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.

The world has seen better visual novels. We've experienced smarter and deeper narratives, and we've seen games that effectively meld visual novel convention with gameplay elements to push the boundaries of what this genre is capable of. But since it's set in a patisserie, let's use this analogy to explain why Nekopara Vol 3 is so worthwhile: a title like Steins;Gate, Death Mark or Utawarerumono is like having a Kobe wagyu beef steak. It's the most succulent, delicious thing you've ever eaten. Nekopara is like having a crepe, filled with cream and sweet fruits; you're going to be on your death bed saying "I'm so glad I didn't miss out on that in my life," but you're going to enjoy the hell out of eating it anyway.

Truly, SEGA’s Ryu Ga Gotoku studio is one of the very few studios that we can rely on to push narrative boundaries and really explore the potential for what video games can offer as a traditional storytelling medium.

I can't help but think to myself that there are so many more interesting board games that I'd much rather have on my Switch than a serviceable version of Catan.

Blade II is a great example of what happens when you let a content-driven business make a content-driven game. There's plenty in there to do, but doing any of it is a complete waste of time. Sadly, games like Blade II are far too common, and happen right up and down the industry, from the tiny indies making mobile titles, right through to the biggest companies churning out the blockbusters. The contentification of video games is a plague, and Blade II is one of the most egregious examples of that.

While the games themselves are functional and worth a chuckle, the best experience relies on the player being familiar with the source material.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is exactly what the doctor ordered. It's light-hearted, hugely entertaining, and made with a real eye for detail that helps elevate the overall experience. After the disappointment of the recent Sonic one, this has put everything in the world right again.

And at the end of the day, I’m not sure if I’m happy with what the game represents, but I can’t help but admit that the levels are well made and the core gameplay is immensely enjoyable.

The fact is that Secret of Mana is to me what Chrono Trigger is to most people who were into JRPGs on the SNES, and Collection of Mana has been a truly wonderful trip back through my very fond memories for this series.

Even with SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest releasing so close to SpellForce 3, it’s worth it. The new storyline alone alongside the well crafted systems for both the RPG explorations and the RTS building of armies makes for a good time for both new and old fans alike.

Studio Evil have served us up our order and I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what they have planned for dessert.

It's light, breezy, gorgeous, and a joy to play.

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.

It's unfortunate that the action is too pacy for the Switch controls and there wasn't more attention paid to strategic depth, balance, and how the games various systems would interact with one another, because Golem Gates had all the potential to be something truly amazing.

Vectronom is well made and attractive. It's got a strong sense of minimalist style, and as difficult as it is, it's also entirely fair, and once you've learned its rules and behaviour, it becomes comfortable, albeit difficult, to play. At the same time, this game crystalises some issues with how rhythm games as a whole handle music, and while its various stages are well designed enough, there's nothing truly memorable in there. It's an indie game that wears its heart on its sleeve, but unfortunately also struggles to stand out as anything but a textbook example of an indie title.

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.

There aren't many visual novels that are presented as well as Alternate Jake Hunter Daedalus: The Awakening of Golden Jazz. It's stylish, slick production that borrows from the classical masters of the crime fiction genre, while adding some genuinely creative approaches to the visual novel that help to make it both feel fresh and hard to put down.

If Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth is really the last big 3DS release, it's one smashing swan song. The game is more straightforward than its predecessor, but this change plays to the strengths of Persona’s multitudinous characters. All up, it’s an exemplary crossover game worth investing hundreds of hours before you even start playing in just to appreciate its nuance.

If you’re okay with the lack of customisation options in the main game, then Project Nimbus will be a more than competent mecha game to tide you over until the release of Daemon X Machina. GameCrafterTeam have poured the entire team's love and effort into this aerial action game, and the love for the source material really shows.