Depending on what you want to do second-to-second, DK's latest outing can be a hugely impressive do-what-you-want sandbox, a comforting collectathon platformer, a series of lightly puzzling challenges, or a goofy Nintendo world to explore and be surprised by. But taken together, it's a masterpiece that's sure to absorb newcomers and series veterans alike. The destructible terrain is a literally ground-breaking innovation that makes each player's game unique, while the story and characters reposition DK's world in a way that's endearing and exciting, but still respects his past forty years of history.

By keeping most of the driving fundamentals, but greatly expanding your competitive options and wildly rethinking the approach to circuits and locations, Nintendo has transformed Mario Kart into a modern yet utterly charming platform for social racing or serious competition. The open-world structure and 24-player races make for an air of chaotic road tripping, yet one that doubles down on the appeal and nostalgia of Mario's wonderful world.

Split Fiction evolves Hazelight's co-operative and excellently manic two-player gauntlet gameplay, last seen in It Takes Two, this time also blending sci-fi and fantasy worlds to make for one of the great modern split-screen experiences. However, the cringey writing and one-note storytelling is almost more grating this time around, given the entire narrative is supposed to revolve around authorship.

Obsidian has created something exceptionally special with Avowed. A smaller-scale Skyrim-like set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, it's an entirely accessible first-person RPG that ditches a lot of obnoxious fluff and doubles down on what makes big role-playing games great. The writing and storytelling is phenomenal, the crunchy combat lets you make a sick build whether you're into swords, axes, guns or spells, and the problems your character faces feel unexpectedly touching and relevant. It's a perfect entry into this genre for new players and the RPG-curious, but top-tier comfort food for us old-heads.

Film-to-game adaptations with this level of clarity and vision are incredibly rare, with The Great Circle letting players inhabit a pitch-perfect Indy in his prime, complete with all the whip-cracking and fascist-punching that implies. But even for those unfamiliar with the franchise, this is a seriously satisfying period pulp adventure.

Echoes of Wisdom marks a welcome change in protagonist and introduces a brilliant new approach to items and combat, but it’s otherwise business as usual for the series; this is a beautiful, joyful and surprising fantasy world to explore, with just the right mix of nostalgia and innovation. It's a stellar debut for a new heroine (despite her name being in all the series titles), and an instant classic.

A streamlined and multi-planet take on Ubisoft's familiar open-world action, paired with an original-trilogy-era Star Wars tale that follows an up-and-coming scoundrel rather than a Jedi or Imperial, sounds like a recipe for an absolutely incredible game. Outlaws, though, is uneven. Some of the settings, exploration, heists and adventures are everything a franchise fan could want in a sandbox scum and villainy game. Unfortunately, a lot of rough edges and a severe lack of storytelling depth holds Outlaws back from its true potential.

This flashy package makes great use of Nintendo's classic catalogue to spark nostalgia, break the games down for a new audience and make the joys of speedrunning accessible. But once you've given your best effort in the 150 or so challenges there's not a lot to do, besides local couch competitions and checking in for the weekly trials.

With strong inspiration from cinematic horror classics like The Thing, The Poseidon Adventure and Alien, this stunning but gruesome tale makes the most of its industrial location, Scottish cast and 1970s setting. The chilling atmosphere can be dampened in places by the heavily scripted, linear structure, and it feels like story beats could have hit harder. But the emotional core and frequent thrills make it well worth a dip.

Following up a landmark cinematic tale of trauma, mental affliction and grief, without repeating itself or undermining the central character's growth, Senua’s Saga is a stunning, well-paced adventure that pushes the boundaries of human theatrical performance in games while also spinning a riveting tale of power and sacrifice.

Delivering a pitch-perfect blend of cinematic spectacle and cartoony fast-paced action, while also providing the most impressive showpiece yet for the PlayStation 5 hardware, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart looks, sounds and feels like a truly next-generation game. That it does this while also offering the exact same high level of heart, imagination and endearing characterisation we’ve come to expect from Insomniac Games is just as impressive.

Ultimately the most memorable and enjoyable parts of Village are all contained in its meaty middle section; a melting pot of inspirations and inventive all-new horrifying scenarios that, in certain moments, marries the best parts of the series’ two greatest entries. Unfortunately those moments are fleeting, but the game manages to frighten and excite throughout.

The creatures themselves remain the coolest and most interesting part of the Pokemon games, so it’s always wonderful to explore their natural habitats purely for observation rather than for poaching and battles. New Pokemon Snap is an extended and ever-changing expedition through an enchanting world, with limited interactivity but plenty of opportunity for surprise and delight.

