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

A 3D platformer which wears its inspirations on its sleeve but manages to offer enough individual style and unique platforming dynamics to stand on its own.

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.

Big dumb fun doesn't have to be quiet this witless, but this is still a fairly competent arcade update.

The best Lego game so far and one that defies both its simplicity and familiarity for an almost effortlessly entertaining co-op experience.

As competent as the last two updates but still a fighting game held back more by its creepy designs and boring characters, than its purposefully simplistic action.

A great idea in theory, but in practise the novelty wears out extremely quickly, with a serious lack of variety in game modes, maps, and tactics.

It may stimulate nostalgia glands just as intended but this is the best modern day Sonic game by only a surprisingly small margin.

A needlessly stringent remake of the original two arcade classics that is just as frustratingly difficult as ever, although it does have a neat co-op mode.

It might not honour the series’ creator, but Metal Gear itself is paid due homage, in one of the best, and most complete, retro compilations there’s ever been.

One of the best narrative-based games of the year, that tackles a number of contemporary issues in an original and entertaining manner and whose main fault is merely a lack of budget.

The best tech demo so far for PlayStation VR, but with some better storytelling it could also have been a good game in its own right.

It sounds, and to a degree looks, like the movies but so far this run of the mill graphic adventure lacks the soul of the film franchise.

Still the same lacklustre combination of Left 4 Dead with a twin-stick shooter, where only the status of PlayStation Plus freebie prevents further criticism.

Inconsequential and frustratingly restrictive, this is by far the worst episode of the season – and you can only hope the finale will be good enough to make up for it.

It hasn’t aged particularly well, and there are serious technical issues with the remaster, but the sequel to Chrono Trigger is still one of the original PlayStation’s best Japanese role-players.

The action requires little real skill to control and although gaining new powers is a strong impetuous for continuing it's all extremely shallow and inconsequential. In small doses Prototype 2 is a perfectly enjoyable game but in the end, because Heller and Mercer don't care about anyone else you never end up caring about them.

A host of small improvements helps this action strategy hybrid edge ever closer to classic status.

Colourful golfing action with a fascinating complexity to each swing – and a stealth workout – but relatively few courses.

The new professions are a fun idea but there aren't enough of them to justify the high asking price.

An unremarkable and derivative first person shooter that uses the cover of controversy to hide a game severely lacking in courage and ambition.

A short, surreal roguelike puzzler that proves a video game doesn’t have to be 60 hours long or feature photorealistic graphics to be entertaining and thought-provoking.

A welcome reminder of the origins of Pokémon and while the game’s age is obvious in more than just its graphics the unbounded sense of exploration and experimentation remains as compelling as always.

It's still the best graphic adventure of the modern age, but the Xbox controls do it no favours.

An unexpected gift for fans of the SNES original and while the remake is seriously flawed in terms of both graphics and gameplay its sheer oddness is still highly compelling.

The once inspired mix of rhythm action and real-time strategy becomes further diluted by obscure rules and needlessly high difficulty.

Much more than a poor man's Ico, the low tech presentation hides a consistently charming and well constructed puzzle adventure.

A missed opportunity to both evolve the Famicom Detective Club concept and allow Nintendo to experiment with more adult-oriented content, resulting in a game whose only real appeal is nostalgia.