Animal Crossing is everything I have been craving: it is gentle, soothing, social and creative, and my group chats are already buzzing with hype about beetles and villager fashions. If there was ever a perfect time for a game such as this, that time is now.

Like Angry Birds, there's a big daft sense of humour behind Trials Evolution. Very much like Angry Birds, the game has got that "I'll just have one more go …" quality that can swallow hours whole. And exactly like Angry Birds, it's a simple premise that only takes seconds to pick up.

Absolutely reeks of effort, of care, of love for the sport. Blast EA and its peers for the way they run their businesses if you want to, but recognise this: with friends, with practice, with a will to re-think your approach to defence, Fifa is an absolute joy to play.

It is a genuine pleasure to play something that has been so lovingly envisaged, and which is so true to its source material. It’s a game everyone with a PS5 should experience, augmented by an admirable range of accessibility options to ensure as wide a group of potential players as possible can be Spider-Man. This is what mainstream action adventure video games should be: a big, wholehearted fantasy, invested with rewarding details and loaded with conflict and emotion. In all the ways that count, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the embodiment of that famous Stan Lee motto: Excelsior!

Euphoric is the best word for Tetris Effect. It makes my skin tingle and my mind sink into a state of receptive bliss. It is, somehow, a puzzle game about the extraordinary experience of being alive on this Earth. And if that sounds totally insane: try it. You’ll soon understand.

Its concept may seem silly at first, but the latest title from prodigious indie developer Stephen Lavelle is one of the most difficult puzzle games ever made.

Peppered with devious puzzles, Ori and the Will of the Wisp is an irresistible challenge. There is extraordinary attention to detail – the entire world feels alive with excitement and danger. I struggled to put down the controller as I progressed deeper into the game, unable and unwilling to let anything stand in the way of Ori realising his true destiny. A bold and ambitious sequel.

This new visual novel from the creator of One Night Stand is an engrossing, emotional study of digital relationships that will hit a raw nerve with gamers.

Visual and haptical enhancements along with bonus content including new modes, cut stages and audio commentary from designers make this a required experience.

This is demanding work, but the game’s distinct but complementary loops of playful labour are highly compelling. The satisfaction of completing a challenging dive without needing to be rescued, then watching the rave reviews on “Cooksta” pour in, is profound. Stylish, witty and exquisitely designed, Dave the Diver uses several hooks to achieve its goal, while establishing the relationship between the food we eat and the world from which its harvested with useful urgency.

A hugely accomplished reinvention of a franchise that was showing signs of dotage.

The meticulous craft that has gone into its ingenious design is enough to warrant admiration from even those players who have no time for the portly plumber. As for the rest of you – and we're assuming you're Mario fans – you're in for a real treat.

For those players who can exercise a little patience and restraint, it's quite simply one of the best games you'll play all year.

Like your knowledge of the game’s beautiful and rich ecosystem, this knowledge accumulates naturally over time, and a game that seems intimidating at first quickly becomes one of the more rewarding gaming experiences of recent years. There is no feeling quite like taking down a dragon with nothing but a sword, your wits and sheer nerve.

In tuning the defensive systems and the attacking AI, the development team has unlocked the potential that Fifa 12 only hinted at, creating a game that, at last, seems to invite improvisational play, a game in which your own skill as a player comes to the fore.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, at least for anyone who played its brilliant but cruel predecessor FTL: Faster Than Light, is how overwhelmingly fair Into the Breach is. There are no random events that unexpectedly handicap you. Instead, every situation is winnable from the outset (though poor first-turn decisions will change that), and you are shown the consequences of any action before you commit to it.

If you’re at a point in life where you have frequent long evenings or empty weekends to throw at its mountainous challenges, you will find here an exquisite game whose subtle themes, gradually unfurling mysteries and beautiful samurai-period sights reward the determined and skilled player. Otherwise, Sekiro is a stubbornly locked treasure chest. It’s as if the Lord of the Rings had only been published in Tolkein’s own Elvish, unreadable without long hours of gruelling study.

Shogun 2 is a magnificent looking game with huge play and replay value. In terms of ambition and progression for the series, it arguably takes half a step back, but the huge leap forward in graphics and gameplay more than makes up for it.

Pandora feels more like an actual place than a virtual battleground, thanks to Gearbox's attention to detail in this game...I mean, when was the last time you cared about the name of any gun manufacturer in any shooter you played recently? Listen, I've played the heck out of the COD: MW titles, and I've used a TAR-21 more times than I care to mention, but I couldn't tell you who manufactured it... The gun-makers in Borderlands 2 don't even exist, for goodness sake, and I'm already brand-loyal to one of them.

DMC5 is a lot like Dante himself: older, grizzled, more experienced, yet still unapologetically juvenile in the best possible way. It’s bloody, spectacular and irresistible, all cheesy one-liners, guns, swords and explosions while guitars scream in the background, and it plays like a dream. Director Hideaki Itsuno and his team have delivered: Devil May Cry is back.

Neon White’s chaotic presentation and somewhat puerile script conceals a game of taut design and striking imagination – a delicious test of skills that generously rewards commitment with exhilaration.

Dead Cells is a deliriously good time whatever console you play it on, but the instant-on, play-anywhere nature of Nintendo Switch is a particularly comfortable fit for a game played in short, frenzied, fatal bursts.

This is fascinating, formally daring stuff that, in its two-hour playtime, asks more questions about the nature of memory, simulation and identity than a dozen 100-hour epics.

The skilful combination of game conventions and fresh ideas is the real marriage at the heart of this unusual adventure.

For now, it's the single player campaign – filled with stunning cut-scenes, music and voice acting – that prove the most compelling reasons to play this excellent sequel.

This extraordinary game tests you to the limit – even as it insists that it absolutely does not exist.

While its contemporaries focus on new ways with which to shock and excite on screen, Respawn makes the simple act of playing feel superlative. Its multiplayer is bigger and better, with the necessary depth and momentum to take it beyond these first few months after release, while its short but exciting single-player mode has the craft of some of the best campaigns of the last decade.

In truth, Dark Souls is un-replicable precisely because of its individuality. Yes, many of its best moments have been felt in other games through the years: the joyful surprise of opening an unlikely shortcut, the rush of dopamine at defeating a long-standing boss, the thrill of upgrading a character and evening the odds, the sense of aesthetic wonder at a piece of grand architecture. But no game has combined them in such an alluring and memorable way, or with such adherence to cohesive vision.