Baseball Riot is a perfectly competent game, but it suffers from a lack of originality.

Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen is just as solid of an entry from Capcom as it was back upon the PS3 and the Xbox 360. With lots of landscapes to explore, character classes to try out, and help to summon, there’s no shortage of adventuring to be done, and once you're hooked on simply existing in the world, this is one that will last you for many dozens of hours.

Volume’s score is great and the composer, David Housden, has done a fantastic job. The audio direction and design really impressed me with the memorable voice acting and sound effects throughout. It is always great to have a composer create a soundtrack so good, that it is actually interesting to listen to even outside the game.

Tharsis is an incredibly meaningful game that has picked a woefully inadequate format to express an innately intelligent idea.

Brave Souls isn’t the finest anime game out there, but I believe it can be. Even in its bumpy, jagged state, KLab has managed to boil the franchise down to its most appealing elements and turn an intimidating multi-hundred chapter mess into something newcomers can actually parse. Any company looking to convert a battle-driven shounen series into a video game ought to take note.

For anyone that has been put off the modern direction this series has taken, Zero in HD on our new generation of consoles is the perfect remedy.

This will be the game that I play for ten minute sessions on the train, or on, well, bathroom breaks, for some time to come. But I'd be lying if I claimed that I was not disappointed in realising that there is no scenario where I might play this for an entire afternoon at a time. It's really not that kind of game, and quite unlikely other Harvest Moon games in that regard. But by the same token I don't think that Seeds of Memories is a failure by any means and it's a game that I am very glad to have on my iPhone.

Satirical and self-referential, backed with some boundlessly creative combat systems and the endlessly bright Mario aesthetic, Paper Jam might not be a huge step forward from its predecessor on the Nintendo 3DS, but it is every bit as much fun.

The game lacks originality and suffers from a lack of narrative, and those two factors aren't enough to make up for the decent puzzles.

Escha & Logy actually works as a first point of call for the series. There’s very little assumed knowledge brought over from the first game in the Dusk series (Ayesha), and the systems and mechanics are more user-friendly and accessible.

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest is a genuine quality free-to-play game. As with all match-3 games, it's not the most in-depth or complex experience available, but the Magic: The Gathering license is used well, and the aesthetic design makes is the perfect casual time-waster for those train trips or quick breaks.

While simple in presentation, the grand scope of Trails of Cold Steel’s narrative is really what drives this game, and it does so with remarkable intelligence and confidence. You’ll need a good block of time to actually play through this one, but for people that do make the commitment to it, the rewards are more than enough.

They hide behind nostalgic pixilated visuals, stick safely to existing game tropes, and are really quite culturally tone-deaf. While I love that digital distribution has allowed indie developers to create some genuine masterpieces that would never have had a chance otherwise, games like Kung Fu Fight! are the other side of that particular coin. If we didn’t have digital distribution there is no way a game like this would have ever been inflicted on us, and that wouldn’t have been a bad thing at all.

A Block and a Hard Place is my absolute favourite episode in the Minecraft Story Mode tale to date, and I certainly look forward to what surprises may be coming my way when the conclusion is released.

While it’s a decidedly feminine game, Style Boutique is a quality package, and people of all ages and genders will be able to find things to appreciate about it. While I would be the kind of person to find a serious fashion boutique/ retail buyer simulation fascinating, if I am going to play a casual sim, I would prefer something like this to the vapid and cynical likes of Hay Day, Farmville, and so on.

The game has all the hallmarks of a fun indie effort: an insane cast of characters, good enough challenge, and a cartoony production. It's just in the execution and slightly confused gameplay is where it falters and unfortunately, casts a big shadow over what little positive points the game has to offer.

I didn't think I would like this at first but the game soon grabbed me and pulled me into a wonderful story and well thought out characters.

While the core mechanics remain functionally the same, that (even more) exotic setting and (lesser known) time period, brilliant environment design and brief, but effective, narrative all combine to make something that offers just that little bit more.

There’s nothing to actually recommend about Chronus Arc. Fans of 16-bit and earlier JRPGs won’t get the nostalgic rush they might hope for from this game because it’s so artificially put together it feels more like an insult to the memory of those games than a celebration of them.

While Earth Defense Force 2 offers a lot of repetition over the course of its missions, it’s a fun distraction for fans of bad science fiction that want to indulge in a bit of wanton destruction. While it may not offer depths of narrative or even the real semblance of one, the gameplay more than speaks for itself, and it’s quite easy to see why this series has managed to develop the core fanbase that it has over the years.

It's a deliberately limited game, but it works well within its self-imposed restrictions to keep the focus on the party atmosphere from start through to finish, and while it won't be remembered as a classic game by any stretch of the imagination, this is a good one to have sitting on the PlayStation 4 hard drive for when friends are over.

Weird. Colourful. Quirky. Entertaining. Funny.

Starpoint Gemini 2 is difficult to get into, and I wish the narrative had been more interesting as well. However, the ability to play the game several different ways while reaching out and exploring a beautiful, expansive space helps to make the investment of time worth it. It is great to see a game like this coming to console, as the genre is far better represented on PC.

I think it is safe to say that Snoopy has avoided the movie-tie-in curse. What we have here is a game that is solid in its design ideas and has implemented them effectively. Yes there are some slowdown issues, but considering who the game is marketed towards, I don’t think they’ll be taking too much notice of that. It’s an enjoyable game, filled to the brim with fun and imagination.

Hard West is a great example of a turn-based tactical strategy game that blends both the Old West and the supernatural together seamlessly. Though it’s fairly derivative of games that we’ve already played, the intriguing way that the narrative plays itself out makes it worth a look, even for veterans.

I enjoyed Hatoful Boyfriend Holiday Star as a fan of the original. It was great getting more back story for several characters that were underdone in the original, as well as meeting new characters all in the holiday mood.

I found the combat highly engaging and every new ridge I would climb up provided me with such breathtakingly beautiful vistas that I would sit there simply slow panning around to take it all in. But at the same time, undercooked narrative has hurt the really long-term value of the game, and it was just a little too in love with the more arbitrary and irritating quirks of MMO design for its own good.

As playgrounds for the adults, the wealthy, and the risk takers, they are full of excitement and a little bit of danger, and so filled with exotic sights and sounds that I could almost smell the food vendors or rain on the asphalt after a storm; that’s how effective this game is at bringing me back to Japan for just a little while.