On a technical level this is clearly a better game than its infamous predecessor, but it’s still nowhere near as fun as it should be thanks to its bland design and characters.

A visual novel that offers the occasional diversion into some engaging turn-based strategy but would’ve been infinitely better if it had curtailed it’s long-winded storytelling aspirations.

Technical problems and a lack of difficulty balancing spoil what would’ve been a neat slice of DLC, with some surprisingly good storytelling.

A daring experiment in minimalist gameplay and storytelling, although that doesn't forgive the repetition and high price tag.

An interesting attempt at an isometric Dark Souls, but it lacks the depth and attention to detail of the real thing.

A Djokovic-centric tennis simulator that’s easy to pick up but lacks the polish and tactical complexity needed to make it great.

Bomberman itself is still a classic, and works very well on the Switch, but the insanely high price makes this impossible to recommend.

After a few dozen rounds the jaunty but unremittingly insistent music is enough to trigger homicidal rage, but once that’s switched off it’s a breeze, to the extent that our first non-three-star performance was the boss fight on stage 30. If you like your challenges gentle or have a game-curious preschooler in the house, this might be just what you’re after.

For a film tie-in it's not bad, but this is not the ultimate Wolverine sim it could've been.

A disappointing sequel that is arguably inferior to the original, despite more amusing minion antics.

There is a satisfaction to completing stages with all three bonus goals intact, but the game’s glacial pace and realistic but intrinsically clunky onscreen controls, that offer no option to connect a controller, will not be everyone’s cup of tea.

A multiplayer driven dungeon crawler with flashes of comical entertainment, but which neither excels as a party game or as a captivating solo grind.

Highly impressive on a technical level but the throwbacks to PS2 era game design feel less like a homage and more an indication of the developers’ lack of experience and imagination.

A strange choice of PSone update, but an enjoyable platformer only let down by its lack of challenge.

An expansion pack in full price clothing, offering only new versions of admittedly classic songs.

For a game obsessed with OTT violence and knob gags this is a surprisingly charming and likeable shooter, if an unavoidably shallow and repetitive one.

One of the better puzzle downloads on DSi, but still unlikely to hold your interest beyond a few hours.

Not one of the best map packs Call Of Duty has ever seen, and yet for some reason one of the most expensive. Being Michael Myers is fun though.

Technically it’s still the best modern Sonic, if you don’t count Sonic Mania, but time has not been particularly kind and neither has this unambitious remaster.

Packed with jokes and DC fan service but the Lego formula is long overdue a complete revamp, because it’s starting to ruin concepts like this that are otherwise ripe with potential.

Coming complete with all its manifold vehicles, levels, and customisation options, it’s horribly grindy but stripped of its microtransactions at least not actively unfair.

A flawed but interesting attempt at a mash-up of everything from God Of War to Dark Souls, but where crafting weapons is often more fulfilling than using them.

A charming and often inventive mix of Animal Crossing and Zelda, that lacks depth but not ambition.

Even as downloadable content this would seem exploitative, but trying to pass it off as a new game is only a formula for disappointment and resentment.

Unfortunately, it suffers from the same problem as the rest of its genre, namely relying on random-seeming and counter-intuitive combinations of equipment to overcome many of its problems. YouTube will get you unstuck but cheating your way through feels as hollow as it always does.

A novel setting and concept can’t hide the game’s technical limitations, but this is still an entertaining first person roguelike that does try to do things differently.

If anything a step back from the already generic original, with combat and powers as underdeveloped as its characters.

Halo's attempt to re-imagine real-time strategy for consoles is simplistic and surprisingly drab.

A pared back turn-based strategy that successfully replicates the action of XCOM but is so lacking in originality and variety it feels like half the game it could have been.

Despite some of the same minds behind Dishonored being involved, this top-down immersive doesn’t live up to its soaring ambitions and often struggles to entertain.

Sony's Mario Kart clone has some impressive customisation tools but as a racer it lacks any real drive.

