Spelunky 2 improves upon the original in every conceivable way, and if you can tolerate the difficulty is an absolute must-play.

WWE 2K Battlgrounds is going to divide a lot of people with its pay to play mentality, but there are plenty of ways to earn it. With modes like the enjoyable King of the Battleground and its Campaign, you are never short of opportunities to experience the over-the-top gameplay.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one of the best Metroivanias in recent memory, and its Switch port is simply outstanding. With a buttery smooth framerate, and an aesthetic as gorgeous as ever, it's a title that might even warrant a double dip.

Welcome to Elk is an interesting biographical game about how stories help shape communities. It features some interesting mini-games and a good cast of characters, but the stories feel a little too personal and at times you feel like an intruder.

Mafia: Definitive Edition oozes style and substance, harking back to a time when story was everything. The gameplay can be a little clumsy, but entwined with these awkward moments come excitement.

Whilst certainly competent, Darksburg won’t offer you enough to convince you to try it and it doesn’t do enough to stand out in a market flooded with brilliant alternatives.

Despite some graphical concessions, The Long Dark on Nintendo Switch is an excellent port of a very good survival game.

Tennis World Tour 2 has gameplay that takes a while to master, but the healthy roster and well-designed courts offers a lot for tennis fans.

A confident first game from Indian studio Nodding Heads Games. Raji: An Ancient Epic features a thematically appropriate player viewpoint, which unfortunately hampers some of the platforming elements, but a simple and surprisingly versatile combat system keeps things interesting.

From its incredible soundtrack to its unbelievably fun gameplay and striking visuals, art of rally is a genuine contender for 2020’s best racer.

Hades is a fantastic experience regardless of platform. An addictive, accessible, and charming roguelike adventure.

The Last Campfire is a charming puzzler with gorgeous visuals and a poignant message, told throughout worlds ripe for exploring.

Despite one or two issues, Mini Motor Racing X is a fast, frantic and fun little game that offers bitesize racing for everyone.

Whether the year it was released has affected the way Super Mario 3D All-Stars came together, we’ll probably never know, but it still comes with a wholehearted recommendation simply due to the quality of the games.

Spellbreak is a unique, fast-paced Battle Royalke that takes a few risks which mostly pay off. It needs some work in fringe areas like cosmetics and levelling, but the gameplay is solid.

NBA 2K21 is a fantastic basketball simulation, but it is a shame that most of the game feels more like an update than an entirely new entry.

Although a little dated in design, Tamarin is a ton of fun for fans of good old fashioned Collectathon platformers.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is an incredible feat of narrative engineering everyone should experience, made all the more appealing by it's gorgeous art and enjoyable, deep strategy gameplay.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars has potential, but never quite lives up to it thanks to slow-paced battles and dodgy AI.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute is an addictive, innovative, and punishingly hard roguelite shooter-slash-rhythm game - and it's great.

Evergate is a touching and thoughtful puzzle platformer, with an incredible soundtrack and unique mechanics.

Fustercluck doesn't add anything that feels super new, it at least offers up an incredibly Borderlands-y expansion filled with meat chunks and silly weapons - and it's the only game this year that'll let you shoot down the actual moon, go on a mini quest to retrieve it, load it into a catapult and use it to batter down the walls of a meat castle. So, y'know, there's that.

If you really enjoyed The Outer Worlds and need a reason to play again, or have been hankering for more, then Peril on Gorgon is worth checking out.

Wintermoor Tactics Club is perfect for newcomers to the genre, but doesn't offer much for experienced tactics players.

Though the twin-stick controls can be a little imprecise on Switch, it feels no less fantastic when you nail a run in Inertial Drift. It’s a wonderfully unique racer.

Despite some of the same issues of other versions, MX vs ATV: All Out somehow feels at home on Nintendo Switch.

Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars offers some new ideas and a cool setting to the strategy genre. However, its stripped-back approach may be too simplistic for some.

Paradise Killer is a singular experience. An open-world detective game set in a weird, neon world where everyone is a suspect and each piece of evidence feels genuinely earned.

As an ode to classic racers, Hotshot Racing is a fast, fun game. It’s just let down by limited content and some frustrating AI.

With its innovative control scheme and anime visuals, Inertial Drift is an incredibly fun and rewarding mashup of drift racing and visual novel.

OkunoKA Madness is great fun if you can handle the difficulty, with unique mechanics, an incredible art style and tons of extra content to unlock.

The campaign is brilliant, and despite its flaws I've had a great time with Marvel's Avengers - and I'm not done yet.

Star Renegades has some great ideas; the characters are solid, likeable and believable, and the world is intriguing, but it may be too punishing for some.

