It is perhaps not the most comprehensive set of online options, with Nintendo still looking like they are feeling their way with online multiplayer. But there are flashes of inspiration, such as the involving spectator mode. But most importantly, Smash’s online mode works beautifully well.

You’ll feel every punch, grimace at every brutal knock-down and celebrate every win as if it were your last. It’s a heart-thumping, nerve-jangling gaming experience and, as a sports game, is agonisingly close to perfection. A little more finesse in its Legacy Mode could have made it an all-time classic.

This is an unusually brave blockbuster, not prepared to compromise its vision in favour of chasing a larger audience; a credit to both developer and publisher. And while it may not be for everybody, those that are looking for a convincing interpretation of sci-fi's most terrifying monster will be well-served.

A fascinating game. Through the seemingly endless collisions and alliances between the game's factions, you constantly find yourself placed into unplanned yet unique situations, and forced to make unpleasant choices.

With a series of combat and stealth challenge rooms with online leader boards rounding off the package, Arkham Asylum is a brilliantly polished and wholly engrossing prospect. Few licensed titles have captured so authentically and completely the ethos of its inspiration as Arkham Asylum.

There is much to love about FM2010. It is not a giant leap forward, but it does not suffer any for that. Veterans of the FM series will still love it, while newcomers will pick it up and never want to put it down.

The biggest achievement here is managing to reach out to new or lapsed players, while still piling on new intricacy for long term fans. For them, this is a compelling tangle of improved, impassioned football strategy, bursting with detailed dealings, sumptuous stats and days out in Shrewsbury. And it's never been a better time to step into the dugout for rookie gaffers.

A remarkable experience.

But here is X & Y, finally dragging me in with added accessibility and a visual flourish. If Pokemon’s greatest pleasure is the joy of discovery, then I’ve finally discovered it. And hooray for that.

It’s a coming of age story, essentially, with the saccharine beginnings of a jolly jaunt giving way to harsher challenges along the way.

With Forza Motorsport 3 Turn 10 have made great strides towards accessibility, but have managed to do so without compromising what remains the most open, detailed and enjoyable racing simulation on the market.

While it contains some excellent ideas, the manager mode needs a lot of work, and it's not clear at this stage whether its list of problems can or will be fixed with a downloadable patch. It's really this that holds the game back from earning a higher score at this stage, and this is a real pity, because there isn't any football title that can compete with FIFA 10's superb core gameplay engine.

Fifa 11's improvements evolve rather than a revolutionise the franchise's already impressive strengths and overall it doesn't feel like a massive step forward for the series. However, with its depth of customisation, superb gameplay, awesome visuals and fantastic online and career modes, Fifa 11 is about the most complete package fan of football video games could want.

To me, it feels more like an existential horror story, a deliberate blurring of the lines between the creator and the consumer, in order to tell a really good story.

An unashamed definition of its host console; simple, colourful, accessible to all, but with a hidden depth for those who wish to explore it. It’s unlikely to convert many that are lost to the Wii cause, but for those who have already embraced it, a trip to Wuhu Island will be some of the most fun you’ll have all year.

Limbo is a game that cheerfully deals in oxymoron, its awful beauty framing macabre humour. But for all its disparate elements, for all the varied puzzles and shifts in tone, there lies a game of a single, unwavering vision.

Both more terrifying and more fun to play than its incredibly impressive predecessor. Dead Space 2 is not – and never could be – a game to suit everyone's taste, but if you're a player willing to risk a few nightmares for the chance to immerse yourself in pure terror, it's one of the best horror games available for this generation of consoles.

An absolute delight.

From the backgrounds to the animations to the bold colours, Cuphead is a love letter both to classic cartoons and platform-shooters, fine tuned and tweaked so it plays like a dream. It also manages to take a certain much-maligned gaming trope and turn it into something wonderful.

But despite God of War III being afraid of flying too close to the sun -lest those carefully crafted wings should melt- the journey is relentlessly exciting; a blistering spectacle told in blood and thunder. Truly epic, then. And I defy anyone to argue with the definition this time around.

People looking for the next Halo will most likely come away disappointed, as will anyone hoping for a solid single-player experience. But those of you who are up for something a little bit different and more thoughtful will find a lot to appreciate in Section 8: Prejudice.

Harmonix remains the master of mapping note charts to the music.

DeathSpank may not be perfect, and it may take many of its gameplay cues from other titles, but it's a fun and entertaining romp which is well worth a look.

