I am Setsuna is a love letter to JRPGs of the past, and while it offers a style of play oft forgotten by the modern age, it is an exceedingly well crafted and thoughtful journey that should make you wonder whether the genre’s progress is necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.

It’s effortlessly cool, from a slightly nerdy retro perspective, but hidden beneath that, there’s a simple and very ordinary feeling tale of a trio of kickass women living outside the law and pulling off ever more outlandish heists.

Of course, for some, Obliteracers just won’t click. While fun, the singleplayer campaign doesn’t have much of a lifespan – a problem for those who don’t have the means to play online or locally with a group of friends. Then there are the raw mechanics, tuned to give Obliteracers a frantic, sometimes nonsensical feel. Needless to say, if you’re looking for something similar to Mario Kart, you’re in the wrong place.

Plotting the downfall of the human race is a rare treat in videogames, and there’s a lot of fun to be had in bringing this to pass in Zombie Night Terror.

Chime Sharp is a good, fun puzzle game that builds upon the ideas of its predecessors in all the right ways. It’s gorgeous to look at, each level flows with the consistency and rhythm that you’d hope for, and the soundtrack is one of the best in video games. It does get a tad tedious, and there are a few things they certainly could’ve done a better job explaining, but it’s well worth the ride if you like your puzzle games to be fast and challenging.

Kerbal Space Program is one of the most educational games I have played in years. While I’m nowhere equipped to apply for the ESA or NASA Kerbal Space Program does make understanding the science of space travel easier to digest.

I’m certainly eager to see where nDreams take us to next, as they hone their craft in developing for virtual reality, but The Assembly is sadly just a first step on that journey. It does some interesting things, with a nicely constructed story split between two characters and contrasting styles of gameplay, and it gets the controls right for first person exploration in VR, but without that, it would struggle to stand out from the crowd. [Tested with Oculus Rift]

Uncovering the threads that connect the residents of Harbor Prime is a fascinating look into a flawed future, if you are willing to hack for it.

The one saving grace is that Ghostbusters is dull rather than boring. Played in short bursts, a level or two at a time, it’s still rather fun, even more so when you have some friends in tow.

The puzzle-like missions of Crush Your Enemies are a lot of fun, as you race against the clock in a frantic rush to defeat the enemies, or simply grind with sheer weight of numbers. Ignoring the crass sense of humour and forgetable story, Crush Your Enemies does an admirable job of distilling the strategy genre down into a bitesized form.

While it’s not as essential as Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate was, those wanting to keep in the loop should seriously consider picking up a copy. While some of the bonus features do little to spice up the core game, there’s an embarrassment of riches to be found in the sheer volume of content on offer.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness carries a weight of expectation that it is incapable of satisfying. A legacy JRPG franchise, published by Square Enix, should have some meaning, but here it translates to pure mediocrity. Series fans may find some brighter elements to latch onto, but for JRPG stalwarts there are far better examples of the genre.

If you like the manga or anime though, this is a fun time.

Carmageddon’s revival gets off to a sloppy start, though it gradually gets better with perseverance. Drawbacks such as the fickle handling and the so-so presentation become easier to overlook, but those first few hours can be a major slog.

Full Mojo Rampage is simply an average game that could have been a lot better. There are a few good ideas here, but they aren’t fully realised, leading to a game that becomes tedious after a few runs of its quests.

Strategy aficionados will look on approvingly as fans of the series rejoice. It’s certainly not a game for everyone, yet those who find themselves hooked by Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII will struggle to break free of its hold. The fact that it plays so well on console as well as on PC shows that Koei is capable of more than mindless button bashers.

Duelyst had me hooked, as I put hours and hours into it almost every day. If I had written my review for it at that point, it would have done incredibly well in my books, with it’s fascinating tactical RPG twist on the familiar card game play. But after playing with friends, I struggle to go back to playing against anonymous opponents in ranked play, and I just don’t know how much more time I see myself putting into this game.

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is amongst the best games from either franchise. While the story of a single film has been noticeably stretched out, there’s still plenty of content here for fans to enjoy, and the new additions to the Lego formula help to keep things fresh despite so much familiarity.

Inside is not for those looking for hours of fun, opting instead to channel the ‘games as art’ mentality that has been debated into the dirt. It’s a game that people will be trying to figure out the meaning to for months to come.

When buddied up with three fellow survivors, there’s certainly some fun to be had. However, these moments will usually stem from the hilarious situations you’ll find yourselves in, enhanced by the game’s dumb raft of bugs and glitches.

Outside of boss fights, there’s little gameplay variation, making Lost Sea a drag when playing in long periods, but OK for shorts bursts here and there.

Breached is a fun little game that derives a good portion of its charm from its minimalist and mysterious story.

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir’s distinct painterly graphics, free-flowing combat and intuitive RPG systems make it a joy, whether you’re a newcomer or a returning fan. While some remakes are largely unnecessary, Vanillaware have taken a forgotten classic and made it an essential title for the current generation.

I was never engrossed, enticed, or even entangled in The Technomancer’s web of dystopian dreams. It’s competently made – there’s been far worse games reviewed on TSA recently – but what felt mildly interesting in trailers turned out to be perhaps the most boring science fiction adventure I’ve ever played.