Felix moves beautifully, and the game’s narrated by the eternally sonorous Patrick Stewart, but it suffers from a patchy difficulty level, supplying five-ish hours of mildly frustrating and often repetitive puzzling.

The new PS3 version of the Chopin-themed role-player still sounds more original than it plays.

Almost as conflicted as Hamlet himself, this is both an amusingly whimsical graphic adventure and a frustrating, needlessly obscure chore.

A pleasingly straightforward co-op shooter, whose lack of complications will be seen as either a blessing or a curse depending on your requirements as a gamer.

As retro compilations go this is very good, with pixel perfect emulation and some useful bonus features. But only existing fans will feel the games justify the effort.

A surprisingly decent movie tie-in with a fun four-player mode that will amuse players of any age.

Space combat simulators will hopefully become a mainstay of VR in the future, but although this lays the groundwork the experience itself is limited and repetitive.

A charming homage to Streets Of Rage and other scrolling beat ‘em-ups, but it doesn’t overcome the genre’s limitations and manages to add a few of its own.

A disappointing series reboot, with the new graphics proving more trouble than they're worth.

A confused and confusing mess of terrible storytelling, simple action, and endless fan service that will delight existing players but baffle new ones.

Mindlessly enjoyable in its way, but also hugely repetitive and despite four versions of the character it never seems to make the most of any one of them.

An affectionately crafted prequel to The Expanse which, while worthwhile for fans, fails to evolve Telltale’s tired gameplay design in any meaningful manner.

A sequel that seems somewhat embarrassed of the series’ sexist past and shallow combat but fails to do anything meaningful about either.

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

Fun, silly, and flammable, this is the very antithesis of a simulation, and all the better for it.

A relatively promising next gen debut, but it’s still missing lots of older features. And even with a few new ones it’s hard to think of this as anything but a work in progress.

The mix of tactical spaceship building and roguelike action is intriguing, but Genesis Alpha One suffers from a split personality and a limited development budget.

A technical masterpiece with some of the best swordfighting combat in years, but the storytelling and puzzle elements come across as muddled and awkwardly mismatched.

A disappointing waste of a fun combat system and an impressive graphics engine, with ugly artwork and unremarkable storytelling that expends all its goodwill disappointingly quickly.

A competent Metroidvania with some attractive visuals and fun gimmicks, but they can’t hide the fact that the game underneath is far less inspired than it first seems.

The Quest has to start somewhere with online multiplayer though and this is as good a place as any.

It features some of the best moments from this generation of Pokémon but this final slice of DLC still suffers from a lack of substance and ambition.

An admirable effort to make a serious Sherlock Holmes game, but the low production values and needlessly obscure puzzles hinder the ambitious storytelling.

An interesting stew of ideas and great presentation can’t make up for a game that goes out of its way to frustrate and discourage its players.

Not one of Call Of Duty’s better map packs, but there are still some highlights and plenty to keep fans playing for just a few more months.

As blatant a clone as you’ve ever seen, but while the PC version was a novel take on Left 4 Dead, the severe price hike on consoles ruins the fun.

Enjoyably surreal graphic adventure that is still fun despite no real challenge or lastability.

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

A good idea only moderately well implemented, with the novelty of playing cops and robbers lasting only a relatively short time.

The game itself is as generic and unmemorable as ever, and does little to deserve talk of a sequel, but this is a notably better PC port than Sony’s first attempt.

Fun but slight real-time strategy expansion that's rather short on strategy and value for money.

Fascinatingly strange in all the best ways but while the action is solid the strategy aspects are undercooked and the disparate gameplay elements never gel the way they should.

A hugely ambitious and imaginative, but still very roughly hewn, simulation of medieval combat.

The potential for a great game is here, but the repetitive questing, arcane plotting and thoughtless battles means its never properly roused into action.

A uniquely open-ended online adventure with some of the best co-op of any game, but at the moment there’s not nearly enough content or variety to keep it interesting for long.

An addictive and accessible MOBA which takes advantage of the Pokémon license to great effect but is hampered by an abundance of free-to-play irritations.

