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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Sorry We’re Closed will find kinship in fans of the Persona series for its flamboyant character storylines. It’s less successful in trying to emulate survival horror stalwarts such as Silent Hill or Resident Evil. But Michelle’s amusing antics in combining these two strands make A La Mode a studio to watch.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.