The puzzles remain as pleasantly headwrecking as ever, sometimes relying on noticing tiny details, other times requiring meticulous deductions based on trial and error. Few could blame you for sneaking the odd look at a walkthrough that at least points you in the direction of a solution. The developers acknowledge they’ve applied several tweaks to modernise the game. “This is not the same old Riven, but we hope you’re as surprised and intrigued by the new one as we were,” they say. On the evidence of my playthrough, you won’t mind getting stuck in this captivating prison with no hope of release.

The confined nature of the levels can sometimes be problematic when grappling with the wildly bucking ghosts, not least because aiming the vacuum feels a tad awkward. Younger or less experienced players drawn in by the colourful setting and gentle humour may find the battles with bigger baddies rather challenging. But at their heart, Luigi’s escapades serve up a helping of supernatural whimsy that stands up well after more than a decade.

Still Wakes The Deep reminds me of John Carpenter’s equally implausible The Thing, an enjoyable schlock-horror set in the Antarctic. But if you can suspend your disbelief about this rigged rollercoaster, you’ll find layers of depth beneath the surface.

F1 24 takes the most appreciable leaps for the franchise in years but for all that it remains just an incremental upgrade for owners of the 2023 version. If you haven’t kept up to speed lately with Codemasters’ revisions, however, then F1 24 is the new model to get the pulse racing.

It’s the sheer force of the lead actors’ performances that will lead you through a somewhat laboured tale of a hero whose mental strife overshadows the challenge of her adversaries.

The by-the-numbers gameplay is not what you will remember most about Indika – even though the frustration of some insta-fail platforming sections does take a while to fade from the memory. Instead, what lingers is the communion of uncomfortable conversations, harrowing figments and darkly comic asides as a nun wrestles with the big questions of life and doesn’t like the answers.

Wizardry lacks the historical extras that made the Atari and Minter exhumations so fascinating, its bare-bones presentation exposing a game very much of its time that has long been surpassed.

Thousand-Year Door folds in more depth than Super Mario RPG, that is certain. The gameplay deals with additional layers – bits of Pikmin, bits of Metroidvania, for instance – and there’s an attempt to add value with extras such as concept art. Its offbeat comedy also carries an edgy vibe that strains at the Nintendo leash. This Paper Mario may be thinly spread but hidden dimensions give it space to become its own thing.

As rough around the edges as it is – the lack of impact from the weapons, the endless hunt for keycards and the right locked door – System Shock still adds up to more than the sum of its parts. It’s a game that sows confusion and fear in a way we rarely experience now, while reminding us the AI apocalypse might be closer than we suspect.

Simogo showcases its characteristic ability to wrap compellingly novel gameplay in a distinctive visual aesthetic, all the while telling a captivating story.

Luminous doesn’t lend itself to long sessions of scuba adventures – it just doesn’t have the depth for that. But as an antidote to the pressurised atmosphere of modern life, it acts like a cleansing bath.

You will want to keep playing just for the sheer pleasure of the sharp dialogue – by turns sarcastic and poignant but at its heart drolly funny. Less successful is the musical aspect that notionally underpins the whole expedition – the tunes at your gigs are pleasant enough but the mini-games that accompany them quickly become tedious. Reigns: Beyond shows the formula might be running out of legs. But priced at under a fiver it offers plenty of laughs even though it’s more of a game that plays you than you play.

The less said about its unconvincing voice-acting the better and the plot holds few surprises. But even those foibles can be overlooked when Stellar Blade gets its hooks in and you glance at the clock only to realise it’s 3am. Damn you, you adorable mongrel.

My initial impression was that this periodic monotony was intended to function as a meta-commentary on your job as a dogsbody. But my overriding feeling might just be classed as boredom. You get the sense that a more tightly wound plot with expanded gameplay to hook the player could have turned the Halibut’s tale into a story that could really reel you in.

That’s not to say this 2024 do-over is unworthy of one playthrough, especially now a month after release that many bugs have been ironed out. It has entertaining moments of visual splendour jostling against creeping dread but ultimately is a glimpse of unfulfilled potential.

You won’t enjoy the sometimes risible dialogue, nor the punishing and at times unfair randomness that can punctuate your trekking, leaving you a long way from safety without companions. In the end, though, it is that tension between chaos and cruelty that makes the game frequently compelling.

Peach’s adventure may not possess the sheer wit and flair on show in Nintendo’s most recent tour de force, Super Mario Bros Wonder, but it acts as a long-overdue promotion for a promising heroine.

