Ultimately Anime Studio Simulator comes to the table a bit rough around the edges but presents a charming story of a group of friends making an anime. Scenes such as going to an anime shop for “research” and the long list of team visits to the café craft an embodiment of playfulness and silly fun, which is, ultimately, embracing what so many of us love about anime in the first place.

This is one of those games which you could buy on a portable device and enjoy far more because of that.

Tyranny is an excellent RPG experience that has many of the hallmarks of great classic role-playing games while still making plenty of smart choices to modernise the experience for today's audience. Refined systems and a story where choices can often have some real consequence made my time with Tyranny rewarding, despite a disappointingly abrupt ending that left me wanting for more.

Ittle Dew 2 has many good things going for it, but I am wondering whether Ittle might thrive more now if she sets off on her raft, unencumbered by trying to be part of another franchise's tradition, to discover a new land all her own.

It shows that none of the main Assassin's Creed games are going to age particularly well, but it also does a good job of highlighting - when freed of the expectations that come with being a blockbuster - that the real strengths of the series are far more subtle than the graphics or size of the cities that it renders.

It certainly offers a unique story in the realm of video games. Fans of the genre will certainly get a kick out of the game, others may just be intrigued enough by the story to try it out. But will it stand out as a classic in the genre when we're getting so many of them at the moment? Probably not.

Taking a shallow sub-mode from other games, and presenting it in a no-frills manner, might make for a competent and reliable shooter, But Killing Floor 2 also fails to be anything more than a diversion from other, better shooters as a result. It's utterly useless in singleplayer, and for multiplayer hijinks there are more creative examples out there.

Ultimately, Pokemon is a coming of age story, as told through the analogy of monster collecting and battling. This new game loses none of that, but in building a greater sense of narrative into the action, has given it a greater resonance and purpose. This is also the most creative that Game Freak has been with the franchise in quite some time, and players who had grown tired of the iterative approach the developer had been taking may well find this one a Renaissance for the series.

Ultimately, Pokemon is a coming of age story, as told through the analogy of monster collecting and battling. This new game loses none of that, but in building a greater sense of narrative into the action, has given it a greater resonance and purpose. This is also the most creative that Game Freak has been with the franchise in quite some time, and players who had grown tired of the iterative approach the developer had been taking may well find this one a Renaissance for the series.

The game is simple and fun and can pose a challenge to anyone who wants to find everything in the game. The developers had some really good ideas with the moon phases and to use real world time and weather. I think in the context of a more in-depth and purposeful game, that kind of feature would be distinctive and potent. Hopefully some other developers were paying attention.

Football Manager 2017 is my favourite in the series so far. Aesthetically it can't hold up to games like FIFA that make the visual presentation a priority, but there are plenty of nice touches for the ever-evolving engine that help to sell the experience as you observe and coach it.

This is a highly relevant game to some very real discussions that ethicists and moral philosophers will be pondering in the years ahead, and at the same time it tells a ripping, entertaining story. A real masterpiece on every level, and one of the best games I've played all year.

It may sound like I’m being harsh on Ginger, but as I played through its many levels I felt the game struggled to live up to its influences where it might have been better off trying something new. Judging by the animations, the level design and the slowdown the game occasionally experiences, Drakhar Studios were held back by resources and production time, and so couldn’t deliver a polished experience.

The Little Acre exemplifies every reason indie point-and-click adventure games can still do more than hold a candle to the AAA shoot-em-ups with more brawn than brains and beauty combined. The story of a young single dad with a missing father and a rather rambunctious daughter touched my heart in ways I forgot video games could, and every time I had to put the controller down I yearned to just boot the console again and enter the phenomenal world The Little Acre takes place in.

Once you get in the swing of it, F1 2016 on mobile and Apple TV is a good, low-priced alternative to the console version. For the more casual racing game fans, it’s the better, more accessible option. For the people who play games on the go, it’s worth noting that neither the Vita nor the 3DS gets an F1 game this yes, so this is your only option. And it’s always nice to have a quality game release on Apple TV.

