As a requiem for the franchise, this adventure is a layered, thoughtful sequel. It manages to neatly thread two vastly different gameplay tones together, with each of its elements well-designed to create a cohesive, balanced adventure that serves a variety of needs ... With a steady back-and-forth between moments of sheer terror and outright glee, Requiem hauls you along a story that forces you to reckon with its core message: that even against the encroachment of nightmares, the world is worth fighting for.

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.

Across its short runtime, Mixtape makes a deep impact. As much as it’s about the story of three friends trying to savour their last moments together, it also speaks to the great promise of growing up and how wide-open, beautiful and terrifying the world once seemed then. It’s about growing as a person and what that can mean for the people left behind. Mixtape is also about the power of music and how it can help with these fears – how it can be a companion, express inner doubts, excitement and ambition, speak to the soul, or just provide an artful escape. In this exploration, Mixtape is simply magical.

Pokémon Pokopia is entirely brilliant. You'll have expectations. You'll want a cosy, wholesome adventure, with Pokémon given a chance to shine. Pokopia brushes all of those expectations aside with a confident wave, arriving as an expansive, ambitious life-adventure simulator that's absolutely packed with bright ideas, and the execution to match.

Whether approaching the game for the first time with this release, or returning for its add-on Star-Crossed Worlds DLC, there’s so much to this adventure. It’s bright, bouncy, and brilliant, and now even more so with its new features. Modern platformers don’t get much better than this.

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.

With a grand scope to this storytelling, and visuals to match, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a dazzling experience that surrounds you with its beauty.

It’s a tremendous piece of narrative game design.

In this mix – a subtle, clever humour, a loose but engaging story, and an ample variety of choice in every step – The Outer Worlds 2 is an impressive achievement. It’s a game that frog-leaps its predecessor easily and simply, with a variety of systems all working together to serve a brilliant choose-your-own-adventure experience that allows players to feel like an intrinsic, influential part of its world.

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.

The Séance of Blake Manor is a wonder-filled puzzle adventure that wields its horror aesthetic well, telling a dark and consistently enthralling tale while leaving room for player choice and exploration in every outcome. This home may be haunted, but the ghosts make for incredibly good company.

Esoteric Ebb is a delight and a joy. It’s yet more proof that taking yourself less seriously is when the real magic happens.

This is a game that understands its purpose so clearly. The narrative may borrow occasionally from common tropes, but as each chapter dawns, Goodnight Universe feels more and more like its own thing, with clarity in its intentionality, and how it invites players into its narrative.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch. Having played the original, pre-patched version of the game, I was anticipating some elements of trouble, or at the very least, severe graphical downgrades that would impact my personal enjoyment. To my delight, I got nothing of the sort. This really is an excellent port, and one that reveals just how much better and more robust the Nintendo Switch 2 is, compared to its predecessor. It’s a great sign for the future, too. Third-party developers should be encouraged by this port, knowing the Switch 2 really is capable of handling massive AAA adventures, with only some caveats needed to deliver a good-looking, good feeling experience for players.

It’s so satisfying to move through this world, and to lay waste to Ruse’s army with your incredible moveset, that I can’t help but hope this is just the beginning of Joe Musashi’s comeback.

Whether you’re going pedal to the metal, or just popping in for a casual race or two, Mario Kart World delivers in spades.

Since its launch, Two Point Museum has evolved in some surprising ways, with its museum curation mechanics being translated to an array of settings. Following on from its delightful zoo-themed DLC, Arty-Facts is yet another must-play expansion, with plenty of new content, and a robust storyline to build from.

Saros understands exactly what motivates players, and presents all the tools you need to experience the joy of triumph against the odds. Even when it presents a frustrating road block, there is always the opportunity to move through it, with persistence key to enjoying the game’s many, ever-twisting challenges.

On Nintendo Switch 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder's stages pop with vivid colours, and the action looks fantastic. There's a layer of crispness here that really elevates the colour palette of the original game and its sense of charm. The upgrades make it well worth replaying the adventure, or challenging yourself to collect each and every hidden item.

Ghost of Yotei is a game of great beauty and great violence, its disparate parts weaved together in a sweeping, lush narrative about the transformative power of revenge. This is a journey that treads in the footsteps of Ghost of Tsushima, while charting its own course, telling a winding tale about a warrior-ghost who wanders a harsh, unforgiving world in search of solace.

Metaphors aside, Death by Scrolling is undiluted fun. It’s simple enough that anyone can play – but not so simple that everyone can survive.

In a world of swift movement, KuloNiku: Bowl Up! is an opportunity to take a well-earned cosy gameplay break, but one that allows for consistent achievement and a real sense of satisfying progression.

It understands that humans are at the heart of superheroics, and that a magical suit is less important than a desire to uplift everyone around you, and to help them realise their potential. To see past their flaws, to see what they can become. To save the world, one person at a time.

Even advancing at a wicked clip, the DLC’s plot is well-balanced, and it consistently provides new reasons to return as new features unlock and the dark, gothic story unfolds.

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.

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 there are many layers here – it’s a Paper Mario homage, it’s an original fantasy adventure and it adapts beloved IP – each idea is given time to evolve. There’s a delicate balance required, and developers Sleepy Castle Studio and Wing-It! Creative have managed it very well indeed.

If you’re somebody with a knack for code-cracking, whether solo or in a team, Escape Simulator 2 is a wonderful translation of real-world escape rooms, with strong themes pairing with tightly-designed puzzles for an experience that’s well worth tackling. Keep your head on straight, and your brain waves humming, and electrifying mysteries await.