UFO 50 should be admired for its tenacious commitment to its mission - creating a fake machine from the 1990s and populating it with a diverse and authentic compilation of very real and mostly entertaining games.

Each descent into the pit begins with an almost pathetic damage output but as you gradually gather a chaotic constellation of powers, the screen begins to resemble a pinball table on overdrive, an intoxicating display of destruction orchestrated by you. It’s anything but a straight shooter, it’s a memorably sideways take on a classic.

It feels as if Nintendo has a way to go to crystallise the open world into something beyond a random meander. Despite this reservation, Mario Kart World elegantly nails Nintendo’s goal of showcasing the Switch 2’s horsepower while shifting the series into a new gear to surprise and thrill a legion of fans.

There’s a very understandable reason why Black Ops 6 has performed noticeably better at the tills compared to last year’s poorly received Modern Warfare 3 – it’s actually a damn fine game, the best in years.

If you’re looking for faults, the games’ roots in the motion-control era leads to some frustrating moments related to the role of the on-screen cursor. You might also carp that SMG1 in particular doesn’t always make it clear when the conventional rules of gravity apply, sometimes sending Mario tumbling to his doom. Nonetheless, these count as minor quibbles set against the sheer exuberance and star quality of Super Mario 1 + 2.

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.

Donkey Kong Bananza might be considered too easy for most players – even the boss battles barely raise a sweat – and overall doesn’t occupy the same rarified air as Super Mario Odyssey. Yet the bulldozing ape ably showcases the power of Switch 2 and earns a place alongside Mario Kart World as an essential purchase for owners of the new console.

The narrative may not be as convincing as that of Returnal but Saros one-ups its predecessor in almost every facet. It’s a seat-of-the-pants thrill ride that escalates the spectacle with every chapter and will haunt your dreams with walls of coloured missiles.

Marathon would be remarkable as it stands for its enigmatic storytelling but Bungie’s love of riddles elevates the end-game to new heights. The Cryo Archive has only just unlocked in the last week or so and already players have been delighted and frustrated in equal measure by its secrets. Some who encounter it won’t like the randomised nature of its components and others will just wonder why they can’t just shoot stuff to win. Yet veterans of Destiny’s great raids will fall hard for it. Marathon works hard to rebuff your advances and could do with playing less hard to get. But for the player who’s seduced, this could be your next great love affair.

The two leads make for charismatic avatars, differing wildly in their combat styles and thus lessening the possibility the player will tire of the formula that underpins the gameplay for long periods. We have not been short of sumptuous hack’n’slash blockbusters set in Japan’s beautiful countryside – from 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima to last year’s Rise of the Ronin. But Shadows somehow edges them in its synthesis of ancient Japanese culture. For sheer spectacle alone, it rarely flags, treating the player to an endless stream of exquisite tableaux, from majestic castles to bustling towns to imposing mountains and forest.

If you’re a Switch 2 owner who somehow spurned this previously, this reissue with extra DLC is unmissable. For existing fans who may have played the original to death, it’s much less essential.

TR-49 is another link in the chain of Inkle’s success, elegantly encoding narrative inside a puzzle game. There’s a ghost in this machine and we can’t be sure whether it’s offering a lesson from the past or a prophecy for the future.

Think of this as an homage to audacious action cinema – from the likes of Hong Kong director John Woo – but remember you are no passive observer. You will need to practise, practise, practise. Kill or be killed. Repeat to fade. Yet forever irresistible.

Blendo seeds its fiction with mischievous humour, from the lamebrained actions of the space invaders to the catty mewing of the trapped animals. But it’s the slapstick comedy of the confrontations with the pirates in Skin Deep that draws the biggest laughs.

Kojima hasn’t lost his predilection for pretentiousness nor the preposterous but in Death Stranding 2 he’s created a powerful piece of entertainment propelled by the sheer force of his personality. There’s probably no one else in gaming who could have got this made – layering the human need for connection with grand sci-fi themes and a satisfying gameplay loop. We should all be grateful for the 61-year-old’s unique talent.

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

You will curse Blue Prince many times in your early runs for its capriciousness – before permanently unlockable items and acquired acumen begin to ease your route to the finish line. Persist and you will appreciate the interlocking brilliance of Ros’s creation. Resist and you will be pointlessly pounding your head against the wall of a dead end.

They say love means nothing to a tennis player but it’s so easy to lose your heart to this spirited slice of sport.

It comes as little surprise that Thank Goodness You’re Here emanates from the same publisher as Australia’s epically silly Untitled Goose Game. If you surrender to Coal Supper’s similarly surreal whimsy, you will also have a honking good time.

