Considering it’s half broken and patently unfinished this doesn’t deserve to be called a video game at all, just an unpromising work in progress.

A highly successful remake that fixes the technical and design flaws of the original and turns it into one of the year’s best looking action role-players.

Much like the film, this is more a testament to what worked before than a genuinely new experience, but it makes the best of its voice cast and an obvious love for Star Wars.

A successful conclusion to one of the most underrated storytelling franchises in gaming, even if some of the presentational changes are too ambitious for their own good.

Visually though this is one of the most impressive games of the year, with the subtle animation and sparing use of colour telling you all you need to know about the situation without a word of dialogue. Inside isn’t a fun video game, but it is a clever and intelligent one. And despite how long it’s been since Limbo it’s telling that nobody has managed to perfect that formula as well as Playdead.

A bad idea poorly realised, it’s hard to argue that Kick Off has any place in the modern world and this badly made revival seems to prove it.

It feels more like an indie team’s first prototype than a new entry in a blockbuster franchise, but the truth is there have still been a lot worse Resident Evil games than this.

A crossover between Persona and Fire Emblem proves to be just as peculiar as it sounds, but this is a surprisingly fun mash-up for Japanese role-playing fans.

As an homage to Mega Man this is almost a complete failure, especially given the only successful elements are those that have the least to do with the original games.

The best of the Fire Emblem Fates trilogy and one of the best portable strategy games ever made, with a perfect blend of the best elements of the first two chapters.

A superb mix of action and strategy that should be enough to convince everyone that turn-based doesn’t have to mean slow or serious.

Full of imagination and great ideas, but Kirby seems destined to repeat the same mistakes forever – with zero challenge and aimless, unfocused game design.

Still the best looking fighting game around, and although this isn’t a full sequel its new features and extra fighters still make it a welcome update.

A better game than the original, but it still suffers from many of the same problems – with desperately uninteresting storytelling and combat.

Not quite as good as the previous two maps, with the more serious atmosphere lessening the fun, but still a more than welcome addition to the episodic series.

As good a remaster as Dead Island fans could hope for, since nothing but a complete remake could solve the game’s deep-rooted gameplay and structural issues.

An excellent send-off for Geralt and The Witcher 3, and although the jokes don’t always hit home the stunning visuals and breadth of content do.

One of Platinum’s worst games so far, with dull and repetitive action that doesn’t do the heroes in a half-shell any justice at all.

The Street Fighter of online shooters is an inspired new take on familiar ideas, that proves personality really does go a long way.

A loving tribute to isometric adventures of the Spectrum era, that does just enough to ensure new fans can enjoy it as well.

The best and worst of Fallout in one giant-sized new expansion, with better storytelling than the main game but even worse graphics.

Warhammer’s fantasy elements add colour to Total War’s already impressive framework, with a strategy game that is both deep and tactical but also fun and attractive.

If you want a 2D Dark Souls it’s hard to imagine From Software doing much better than this, even if it has too few original ideas of its own.

Lots of interestingly odd ideas but although the basic stealth action more or less works the escort element and poor AI ruins a potentially promising premise.

The co-op action can be fun, but the rest of the game is just as dull and miserable as life in occupied America is portrayed.

A stunning work of imagination that turns the shallow spectacle of the original into a gorgeous-looking action game with real depth and replayability.

As graceful a marriage of old school action and modern sensibilities as you could probably hope for, despite the so-so multiplayer and repetitive setting.

As bizarre a mix of genres, art style, and subject matter as you could ever hope to see. But it all works together surprisingly well and this remaster is well deserved.

The core gameplay is as excitingly well-crafted as usual but some strange design decisions, and odd omissions, make this an underwhelming sequel.

One of the best graphic adventures of recent years, with an interestingly complex main character and some enjoyable puzzles.

A disappointingly flawed grand strategy game, which for every good idea seems to have another that works actively against it.

It often lacks the accessibility and sense of fun of Birthright, but for Fire Emblem and strategy veterans this is still an excellent entry in the series.

In six months’ time it may well make its mark, but for now Battleborn’s mix of genres suffers from too little content and too much repetition.

