It remains a brilliant social game in the classic sense of the phrase.

Dragon's Dogma has everything that RPG-heads crave – you can lose yourself in tinkering around, collecting items, finding arcane quests and seeking random enemies for days. It's reassuringly complex, and astonishingly well-executed given that this is Capcom's first attempt at such a game.

Cowabunga Collection is a nunchuck-twirling, shuriken-hurling jaunt through a glorious five-year stretch of Konami’s rich history, a perfect complement to the recent indie brawler Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.

The frantic and occasional flawed action on the pitch harks back to older PES games. Fifa 12 is the more complete football experience but PES 2012 can still deliver in short hectic doses.

Sonic Colours never feels like a world you want to hang out in. There are smart ideas and neat challenges here, but in the end there's probably too much stuff and the untidy interface makes it hard to get at the goodies.

Skylanders Trap Team won’t be the cheapest video game for families this year, but with the Starter Pack and some old figures, this compelling action adventure offers good value.

I hope Stray Gods kicks off a whole new genre, and more from Summerfall Studios in the future.

New Super Mario Bros 2 may not do anything we haven't seen in a game before, but it oozes such quality from every pixel that if you don't derive pleasure from playing it, no matter what your age or gender, it's difficult to think of any game that would satisfy you.

A more forgiving proposition than its forebears, this is an enjoyable zombie romp that's lost some of its character in the lurch onto the next generation hardware.

Calling it a simulation doesn't quite feel right, but this captures the look and action of a football match better than anything else I've played.

One's enjoyment of Dead Space 3 depends on how much one is prepared to surrender to Visceral's new vision for their horror IP. If you're after a rollicking action title that provides countless opportunities to blast away at slavering monsters, Dead Space 3 could well be one of the most exciting titles you play all year. But if you're one of the Dead Space faithful who was seduced by this series' ability to deliver a survival horror experience shot through with moments of white-knuckled terror, be warned: Dead Space 3 has left that terrain and doesn't look set to return to it any time soon.

Infinite Warfare could have been much more than a passable single-player movie attached to a super fast, super confident multiplayer infrastructure. As such, and with those moments of tantalising potential in mind, it feels like a wasted opportunity.

Despite the beautiful detailed environment and the promise of entertaining soap opera-style clips, Rapture is a real test of patience – because it’s just so damn slow.

Fifa 22 is absolutely unmistakably a Fifa game – it has the sophistication and polish we’ve come to expect, with all the player likenesses, authentic stadia and recognisable commentators we see every year. But right at the core of it is a match engine that feels more surefooted than ever, at a time when the game’s more tactically complex rival Pro Evolution Soccer has been relegated to a free-to-play existence with all the compromises that will inevitably entail. If you can live with the loot-box trickery of Ultimate Team, this is a gigantic, rewarding simulation that offers a ton of variety and scope, and many, many moments of exquisite goalmouth drama.

FromSoftware’s experiment in upending its established gameplay formula is admirable, and taking down gargantuan foes alongside friends really adds to the joy you feel at finally besting what at first felt like an insurmountable task. It’s just a shame that the game’s skewed pacing and overreliance on Elden Ring’s pool of assets so greatly mars the experience.

Friends of Mineral Town remains an engaging, warm and homey experience.

While its plot may be undernourished, the campaign does contain a series of worthy action set pieces, and really, it's not a bad way to spend an afternoon. But the single-player's main purpose seems aimed at familiarising players with Starhawk's mechanics before setting them loose in the game's online battleground, which, as has been mentioned, is where its true longevity lies.

Reigns offers a pretty, innovative and charming diversion, then, but don’t let yourself care too deeply about what actually happens, or the charm will give way to frustration fast.

EA MMA is clearly a painstakingly researched, precisely realised game. Surprisingly impressive.

The ability to explore space with a party of up to three friends makes it feel much less lonely than before. And where it once was difficult to return to a previously visited planet, establishing bases allows you to make some small corner of the universe feel like home.

In a year that has given us not one but three Mario-themed RPGs, I was ready to be underwhelmed by Brothership. Yet thanks to captivating combat, varied platforming and well-judged difficulty, Brothership not only lives up to my childhood nostalgia for this series, but improves upon it. It is an inviting serving of sun-soaked delight at the beginning of a gloomy November.

Like throwing a punch in the dark, buying Street Fighter V today is a speculative gamble.

As home fitness products go, it's certainly one of the best. It's absorbing, interesting and fun in parts, and if you're the sort of person who gets a kick out of medals, points and progress reports then you'll certainly enjoy the framework it offers. But if you're looking for a fun Kinect game with a getting-fit side-effect, or a comprehensive exercise routine with serious results, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 is not quite there.

The thing with Capcom Arcade Stadium is that this isn’t just a nostalgia exercise – many of these games hold up today. Designers including Tokuro Fujiwara and Akira Nishitani crafted beautiful 2D play spaces filled with energy, challenge and luscious choreography, and these elements are still inspiring today’s shooters, metroidvania adventures and roguelikes. Back in the day, when you put 10p in a Capcom machine, you knew that, even if you only survived for 27 seconds, you would see wonderful places, effects, enemies and surprises. That feeling is captured here once more, for all to experience.

As ever, Mario’s brother is a scream, but this remaster is haunted by the spectre of its much better sequel – and the price might spook you.

Sakuna is more than the sum of its parts. Individually each element is just a bit lacking: the exploration is limited, the pacing a little tedious, the combat doesn’t quite have the depth of a true action-brawler and even the farming proves repetitive. But just as sunlight, fertiliser, water and toil together produce a bountiful harvest, all of this game’s elements come together to make something hearty and unexpected.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead might not have invented this style of meaningful narrative adventure, but it certainly popularised it. It is tragic that its popularity led the studio’s leaders to run it into the ground, badly overstretching its staff on endless similar projects from Batman to Borderlands to Minecraft. The circumstances of this final ending are disappointing and unfair. But if The Walking Dead has taught us anything, it’s that things don’t always end well.

FC 26 remains a strong package, despite its deliberate choice to abandon authenticity in the online space. There are still numerous gamers out there who crave realism, even in competitive matches. Yet while this represents a step backwards for real football, it’s unquestionably a stride forwards in the field of fan service. This is not the sim Pro Evo purists have longed for – but as an esports collaborative between the developer and its community, Fifa’s third follow-up achieves the majority of its aims.