Pro Skater 3+4 has been lovingly restored by Iron Galaxy, a different developer than the Pro Skater 1+2 remake (which was handled by Vicarious Visions) – and not the same people who made the 2000s games either. But somehow they’ve captured the feeling and nuance of those heady originals where it was as much fun laughing your head off at an audacious failure as it was pulling off a breathless sequence and landing on your feet.

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.

It comes within touching distance of true greats such as Super Mario Odyssey thanks to nuanced controls and visual creativity, though perhaps Nintendo’s work retains the edge.

This 20th-anniversary edition of Beyond Good & Evil dodges that trap by being genuinely entertaining, playable and polished over its relatively short running time. Maybe it’s the banter between Jade and Pey’j, perhaps it’s the restless diversity of its levels, or could it be just that Ancel packed his designs with myriad lovely touches.

The DLC mode doesn’t change Forgotten Land fundamentally despite a handful of new big-mouth abilities such as a supercharged jump. However, a punishing boss rush awaits at the end of the new levels, one that will probably confuse and confound players accustomed to the gentle challenge in the rest of the game. That sting in the tail aside, this reworked package of Kirby’s mouthiest moments will satisfy every fan’s appetite.

Mizuguchi has a fine pedigree in fusing music, visuals and gameplay, his Tetris Effect rebooting the seminal block puzzler in 2018 via sensory override. Lumines Arise runs a similarly psychedelic nightclub, playing different instruments but achieving the same out-of-body fever dream.

Hotel Infinity may be too purist in its pursuit of abstract puzzles – would a few hints of human presence been too hard? – and the intellectual challenge errs on the side of facile. But this is one stay that will lodge in your mind long after you check out.

Even if replaying scenes in a different way exposes the reality that you rarely have significant influence, Dispatch sends you away with a smile on your face and a hankering for more from Adhoc.

Despite its few knots, South of Midnight hangs tightly together, tying up its threads deftly while spinning an enthralling yarn. Just don’t mention the S-word.

Nomada keeps its game tightly focused, leading to a running time of about four hours. But the melancholic exploration of the intertwined emotions of parenthood, death and nature will stay with you for a lot longer.

For my money, it’s the joyful purity of Adventure mode that will win you round – pitting you and your reflexes against craftily designed game worlds with just two thumbsticks for control.

Split Fiction has an infectious, humorous energy that rarely flags. Even if the gameplay ingredients feel like a greatest-hits compendium, the enforced co-operation brews them into a heady cocktail of entertainment.

Perhaps The Great Circle never again quite hits that fabulous high bar of the Vatican locations but as the enthralling remaining hours roll on, you never regret the time spent in Indy’s company – or, more accurately, being Indy.

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.

The Lost Crown is a true delight, a throwback for sure but a very moreish one that brings back memories while igniting new synapses too.

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.

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.

Wilds is a tasty meal but made with a few insipid ingredients that water down its flavour.

Crow Country deftly balances a comically grotesque story with some rudimentary combat and brainteasers of variable difficulty. It’s an ironic throwback to the days when games had to dial down the realism because of technological limitations. Your imagination does the rest and you’ll never trust a crow in the real world again.

At just €20, it justifies its existence as a showcase for the Switch 2’s versatility and as a succinct slice of fun in its own right.

It resembles nothing else out there right now and we should be grateful Capcom was prepared to give a small team its head in creating such an esoteric concept. It echoes the look of classic Japanese titles of the PS2 era such as Onimusha and Okami – but feels like totally its own thing, for good and for ill.

Even if the gameplay is mechanically uncomplicated, there’s no shortage in Reanimal of visual allure, albeit of the kind that makes you wince or at least provokes a morbid chuckle. ‘Did I really just see that?’, you think more than once.

The developers build an evocative monastic backdrop using painterly visuals and a cast of eccentric characters, overlaid with stealth mechanics and puzzle solving. Nonetheless, some glitchy animations and wonky interface design hint at a limited budget for playtesting. The Stone of Madness may not have the panache and depth of say, Shadow Gambit, but it’s an unorthodox prison sentence worth serving.

Grasshopper makes games like no other, a superpower in which the sheer creative force outweighs the sometimes-juvenile side-effects. Romeo is a Dead Man may not always be coherent and is often not pretty but it nonetheless possesses something compelling – as if you can’t look away.

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.

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.

For the first time in years, some peculiar animation glitches reared their heads – don’t think we’re supposed to see inside players’ heads during match build-up, nor the occasional melding of limbs in goalmouth clashes. But that foible and some clunky menus aside, FC 25 puts on an impressive performance, albeit one that could be considered level on points with FC 24. What a shame that the game no longer has any credible competitors to keep EA on its toes.

