It's a good idea, well measured and put together. Its problems are spiking difficulty and mechanical obstinacy.

The big issue, for us, is that Mario Golf hasn't really grown much since its time on the N64 - and when you consider the sorts of things that other golf games are doing at the moment, that's much less forgivable than it is in the case of some of Nintendo's genre-leading franchises.

Ghostrunner never loses sight of being about speed and agility, making it a constant joy to play. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Shadow Dragon will live long in a lot of DS slots - and probably even long enough to show the US gamers who's boss for a while in 2048 or whenever it comes out over there. Sorry guys.

Slapstick gaming at its silliest, Untitled Goose Game delivers brilliantly on its premise. [Eurogamer Recommended]

A serene, quietly uplifting afternoon's entertainment for urban explorers and platform fans alike.

Even with the new home cities, gameplay feels tired and characterless. Bombarding players with shiny baubles and inconsequential gifts can’t hide that.

Far: Changing Tides' story is a little longer and its puzzles more refined than its predecessor, while its world is as beautiful as ever. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Stuck awkwardly between action game and top-down strategy, Cold War is an affectionate and exhilarating blast in the short term - but much like the cheap action figures it pay loving homage to, it can't survive more than a few days of intense play.

It's a fitting end to a game that starts off brightly, wriggling elusively as you try and grasp what's going on, delighting in the mechanics and beautiful visuals, before sinking into a pattern that, while fairly gratifying, never evolves and ultimately becomes a bit boring, and quite amazingly repetitive.

A dreamily pretty and astonishingly compulsive puzzler that's a good deal more polished than many full-price retail releases.

Mostly, this is a relaxing Sunday-afternoon game, and good at either accompanying the digestion of a roast dinner or the slow exorcism of a hangover.

18 years on from Super Mario 64, Nintendo's designers are still going further in their exploration of the third dimension than almost anyone else.

While Distant Worlds may be a paragon of its style, I can only recommend it to a select few: those with beefy computers and plenty of time to really dig into the meat of this stunningly elegant and impressively wide-ranging bit of software.

This isn't even the 3DS' best Fire Emblem, ultimately, but it's certainly one of the most interesting entries in the series' long history, an eccentric offshoot with an identity all of its own. It forgoes the soap opera of recent games and delivers a different brand of strategy that's remarkably refreshing - and it's a chance to spin back the turnwheel and see what might have been. [Recommended]

It's like being cuddled by fun.

Maybe it's just because we're remembering that the best games aren't the best because they've got the biggest polygon counts, or the most multiple paths through levels, or the largest number of murderable prostitutes - they're the best because they're the most fun to play, and that's what counts.

This is an enjoyable but rarely essential entry to the Mario & Luigi suite, then. AlphaDream is to be commended for its willingness to build each new game around a different kernel of an idea, but, perhaps inevitably, some of those ideas will be smaller than others.

By simply making sure that absolutely everything in the game is designed to remove the usual restrictions on fun, Sumo's created something that practically transcends rivals like PGR3 and Burnout before you even done anything.

Trials of Fire is a complex but seductive deck-building strategy game about sculpting the perfect RPG team.

Worse for the game's long term prospects, the ability to toss yourself round corners and into awkward spaces is too difficult to master, because even with the ability to change camera rotation speed, precision is difficult to attain.

A fairly unremarkable Sims expansion pack on the same disc as a new cut of the original game.

Puzzle solving is a gentlemanly pursuit, one that will perhaps never be better personified than in Professor Layton and his inquiring entourage.

Once you've scratched the surface and delved around beneath, that's when you'll realise that a game like PlanetSide needs constant development and a flow of new content to keep it fresh and interesting. And at the moment, that just isn't happening.

A worthwhile addition to the Company of Heroes war chest and one that rewards investment and exploration with a tactically satisfying campaign. That said, such is the obtuse nature of its presentation of key concepts and even basic controls that new recruits should deduct a whole mark from that number below.

What is really starting to take its toll on The Walking Dead is the way it burns off goodwill with too many false choices - or worse, moments when players are meant to share guilt in situations we had no real say in.

An entertaining package when it gets things right, but it's also riddled with design flaws, technical flaws and various minor irritations that conspire to detract from your overall enjoyment.

