A super sharp-edged, but super enjoyable retro platforming challenge.

Sonny is a well-rounded and challenging RPG with a little room for improvement.

Whether you’re shooting wildlife, caravaning across a perilous river, or playing doctor with your crew, you’ll find that this life-management sim provides hours of entertainment, with a constant push to go further, see more, and explore the wild yonder. Adding a new graphical sheen to a game that began as a text adventure is a welcome addition, and seeing the Trail again at its best is enough to trick my nostalgic memory to think that it looks just the same as when I sat down to play it during class, and that’s a ticket I would buy again and again. While The Oregon Trail may not be for everyone and it doesn’t add too much to make it the best game it could be, it’s a great title to play when you’re looking for adventure, or peril to overcome.

Yo-Kai Watch leaves a positive first impression, providing just enough creativity and content to help you see past most of its misgivings and flaws.

Super Mario Party is what you'd expect from the series - short bursts of fun that everyone can enjoy .

A safe and conversation mash-up that fails to meet the high standards of the best Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario games.

Baseball fans should retrieve their wallets immediately. You won't find a more immersive baseball game outside the ballpark.

The Denpa Men 2 is the sequel we were hoping for, offering up quirky RPG action that is as challenging as it is silly.

A straightforward tower defence game blessed by beautiful visuals.

A compelling mix of dark plots, kooky stories and lawyer talk, Justice for All adds more evidence to the DS's case as the thinking person's console.

Not in the slightest bit sketchy, Max and the Magic Marker gives you a light hand in level design that results in something of a platforming gem.

A Little Bit of... Dr Mario is a challenging and enjoyable match-four game, but one that's undermined by poor presentation.

Finding Teddy's hands-off approach will likely be too much for many to take, but there's an intriguing and enthralling point-and-click adventure here that's just waiting to be discovered.

Rakoo's Adventure is a bright and fresh casual auto-runner, though the gameplay can't quite live up to the standards set by the stellar cartoony visuals.

Word Puttz's free-to-play formula might rankle with word game purists, but if you're looking for casual, light-hearted word play, you'll find it under the sea.

Rocketbirds is more heavyweight than featherweight, with slick puzzling and oodles of style.

Unlike its predecessor, Evoland 2 tends not to get so swept up in how clever it's being. And that makes it a far warmer and more welcoming experience. It's still poking fun, but it's doing it because it cares, not because it's mean. Sure, it's a little on the scatterbrained side, and there are RPGs on the App Store that do all of the things that it tries out better. But as an experience in pleasant nostalgia, there's enough care and attention been lavished on this one to make it worth your while.

Brown and benign, ATV Pro may have a lot of deep mud but its fails to grip over the long term.

Slow to start, and surprisingly easy to fail at first, give Pocket Academy time and it'll grip just as hard as Kairosoft's previous management games.

A superb golf game that's extremely easy to pick up yet as deep and complex as any 'serious' game, Everybody's Golf is the must-have Vita launch title.

An almost perfect distillation of the last great console Ridge Racer with spot-on handling and a stunning engine. Ridge Racer Slipstream is arguably the best arcade racer on iOS.

The start of something magical, Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure will no doubt blossom into the next Professor Layton or Phoenix Wright for 3DS.

The introduction of the undead gives Stenches an interesting change of pace, but more variety would have earned it a medal of distinction.

Order Up!! To Go is a charming, tactile, and fun time-management game that's undermined by a silly freemium structure.

Where Shadows Slumber mixes light and darkness in some intelligent and incredibly engaging ways.

Star Fox: Command's strategic elements bog down its exciting flying levels, but it looks great, and multiplayer is thankfully free of turn-based antics.

A clever card-battling RPG with enough of a twist to make it stand out from the crowd.

Despite (or perhaps because of) its deranged narrative, Frederic is a stylish confection that truly does justice to the poet of the piano.

A thrilling celebration of Mario's jump, packed with imagination and sharp level layouts. One of the best auto runners around.