An incredible technical achievement but also one of the most cleverly crafted and most cinematic action games ever made.

The best Fire Emblem yet, with more depth of gameplay and options than ever before and yet still perfectly accessible for new players.

An inconsistent but highly enjoyable season of sharp comedy and surprisingly affecting drama, that has plenty to teach more serious dramas.

A fantastically strange and unique first person adventure that manages to make touchscreen controls seem fresh and interesting again.

An excellent second episode, with the larger and more diverse map allowing for some truly inspired hits.

A disappointingly bland top-down shooter, that while entertaining enough with friends lacks the finely tuned splendour of Stardust and Resogun.

A charming and well-made role-playing adventure, but despite how much it might resemble Pokémon it has nothing like the depth of Nintendo’s games.

It spends too much time recreating the genius of Metroid rather than adding to it, but this is still one of the best examples of the genre in recent years.

The best turn-based tactics game since XCOM 2 and a fantastic spy adventure that has an appeal that goes well beyond just strategy fans.

The sort of expertly orchestrated action you’d expect from a team-up between Nintendo and Platinum, but the lack of innovation is a little disappointing.

More a new episode than a full-blown sequel, but the clever blend of strategic, tactical, and moral decision-making is as compelling as ever.

The name and anime aesthetic may seem off-putting, but combined with the original this is some of the most engaging interactive storytelling of recent years.

Later revisions may improve the bugs and lack of variety, but for now this is just another VR tech demo that’s all promise and too little polish. [HTC Vive tested]

Perhaps the most convincing virtual reality space so far, with a compelling mix of story, puzzles, and VR novelty. [HTC Vive tested]

One of the best VR games so far, with a very clever gimmick for getting first person shooters to work with current technology.

An inspired mix of Groundhog Day and Choose Your Own Adventure style decision making, combined with a half-broken action role-player of considerably lesser interest.

An excellent remake, with exceptionally good graphics, that borrows just enough from the later games to keep things interesting for new fans and old.

A great advert for Oculus Rift and VR in general, and yet even with the novelty of zero-G it proves a disappointingly bland gameplay experience. [Oculus Tested]

Acceptable fodder for undemanding children, but wasting such an epic crossover on such a non-event of a game has never seemed more perverse.

A clever mix of well-worn genres, that knows exactly what to take from each in order to create its own entertainingly unique experience.

Beautiful presentation and an intriguing open world environment, but the misjudged difficultly level is just too punishing.

No matter where you place it in your own personal hierarchy this is still an exceptionally well crafted and supremely entertaining video game. Where the series goes from here no one but Miyazaki knows, but if Dark Souls III does nothing else it confirms him as one of modern gaming’s most talented creators.

Nothing about Quantum Break is bad, but it’s a crude mix of very basic and largely incompatible ingredients. Far from being a disaster it just feels undercooked. Not enough to give you salmonella, but certainly enough to make you wish for something more substantial to get your teeth into.

The same linear, patronisingly simplistic time waster it always was, but if you really must have a remaster of Resident Evil 6 this isn’t a bad job.

One of the best driving sims of the new generation, and although it still lacks content in some areas the console versions are just as good as the PC.

One of the best strategy games of all-time is now one of the best bargains on the PS Vita, with this mostly excellent, and extremely unexpected, port.

Not a particularly auspicious start to Fallout 4’s season pass, but the chance to build your own robots is at least more interesting than the new story.

One of the most unique racers of the last decade finally appears on the PlayStation and Xbox, and becomes arguably the best arcade racer on either system.

One of the best point ‘n’ click adventures of all-time still has much to teach modern gaming in terms of puzzle design and engaging characters.

As long as you don’t turn on 3D mode this is almost as good as the original Wii U game, the only problem being the Wii U version wasn’t very good at all.

One of the more ambitious and imaginative roguelikes of the last few years, that mixes the best of FTL, Tower Defense, and XCOM.

As a remaster this is rather shoddy work, but the underlying game is still one of the best homages to Super Metroid from the last generation.

If you want a 2D Dark Souls it’s hard to imagine From Software doing much better than this, even if it has too few original ideas of its own.

