With Armored Core VI, FromSoftware has demonstrated, yet again, that it has few peers when it comes to intelligent and thought-provoking action. You’ll need to be faster on the draw and quicker with the reactions to survive this game’s bullet ballet-like approach, but you’ll also need to be smart and precise, and there’s elegance to complement with the visceral sound of metal rending. Sadly, that’s all FromSoftware has delivered this time around, and for a company that has mastered the ability to give truly memorable context to its worlds, characters, and battles, the shallow hollowness of this experience is truly disappointing.

Armed Seven is a worthy genre piece. It is an easy recommend for any shmup fan out there, and though its short length may turn some off (it only has six levels), the brutal, merciless nature of the game, and the robust controls should be more than entertaining enough to encourage you to come back to try to master at least one combination of weapons.

The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance is a game I would recommend any ADV fan to try out, but even with the Yuji Horii pedigree, it needed more TLC on the localisation and marketing for it to truly make waves outside of Japan.

The Fidelio Incident is a game that tries hard to tell a tale of guilt. It mostly works, but unfortunately, it tries a little too hard, with the end result lacking the genuine emotional impact that the work and material deserves. The way The Fidelio Incident approaches the traditional tale of loss and guilt – but importantly not redemption – through the largely unexplored lens of the Irish Troubles is fresh, and the fundamentals are strong enough to make the two hour experience worth the price of admission, if not a necessary investment.

For an homage to a game from the 80's, faithfully recreating a gameplay system that was invented 40 years ago, Pretty Girls Panic! feels like a modern, funky game. The anime aesthetic is gorgeous and current, although the developers really should have done something about the quality of the sprites, and the fussy outlines from the relatively low resolution of those sprites are unforgivable given that they are the entire hook behind the game. There are also not that many stages, but with that said Pretty Girls Panic! also has plenty of replay value and an excellent leaderboard system for such a minimal price. Most compelling of all, though, is the fact that the game is an uncomplicated and well-done take on Qix. Qix is the kind of game that doesn't need developers to mess around with it, and to the great credit of Pretty Girls Panic!'s developer, they've let the base game stand for itself.

As someone who genuinely, deeply cares about games as works of art, to see a game as limited as Destiny become the game that is on the front pages of mainstream news is like a slap in the face. I can't deny that the game is entertaining, beautiful, or content-rich, but for all that Destiny is not even close to a masterpiece.

Nintendo Switch Sports is well-made, with the gorgeous, “lifestyle” aesthetics that have always been characteristic of this series. The motion controls work well, and in local multiplayer it is good fun, as Wii Sports was 16 years ago. However, it lacks the zeitgeist quality that Wii Sports had, and I just can’t see this resonating to anywhere near the same degree. I don’t think there’s any scenario where Nintendo could recapture the magic that made Wii Sports such a mass culture phenomenon, and as well as Nintendo Switch Sports is made, it doesn’t get there.

Gamedec isn’t quite a masterpiece, but it’s a clever and noble attempt to do a non-combat RPG. The cyberpunk and noir themes will never get old, and the complex decision trees invite multiple play-throughs and approaches to the mystery. It’s certainly a game that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Golf Peaks isn’t going to stand out on the Switch. It’s well made, clean, and the minimalism is appealing, but it’s also somewhat limited and hard to sit down to for long periods. But jumping on a train for a short trip, or waiting for friends to get organised for a game of Mario Kart? Well those off minutes can easily be filled with some Golf Peaks action.

There are other XCOM-likes available on Switch, and you could argue that titles like Mutant Year Zero represent a step forward for the genre that has now left XCOM itself behind. The intensity of this game’s narrative, of the resistance against overwhelming odds and the way that the game gives you reason to celebrate even the small victories does make it worth another look, though.

Salt and Sanctuary is a solid homage to its blatant source of inspiration. It doesn't supplant its predecessors, but it does an admirable job nonetheless, and offers players a moody, intricate, and fundamentally enjoyable dark fantasy experience.

It's hard to find anything to really criticise with Marenian Tavern Story, because it's so sweet and good-natured that it's hard not to enjoy your time with it. It's let down by budget constraints and a pedestrian localisation, but it's also a vibrant, pleasant and light-hearted little adventure that gets everything right in the areas that matter most.

