A more grounded approach and a fresh coat of paint fail to address the series’ inherent flaws, as the cheesy charm of fighting giant insects is lost in the process.

In spite of the shortcomings of its control scheme, Skyworld is a solid and good looking real-time strategy game. It’s also a neat use of VR and something of a dream come true for those used to playing tabletop games that demand more than a little suspension of disbelief.

The sheer age of the games are beginning to count against them but Ace Attorney still remains exhibit A in how to make even the silliest story-based games fun and engaging.

Relaxing, aesthetically pleasing, and giving you just enough room to feel creative with your flower arrangements, this suffers from the usual idle game problems – no threat, zero difficulty, mostly a waiting game – but makes up for it with charm and good looks.

As far as it goes, this is a reasonable game of cards, but like last month’s Knights Of The Card Table its lack of depth makes it instantly accessible but less interesting in the medium to long term. It also has very long grinds and a lurch in difficulty, which may or may not be designed to tilt you in the direction of its in-app purchases, something that feels beyond cheeky in a paid-for game. There are much better card battlers available, the best of which is still the brilliant Card Thief.

With any luck the legion of glitches will be fixed in an update, but even with all that Powernode manages to be engrossing and addictive.

It’s played in real-time, a countdown appearing on each move you make, with new cards to collect when it’s finished. It also has a branching narrative with the powerful and evocative prose you’d expect from the founder of Failbetter Games. If you like being flung headlong into deep and esoteric mysteries there are few games that do a better job of it, or reward you as much when you figure them out.

It’s fun while it lasts, but we very comfortably finished the game on our first run, which took about half an hour, and while you can just keep going round and beating it again and again, there’s very little inducement to do so; the procedurally generated maps varying so little as to make them effectively identical.

Emotive, melancholy, and thought provoking, Photographs creates a striking balance between game and story that will leave you considering its themes long after you’ve put away your phone.

Its limited budget is obvious but as an unofficial reboot for the Burnout series this is one of the best arcade racers for a long time.

An enjoyable companion piece to Cuphead, but despite some fantastic enemy designs the single-mindedness and lack of visual variety doesn’t have quite the same charm.

A deeply flawed open world role-player but also an extremely ambitious and unique one, whose approach to co-op play and survival deserves further iteration.

Not a game that particularly needed a remaster but that in itself speaks to the quality of the original and the potential of the new sequel.

Even a high-quality remaster such as this can’t hide the fact that Assassin’s Creed III is too much a product of its time and has little to offer modern gaming.

An ashamedly old school role-player that nevertheless does its best to attract new players and entertain existing fans.

Another highly competent Yoshi platformer that looks great and plays well, especially in co-op, but there’s a disappointing lack of innovation beyond the charming visuals.

The Walking Dead finishes much as it began, with believable characters making heartbreaking choices, interspersed with flounderingly inept, QTE-laden attempts at action.

Its demands on players is as great as any FromSoftware game but persevere and Sekiro reveals itself as the most rewarding and nuanced ninja game in decades.

A perfectly constructed neo-arcade game from genre master Vlambeer, which perfectly marries twin-stick shooters with roguelike punishment.

An inspired homage to old school Ninja Gaiden games, with a clever blending of genres and near perfect retro graphics and music.

An unambitious but competent sequel that already has some of the best endgame content of any similar game… if you can stomach the offensively apolitical, and thoroughly boring, storytelling.

A hugely original puzzler that relies on raw logic in a way only a video game could, providing some of the most satisfyingly open-ended challenges of the generation.

A loving piece of fan service that looks and sounds just like the anime, but unfortunately it plays like a bad Xbox 360 era open world game.

One of the best looking point ‘n’ click adventures ever made, but the unique visuals don’t compensate for illogical puzzles and a weak script.

One of the best Kirby games becomes frayed around the edges on the 3DS, with no co-op mode and some poorly thought out extras that would be better off left out.

A staggeringly ambitious, gun-free immersive reality detective game set in an alternate 1980s Britain, whose admirable intentions are undermined by technical problems.

A game bursting with interesting ideas but dragged down by a lack of technical competence and some very outdated ideas about game design and controls.

A cheap and nasty film tie-in that reaches a new low for Lego games and stands in stark contrast to the creativity of the movie and the toys.