It’s clumsy and filled with flaws, but it’s precisely these imperfections that make it so interesting.

Forged of Blood is ambitious well beyond its means, and it has so many systems at play at once that there are moments where, mechanically, they fall down. Thematically, however, it’s a gorgeous blend of complementary fantasy genres and approaches, and it's done differently. We need to see more original and different games being made, and it’s great to see something of this vision and presentation coming out of emerging game development nations like Indonesia.

As an introduction to the Eurogame genre, or as something to play with more casual or younger board game fans, Raiders of the North Sea is an excellent example of how to do accessibility without being condescending, and the digital version that has been created here hits every note it needed to.

The shift of Longshot to the Face of a Franchise and the addition of X-Factors provide some tangible and beneficial changes to the game. Sure, the Pro Bowl is sort of a weird and pointless area of emphasis, but Madden NFL 20 provides one of the most entertaining and polished sports experiences available.

A truly beautiful game, and a confident, well-meaning and refreshingly positive use of the videogame medium by talented newcomers. The money might be in the AAA fetish shooters, but the heart, soul and future value of games is wrapped up in projects like this one.

Between its twist of the Light versus Dark story, the delightful Dancer job, and the most stunning locations Final Fantasy XIV has seen, Shadowbringers is a shining example of why that formula works.

Overall, however, the roster of events is good and varied, and there are more to come.

Three Houses is so vibrant that I didn't really mind the lack of difficulty. I was too invested in the characters, and looking forward to the next major plot point too much to really care. It can be bloated, messy, and unnecessarily padded with content at times, but when it comes to the core strengths of Fire Emblem - its character-driven epic fantasy, tight tactical battles and a full harem of both waifu and husbandos, Intelligent Systems have delivered something truly resonant with this one.

Although there is definitely room to grow in terms of story and how its presented, as well as a few minor flaws here and there, Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble provides a huge amount of enjoyment from start to finish with some incredibly tense fights.

There's nothing really deep being said about Rio Reincarnation, nor the other two visual novels in this package. The trilogy really is a series of straightforward, light-hearted, comedic (without being subversive or satirical), charming and simple stories, backed up with some of the most gorgeous fan service art you'll find. Sometimes that's all you need, and Tsunako really is a genius in her field.

In the end, the started and overt point of Archlion Saga is that it was developed to introduce people who are less familiar with JRPGs to the genre. The developers failed in doing that, since anyone who plays this as their first JRPG won't touch another one for a very, very long time. No one likes having their intelligence insulted, even if they are completely new to something.

While it's shallow and has an overly narrow focus, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order is good fun, and serves as excellent, entertaining fan service for the Marvel faithful. Get a group of friends together, and this is a glorious throwback to the days of couch co-op adventuring, with the development team even throwing in a camera that very nearly ruins the experience. That is true commitment to recapturing the essence of playing games from yesteryear, right there.

Lacking personality as it is, and with its main selling point - the multiplayer - being an apparent bust, it's very hard to understand who would actually want to buy into this version of Skulls of the Shogun.

Kill la Kill is an anime licensed tie-in fighter done well, and given how frequently these turn out to be terrible that in itself is a relief. It's fast, it's furious, it's explicit and fanservicey, and it is outright hilarious in its satire. The developers have nailed every element of Kill la Kill that needed to be done right, and I can't imagine fans wanting anything more from this particular game.

With a very short completion time and no replay value there really isn’t much to keep you playing and whilst the lack of challenge may be appealing to those looking for a short game to pick up and play it becomes tedious very quickly.

Strategically, Field of Glory: Empires is one of the more accessible 4X strategy titles out there. It's not too demanding on the player around the diplomacy and trade side of things, allowing you to focus principally on the military strategy. The interface, sadly, will put anyone off who isn't a wargaming veteran, but anyone who has an interest in ancient Rome and its military history should push through that, because they will get a kick out of Field of Glory: Empires. If only because you'll be able to hand Hannibal the great victory and conquest the poor guy clearly deserved.