As collectively compelling as this soul-cleansing experience is, Cairn over-emphasises resource management to the point of busy-work. You’re constantly fiddling with items to sate Aava’s hunger, bandaging her bloodied hands, and even rearranging her rucksack like a round of Tetris. This hardcore mindset no doubt speaks to the arduousness of shimmying thousands of metres up a vertical surface. But to me it detracts a little from savouring Aava’s pilgrimage. Despite this rocky footing, Cairn reaches for the sky with a tale of stubborn bravery that at times will leave you breathless.

Aeternum still manages to captivate after many hours of gameplay, nonetheless, and it’s encouraging for the future of the game that Amazon has stayed loyal to the project for so long already.

Remagined mostly offers a rollicking good time that’s rarely too demanding as an RPG, asking only that you contain your cynicism about its typecast troupe of Irish and other nationalities.

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.

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.

Séance at Blake Manor still manages to be an enthralling piece of theatre, artfully presented and brimming with macabre melodrama.

Austrian-based developer Microbird Games has created something distinctive and compelling with its debut effort – a depiction of their native Alps where the inside of the mountains are more interesting that the peaks outside we regularly admire.

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.

Keeper succeeds more as a delightful voyage into the weird than as a conventional videogame with challenges, goals and quests.

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 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.

Zero perhaps repeats its formula a little too often and stretches the storyline beyond its merit. For lovers of JRPGs, however, this prequel/sequel/whatever will do a number on you if you give it time.

Some players found Baldur’s Gate 3 intimidating in terms of its flexibility and so Veilguard will be more comforting to many in its tendency towards an on-rails experience. The sumptuous art direction and thrilling combat go a long way to hiding the reality in Veilguard that your influence and choices in the world are often quite limited.

Arco’s creators are a small but disparate bunch encompassing Poland, Australia, Mexico and Spain. This compact team is reflected in its concise design, with most missions and side-quests lasting just a few minutes or less. But they have designed a game with a big heart and a lingering place in the player’s memory.

Old Skies may not be as pioneering as Wadjet Eye’s revered 2018 adventure Unavowed (which still comes highly recommended). Secondly, the tension of any high-stakes scenes also suffers because repetitive trial and error functions as a viable if hardly inspired tactic when the logic of a solution doesn’t stand out. But by teasing out Fia’s emotional muddle amid the intricate cause and effect of time travel, it finds its own place in the history of cerebral puzzle games.

Rosa’s adventure can’t quite match that same sublime synthesis of virtual reality with relentless momentum. But there’s enough imagination on show here to keep a firm grip on your attention.

Arranger entertains the player because of its restrictions, not in spite of them. The resolution to Jemma’s every conundrum rarely lies more than a few sliding moves away, as unimaginable as that sometimes seems. But it insists you think not just outside the box, but around the corner and into the spaces beyond the edge of the screen.

The modest size of the team at Raccoon Logic becomes apparent sometimes – the awkward physics and occasionally funky enemy behaviour can hamper the gameplay mechanics. But this a goofy little treasure, a passion project for a small team bruised by their encounter with a corporate gorilla. They’re still here and Stadia is long gone. Who’s the monkey now?

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.

In quieter moments, you will notice the game consists of one escape room after another linked loosely by story strands. It’s also frustrating to find many objects in each space are just inanimate props, incapable of being picked up, never mind flung hither and thither. Nonetheless, Fireproof has tied its puzzles together with an engagingly barmy plot and integrated a comprehensive hint system that’s as subtle as you need it to be to keep the story moving. Ghost Town’s Irishness is almost incidental to the game but the actors’ strong voice performances contribute heartily to the authenticity of this absorbing drama.

Even if the revelations are few and far between here, Tetris Forever always has the game to fall back on – you’re never more than a couple of button presses away from losing hours to another pleasurable round of shape-shifting shenanigans.

The core of Ivalice Chronicles holds up well despite its origins being almost three decades old. The protracted conversations in which the player is merely a listener will not be to everyone’s taste but they contain enough hooks to carry you to the next taxing battle.

If you’re to judge Nioh 3 by its obvious inspiration, Team Ninja comes up a little short here. Its open world and impenetrable lore lack the invention and sheer charisma of the peerless Elden Ring. That said, the two-in-one personality gives such a distinctive flavour to the combat that some hardened From Software fans might be forced to re-consider their loyalties.

Hell is Us may not have been made with a substantial budget but by choosing a path less travelled with its unusual design, it feels more rewarding to a jaded player sick of being led by the nose in many in a blockbuster rival.

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.

High on Life 2 falls between too many stools to be worthy of a seat at the top table. Its humour will be divisive, sure, but provides plenty of laughs. The gameplay never quite clicks despite propelling you through the story at a fair clip. But its wonkiest pillar is the technical instability of its world, which is rife with glitches that swallow characters into walls, overlap dialogue or, unforgivably, make completing a quest impossible.

