Spider-Man has all kinds of tricks to silence and distract his opponents, and while the AI is far too static and rote to make for genre-defying stealth missions, playing around with the extensive Spidey toolbox in these scenes never got old. In fact, because the stealth and combat sequences are all explicitly built around allowing Spider-Man the creativity to use his full range of abilities, it’s no coincidence that these moments where the game genuinely feels like the proper Spider-Man experience that everything should have been.

The social commentary in this game is pretty spot on and I got more than my own fair share of laughs, even at my own expense at times as some jokes hit close to home. The fact that this is an RPG that plays really well and has a solid and surprisingly deep battle system is just the icing on the cake.

The story is fun, the graphics are out-of-this-world impressively retro, and the controls have been updated for modern computers and controllers (or keyboards, if you so chose). I found myself completely immersed in the castle’s world — except when the audio cut out — and plan on going back again soon.

It shows that none of the main Assassin's Creed games are going to age particularly well, but it also does a good job of highlighting - when freed of the expectations that come with being a blockbuster - that the real strengths of the series are far more subtle than the graphics or size of the cities that it renders.

Disney, as with Activision, is going to face stiff competition from Nintendo with its Amiibo line (which taps into the same sense of nostalgic loyalty as Disney Infinity, in fact, and is a bigger threat to it than Skylanders). But Infinity 2.0 shows that the franchise is on the right track, and it might just wind up on top.

Volume’s score is great and the composer, David Housden, has done a fantastic job. The audio direction and design really impressed me with the memorable voice acting and sound effects throughout. It is always great to have a composer create a soundtrack so good, that it is actually interesting to listen to even outside the game.

Even without the multiplayer, however, Battle Worlds Kronos is a unique, deep, and rich tactical strategy game. It’s not something I ever expected to see on my home consoles, but it’s nice to see, because as much as I like my wargames, I really do prefer to kick back in front of the TV when I’m in the mood to play games.

I’d describe Sticky Business as a wholesome game. It looks like one, and it plays like one. It’s lovely for there to be no violence, no conflict, just stickers and stories. It’s not a terribly long game (it took about ten hours to get all the Steam achievements), but it was super fun and exactly what the marketing promised. I’d love to see it on Nintendo Switch, but that’s mostly because I want everything I love to be available on that platform. The sticker design and packaging processes were almost soothing, and I oddly did love trying to fit as many stickers onto a page as possible. If you’re in the market for an innovative cozy game idea, Sticky Business just might scratch that itch.

Risk of Rain makes an effort to critique the one-man-army story, by tossing around the idea that maybe, just maybe, the survivor isn’t the hero we assume them to be. It’s not the most nuanced criticism, but it’s still an important one, and the element of solitude is a key component of that.

One thing’s for sure: if you're not Nintendo hardware equipped but wish to taste forbidden fruit, then at least until Zelda goes mobile World to the West is probably one of the finer ways to to experience easy going, family friendly, lightly puzzling and very cute gaming. I certainly loved it, and if I was to offer personal advice in two words I would simply tell you: Go West!

What Tamsoft nailed was the core action brawler gameplay loop. This game plays every bit as well as anything else Tamsoft has created, and the Hyperdimension coat of paint over the top is just gravy.

Aside from excluding a vast swathe of the world from having the same opportunity to take control of their favourite teams as most Europeans do, Football Manager 23 Touch is a substantial step forward for the developer. For perhaps the first time they’ve figured out how to make the enormity of data that you’re going to spend hours looking at and tweaking playable with a controller. It might not sound like much, but that must have been a monumentally challenging UI effort, and the development team really did nail it.

Rabi Ribi has so much more going on under its hood than mere screenshots can contain. What some will invariably dismiss as a cash-in on cute anime girl aesthetics is actually designed with greater foresight and craft than many AAA titles. Thoughtful world design meets bullet-hell mechanics in this endlessly endearing hotchpotch of ideas from all across the spectrum. Not everyone will appreciate Rabi Ribi’s more hardcore tendencies, but those who do may will be swayed into making this game their life.

I wasn’t really playing Hyakki Castle for the “gameplay” so much as the opportunity to run through a gauntlet of stunningly-rendered yokai, and the game really scratched that itch. This is the first game for Asakusa Studios, and with it, the team has announced itself as a real talent, and a group of artists and coders with a real understanding on how to meld Japanese tradition with very modern gameplay.

While Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot doesn’t really do anything new “overall”, it’s still an amazing time because of the way that everything has been put together. Those new to the series and long time fans alike have plenty to find and enjoy, as the pacing is just right to both let you relive some of the iconic fights of the series, and just live a little with your favourite characters.

