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.

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.

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.

Despite being in development for several years, Pragmata arrives as a tight, prescient and timely adventure with plenty of thoughts to share about what our tech-infused future might bring.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

There’s something soothing about BALL x PIT. Losses rarely feel too dispiriting and that part of your brain that enjoys seeing the numbers going up is well-served. Some of the elements dictating how you progress through the game are a little frustrating but it’s all worth it for those moments where you bounce your balls just right and a swath of approaching enemy forces are wiped out in seconds.

It’s a tremendous piece of narrative game design.

The Drifter deserves all of your attention. It certainly earns a space within the Australian pop culture zeitgeist. I hope we’re talking about it for years to come.

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 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.

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.

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.

It’s not entirely revolutionary, but with a sleekness in its racing, and plenty of ways to shake up the status quo, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds arrives as a bright, creative new kart racing game, with plenty of charm to make an impact.

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.

Longevity is a touchy subject in this day and age, as many live-service titles have struggled to keep up with the gaming landscape. Marathon, for a while, looked to be one of those one-and-done that would be lost to time...Fortunately, Bungie has crafted something that proves that wrong, but looks to get better with each update. While not a single-player haven or easy-to-enter title, what you get is a great multiplayer extraction shooter that many should get in on as soon as possible.

With bite-sized gameplay, bright and colourful characters, and a lot of imagination in gameplay, Lego Party! is a game that won’t necessarily surprise adults, but will provide a welcome party experience, and one that’ll absolutely delight younger kids. Even being outside the target audience, I can see the fun, and how it lit up the eyes of my niece, with clever choices elevating this significantly.

Borderlands 4 is a wildly enjoyable romp, with a raft of systems that work smoothly together. It's not without friction, in terms of its high challenge level, but it all serves a greater purpose, feeding into a cohesive and mature narrative about escaping tyranny.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is not complicated. It’s an old 90s arcade game but designed with a one-time payment in mind rather than needing a constant stream of coins. It’s relatively easy to finish but the moment-to-moment experience of playing it is hugely satisfying. More than anything, it makes me want to pick up a huge anthology of fun old Marvel comics and enjoy some convoluted plotting.