There’s some fantastic action combat with an array of weaponry in Dynasty Warriors: Origins, and for some people, that will be enough. But as the game pivots to a more narrative focus, it only exposes its shortcomings, and feels too repetitive and inconsequential to sustain its own story.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory may only be for a certain audience, but for that audience, this is as good as it gets.

It’s a really competent rhythm game with great music, tons of content, and another strong concept from Brace Yourself Games. You’ll no doubt face frustrations with some of the story mode’s decisions and the game’s overall difficulty spikes, but if you just want to rock out and chase some high scores, you’ll have a blast. I’m already looking forward to seeing the players who pull their dance mats from deep within their closets to tackle hordes of skeletons and beat the game’s most challenging songs with ease.

For a lot of fighting game fans, The King of Fighters 15 is exactly what they’ve been looking for - a no frills fighter that focuses on its mechanics and doesn’t hold the player's hand. In a generation where most games in the genre have five-hour campaigns from day one, it’s an admirable stance to take. As much as I love how KoF 15 plays and looks, I can’t help but miss the bells and whistles that are expected. If you’re looking for a fighter that shrugs off that expectation, then the King of Fighters 15 is absolutely for you.

Dying Light: The Beast might repeat some of the mistakes of previous games, but it also brings back everything that worked and focuses on them while delivering a more interesting story set in the series’ most unique location yet. The Beast might have started as DLC for the more ambitious Dying Light 2, but its contained success ends up being closer to the sequel we all asked for than that game ever was.

Whether you’re a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or not, the Cowabunga Collection is without a doubt the most impressive gaming compilation there’s ever been. Collecting 13 hard-to-find games with every possible bit of extra content is an incredible effort, and the fact that most of them are still a blast today is just the icing on the cake. The Cowabunga Collection is truly a shellebration of everything TMNT.

When you hit a streak on the beat, enemies melt before you and you race across the map, racking up eight- or nine-figure scores with ease. Sometimes you fall off a little, though, and start missing every shot as you struggle to find the rhythm. This is frustrating, but it’s meant to be. Once you stop, take a breath, and start shooting again – to the rhythm, this time – you soon find your groove again and everything makes sense. The shooting feels great again, the game flows perfectly again, the toughest enemies are felled again. In these moments, Metal: Hellsinger feels really special.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is, at best, a serviceable Souls-like. If you enjoy Nioh and Sekiro, it’s a fun bit of filler, but it’s derivative and bloated, serving as a highlight reel of previous Souls-likes while missing the point of what made its inspirations, and even predecessors, unique to begin with.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a decent platforming game that’s stuffed with charm, if a little lacking in imagination, which is a shame for a franchise built on creativity. Saying that, if you’ve got children, this is a must-buy for some family-friendly PS5 fun.

Pirate Yakuza goes all in on making Majima the most charming, endearing, and downright loveable rogue he’s ever been, taking everything 'Majima' and ramping it up to a million.

Hidden Through Time isn’t a fast-paced game that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat, but that’s kind of the point. The only reason you might be squinting your eyes, painstakingly staring at the screen would be to find that final tiny hidden object that you’ve been looking for for half an hour. The touchscreen dynamic of the Switch version of the game makes it the definitive version for this reason (in my opinion). Otherwise, you’ll likely just be relaxing while taking in everything the endearing levels have to offer.

Admittedly, I had a hard time putting Nobody Saves The World down to write up this review, and that speaks to how satisfying its rewarding challenge-based progression and surprisingly deep form-changing gameplay are. Prepare to see Nobody Saves The World in the dungeon-crawling hall of fame.

Like the Sarcophagus, developer Hadoque is giving birth to something strange and potentially powerful. Ultros doesn't fully come together, but it's an interesting experiment in Metroidvania design that I hope Hadoque or another developer builds on in the future.

The Quarry is an excellent survival horror experience with a strong cast of characters and a startling horror narrative that delights with campy scares and unexpected twists. Fans of Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures need to pick this up, or even those after a spooky outing either alone or with friends. It isn’t the alien abduction story I’ve been waiting for, but it still proves that Supermassive Games is the undisputed king of the genre when it matters.

