Difficulty is introduced by sheer numbers and, for players who aren't grabbed by the core mechanics, the game will soon become tiresome. But the combination of sumptuous 2D art style, interesting structure, enjoyable storyline and ever more unmanageable fights to tackle, for those who are, GrimGrimoire will be one of the most interesting games to come out of Japan in some time.

Valkyria Chronicles II remains exciting, its hotchpotch design ideas maturing for this sequel despite the focus on a younger cast and more immature surrounding story.

A pleasantly weird update, then. It offers warm familiarity, with a safe selection of modes and a reassuringly lovely pile of new skins, alongside tiny, precision bursts of innovation like the shuffle block. It's another incremental improvement - but, if you ask me, this has always been a game that Sony's handheld needs if it's to feel complete. Lumines will be wedged in the Vita's card slot for months to come.

It's a game that boasts an indisputable wider significance - but today, it's worthwhile primarily because it's a joyfully innocent fable, albeit one whose impact lies in the telling more than in the tale.

For anyone who wants a mech "simulator" this is by far the best offering out there and has much to recommend it over its predecessors.

A tough but lovely recreation of two of the greatest orthodox shoot-'em-ups ever made.

For the hardcore fighter, it's without doubt an essential purchase, in that it's a test of true skill and grit, has oceanic depth and subtlety, and rewards patience and persistence.

It's possible you'll tire of Drill Dozer's slightly repetitive drill cycle, and there's less room for exploration and investigation than you'll find in something like Super Mario World, but given it's 15 years and about 48 million 2D platform games later, it's nice to find a developer who can still offer a fresh line of questioning - and a nice suit to wear while doing it.

Thanks to playful puzzles and an imaginative reinvention of Hyrule's historic iconography, Echoes of Wisdom emerges as a bold and creative new chapter in Zelda's legend.

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

From the fully-featured multiplayer to a host of carefully crafted single player modes, Worms hasn't been this fresh in years.

Alice in Wonderland is surreal, dreamlike, well-crafted and very beautiful.

Food and family converge in this beautiful slice-of-life tale.

An entertaining side dish that easily justifies its asking price.

While on the surface of it Darksiders feels like a game with a lot of good ideas but only a few of its own, where even a brief flying section on an angelic mount owes rather a lot to Panzer Dragoon, overall the silly old story and wonderful art style give terrific heft to the universe, and the clockwork of the puzzles and game systems are precision-engineered in a manner that you come to trust implicitly.

As for those of you who cherished the original game? This is the best pair of rose-tinted spectacles money can buy, and a good alternative to the anti-climax of seeing how a once-cherished favourite has aged.

This is still unpretentious fun, but now it's also a surprisingly deep and characterful little sports game, and a welcome stopgap between FIFA 12 and 13.

With its high-chaos, high-comedy firefights, Helldivers 2 is a riot to play with friends – although its launch has been hampered by persistent matchmaking and progression problems.

Even though it's lazy journalism of the worst kind, it's also a pretty accurate summation of Unlimited's appeal - a game where the journey is just as enjoyable as the destination.

There's a sense throughout of a development team in love with their work: a team that's gleefully committed to over-delivering. Why else would Vigil opt for two dungeons where one would have been enough for most developers, or throw in boss after boss after gigantic boss when others might have tied things up with a simple cut-scene and the odd quick-time event?

Broken down into its base mechanics, Spirits probably doesn't sound especially exciting, but in practice, its charming hand-drawn aesthetic and calming pace make it a perfect game to unwind to on a lazy Sunday.

A raucous, absurd spin-off that manages to still feel like a first-rate Yakuza game despite the leftfield setting and delightfully unhinged plot.

There are such a lot of shooters these days, and so many tend to blur into each other if you're not careful. This one won't, however - and that's quite an achievement.

What's immediately apparent is that it's been balanced incredibly carefully.

It's robust, but it lacks some creative effort on Nintendo's part. Newcomers will love it, while series stalwarts will find its novelties welcome, if largely inconsequential. But it's nevertheless one of the stronger entries in the series, balancing the orthodox precision of the original with the playful silliness of the more recent iterations more successfully than ever.