It’s Gears at its very best, fierce gunplay mixing with a fabulous ebb and flow across smartly designed maps. It’s nothing revolutionary, rather existing elements melded into a satisfying whole. It’s the kind of thing that makes Judgment a more long-term investment than its campaign demands, but even the single-player’s familiarity and conservatism can’t take away from the base thrill of pulling the trigger or revving that chainsaw.

Last Light is the rare shooter that lingers with you once you’re done with it.

Evolve is exactly as satisfying as the people you're playing with. It serves a concept that is so precise that anything less than perfect unison between participants results in a confused mess. But when it all comes together, when your fellow players are all singing from the same hymn sheet, there’ are few more striking multiplayer experiences to be had.

There’s not much to like about a business model so brazenly designed to divorce kids from their pocket money – and the big swing in favour of untradeable reward cards this year only increases the likelihood of that outcome. That said… it is remarkably addictive, and the overhaul of the chemistry rules that underpin squad building have at least shaken up the shakedown.

Despite these niggles, I was left feeling satisfied after the post-credits scene. I’m already planning on diving back in and fixing the mistakes of my first run. Prey makes you feel clever, excites, intrigues and, at least once, can be absolutely terrifying. But, hey, at least you can turn into a toilet roll now. If you’re looking for one of the most interesting triple-A video games this year, it’s over here disguised as a sci-fi shooter.

Players who simply wish to drink in the dreamy visuals and enjoy the cute characters will find Kirby's Epic Yarn a breezy and attractive way to while away six or so hours of their time.

Returnal is a punishing game which revels in the brutality of its challenge – and given the randomness baked in to the roguelike conceit, it doesn’t always feel like a fair one. Extreme difficulty spikes abound and ultimately twitch-like reflexes will only get you so far; the success or otherwise of any given run can often depend on which weapon types, buff-bestowing artefacts or consumables appear early on. I managed to blitz through one of the game's six biomes, boss-fight and all, at the first attempt thanks to a fortuitous combination of auto-healing augmentations and a launcher blessed with homing ammunition. Conversely, soldiering on with a sub-optimal build can be a dispiriting struggle.

The satisfaction felt at the end of a hard-fought point is all the greater for the knowledge that you’ve guided that perfect shot with a deft flick of your wrist as opposed to a well-timed button press. Though ultimately lacking the precision a truly great tennis game needs, EA should be commended for a superb Wii effort which amply demonstrates the publisher’s commitment to the format.

It's well worth a play for anyone looking for an intelligently told, challenging story, or anyone who's a fan of adventure games which happily bring you back down to earth with a thud.

The offshoot is that there are likely to be one or two sections that might rub players the wrong way. But it is exactly that manic energy that makes the return of Battletoads such a welcome treat.

Ultimately, the majority of Pokémon Let’s Go is unlikely to be the challenge competitive players are looking for, particularly those who are well-versed in Yellow’s familiar rhythm. Though a spectacularly demanding end-game, asking you to train up one of each of the 150 species of Kanto-region Pokémon to battle Master trainers of the same type, will certainly keep the dedicated busy. This could be where the game’s online trading and battling features could come into their own.

While those opening hours can feel like a languid tutorial, Game Freak know that the challenge will need to climb. And if anything there is a sudden spike that might come a little hard for newcomers, given the breeziness of the early game.

This is one of the most compelling, enjoyable episodic games around. It is a shame about the technical problems, but that's not to say it's not pristine in many ways. A clever interface, a vibrant art style and a simple, atmospheric soundtrack compliment what is a wonderful, harrowing, human story.

Luckily [the checkpointing is] never quite that bad, and the compelling narrative, stunning action setpieces and beautifully realised game world more than make up for the few shortcomings.

The odd balancing issue does threaten to undermine Mario’s first foray into co-op multiplayer and there is the nagging feeling that, perhaps, Nintendo were not entirely sure of its own focus. But these are quibbles oft forgotten when in the throes of NSMB Wii’s joyful, beguiling character.

This adaption of LA Noire is terrific fun, with Rockstar putting a lot of work into its detail and implementation. This is a game perfectly suited and definably improved by virtual reality. Its fleeting and occasionally disjointed nature, however, betrays that this is essentially a testbed.

This seems unlikely to be a game that can be played hard for 12 months. But it’s also a far more polished and properly executed tie-in than films are typically given. Battlefront does a particular thing very well - it is not so much shallow as strategically popularist. Skill and tactics play their part, but it’s one subservient to the John Williams-scored rush of finding yourself in these battles, in these surroundings.

