Fallen Legion shows all the potential in the world to become a great IP. The core ideas are strong, and the attempt to tell an interesting, deep story is admirable. Unfortunately this one doesn’t execute on its ideas as well as it should, and, critically, this lets down the game's themes, but it is on the cusp of being something special.

If you do like Space Harrier and similar, and you're familiar enough with the Neptunia series to know the characters and enemies without needing to have them introduced to you, then Top Nep is a short burst of nostalgic-themed fun. It's also a decent game to introduce people to the genre, thanks to the modest difficulty option, while eventually scaling to something more challenging to give the genre faithful something to sink their teeth into. I have very few issues with Top Nep as an arcade action throwback. My issue is that, as a Neptunia fan, the less-than-lip service paid to the property left the overall experience feeling humourless and soulless. For all the faults and missteps of Neptunia over the years that is something I never thought I would be saying about a game in the series.

The Sims 4 leaves me feeling like the potential for greatness is there, but at this point we will have to wait and see if it ever gets realised.

Painting Workshop has alternatives all over the market, several of which are superior and offer some kind of inventive extra, but despite this it works brilliantly as an introductory doodle station.

Home Sweet Home isn't a classic that transcends its genre roots, but the developers behind the game show that they understand how fear works, how to build tension, how pacing should work in a good horror game, and how to create some shocking imagery. I wanted more of the promised delve into Thai ghost stories, but overall, as a genre fan I found this an engrossing enough diversion.

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.

Coteries of New York does a good job being a Vampire: The Masquerade game. The developers have captured the essence of the property, crafted an appropriate aesthetic and narrative environment, and avoided any inclination to try and "change" what Vampire: The Masquerade is. Playing this game feels every bit like playing the tabletop pen-and-paper experience with a good GM weaving the story. Sadly, by nature pen-and-paper RPGs are about fun stories rather than anything meaningful, and Coteries of New York doesn't really have anything meaningful to say. Throw in some confused mechanics and this one won't be remembered as a classic of the genre.

While the basic premise is a simple one, it is the added elements such as the day and night transitions, defense building, RPG-like elements and that online leaderboard that makes Over 9000 Zombies quite the enjoyable arcade game.

In the tradition of Worms Forts it’s an intriguing base-building strategy game, and the real-time nature of it solves one of the bigger issues of Worms Forts: that it could be bogged down to almost stalemate, making games drag on for ages. That being said, the game does need a lot more than what it’s offering, and as with all indie games, I wonder about the wisdom of making the game so heavily reliant on multiplayer. When players have to wait around for however long just to get a game going, they’re just as likely to go and play something else instead.

I soured quickly on Penny-Punching Princess. I love the art. I love the combat. I found the sharp challenge and simple, clean mechanics to all be very enjoyable. But I just couldn’t get past how shallow it really was in the end, and how the game failed to live up to the tantalising promises made in its lede. It could have easily been a 5/5 game, but instead it’s one of the real disappointments in 2018.

It is certainly not a bad game, but it feels like War of the Vikings has room to grow, and is currently not as much of an advancement over the last game as I would have liked.

For all my criticisms here, I do want to see another take at this. There’s absolutely room for an anime Returnal, and the base mechanics are there. Scar-Lead Salvation does play well. It is so achingly close to a good game. It’s just crushed by trying to spread that quality across a very, very long gauntlet.

Hello Kitty Kruisers isn't a great game from an adult's perspective, and that's a bit of a wasted opportunity as there are plenty of adult Kitty fans out there. But where most games made for children are brutally bad, I don't think Kruisers is that. In fact, I think the developers have cleverly stripped back the elements of a kart racer that children struggle with, while leaving the elements that they're inclined to enjoy. And for parents that are dragged into playing this with their kids, just think; soon enough they'll graduate to Mario Kart.

As a proof of concept, Reigns: Three Kingdoms is intriguing. As far as allowing players to travel through history (and/or literature) and play out “what if” hypothetical scenarios based on moral decisions, there is clearly a lot of potential here. Is there a future where we can talk sense into Napoleon before he marches on Moscow, or give Romeo & Juliet a happy ending? Reigns could well give that to us. For it to truly work, though, the developers just need to manage continuity and introduce a sense of consequence to our actions when trying to reverse history. That way, when we successfully do achieve something, we can feel like actual heroes in the story.

Paradigm Paradox is not terrible. It’s a perfectly readable visual novel, and the twist it gives to the magical girls story – putting it in the context of an otome – was one worth exploring. However, I’ve got to say that I expect far better from Otomate. This is a studio that produces the most beautiful visual novels, with the most vivid characters and settings, of all. Against that studio’s lofty standards this one is, unfortunately, a big misstep.

For the very small niche of people who care that much about Snooker, however, Snooker 19 does deliver. There are more accessible Pool titles out there - including on the Nintendo Switch itself, but as an attempt to go the full distance with a deeply authentic simulation, Snooker 19 is a good and genuine effort.

That standout map is Egypt. It’s a complex arena, with wide desert fields interspersed with columns and trenches that really open up your tactical toolset.

Feather is a beautiful, soulful experience, which is sadly too limited for its own good.

For such a cheap little game I had plenty of fun with it, and blew through it well before I got bored with it.

It is a shame that Master Reboot seems to nail the atmosphere so well, because the story, puzzle and to a lesser degree visual elements, just do not come together to create a fully realised and enjoyable package.

Management games are, of course, incredibly niche, but as SEGA's Football Manager series has proven, there's a lot of potential in there for these games to also be utterly life-consuming. Is Franchise Hockey Manager 3 up to that standard? No quite, but it's on the right path.

So credit to Nintendo’s development teams for thinking outside the box. Unfortunately that’s about all the good I’ve got to say about Arms. I didn’t much enjoy this fighting game at all, to be honest.

The talent is there, and it's wasted on a game like this which, fun as it is, doesn't live up to the promise of its screenshots.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite gets things right where they matter most. Combat is entertaining and the addition of the Infinity Stones is a fresh and welcome addition. I also appreciate the diversity in how characters play and a storyline that does a serviceable job weaving two very disparate universes together. Visually Infinite misses the mark more often than not however, and the roster misses several opportunities in what gave me the impression that Marvel is more interested in promoting their current movies than catering to their overall fan base.

Venture Towns is, mercifully, free of microtransactions and is an odd delight to play on the big screen, where once Kairosoft was restricted to small mobile phone and tablet screens.

There are plenty of titles out there with a strong moral conscience that try to communicate with players by making "difficult decisions" the core gameplay loop. This includes This War of Mine, Papers Please, Reigns, Not Tonight, Beholder, Ministry of Broadcast, and plenty of others besides. Yes, Your Grace is guilty of not adding enough to this philosophy of game design, and thus I suspect that it is destined to be one of the lesser-remembered examples of the "genre." With that being said, there's still a lot to appreciate about this one, and it's wrapped up in such a lovely package that, if nothing else, it makes for an excellent lazy Sunday afternoon experience.

If you can handle the uncomfortable controls, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in some good old platformer shooting fun.

Meow Motors has its issues, but overall, it gets away with it all. It's a bright, colourful, charming and cheap little kart racer that kids can enjoy, and people who never seem to tire of kart racers will have a compulsive need to buy and mess around with. As we wait for the PlayStation 4 to finally have a great kart racer (Crash Team Racing is on its way), Meow Motors is nothing to cough up a hairball over.