Given time, though, and Pocket Academy gets under your skin just like the other Kairosoft efforts, largely thanks to the attachment to your pupils, the satisfaction from their eventual progress, and the burgeoning relationships with other pupils. It's enough to bring a tear to your eye.

The Pitt undoubtedly provides far more value for money than its predecessor, with around four solid hours of entertainment for the first run-through, and probably at least double that if you feel motivated to explore the quest from all the intriguing angles it throws up.

It's one of the strongest launch titles, offering taut fun and challenge in a rapid-fire, quick-load manner that's perfectly suited to the handheld. It may not offer a vision of the portable future that Sony's creative dreamers were hoping for, but as a video game, it works small wonders.

On consoles, at heart, it's the same rewarding, anecdote-rich and very personal experience as it ever was. If you've got the option, then the PC version is still the one to go for, but in every significant way, this is just as good.

No matter how much you try to like it, the price of 'winning' will be spending the rest of your days gently rocking in the corner.

If you can be bothered to go looking for it, Koloomn might be a good investment. Otherwise, particularly for those of us already mesmerised by Lumines or quite happy with our range of DS puzzlers, perhaps, it's almost too simple, and I can think of at least a handful of block puzzle games I'd rather play instead.

Inkle's follow-up to 80 Days is an archaeology adventure like no other. [Eurogamer Recommended]

A really excellent GBA game which pushes the little system to a degree that few games have tried.

Criterion takes the reins once more for an arcade racer that’s capable of going toe-to-toe with the all-conquering Forza Horizon. [Eurogamer Recommended]

The Emperor's Treasure doesn't just have rhythm: it also has soul.

Artful and warmly considered (even the menu options are caught up in it - the "Options" menu is the "Engine Room", and the "Quit" button reads "Abandon Ship"), it's a well-formed idea that will almost certainly grow as it builds up a head of Steam.

A big throwback RPG that doesn't meaningfully mess with Suikoden's 30-year-old formula.

LawBreakers is an inventive, electric and expertly engineered classic competitive shooter that deserves your time. [Recommended]

Instead of challenging the Dark Age it reinterprets 615 years later, the game seems to delight in it. Instead of seeing notes in the margin of a history book, we get what feels like a glossy pamphlet advertising an escape into an oddly romanticised past. And it's that, ultimately, which makes me too uneasy about Warhorse's work to be able to recommend it.

Judged purely as a standalone game, it's an unambiguous success.

Placed in the context of the Star Fox series, however, it is profoundly disappointing. It lacks Lylat Wars' balleticism, subtle difficulty curve and queer beauty, and its dialogue and plot really are extraordinarily bad.

The reboot is an excellent example of how old-school gameplay can be brought to life on today's hardware.

The relative simplicity, the choice of structured or freeform play, the ability to mingle with your populace... it's all very successful. If Monte Cristo could just turn the volume up a fraction on the interesting social conflict dimension, and add a few extra building models to make skylines a bit more varied.

Resident Evil 4 meets the Truman Show in an entertaining but unremarkable follow-up, held back by tepid stealth and warmed-over scares.

Were it not for the outdated visuals and functional presentation, Prejudice would easily be worth a full-price purchase. It is, quite simply, the best multiplayer shooter since Battlefield: Bad Company 2. As a budget digital download, it's ridiculously good value.

The character himself simply feels more at home in this shorter, punchier, less laboured and self-regarding form. Freed from the weight of expectation that accompanies a full retail release in this genre, the experience - while lacking the set-piece spectacle and spookiness of the original - is less forced and more comfortably pitched.

The freeform nature of many missions means that they can be replayed over and over again in search of higher rankings without becoming dull. Fans of action games will love it immediately.

There's quality within this intriguing time loop, though by the end you're left wondering whether the core idea is a good one after all.

Super Mario Run? This is Mario, for the first time in an age, running on hardware that was not designed by Mario's people. And you know what's frightening? When Mario's people are involved, they make the hardware feel like they designed it anyway. Super Mario Run's not just ingenious and demanding and infuriating and delightful. It's a game born of a deep understanding of its platform.

As a Sony-published release, Ronin isn’t quite Team Ninja’s Elden Ring, even if it does evolve its Nioh-like formula, with the help of existing open world formulae. Still, while it’s been great to witness the renaissance of Japanese games these past few years, there’s something special about seeing a Japanese developer stepping up to reclaim the AAA open world samurai game for itself - especially one that cares more about being a video game than a Kurosawa film.

Playing out like an interactive episode of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Pikuniku is a perfectly formed three hour adventure. [Eurogamer Recommended]

The biggest success of the game, though, is its sense of authenticity. The LGBT+ representation is excellent, with diverse characters normalising queer relationships. The developer's devotion to authentic twentysomething reference points is commendable. And where so many music stories push songwriting and acoustic instruments as more "authentic" than manufactured pop, here the secret to success is simple: just be yourself.

Persona 5 Tactica marks a welcome return for the Phantom Thieves, delivering a fun strategy spin-off with plenty of heart.