A stylish and brilliantly designed blend of first person shooter and platformer, which nails the compelling and addictive chase for the perfect run.

A lovingly crafted retro homage, made with skill and obvious affection for the source material – but there’s very little attempt at innovation and little to interest non-fans playing on their own.

The best and most balanced Mario Strikers title yet, undercut by limited modes and a lacklustre sense of progression.

With its gorgeous Studio Ghibli artwork and charmingly offbeat dialogue translation, Ni No Kuni makes its way to mobile. Sadly, that’s the end of the good news, because Cross Worlds features all the worst things about modern mobile gaming.

It’s no Age of Empires, but is a well designed and addictive take on the genre with a generous campaign and online multiplayer modes.

The hack, slash, and loot world of Diablo is brilliantly re-engineered for a small screen but the fun, initial progression is offset by a grinding endgame and/or eye-wateringly costly microtransactions.

It’s noticeably harder precision aiming sniper rifles, giving shorter range fully automatic guns an advantage, but its roster of 10 legends unlocks more quickly than it did on PC and console, and matches have the requisite speed and tension. A solid start.

Blow up cars, send people flying, jump off tall structures, and do your best to combat the terrible controls just enough to fulfil each level’s litany of objectives. Goat Simulator’s re-emergence on Apple Arcade is identical to the original release, offering its peculiar demolition-orientated delights to a new generation.

A wonderfully unique historical adventure whose seemingly simple gameplay is made wonderfully tense by artful presentation and a sharp script.

A charming, atmospheric indie game with some enjoyably imaginative puzzles and evocative visuals, whose only real flaw is a lack of longevity.

A well executed and impressively detailed mix of Metroidvania exploration, Soulslike combat, and role-playing style customisation that’s marred only by its demanding controls.

More highly addictive Nazi cranium popping, that improves almost every aspect of the experience – especially in terms of the open world and expanded weapon options.

A complex, vampire-centric role-playing game where conversations replace violence, but whose boring puzzles and undercooked script suggest its budget didn’t stretch nearly as far as its ambitions.

A loving homage to the Evil Dead franchise, but it’s a series that doesn’t particularly suit the 4 vs. 1 concept, with shallow combat and too little variety.

A stylish blend of rhythm action and dungeon crawler that misses a beat when it comes to satisfying gunplay.

It feels more like a long lost SNES game than a modern action role-player but that’s clearly the point in this charming, if insubstantial, prelude to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

Another impressive attempt at a 2D Soulsborne but a less entertaining game than Salt And Sanctuary, with some frustrating combat that doesn’t always feel entirely fair.

The absence of clues and the plethora of places where words overlap provide a decent challenge right from the start, and there’s plenty of free content to try before you have to spring for the full game. It’s not Wordle but it is a fun alternative for those seeking a new challenge.

It looks nice, but there’s absolutely nothing going on underneath the veneer, apart from collecting currencies to perform upgrades that let you continue fighting more identical battles, while the game patiently tries to hawk its microtransactions.

It’s an impressive achievement given the game’s inherent complexity but, especially on a phone screen, battles are fiddly, with the job of highlighting and dragging units rendered inaccurate by the size of your thumbs compared with your microscopically small fighting men and cavalry. The less time pressured diplomatic elements work far better.

There’s no time pressure and the gentle soundtrack lends it a mellow pace that in no way undermines its challenge or the feel good nature of its puzzles.

Battles are initially a walkover, almost never resulting in a loss, the only limit to your raiding being time and patience. The issue is that unlimited battles swiftly reveal the limitations of its game design, with ennui setting in far earlier than in the more polished Supercell titles that inspire it.

The attempts to mirror the cinema of Akira Kurosawa work on a visual level but the story and gameplay are so empty and repetitive this barely works as a homage, let alone an engaging game in its own right.

An absorbing mix of tabletop inspirations and sci-fi storytelling, that makes for one of the most unique and well-written games of the year.

A muddled reimagining of the groundbreaking Wii Sports, with an unwarranted focus on online play and new game additions that are never as much fun as the originals.

A bad idea poorly realised and while the original coin-op retains its campy charm this remake is rendered pointless by the unsatisfying controls and glitchy performance.

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.

A delightful and hugely entertaining journey of puzzles, battles, and exploration that makes you feel a part of both its story and the living, breathing, miniaturised world of Moss.