Even in our own little fishbowls – whether physical, as in Covid lockdowns, or metaphorical – we must all make the same effort to climb past grief and hopelessness, and work through our own feelings and memories. It’s the only way to be there for our friends and family, and to keep proving our worth – if only to ourselves and nobody else. Raw and realistic, this game is a beautiful tale of overcoming and becoming.

Is This Seat Taken? is a game that succeeds on this simplicity, with a strong core idea well-realised in a minimalist art style, and siloed puzzles you can tackle at your own pace. It’s never too complex or meanly challenging, but provides a smorgasbord of light-hearted and moreish challenges with little sparks of humour that keep you charmed by the experience...It does a lot with very little, arriving as a wonderfully well-formed, confident puzzle game with a sense of freshness, style, and pizzazz that marks it out as exceptional.

Don’t think too deeply about Kirby Air Riders, and you’ll be swept away, quirks and all.

LEGO Voyagers is a great, small, relatively straightforward co-op experience. It’s something you could play with someone who has never finished a game before or your gamer buddy who finished Elden Ring five times, and both of them would likely enjoy the experience equally.

Overall, the mix of these five new mini-games makes The Jackbox Party Pack 11 an incredibly strong Jackbox experience. There’s a wonderfully cohesive style in this particular pack, and each mini-game feels well-designed for fun, party-based antics. It also hits all the activities that make a Jackbox game fun – there’s a drawing game, a trivia game, a funny writing game and more. It’s all in service of a multiplayer party experience that absolutely brims with a bright joy.

There’s even a seemingly Persona-inspired Velvet Room-type setting in this game – a go-between dimension where you can spend time raising Digimon on a farm, or spelunking into new virtual dungeons...It all adds up to a game that feels incredibly ambitious, wild, and free. Media.Vision has created an adaptation of Digimon that grasps the core of the franchise, and stretches it in every direction. Any idea the team had, it was absorbed into Time Stranger – and the game is all the better for it. It’s constantly surprising, and incredibly creative.

With its lovely cast of characters, all with their own tiny personalities and intentions, and the freedom to forge friendships, romance and make enemies, it’s a delight to vibe within Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. While this game isn’t as meaty as anticipated, and you’ll need to find your own sense of play, it’s entirely loveable, and easy to invest in.

While this game isn’t as much of an upgrade as its predecessor was, it still offers plenty for players looking to live out their wrestling dreams.

In a sea of other modern games beholden to the formula, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a bright, creative new franchise entry that is bold, confident and charts its own wonderful course.

While the game’s story is applied relatively loosely here, and you may occasionally feel bogged down by reams of dialogue, it’s a wonderful game to explore in bites. By design, it’s very bizarre, but with a wholesome approach and a wicked sense of humour, it’s also a very endearing experience.

Ultimately, between the two, I prefer Call of the Sea. It’s a more cohesive game with a stronger story. But Call of the Elder Gods is a worthwhile follow-up, one that offers similarly challenging puzzles with satisfying solutions. If you enjoyed the first game, this call’s worth heeding, too.

In MakeRoom, you can simply create and vibe. That’s all this game is, and all it needs to be. Once you accept that, you’ll find yourself in a cosier world, where anything feels possible.

We could all do with the injection of charm that Dogpile offers, delivered so well in a beautiful cartoon art style, and with those all-important, synergistic game mechanics. This is pure, encapsulated delight that’ll leave you buzzing with a happy glow.

Baby Steps has given me some of the best – and worst – moments I’ve had in a game in quite some time, and I felt richer for both the good and the bad experiences I had with it.

Screamer is a game of half measures. It’s got an anime style that doesn’t extend beyond the menus and cutscenes, a cool drift mechanic that isn’t put to good use by the dull track designs, and a long story campaign that just doesn’t hang together in an interesting way...It feels like a game where the final product perhaps isn’t what the developers set out to make, or where restrictions have prevented it from realising its potential. It’s a shame – a story-focused, anime-style racing game with cool drifts and deep interpersonal conflicts between a diverse cast could have really been cool.As it stands, Screamer is screaming for some significant tweaks under the hood before it’s totally roadworthy.

Demonschool is a game I appreciated more than I enjoyed. It’s a collection of great ideas, brilliant artistic choices and fun moments but they don’t quite stitch together into a game as good as the one you imagine from the screenshots and GIFs. There’s definitely something here; when I’m not actually playing Demonschool, I think of it more fondly than I do when the controller’s in my hand. It’s still worth playing if you have a soft spot for cool indie games with impeccable style, and can forgive them when they don’t quite hit the mark.

As a solid tennis simulator, with layers of novelty to differentiate it from its nearest competitors and plenty of unique modes to conquer, Mario Tennis Fever is an absolute racket. While odd in parts, it remains charming and bright-eyed throughout its many rounds.

Dear Me, I Was… has launched at a very low price point ($11), which feels appropriate for what is, essentially, a lightly interactive short film. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, and, right now, maybe the most visually gorgeous Switch 2 exclusive, even if it’s not pushing the hardware particularly hard.

Get to know this expansion’s many parts, and you’ll find a bounty of activities to enrich the lives of all Sims in your household – whether that means learning a new skill, or taking time to relax in Gibbi Gibbi Point, and beyond.

It makes the puzzles in Little Problems a real challenge to solve, but they tickle your mind as you progress. While some solutions are simple, others are head-scratching, and in the mix of clues you’ll eventually find your answers resolving. It’s a wonderful, satisfying process, and one that gives Little Problems a real spark. This game doesn’t do much different from others in the puzzle-mystery genre, but with its warmth, and the depth of its many challenges, it’s a wonderful adaptation that’s well worth playing for puzzle enthusiasts.

The Reigns system feels perfect for the adaptation, providing clever choices in the quests presented, a housing narrative and the encouragement to forge on. You will fail over and over in your path to success, but with endlessly rewarding progression and always-surprising encounters, the blows are softened...In this game, Geralt embarks on yet another very worthy adventure, with his signature dry humour contributing to funny, ridiculous and heartfelt encounters along the way. Take caution as you travel and you’ll have a warm, lovely time here.

Whether you’re keen on the game to improve your fitness (and it certainly helps there), or you’re just looking for an excuse to groove along to a thumping beat, Just Dance 2026 Edition will serve you very well. After all, we can always do with more excuses to groove.

While it doesn’t feel entirely essential – really, it’s for those who enjoy the supernatural side of the game, or just want a pretty new town to roam in – Innisgreen and everything that comes with it gives Enchanted by Nature such a lovely sense of charm. If you’ve ever dreamed of fairies and meadows, it’s a simple, wonderful delight.

It remains compelling, despite its flaws, thanks to a steady, beating heart, and a joyful design that makes you want to forge onwards, towards a brighter future for all your tiny robot friends.

Mafia: The Old Country is competently made, beautiful, but unambitious in its structure – it’s an offer you can comfortably refuse.

Here is a game that attempts to revisit what made the original Life is Strange so popular, that sacrifices the integrity of Double Exposure and its boldest ideas, for a softer, less punchy adventure, with fewer things to say. Seeing Chloe and Max together again is aggressively nice, but Reunion leaves so many threads dangling that it’s hard not to question what the game could’ve been instead.

While some of my appreciation is clouded by my disappointment in what Royalty & Legacy could have been, rather than what it is, I can still see the care that’s gone into this pack’s overall design, and it does add plenty of neat, smaller features that make Sims life more meaningful.

With its sense of flash and dazzle, All’s Justice frequently inspires euphoria as you flit from one battle to the next. The action is breathtaking, to the point where it often paves over the game’s lesser elements.