A fiercely original take on traditional computer role-playing games that often seems unrefined and self-indulgent but is still a welcome shake-up of genre norms.

One of the most successfully depressing survival games ever made, and a fascinating portrayal of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances.

It's got its share of flaws but this is another absorbingly original puzzler for WiiWare.

This punch-pulling retro update is charming and beautiful but doesn't quite have the mind to match.

The longest-running game you've never heard of gets a typically competent but characterless makeover.

An extremely solid tag team fighting game that’s bound to become even more impressive over time, assuming it can sort out its launch performance problems.

A poor man’s version of Arkham City, although that still leaves a fairly rich gameplay experience – even if it is the franchise equivalent of treading water.

We still have a problem in the game not evolving past its initial set of ideas, and resting on its laurels long before it gets to the end of its short running time, but this is definitely the most we’ve ever enjoyed it. It’s also another game where Oculus Quest’s superior controls and roomscale tracking makes all the difference.

Dating sims and giant robots really do mix in this compelling cocktail of Japanese obsessions.

The offspring of Zelda and God Of War can't hold a candle to its parents but it's good fun nonetheless.

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

It's still not the game that will make giant robot sims mainstream, but it does have some innovative ideas in terms of both combat and online play.

The world's most realistic puppy and kitten owning simulator – with all that implies for potential owners.

The combat might never feel as clever as the visuals and narration but this is still an engrossing and distinctive action role-player.

Warm and witty, this four or so hours of charming adventure will leave you very much looking forward to the next episode. It’s not what you’d expect as a follow-up from Threes creator Asher Vollmer (and others) but it’s good all the same.

As blatant a clone as has ever been seen, but although it does nothing better than Dark Souls it does do some things almost as well – and is certainly more accessible.

Fans may feel a little short-changed but this still features some of Rock Band's most effective moments.

It's barely any different from its predecessor but it's still the best skiing sim on any console.

The world's most realistic puppy and kitten owning simulator – with all that implies for potential owners.

A highly original, dark gothic thriller whose lack of compromises will restrict its audience but are hard not to admire.

The similarities to Inside are unfortunate, but this is still a gripping and inventive action puzzler with a grim, if unsubtle, message about authoritarianism.

The world's most realistic puppy and kitten owning simulator – with all that implies for potential owners.

An inspired XCOM clone, whose spy movie atmosphere inspires an emphasis on stealth rather than action – which is a good job given the somewhat flawed combat.

An accomplished attempt to create a mix of Dark Souls and traditional Metroidvania, but its bizarre visual style ultimately overshadows its other virtues.

Some of the finest simulated driving you can find on PC and console, but with a single-player career mode that’s not as fully fleshed out as you’d expect for the money.

Another gorgeous looking first party PS5 game, with some fun and imaginative platforming, but even with four players at once it lacks that certain spark that would’ve made it a true launch essential.

It’s completely free, with no ads or in-app purchases, and is clearly a labour of love for the small team at Stay Inside Games. If you like turn-based tactics and have a phone, you may as well.

An alternative to Fallout rather than a homage, with a more freeform approach to open world gaming that offers more meaningful freedom than many other bigger budget titles.

Because this is free to download everything comes with a countdown timer, which in time-honoured tradition starts off instantaneous and soon has you waiting multiple hours for processes to complete. It’s also very buggy, frequently crashing to the home screen, although rarely losing too much progress.

There are only a few minor improvements over the Wii version, but this is still a classy remake with some of the best split screen action on consoles.

A well constructed tennis game that takes practise to get the hang of, with neat role-playing style player upgrades and a season-based structure that helps prevent monotony.

It probably helps to have a bit of familiarity with the material, but even coming to it cold, if you’re in the mood for some deeply peculiar adventuring, this is completely free with no in-app purchases of any kind.

Stripped of its exploitative microtransactions, Pocket Camp returns as a paid-for app, bringing a superior, if abridged, Animal Crossing experience to mobile.

Some of the most difficult decision-making in gaming, both tactically and morally, but occasional rough edges betray the game’s small budget and short development time.

Not just a tech demo, but a cleverly designed time waster that creates an absorbing challenge out of its apparently limited mechanics.

Maps are varied, although all use the classic battle royale technique of gradually forcing you nearer to the centre, and while Squad Busters can feel simplistic, Supercell games are designed to be played for years, and we did find ourselves regularly going back for more of its cluttered, power-up fuelled mayhem.

