This is utter loveliness, embodying everything the DS has come to mean to me. Puzzles, high spirits, and an embracing of beautiful 2D artwork over complicated 3D fuss.

At the very worst, it's an ingenious multimedia toy that'll have you dusting off the untouched corners of your MP3 collection for a few happy evenings. But for those twitching fingers that still enjoy the thrill of the high score, Audiosurf has the potential to become a bite-sized obsession thanks to its quick fix gameplay and infinite musical possibilities.

A hugely enjoyable strategy game, and if you've no interest in the history I'm sure it's possible to appreciate it as just that. But the way in which it frames its source absolutely enraptured me, reawakening a long-dormant interest and sparking a search for countless other takes on the battle and its wider context - many of which, it has to be said, didn't come close.

Though a return to Kamurocho isn't far away, Yakuza 0 is, in many respects, the end of an era - and a heck of a finish it is, too. [Recommended]

Even pointlessly simple card matching games like Luigi's "Pair-A-Gone" and "Memory Match" had us playing relentlessly, whiling away Tube journeys and whiling away stolen moments at all manner of the day and night.

It may not be licensed by George A. Romero, but it was certainly inspired by him, and it replicates a lot of the feelings he inspired in the viewer.

Not a life-changing experience (if you discount the coming years of physiotherapy on my arms) but it is an astoundingly competent first-person shooter. While the multiplayer mode is a flimsy experience unless you have friends you can rely on, the single-player mode offers a worthy adventure even for players who don't ever expect to take the game online.

Bigger and better - but there's not enough genuinely new for Destiny 2 to achieve greatness. [Recommended]

Blending fishing with Gothic horror and Lovecraft is a fine hook, but Dredge is too defined by simple loot-and-upgrade rhythms to reel you in.

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.

It takes a measured approach to combat, pitches the atmosphere at the same eery, mysterious level that we loved about the first game, and wraps it all up with one of the more flexible control systems imaginable (quick point though, Ubi: why can't I invert the look up/down?) that make it possible to enjoy the kind of trap laden environments that would make Lara's eyes bleed at the prospect.

The Collection is an instantaneous embrace of past and present that combines gaming's powerful sense of nostalgia with its perpetual arms race of processing and graphical power.

Admittedly better value for money than the rather uninspired "version 2" Dreamcast release, but for a game which has seen as much development as this to suffer from fundamental flaws and dodgy design decisions in so many areas is bizarre.

If Revolutionary Concepts came to charm us senseless, it worked. There are so many reasons to enjoy Gesundheit; its 40 levels of puzzle nonsense are only a small part of why you should dutifully surrender your loose change.

Can't sleep? Moon too bright? Want to eat it? It's a simple goal for a demon in the underworld, as you'll find in this gorgeous, extraordinary narrative adventure that just so happens to require skateboarding.

Like its many buried riches, Nintendo's Pikmin series remains a treasure ready to be rediscovered. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It starts off brilliant, then erodes your enthusiasm over time.

A delightful co-op action RPG that's sadly stymied by its insistence on making it hard to play together.

The Alters achieves something tense and new by merging strategy base-building with third-person exploration and a sci-fi story about cloning yourself. But repetition and complicated busywork mar the overall effect.

Boom Blox is brilliant alone, fantastic with friends, a superb addition to the puzzle genre and a game that will make you glad you own a Wii. Here's hoping it's only the first of its kind.

Madden 08 stands by itself as a respectable, rewarding sim, but judged in the context of last season, it's merely a mild, expensive improvement.

Canny enough to keep you hooked, but sufficiently honest to throw in something a little more nourishing too, the genetics are pretty strong with this one.

There are moments of glorious frustration, as there are in any great platformer, but the sting of such hurdles is always soothed by the sweetness of victory when you overcome them.

So even though the wait continues for a 3D Castlevania that truly matches the elegance, complexity and spatial intelligence of the 2D games, this is a polished and enjoyable blast of musty Gothic action in its own right.

Out There also reveals something of the human pioneering spirit and its twin: the urge to survive till the final lungful of oxygen is expended. And if and when you do manage to scrape through another day, it's a game that allows you to marvel at the unlikeliness of all this as well as the miracle and fragility of life.

Whatever anyone tells you, you're never too old to enjoy Pokémon. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot, a liar or possibly both. No, the immense depth, inescapable charms and boundless personalisation found here is enough to put most other commercial releases to shame, with the new battle mechanics making Diamond and Pearl even more covertly complex than the series has previously been.

To complain that Virtua Fighter 5 isn't accessible enough would be like complaining that a black and white film isn't colourful enough, or that a vegetable dish isn't meaty enough. VF5 sets out to create the world's best beat 'em up for beat 'em up aficionados, and it succeeds.

If you're an old school arcade veteran looking to prove yourself again, then this is perhaps the purest gameplay experience you'll find for a long time. Even if you're a rookie looking for something 'new', you can't go wrong, but you might well find the barriers to entry a little harsh to say the least.