The game still functions well and the tactical gameplay is still solid as ever but retains the annoyances of the old systems.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door looks great on Switch, making it exciting to move from one location to the next, each interesting in its own way. Its writing is brilliant, too, with some genuinely funny jokes that will have you grinning as you play. It's just a shame that its turn-based combat gets old quite fast, and is devoid of challenge.

There’s a hell of a lot to like about Hi-Fi Rush: its sumptuous visuals, its over-the-top characters, its silly humour. When it comes to its gameplay, however, we just wish we liked it more. Between its overly long levels, excessive abundance of rhythm-based events, and bouts of combat that ultimately feel overly chaotic and prescriptive, a lot of potential is squandered. Still, there’s some good fun to be had, even once you’ve completed the game’s campaign. And we’d certainly be up for a sequel with some of the rhythm elements toned down.

There’s no denying Link’s Awakening is a very enjoyable adventure, however. It hits you right in the nostalgia spot if you’ve played before, and even if you haven’t it stands up well against more modern titles. After all, games are still continually being made in the vein of classic Zelda adventures. It’s just a shame it’s let down by such troublesome graphical and performance issues. With an optimisation patch and a price cut, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening would be a must-buy. Until then, it isn’t.

It surprises just as often as it confounds, and that in itself makes this a rather extraordinary experience. It’s also perhaps one of the purest examples of video games as art we’ve seen to date: a piece of art about artists. Does that make for an enjoyable experience? Not always. At times it’s drawn-out, boring, a chore, even, as you obsess over every bit of footage available to you. But are we glad we’ve played it? Absolutely.

Cuphead isn’t so much of a case of style over substance, but rather style over accessibility. The art is simply astonishing, and so too the music, but the gameplay is frequently too frustrating to make Cuphead a totally enjoyable experience. Essentially a boss rush game, its pacing allows for no relief. There are no moments of downtime to come down from the frustration or elation of your battles, it’s just long bouts of tension and stress that, for the most part, outweigh any joy that’s felt.

The tedium of the second half of the game, and the increasing frustration brought on by its level design, checkpoint system and challenging platforming somewhat sour the experience though.

Yeah, Total War: Warhammer is pretty good and a step in the right direction to boot, but I refuse to be dazzled by some stickers when the core game takes only a tiny shuffle forward at best.

While Pentiment doesn't make the best first impression, and the lack of music robs it of atmosphere and character, it's well worth digging into if you're a fan of well-written narrative adventures or games that require you to conduct investigations. You'll soon come to love - or loathe - its cast of characters, and with plenty of fun puzzles to solve, minigames to engage in and meaningful choices to make, it's rewarding in ways that other games in the same genre space rarely ever manage.

Ultimately, we’re left a little conflicted with Bayonetta 3. This is the worst looking and performing Bayonetta yet, with a grander scale that both detracts and adds to the gameplay. We love the fact that we can finally take control of fearsome demons, for example, but we don’t like the fact that the camera struggles when fighting other gargantuan enemies. Add in some other frustrations, and you have a game that sometimes feel like the best the Bayonetta series has to offer, but other times the worst.

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights‘ combat could still do with some work, not least because the animation is so gorgeous that limiting your physical attacks deprives the game of an extra dose of visual finesse. But this is still a magical outing that will have you hooked until the Blight is nothing but a bad memory.

Metroid: Samus Returns’ amalgamation of some things old and some things new results in a 2D Metroid game that, while at its most evolved, is caught in somewhat of an identity crisis. There are brief flickers of brilliance showing us what this exploratory new take on the series could have been, but it often finds itself carrying the overbearing weight of being a pseudo-authentic remake.

There’s nothing really new or overly exciting to be found in Flynn: Son of Crimson, but its well-executed blend of platforming, combat and light puzzle-solving keeps you occupied from beginning to end. It’s a fairly short, easy-going adventure (though it does have difficulty levels if you want more of a challenge), and one that’s sure to please fans of old-school platformers – just as long as they’re not expecting anything revolutionary.