Towncraft is a fairly deep town building simulator that never really goes over the line in terms of stressing out the player with deadlines or challenges.

All of this leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, Mario Party Jamboree is the best thing that has happened to my favourite Nintendo multiplayer properties. On the other hand, this… this was just not Nintendo’s finest hour. A clunky mess of a package that seems not to have been thought through, coupled with an infuriating limitation on online play really lets it down. Also, when you think about it, most of the really good stuff was in the Switch original, and while Jamboree TV adds more, it doesn’t add anything that tops what we already have. Overall, the disappointment of the Switch 2 launch window, despite being essential if you haven’t played it before.

Märchen Forest will be chalked up as something "weird" or "zany," I'm sure. It's not really. It's what would happen if you got Salvador Dali and Lewis Carroll together with the Atelier and Shiren the Wanderer developers, and while that sounds like a mix too eclectic to work, it does in a way that can only be described as "surprising" and "delightful." Märchen Forest is better in concept than execution, but that concept is so strong and original you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't grit your teeth through the more laboured gameplay bits.

An enjoyable, if generally uninspired city builder and light-touch RTS. It’s pretty to look at, has a comfortable, laid-back vibe, and aside from wrestling with the controls, is an easy-playing experience that you can tune out to. It ticks all the boxes and leaves you wanting nothing, even if, after a few weeks of solid play, it will then be buried in the Steam list to gather virtual dust.

Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is bright, bubbly, and whimsical. It’s also reasonably challenging, since it’s actually not easy to be as mechanical as a metronome, especially when there are as many visual distractions as this game throws at you. Consequently, between this and that also good quality Animal Crossing clone on Apple Arcade, Hello Kitty is having quite a good year in video games.

Far Cry New Dawn while being a great experience feels more like an expansion to Far Cry 5 than it does its own stand alone title. This is not a bad thing, but if it had to be compared? It would be like saying New Dawn is equivalent to The Witcher 3’s Blood & Wine which was a great addition to the main title.

Despite being a wonderful mix of eclectic and refreshing ideas, Cloudbuilt's difficulty relegates it as a hard sell to all but the most dedicated speedrunners and challenge gamers.

It’s worth delving into the multiplayer, since after a multiplayer game you will win experience that will level you up and allow you to buy even more things from the shop.

While this means in total the game offers 60 puzzles I felt while playing it that I could play the game for much longer. However the game's story been told in cut scenes throughout the game, and I don’t think that could have been presented as well with a longer game. Perhaps we can get more content in a sequel.

Zwei! The Arges Adventure is a lovely little title from Falcom that I am very happy was localised after the success of its successor. If you’ve been been needing some lighthearted dungeon crawling or have already played the localised sequel and want to know how the series began, than you'll appreciate this one a great deal.

Unsatisfying ending aside, North is an interesting, insightful game that's worth a look. It doesn't ask a lot of your time (or wallet), and when it's firing on all cylinders, it has something genuinely important to say.

It's a far more streamlined experience compared to the Civilization games on PC, and that makes it good as a light hearted pick-up-and-play strategy game that doesn't degenerate into free-to-play monetisation nonsense. The only downside on the Vita is that it looks terrible, with low resolution units and environments when compared to the glistening art style that we see on the iPad release.

I hope I'm wrong with that suspicion and Gamebook Adventures 11 is a true return to form for the series, because while Lords of Nurroth is a fun concept and narrative, and yet another rush of nostalgia for fans of the gamebook genre, it's not quite up to the standard of the series' finest.

Amnesia offers a solid narrative which you don’t need to be an otome-game fan to appreciate. There are issues with the way the story is told which might raise some eyebrows, and the plot is certainly melodramatic at times, but the art and music really carry the player along towards the memorable ending.

The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians offers up familiarity while still managing to work in some new wrinkles for the genre and is a welcome addition to the genre, despite some of its other shortcomings.

The game itself doesn’t give much in the way of context of who Tesla and Lovecraft are, or even why a scientist would be fighting an author to begin with. Nonetheless, Tesla vs Lovecraft is a fun twin-stick shooter, made even better by being technically on-point and very clean to play.