It's a surprisingly decent narrative, mind you. BlazBlue has all the typical tropes of youth action anime, with its focus on moving up and down power rankings something overly familiar to anyone who's watched even a few anime titles in the past. But, again, BlazBlue does it convincingly enough that you feel like you're getting a full anime season as part of the game's entry price. Throw in the quality competitive seen, umpteen different alternative gameplay modes, and the sheer size of the roster, all available from the outset, and BlazBlue is going to be hard to put down for a long period of time.

The Switch version runs gorgeously, too.

For those who do understand their 4X genre, however, At The Gates will come across as a breath of fresh air. It's a ground-up rethink on how the genre can work, and what the 4X might look like as applied to the many cultures and civilizations out there that didn't have the imperialist intent that most 4X titles assume. For that, it's one of the most interesting strategy games I've played in years.

Memory of God has created a poignant experience featuring a character type that is rarely explored in the medium. The game’s esoteric story and tedious mechanics might look bad on the surface, but they contribute effectively to the game’s unique tone – and the ending is sure to be something you’ll remember for a long time.

This developer/ publisher understands the Grimm aesthetic and structure better than anyone else out there.

Song of Memories does have an excellent combat system and lite JRPG mechanics. It also has its moments where it's genuinely amusing, and the contrast between the monster story and the fan service-rich romance is... eclectic. It's a difficult game to really pin down, but for those that can let the oddity of it all wash over them, it can also be an surprisingly difficult game to put down.

Still, How to Sing to Open Your Heart is worth a look if you want some cute, lighthearted romance. It's full of heartwarming moments backed by fantastic artwork, and even if the attempts at dealing with more serious matter fall short, that's reason enough to join Myana on her adventures.

While there are a lot of standard features for its genre, God Eater 3 is far from standard. Where once this was one of the genre's pretenders, sitting quietly on handheld consoles and developing a small, but dedicated audience, it now looks like Bandai Namco has a series that belongs with Toukiden and Monster Hunter at the very front of the stage.

It's going to be hard seeing Etrian Odyssey go... but it needs to. Without that mapping component, it would lose its core and soul, and with Etrian Odyssey Nexus, we've got a near-complete realisation of everything Etrian Odyssey has stood for for so many years. This is a good place to finish what has become a beloved series for many. Perhaps there will even be another dual screen handheld down the track, but in the meantime, farewell, dear friend!

It’s a pity that there will be some (or many) who will inevitably dismiss Death’s End re;Quest as an anime fan service game, because it has a smart core under those trappings. As a blend of visual novel and JRPG, and as a blend of science fiction and conspiracy thriller that has a good, sharp bite to it, I would have to say this is the most inherently interesting game that Compile Heart has created to date.

There is a superb foundation here for what could become one truly special franchise.

Steins;Gate Elite is not only the perfect visual novel improved, but it's also a shining example of what the top tier of visual novels should look like.

If you’re not well-acquainted with Compile Heart’s shenanigans and you don’t have a vested interest in the franchise, then the Switch version is perhaps not the most seamless introduction to the universe of Furies and Fang.

For those who have played and loved any of the tabletop games over the years that have been based on Lovecraft’s mythos – the tabletop miniatures game that Cthulhu Tactics itself is based on, for example, or Arkham Horror, or the legendary Call of Cthulhu pen-and-paper RPG, Cthulhu Tactics does a remarkable job of capturing that same aesthetic and sense of overwhelming challenge. This game is well and truly worth a look.

I definitely don’t regret the download – even though my Switch is bloated full of titles, I can see myself always coming back to Downwell whenever I need to fill a short five to ten minutes.

The universe of Genesis is vibrant, with distant systems lighting the ship with a beautiful sci-fi glow, and the aliens representing a full intriguing gamut from cockroach-like beasts through to humanoid aliens. This is the kind of game that people who dream of crafting their own space exploration stories, without being dragged through any particular forced narrative, will absolutely love.

Sphinx has aged relatively well. This is the perfect way to introduce newcomers to the game, even if it’s a series that didn’t take off.

If you can push past the sense that Luc Bernard’s art deserves to be associated with something that is so much more, this game is a great filler in between whatever else you’re playing on the Switch.

Legrand Legacy is, in the end, a very playable JRPG. Sadly it's also one of marginal appeal, even to those who grew up playing old JRPGs back in the 32-bit era.

The core action is still exciting and dynamic, with a layered combo system that ensures it's never quite a button masher. Throw in the series' infamously hyperbolic and satirical sexualisation, and you're still left with a good time. There are games that do genuine sexiness better, and there aren't many out there that have the wild, unbound entertainment value of Senran Kagura.

For Christie nuts, The Raven is one of the better attempts to do her style of detective mystery that Christie herself wasn't involved in. It's well performed and convincing, and the age of the game is hardly a concern because, dated as it looks at times, the appeal of this one has to do more about the cerebral. It's all about the storytelling, in other words, and that side of things is spot on.

I’d like to see another Fight of Gods, with improved development competence, but is still happy to be an absurd, irreverent bit of fun. We need those games too, else what would we have to play by the time we got to the second bottle of wine?

The Shrouded Isle is so razor-focused on its darkly original theme that it comes across as quite brave. This isn’t a necessarily uplifting or relaxing game. Nor is it particularly rewarding. It is, however, genuinely clever with how it works within an established genre, and it’s uncompromising in its vision. We need more games that are willing to do that.

As a fan of the original game, this Resident Evil 2 remake has been an utter joy to play. During my time with it, I was constantly in awe of the love and reverence the developers clearly have for the original. The spirit of Resident Evil 2 has been distilled down, concentrated, and reconstituted into this beautiful, hideous experience that completely undermined all my preconceptions. Resident Evil 2 remade is not the cheap B-movie of its predecessor. It eschews the horror-kitsch stylings that made the original games instantly memorable, cuts down the weird, and plays it entirely straight. It can be off-putting. It can feel too serious. But this package delivered by Capcom is undeniably brilliant in its own right. It’s a love letter to survival horror, delivered direct like a bullet to the head.

It's too poor as a bowling simulation to work as a bowling game. It's too lacking in gameplay modes to work as a minigame-driven take on bowling or as a party game. So what's left? Not much, other than the under-developed seeds of something that could have been really great.

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.

It's now in its 20th year, but Ace Combat 7 shows that there's plenty of life yet in the series. Neither pure arcade, nor hardcore simulation, it straddles the line it needs to offer both a sense of flight and fast, furious dogfight action, even as it tells a cinematic and genuinely enjoyable story.

Bury Me, My Love is a remarkable exercise in building empathy. It’s a simple game, but so much more razor focused and successful at creating authenticity than most games that have budgets of a hundred million. Most importantly, however, is that no game is telling a story of greater importance to the world at the moment than Bury Me, My Love. The games industry and those who play games keep arguing that there's the potential for video games to have the emotional power and potential to be the next great art form. Here’s your proof.