It’s a bit too short and easy to be truly satisfying for experienced gamers. That said, I defy any parent still in possession of an ounce of childhood joy and wonder to have a bad time taking turns playing alongside their kids.

This web of interconnected systems is, in truth, a tad bewildering. But everything just seemed to keep developing and refining itself regardless of whether I knew how or why, so I never felt overwhelmed. I was just sort of along for the ride sometimes, and I didn’t really mind. Because, in the end, I just wanted to spend time with some familiar faces, listen to a new generation of artists cover some of my favourite game music, and see how a world I haven’t visited in decades had changed while I was away. I’m happy to say I had a great time catching up. And I got to stay at some lovely little B&Bs along the way.

Thing is, it injects so much dopamine into my little monkey brain that any intellectual qualms I may have are effectively quashed as long as a controller is in my hands. Put more plainly, Nintendo really knows how to make a fabulously fun run-to-the-right game.

Granted, sometimes it feels like Insomniac, in its push to give us more than we could have imagined, almost goes a bit too far. Like the addition of a wingsuit so that Spider-Man can glide through Manhattan’s glass and steel canyons a little more quickly. It’s an innovation likely born from the sheer size of the city, which can take long minutes to traverse by web-slinging alone. It can be useful, but it doesn’t feel very Spidey-ish. I generally preferred swooping up and down, even if it took a little longer. But if that’s the worst complaint one can level at Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac must be doing something right. And it does nothing to diminish the game’s absolutely lovely energy. Every play session left me feeling upbeat and like all was right with the world. Or at least the world within the game.

Turn 10’s 8th kick at the Forza Motorsport can should have plenty of appeal to gearheads looking for a photorealistic, physically accurate simulation of high speed racing. And since it’s included with Xbox Game Pass, there’s no reason for subscribers not to take it for a test spin.

I suspect the next time we see a $90 Assassin’s Creed it will be something significantly larger in breadth of world and play. Until then, Assassin’s Creed Mirage serves as an excellent stopgap, a historical adventure that proves entertaining and edifying in equal measure while leaving time to enjoy some of the other great games releasing this fall.

All I want in a galaxy exploration adventure is for it to convince the lower levels of my brain that I’m an honest-to-goodness spaceman, the star of an epic and action-packed space saga. Starfield delivers on this, and then some.

Pikmin 4 doesn’t revolutionize Miyamoto’s nearly quarter-century old concept. Instead, in much the same way as the pikmin themselves continue to gradually evolve, it grows the franchise’s ideas and themes slowly and naturally, with a bit of sci-fi whimsy and a feel-good, family-friendly vibe. I’m here for it.

It’s been a banner year for interactive entertainment, but Final Fantasy XVI manages to sit very near the top of the heap. An easy recommendation for fantasy and RPG fans.

I’m sorely tempted to review the 20th instalment in Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s 35-year-old Legend of Zelda franchise by simply giving it a perfect score and issuing a few words along the lines of “just go play this absolute gem of a game.” To give away more robs potential players of the joy of discovering its countless wonders for themselves.

It took a little longer than I’d have liked to really draw me in, but once Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had its hooks in I went happily along for the ride. If Kathleen Kennedy greenlit a Cal Kestis TV series or film, I’d be over the moon. Maybe just with a little less wall-running.

Players swarm to new Fire Emblem games not to see the latest in graphics and mechanics innovations, but rather to enjoy a bit of classic Japanese RPG-style melodrama mixed with captivating tactical combat. And that’s exactly what they get here. The added bit of nostalgia that comes with revisiting past heroes is just the gravy on the side.

Ragnarök is well worth playing even if some of its callbacks fly over your head. We only get a handful of single-player games each year that deliver such high-calibre storytelling, finely tuned action, and gorgeous graphics in a single package, and Sony’s Dad of War ranks high among them once more.

Bayonetta 3 won’t be for everyone, and that’s OK. There’s room for all sorts of oddities in our modern gaming landscape. And if you’re willing to just sit back and be wowed by a mountain of manic mayhem, chances are you won’t regret the time you spend with Bayonetta in her multiverse of madness.