It may not be the most important remake of the year, but Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is a gorgeous, dense, and charming adventure.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons is fun for a while, but the technical issues really effect it, and stop you from having a great adventure.

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? tells an enthralling story, but the basic grindy gameplay detracts from the overall experience.

Surgeon Simulator 2 is intended to be silly, irreverent fun that keeps you coming back for more and more surgical shenanigans, and in that regard it's a total success.

Smaller and more focused than The Foundation, Control: AWE is sold entirely on the return and crossover with a certain Mr. Wake.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions offers a great mix of competition, action, and story, with beautiful visuals throughout.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 are perfect remasters that remind me fondly of the original, offering excellent gameplay and tons to do. They look great, sound great, and have tons of replayability.

Street Power Football has a variety of modes and courses in which to play them, but with no real tournaments and unsatisfying gameplay, it's hard to find any enjoyment in it.

With exotic locales and new ideas, The Furious Wild DLC reminds us why we fell in love with Total War: Three Kingdoms in the first place.

An enjoyable little rogue-lite with a mountain's worth of replayability, Heroes of Hammerwatch is the perfect game for killing a little time either alone or with friends.

Although Madden NFL 21 sees some improvements to its gameplay, and the enjoyable The Yard Mode makes an impressive debut, there's far too much that has been ignored. It feels more like an update than a fully blown follow-up, and it sucks that Franchise Mode has been left in the dirt.

If you love a challenge, Struggling provides it in spades. The visuals and level designs are fantastic, and the music is the icing on the blood-soaked cake.

Windbound is a story based survival game set across five procedurally generated worlds. It features a cool boat building mechanic and a strong sense of discovery, but some of its systems and mechanics get in the way and can strip the fun away.

Crusader Kings III is an excellent kingdom management game, more intimate but no less intricate than the likes of Civilisation VI, it’s as unforgiving a simulation as you’re going to find while still being more fun than you’d expect it to be.

Although it feels a slight step backwards from last year, WRC 9 is still an impressive rally game that fans will love.

Spiritfarer is a unique and special game. A management sim that manages to blend its various systems with a poignant and bittersweet look at life and death.

Whilst Road to Guangdong does suffer from various gameplay issues and a laborious process of managing the upkeep of your car, its story is engaging and uplifting.

The PC version, ironically, remains the true definitive edition, but console owners hankering after a new RPG to lose a few hundred hours in could do worse than Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

Those willing to fully commit to Microsoft Flight Simulator will find an immersive experience like nothing else they’ve ever played.

Risk of Rain 2 is an excellent time that takes you from a scrappy fight with some pesky aliens to a desperate battle for survival in a 3D bullet hell every run.

Tell Me Why deals with some sensitive subjects with respect and sensitivity, making the story both gripping and powerful in ways they've never done before.

Aokana is an entertaining Sci-Fi Sports Fiction story, that is ultimately hard to stomach due to a plethora of lewd and toxic moments packed throughout.

Wasteland 3 is a huge undertaking, marrying deep, choice-driven role play with fast-paced tactical combat and vast areas to explore.

Hypnospace Outlaw is an incredible nostalgia trip into the Internet of the 90s, with great investigative gameplay and emotional moments.

No Straight Roads is made with a lot of love, and the soundtrack is excellent. It's just a shame the gameplay isn't as tight as it could be.

With its bold new direction, superbly overhauled handling and some of the best, wheel-to-wheel racing out there, Project CARS 3 is a gamble that has resulted in one of the year’s best racers.

Nexomon: Extinction is a fun monster collecting game, with great writing, that ultimately struggles to differentiate itself much from its peers.

Descenders is a little rough around the edges, and it can be punishing, but there's a lot to get stuck into, with a satisfying gameplay flow and a brilliant soundtrack.

PGA Tour 2K21 is a lot of fun to play, with the best gameplay in a golf game to date. The courses look beautiful, and the presentation is on point as well. Whilst the career mode is quite basic, it never ruins the enjoyment of the game.

Adding plenty of new content and lore to enhance the story of the original game, Subject 2923 is an excellent expansion for Remnant: From the Ashes.

Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is a love letter to the animated series and a throwback to classic platform action games of the PS2 era, in the best possible way.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind has some clever mechanics that highlight the meticulous planning Tommy Shelby is capable of, all whilst providing an interesting story and plenty of variety in character actions.

Battletoads is the reboot you never knew you wanted. It's fun to play and makes you laugh, two perfect ingredients for making a game well worth playing.

Eastern Exorcist is an enjoyable 2D hack 'n' slasher that feels slick and fluid, but doesn't do quite enough to stand out from the crowd.

