For its escape-room premise, Stay’s narrative is surprisingly large in scope, and despite all its shortfalls the eerie atmosphere does linger with you as you play.

For those who are on the fence, Naruto to Boruto Shinobi Striker isn’t as convincing as it thinks it might be.

NHL 19 is not a perfect game - but for hockey fans it is pretty darned close.

Getting three in this pack is a nice value, and there is plenty of variety in how they are laid out and play.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn’t as good as the original reboot, but feels more like a complete package than Rise of the Tomb Raider offered. Peru is represented beautifully, and with some jaw dropping landscapes coupled with very detailed character models, Tomb Raider remains an immersive adventure with just a few faults keeping it from being a true great.

If you have a strategy itch, Frozen Synapse 2 is a great way to scratch it. There are some obvious comparisons to be made to the excellent XCom series, and that is great company to be keeping, but Frozen Synapse 2 still manages to to be its own unique experience as well.

The main flaw of Super Blackjack Battle II is that a coat of paint, no matter how well made, can’t give depth to an ultimately shallow experience. Even with its four player multiplayer mode, this game is just a blackjack table – and one which is a little worse than just buying a pack of cards and playing in real life.

It really is a brilliant single player board game.

The world class presentation, excellent execution of modes and gameplay mechanics really do make NBA 2K19 the best sports game around.

Senran Kagura Reflexions has actually done a lot of damage to the series.

I began Detective Gallo feeling quite peckish for some good point-and-click action. Unfortunately, though, the game has me migrating elsewhere, as Detective Gallo’s cockiness as a character was very grating, and I found myself beginning to moult as a result.

While it doesn’t offer a whole lot to do and risks getting overshadowed by bigger party racers like Nintendo’s own Mario Kart, Chiki Chiki Boxy Racers is good for an afternoon of fun with up to eight players. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and it’s simple enough that players of all ages can immediately understand the controls and goals.

Relics of War may not play like other 4X games that you’re used to, but it treads a perfectly acceptable path of its own that fills the stomach, albeit not quite to satisfaction.

NBA Live 19 has provided a fun, slightly hybrid arcade/simulation style of basketball that works well on the court. There is still room to add features and improve some aspects of the gameplay, but the series has taken some long strides in the right direction since rebooting. That is good news for hoops fans such as myself, who feel that some healthy competition is a good thing.

It’s a perfectly serviceable game with a lengthy campaign and plenty of customisation, but it lacks defining mechanics that inspire or excite players.

The developer deserves props for doing something genuinely interesting in a staid genre. Shadows: Awakening is familiar enough, but it has some enjoyably unique mechanics that help to elevate it, and a world to explore that's genuinely captivating. It would be great to see the developer get a chance to do more with this franchise.

Nippon Ichi continues to be one of the more experimental developers within traditional JRPG genres. Disgaea has always offered a fundamentally different approach to tactics JRPGs, and the two Witch and the Hundred Knight titles did interesting things with the action JRPG. Being different means they're not for everyone, but Labyrinth of Refrain is perhaps the developer's most mature, nuanced, and interesting effort yet.

It's that sense of humour that helps Victor Vran to step out of the shadow of its genre namesake. It's a fully feature-rich example of the Diablo clone, is well balanced so that it never becomes tiresome to play, and offers plenty of shiny loot. The gameplay itself might not be breaking down any boundaries, but between this and Titan Quest, the Nintendo Switch is not lacking for quality horde slaughtering action.

Has F1 2018 done enough to render last year’s (excellent) title redundant? Probably not. But if it has been a few years since your last F1, absolutely give this one a go. The racing market is a crowded one, but F1 is pure racing, and the sport doesn’t get much more exciting, or strategic, than this one.

It's quite impressive that SEGA has been able to take something so revered as Valkyria Chronicles, and do it justice with the fourth title in the series. It's even more impressive that it was willing to admit that Revolution's experimental structure wasn't what fans wanted, and to go back to that original formula. It's hard to do justice to something so beloved, but given that the only flaw that Valkyria Chronicles 4 has is that it's not quite Valkyria Chronicles, that's exactly what has been achieved here.

Call it "casual" if you want, but this is the ideal fighting game for me... and who knows. It might well be the start of the new king of fanservicey fighters, what with Dead or Alive 6's stated intention to ease back on that side of things. And Athena really does look stunning in her bikini. I've been waiting many King of Fighters games for that.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is very much a love letter to the RPGs of yesteryear, and it's a proof of how enjoyable those games can still be.

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.

Hyakki Castle puts up a welcome challenge and offers players something rooted in a very authentic Japanese (Shinto) spirituality. It's an artifact of the country and comes from the same place that the likes of Okami, Nioh and God Wars does. It's truly amazing that the Nintendo Switch has had three of those four released on it in the span of just a couple of weeks.

It may not quite have the finesse of its inspirations, but it delivers a world that's no less fascinating to explore and bleak (though also hopeful, somehow) story that deserves to be uncovered.

Realpolitiks is not the kind of game I would have ever expected on Nintendo Switch. It's not the perfect grand strategy experience; Europa Universalis IV may have slightly less complex and interlocking systems, but it offers deeper AI and greater complexity in strategy, and that's far more important to a grand strategy's longevity. That being said, Realpolitiks is a really delightful game to have for on-the-go play, on a console that I would never have guessed would end up with something like this on it.

Very much an insider's parody of a type of anime that only the most dedicated (and therefore, likely aware) fans of anime in the first place. For that niche Punch Line is pitch-perfect.

There’s still plenty of fanservice in Nekopara; the girls have good taste in underwear, that’s for sure, and there’s plenty of flirtatious dialogue and risqué implications, but it all comes across as playful, and reinforces the rest of the game’s silly tone. And for that, it's absolutely delightful.