Splatoon 3 feels complete. The new additions are more significant than what we had in Splatoon 2 at launch. They make it feel like a finished game.

The Last of Us never needed fixing. Everything from combat to crafting has aged remarkably well. Still, it never hurts to polish perfection. And this beautifully enhanced edition works hard to ensure Naughty Dog’s masterpiece will remain my favourite video game for some time to come.

I’m admittedly still a bit lost when it comes to how all of the upgrade systems, subclasses, and secondary objectives and tasks work. And I’m sad that — as usual — I’ll miss out on the new raid mission for lack of being able to schedule a big team of friends to get together for multi-hour play sessions. But perhaps this is just the cost of doing business as a casual Destiny player.

Gran Turismo 7 is a bit of a throwback to the genre’s early days — and includes some of the series’ old shortcomings — but when it comes to accurate driving physics and sheer, unadulterated love of cars, it’s something close to peerless.

Elden Ring is neither a step forward nor backward for the famed developer, but rather a shift to the side. It’s a different kind of FromSoftware game, one that mixes stampeding mounted combat in a vast world with more intimate, terrifying moments in dark caves and cramped castles. I’m having a grand time with it, make no mistake, but it’s not my favourite FromSoftware game to date.

Simply put, this one is special.

We’ve got a classic and reverent Halo experience that embraces modern ideas where it makes sense. Perhaps I’m showing my age, but this is pretty much just what I want in a Halo game — or at least it will be with the eventual addition of a co-operative campaign mode and some multiplayer tweaks. Add in the fact that it’s included with Xbox Game Pass when it launches on December 8 — bringing millions of subscribers into the fold from day one — and Halo Infinite is clearly going to be the game to play on Xbox platforms for the foreseeable future.

There’s a sense of unfettered joy in everything here. It’s a game that just wants to be fun. For everyone. It aims for every moment you spend with it — be it five minutes or five hours — to be a frustration-free, jaw-dropping, reward-filled delight. And in this endeavour it succeeds marvellously. If there was ever a racing game that needs to be in every Xbox owner’s library, Forza Horizon 5 is it.

So to experience all the good of Deathloop you need also suck it up and suffer a bit of bad. Nothing too stinky, just enough to make you intermittently wrinkle your nose. But it’s worth it. Arkane’s newest isn’t perfect, but I suspect it will end up one of the most memorable games of 2021 simply because it’s so unlike everything out there at the moment. In a season of sequels and various licensed properties, it’s a treat to get to play something as original and unexpected as this.

All in all, though, Rift Apart makes for an exceptionally easy recommendation. It’s fun for gamers of all ages and genders, absolutely crammed with action, laugh-out-loud funny in parts, and — I can’t stress this enough — looks the way we all imagined the next generation of console games should. I think I speak for PlayStation 5 gamers everywhere when I say we’ll happily take a few more like this.

I don’t see Returnal becoming another Uncharted-style mega-franchise for Sony. It’s just too punishing and quirky to nab a massive audience. That said, it’s a well-produced and polished play that doesn’t really feel like anything else out there at the moment. If you’re not afraid of a challenge, it may be worth adding to your PlayStation playlist.

I don’t know how much longer this pandemic will go on, but I’m happy to have New Pokemon Snap as one more weapon in my arsenal to combat lockdown boredom, alleviate my creative listlessness, and encourage a little more socially distanced friendship and community.

Fantasian draws clear inspiration from mid-numbered Final Fantasy games. From its orthodox structure — players are put in control of a party of heroes who explore towns, dungeons, and an overworld map, with turn-based battle occurring at random intervals — to its sci-fi-cum-fantasy vibe, which includes grand airships, imaginative monsters, and even glowing save crystals, anyone who played a turn-of-the-century Japanese role-playing game is going to experience some welcome nostalgia here — especially when Uematsu’s signature battle music and themes kick in.

Whether you think of Immortals Fenyx Rising as a Breath of the Wild set within Greek mythology, a kid-friendly Assassin’s Creed, or something all its own (likely because you haven’t played either of those other games), the plain fact is that it is eminently playable. There’s never a shortage of things to do, and doing these things is generally a lot of fun. And at the end of the day, that’s pretty much all most folks want out of an open world adventure.