Starting with a path a few squares long, clearing waves of mobs earns gold to buy fresh pieces of track and new turrets that are randomly selected from a gradually expanding range. Many turrets come with a conjoined grid square of water, which makes placing them on the game’s minimal islands an additional challenge. Soon more paths appear on neighbouring islands, forcing you to split your resources to defend them all simultaneously, in this sophisticated and engaging take on a well-established genre.

Already a classic on home formats, it works immaculately on a touchscreen; its blend of drama, murder mystery, and supernatural dread cleverly constructed to be understandable in whatever way you experience its fractured timeline. A genuine classic, but you may need to clear some space for its gargantuan, nearly 14GB file size.

An inspired piece of Final Fantasy 7 fan service, and a very good remaster, but as a standalone game the story and gameplay has very little value.

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.

Although it feels more like an early access release at this point, this is a promising start for what should eventually eclipse Vermintide 2 and all the other Left 4 Dead wannabes.

Dead Space 4 in all but name, except with no puzzles and surprisingly little suspense. The Callisto Protocol has plenty of gritty action but that’s not quite enough to sustain interest for its entire duration.

For a 27-year-old game with only minor changes this is still an enjoyably taxing tactical role-player but it’s new games this series needs, not more remakes.

A fantastically idiosyncratic approach to both superheroes and turn-based strategy, that manages to remain perfectly accessible without ever talking down to its audience.

An enjoyable combat system is left to flounder in an otherwise unambitious ode to Xbox 360 era shooters, that quickly gets too repetitive to enjoy.

Easily the best of The Dark Pictures anthology series, with a horror story that is deliciously chilling, surprisingly well acted, and far more interesting to play than its predecessors.

Being closer to a traditional video game does more harm than good, in a game that is all too proficient at making anarchic mayhem seem boring.

A significant advancement on Pokémon Sword and Shield and while it’s not hard to see how it could be improved further this is the most ambitious and entertaining Pokémon has been in a long while.

A significant advancement on Pokémon Sword and Shield and while it’s not hard to see how it could be improved further this is the most ambitious and entertaining Pokémon has been in a long while.

A fantasy musical adventure which has big laughs to match its big heart, while being built around charming, if shallow, gameplay mechanics.

A disappointing follow-up to Limbo and Inside that lacks the same complexity of plot and puzzles, and yet struggles surprisingly poorly with the move to 3D.

A Dark Ages mystery whose gameplay and dialogue are as unique as it’s daringly unconventional premise and visuals.

One of the grandfathers of tactical role-playing returns with an ambitious new remaster, that includes a surprising number of improvements and only a few missteps.

More than just a retro compilation, this is a fascinating attempt to create an interactive history of Atari, that goes above and beyond in terms of trawling the archives and creating new remakes.

Mixing Final Fantasy with Harvest Moon feels like it should result in something more stimulating than this awkward mishmash, whose disparate elements all prove disappointingly underdeveloped.

After decades of miserable failure, Sonic Team has finally made a good 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game, and it’s one of the best open world platformers ever seen.

An improvement on the last Star Ocean game but Square Enix’s veteran sci-fi franchise still feels stuck in the past, rather than exploring new frontiers.

A more flawed experience than its predecessor, with a sense that the formula is already starting to wear thin, but the character-based storytelling with Kratos and his son is handled masterfully well.

The most realistic and engaging instalment of Football Manager yet, even if its improvements are extremely minor in themselves.

Inevitably, a huge part of the enjoyment of free games is their economies, and well made ones go out of their way to make the opening hours welcoming and friendly. Marvel Snap is no exception and while more time will need to pass before a final judgement can be rendered the early signs are exceptionally promising.

An ill-conceived attempt at bringing competitive deathmatch to Resident Evil, that has turned out to be just as terrible as everyone always assumed it would be.

One of the most visually interesting video games of the year but also a survival horror that’s not quite scary enough to reach its full potential.

Bustin’ will not make you feel good in this shallow and repetitive asymmetric multiplayer, that is one of the worst of the recent crop of 80s movie homages.

A mild disappointment compared to the first Modern Warfare reboot, that relies too much on nostalgia and old ideas, but the core action and multiplayer modes are as irresistible as ever. [Review in Progress; Provisional score = 70]