A labour of love that few are likely to appreciate – but if for some reason you did want a hand-drawn remake of Toki then this is your lucky year.

The spirit of 90s arcade racing is reborn in a homage to everything from OutRun to Lotus Turbo Challenge, and despite a few bumps in the road it’s all just as much fun as you remember.

The best 2D shooters of the retro era return once again, with a good value package that has plenty for new fans and old.

Even at this early stage (there’s no indication yet when Red Dead Online will officially emerge from beta) there’s plenty to do, with a similar wealth of content to the single-player game. And yet Red Dead Online hasn’t abandoned its essential character: it’s altogether slower and more content to leave you to your own devices than GTA Online. The prospect of living an online life in Rockstar’s vision of the not-quite-as wild-as-it-used-to-be West seems just as alluring as the story mode.

A daring, and largely successful, attempt to show the civilian side of war, that succeeds as an interactive drama even when it occasionally fails as a game.

While it packs in more content than its predecessors, RIDE 3 feels soulless and nonessential if you already own last year’s instalment.

It commits no cardinal sins but this belated return to the world of Darksiders comes across as shallow, frustrating, and disappointingly dull.

Imaginative use of VR to make one of the best new music games of the generation, and which also manages to be the best Star Wars game never made.

A disastrous failure whose technical shortcomings may one day be fixed but whose design failings, and obliviousness to its own potential, suggests a game that is irrevocably broken.

If you’ve already played The Heist you’ll easily be able to imagine how Turf Wars plays out. In fact, if you’ve played any story DLC from the last few years it follows a very familiar path of artificially extending the running time of the parent game with the bare minimum of new features and enemies. But more of the same is exactly what some people want from Marvel’s Spider-Man and it’ll still be interesting to see how things end with the final DLC next month.

One of the best PC to console ports ever, with the strategy great working impressively well on the Switch and opening up the series to a whole new audience.

Its incremental improvements will appease fans but it does little to entice new players, in what is still a very dry and demanding sim that’s devoid of character.

What could have been the best Battlefield of the modern era fears like a mere shell of a game, with missing features, too little content, and far too many bugs.

A brutal, albeit familiar, survival game that’s thoughtfully designed and elegantly refined, and as a result easily the best game of its type on PlayStation 4.

Remakes so good they flatter the original games, but whether or not they deserve this level of star treatment the end result is three enjoyable and accessible 3D platformers for all ages.

The perfect introduction to ‘proper’ Pokémon games for GO players but also an enjoyably nostalgic remake for existing pokéfans.

It feels a lot like the second half of the same season, rather than a true sequel, but Hitman 2 is still a beautifully crafted stealth game that’s full of character.

A bizarre mix of weighty subject matter and cartoon presentation that somehow works perfectly in portraying a morally complex world and its characters.

It’s ruthlessly hard, although you can adapt the difficulty level if it all gets too much, and it suffers from the usual issues with onscreen joystick and buttons, but its beautifully-rendered visuals and refined mechanics make it a joy to play from start to finish.

A masterful reimagining of Tetris that changes little about the core gameplay but still manages to create one of the most immersive video games ever.

It channels the grit and desperation of the TV show well enough, but the prolonged development has ended in a co-op shooter that feels outdated and unexceptional.

A deeply flawed attempt to revive Road Rash, that gets the fighting right but crashes out when it comes to the racing and graphics.

An impressively assured attempt to prove that video games can tackle serious subject matter with respect and a level of insight that only interactivity can provide.

You wouldn’t know to look at it though, its graphics looking hilariously ropey by today’s standards, but playing it reveals a game that is still in a class of its own. Without a central story or campaign to anchor you, once you’ve completed the grossly insufficient tutorial you’re left to do practically anything you like in a world that contains well over a decade’s worth of gameplay for newcomers.

Although frequently frustrating – this is a game you will find yourself loudly shouting at – it’s also fabulously clever and addictive, with one more go an almost foregone conclusion as you once again impale/lacerate your stickman in pursuit of that final collectible.

Slapping down a couple of mines and energy structures, then sending a massive volley of missiles to destroy the enemy base will get you through the first few levels, until suddenly it becomes overwhelmingly tough. The lurch in difficulty isn’t insurmountable, but also isn’t much fun, which is particularly disappointing given how perfect everything else is in Element.

The ability to grind previously explored areas to improve skills and equipment is essential for all but the most dextrous players, and those with an MFi joypad will find it preferable to the onscreen controls, which while competent do sometimes let you down in the heat of battle. It’s game of the year material for fans of twitch action.

FromSoftware’s first VR game is full of interesting ideas but very little entertainment, with frustrating storytelling and tiresome puzzles.