A fantastic sequel and one of the greatest action games ever made, and now available on a format that people actually own.

A superbly crafted 2D adventure that is a near perfect blend of new and old influences, in terms of both gameplay and the stunning visuals and music.

A knowing tribute to some of the greats of action gaming, and a highly competent 2D shooter in its own right.

A very worthwhile expansion of the venerable strategy game, whose new features seem a natural, and surprisingly realistic, extension of the original game.

A surprisingly successful mash-up between two completely different franchises, whose quiet charms offer a welcome alternative to incessant action and overbearing storytelling.

It definitely looks the part, and the striking is excellent, but stodgy controls and a weak ground game makes this far from the ultimate MMA game.

A hugely impressive achievement in interactive storytelling, that tackles difficult subjects head-on but still manages to be life-affirming and relatable.

The Final Fantasy crossover gimmick almost feels like a distraction in what remains a uniquely innovative, but also frustratingly flawed, fighting game.

A survival game that isn’t out just to punish its players, but to entertain; with an impressive mix of exploration, crafting, and survival horror.

The best indie platformer since Super Meat Boy, but also one of the best storytelling experiences of recent years – with an incisive and thoughtful portrayal of mental illness.

A stunning recreation of one of gaming’s most enduring classics, and what remains a towering example of the art of interactive entertainment.

The Room series offers players tactile, faux-Victorian puzzles that involve opening up wood and brass contraptions to reveal crank handles, sculptures with star-shaped bases, and devices that happen to be just the right angle to connect two recently-discovered apertures. Unlike The Room 2, which came over all Myst and had you spending a significant chunk of your time wandering back and forth, this goes back to its roots with a much more compact experience, revolving around the rooms of a single doll’s house. It does nothing to innovate and is relatively short-lived, but it’s enormously engaging while it lasts.

Ported from a PC game, Antihero has you building and running a thieves’ guild in Olde England. Taking turns with a computer or human foe, your job is to earn gold and lanterns, the two currencies you need to upgrade your thievery HQ and recruit new ne’er-do-wells to do your bidding. Splitting your time between scouting new premises, occupying useful buildings, burglary and assassination, you grow your criminal empire whilst craftily side-lining the opposition. The game’s multiple interlocking systems supplying a complex set of tactical options to exploit in your quest for infamy.

When the local parish church won’t absolve you of immoral acts committed elsewhere, you need to re-commit each of the seven deadly sins within the bounds of its diocese. So begins this work of delightful absurdity that brings together baroque music, Renaissance painting, and the spirit of Monkey Island; in a point and click adventure that feels like being stuck in an interactive Terry Gilliam animation. Its puzzles are not sophisticated, and the multiple fourth-wall-breaking references and meta-jokes won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but picking your way through cheerfully animated Hieronymus Bosch canvasses never loses its charm.

If you’ve played other Michael Brough games, like Imbroglio or 868-HACK, the details of Cinco Paus may come as less of a shock to the system. It’s a fabulously complex and deep turn-based strategy game revolving around the use of five magic wands, each of which has complementary powers and limited uses. Discovering how they work and what each system does is left entirely up to you, because the game is only available in Portuguese and does not have English subtitles, making discovering its rules through a series of hard-won Eureka moments, fascinating and daunting in equal measure.

You’re Rock Gunar, sole survivor of your unit and last bulwark against the extraterrestrial onslaught in this Aliens sentry-gun simulator. Illuminated by the flickering muzzle flash of your gun and the explosions generated by grenades, Molotov cocktails, and one highly combustible species of alien, your job is to aim high or low to take out herds of xenomorphs advancing along the floor, walls, and ceiling. It’s all a little bit mindless, but the upgrade path has a satisfying grind to it, and the chiptunes and faux 16-bit pixel art style are a winning combination.

Most of the time when games overlap with art, the result is whimsical rather than fun. The delicious multi-layered puzzle you’re presented with in Gorogoa is quite an exception. It tells the wordless story of a boy’s quest to find a fantastic beast, via the usual collector’s set of glowing orbs. This time though, you interact with the game by rearranging four on-screen frames, panning, zooming, and playing with perspective until you wheedle out the solution to each of its mysterious and beautifully drawn scenarios, in a process that’s entirely unique.

As twin stick shooters go, Jydge, whose in-game blanket replacement of ‘U’s with ‘Y’s is never adequately addressed, is definitely on the more subtle end. As well as administering hot leaden justice to criminals, you’ll also need to collect evidence, ‘confiscate’ cash, and rescue civilians; whilst doing your best not to let them get on the business end of stray rounds. With sizeable upgrade trees covering your gun, armour, and special weapons – and levels of polish commensurate with its console roots – Jydge is an entertaining, refined and eventually extremely challenging jaunt through an alternative approach to the legal profession.

Old school JRPG fans will find much to enjoy here, but the refusal to innovate does more harm than good for the genre’s reputation.

The best Monster Hunter so far, and already one of the most compelling multiplayer games of the year – with an elegant balance between depth, difficulty, and accessibility.

An uneven mix of the overfamiliar and the surprisingly inspired, but the gorgeous graphics alone make this a Metroidvania to remember.

One of the most technically impressive PlayStation VR games so far but a disappointingly drab and unfocused prequel to Until Dawn, that takes itself far too seriously.

A dream come true for Dragon Ball fans, but also a highly competent fighting game that is a front runner for the best fighter of the generation.

A fantastically well-designed and presented roguelike, that makes your heroes’ mental health just as important as their physical well-being.

Despite all the controversy Street Fighter V was always a great fighting game, but as unearned as some of the criticism might have been the Arcade Edition silences it once and for all. It’s still not quite the milestone Street Fighter IV was, but it is certainly one of the best one-on-one fighting games of this generation in terms of gameplay, online features, and now – at last – content.

A perfectly competent Advance Wars clone, but until the free multiplayer DLC turns up it’s only the half the game it should be.

Indie gaming at its retro-loving best, with some of the most cunningly-designed and purposefully infuriating 2D gameplay ever seen.

A great sequel that refines and improves the original prison break format with more variety, better graphics, and some fun multiplayer.