Trails into Reverie is a fine epilogue for Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs, offering necessary closure and clear hints about the series' future.

If EA wants people to buy these games year in, year out, then it has to fight for those high marks, and Tiger Woods doesn't know how to do that any more.

With the trademark sharp witticisms layered onto challenging and inventive puzzles, this is the best possible start to the new season.

Beneath the glorious tech, and once the writing relaxes a little, Sunset Overdrive's wonderfully lurid and heartfelt - a bit like playing an old 4AD album sleeve. If you get that reference, you'll probably get this, too.

It's exhausting, but when it all clicks it's amazing, too.

Critically, True Colors' story is well-rounded, with a satisfying and definitive ending for both its central mystery and for Alex's personal journey (and as all good thrillers should offer, there is a resolution you can deduce for yourself if you are paying enough attention). It's not a failing to me that True Colors tells a lean story which prioritises quality over quantity, feelings over finer details, and a sense the series, like Alex, has come back to its roots after a period of absence and change. [Recommended]

Borderlands is unusual, playable, and an artfully violent step in an interesting direction for Gearbox. The story aspect of the game could have been better - I'd love to have seen the role-playing influence extend beyond stats, levels and loot - and the ending is a disappointment. Even so, this should be a favourite game of the year for a huge number of people, since it plugs into gamer impulses at such a fundamental level.

Defense Grid 2 is, quite obviously about defence, but it's also about being passive, about observing morally grey conflicts play out in front of you - without your input.

Gory and exacting, Children of the Sun mixes the highs of tactical precision and cracking a killer puzzle.

Judged on game design and content, then, it's slightly anachronistic, but as a toy box full of things you can only do in games, Rage is warm-hearted and refreshing. It's not going to change the world, but it does serve as a timely reminder of that other thing id Software games always did besides smashing through some new technological barrier.

Multiplayer mysteries aside, Napoleon represents a healthy step forward for the Total War series.

More than the script (generally witty and sharp, if occasionally undercut by an iffy voice-actor) or the graphic design (a brother to Fable's faux-fantasy charm), the constant capering of your charges is what gives the game its personality. That is, they have a lot of personality and so does the game.

It's the sign of a great sports game when you can't think of anything you'd want to change in the next version. It doesn't need another version...This is brilliant, whichever way you spin it.

No series has been so willing to switch gameplay styles with such reckless abandon, and The Jak and Daxter Trilogy represents a shining example of what happens when a capable developer takes a huge risk. There's nothing else quite like it.

SNK's iconic series makes its return in this reboot that's short on features but rich in systems. [Eurogamer Recommended]

With its bite-sized premise, hugely compelling one-more-go appeal and negligible loading times, Everybody's Golf is without question one of our favourite PSP titles.

This is a well-made package that takes advantage of the handheld's capabilities as much as you could hope any interactive recipe guide would.

But as ultra hardcore as Flux remains, concessions have finally been introduced, such as checkpoints, and the ability to select each mission at your leisure.

A fairly unremarkable Sims expansion pack on the same disc as a new cut of the original game.

Scores feel entirely inadequate when it comes to rating a project like this, but if you feel like rewarding one man's six-year-long quest for creativity this week, Joost van Dongen's work truly deserves it.

This is a vast, generous offering: a true expansion from a developer that obviously cares deeply about its creation, rather than a corporate cash-grab mandated by the boardroom. More please.

Media Molecule protégé Tarsier turns in a masterpiece of meat and malice, swiftly consumed but with a lingering aftertaste.

Emily is Away Too is a surprisingly poignant trip down memory lane. [Recommended]

A brave VR murder mystery experiment inspired by immersive theatre, but the asking price is too high.

A spectacularly stylish shooting game that evokes Treasure in its pomp. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It's another carefully crafted package in the manner of Ocarina 3D, then, yet the ancient quality that Star Fox 64 3D exudes only makes you wish that Nintendo was releasing a few more, you know, entirely new games. Luigi, Mario and Kid Icarus are still a few months off, for the time being. Until then, I'll be hanging out with Slippy, Peppy, and Falco - that jerk.