Persona 5 Tactica is undone by the fact it's unsure if it's putting the Persona twist on the tactical grid game, or using Persona characters to introduce newcomers to the genre. Maps and missions are repetitive, the more interesting elements that each Persona brings are sanded off, and there's an overreliance on basic gun and melee attacks that don't suit the Phantom Thieves at all. But when it clicks, there is an unmistakable charm about the Phantom Thieves themselves, and drawn-out though they may be, the epic scale of the bosses is a good shake-up for the genre. It's not the perfect goodbye of Strikers, but it is a sign that the sun should set on the Phantom Thieves in peace.

Dirt 5 is similar to Project CARS 3 with its arcade racing style - just with a larger focus on rally racing. The style absolutely works in Dirt 5, offering up accessible rally racing to anyone interested in getting behind the wheel. Of course, the drive is what you make it. So should you want to become a master racer to take on other skilled players online, that option is also easily available to you so long as you're willing to put in the time.

Leximan is one of the most unique games I’ve played in a long time. It’s a love letter to old-school gaming and retro fans are sure to appreciate the genre medley. While a few points felt a bit clunky or unclear, the humour and unique gameplay shines through and though it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, I’m glad I played it.

Kirby Air Riders is one of the hardest games I’ve ever had to review. Not because it’s particularly challenging, but because it was clear from the moment I started playing that it’s going to be incredibly hit or miss. If you’re expecting Mario Kart World or Crash Team Racing but with Kirby, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But anyone who’s up for a racer that feels truly fresh, has a lot of hidden depth, and revs to the beat of its own incredibly loud engine is going to find something special here.

Aside from the monetisation, Apex Legends Mobile is a great distillation of the full game, with clever adaptations and quality of life updates to Legend abilities and game modes that make the battle royale shine on the smallest screen. For players transitioning from console or PC, controller support will be practically necessary, but players coming from other mobile games will have an easier time adapting.

Call of the Mountain has wonderful elements to it, and it lands the most important part - the physical experience of climbing - perfectly. Trailers and even my own video capture don't quite convey the speed and agility you feel while scrambling. Unfortunately, other parts of the game are too thin, with the inability to wander back the way you came and the constant stop-start nature of its thin narrative working against its own appeal. With some fresh ideas, huge scope, and clever adaptation of an existing property without relying on a simple remake, Horizon Call of the Mountain is an important game for VR. However, I'm not sure it's a great one.

Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven is likely to be your weirdest friend’s favorite RPG. It is a playfully obtuse, mechanically deep outing paired with a story that is almost charming in its simplicity. It feels dated, but it also features a singular vision that sets it apart from other games in the genre. I suspect, at the end of the day, it will carry on the legacy of the Saga franchise and be a divisive title, which is probably a good thing. We need more divisive games.

This is still a musou title, and it can only achieve so much within that framework without awkwardly bursting at the seams. With those restrictions in consideration, however, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is a triumphant prequel that Zelda fans are going to adore.

this DLC is a must-buy for any fans of the original trilogy. It's packed full of flashback features that add a new dimension to every aspect of the game, alongside the new campaign. Just don't install it until you have plenty of time to recreate that classic park while humming the Jurassic Park theme song. Trust me, you'll need it.

Much like the real world, everyone’s hopes and dreams are different, and it’s this uniqueness that makes them so undeniably beautiful. It’s a poetic struggle, and stopping to appreciate the instances of silence on a road filled with tragedy and heartbreak helps Road 96 feel like something I’ve never played before. Road 96 feels like an experience created by a studio that understands the fragility of the world we exist in, seeking to project these issues onto a fictional world where comparing them with our own is all too easy. Subtlety isn’t the objective here, and by pulling no punches, this game manages to say something well worth listening to.

The FPS is well-paced, smartly designed, and looks like a cartoon you would joyously gulp down with a Capri-Sun after school. It can occasionally frustrate, but it gives you all the tools you need to tailor the experience to your taste. It does many things well, and it accomplishes them elegantly. That a game this focused on feet pulled all that off has got to be the gaming surprise of 2024.

Gaiden left me wanting more. I want to see those new characters make a return. I hope we see the Boutique again. But most importantly, I hope this isn’t the final time we see action combat in the series. Even with Infinite Wealth on the Horizon, I hope there is still room for smaller, more experimental games like this in the series’ future.

Paper Beast isn't a revolutionary title, but if the idea of a short voyage into an original alien environment sounds like a blast, then this may be well worth your time.

So bring a box of tissues and brace yourself for emotional impact, because Arise: A Simple Story is perhaps the most tearjerking game you'll play this year.