Its demands on players is as great as any FromSoftware game but persevere and Sekiro reveals itself as the most rewarding and nuanced ninja game in decades.

It’s a pleasure to wander around, the input of American artist William Chyr evident in the expansive and mildly trippy building designs that trail off into infinity. And it’s no shrinking violet on the challenge, which rapidly becomes deliciously tricky.

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

The video game equivalent of a concept album, and a hugely successful mix of visual, music, and gameplay influences.

Its claim to being combat-evolved grows ever more tenuous, but Bungie's last Halo is still the most fully featured first person shooter ever.

There are minor improvements here but the next gen versions of Lego Marvel still rely on charm and fan service more than technical finesse.

An inspired mix of skateboarding and 2D platforming that manages to combine a surprising level of realism with some enjoyably impossible level design.

There are some welcome advances here over Fallout 3 but they risk being drowned out by the cripplingly poor technology that still powers the game.

Superb mix of role-playing, puzzle and strategy action, with gorgeous new HD graphics and an addictive online mode.

A very worthwhile upgrade of the portable original, that stands up well in terms of visuals and easily exceeds Resident Evil 6 in terms of atmosphere and intrigue.

With myriad graphical touches, from the creepy crawlies that infest many levels to your character’s tiny, bloody footprints as she wanders away from the scene of a battle, it’s clearly a labour of love.

An excellent port from the PC, which maintains all of the original's innovative open-endedness and most of its graphical prowess.

Vengeance’s 12 or so hours of entertainment are joyous, and speeding through them with paid upgrades is a fool’s errand. This is still the very pinnacle of the Tower Defense genre and even if you completely ignore its microtransactions, it’s a superb game.

The remake adds improved visuals, new sea creatures, and a few more fishing power-ups at the shop. Plus, there’s the Pro Tour, a sizeable chunk of progression to work on once you’ve fished all the species from the other regions.

The 15 islands you’ll rule in campaign mode take a lot of work to balance, as you try to ensure your populace is well paid, fed, and entertained to offset the less pleasant needs to pay rent and taxes. It’s highly engaging and the iPad port works seamlessly.

An incredible technical achievement but one that is surprisingly short of genuinely new ideas, and often struggles to get the balance right between VR showpiece and satisfying gameplay experience.

An impressively original take on XCOM style turn-based strategy that gains in depth and versatility what it loses in accessibility, with some of the best boss encounters of the year.

An utterly charming and perfectly paced mini-adventure that packs in more character, emotion, and sense of wonder than most 30 hour epics.

After years out of the limelight Pikmin 3 has resprouted, with its mellow take on real-time strategy more enjoyable than ever, especially thanks to the expanded co-op options.

Viewed on its own merits it’s a highly entertaining and feature-packed video game, and that’s all that really matters.

An inspired mix of first person shooter, role-playing game, and survival horror that offers up one of the most compelling, and interactive, open world environments this generation.

The mobile port works beautifully, its timed button presses easy enough to pull off on a touchscreen and its cute, deliberately blocky graphics looking alluringly colourful on a small screen.

EA beats Nintendo at its own game with a keep-fit package that seems substantially more useful than Wii Fit.

Not only one of Cave's best 2D shooters but one of the definitive entries in the whole genre, with a deep weapons system and dazzling pyrotechnics.

It’s unique while it lasts, though, its idle gameplay proving as engaging as ever, and its wilful misunderstanding of Stephen Hawking’s ideas, along with a peculiar obsession with potatoes, making it one to savour.

The main advantage of the Switch 2 version, if you casually ignore anyone who has played on a PC this century, is mouse controls. You can jump between the dual analogue setup and mouse functionality by flipping one Joy-Con on its side, and it transitions seamlessly between them whenever you want. There’s a mouse sensitivity slider which you can attune to your speed and, after some adjustment in nailing down the spell configurations with the buttons twisted sideways, it quickly became our preferred way to play.

It may not have changed very much from last year's entry but what small improvements there are still makes this the best F1 racer of the modern era.

No matter what it says about the potential usage for the Switch’s touchscreen this is a beautifully presented and enjoyably novel rhythm action game.