The best Need For Speed in a decade – but that says far more about the moribund state of the franchise than it does this workmanlike new entry.

Too expensive to win the graphic adventure new fans but old ones will still enjoy this genre highlight.

A good script and fun characters can't save an otherwise workmanlike Japanese role-player, in this unconvincing 3D remake.

An inferior experience to PC and Oculus, not in terms of graphics but the frustrating PlayStation Move controllers that make wielding a lightsaber more a pain than a pleasure.

A disappointing attempt to ape the magic of Inside and Limbo, which despite some of the best visuals of the year suffers from unimaginative puzzle design and storytelling.

There are flashes of brilliance, especially when it comes to the flying, but confused storytelling, boring loot, and unsatisfying missions don’t justify the game’s massive time investment.

Game starved rally fans will welcome it all the same but this low tech racing sim has a bit too much room for improvement.

Another charmingly scripted adventure with bright cheery graphics, a loveable cast and… tedious combat and frustrating exploration.

Portraying existential quandaries as gameplay puzzles is a daring idea, but ultimately this is a more enjoyable game to watch and listen to than it is to play.

Possibly the scariest 12-rated game ever made, although the attractive visuals are better designed than the poorly balanced difficulty.

For once Sonic gets a spin-off that’s well suited to his talents, but this is an uninspired homage to his glory days – with little new to offer him or endless runners.

There are boosters you can use to blast away multiple blocks at a time, and hundreds upon hundreds of levels, but no real sense of evolution as you progress. It’s as if it were intended to be a free to play game that was unexpectedly re-purposed, leaving visible traces of its original mechanics without any real point to them.

Somebody must still love Spy Vs Spy given the amount of effort that's been put into this remake, but the retro charm wears off extremely quickly.

The storytelling is as well up to Telltale’s usual standards, but waiting three months for such a short and relatively uneventful episode is unavoidably anticlimactic.

A hugely original and beautifully presented shooter sadly in search of proper difficulty curve.

A significant improvement on the last game in terms of mechanics, but still a 2D beat 'em-up that frustrates as much as it entertains.

They may not be directly related but Mario’s would-be siblings have some interesting ideas of their own, although they lack refinement to make the most of them.

While point ‘n’ click adventures experienced their apogee in the 1990s, it’s still a genre that manages to generate new outings. Mystery Of Silence is one, telling the story of a journalist investigating a mysterious island monastery.

The latest and ugliest Puzzle Quest spin-off is still addictive, but its gimmicks are getting very old.

Hugely disappointing portable debut that replicates the basic look of Gran Tursimo but rips out its heart.

Dazzlingly gorgeous 2D graphics cannot hide Vanillaware's merely competent beat 'em-up gameplay.

One of the most influential rhythm action games ever made, but the graphics and gameplay definitely show their age – remaster or not.

It’s a well-made game, but lacking in magic. The anodyne character design, lacklustre script, and battles that have challenge but little excitement, conspire to make it feel oddly pedestrian. Still, if you’re craving a decent sized role-player on your phone this certainly manages to tick all the right boxes, even if that’s all it does.

Gorgeous 2D art still can't forgive the needless repetition, but while the novelty lasts this is a great little brain dead brawler.

A successful restatement of everything that was great about the early Suikoden games but many of its old school affectations will only be excused by existing fans.

A modestly ambitious action role-player, that’s very good at making you feel you have an impact on the world, but it’s let down by endless reams of mundane dialogue and predictable mechanics.

The least accomplished of the recent spate of Wonder Boy games but it still retains a certain charm and offers plenty of reasons for the franchise to continue.

When one of the main new features of a game is its ability to play itself, it’s a hint that a franchise is beginning to run out of steam – especially given Disgaea 6’s limp script and 3D graphics.

A clever and idiosyncratic time loop detective thriller with top notch voice acting, which suffers from circular gameplay that quickly descends into monotony.

A very half-hearted sort of reboot for the series with flawed new graphics and little real personality.

Not even half as crazy and daring as it likes to think, but instead a dispiritingly conservative collection of bland third person action and missed opportunities.