Despite a shaky allegorical narrative that's much shallower and less mature than it first appears, It Takes Two is an ambitious and worthwhile zany two-player experience. From high-speed ice-skating and spider-riding to co-operative school homework and fighting a clockwork bull, I honestly never knew what was coming next, but it was generally delightful and always thoughtfully tuned for co-operative play.

From the constant challenge of bartering with your money and blood to maximise your loadout, to the awesome feeling of getting deep into the temple fully stocked with weapons and relics that complement each other to create a perfect playstyle, this is a seriously compelling roguelite. If you’re willing to make the initial sacrifice of time and energy to come to grips with the setup.

From restoring the soundtrack of Rock N' Roll Racing with chiptunes and CD-quality tracks, to highlighting the rare but ugly Sega 32X version of Blackthorne, to jamming the best parts of all Lost Vikings releases into one game, this is an exhaustive look at three really cool ’90s gems that goes above and beyond what you’d expect from Activision-Blizzard. Anyone who loves one of these games, or who’s a fan of modern Blizzard and wants a window into its past, will be satisfied here despite a handful of slight disappointments.

Pairing one of the most brilliant yet underplayed games in Mario history with a wild and experimental new adventure, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is an incredible one-two punch of platforming perfection. While the combination of these two games may not be as exciting as an entirely new full-scale adventure, they're absolutely packed with the trademark Mario blend of creativity and control that seems so effortless but is also virtually without rival.

A psychological thriller with an impressively ambitious gimmick and some old-school leanings, The Medium crafts a gripping narrative with loads of atmosphere in an experience that’s unmissable for genre fans, even if frustrating design occasionally undermines the tension.

As an adaptation of the Assassin's Creed RPG style to a breezier, more open and more playful world, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a total success. It might come off second best to Breath of the Wild, and its chatty and light-hearted take on subject matter traditionally treated in games as dark and bloody might not be to everyone's taste, but the treatment of greek myth's gods and monsters here makes for a delightful experience in its own right.

Game visuals might need overhauls every few years to stay relevant, but good game design is timeless. So is Demon's Souls.

Warriors fans know what they're in for. It's an entertaining power fantasy with lots of bad guys and explosions, heaps of different characters to learn and all sorts of diversions on the side to power up your teams and weapons. But for all Age of Calamity's painstaking adaptation, it lacks almost everything I loved about Breath of the Wild. It's a skin deep approximation with the aesthetic and characters the only thing intact, mostly concerned with turning the existing areas into linear bombastic shooting galleries and sword fights. All that would be fine if the story or themes were meaningfully expanded here, but they aren't.

Momentum might not be important to the AC series anymore thanks to its shift towards RPG-lite but its other original key pillar, history, is utilised better than ever here. Not the specifics of what once happened, but the depiction of life elsewhere, elsewhen, and how well that is incorporated into core gameplay loops. With a clearer, more deliberate focus on the past in Valhalla, the series' future is bright.

With more complex combat, a slimmer and harder-hitting story, more interesting characters and better performance, this is a superior game to its predecessor in every way except for the fact that there's less of it. A perhaps unintended consequence is that I find myself caring less about a full-fledged future sequel following the adventures of Peter Parker and his rich friends. I'm really hoping we see more of Morales.

Though the replacement of authored characters with procedurally generated avatars has mixed results, Watch Dogs Legion is unique among GTA-style open world crime games as a result. The city is vast and beautiful, your options for vigilante havoc very broad and the potential for it all to explode into a memorably janky anecdote generally sky high.

Squadrons' gameplay core is finely tuned, and its spectacle layer nails the Star Wars illusion. Perhaps in a few months I'll long for a meatier suite of modes and maps, but, in the heat of battle, Rebel and Imperial pilots haven't had an experience this engaging since the Nintendo GameCube era.

This is classic Crash, warts and all, updated for 2020. It looks and sounds phenomenal, is a touch more lenient, injects some new mechanics and takes much more care with the delivery of its story and characters. Given how poorly previous attempts to update Crash have turned out, this is a marvellous effort that should please old fans, their kids, and those just looking for a brilliant if potentially gruelling retro platforming adventure.

With a bottomless well of rules to learn and secrets to uncover, the endless satisfaction of making it further and further as your knowledge grows, and the looming spectre of death always just a second of lapsed judgement or a quirk of cosmic fate away, Spelunky 2 strikes a perfect balance of incredible complexity and endearing charm to create a replayable package anyone can enjoy.