Anyone who spends a few hours digitally in Minter’s company couldn’t fail to warm to this talented eccentric and his prodigious body of work. You might not play most of the 43 games here more than once but a handful will pull you back in time after time, if only to marvel at the mad mind of Minter.

Probably the harshest judgment you could hurl at Operation Galuga is its lack of true reinvention. Maybe it was never on the agenda – and Rogue Corps showed deviation from the template could be disastrous. But despite a graphical makeover and some light tinkering, squint and you might well be playing one of the many Contra versions from the 80s and 90s.

You may remember Sony’s last samurai-set game, Ghost of Tsushima in 2020. The similarities are legion – both are built on the same open-world template. The US-made Tsushima triumphs on a technical level thanks to sumptuous visuals and Hollywood-like polish. Rise of the Ronin looks at times like something out of the late PS3/early PS4 era, a bit glitchy and twitchy. Yet its intense swordplay and native authenticity imbue it with an absorbing playability that’s hard to ignore.

The scientific tasks at your destination really aren’t that interesting. Instead, the heart of the game lies in the methodical, even calming pursuit of a distant waypoint. There’s a soothing peace here out in the beautiful wilderness, even amid the roar of the engine, the shrill whine of the gears and the soft cursing as you get bogged down in yet another puddle of ooze.

With most remakes or remasters, the result is only ever going to be as strong as its foundations. With such an exquisite Fares blueprint to work from, the remade Brothers can’t help but carry on that great family tradition.

Much as Sea of Thieves took a while to hoist its masts to full sail, Skull and Bones may eventually vindicate itself. Ubisoft would do well to slough away some of the cruft, zero in on the naval warfare and inject more life into its scenic but largely empty outposts.

Not everyone will warm to Akka Arrh’s ascending difficulty level but at a mere €20 for the mind melt of this PSVR2 version, it’s cheaper than hallucinogenic drugs and probably less risky too.

The heart of Ghosts of New Eden springs from the tender relationship between Antea and Red, the pain of their separation and the desperation of their situation – achingly conveyed by the two voice actors, Amaka Okafor and Russ Bain. It is this coupling that holds Banishers together, amplifying the difficult decisions the plot forces you to take.

Mario vs Donkey Kong 2024 has a time-worn charm polished by Nintendo’s acute attention to detail and its mid-price probably earns it a review star more than it deserves. Juxtaposed with the furious invention of recent full-priced stablemates such as Super Mario Bros Wonder or Kirby’s Forgotten Land, it’s a bit of a relic.

As a multiplayer co-op game, it fares marginally better but it’s hard to shake the sense that you’re witnessing a lot of sound and fury that signifies little. With a handful of notable exceptions, the mission quests blur into one another with their bullet-sponge enemies and dearth of game-changing upgrades in the skill trees...This hollowness at the core marks Suicide Squad down as a missed opportunity given Rocksteady’s pedigree and the vibrant personality on show in the down time between the lack-lustre shootouts.

It captures the futility of war in its endless cycles and the overwhelming feeling that you won’t be able to save everyone who crosses your operating table.

The heart of Bahnsen Knights, is therefore the conversational back and forth, elevated by sharp exchanges crafted by the team behind related pulpy visual novels Mothmen 1966 and Varney Lake. The allegorical plot may not take us very far but the flavoursome characterisation of this freakish group justifies the price of admission, which on most platforms is less than a tenner.

The overall standard remains high throughout and Capcom is to be applauded for its treatment of these remasters. Visually, they’ve been considerably groomed compared to their originals on DS and 3DS. Ultra-fans will be also amused by the art gallery, soundtrack compilation and meme-maker, plus the ability to jump into any episode of any case at will.

Everyone’s a bit anxious, the pacing is all over the place and humour is in rare supply. Buffy, this ain’t.

Once you temper your expectations – it looks more like a last-generation title than the hard realism of Half-Life: Alyx – Vertigo 2 packs enough thrills to justify its mid-range price tag.

Electrician Simulator turns on the part of the lizard brain devoted to making pleasurable connections but some of its design decisions have been badly wired and it feels a little too unplugged from reality.

The Last of Us Part II is a landmark videogame despite its troubling attitude to violence. It constructs a nihilist vision that weaves a compelling story while offering little redemptive hope for the human race. It gets under your skin, not always in a good way, and cannot be forgotten...The remaster changes none of that and therefore, in its own way, is inessential.