Pikuniku is a seemingly simple game packed full of clever ideas and smart design. It does a lot with very little, and makes for a delightful puzzle-platformer in doing so. It's single-player mode can feel a bit meandering and frustrating at times as you struggle to make any meaningful progress, and its co-op is brilliant but just a little too short. But despite all this, it's a game that platformer fans simply must play. It's sheer brilliance wrapped in a silly, cute package, and it's by far one of the smartest platformers on Switch to date.

Perfect Cell mixes the gameplay of the puzzle, speed run, stealth and line drawing genres into an exciting, if unsettling undersea sci-fi adventure.

Cartoony, simple, and entertaining, Rune Raiders offers a great introduction into turn-based strategy games. It just doesn't have enough to keep the veteran strategist engaged.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 Deluxe Edition is over-the-top action at its finest, and a great entry point to the One Piece anime.

The melodramatic use of weapons and curious lack of online multiplayer can't stop Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from offering cheap arcade racing thrills.

Paper Monsters is a beautiful, imaginative, and charming, and technically proficient platformers that's only let down by less than stellar gameplay.

A finely-tuned port from Xbox to iPad, but Mutant Storm feels flat and unsatisfying in comparison to far better blasters on the App Store.

Crimson Shroud is one of the most finely crafted games available on the Nintendo 3DS, though the tabletop setting may prove difficult for some to engage with.

Smart, slick, and seriously well made. Housemarque does it again.

A simple, well-presented and fun game, iBomber 2 builds on the original with enough additions and improvements to keep the experience fresh.

Handsome and unrepentant, Rip Off combines borrowed gameplay and artistic concepts to create something that justifies its theft.

A nice trip down memory lane, Kaptain Brawe: Brawe New World doesn't bring any of its own ideas to the party, but it's an enjoyable diversion all the same.

Packing in character from start to finish, MacGuffin's puzzle play ultimately doesn't entertain enough in its own right to enable the game to stand out from the crowd.

Grandpa and the Zombies is an engaging puzzle game that works the part of your body that zombies covet most.

Prime World: Defenders is tower defence-meets-card collecting. And while there's plenty of meat on the bones, some irksome issues take the shine off things slightly.

A sweet-natured and appealing puzzler with a smattering of rhythm action. Entertaining but brief and a bit lacking in depth.

A fast-paced platformer delivered in easy to manage chunks, Duke Dashington is an impressive twist on the formula.

Heroes and Castles 2 makes a mess of both its genres, offering mushy action and brainless strategy that rarely merge in a satisfying way.

It's Puzzle Craft too, and if you don't have a problem with that then you're going to enjoy this sequel.

An intense blast of hardcore shoot 'em up action packed full of delightful touches. The only problem with Metal Slug 3 on iOS is that it obviously wasn't designed with touch controls in mind.

Ratchet & Clank HD Trilogy is worth your time on Vita, regardless of whether you have nostalgia for the PS2 versions.

Pode is a little bit pricey, but if you've got someone to play with it's a great example of what couch co-op should be.

Aliens: Infestation is the side-scrolling Metroid you've been waiting for, and will especially excite fans of the original movie.

Difficult but rewarding, Race Driver: Create & Race earns a place on the winner's podium, even if it doesn't play fairly all of the time.

Magic Orbz is a cheerily presented Breakout clone that adds physics-based destruction and some fun power-ups to the mix. But, it's still a Breakout clone.

A surprisingly brilliant game of throwing axes into people's heads. It's polished, it's packed with action, and although it's not the weightiest game in the world, it's still well worth picking up.

Technically brilliant and often thrilling, but also considerably lighter than its predecessor and unable to provide the same long-term appeal.

Building on the series' heritage, Mega Man ZX is a refined title that, although not without flaws, brings quality action platforming to the DS.

Ravensword: Shadowlands's enthralling fantasy world, solid RPG mechanics, and wide-eyed sense of adventure make it an epic proposition - despite a couple of obvious weaknesses.

Star Battalion unsuccessfully tries to make up for mediocre gameplay with online co-operative multiplayer and high-definition graphics.

A solidly put together, entertaining midcore strategy battler.

Please, Don't Touch Anything has the potential to touch on some serious issues. What it lacks in narrative it makes up for in fun factor.

The excellent game book engine underneath can't quite iron out House of Hell's problems. It's still a good game, but it pales somewhat in comparison to its predecessor.