It would be easy to ask for more, but as it stands these are the best officially available versions of the some of the greatest 3D platform games of all time. The HD visuals and elegant control adaptations are arguably close to bare minimum, but the charm, craft and imagination on display in these three games is timeless and undeniable.

Attempting to provide both satisfying big-budget narrative adventures and an online squad-based loot-grinding platform, Marvel's Avengers is an extremely impressive effort that falls short on long-term incentives (at least so far), but nails the campaign.

This joyful 21st century reintroduction for the Battletoads might be a bit too beholden to the difficult brawling action of the past, but it's also stylish, creative and funny in ways that so few 2020 games can match.

Fall Guys is an exhilarating online competition you can enjoy in bite-sized chunks; a distillation of the joy and accomplishment present in other battle royale games without the violence or high skill requirement. There are some fumbles, but it has the potential to grow.

The sprawling and surprising world is absolutely the star of the show in Origami King. Whether you're sailing the high seas or working your way through a Shogun-themed amusement park, the sight gags and quips don't let up, the story has genuine heart and the crafted world is just so endlessly darling. That it's so frequently slowed or interrupted by the half-hearted battles is a real shame, but it can't stop the irrepressible charm and humour of the game at large.

With deep characters, heaps of interesting narratives you can tackle as you like, constant gratifying upgrades, a stunning look and potentially the greatest sword combat in modern gaming, this is a Samurai adventure I couldn't get enough of, even if I had some niggles with the overall story and a few outdated design choices.

The core flying and shooting experience here is very well done and should satisfy existing PSVR owners looking for something fresh. But from the meh upgrades and strange unlockable suit designs (it's a first person game?) to the rote storyline and repetition, everything outside of the advanced arcadey shooting gallery sections is a bit of a letdown.

With terrible violence and stunningly realised characters, The Last of Us Part II is a singular game that blends cutting edge technology and silky big-budget design with stellar cinematic and literary storytelling, with breathtaking results.

With a kitschy clean presentation and a multicultural theme, Nintendo's 51 Worldwide Classics is a glossy and generous collection of tabletop standards and rainy day time wasters, perfect for a night in with the family.

A simple yet satisfying family-friendly take on the Diablo-style hack-and-slash role-playing game, Minecraft Dungeons is a fun and creatove adaptation of the series' iconic blocky creatures and graphics, even if it features absolutely no mining or crafting.

The prequel story may not be revelatory, but in moment-to-moment strategic gunplay Gears Tactics is a delight. Both as an extension of the franchise to a totally new format and as a bloody and aggressive take on turn-based strategy, it's a successful experiment that should satisfy anyone who enjoys both chess and chainsaw bayonets.

Streets of Rage 4 is the rare retro revival that respects and celebrates the originals while also having something of its own to say. The visuals, sounds and mechanics aren't as envelope-pushing in 2020 as the originals were in the early '90s, but the balance between embracing nostalgia and reformulating the brawler for the current decade is struck wonderfully.

Overall this game could be seen as a missed opportunity to flesh out what was — in 1999 — a quick but quirky followup to the more substantial RE3. But from the insane locations and intriguing characters to the stunning looks and satisfying action, this is a stellar game in its own right, and that can't be ignored.

This is by far the nicest iteration of the game to date, with both more guided objectives and more options for self-led tomfoolery, wrapped in a much higher definition version of the familiar rustic-meets-plushies visual and audio motifs.

With a colourful alien world, cheeky satirical story and heaps of potential for self-directed exploration, Journey to the Savage Planet promises a happier and more completable small-scale take on familiar first-person exploration ideas, even if the back half of the game funnels you more and more towards prescribed scenarios and combat.

With two styles of satisfying combat that stay fresh throughout the entire game, supported by a side of Zelda-style item-based dungeon puzzles and pre-apocalyptic series lore, this is a brilliant adaptation of Darskiders' signature brand of fun, even if it's not as grand or cinematic as the third-person action games.

Unique touches like the IR games and two-player competitions give this Brain Training a fresh edge, despite how similar it is to the 2006 original. But in 2020 there's nothing here — aside from those two aspects — that couldn't be done on smartphones, and that's probably where Nintendo should have put it.

Delivering yet another fresh twist on Shovel Knight's peerlessly smooth faux-retro brilliance, King of Cards is a challenging, funny, beautiful game that serves not only as the final chapter in the saga but also as proof of how far its creators have come.

