly touching genre classic. Thanks to excellent modernisation, it has a high chance of finding an all-new audience now.

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.

What you need to know is that the frame rate is up to the task the action throws at it, and the controls are slick and feel really good. You’re a fast and ridiculously competent hero, and the power fantasy in this game is very real. Koei Tecmo no doubt developed this quickly after seeing how popular Vampire Survivors is, and while it’s not exactly pushing boundaries, the team has done a great job bringing its exceptional Warriors properties to the formula. This is a game I’ll be returning to for quite some time, as stress relief if nothing else.

Garrett is a wonderful character, and the city and plot of Thief hold all kinds of potential, the game looks gorgeous on the PlayStation 4 and is mechanically very tight, but all of that potential is dampened by the developer's somewhat overzealous desire to dictate just how the game should be played.

Rive is excellently made, and I had a great time flying through space alongside Roughshot. It’s clear that the developers behind it were passionate about making the best experience possible. Rive holds its ground among the best 2D shooters available on PSN – it’s a title which I would readily recommend to anyone with a free afternoon and an affinity for twitch gameplay.

Without a doubt NBA 2K17 is the best basketball game on the market so far.

Supermassive Games has brought the Dark Pictures Anthology back with style and panache. Directive 8020 suffers from being a little too generic in concept and letting itself down with gameplay elements that are at odds with the cinematic quality, but the game does work as popcorn horror and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I thoroughly enjoyed each separate segment (except one) as discrete gameplay units and distinct slices of Resident Evil history. But as a coherent overall experience and statement of intent, Resident Evil Requiem is a mutated beast left to exsanguinate on the floor.

A lot of it is very standard genre fare, and as most people have played at least one Mystery Dungeon title in the past, you know what you’re going to get… at least in terms of how it plays. What distinguishes Mado Monogatari is its extreme enthusiasm and relentless humour. With a joyful art style, hugely entertaining character design and a painfully catchy and exuberant soundtrack, Mado Monogatari ends up being more memorable than it has any right to be. It’s been a stressful couple of weeks for me with an almost overwhelming workload, but whenever I loaded this up I found myself smiling and relaxed almost immediately afterwards.

I must say I really enjoyed building and running my own Jurassic World park. It's not perfect, and certainly given the heritage of the developer in theme park games we possibly could have expected a bit more from it, but you just never know what DLC and the ongoing development promised of the game might bring.

The authentic Taiwanese ghost stories, an intriguing university campus to explore, and a fun – if B-grade cheesy – cast make The Bridge Curse 2 well worth your time. There are also some genuinely memorable monsters and eye-opening scenes. This is one of those super-niche horror games that you’ll be glad you discovered.

What Siralim is, ultimately, is a great deal of fun for a very select audience, and it gets there because it straddles the line between being something authentic, and something that understands that some design elements are best left in the past.

Football Manager is for people that care for an excess in spreadsheets and data, and for all its shoddy presentation and poor optimisation on the Vita, it's absolutely brilliant at all of that.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness will probably not be remembered as one of the PlayStation 4’s finest. It’s greatly let down by technical issues with a camera that actively works against the game’s strengths: the epic sense of scale and the beautiful presentation. Dig beneath that, however, and you arrive at a game with an enjoyable narrative, fun characters, and a solid action JRPG combat system – all the stuff that’s actually important, in other words.

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! is a good game, and it’s absolutely fine fare if you don’t already own a version of Taito’s venerable series. The new quirks don’t break anything fundamental, and that’s for the best in terms of maintaining series quality. At the same time, the new modes don’t add a lot.

There are times when complexity can be a good thing, if it’s done well. Against the Storm gets that much right, giving us a challenging and also rewarding city builder with a compelling replay loop that will have you playing right through the night for weeks at a time.