Culdcept Saga is, with or without dice, absolutely brilliant, and the kind of game I can see myself playing for a very long time into the future. It successfully takes a couple of different approaches to traditional board and card games, and fuses them into something that you can spend a lot of time learning to master, and feeling really good about yourself as you do.

The boss battles remain a highlight and almost enough of a reason to play the game in itself, but the rest of the game structured around them is so pedestrian and bland that keeping motivation in this one is perhaps the greatest challenge of them all.

Unapologetic in its nature as a crossover game, and I can respect that. However, as someone who only really enjoyed one of the franchises, it was a hard sell.

Ultimately, Hidden Dragon: Legend is a fairly average beat-em-up/platformer, but its sky-high production values and sheer love of spectacle is sure to delight players.

It’s odd that the fighting game about pokemon would turn out to be one of the better examples of a competitive fighting game, but the balance and mechanics of the game are just that; you’ll have a bit of fun with it if you play it casually, but the more seriously you take it, the greater the longevity that you’ll get out of it.

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

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.

The story at the heart of it all is one of the most moving and heartfelt tales I’ve ever seen in a game, and that’s a huge achievement. The best part is that Mel Kishida is just getting started—if this is his directorial debut, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store.

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash was a blast. Quick paced arena combat supported by a well designed card based system and multiple storylines to follow, this has to have been my favorite entry yet and with the quality online competition modes online modes there’s more than enough replayability to keep going for quite some time.

Few games in the world are as multilayered in their appeal as Senko no Ronde 2. It’s positively exceptional, melding a fighting game into a 2D shooter then using that as the basis for a visual novel. That story goes on to become the fabric of every mecha fan’s dreams, featuring the best tropes of space operas along alongside more substantial commentary. It’s a pleasant reminder that story-driven games don’t need to rely on the RPG format.

A handful of technical hiccups mixed with an aggressive monetisation strategy could very well leave a questionable taste in peoples' mouths.

If the network was more stable and the game played more to its strengths around one-on-one combat, this would be a game I’d recommend in a heartbeat. It’s still well worth a look even with those flaws, but I can’t help but imagine what could have been.

It constantly reminds you that you’re not playing Portal by highlighting all the ways that it falls short of Valve’s beloved puzzler. ChromaGun came at the king, and it missed.

With stellar gameplay, wonderful art and a superb soundtrack, Rayman Legends is one of the best platformer games ever released, hands down.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony takes things to another level entirely.

With Resident Evil 7: Biohazard suggesting that the main entry games are again pivoting in a new direction, Capcom's re-rerelease of Revelations may be its way of showing fans that it's also committed to the "classic" Resident Evil formula with this side series. While the visuals have aged considerably in the short timeframe, the classic Resident Evil gameplay and feel is still there, complete with a bonkers B-grade storyline. I’d dare say that most Resident Evil fans have possibly found a way to have played this already, and there is really no incentive to come back for another round.

Between time, weather, AI, career, suspension, tires, brakes and more, the amount of customisation in Project CARS 2 is completely insane.

Knack 2 also outstays its welcome, and the developers didn't seem to know when or how to finish it.

If you’re looking for your very first visual novel, then you’ll be making a mistake if you pass this up. Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is a romp through time that both feels great and plays great, and at the end of the day, how many people can say that they’ve romanced someone who played a decisive part in Japanese history?

It saddens me to say that League of Evil is just a simple platformer game and not much more. On a platform which doesn’t have a port of Super Meat Boy, League of Evil fills its niche serviceably – but it’s not a glowing example of its genre and it’s not something I can recommend easily unless you absolutely must have a platformer on your system. And even then you've got Shantae and Shovel Knight sitting there waiting to be played instead.

A highly-polished title that shows that the ageing 3DS somehow still has legs in it. Aside from the Pokémon Sun and Moon sequels, Samus Returns could very well be one of the last big 3DS titles, but with games like this, I’m just not ready to let go of my 3DS just yet.

Whether you enjoy raising monsters, slaying them, or adventuring across vast lands with your pals, you’ll find something to hold your attention in this game, and who knows? You may even come to find yourself loving every little bit of this adventure.

Mary Skelter is sublime. By turns darkly sensual and horrific, it's also beautiful, ravishing, and backed by truly expert level design and a clean, clever combat system. This game is too different to effectively compare to other dungeon crawlers, but I must say, of all the many games in this genre that I've played, this one will sit with me for a very long time into the future.

Everybody’s Golf sticks firmly to the fairway, though it swings a little too wildly too often and dumps itself in the bunker at times too. The grind is real, and though it's enjoyable enough, it's also a game that's quickly going to become hostile to newbies, and that's a problem when so much of the experience relies on the online play.

Taken exclusively as a rhythm game, there is so much to appreciate about Metronomicon. It does bring some new tricks to a genre that often feels quite stale for ideas, and has a truly killer soundtrack. But, this was meant to be a mix of RPG and rhythm games, and Metronomicon did let me down with the former.

There’s this inescapable rhetoric that latches onto the mere whisper of the name “Sonic the hedgehog”, claiming the blue blur hasn’t had a great game in decades. While I disagree, Sonic Mania is a liberating experience that needs no asterisks to qualify it. Sonic sequels have so often been rushed or subjected to gimmicks that compromise what works, but Mania finally stops to acknowledge past successes, adds logical improvements, and enhances it all tenfold with personality. It even proves that Sonic can be more nuanced than the cursed phrase “gotta go fast” implies.

I really wanted to love SwapQuest but it's neither memorable nor essential in any sense of the word. That's not to say it's a bad game, because it's not. It's still fun to play, but as an experiment in mixing a puzzle genre with the RPG, it's proof that this particular genre isn't necessarily easy to smash together.

Ys Seven was already a solid experience and the upgrades that it has received for the PC make it even better. Like the Ark of Napishtim, bringing Seven over was a great idea as it continues Adol’s adventure for all those that never did either move to a console market or have the chance to pick it up back in the day.