Despite many rough edges and a fumbled narrative few shooters feel as tense and unpredictable as this.

As you upgrade you’ll face tougher monsters, your backpedalling crowd control getting steadily more bloody as foes arrive thicker and faster, and you unlock more of the game’s vast arsenal of weapons and armour. You’ll need to grind its paltry selection of side missions to keep up with the rigours of story mode, but it’s a rewarding progression even if the action soon starts to feel repetitive.

Just a mishmash of cliches with enemies that could have walked in from any other shooter and a plot that simply joins the dots from one contrived set piece to another...You've not only seen it all before you've seen it a dozen times before.

The most original and enjoyable online shooter of the generation, but the lack of content at launch means it may be months before it reaches its true potential.

The newly vertiginous sandbox levels prove an excellent canvas for sneaking and stealing, in a welcome new entry in what feels increasingly like the spiritual successor to Thief: The Dark Project.

There’s a new, less punishing, three-round battle system, but this is mostly business as usual with lots of deep pits, damp caverns, mysterious alcoves, and a short-lived partnership with Throm the barbarian. It’s a pleasantly relaxing game to play, your frequent deaths only ever sending you back to the previous narrative branch, with Eddie Marsan amiably suppling details of your demise.

Charming, clever and attractive; Botanicula is the perfect antidote to angst-ridden gaming and a fine graphic adventure in its own right.

Hardly a game that was in desperate need of a makeover, but the original is still a solid action adventure and Kratos’ story is given at least an element of closure.

One of the best looking WiiWare games is also one of the most accessible real-time strategies ever.

A brief new slice of Monument Valley’s unique and minimally drawn perspective-bending puzzles, with the promise of more to come.

A fascinating premise that is used not only to create a set of mind-bending puzzles but to ruminate on the nature of reality. It’s just a shame about the controls and the short running time.

There’s no attempt at pretence: this is a Monster Hunter clone through and through, but such a good one it actually does some things better than its inspiration.

Mysterious, whimsical and intriguing, this is one to take your time over.

It’s great fun, the refined and challenging shooting mechanics and enormous assortment of gun configurations proving highly entertaining.

A highly competent alternative to Civilization but the list of unequivocal improvements is disappointingly short, with an unfortunate lack of real innovation.

A few flaws short of a modern platforming classic, but although Tembo isn’t perfect he is exactly as badass as promised.

A mere remaster can’t hide all the foibles of a 20-year-old game, but this is a well-crafted tribute to a classic PlayStation 2 era game, that has long deserved a proper sequel.

A fun mix of PS1 era horror nostalgia and Life Is Strange style emotional drama, that goes a little too light on the scares but is still a compelling mix of influences.

An excellent reboot of an unfairly forgotten fighter, but the way it’s being sold does it no favours and severally restricts the fun to be had online.

Not just an Olympics tie-in but a proper sports game, with the majority of events finding a good balance between realism and enjoyment.

Simplistic to a fault but still one of the most addictive, and fairly original, puzzlers of the year.

It’s a joyous affair, even if aiming can prove a bit frustrating, especially as the farmhand, with his limited water reservoir and three naughty porkers to keep track of.

The scuba diving sim isn't a crowded genre but this makes a good effort to dominate it all the same.

There’s a lot of text to read, from newspaper articles to the majority of dialogue being unvoiced, but its great looking setting and unusual detection gameplay loop make this every bit as engaging as it was on PC and consoles, and just as prone to getting you stuck if you don’t spot the small detail you’re supposed to.

A frustrating mix of survival game and roguelike, that has absolutely no respect for your time and yet still hides an enthralling and rewarding action adventure within its murky depths.

Compared to the classic 2D Super Mario games this is disappointingly anodyne, but it’s still competently made platform fun that can be enjoyed by everyone.

An enjoyable twist on the usual city building formula, that simulates the dangers of planetary colonisation impressively well – although it could have done with a slightly lighter touch.

Not so much a sequel to Dungeon Keeper 2 as an unofficial remake, and while a little magic has been lost along the way this is still a charmingly unique strategy game.

The best and worst of BioWare's excesses combine in this competent but unprogressive RPG.

Unfortunately, its reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, and even on the latest iPhone it suffers from frame rate stutters when the action gets busy. Its unremittingly generic sci-fi characters and setting also conspire against it.

More accessible and finally sporting an online mode, but the clumsy combat still limits the hunt's appeal.