UFC 4 has a much better submission system, as well as more fluid clinch mechanics. The Career Mode has got some nice improvements, but it still feels like a similar experience to its predecessor.

Manifold Garden is a gorgeous puzzler that is something very different. It will test you and reward you in equal measure for a very unique experience.

Skully has some interesting gameplay involving your multiple forms, but is ultimately let down by checkpoint issues, and blurry visuals.

More attention to the story would have gone a long way, but Mortal Shell is an intriguing adventure, and an accomplished addition to the Soulslike genre.

Ever Forward is a strikingly beautiful game with interesting and challenging puzzles, but harsh difficulty spikes make it a little more frustrating than it should be.

Death End re;Quest 2 tells an impressively dark story with aplomb, and if you can handle the subject matter and difficulty spikes is a must play.

Bite the Bullet is a great game in theory, but framerate issues, loose controls, and oversized maps make it hard to recommend.

Dreamscaper is beautiful, deep and haunting, deftly combining elements of real-life pain and poignant character development with fast-paced combat in a surreal alternate world.

An incredibly unique rhythm game, Double Kick Heroes is satisfying to play and packed full of great tunes and tons of content.

A Total War Saga: Troy is a slightly different Total War game. It's commitment to the period, and all that entails is a lot of fun and well worth a look.

While Darkestville Castle may not ultimately signify the rebirth of point and click,it’s still an enjoyable adventure, and the Switch optimisation makes it an even more enjopyable experience.

Rogue Company is a team shooter with great potential, and it’s one of the most effortlessly fun games I’ve played in a while.

If you’re hankering for more of that simple, unfettered Doom action, Hellbound may well scratch your itch.

Horizon Zero Dawn is that rare gem of a game: it’s the one you make an exception for, it’s the one you just have to keep going back to, no matter how much you’ve seen of it before, and now, we have the ultimate version of the game on PC.

Spitlings is good old fashioned multiplayer arcade fun. Enjoyable solo or with friends, this toothy adventure is full of fun.

Orcs Must Die! 3 is a solid tower defence game with great humour and a nice aesthetic, but the Stadia exclusivity will do it more harm than good.

With its bouncy physics and ludicrously aggressive AI, Tiny Racer feels unbalanced at best, completely unfair at worst. This makes for one of the least fun racers around.

Maid of Sker has an interesting story based on the House of Sker folklore. The use of binaural sounds is extremely well done but is let down by its reliance on jump scares and repetitive sound effects. The holding your breath mechanic does help and adds an extra layer to the survival aspect.

Fairy Tail is an incredibly satisfying turn based RPG, with tons of growth systems to invest in. You need a good knowledge of the show to get maximum enjoyment, but for fans it doesn't get any better than this.

The Cadence of Hyrule Character Pack DLC offers some fun options and some different playstyles. It's a great reason to jump back in.

A sublime blend of deck building and post-apocalyptic survival, Nowhere Prophet is tense, thoughtful, and incredibly satisfying.

Pistol Whip is one of the best games on PSVR. The shooting is satisfying, the level design is fantastic, and the music is phenomenal, making the whole experience a heart-pounding joyride through the senses.

Terrorarium borrows heavily from other larger titles, and due to poor execution and lack of polish, never really steps out from those shadows.

NASCAR Heat 5 is a step backward for the series, but still delivers some tense and rewarding racing.

Tannenberg offers an authentic World War 1 experience of the conflict waged on the Eastern Front. It features excellent attention to detail in the map design, character uniforms and weaponry, but the dogged commitment to historical accuracy means its appeal is limited to a very small niche of player.

Hellpoint may not ultimately stick in the memory long after you're done, but it's a solid enough challenge that will keep fans of the genre busy for a while.

Othercide is damn hard, but if you can push through and find your feet, it's also an incredibly satisfying and atmospheric experience. Whatever you do, don't go in expecting to play a straightforward XCOM-clone. Othercide deserves more respect than that.

Destroy All Humans! definitely falls under the 'faithful remake' category, with great humour, short and sweet missions, and lots of stuff to blow up. Blowing things up does become repetitive, but it's still a lot of fun.

An absurd and delightful experience, Rock of Ages 3 is a great addition to your Switch library. If you don't mind some framerate dips, having tons of community levels on your portable console is ideal.

With a phenomenal Cyberpunk aesthetic and fantastic characters, Dex is close to being an incredible experience. Lackluster combat and hacking let it down, but it still has a lot to offer for fans of the grim Sci-fi setting.

Carrion reverses the roles of the horror genre beautifully, and playing as a monster has never been so disgustingly enjoyable.