Expelled! puts an interesting twist on the format of a visual novel with some crackling dialogue and a cast of engaging frenemies. The key is to pinpoint their weakness and manipulate them to your own ends. However, the repetitive nature of the day means that you often feel forced into trial and error to unpick the solution, with logic sometimes taking a back seat and deja-vu discouraging you from saving Verity from herself.

Jamboree TV lacks a bit of coherence in the overall Mario Party experience but it serves the Switch 2 well in serving up family-friendly options that show off the new machine. Don’t forget that Switch 2’s unique GameShare function lets you connect another Switch 2 or the older Switch console so that up to four players can compete – but requires only one copy of the game.

None of these game design decisions are particularly revolutionary, of course, and there is a slight sensation of sequel ennui about Outer Worlds 2. But Obsidian has assembled a deliciously moreish RPG in which the perks and skills trees just beg to be exploited for crazy combinations.

None of these criticisms should dissuade potential buyers, for Echoes is filled with the usual Zelda-series charm, humour and adventure, while the copy-and-paste mechanic introduces some smart and mischievous puzzles.

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.

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 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.

The worst offender among your soldier pals is an overly chatty sidekick who regularly prods you over the radio to re-explore old areas. Part of Metroid’s appeal has always lain in getting lost in its creepy caverns but Retro clearly wants no newcomer to be in doubt for long about where to go next. Despite all that, Beyond emerges from development purgatory in better shape than could be expected. Some of its innovations may not gel with the core Metroid principle of a lone woman versus a planet of hostiles. Yet the classic design ensures the Samus suit never goes out of fashion.

Tempopo won’t have the same impact for adults as Unpacking but it’s a fun diversion brimming with cheer and pitched at a very reasonable €20.

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.

It's not that Resistance is impossible to resist but this war machine has been finely honed over several instalments and offers a thrilling if predictable ride.

Despite the remastering, which improves the presentation and eliminates some bugginess in the original, there’s no mistaking The Devil’s Playhouse for a modern game. But its wit and sheer absurdity mark it down as a mischievous series well worth investigating.

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.

You’d never mistake Age of Imprisonment’s gameplay for the mechanical ingenuity contained in Tears of the Kingdom. But this Zelda adventure jailbreaks itself from the constricting conventions of its musou prison.

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.

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.

It’s tricky to disconnect the expectations of the modern gamer from an RPG that was unconventionally innovative back in 2006. Yet Oblivion can still put on an admirable show two decades on and will please many players for whom nostalgia is not the primary motivation.

The Alters artfully balances the time pressures of Dolski’s physical tasks with the emotional toll of managing the clones, a responsibility made all the heavier given that you’re trying to rescue not just yourself but all your selves. Maybe living one life might easier after all…

By right, this shlocky 30-year-old franchise should be a shambling wreck, given gaming’s speed of reinvention and its tendency to eat itself. But like the T-virus that never dies, somehow Requiem keeps Resident Evil alive, its cells absorbing the old body and rejuvenating it into something just as terrifying.

Like many polished big-budget games made to a formula, Ghost of Yokei is missing just a little bit of soul.

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.

Unlike Eternal, Dark Ages keeps your feet planted on the ground, forgoing complex platforming amid level design that is chiefly of single-storey construction. That’s not to say there isn’t a vastness and scale at play but it’s apparent mostly in the disappointing sequences where the Slayer takes control of a giant robot and a metal dragon at various points. Sadly, Id fails to do anything interesting with these avatars, a curious development that counts as the game’s key failing. The campaign may also be stretched to flabbiness by its 22 levels as compensation for the absence of multiplayer. But that visceral combat still drives Dark Ages to riveting effect, its one-two punch of shield plus guns teasing players to master Doom anew.

Eternal Strands offers minimal handholding and opens a vast world to explore, so you’re often left fumbling around in empty spaces to discover the path to your next quest. But even this padding just leaves you yearning for the next exhilarating encounter you know will be around the corner.

Though a little rough and ready round the edges, Atomfall’s nuclear fiction is an interesting fusion of ideas, albeit one that isn’t going to blow you away.

Herdling succeeds on the level of a wistful voyage, the idea that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive. Yet its gameplay elements are undermined by the awkward controls of the herd, who turn uncooperative at odd moments. Puzzles provide scant challenge compared to the Far games, and stealth sequences involving a giant angry owl outstay their welcome. This shepherding lark is not quite the dream job it first looks.

If Fitness Boxing 3 gets you moving even a little bit more than usual, perhaps that’s job done. But you might just as well look up a few boxercise videos on YouTube and save your money for a new pair of trainers.