For all the game's lighthearted sleuthing and slinking, it does not shy away from dreadful subject matter, concerning itself, to a large degree, with the Church's often monstrous real-world legacy. The most affecting story is that which occurs through the bodies and minds of its uniformly endearing characters. As they are beaten and maimed by fearsome monks and brutish henchmen, a slow accretion of hardship takes place. It is not the enjoyably flexible stealth action, nor the undercooked mystery, or even the lavish monastery that lingers in the mind, but their human suffering. Foregrounding this emotion is reason enough to tell such a story again.

A tough one to score then, but still unquestionably excellent.

The whole is deep, compelling, personal and capable of so much incidental humour and charm.

While the setting and inspirations are Filipino through and through, the themes of friendship, love, loss, and acceptance in this visual novel are universal.

Professor Layton and Pandora's Box is superbly charming (aside from its creepy moments), and Layton's constant reprimanding of Luke for not being gentlemanly enough is hilarious.

Giant Boulder of Death is a quintessential Adult Swim game. It's strange and silly, but also incredibly well balanced and designed underneath its anarchic surface. Most importantly, the feel of it is just right.

While there's a thrill in returning to locations you're familiar with ten years on in game terms, it can't overwhelm the realisation that these are just the original levels stripped bare and re-fabricated according to Obsidians whims.

If you're a SupCom player, think of this as pretty much your dream patch for the game, but with the unfortunate but understandable addition of a price-tag.

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

If you're on a budget, or just don't have access to a DS, then this is a fine way to sample its abundant charms, provided you don't expect anything special in the presentation department.

Weighing in at little over the price of an XBLA download (about a tenner from the right shops), Art of Fighting Anthology is a rare bargain - especially from new.

Schafer, Double Fine, and Black haven't just created a story about roadies: they've become them, scuttling about energetically, heads down and minds focused, as they pull a handful of simple props together in order to put on an amazing show.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a game about falling off things, goring yourself on things, squashing yourself under things and occasionally being eaten by things. So it was in 2010, and so it is now. There are worse ways to spend a weekend.

Beneath the noise there is an engaging story clamouring to be heard, and there are moments of true beauty, serenity and pathos fighting for attention. The game does get better as it goes on, and despite the distractions the last few hours are a pleasure to play. At the centre of it all is a brilliant character, still iconic but more human and believable than she's ever been before.

Ostensibly the same again, then, LocoRoco 2 nevertheless pulls its charm tight and burrows deeper into the mechanics, level layouts and set-pieces, presenting more elaborate rewards in visuals and gameplay, and doing a better job of sharing them with you so that you don't always feel as though you're searching for cuddly needles in a Teletubbies haystack. It comes across as a refined, more elaborately constructed sequel that remembers why it was good in the first place.

With a clean, pleasing visual style and gameplay that reveals its nuances through natural play, Fieldrunners is a wonderfully crafted casual nugget. It's a shame that more hasn't been added for this version, but that's no reason not to surrender to its charm.

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.

Not quite unparalleled excellence, then, but more than enough chills to keep horror adventure fans gibbering.

Look beyond the tattered edges, though, and there's enough to ensure that the monopoly on two-wheel racing Milestone now enjoys doesn't mean this wins out by default. MotoGP 13's a lean, scrappy racer that's not just the best motorbike game around at the moment - it's one of the best pure motorsport experiences on console for years.

Despite the initial audio-visual horror, Boulder Dash XL ends up being far greater than the sum of its parts. This is one ugly ducking you won't be ashamed to spend time with.

The core conceit adds new capacity for strategy; it's a genuine and interesting invention. And despite the now completely lifeless use of mystical crystals as a plot device, as the game progresses, scriptwriter Nataka Hayashi begins to subvert the clichés in unexpected ways. What's easy to dismiss as by-the-numbers plotting will delight and surprise you in time.

If you're looking for an enjoyable but fairly traditional RPG with a cracking storyline and likeable characters, Skies of Arcadia Legends comes about as highly recommended as any game can.

Does all the boring, difficult parts of RPG game design very well, and marries them to exceptionally slick combat and a towering stack of stuff to do. This well-oiled machine keeps you motoring through all the sludgy fantasy cliché and through a sluggish first act. Then - just as the world opens out and the story picks up traction - that motor really starts to sing. That's when a solid, workmanlike game becomes one that's virtually impossible to put down.

Kenny Sun's new game is a voguish spin on an Atari classic - and it rules.