Yes, this kind of game is better in multiplayer, but if you’ve got any sense, you’d grab Brut@l for an action-roguelike experience, or Gauntlet or Diablo 3 for multiplayer heroics. Even for groups that are willing to go into Dungeon Bros with the right spirit, I seriously struggle to imagine a scenario in which this game has any longevity to it.

I appreciate that multiplayer is a big deal in the Souls games, but this is the first time From Software has crafted a piece of DLC content that focuses almost entirely on that multiplayer experience, and I think this will fall flat with plenty of other Souls fans.

The biggest issue is I did not find very many actual players online. That is no fault of Tumblestone's - they just need more people to play it. Kudos to the development team for creating bots however, to help simulate the multiplayer experience if you can’t find a living human.

Survival horror games often use intentionally “bad” game design as a means of building tension, but in Lithium’s case, it’s just an ordeal to play. It’s not exactly a game that relies on tension anyway, and the awkwardness of playing it doesn’t make it more tense, just more tiresome. All that said, if you can fight your way through it, you’ll find something quite unique.

Handball 17's problem is that the developers might be fans of the sport, but they haven't got a clue how to do the sport justice as a game. Last year I was willing to give the franchise a chance, hoping against hope that, it being the first game, future editions would be better. I am under no such illusions this time around.

If you want cheap jump scares, Wick will do the job. If you’re after a more nuanced approach, one that goes beyond the superficial horror of sudden apparitions accompanied by heavy breathing, identical music, and a handful of different shaped insta-kill radii, then Wick is not for you. Wick is a blunt instrument – one designed not for players, but for observers of players. Aside from the occasional sudden jump caused by an inattentive ear, there is little of that creepy unease, that apprehensive discomfort, to elevate the overall horror experience.

Seraph on a whole is brilliant and refreshing in its design. Having the player be able to concentrate on movement while the AI handles the aiming is an inspired idea and I honestly hope to see more of in the future, while the organic approach to difficulty and movement makes for a game that is mesmerising and deeply engaging from start to finish.

Farming Simulator 17 is a game that I would almost argue should be put into schools, because I see real value in using it to highlight what the life of a farmer involves, and that would in turn be valuable in raising awareness around the kinds of challenges that food supply faces in the years ahead. It’s still a game, don’t get me wrong, and a simple, but effective one at that. It’s also the most accessible it has ever been thanks to tutorials that actually work. But beyond that, Farming Simulator 17 is the best kind of game; it’s a game that offers more than just entertainment.

Moto Racer 4 is not a bad game, but it is a shallow, arcade motorcycle racer. It might be perfectly serviceable, and average racer that is fun enough in short spurts, but it really doesn't do enough to separate itself from the racing pack in any meaningful or memorable way either.

It's a small game that shows off all the artistic talents of the team. There's a real joyfulness in the concept of flight, as enabled by VR, and Unity has never looked better; if this is a sign of things to come from that engine then we're in for some wild times as developers of all sizes start creating more VR content for it. There's a purity and innocence to Eagle Flight so completely wondrous to behold that I wish Ubisoft created more of these kinds of games.

Watch Dogs 2 does a great job of demonstrating the potential perils of a too-connected world and improves upon the first game in multiple ways. This is not a guns over brains game - there is an interesting topic at play here about our society's dependence on technology and Ubisoft deserves credit for exploring this theme. The characters and narrative are leaps and bounds more engaging than the revenge tale the original game tried to paint.

BlazBlue really is gorgeous. Every character is animated in such a way that every movement they make reinforces their personalities. Every environment is a living, breathing thing that sets a meaningful scene and helps build the world around the characters. Because everything is 2D and quite flat, it’s easy to wish that all that storytelling and character building was funnelled into a more natural fit, but then again, with BlazBlue being such a successful franchise for so long now, it’s hard to argue that the developers and producers are making a mistake.

At one point above I described battles as a "love story to the past,” and that statement is at the core of all that Saturday Morning RPG is.