A long overdue return to form, with a focus on what made Sonic fun in the first place. He's always been fast, but it's good to finally see him speeding in the right direction.

An extension that creams off the outwardly silly side of throwing cars around muddy tracks, and packages it up in a bright, boisterous party bag. It may lack a little single-player finesse, but then, you can't have a shindig without a crowd.

Origins can’t entirely shake some of those Assassin’s Creed foibles, it can still be buggy and a little bloated, but it also retains much of what made the series popular in the first place. A fascinating historical setting, fleet-footed action and intrigue aplenty.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is the sort of title Nintendo does very well. It's charming, fun and cleverly constructed. And even if it's not what I expected, it's a reminder that I should endeavour to make the portly plumber more of a fixture on my gaming landscape.

There's no denying that, as a piece of virtual tourism through the ages, the series has no equal. But today, with endless piles of side-quests, there's also a sense of ennui creeping in, a lack of focus that no amount of micro-improvements can disguise. As such, Revelations is a strong, assured conclusion to Ezio's storyline, but one that begs for a fresh start reboot in whatever comes next.

It's not quite pumping lead into their glowing orange weak spots, but it's not far off the mark.

Connection issues aside, Resistance 3 really is one of the most enjoyable, memorable action games in years, on any platform. It has giant arachnids, constant action, and an awesome shotgun. It's visually stunning, artistically evocative. And most importantly, it's definitely got soul. And soldiers too, which is nice.

A superb marriage of gaming tropes from various generations, it manages to carve its own path through the mire that is the modern FPS genre, and look lovely while it's at it.

It is scrappy in places, and often trite, but is well structured and compelling. Let’s hope Techland take this success and run with it.

A brilliant game that is nonetheless difficult to recommend to everyone, then. But those with an eye for detail and a fair amount of patience will be rewarded with a deep, engaging and entirely idiosyncratic experience. Just don't go in expecting your hand to be held at any point.

But it's not just for geeks like me, even if we will get the most out of it, as High Noon have crafted a highly polished, highly entertaining third-person blaster in its own right.

A highly-accomplished if not completely fulfilling rampage. There’s a base level of quality that hasn’t slipped from the excellent God Of War III – this looks even better, puts things onscreen that are, somehow, even bigger. But this technical muscle isn’t given the best stage on which to oil and flex, thanks to a story that simply idles the roaring engine of death that is Kratos, and keeps the series ticking over until the next, more substantial step forward.

The result is a handsome, clever and genuinely funny game that is likely to confound expectations, for better or worse. Veterans expecting a return to classic RPG Paper Mario may be disappointed and not everyone will buy into the puzzle elements. But those who take to its charms will find a game that folds in both smarts and heart.

Even better are the super charming vignettes depicting scenes from classic games acted out by Astro Bots in fancy dress scattered throughout the game’s levels. It’s a wonderfully self indulgent cocktail of celebration and fan service more reminiscent of Nintendo than Sony - and all the more delightful for it.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a solid start for the franchise's reboot and while it's far from perfect, it's easy to see where MercurySteam could take a sequel in order to achieve true greatness.

A healthy roster of characters and a decent selection of lively arenas is not to be scoffed at. And the important business of smacking each other about --which is what we're all here for after all-- is as fun and frantic as ever.

Here's hoping that the quality of all future Fable DLC lives up to the new standard set by Traitor's Keep.

The single player game feels as if it has been specifically crafted to 'beat' another franchise. And, while it enjoys a number of memorable set-pieces and some incredible sound design, in tracing over the template laid down by Infinity Ward's series, it inherits all of the weaknesses as well as strengths of that game.

One of the most accessible entries in this most cultivated of genres. It's gorgeous and welcoming, built on time-honoured design but given a contemporary sheen, making it arguably the first truly modern 2D shoot 'em up in many a year.

Combining surreal challenges with mind-bending gameplay and packaged with some of the most delightful visuals to ever grace a console, ilomilo is one of the best titles in XBLA's steadily growing catalogue.

What Xenoblade Chronicles 2 does bring to the table far outweighs the negatives, with an huge, enthralling world to explore, monsters to attack and a living, breathing habitat. The world doesn’t simply exist to service the needs of the player, and instead focuses on a cohesive, engaging world to explore and discover. The added bonus of being able to take the game on the go is a huge plus, with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 managing to scale down well for short bursts of gameplay when you’re trying to manage the wealth of systems and mechanics within it.