If you’ve played the original Dragon Quest Builders, the sequel is ultimately more of the same, except polished in very way. The slight improvements in building, inventory, combat and town management make this game an easy one to play, so much so that I imagine it’d be hard to go back to the first once you’ve become accustomed to the new mechanics. If you’ve got a lot of time to kill, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a great choice – it’s clever, rewarding, and has a wealth of possibility.

It's a grindy, retro-styled roguelike, with a wonderful monster collecting mechanic, and a great sense of humour. On the Nintendo Switch, it really feels at home, and as long as you can get over the overwhelming orientation process, you'll be set for many hours of dungeon crawling with this one.

You've got to ask yourself: if you're looking for quality pinball, would you not be better off playing a pinball title that offers actual quality? And if you're looking for something sexy, would you not be better off looking for something actually sexy? Peach Ball is broadly entertaining, but it's hardly a pinnacle in either case.

We’ve seen better from ACE Team. Abyss Odyssey was a gorgeous representation of the developer’s own culture (something we still see too infrequently in video games), while Rock of Ages was as funny as a Monty Python sketch, and Deadly Tower Of Monsters was the spot-on love letter to the dodgy B-cinema that so many of us loved growing up. In that company SolSeraph seems a little too unfocused and uncertain of itself, despite being an entertaining and challenging game in its own right. However ACE Team at its worst is still more distinctive than most other developers at their best. I do think that SolSeraph will find an audience, and I do hope, for those who have played ActRaiser, that this comes across as the spiritual successor they've long been waiting for.

I love that Netflix is investing in game development, because many of its properties could potentially use the medium to enhance the overall experience for fans. It needs to do better going forward though. Stranger Things 3: The Game is trash that does more harm to the property than good. It was almost quaint going on a memory trip back to when video games were used to churn out cheap bonus money grabs every time a major film landed, but the industry has moved on from that nonsense, and there's nothing about this game that is acceptable in this day and age.

Like a wave of nostalgia, Focus on You is over fleetingly quickly, and it's not exactly a deep and meaningful experience. It is beautifully produced and performed, however, and an excellent use of the unique experiences that VR enables. It's not going to win game of the year awards, but nostalgia is a tricky beast for developers to work effectively with, and I think this one captures the aesthetic and tone of a nostalgic memory perfectly.

Scrap Rush is ultimately a party game which does a little better than the other party game fare available on Switch at the moment. Its mechanics aren’t particularly novel but they are robust enough to support replayability, and there’s a good blend of skill and chance involved with success. The team at Acquire has successfully tapped into a more cerebral game that’s still easy to understand and quick to pick up and play. If you’ve got a group of friends you play local multiplayer with regularly, this has the chops to make it into the regular rotation. That being said, it might not have the staying power of some of the other local multiplayer classics.

Bloodstained is absolutely, unapologetically a game made for Symphony of the Night's many fans, and it lives up to that legacy better than I ever could have hoped for.

On the Nintendo Switch, and particularly in handheld mode, it actually looks really nice in capturing that grim-Mars wasteland. Sadly, open worlds age far worse than most other approaches to game design, and while I can quite happily recommend HD remasters of JRPGs that originally appeared on PlayStation 3 - or even PS2 or PS1 - because it's the unique and timeless narratives that people play them for, open worlds lose their value rapidly.

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.

The Sinking City is a thoughtful take on the source material, but is nearly destroyed by the poorly-executed open world and actions sequences. The investigations themselves are well-structured and easy to maneuver, but the long treks between, and the downtime that comes with them, is unnecessary. Still, if you're a Lovecraft fan or a fan of Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes titles, it's well worth a play for being an intriguing, and more authentic take on Lovecraft than most manage.

I really wanted to see a bigger improvement from the original Super Mario Maker to this sequel. The features that Nintendo has added in are nice, but with only one additional game environment to play around with in Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo is underselling the own rich heritage that it has to work with. With that being said, anything that encourages people to create, rather than just consume, is a noble cause, and Nintendo has managed to build something completely accessible despite giving users absolutely everything they need to recreate any Mario level. That's surely the holy grail of the creator genre.