That Torment: Tides Of Numenera is still a thoroughly engrossing experience despite its issues speaks volumes, and we’ve no hesitation in describing it as a worthy sequel to the original. But even so, this does not seem the best vehicle for its story or gameplay ideas. And it’s ironic that a game set so far in the future is relying on technology and concepts that are clearly decades out of date.

The balloon popping sub-game isn’t up to much, but the rest of Ultrawings is a dream come true for fans of Nintendo’s charming slice of amateur aviation.

A small but worthwhile expansion for one of the year’s best games, that provides a welcome hint of more difficulties to come.

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.

It’s weirdly hard to concentrate on what the text is actually saying, rather than simply spotting which sentence fragments go where, so it’s not much of a reading experience, although it is a gentle and long term challenge that turns out to be pleasantly relaxing without a timer.

A surprisingly successful reinvention of the Worms formula that turns the more slow-paced originals into an engagingly silly multiplayer free-for-all.

That Torment: Tides Of Numenera is still a thoroughly engrossing experience despite its issues speaks volumes, and we’ve no hesitation in describing it as a worthy sequel to the original. But even so, this does not seem the best vehicle for its story or gameplay ideas. And it’s ironic that a game set so far in the future is relying on technology and concepts that are clearly decades out of date.

While it shares some of its playful approach to perspective with Gorogoa, this is no puzzle game and involves no player choice, but it does have a pleasing emotional resonance, even if the relentless melancholy eventually makes you want to go back to Poinpy.

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.

As deep and as beautiful as its legacy demands, but this portable fighter is lacking in solo appeal.

A little rough around the edges, especially in terms of the storytelling, but the interminable wait for this open world zombie sequel has been worth it.

The same old Ratchet & Clank as always: unsettled, fractured, gorgeous and varied to a fault.

A surprisingly deep and absorbing cyberpunk stealth-action role-player that transcends its low-tech visuals and basic presentation.

It’s not much more than an HD update, but if you and your friends have the perseverance this is one of gaming’s most uniquely challenging co-op experiences.

A notable improvement on last year’s game and while it still has a way to go before it reaches its full potential, this is a fun and relatively realistic evocation of running a Formula One team.

A very welcome double pack featuring two of the series’ most notable entries, but which inexplicably ruins the meme-inspiring intro of Symphony Of The Night.

LittleBigPlanet is once again its own worst enemy, as it fails to make the best use of its own fun new characters. Although the creation tools are the most accessible they’ve ever been.

Free-to-player Fire Emblem is pretty much exactly what you’d expect, but it’s an entertaining introduction to the real thing.

A lovingly crafted retro homage, made with skill and obvious affection for the source material – but there’s very little attempt at innovation and little to interest non-fans playing on their own.

Another disappointing port of one of the Wii’s best games, although still a clever and entertaining mix of Pikmin and The Settlers.

Pure fan service in every sense, which ensures an enjoyably nostalgic adventure but also means a number of flaws that wouldn’t be tolerated in other circumstances.

A relatively competent remaster collection but the games are so old now that, without a full remake, newcomers will struggle to understand how they became so beloved.

Qix is great but this does almost nothing to improve it or make it more palatable for modern audiences.

The charmingly dark and brooding graphic style works nicely with the fizzing electromagnetism of each level, but it’s undone by the touchscreen controls. The demanding, pixel-perfect jumps you need to pull off to complete platform sections immediately rendered exasperating by the woolly onscreen joystick and buttons. It’s not in any way a dead loss, but without a physical joypad you should brace yourself for irritation.

It’s highly polished, but somehow lacks the heady compulsion that typified the early days of Clash Royale or Boom Beach, with rounds feeling less fun and exciting than the colourful cartoon characters that participate in them.

A deeply flawed open world role-player but also an extremely ambitious and unique one, whose approach to co-op play and survival deserves further iteration.

It's rare to see any new ideas in a 2D shooter, let alone as many as this game boasts, but they're all suffocated by some hopelessly dull presentation.

Inspired at times but also badly inconsistent, this is certainly the best Shinobi game since the Mega Drive era but still not really it's own game.

A highly unlikely combination of Ace Attorney and Picross but despite the game’s best efforts it’s a mixture that never really gels together.

As a spiritual successor to Guardian Heroes this somehow manages to copy all of the flaws and leave out half of the positives, but it's still a fun beat 'em-up all the same.

The low-key narration and sparsely surreal graphics play well in this uncluttered game of brinkmanship, dexterity, and puzzle solving. Its challenge certainly isn’t for the faint hearted though.