Super Mario Maker’s chaotic smorgasbord is part of its appeal. Wild, unbridled and even inspiring, Super Mario Maker achieves the envious feat of making both Play and Creation a joy. And all it had to do was remove the barrier between the two.

Perhaps the main obstacle facing BioShock 2 is that it lacks one of its predecessor's biggest trump cards: the shock of the new.

The action is superb, the story is one of gaming’s best, the atmosphere and tone are easy to get lost in, and the soundtrack is a marvel, with the end game credits song being one of the best in existence. It’s been a ridiculously packed year for quality games, and with certain bigger open world games out there right now it might be easy to skip NieR: Automata, but you owe it to yourself to play this. An incredible sequel to one of gaming’s strangest, most flawed masterpieces.

It’s taken the long-ignored strengths of Interactive Fiction and Twine and applied them in the right way on the right platform to give the player an experience that feels wholly unique, and more importantly, wholly their own. Yes, you might share the odd story with another player, but not your whole trip. There are just too many variables, too many individual stories, for any one trip to be the same, and when you’re talking about a narrative-led experience, that’s a mighty fine accomplishment.

The smart trade-off between rollicking action and exploration makes for a cohesive, confident and satisfying adventure. Where Lara Croft goes from here will be fascinating, but rarely has a game's title been so apt.

This blazingly intelligent and thoughtful addition makes me absolutely certain they could do it again if they tried.

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.

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.

The game's technical presentation is fantastic; aside from the aforementioned excellent voice-work, the soundtrack and music are top-notch and the visuals are varied, detailed and well rendered.

Every choice, every death and every shot feels like it counts in XCOM 2 and it is this feeling of real consequence that makes for a truly remarkable strategy game - one that goes beyond its clever design decisions and the odd technical hiccup to create a tangible sense purpose and real emotion to your squad’s story. As an experience that puts you in control, lets you relish victories, forces you to truly mourn mistakes, and allows you to grow as a tactician against insurmountable odds, XCOM 2 is near faultless.

A grim, gorgeous milieu of societal depth and cunning design. That its mechanics slot so naturally into its environment, giving players the freedom and choice to explore, influence and infiltrate means that Dishonored 2 represents the very best gaming has to offer.

The example of difficult second album syndrome that most readily came to mind while I wandered these wastelands is the Stone Roses, who spent almost five years trying to outdo their era-defining, genre-defying debut only to emerge with a bloated classic rock retread that effectively ended the band’s career. That’s not to say Horizon Forbidden West is gaming’s ‘Second Coming’ – but it’s not the second coming of gaming either.

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

For all of its complexities under the hood, Deathloop is Arkane’s most accessible game yet and elicits constant satisfaction. The action is a pleasure, while its main drive has you constantly picking up pieces of an unknown puzzle that are pieced together in separate chunks, before the frisson of excitement when the full picture starts to form. What’s extraordinary is how Arkane make it seem so easy. Blockbuster game-making at its smartest and most essential.

The payoff is something else. A euphoric rush of relief and heart-pounding glee, accompanied by the flourish of the forest returning to life, the colour filling the trees and the irresistible pull to carry on, even though you know more of those lethal bloody rocks lie in your way. The Siren call of the Xbox One’s best game to date.

The Witcher 2 is a tough game, no doubt. Dare I say it, too tough. The Witcher 2's finest draw is in its tale, rather than its action, so it seems a misstep to give players a regular kicking even on the easiest setting.

It’s terrific stuff, though it may prove a little strenuous for newcomers at times. Metroid has always been one of Nintendo’s more ‘hardcore’ pursuits and Dread looks to make a virtue of this in a challenging and often esoteric adventure. But whether you are new or a Metroid old-hand, there is no doubting the craft here. A welcome return for one of gaming’s most stylish heroes.

It’s stylish. It’s cool. It’s supremely fun, fluid and rewarding. Dante’s back and he’s brought some friends. And with combat flair that makes up the finest pure-action game we have seen in a long time, we hope they stick around.

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.

For such a complex and in depth game to feel so intuitive is impressive, but for such a game to remain fun, exciting and unpredictable after forty, sixty, one-hundred hours of play? That’s joyous.

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.

D-Pad Studio has crafted a sublime, pitch-perfect adventure. Smart, gripping, joyful and expansive, Owlboy sets the bar sky-high for future 2D platformers.

It took the best part of two decades to find room for innovation in so elegant a formula, but Hot Pursuit does it – bending it as far as it would go without breaking what made it great in the first place.

Hundreds of hours in and I was still getting excited at new aspects and discoveries within the game, finding constantly fresh and rewarding things to do and see. It’s a slick, fantastic hack and slash with a strong sense of charm and sincerity, accessible yet tough to master, and if there’s any justice, it’ll go down in history as an all-time classic.

Every time you open your 3DS to play New Leaf, you know you’re almost certain to experience something new or surprising. And how many games can you say that about?

The farming and village life fantasy has never really been fulfilled in this way before, and the Switch makes it possible. It's a testament to how a game can use a platform to round everything together, becoming as accessible and fun as it could ever be.

Rather than re-inventing the series in their image, 343 has treated Halo 4 with kid gloves, settling for familiarity and mimicry of what has gone before. A reassurance to long-term fans, rather than a battle cry that one of gaming's biggest blockbusters is there for the re-crafting.

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.