If you’ve enjoyed stylish adventures like Rime and Journey in the past, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy Jusant. What it lacks in narrative it makes up for in environmental design: this is a world teeming with imagination and signs of life. Ultimately though, your goal here is to simply keep moving upwards. As repetitive as it can get, there’s still a sweet joy to be found in ever edging closer and closer to the top, and puzzling to find the best route to get there is enjoyable enough to keep us playing.

Thanks to its genuinely intriguing narrative and collection of quirky characters, there's a lot to love about Promise Mascot Agency, and some players will simply adore it. This open-world adventure pretty much revolves around collecting items, however, and some elements of the game quickly become nothing more than a chore.

Some people will absolutely love Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, and others will be enraged by it. I sit somewhere in the middle – I really like it, but its flaws have soured my experience with it.

Is Iron Man VR the best VR superhero game out there? No – that honour has to go to Megaton Rainfall. But it’s still up there, and thanks to the Quest 2’s superior tracking, this is a much better experience than it was on PSVR. And so, you’re a Meta Quest 2-owning Marvel fan, you won’t regret stepping into Tony Stark’s iron underpants.

It’s a shame that Gone Home is a bit of a non-starter. It has a lot of potential; the game is genuinely captivating whilst you’re playing it – it’s just unfortunate that it leaves you so disappointed once you’ve reached its conclusion. The human story it tries to tell is relatable, but it’s a story that’s so ordinary it’s barely even worth telling. By all means, play Gone Home for the exploration; for the 90’s nostalgia and for its down-to-Earth quirks, but don’t go into it expecting anything mindblowing. Expect a grounded story about a typical family and you won’t be disappointed, but anything else will leave you feeling rather underwhelmed.

More than being a video game, Kentucky Route Zero is a work of art – in fact it probably belongs in a museum rather than on our PCs or consoles. And just like any piece of art, it’s unlikely to resonate with everyone who experiences it. But if you’ve been waiting for the conclusion of this drawn-out adventure, you’ll be glad to finally have it.

It'll stick with me as a piece of art to admire, but not as a video game to enjoy.

Avid players of F1 2017 would be wise to wait until the inevitable F1 2019 – unless they really must engage in some multiple choice PR interviews between races right now.

Those difficulty spikes are just too unforgiving, and there’s only so many times you can be completely obliterated by the same set of enemies before you have to throw in the towel.

Jackbox Party Pack 4 isn’t completely disappointing – there’s still enough here to warrant a few giggles and it’ll pass an hour or two with a few friends, but it’s not the best that Jackbox has to offer. Go for Party Pack 2 or 3 instead.

Consisting of remakes of the first two games in the series, Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake is a somewhat simpler experience than Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake. You play the first game with just one party member, for example. It's still charming, though, with Dragon Quest 2 being a highlight, but both titles still might feel a little too archaic in ways.

This remake of Dragon Quest 3 remains very old-fashioned; it's at times uncompromising and it's missing some modern quality of life features. For existing fans of the JRPG classic and those who aren't afraid of a challenge, however, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake will no doubt prove to be captivating.

Our only real reservation about Boxes: Lost Fragments is how close it is to The Room. But should we really chastise it for taking heavy inspiration from a classic puzzle game? Whatever the answer, we can’t deny that this is a beautiful, clever puzzle game that’s provided us with a few hours of engaging gameplay. The puzzles here are excellent, and it’s a visual treat.

It’s my least favourite of the Shovel Knight entries, but with the bar raised so high, that doesn’t mean that King of Cards isn’t worth your time. Plus, if you already own Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove you get it included in that for free anyway, so you may as well give it a go. I feel like Shovel Knight: King of Cards is going to be like Marmite: some will love it and others will hate it. Though “hate” might be too strong a word. Rather they just won’t be as enamoured with it as other Shovel Knight releases.

Inertial Drift is a satisfying arcade racer. Its scant multiplayer features mean that it’s best suited for those who like to play by themselves, but at least they’ll find a lot to get stuck into. And even better, its budget price means it won’t break the bank. If you like getting cars sideways and aren’t afraid of trying a new way of doing so, Inertial Drift is well worth investing in.