Adorable, not only for kids as the presentation may immediately suggest, and very silly, it's another big success for PopCap. If only it would get properly challenging it would be a giant classic. As it is, it's a thing of loveliness you should buy this instant.

Instantly captivating and perpetually playful, this whimsical romp across a world of paper lanterns is utterly enchanting.

Nice work, Revolution. With BASS and now Broken Sword, the developer has proved that the iPhone can handily support some of the best classic adventure games.

Another triumph of fast-paced puzzle gameplay from Q - and is a solid enough update of the freeware original to make it interesting even to those who played the PC version to death.

Jamestown certainly isn't the biggest shooter you'll ever see, but given the amount of replayability built into the structure, you'll play it far more than you might imagine.

Conquest isn't just that rare Pokémon off-shoot that isn't a limping abomination - it's a reminder that the best consoles don't slip into the night very quietly. They stick around, defiantly showing up the machines that have replaced them.

The 2nd Runner also helps make up for a regrettable lack of extras in this set with the EX modes and additional content created for its special edition release.

One of those weird little video games that stalks around in your memory far longer than you might expect it to.

Sustained by the strength of the moment-to-moment play, this add-on packs a punch. While Raam's abilities are arguably too straightforward to sustain a full game, they fit a shorter DLC mission perfectly. Meanwhile, the structure that has you switching between two warring sides as they close in on one another is interesting and well executed, resulting in a strong, worthwhile expansion.

Asheron's Call is also very addictive - I sat down and told myself that I was only going to play for an hour, but after I finished playing I noticed that I had been playing for over four hours, which pretty much explains that I'm hooked.

There's something about Bohemia's world-building that inspires people. Importantly though, Arma 3's vanilla content now stands on equal footing with those third-party inspirations. It's still a little rough around the edges, but it's a darned impressive package nonetheless.

For all its foibles though, I have confidence that Valve is at least pushing the game in the right direction. After all, both CS: Source and CS:GO evolved considerably after their initial launch and became classics in their own right, and all the building blocks are here for Counter-Strike 2 to follow the same trajectory - and from a much better starting position. The bottom line? This is already an incredible game that's well worth playing - after all, it is Counter-Strike, too.

The game itself is fast and accessible, tailored toward the younger gamer, but with enough depth and interest to appeal to experienced gamers too.

Between Galaxies' moreish every-ad-break appeal, Retro Evolved's continued brilliance, the control system's effectiveness and the well-thought-out multiplayer modes, it's ever so nearly excellent. Unlike the inside of my stupid head.

Just as distinctively great as it always was.

Ubisoft have given us a gripping, gorgeous, WW2 submarine sim, it's just a bit of a shame its fundamentally so similar to the last gripping, gorgeous, WW2 submarine sim they gave us. Finger-crossed Silent Hunter 5: Meerkats of the Med will be braver.

These classic games remain as ingenious, memorable and frustrating as ever.

While the companions may prove annoying at times, it's easy enough to resign yourself to their whining and manage the task in hand; for every platform blunder there are ten moments of huge satisfaction to look back on.

If you do like games that challenge you to work out the rules for yourself, to find the edges of the world by falling over them, then Fract is a unique and often remarkable experience, best savoured in the dark at full volume. Go on, get lost.

The game is arguably a little too tough, with plenty of ways to lose health but few to top it back up again, and there are a couple of precision do-or-die leaps that act as stark reminders of the game's unforgiving vintage. Those caveats aside, Comix Zone still impresses with its ideas and execution and is a definite highlight of SEGA's retro line-up.

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

The story and acting is guff - and easily ignored - but the sense of being involved in some epic fantasy movie is quite tangible.

More than anything, it demands your attention and teaches you about coding in the most natural way possible.

What's most disappointing about the whole thing, though, isn't so much the lack of me-too deathmatch variants, but that LucasArts didn't bother to allow players to play the campaign mode co-operatively as Red Storm achieved so successfully in the likes of Ghost Recon 2, Rainbow Six 3 and Black Arrow... As it is Republic Commando deserves huge respect for managing to be the best Star Wars shooter ever.

Set over an impressive 80 levels (including five tutorial run-throughs), Sarbakan's game is an instantly engaging bite-sized affair with plenty of replay value. Screenshots don't really do it justice.