A copious and often brilliant, if not quite unmissable reworking of a powerfully grim fantasy. [Eurogamer Recommended]

But really it all comes back to the fact that Yoshi's Island was doing almost everything for the first time, and Artoon is cribbing from the same notes.

Although the controls could do with tweaking and the multiplayer doesn't hold much excitement, it's still fundamentally entertaining. It's an odd concoction, built around an idea we'd love to see developed further than it is here, but thanks to some genius AI, enjoyable level design, simple objectives and underlying black humour, it works.

As a foundation, it's certainly more stable than its predecessor - and as a way to explore the thrill of four wheels it is, despite its many faults, exceptional, brilliant and pretty much peerless.

This is a robust FPS, comfortably the strongest on its platform and, while derivative of its strongest rivals, it's still able to compete in key areas.

Unfortunately though we can't really see Kirby's latest adventure lasting anybody for particularly long, multiplayer games and secret hunting notwithstanding.

The unremitting bleakness has a certain stylistic charm, but such is the relentlessness of it all, Vampire Smile is too intense to digest for more than a few levels at a time. It's an-all-you-can eat banquet at gunpoint.

Hiroyuki Ito returns to the helm for the first time since Final Fantasy 12 in another brilliant examination of RPG fundamentals. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Where Sifu most earns its seriousness, for me, is in that largely unspoken marriage of combos and counters with questions of perception and synchronicity. This is a game about the punch-drunk unevenness of time, and the way that unevenness depends on the mind you bring to bear. [Eurogamer Recommended]

But overall, it is a very nice experience that exudes a certain Disney charm and - with the exception of minor performance issues - plays almost perfectly on Microsoft consoles.

There are cuts and alterations, but this remains a properly glorious collection of two classic games.

If you've been suffering with the last version in whatever form, success will be a lot sweeter for it, too.

With spellbinding combat and high-concept maps, Marathon is far more than a cool aesthetic draped over the bones of an extraction shooter.

No matter how much the schoolboy-humour commentary grates, no matter how repetitive the bits in between the set-pieces start to feel and no matter how frustrating the later levels become, MadWorld provides a rush of blood to the head almost as often as it provides a rush of blood to the pavement.

Roll7 blends genres with total mastery in Rollerdrome, one of the most breathlessly stylish and casually, outrageously cool games you'll ever play. [Eurogamer Essential]

In chasing that scale the bigger picture can sometimes get a little obscured, but importantly Final Fantasy 15 retains that love of smaller stories, the ones that often prove to be so much more memorable.

There hasn't been high-level management game with this level of wit, style and vision since the dear departed Mucky Foot's "Startopia." This is as good as its genre gets, and deserves recognition.

Sega's brilliant puzzler Puyo Puyo makes a long overdue return to the west as part of this outstanding package. [Recommended]

Hitman GO might not be broad in its scope, it might be a relatively straightforward puzzle game at heart, but it's still clever, cute and creative in quite a few ways, so much so that I don't really want to spoil some of the surprises it introduces as you make progress. Perhaps most importantly, it's loyal to its forefathers by upholding the tradition that the best of the Hitman games have displayed: it makes killing a pleasure.

If dabbling in the Sims 2 appealed, but you desired something with a bit more structure, an application to the Sims 2 University is well worth filling in.

Fast, compact and yet consistently thoughtful, there's nothing else quite like Skulls of the Shogun - and, for me, it earns its place amongst the genre's greats.

If nothing else, it's entirely fitting that a game that's always been brilliantly brainless is now genuinely brain-dead as well. Oh, and I finally got that bloody Mario-themed Achievement. SCORE.

Taken as a rousing aerial shooter, it's easy to recommend - and sadly rather too easy to complete. There's a ton of content, at least, and it's all presented in a whiz-bang style that draws you in with heart-pounding action without belittling the history behind the explosions. It's just a shame that for such a venerable simulator series, it's the more serious game modes where Birds of Prey feels most compromised by its hardware.

Firaxis' latest 4X is not without annoyances or bugs - one mistake can still lead to a lengthy bleeding out, units still get stuck on long journeys, hotseat multiplayer is currently a mess of missing buttons and there are still some moments where you're almost hypnotised by the endless procession of incidental choices you're presented with - but it is a surprisingly profound experience at times.