The fighting itself is the best, most tangible, its ever been, which is essential to the most battle-heavy title in the series since Lego Indiana Jones.

While the notion of ‘maybe you are the Little Nightmares after all’ is hardly revolutionary, it is executed with enough odious style to be effective and affecting. A level of skill in horror-making that runs through Little Nightmares’ brisk descent into darkness.

It's a rollicking adventure and a story well-told, held back by limited mechanics.

It is, if there was any doubt, a thoroughly barmy escapade. There is the sense of the game’s designers being told to go nuts in a relatively constricted space and see what sticks. Mario has always been a conduit for madcap invention but it has rarely been this scattergun. Not the plumber at his most focussed, perhaps, but arguably at his most fun. It is a welcome and fitting part of a marvelously manic package.

While the new features are certainly interesting, the series hasn't moved on significantly enough to make it a must-have title. That having been said, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is the best Tiger Woods game to date.

Mirror of Fate is an excellent entry into this new Castlevania canon. It treats its plot with as much reverence as a home console title, while capturing more of the feel of classic Castlevania than Lords of Shadow. It's an excellent companion piece to Gabriel's first adventure, and a thoughtful, well-designed handheld title in particular.

What I've taken away from my time with NFL 11 is a new appreciation for the sport itself. It's genuinely exhilarating stuff.

While it remains to be seen if this level of quality can keep up over its five acts, Act I of Kentucky Route Zero is a beautiful, melancholy start to what should be a fantastic series.

A quirky, delightful title. Calling it one of the best movie tie-in games we've ever played sounds a little like we're damning it with faint praise. So instead we're just going to go ahead and say it's one of the best games we've seen on the Nintendo DSi in quite a while.

It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and a couple of levels and challenges see Sonic slipping into some of his bad habits, but largely this is an enjoyable, breezily compelling platformer that captures some of that old magic that made us all fall in love with Sonic 20 years ago.

Most importantly, everything about The Witcher’s design, from combat to writing to world-building is so tight, so beautifully handled that it’s easy to forget the graphical short-comings of the Switch version.

I’m genuinely surprised with how much I adore Watch Dogs 2’s world. Its satire works because it is always punching up, never down. As such, Watch Dogs 2 feels like it’s making a statement. Rudyard Kipling once said, “San Francisco has only one drawback – ’tis hard to leave.” While Watch Dogs 2 isn’t as faultless as Kipling’s vision of Northern California, you’ll still want to spend tens of hours wandering this virtual recreation of the famous city and on into the Bay Area beyond.

Head and robot gameplay styles mesh together in a fluid, intuitive way, and the gorgeous colourful space stations and melodramatic sci-fi synth soundtrack makes this sci-fi romp an enjoyable, surprisingly sincere tribute to the wobbly sets of old.

It’s an ardently old-school video game, big on simple, challenging fun and wonderfully overblown, colourful caricatures. A gorgeous, gleeful tribute to how video games used to be.

The game’s greatest strength is avoiding the pitfalls of the first; removing frustrating boss fights and lessening the amount of forced stealth sections. It also manages to sustains its variety for a long time – you will fight similar enemies and you will see patterns in how it deals outs its frights, but the interesting setup and constant design flair begs to be seen as you tiptoe through its suspenseful world.

Nintendo's 20-year-old tactical war simulator is like video-game chess - difficult to learn but satisfying to master.

In an age of downloadable content and add-ons, of game updates and expansions through online changes, it's just disappointing to see the game not support players who have already played Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon's story in any way other than a few small changes. For those players, it really is the definition of the oft-used review phrase "just keep at it, and eventually it gets really good."

A great little racer with some excellent track design and a pretty unique feel to its racing. It's just a shame it's a tiny bit too punishing in places, with a multiplayer that doesn't quite match up to its single player.

EA's return to the course is a surprisingly understated and supremely accomplished golf sim.

In an age of downloadable content and add-ons, of game updates and expansions through online changes, it's just disappointing to see the game not support players who have already played Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon's story in any way other than a few small changes. For those players, it really is the definition of the oft-used review phrase "just keep at it, and eventually it gets really good."

There's a great deal of content here for the money, and a set of high-level weapon unlocks, combined with challenges to complete on every mission, should keep you coming back to the single-player or co-op games as to the online versus modes. Dismal story aside, this is a solid, professional, deeply enjoyable product. Like the Ghosts themselves, it's so good at what it does that you run the real risk of not noticing how superbly it's doing it.

