Some accomplished character work and a narrative full of heart, sits next to a deep and detailed rice-farming mechanic that will have you sinking hours in trying to get the perfect crop. However, fiddly combat and shallow platforming take their toll. If you’re anything like me, you’ll get lost in the farming, and let the other parts lie fallow.

A cracking example of nostalgia done right, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is as worthy as any current-gen racer out there. It’s not easy to begin with, but once you’re practiced you’ll be flying across the finish line.

An interesting experiment that many players will find too taxing, Untold Stories shows what unique things can be done when telling stories through the medium of gaming, but ultimately fails to deliver on its own narrative.

The Falconeer lacks an actual Falconeer protagonist to hang its adventure from and ends up impersonal and fragmented. Odd dis-incentivizing design choices seek to undermine what is an otherwise wonderful lore-filled world and some of the most fun and frenetic aerial combat this generation.

Some minor flaws aside, Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid Saga Continues is one of the best beat-em-up out there, easily surpasses Raging Justice and I think can rightly be proud to call itself the second-best beat-em-up’s on the PS4. The Johnny Lawrence of the gaming world.

An absolutely barnstorming return to the main stage for Harmonix, who have seemingly taken everything they’ve learned from eighteen years in the genre to create a fantastically creative, inventive and hands-stuck-to-the-controller levels of addictive rhythm video game, the kind of which has been sorely missed.

It’s not a massively deep game, with a skills-and-stars upgrade system cribbed from many a game. That being said, Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a fun little adventure in a First World War mold. Taking to the skies has never been so colourful.

Dirt 5 feels like a game designed for the new generation of consoles, but there’s still plenty here for those not upgrading in the short-term. Whilst it has some technical issues and frustrating AI, the driving is as solid as ever, Playgrounds is a great new addition and there are some genuinely stunning moments to be experienced. It’s one of the best rally games in recent memory and I can’t wait to try it on a new platform.

A charming bubble popping puzzle games that replicates most of what worked back in the 90’s, Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure is a fun if limited game. There’s nothing wrong with emulating the classics but when a game does this without bringing anything new to the table, it’s hard to see it as anything but inessential.

A very special point and click visual novel, Chicken Police is the perfect hard-boiled detective game you always wanted, just populated with animals. Atmospheric and funny, with some fantastic writing and voice work, Chicken Police is one of the best indie games of the year.

A few barely noteworthy technical hiccups and a multiplayer mode that could have been a little more than it is are the only marks on an otherwise absorbing and ingenious puzzle game. TENS! on Nintendo Switch is totally unlike the mobile version and it’s all the better for it.

A satisfying platformer aimed at a younger age group, Yestermorrow is memorable for its aesthetics and inspirations. However it’s gameplay doesn’t really do anything we haven’t seen before, and fumbles what could have been more interesting uses of its Everlight and time-based premise.

You’ll need dogged determination and the reflexes of a cat to get anything out of Double Pug Switch. It’s inventive dimension switching mechanic is lost in a sea of spikes and overtly difficult levels that are tough to fur-give.

Re:Turn – One Way Trip isn’t going to keep you up at night and the small game world undermines the game’s better ideas because of the amount of backtracking and filler. That being said, the story has an interesting arc (despite it being overtly foreshadowed) which will keep you entertained for an evening with creepy but not quite scary content.

Spellbreak does more than enough to allow it to stand out in a stuffed genre and offers a terrific variety in its weapon options. There’s absolutely something here if you’re looking for a Royale without shotguns. Don’t sleep on it.

For newcomers to the real-time tactics genre, it may represent a step too far as a first experience. However, for experienced players, Partisans 1941 is a solid and engaging title, with plenty of scope to try out a number of different approaches. Overall, it’s also a refreshing change to see the Second World War represented from a different perspective.

It’s not just the moths that bug Remothered Broken Porcelain. It’s the fundamentally broken narrative structure, nonsensical cut-scenes, unimaginative gameplay, and tired, badly implemented mechanics. Then there’s the masses of crippling bugs. There’s no amount of patching that will fix this game.

A few niggles aside, Jackbox Party Pack 7 is another cracker of a party game. It’s a great mix of word play and creative or collaborative challenges which anyone who’s familiar with a mobile phone can inuit quickly. From your nan to your little (teenage) brother, there’s giggles to be had here.

A dating sim that deserves to be talked about alongside the likes of Dream Daddy and Hatoful Boyfriend, Lovingly Evil is a funny, smart experience that doesn’t drown you in exposition and keeps it all charmingly light and breezy. Absolutely worth your time.

Röki blends the mythic with painfully real, the supernatural with the human to tell a story of reconciliation that’s spellbinding for its entire 12 hour length. A few foibles with its point and click roots are the only blemishes on an otherwise exemplary and accessible adventure that’s one of the best you’ll play this year.

Unless you’re a lifelong fan, Transformers: Battlegrounds will offer little in the way of depth to the “casuals”. As a game, it feels like a badly ported mobile game barely fleshed out for the console players.

With a muddled story that leaves much unanswered, and a series of half-baked mechanics that feel a decade out of date, it’s hard to recommend Amnesia Rebirth as a way to satisfy your scares this Halloween. You’ll more than likely want to forget all about it.

It’s hard not to admire what Nova-box attempt to accomplish with Seers Isle. There’s some narrative devices used in this game that most visual novel games would shy away from and there’s a cast of characters that beg to be explored further via player choice. It’s easy on the eye and tells some entrancing stories – but a few of these tales trip up over the complexity of essentially having 8 lead characters and being unable to give them all a satisfactory arc without repetition.

There’s so much work to be done to make FIFA a viable contender again as a genuinely great sports game. The sad part is, I don’t think EA Sports really care anymore.

The console versions of Cloudpunk then are, at the time of writing, buggy and a little broken in places they shouldn’t be, but if you’re lucky enough to power through without any major issues, you’ll lose hours to the fantastic narrative, terrific central character performances and gorgeous neon-soaked visuals.

It’s not perfect and there is not much variety but when you do play it, you can’t help but enjoy it for what it is. I guess it must say something if I enjoyed playing this more than I did the Avengers game.

Death Ray Manta SE is laser targeted to a very specific group of players. If you long for the heydays of the Llamasoft games, this game gives you the feeling you had playing these games back in the day but with spruced up visuals, a plethora of fish puns and a more accommodating nature. There’s some required repetition and the visual presentation might immediately repel some, but for those it’s aimed at, Death Ray Manta SE is an excellent “just one more go” game. Only now, it’s “just one more go, on the go” with the Switch version.

It won’t blow your mind with innovation or story, but 9 Monkeys of Shaolin isn’t trying to. It revisits the 70’s style of kung fu games, and has fun with the source material. Either solo or with a friend, there’s fun to be had here.