A Pokémon fighting game may not seem like the most obvious spin-off idea, but the end result is a surprisingly fun and inventive multiplayer game.

It’s not aged as well as some of CAVE’s other games, but this is still a fun and imaginative 2D shooter that’s perfect for new players.

The original was good enough that a Definitive Edition seems unnecessary, but the small additions and improvements only make this gorgeous platformer even more essential.

Hitman returns to its puzzle-solving roots with an engrossing mix of stealth, violence, and very clever level design.

Repetitive by design, and at heart a fairly pedestrian third person shooter, but the online co-op and promise of never-ending rewards is hard to resist.

A fighting gaming bursting with content, as well as severed body parts, and more of both makes this XL edition particularly good value for money.

The execution isn’t quite as good as the central concept, but this is still a fun celebration of everything that’s great about split-screen gaming.

Tackling such a difficult subject matter is laudable, but as a video game documentary this only really succeeds in terms of its good intentions.

It doesn’t push its ideas as far as it should, but this is a cleverly unique puzzle game that turns normal first person shooters on their head.

It’s certainly not the best entry in the Zelda series, but a good quality remaster and the presence of Midna still makes this one worth returning to.

Not the deepest wilderness survival game around in terms of gameplay, but certainly one of the most atmospheric and thought-provoking.

Another inspired attempt to modernise old school Japanese role-players, while retaining all the charm and depth of early era Final Fantasies.

A surprisingly successful mobile spin-off becomes an equally enjoyable console download, that twists the key elements of Hitman to its own interesting effect.

It feels more like an expansion than a sequel, and misses some easy opportunities to improve on the original, but this is still the best family-friendly shooter outside of Splatoon.

Far Cry Primal is a perfectly entertaining game, but it’s a hard one to get too excited about, especially when it seems as if only a few twists would’ve turned it into something considerably more interesting. As it is though it suffers from needlessly basic storytelling and a general lack of vision. Although it’s no disaster it does feel like a backwards step for Far Cry, and gives no real hint as to what its evolutionary future could or should be.

Don’t let the name or presentation put you off: this is an impressive piece of interactive storytelling that gets more right than most other games with 10 times its budget.

The line-up of characters is the stuff of fanboy dreams, but the gameplay is enough to send you to sleep – if not give you nightmares.

The best entry in the series, but very far from being super – as the excitement of discovery is replaced with the drudgery of repetition.

A superb multiplayer game that takes a very simple premise and crafts from it one of the best competitive arcade games in years.

A remake of a rehash of a disappointing sequel… that only hints at what Earth Defense Force could be if the series would only show some forward momentum.

Some clever visuals and a modern setting can’t stop the third Chronicles game from being the least successful, even if it’s the most ambitious.

We’ll be returning to the game multiple times over the months and years to come. And unless something goes terribly wrong we’re sure that 10/10 will come eventually. But for now you’ll just have to put up with what is merely one of the best new fighting games of the generation.

Just like the original Dying Light, nothing works quite as well as it should and although there are some interesting new ideas here none of them are realised without significant flaws.

One of the best offline co-op games of recent years, with a wonderfully antagonistic premise, that destroys and rebuilds relationships on an almost minute-to-minute basis.

Etrian Odyssey probably didn’t need a second remake, especially with story and characters this unengaging, but the game underneath is still a superior dungeon crawler.

The most bizarre narrative bait and switch in video game history, as a tense, emotional thriller sticks the worst landing since Eddie The Eagle.

An astoundingly beautiful puzzle platformer, that’s a little too frustrating in practice but far from the twee family game some may mistake it for.

Between the gorgeous graphics, solid combat, and multiple game modes this impressive fighter isn’t necessarily just for anime fans.

A boldly inventive 2D shooter that asks a lot of its players but rewards them with one of the most versatile action games of recent months.

A superb sequel that improves on every aspect of the already excellent originals, and offers one of the most absorbing and unpredictable strategy experiences ever seen.

A solid start to Black Ops III’s DLC schedule, with two standout maps and only one actively bad one.

A fun, funny, and wonderfully gory 2D shooter, but it’s not quite as tightly designed as OlliOlli and certainly lacks the same longevity.