So for now, while there's plenty of scope for performance enhancements, Active's the best there is. I'm still running. But, unlike the weeks after Wii Fit arrived, I'm also still playing.

Regardless of how you approach things, though, the basic rhythm of this astonishing piece of work remains the same. For your first few hours, Terraria will seem like a bewildering - occasionally terrifying - strain of chore. Put in the effort, though, and it eventually reveals its true nature. This isn't a game or even a toy. At heart, it's a vocation.

Assassin's Creed returns and its vast and evocative Egypt inspires wonder - even if much in the game remains familiar. [Recommended]

Here, simple things work together to conjure up surprising consequences - and, more often than not, thrilling ones too. It's rare to play something so pure, a multiplayer game with modern sensibilities and yet one that feels like it was forged in the fire of older arcade classics. If there's any justice, Laser League is a game that'll find its place among those greats. [Essential]

2XKO is a tag fighter like no other, with a bold aesthetic and superbly crafted core gameplay experience. Beloved League of Legends characters are revitalised in a new light in a truly stunning free-to-play experience.

LostWinds is a great example of what can be achieved on WiiWare. By combining a few simple gesture-based controls within a tightly focused platform-puzzling framework, Frontier has created a mini-masterpiece at the first attempt.

This is a rare PSP game that's not a poor translation of a PS2 flop from four years ago, or a disappointingly crippled version for the handheld. It's a spot-on, virtually perfect miniature version of the PS2 smash.

For fans of Final Fantasy XII, it is a wonderful continuation of the story - a welcome chance to revisit well-loved locations and characters.

Indeed, with its comic visuals and light-hearted touches at every step, Swords And Soldiers wants to be this year's Plants vs. Zombies, and damn near succeeds.

Just when it seemed there was no hope of Midway's ancient arcade classic ever being dusted down for the mobile generation, up pops this bright and breezy tribute to insatiable alcoholism.

A brutal but graceful and comprehensible mix of ideas from Warhammer, XCOM and Gears Tactics. [Eurogamer Recommended]

5th Cell's puzzler was always astonishing, then, but now it's enjoyable to play, too. That's nice.

You can see with Skyward Sword that something has to change. See it in the way it tentatively messes with the formula, but ultimately retains one of the most rigid central paths of any Zelda. In the way it introduces stuff like the stamina gauge, which will make much more sense in the game that follows it. It's clear now that Skyward Sword is straining against its own rules and rituals. That makes it fascinating to play, and it means that this strangest and most compromised of Zeldas is also amongst the most human. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It isn't the perfect game, and the anal attention to detail may reduce the appeal it has to the general game playing populous.

It won't come as anything new or inspiring to anybody who's tackled a DK title before, but it engages the brain in ways that we enjoy being probed, and for all its age the formula is still as sound as ever.

Deception throws in an extremely polished Konquest mode, the fun Chess and Tetris modes, plus online play.

The new generation of F1 gets a video game run-out that's at times overly familiar, but one that's nevertheless fully-featured. [Eurogamer Recommended]

The story is pure pulp and the big picture is not that exciting, but as usual, the charm of Wasteland is in the stops along the way: location after location full of crazy characters and moral choices, and a writing team gleefully embracing the ability to do pretty much whatever they want.

Oboromuramasa is shallow, rather simple and relatively short-lived, but nonetheless wonderful in its way. As a piece of visual videogame art it's at the very peak of the medium's achievements, along with Okami and Odin Sphere, and it's crafted with such obvious, loving care and attention to detail that it's impossible not to like. If only its combat were as precise and considered as the faultless presentation, this might be an enduring love rather than a fleeting but indisputably beautiful affair. [JPN Import]

Despite the monochrome palette and simple, wholesome story, Minit's world is stuffed with charm and character that belies its lo-fi presentation - and it's a lovely way to while away a few spare minutes of your own. [Recommended]

Yes, there are a lot of improvements here, and yes, the game is heaps of fun to play, but the core experience doesn't feel incredibly different from last year's iteration. In comparison to the gameplay changes that are made between each update of FIFA, Madden feels like its wheels are stuck in the mud.