With new monsters, a vibrant and more immersive world, seamless connectivity with other players near or far and a heap of quality of life tweaks, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are a clear generational leap.

With new monsters, a vibrant and more immersive world, seamless connectivity with other players near or far and a heap of quality of life tweaks, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are a clear generational leap.

With new monsters, a vibrant and more immersive world, seamless connectivity with other players near or far and a heap of quality of life tweaks, Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are a clear generational leap.

Fallen Order offers both an enthralling look at a shadowy time in the Star Wars continuum and a gameplay design that kept me hooked. From force pushing an astromech through the air and hearing it emit the exact panicked yowling sound it's supposed to make, to tracking down and defeating a giant albino spider that just killed me to restore my experience points (and dignity), it's been a long time since I've had this much fun in a galaxy far, far away.

The Outer Worlds is a well-written, novel, gorgeous roleplaying game, made for today using some of yesterday's best tricks. If you fall into the trap of using fast travel it can feel like ticking off to-do list items instead of adventuring. But if you force yourself to slow down and let the sharp dialogue, otherworldly vistas, and intriguing characters work their magic, it's one of the best roleplaying experiences of the last few years.

With intensely interesting lore and characters, an awe-inspiring aesthetic and one of the most mind-crushingly dull gameplay loops I've ever experienced in a high-budget video game, Hideo Kojima's supernatural epic is pretentious and profound, filled with tedium and terrifying wonder.

With near endless creativity, thoughtful puzzles and a lot of laughs, Luigi's Mansion 3 offers a smart and theatrical haunted house with a huge amount to see, do, collect and play around with.

It's clear that Concrete Genie is a labour of love made by a small team that really believes in the pro-tolerance, anti-capitalist leanings of the story, and the central interactive street art creation makes for an experience that looks and feels like no other. Yet while this is a vital and worthwhile game you're left to make your own fun a lot of the time, so your enjoyment will depend on how committed you are to painting virtual murals.

Trine 4 is an excellent refinement of a unique and worthwhile game with smarter controls, more satisfying multiplayer, heaps of great puzzles and a more magical look and sound than ever. It's still not perfect, but Trine has come a long way in 10 years and there really is nothing else like it.

Volta is a great, nostalgic innovation for the series that alone is enough to justify jumping back into FIFA, even if it comes off as a pleasant afterthought given the continued focus on Ultimate Team. Other offline modes like Pro Clubs and Career continue to be ignored.

With gratifying combat, practically unmatched visual grandeur, a new focus on exploration and some of the most interesting locations and characters at the high-budget end of modern gaming, Gears 5 is an incredible leap forward for the original cover-based third-person shooter series.

Striking a careful balance between updating an old classic for 2019 and maintaining what made the original so special, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a remarkable and unmissable game despite a few small stumbles. The artistry of the original is so strong, and the update so measured, that both devoted fans and entirely new players are bound to be delighted.

Though much shorter and not quite as compelling as its predecessor Until Dawn, Man of Medan maintains the guts of the excellent interactive horror format. Its smart multiplayer modes, complex sub-plots, branching paths and assorted endings make it a blast for movie nights and a great start to a promising anthology.

From the depth of its world-building and its gratifying combat to the unexpected twists of its story and a handful of truly unforgettable kaleidoscopic fighting sequences, this is an inspired game that manages to match its crazy, beautiful, otherworldly storytelling with action that's every bit as good.

Three Houses is a masterpiece of a strategy game and a brilliant relationship sim, which feels like the pinnacle of the love/tactics hybrid innovated by 2012's Awakening. With a twisting and turning main narrative and a refined but fairer battle system that retains all its tactical depths, the game's two halves combine to create a hugely customisable strategy experience with high and personal stakes.

Raw and emotional, though let down by some annoying or wonky design issues, Sea of Solitude is a worthwhile and beautiful journey through loneliness and regret.

Serving as both a quirky Zelda spinoff and a sequel to 2015's rhythm-action indie hit Crypt of the Necrodancer, Cadence of Hyrule is a polished and charmingly inventive game sure to appeal to fans of either franchise. From the Rougelike dungeon and item design to the inspired musical remixes, this crossover has worked out better than anyone could have expected.

The modernisation of the visuals, music and customisation options are top notch, but the actual play has managed to resist being brought to the current decade at all. This means casual kart fans might find the game unfairly cruel, but old fans will appreciate the fact that it stays true to the spirit of the original in that regard.

