A very expensive way to play bad pinball.

The first of the two Mega Man X Legacy Collections contains four amazing masterpieces of platforming goodness. While it does not contain as many games as the original collection, the games here are all well worth your time, if not to revisit games from a bygone era, then to experience what all the fuss was about.

This appears to be a theme with the Mega Man franchise. Each series starts off well, and then after a half dozen or so numbered titles, the quality falls off a cliff. Much like with the original Legacy Collections, I would recommend the first collection over the second in a heartbeat if you were to only choose one.

For a first attempt at a kart racer, All-Star Fruit Racing shows that the team behind it is talented, and they know how to make a genuinely fun game. There’s a lot of joy involved in playing this one, and it’s an ideal party racing game, particularly on the PlayStation 4, where there’s no Mario Kart equivalent to reach for. If it wasn’t for the infuriating AI, I’d even argue that All-Star Fruit Racing takes a step forward in a genre that Nintendo itself is almost painfully conservative about.

If you’re able to settle into Realms of Arkania’s rhythm and allow it to engage with your imagination, there is an awful lot of nostalgic joy to derive from something so wonderfully classic as this.

There are still some problems, as the platforming can feel awkwardly stiff at times and the game isn’t the prettiest of titles, but it’s a resounding triumph in teaching an important lesson. Those that finish Path of Motus will find themselves better for the journey and motivated to follow their dreams. That type of reward far surpasses the amount of fun a game can bring.

Between that design creativity and the sheer stylistic beauty of it, Semblance is a game that'll stick in my mind for a long time.

Vertical Strike is a super low budget and cheap little game, designed to give fans of the occasional dogfight a quick rush. Thanks to its tight and efficient mechanics, and the steady and enjoyable approach that it has to difficulty escalation, it achieves what it sets out to. Nothing more, and nothing less.

As a puzzler, Yuso is definitely a mixed bag. It has wonderfully cute aesthetics that are pleasing to the eye, Yuso is an attractive game for sure. The implementation of the puzzles leaves a bit to be desired, some puzzles feel very clever, some are very easy, and some are too difficult, to the point that they require trial and error to pass.

Hand of Fate 2 will be most rewarding to those who like a lot of risk with their reward. It’s also a game for those who want to stray off the beaten path when it comes to the idea of role-playing.

One Strike is mildly fun, but woefully ill equipped to provide any long term value.

What players will find with Figment is a game that paces itself well to create a world that tackles the inner demons of its protagonist in a way that is simultaneously light hearted and without trivialising the seriousness of the themes. If for no other reason, you should look at this one for its art direction alone. It really is gorgeous.

An interesting title that almost looks like an old-school point-and-click adventure game, but its mix of platforming and exploration make for a deeper if flawed experience. It is unfortunate that the controls and some of the more vague environmental puzzles are not more refined, because they hold back what otherwise is still a memorable game. Even with those blemishes, the way the world is woven together and the interesting premise are more than enough reason to spend some time exploring.

Frost is mechanically sound and has all the hallmarks of a truly great single player card game. Sadly, its inability to take the concept and really drive home something impactful leaves it feeling a little shallow and limited in the end; a missed opportunity for something so gorgeous and refined.

The Lion’s Song is a touching game that highlights individual’s creative struggles and how they overcome these hurdles in their lives. The struggles of the 20th century can still be seen in today’s society, so it is inspiring to see them discover themselves and overcome these hurdles.

This is the best Sonic effort in years as the developers managed to blend the things that made classic Sonic games so great in the first place.

If you are a roguelike fan, then this is a lovely, charming, colourful and traditional take on the genre, and it's the first really good example of that on the Nintendo Switch to date. For that reason alone it's the superior version of one of the more fundamentally enjoyable roguelikes I've played in quite a few years now.

I must say I really enjoyed building and running my own Jurassic World park. It's not perfect, and certainly given the heritage of the developer in theme park games we possibly could have expected a bit more from it, but you just never know what DLC and the ongoing development promised of the game might bring.

Octopath Traveler is a beautiful game that somehow never gets tired. It has a labyrinthine plot that bravely attempts to give eight characters the same scope and development as eight sole protagonists would get in lesser games. It’s also a game that bravely makes the story all about those characters, with the world, harsh as it can be, almost secondary to the insular unit and their individual arcs. That sheer ambition is all the more impressive because Octopath Traveller uses sprites. Little 2D characters made up of even littler squares. People need to play this game if only to realise that not everything spectacular needs to be photo-real.

Its striking monochrome art style and juxtaposition of atmospheric peacefulness with wince-inducing violence lends to a dreamlike quality that is utterly entrancing. The first few hours of this game had me terrified, wondering how the environment was going to turn against me in ever more creative and depraved ways. I loved the graphics and music which still manage to feel unique despite the game’s age. For the puzzles and atmosphere alone, Limbo is worth a try. Once the ordeal is over however, I found myself wishing for a larger narrative to delve into, or a deeper exploration of themes that the game teased but never fully committed to.

The game itself is a noble effort, sure, but ultimately far too ambitious to achieve what it’s really looking to achieve. The end result is the death knell for horror games; it’s just not intense or frightening enough.

Sadly, I can't imagine a single scenario that I would actually want to play Awkward with anyone. None of the questions I came across are either things I want to learn about a friend in a party setting, or they're things I already know and, whether I agree with them or not, I just don't find the subject matter amusing.

The concept was there, and I so badly wanted to enjoy it. Unfortunately, caring about the contrived cancer plotline would have only been possible if so much of my time wasn’t taken up by wondering how DigixArt has taken a great mobile game and made it somehow less accessible on a more powerful device.

Groove Coaster, to me, isn't a game about precision and perfection, like most rhythm games. It's a game about letting your senses get overwhelmed, and enjoying the music through sight and touch as much as by hearing it; the "game" is just one means of bringing that about. More than anything else, Groove Coaster is a game about losing yourself in the music, and that's something it achieves perfectly.

Shining Resonance Refrain might not be a classic example of the genre, but it gets the most important components of the genre right – the characters and the storytelling – and backs it up with some gorgeous art and a perfectly competent combat system.

Mushroom Wars 2 is the ideal casual strategy game. It has the potential to be much more than it is – the lack of a story to go with the gorgeous characters and art design is unforgivable – but nonetheless this is the perfect example of how to make something simple and elegant, while leaving just enough in there for people to feel like their strategic brain muscles are being flexed. As I said at the outset, Mushroom Wars 2 is a delight.

While the Nintendo Switch version of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy may not look quite as dazzling as its counterparts, there’s no denying that it’s bolstered by being available on a portable system.

The Crew 2 really isn’t all that engaging. Sure, The Crew 2 can be recommended as an arcade game that controls well for casual racing fans, but those updates are going to have to be really good in order to give this title longevity.