Contra Anniversary Collection offers a selection of games from the Contra series all in one package. There could have been more in here and some titles, although interesting, feel like padding but what is here delivers some of the best run and gun gameplay out there.

Electric space bricklaying is fun. Who knew? Embrace the aesthetic.

Big Ant Studios have continued to make a comprehensive cricket sim without especially making great strides over previous efforts. The customisation is extensive and the content on offer covers almost everywhere in the cricketing universe. The sport itself plays well but the presentation lacks a little, especially when it comes to atmosphere. Load times seem to suffer but, for fans, Cricket 19 offers more than enough to keep them happy for a while.

Super Cane Magic Zero is an utterly daft game with a surprising amount of depth. Some minor technical issues and oversights get in the way of the fun, but overall this is an enjoyable adventure to play when you have a few friends over.

Konami rightfully get criticism for not treating their old series' with respect. Castlevania Anniversary Collection does manage to rectify that. Eight fantastic classics are under one roof and, whilst the bonus content doesn't go far enough, there's some care to this that I wasn't expecting. M2's efforts have been astounding and fans should go home happy with this accurately recreated effort.

Super Tennis Blast is an old-school effort that nails that mid-'90s tennis game feel but we're not sure that's what we want in 2019.

Sony take the brilliant London Heist and turn it into a brilliantly compelling full game. Blood & Truth is one of the most essential PSVR titles so far.

A great indie platform puzzler with distinctive graphics and a compelling gameplay hook. Recommended despite a few niggles.

I found a fun, brainless quality to Warhammer Chaosbane that I could zone out to. Its inspirations are clear and imitates well without surpassing expectations. I found the story to be too self-serious and the presentation too bland. The loop of combat, loot and levelling always rewarded, though. The base content lacks some variety but the endgame should hopefully provide an enduring quality.

Bloober Team have made some important strides with Layers of Fear 2. Visually, there is a sharper, clearer look on display. Pacing is improved with scares not being laid on so thick and heavy. It does seem to lack some atmospheric qualities but the chase sequences do offer the player something to beware. Failure can hamper the flow and the storytelling is a little heavy-handed. For the most part, Layers of Fear 2 is a good effort.

If you can get past the fiddly controls, the underwhelming first level and the occasional progress-stopping glitches, Killing Floor: Incursion is an occasionally funny, often scary and generally fun VR shooter.

Slay the Spire is a very difficult but hugely rewarding roguelike built around deck building and card battling. Each failure is a learning experience and the desire to succeed will keep you playing for potentially hundreds of hours.

A good retro-styled puzzle game across multiple themed levels. Great fun and better yet if you have a Vita too.

Rage 2 is a truly excellent shooter with big, beefy weapons and some huge, challenging battles to participate in. However, it is wrapped up in an open world which is quite bland and too generic to separate it from all the post-apocalyptic sandbox shooters that have come before it.

Back in 1995 seems to offer a homage to survival horror titles of the 32 bit era but it's only surface deep. The gameplay and story were surpassed over twenty years ago which makes this tough to recommend unless you're simply looking for another platinum trophy.

There's an intelligent execution to Darkwood. The gloomy aesthetics and effective sound design heighten your senses and place you precariously on edge. The unflinching challenge adds weight to encounters and each trip to new pastures carries great risk. There is a fantastic confidence with how Darkwood lets you dictate the pace of exploration and it's enticing me to keep coming back.

An accomplished homage to GTA games of old with some interesting mechanics. Sometimes less is indeed more. We're going to go the distance with this one.

Observation is a science fiction thriller with a solid concept that puts you in control of an AI on a space station. The presentation is top notch and the story goes places but I found the pacing and lack of true interaction to be frustrating.

A no-thrills hack and slash platforming rogue-lite effort that doesn't do much wrong, but never tries to do anything spectacular either.

Team Sonic Racing is a solid kart racer that suffers from some unfortunate drawbacks. The team-based racing works well and mixes up the usual kart formula. However, the game is marred by game modes that lack fun, missing polish and an inescapable feeling that this is a downgrade of what has come before.

A well done story-driven indie game in the classic JRPG style. Worth seeing out rather than skipping through.

UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adventure is pretty inoffensive, just like the film it has the licence for. It's alright, but just like the film it's hard to garner much enthusiasm for it unless you're already a fan. A by-the-numbers movie tie-in with a straightforward platinum trophy.

AngerForce: Reloaded is a very playable, and enjoyable, shoot 'em up with well-considered roguelite elements but is let down by a flawed difficulty curve and some rough loading times.

Taito have done great things with the Space Invaders series so copying the original and ignoring the brilliant sequels seems kind of lazy. If you want cheap platinums while looking at something that kind of looks like a MAME rom then this will serve that function but if you want anything approaching a good game then this isn't for you.

Think 'Race the Sun' but more minimalist in terms of style and content. More meaningful than some of Ratalaika's more blatant platinum bait games but this into the screen endless runner variant is a little too limited to provide real value.

I still can't find myself comfortable within the genre but at least Fade to Silence offers people like me a foothold. Despite a more casual experience and some welcome co-op, combat feels sluggish and shallow. The world is wonderfully bleak but the storytelling fails to capitalise on the setting. There's some intriguing systems at work here but they don't combine in a way I can enjoy.

At its best Mortal Kombat 11 is everything we want. It's enjoyable, deep, violent and funny and it has enough content to keep players entertained for way longer than the usual fighting game. When it's doing what it should, this is the best Mortal Kombat yet and up there with Mortal Kombat X as the best fighter of this generation. Unfortunately, the other stuff the game does is an issue. The customisation is locked behind a lot of random grinding and the multiple in-game currencies complicate the experience enough to spoil the party a little.

An accomplished shoot-em-up with rogue-lite elements and an addictive core gameplay loop.