This is a stunning celebration of all things Super Mario, from the music and the art to the characters and items, and it's also a great social tool that uses the ubiquitous language of running and jumping to share gameplay and narrative ideas between players worldwide. It has lost a bit of its weird edge since last time, but it's also gained a lot more variety and much more substantial systems for sorting stages and playing with friends.

A bare-bones but substantial package, this celebration of the first decade or so of the storied franchise will be extremely welcome for old-school fans, and makes an excellent starting point for new players.

With super-satisfying combat and an ever-growing arsenal of weapons, powers and abilities, Rage 2 is one of the best-feeling singleplayer shooters around. Its inconsistent tone, ho-hum story and uninspired open world missions keep if from achieving true greatness, but it never stops being a whole lot of fun in the moment.

Interesting co-operative strategies and deep customisation sets this mascot racer apart, but it's not without its share of potholes.

With a deep but logical fighting system, heaps of gruesome over-the-top violence and a lovably insane cinematic story mode, Mortal Kombat 11 is an excellent fighting game that should have something for just about every fan of the series, let down only somewhat by a greasy and convoluted customisation system driven by loot boxes and grinding.

Rather than focus on what it does well, Days Gone does everything. Despite some great tech and compelling core ideas, especially when it comes to its battles against massive enemy hordes, a dull and repetitive open world structure makes Days Gone a chore.

A calm but challenging puzzle adventure filled with minimalist charm and surprisingly loveable quadrilateral characters, Boxboy! + Boxgirl! is filled to the brim with laid-back problem-solving goodness whether you're playing alone or with a friend. A brilliant Switch debut for Nintendo's most understated mascot.

My Time at Portia is a slow game, to the point that digging around in the mines or waiting for bronze plates to smelt can be mind-numbing. But in a way its builds are kind of like knitting; repetitive and slow but visibly building towards a satisfying, tangible product. Plus, there's enough surprise in the living world, the creepy mines and dungeons and the wide fields to keep things from getting too stale for too long.

Mechstermination Force has a cutesy look but an unmistakably retro feel, and will speak to those who like to throw themselves at a challenge again and again until they understand it well enough to complete it blindfolded. The difficulty is balanced by some brilliant designs and an overall charming package that's much friendlier than the robots it houses.

Distilling everything that's made the series great to this point and offering a razor sharp modern take on the combo-heavy character action genre that DMC helped instigate, Devil May Cry 5 is a juvenile-yet-very-adult game for those who like their monsters grotesque, their combat stylish and their demon-hunting boys and girls dumb but outrageously sexy.

Combined with the familiar and accessible action, the unexpected and delightful handmade stages in Yoshi's Crafted World not only give a new context for many old favourite Mario enemies and Nintendo ideas, they inspire a spark of childish creativity and wonder as well.

Funny and inventive, free from challenge or punishments and with just enough content and collection to keep you engaged, Epic Yarn is one of the prettiest and finest stress-free platformers around. The 3DS version makes some sacrifices, but it's just as heart-warming.

A brilliant expansion of the Metro saga, Exodus connects sections of familiar claustrophobic, immersive horror with a beautiful semi-open world and a new twist on the fantastic and oppressive retro future vibe.

With splotchy, shimmering visuals and stunning reactive jazz albums that play along to your every charge, swipe and limb-separating bash, this gorilla escape simulator looks, feels and sounds amazing in equal measure, and it all combines for an uncomplicated but addictive good time.

Back in the Groove might satisfy series fans that just want some new toys to play with, but the sluggish speed and obtuse design of the dated original remains.

Even at its best Crackdown 3 feels like a big chest of explosive, physics-driven toys to play with in a playground that's left wanting.

Many have tried and failed to craft an accessible and satisfying turn-based strategy game in the years since Nintendo abandoned Advance Wars, but Wargroove is near perfection. From the slick animation and funny writing to the deep tactics and diversity of play options, this is more than just a throwback or homage.

The new Resident Evil 2 is everything the original was; tense, scary, brilliant and filled with secrets and additional content to find. But it's also a game perfectly suited to 2019, not just because of its cutting edge look and sound; but because we don't get games like this anymore, and that's a shame.

Pikuniku is a game that's light on content but huge on charm and creativity. The locations and characters in the brief adventure mode are brilliant, the goofy physics make for grin-inducing platforming and the dedicated co-op mode has some of the funniest two-player puzzling since Snipperclips. You might be left wanting more, but it's hard to argue that what's here isn't pure joy.