With Motion Plus control proving a roaring success, Tiger Woods 10 is comfortably the most realistic golf sim out there. At times, it feels like this is precisely what the Motion Plus peripheral was made for and is a stunning demonstration of its potential. And for many sporting types, this will finally be the game that they bought a Wii for in the first place.

The game's sense of style, great humour and compulsively intuitive gameplay goes a long way towards forgiving many of its flaws.

At its best it’s a cinematic, bombastic and brilliant video game jam-packed with outstanding moments that culminate in a wonderfully thrilling finale. The thread that ties it all together occasionally frays under pressure from the games its forerunner brought to bear, but never enough to stop Resident Evil 5 being an exceptional piece of interactive entertainment.

The Monster Hunter series continues to be brilliant but a little impenetrable, despite efforts to remedy that very issue. How much you’ll get out of the game really depends on what you’re willing to put in - if you’re short on spare time or patience, maybe give it a miss. But if you like the sound of really learning a game for once instead of just drifting through it, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is essential.

But it's the first title in years to rekindle a passion I had for the series,the one I had back when I were a lad and Pro Evolution Soccer ruled the football landscape with an iron fist and cheeky grin. Now it's finally back on track.

Splatoon looks and feels wonderful; it’s a satisfying, immediate, hugely entertaining and almost entirely original brand of shooter. Some players might hanker after more substantial nourishment, but the snack-sized morsels of action that Splatoon offers are absolutely bursting with flavour.

For a game built around the shallow need for incremental improvements, there is a surprising amount of depth when you dig into character and gear statistic tweaking, too, which only makes the tight squad action of the minute-to-minute gameplay even stronger.

But that focus is what makes Siege’s multiplayer so good. In a year with a glut of good competitive first-person shooters –the sci-fi fizz of Halo 5 and Star Wars Battlefront or bombastic ordnance of Battlefield Hardline and Call of Duty: Black Ops III- Rainbow Six Siege’s smart, sharp tactical nous marks it as one of the best.

Veteran developers Insomniac have taken advantage of the PS5’s capabilities to create a sumptuous spread, combining rich, Hollywood-grade CG environments and character models with liberal screenfuls of retina-scorching special effects. Playing the opening tutorial level feels like stepping into an animated movie – a sensation rarely dissipates over the dozen-or-so hours of Rift Apart’s amiable campaign.

For those that have played through The New Order and are keen for more of its beefy action, this delivers around 7 hours of it for a decent price. I’d argue The Old Blood also makes a satisfying starter to The New Order’s more substantial meal if you haven’t yet had a taste. A well-priced piece of downloadable content that works equally well on either side of the main game? Clever.

This enhanced edition is certainly the best version, with visual vibrancy and a small handful of extras just about justifying its existence. But perhaps not the extra outlay. Playing any version of Tomb Raider is no decision at all. Splashing out on this or picking up the original for a third of the price is a trickier choice.

Outside the novelty factor of its genuinely innovative tech, there's nothing especially memorable about Skylanders, but it undoubtedly fired the imagination of my little one, and I found it a perfectly pleasant time-killer.

Forza takes its racing and cars very seriously --with painstaking attention to torque, road conditions and more tuning options than you can shake a gearstick at-- but its raison d’etre is unbridled, uncomplicated driving joy. There is a bewildering amount of stuff that populates the map: traditional races, cross-country sprints, off-road adventures, speed traps, jumps, multiplayer challenges, weekly events. You can barely drive a few yards without something to take part in or smash through. It is bewildering at first and can feel unstructured and scattergun, particularly when the game is throwing XP and rewards at you with so much abandon it's hard to keep track of it all.

A lovingly-crafted update that can happily sit alongside Ocarina of Time 3D as a textbook example of how older games can benefit from a modern makeover.

The criminally short solo-player campaign... can be beaten in around five to six hours. However, for all its shocking brevity, the campaign’s story is utterly engrossing; it may be completely preposterous, but the story hits harder and resonates more than those of previous Splinter Cell titles.

It’s a fascinating, if flawed game and this Switch version isn’t a rush job either. It runs well on the console (even if it’s so big you will need an extra SD card) and takes advantage of some its unique features. Playing LA Noire on the go in handheld mode is tempting enough, but it also brings in motion controls for investigation when playing at home.