Alongside this stuff you get all the silliness and cute little extras you could hope for. This is a game for zooming in close. A museum curator will be scanning an alien pod with a PKE device. A ghost will be idly checking out the furnishings. A thief will be absconding with a fossil, while a kid then hangs from part of the frame it was once displayed on. In the aquariums, faces press up against the tanks. People clamber on the bigger exhibits and try to climb into them. What's that clown doing? Why are all those people suddenly running?

Developer Balloon Studios cultivates a beautiful puzzle game with the timeless allure of a summer's day stroll.

Despite Desperate Escape being little more than a rehash of any number of Resident Evil 5's levels, this is still a hugely enjoyable example of why DLC has become a vital part of the gaming landscape.

Type:Rider couldn't be a more unlikely game, really. It's a collision of visual and gameplay styles topped off with an incredibly narrow educational focus, and yet through ingenious design and polished gameplay it emerges as one of the best mobile titles of the year. You don't have to be a graphic design student to enjoy this one.

Quite possibly, the best game I've played this year. While it's not for everyone, those who are willing to look past what they could consider childish graphics, and an obsession with housework that's nearly as strong as your mum's, will find a title with as much heart as there is fun wrapped up into a four-inch-tall bundle.

It's really, really good gaming, assuming you don't let the game push you around like a playful big brother with little a superiority complex. God Hand just wants to have fun. And so do we.

When the game clicks, which it does often enough across its many modes and missions, it overcomes the inadequacy of its storytelling and reminds you why Splinter Cell was so appealing in the first place.

PixelJunk Shooter is a taut, well-made and original game that's been lavished with good design and slick coding. It won't detain you long - and without giving too much away, the post-credits kill-screen suggests a DLC expansion is highly likely, as does PixelJunk's past history. But for every minute of those few hours, it's an unpredictable, fluidly entertaining blast.

For dedicated PC strategy nerds it might seem a little lightweight in comparison to what the desktop platform currently has to offer but, for accessible, deep, pocket-sized empire-building this is a game hard to fault.

It's not offering anything revolutionary, and you could argue that it doesn't fix anything that was wrong with it last time out, but the new toys are a lot of fun, it still stands out for looking absolutely stunning and given that it lasts about as long as most full priced shooters you're getting good value for money.

This is a love letter to childhood innocence, to that age where truth and justice and awesome costumes seem almost real, as well as the coolest things in the world. In that light, picking at it seems churlish, because The Wonderful 101 doesn't make you feel like a hero; it makes you feel like hundreds.

Almost to its detriment, it doesn't play its hand early on; if anything, the game takes fully three or four hours before you really start to unravel its charms, and even then it never feels like a game in a hurry.

With excellent stagecraft and meticulous detail, Baldur's Gate 3 conjures the illusion of perfect freedom - and then it disappears.

Fans of smart sci-fi and bold game design should jump aboard now.

As downloads go, this is generous and imaginative, then, and the richness of the world is more than enough to make up for an occasionally tricksy camera, a fair amount of backtracking and a tendency to pad things out as it heads towards the final act.

A lack of flourish and invention, along with a tired set of on-foot mechanics, rob it of a higher mark - but too much stands in its favour not to recommend it.

Burnout: Dominator is a perfectly functional stopgap, and Criterion has stayed absolutely true to its game's ethos. This is about as basic a game it could produce that would still retain the series' impressive reputation.

A smart and inventive RPG-lite, and a worthy entry in the TRON canon.

If you fancy some utterly ridiculous, relentless twitch gaming action, full of drama, evil henchmen and a posse of minions to pump full of lead, then Time Crisis 3 stands as an essential purchase.

The campaign is relentlessly aggressive and spectacular – a Jerry Bruckheimer tribute act stuck in permanent encore – while the multiplayer modes are a mixture of smart tweaks to working formulas, as focused on protecting that guaranteed bottom line as the campaign's yellow objective cursor is on making sure you never falter.

Dune: Awakening is a harsh survival game, an intriguing RPG, and a fierce open world PvP game all in one. Somehow, it pulls it off.

If you've somehow held off getting this so far, now is definitely the time to enjoy one of the most creative and engaging indie platformers around.

If you're going to play a King's Bounty game for the first time, make it The Legend - and I'd say that whether or not it was available so cheaply. If you're all done with that and crave more, then Armored Princess will not do you wrong.

Any game that has you physically dodging oncoming cars from your television is no ordinary game.