Playing Travis Strikes Again is an experience I'm glad I had, even if I wouldn't recommend it as a fun game. As a biting reflection of the ridiculousness of hardcore video game fans it's less successful than previous games, and its smaller scale makes the still-repetitive fighting even more dull. But the weirdness remains, and the Kafkaesque story of the Death Drive console paired with Suda51's signature takes on Japanese and American culture — plus the frequently enjoyable mish-mash of retro aesthetics — makes for a satisfyingly eccentric game unlike many others.

With a total of 164 secret-filled courses, a bunch of extra modes including the ever-addictive challenges and a small number of smart tweaks and additions, this is an incredible amount of platforming goodness in a single package. It's both the deepest and most accessible 2D Mario action you can get, as well as an endlessly enjoyable party game you can bust out with friends, and Switch is the perfect place for it.

Like a playable painting of ink and pigment, GRIS is a powerful and significant game, even if the visual art often overshadows the actual play.

With a lovely hand-drawn aesthetic and a modern, meticulous take on old-school design, Monster Boy is a smart and delightful game, both a fitting tribute and an exemplary example of the new breed of side-scrolling adventure games.

More than any previous game in the series, Ultimate seems to have taken into account the needs and desires of all players, and made it possible. Ancillary content like Spirits may not quite live up to pure fun of the main Smash mode, but then few things in video games do. And that main mode is the biggest achievement here. It's bigger and better than it ever has been before, and somehow incorporates just about everything that's come previously.

This is an immaculate remake of a set of fun, important, though imperfect games, breathing new life in Spyro's early adventures and serving as a reminder that the franchise really was great; worthy of the same fond remembering afforded to Crash Bandicoot and Banjo Kazooie.

Excited though I am for next year's fully-fledged Gen 7 Pokemon games, which will surely return wild battles and bring a slew of new monsters, Let's Go is a worthwhile adventure in its own right, and in fact I hope the main games benefit from some of innovations in this simpler but more modern experience. The original genius at the core of Pokemon — replacing the spreadsheets and stat charts of the standard RPG with cute creatures you nurture and grow — still shines through here, it's just in a form that anyone will be comfortable playing in 2018.

Excited though I am for next year's fully-fledged Gen 7 Pokemon games, which will surely return wild battles and bring a slew of new monsters, Let's Go is a worthwhile adventure in its own right, and in fact I hope the main games benefit from some of innovations in this simpler but more modern experience. The original genius at the core of Pokemon — replacing the spreadsheets and stat charts of the standard RPG with cute creatures you nurture and grow — still shines through here, it's just in a form that anyone will be comfortable playing in 2018.

While it has some notable but minor flaws, it's hard to argue that Red Dead Redemption 2 is not a masterpiece. The end result of the meticulous detail, wonderful writing and stunning looks is an open world that sets a new bar for believability, and a time and place I can't stop thinking about or wanting to be a part of.

Starlink is a streamlined but impressive space opera in a wide open star system, giving you the freedom to get lost in space or just warp around for the story, and on Switch it makes awesome use of the Star Fox crew. The physical toy element is a lot of fun and adds a great dose of tactile play, but if it isn't for you you're at no disadvantage for going digital.

Odyssey puts player freedom front and centre in a way the games never have before, while also taking in perhaps the most fun and gorgeous location we've seen so far.

Making brilliant use of the Switch console's various gimmicks while also finding several ingenious ways for four players to compete and co-operate in dozens of mini-games, Super Mario Party is the best this series has been in years.

While Mega Man 11 absolutely sticks with the same familiar fundamentals and plays just like the games of old, it also represents the biggest modernisation attempt the series has seen in decades, with a fresh style and new mechanics. There's room for improvement, but bringing this icon of the '80s back in such a convincing fashion is quite an achievement.

Stunning and consistent as ever, this is more of the fantasy racing festival we know and love, but this time in a shared online world with even more driving diversity thanks to the regularly shifting seasons.

With simple yet inventive time manipulation puzzles and charming, evocative art, The Gardens Between is a short and sweet meditation on youthful memories and friendships. By abstracting the personal, relatable story of neighbours Arina and Frendt into a procession of colourful, nostalgia-inducing scenes to unpick, it delivers plenty to reflect on even if it will only take you a few hours.

Dark and dirty but also full of fun and discovery, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is rife with jungle mysteries, embellished history, gratifying puzzles and Lara Croft's personal struggles. With more open world exploration, more climbing, more tombs and more options for combat, it's a familiar but improved adventure and a gripping conclusion to the trilogy.