A labour of love that pays brilliantly inventive tribute to the platform genre and the 8 and 16-bit eras in general.

A wonderfully inventive attempt to bring Mario Kart into the real world, whose mere premise is enough to amuse and delight, despite some unavoidable practical limitations.

A disappointing sequel to The Dark Descent, but while the horror elements can seem mundane at times the storytelling and characterisation remain impressive.

A colourful, loot-orientated action role-player let down by over-simplified systems and levelling up that often feels inconsequential.

A cute, absorbing, and often clever survival game that, despite its flaws, is perfect lockdown fodder.

There’s no indication when you pass a checkpoint, so it’s easy to lose chunks of progress if you’re interrupted by a call or life, and the touch controls occasionally get in the way of solving puzzles, but it’s still a unique experience, albeit one marred by its own butterfly attention span.

With a minimalist 1960s art style, a capitalist-sceptic theme, and jazzy soundtrack it’s got style but continually having to restart levels because you made a wrong choice on the first day gets tired fast.

It’s entertaining enough while it lasts, but with puzzles that predominantly rely on trial and error or simple pattern recognition, there’s little to really get your teeth into.

There’s a nice weight and momentum to the rolling characters, you can play in four-player co-op if you have three Apple Arcade subscribing friends, and it has high production values, but its ideas never seem to go anywhere, as though the game had bigger plans that it ended up not getting around to.

Originally released on PC and consoles, the touch controls work absolutely fine, and while it lacks the ingenuity of Nintendo’s masterpieces, it’s a diverting and amusing role-playing game to have on your phone.

It’s good looking, and you’re not forced to watch as many ads as you are in Archero, but on the minus side it’s also not nearly as much fun.

A studied recreation of Crash Bandicoot’s halcyon days, that does little to innovate the formula but still offers a fun and varied slice of 90s style platforming.

A charmingly offbeat exploration and object finding game which is at least as much about its characters and their stories as it is the mechanics of your search.

Probably the most innovative FIFA in years, that leaves the door open for further improvement in the next gen – even if the grim shadow of Ultimate Team is never likely to leave.

An unexpectedly involved space combat simulator that manages to replicate the thrills of the 90s X-Wing and TIE Fighter games with surprising clarity – and an excellent VR mode.

A good looking and competent retread of a second rate original, which improves on everything from the graphics to the driving model, whilst maintaining the game’s cinematic essence.

Super Mario Bros. doesn’t suit the battle royale formula as well as Tetris, but this is still a fun novelty that neatly demonstrates the ageless virtues of the original game.

A simple but enjoyable party game that’s very easy to pick up and play with friends – and a considerably better video game than last year’s WWE 2K20.

Serious Sam is looking seriously tired, with a new sequel that makes only the most perfunctory attempt to doing anything new for the franchise or shooters in general.

Nothing less or more than what was promised. Still the best football game around but its problems feel more glaring a year later.

A hell of a good roguelike, supported by a surprisingly strong narrative that provides just as much motivation to persevere as the excellent combat system.

Not at all what you’d expect from the makers of Dragon’s Crown, but as well as the expectedly beautiful artwork this has some of the most engaging high school melodrama this side of Persona.

An excellent sequel to one of indie gaming’s most enduring stars, that changes just enough to keep things interesting without losing the magic of the original.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars is not a very good compilation but two of the three games it contains are exceptional, one more from a historical perspective, the other from every angle imaginable. These are games that everyone owes it to themselves to play, and if the medium for doing so is this rather underwhelming collection that’s still far better than nothing at all.

A staggeringly inept attempt to clone Super Smash Bros. and populate it with indie characters, whose only achievement is to make you appreciate the real thing even more.

It would be one thing if this was just NBA 2K20 with some minor changes but this rips the heart out of last year’s game solely to appeal to competitive online players, with many much-loved features stripped back or not included at all.

It’s a strange and beautiful game, although one you’ll need to approach with an open mind and absolutely no sense of hurry.

Elite Squad is a blandly generic gacha game, with tedious, tactics-free, but mercifully brief gun battles tacked onto the front end.