Unfortunately, the game doesn’t live up to its look and feel, with letters proving tricky to place accurately, power-ups supplying confusing benefits – and often what feel like hindrances – while the gradual reveal of letter tiles makes it hard to plan ahead or play tactically.

It’s got a well-designed touchscreen interface that’s more than enough to handle the necessary stealth and occasional violence, even if the game’s graphics and core gameplay are starting to feel a bit creaky 17 years on.

The action and illustrations are all expectedly grimdark, and the interactions come thick and fast, but it suffers from bugs, sometimes failing to recognise completed objectives, spoiling what might have been a neat adjunct to its TV counterpart.

It may be Far Cry by any other name but if you’re an Avatar fan, that’s always dreamed of exploring Pandora for yourself, this hits all of the right notes.

A genuinely amusing zombie shooting sequel, that’s let down by clunky controls, too many bugs, and too little variety in its challenge.

Essentially Assassin’s Creed’s greatest hits, you inhabit the worlds of Ezio, Kassandra and Connor in VR, experiencing their historical sites and clunky real time combat in true first person.

A deeply flawed attempt to make a cross between Warhammer: Vermintide and an old school scrolling beat ‘em-up, with dumb and repetitive combat that’s never fun even in co-op.

An inspired new take on the 2D Metroidvania concept, whose challenging combat and rewarding exploration is accompanied by some stunning audio and visual design.

A depressingly awful sequel whose main faults are probably due to a lack of budget and development time, but that doesn’t excuse it being considerably less entertaining than the 31-year-old original.

It walks a precarious tightrope, where it risks disappointing both Persona and strategy fans, but most of the time this fun but shallow tactical role-player threads the needle to enjoyable effect.

An excellent remake of a historically important game, that often gets forgotten. The price is off-putting but beyond that this is a breezy and charming adventure that’s perfect for RPG neophytes.

A charming, whimsical and very soothing life simulator that makes good use all of all its many influences and still feels refreshingly unique in itself.

A joyous, challenging and chaotic first person sandbox of destruction, that also requires tactical thought and planning, with a huge amount of extra content and fan-made add-ons.

Part DLC and part Warzone knock-off, this is not only the worst Call Of Duty ever made but one of the most cynical video game releases of all time.

A highly inventive mix of genres that you’d normally think completely incompatible, but the end result is creepy, charming, and wonderfully unpredictable.

Wave 6 is an excellent set of courses in what has been an excellent season pass, for an excellent parent game. Some might talk of Mario Kart 64 or Mario Kart Wii but for us Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is clearly the best entry in the franchise and by virtue of being so it’s also one of the best video games ever made. Almost a decade later and it’s not only as much fun as ever but it’s almost impossible to imagine how Nintendo might improve it.

From the developer of rymdkapsel and holedown, both of which are classics that are well worth playing, subpar pool is another capital letter-shunning production of great polish and originality.

Astonishingly, you can play up to four-player co-op if you have enough controllers, which adds an entirely new dimension, but even solo its glorious art style, chiptunes, and well-balanced battles help make up for the usual roguelike bugbear: a whole heap of repetition.

Tricky, mentally taxing, and immensely satisfying, Finity is one of those games that keeps getting better as your understanding of its systems deepens.

It’s hard to tell how games with such a complex economy and shifting balance will evolve, and while this doesn’t land with the same wow factor as Marvel Snap, it’s a promising start, albeit one that comes with a lot of grind. For a game with Warcraft in its name that’s most certainly in line with expectations.

A much smaller Like A Dragon game, that offers everything fans love about the series, but one that doesn’t quite justify its own existence.

A well designed, technical tour de force that lives up to the enticing prospect of an officially licensed Codemasters rally game.

A host of new features and gameplay improvements blend well and make the game more realistic and fun – and they save you time faffing around doing tasks that used to feel more like chores.

A funny and supremely inventive story-driven puzzle game, with a plot based on Greek philosophy that’s delivered with the lightest of touches and a goofy sense of humour.

An uneven blend of turn-based RPG battles, cooking, and skateboarding elevated by its excellent narrative and memorable cast of characters.

One of the best WarioWare games ever, as long as you’re playing with other people, with some of the most interesting use of motion controls since the Wii era.

A perfectly paced vertical exploration of a lost civilisation, that offers the most authentic climbing simulation ever seen in a game and retains its air of mystery and discovery right up to the closing credits.

A surprisingly competent attempt at making a lost sequel to the movies, with some excellent action and ambitious but flawed storytelling.