Active Soccer 2 hasn't addressed the original's roughness, but it continues to hold a scrappy old-school appeal.

Highborn is a well-intended, though unpolished tactics game that needs to incorporate a number of basic features in order to improve playability.

Arcade Hits is a thoughtful collection including some great games, loads of extras, and fun multiplayer options.

It has a few nice ideas, but Expand it! is too happy to rest on its laurels rather than push on to greatness.

While it doesn't redefine what a city builder can be, Gizmonauts does add a couple of new systems to the formula - looking sharp all the while.

Going free-to-play means Dungelot 2 is compelled to repeatedly dangle in-app purchases in front of the player, but the impeccable presentation and addictive gameplay ensure that it's still better than the original.

There are some great puzzles in Instantion, but there are some not-so-great puzzles to grind through to get to them.

A bright and frantic arcade blast, Intake: Be Aggressive is sometimes a little too shouty for its own good.

A pretty and original but bafflingly constructed oddball platformer with a control system that never feels quite right.

Minor grievances with the finer points of combat aside, Mediatonic's latest is a handsome, challenging, laugh-out-loud funny arena-based brawler.

A brilliant, addictive shooter, Blazing Star might have a few niggles, but they're made up for with bombast and bullets.

Real Boxing looks and plays nicely, but flawed countering and training systems unbalance a promising beat-'em-up.

Competent touch controls and new options to dull the painful difficulty make this port of arcade shooter R Type generally pleasing.

A wonderfully formed block-breaker, Mad Blocker Alpha should be a constant presence on your PSP if you have even the slightest interest in puzzlers.

Lumi has the looks, it has the music, and it has the ideas, but it just doesn't have the controls to back them up.

It's pouty, it's pink, it's pretty darn good - Nintendo presents: New Style Boutique is the game to get your non-gamer sister / daughter / niece this Christmas, and they'll never know you've snuck them a shockingly hardcore management game with excellent production values.

Celebrating life, in all its fleeting chaos, has rarely been as fun as this. Play, enjoy, and stick two fingers up at mortality.

Star Ocean: Second Evolution is a solid RPG remake with some nice new tweaks. It's just a shame it's not better tailored to the PSP.

An artsy, hypnotic little curiosity that's as slight as a summer's breeze.

An attractive derivation on the well-established chain reaction concept, Splode plays well enough, but doesn't offer any new ideas.

Taito's Qix is reborn in this visually arresting puzzle title, but fans will have to learn to live with its rough edges in order to gain maximum enjoyment.

Polished and preened as you'd expect from Gameloft, Zombiewood is an entertaining but ultimately forgettable ride.

Though the game has some issues that make it unnecessarily frustrating, Mimpi is worth taking for a walk.

A warm and welcoming puzzling platformer that's as smart as it is fun.

A jumble of gore and old ideas, Hellraid: The Escape is entertaining when it's at its best, and enjoyable when it's not.

While it was always going to get squashed under the weight of post-Angry Birds expectation, Amazing Alex does a decent job. It might not be Rovio's finest work, but it shows there's life in the company outside of pigs and disgruntled birds.

Galactrix reaches for the stars, but is grounded due to gameplay dominated by chance, minor control issues, and middling presentation.

Bright, addictive and fun - Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is a great addition to the DS adventure line-up.

Perfection contains a solid central mechanic and it's nicely presented, but the unadorned slicing wears thin very quickly.

It might look amazing, but there are too many little problems here to wholeheartedly recommend the game.

There's a lot to like in Astra, and if you're into leaping around planets then you're going to enjoy it.

This Layton may not take after his famous dad, but his thrilling, fast-paced mysteries make this the gaming equivalent of a page-turner.

A concise and enjoyable action RPG-lite with an irritating - but not deal-breaking - IAP system.

An enjoyable maze-based puzzler with a slightly annoying lead character. If you can put up with a lead that has the odd sulk, you should download it now.

You might be surprised where the actual meat of the game lies, but Warhammer 40,000: Carnage is a well put together, entertaining diversion.

Guerrilla Bob has a winning ticket with fun levels, firecracker action, and snazzy graphics that could go even further delivering variety and depth.