Then again, you’re not playing the pretty boys game for the leaderboard glory. You’re playing it for the pretty boys, and eastasiasoft has delivered to the same standard as the predecessor. I hope these games have been enough of a success for them to encourage more down the track, because the diversity in raw, unmitigated thirst is appreciated, and I would like to see the series break out of little casual puzzle games so they can fully run with that. Let’s talk about taking these great characters you’ve got and their potential for a visual novel, EAS. I’m up for it if you are.

It might not have the charm of Harvest Moon, but there’s a purity to the experience in Farming Simulator 18 that also means it avoids the irritants.

You’ll need to love old school dungeon crawlers like Wizardry to get much out of these games, and if you do like those kinds of games you know that you’ll love these (and you would have likely played them on the PSP before anyway). There’s nothing wrong with any of this. It’s pure comfort food for the genre faithful, and it’s a particularly generous and well-layered slice of cake.

Trinity Trigger fills a very specific niche: It’s there for people that either grew up with the likes of Secret of Mana, or who have come to appreciate them. The game wears its heart on its sleeve and risks being seen as the wrong kind of quaint by sticking to such a classical approach. Thankfully, the soul and love for the genre are so obvious that I imagine most people will be enchanted by this.

The Apple Arcade version also includes online play with random match-ups, and these are great fun if you can't get a group of friends together but still want to test your music knowledge. SongPop Party might be a no-frills trivia game, but then that's all it needs to be, too. This is all about the music, and there's so much of that that it's not going to outstay its welcome any time soon.

Elden Ring Nightreign is a very clever game. FromSoftware has produced a multiplayer-focused “Souls” experience that borrows some of the best ideas from the multiplayer giants while retaining the Soulslike formula and style. It’s not really for me. I’m a mega Souls fan, but I’m there for the dark fantasy storytelling and exploration more than the action and bosses. But I can appreciate what FromSoftware has done with this, and I certainly think the team has nailed what they set out to achieve with it.

Andromeda is still Mass Effect, and for some that might be enough, but this avenue needs more to be held in similar esteem. It does reach a satisfying conclusion, at least as far as the buildup warrants, but it takes the long way around. It does hit something that feels like a fresh, Mass Effect-patterned beginning, but a lot of the sophistication in plot that’s alluded to is left up in the air. Of course, we've also heard all of this before, when people were unsure about just what BioWare was trying to do with the original Mass Effect. It really took us two games to come to believe in the vision in the first instance, and perhaps that is the case with our new home in Andromeda, too.

Super Mega Baseball 2 is an accessible, arcade-style game anyone can enjoy. I hadn’t enjoyed a baseball game myself in a long time, and I tied it to simply not being able to hit the ball while batting. Super Mega Baseball 2 pretty much fixes everything I didn’t like about modern baseball games.

I find myself in a conflicted position with Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp. On the one hand, it is essential. To this day, these are two of the finest tactics games of all time. On the other hand, there is no reason for this remake to exist when a re-release would have been sufficient. If it’s Nintendo’s way of exploring a revival for the series then great, and I hope it sells a bucketload. I just wish WayForward’s talents had have been deployed better.

The long-and-short of Fairy Tail 2 is that it’s a perfectly competent JRPG by one of the true specialists of the genre. It’s not going to be remembered as Gust’s finest work, and is more of a play-and-forget experience. This is a year that has given us everything from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to Metaphor, a mind-blowingly good remake of Romancing SaGa 2 and, arguably, the finest Yakuza game yet with Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. In comparison to all of that Fairy Tail’s by-the-numbers approach will seem routine. But it’s also got all the hallmarks we come to expect from Gust – this is comfort food gaming for JRPG enthusiasts, using strong material well. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

While I fully acknowledge that Don Bradman Cricket 2014 isn't the finest sports game out there and isn't a patch on the production values of, say, FIFA, Madden or NHL games, it does generally play a good game of cricket, and this is the game that we fans of the sport have been waiting for, so with that in mind I'll reemphasise this; this is the greatest cricket game ever produced.

Hatsune Miku: The Planet of Wonder and Fragments of Wishes is not the finest Hatsune Miku “spin-off”, but it is a delight in its own right. It might only offer a small library of minigames, but they all play nicely, and the bubbly charm behind every second of the experience is infectious. I am intrigued by the future and what Crypton could do now that they have the assets to start delivering story experiences. More than anything else, however, this is a Miku game, and in a very simple and pure sense, spending time with it makes me happy.

I don’t think a couple more branching points would have gone amiss, but even as a strictly linear visual novel, LoveKami -Divinity Stage- is a great game. It touches on some serious themes around idol culture and sexuality, but mostly, it’s just a cute, sexy romantic comedy to get the heart pumping.