Quite how anyone thought this game was ready for release is beyond me. It’s more like a proof-of-concept demo, and for the many people looking for a nostalgic return to classic football games, a massive disappointment.

A downright awful dagger in the hearts of Resident Evil fans. We can only hope that, with one final nail in the coffin, Capcom will bury this tragic era and leave it dead forever.

It’s still early days for Pirates: Treasure Hunters. Getting off the ground and building a community is hardest stage for any MOBA, but while there’s a number of ways in which it tries to break the mold, a pattern of common missteps overcloud the game’s prospects of a bright future.

Despite a lackluster package surrounding the awe-inspiring gameplay, it’s a game that has stood the test of time and people who are passionate about fighting games owe it to themselves to pay it a visit.

Needless to say, this isn’t cheap spinoff rushed out of the door – Activision has plans for Battlecast in the future and so far it’s managed to create a solid, if imperfect, foundation for them to build on.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a good JRPG that sadly falls short of greatness due to missteps that you wouldn’t expect to see in a modern game.

Mario & Sonic At The Rio Olympics 2016 is a solid entry in the series that will provide some undemanding multiplayer fun, as well as a modicum of single player enjoyment. However, a few too many missteps, from the lack of online to some events that don’t hit the mark, unfortunately stop this from being anything but overwhelmingly average.

Despite being a standalone game, Trials of the Blood Dragon is at best a quirky aside to Trials Fusion. With so many truly ridiculous ideas in the story, they’ve given themselves free license to experiment and try new things, but so many of them simply don’t come off and aren’t that much fun.

Some parts of the Asemblance are executed incredibly well, but having clocked in at just over an hour, it’s a tough one to recommend. Those who enjoy tearing apart this specific type of interactive thriller will have a ball searching every detailed nook and cranny for fresh clues, while the majority of gamers simply “won’t get it”. Either way, we’re intrigued to see where Nilo goes next and whether its ambitions for a landmark narrative series can actually materialise.

If you like classic point & click adventure games, then Demetrios is worth a play.

However, while I certainly enjoyed most of the scenarios I played, I found myself falling into that same groove, opting for a select cluster of traits and tactics to help ensure victory every time. Very soon, Plague Inc. became one of those games I couldn’t sit in front of attentively and immerse myself as the action unfolds.

If you Kickstarted this game, you’ll likely be fairly satisfied with how Mighty No. 9 turned out. However, it’s far from ground breaking in terms of its visual style, has some rather rage inducing sections of the level design, and the dash is imprecise. That said, the majority of the game is fairly fun to play and it certainly captures the spirit of Kenji Inafune’s Mega Man franchise, it just lacks a certain amount of polish.

Grand Kingdom is one of the most interesting things I’ve ever had on my Vita, combining so many ideas together and somehow making them all work. Like a weird looking dish at a foreign restaurant your cousin recommended, you might doubt it can be anything other than a huge mess, but once you get a taste of it, you’ll realize just how wrong you were.

Guilty Gear XRD Revelator feels more like an expansion than a legitimate sequel, but this isn’t a bad thing, as the fighting is still highly engaging and the numerous teaching materials allow newer players to get up to speed nicely.

To brand the game as a failure would be unjust, however. Although far from being essential, it’s easy to see why The Sun and Moon cleaned up at Ludum Dare 29. It’s just a shame that the end result lacks the substance and feature set needed to embrace a larger, more diverse audience.

Fundamentally, it feels like the Kickstarter budget should have been a little higher to achieve what Anima: Gate of Memories clearly wanted to be.

Atelier Sophie is a wonderful game, and if you’re a new player like me, it’s a great way to get yourself hooked on the rest of the franchise.

Soul Axiom tries to discuss the subject of the soul, but doesn’t have one itself.

The story is solid, if a little unusual for a Sherlock Holmes tale, and the collection of mechanics and mini-games that could easily feel thrown together actually work well together, leaving you guessing about what comes next.

At its best, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a joyous flight across the rooftops of a gorgeous city, with a grace that belies the weight and impact of Faith’s movement, but DICE seem to forget this on a few occasions, dragging it down with combat that brings the free running to a halt. It’s a fantastic game at times, but just as with the utopian setting, there are problems that lie breath the surface.

In short sessions, preferably with other players, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in tearing through each level like a bull in a china shop. That said, the longer you play Dangerous Golf, the harder it becomes to overlook the game’s shortcomings. It’s a respectable debut from Three Fields, if one that doesn’t quite live up to its full potential.

Honestly, Hard Reset Redux is an easy game to recommend for those wanting a little more of what made Doom such a success last month. Fast-paced shooting, combined with some great visual design and a few upgrades to keep your arsenal fresh. If you’ve not played Hard Reset before, Hard Redux is well worth the price of admission.

One Piece: Burning Blood is a great example of a licensed videogame, and it gets so much right, bringing the characters of One Piece to life in spectacular fashion. It’s a shame that the limited and unwelcoming narrative scope and unnecessary difficulty spikes take away from what is otherwise a great arena brawler.

Given how much I was hyped for the game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan is a bitter disappointment, meeting only some of the expectations I had and feeling like it was heavily rushed through development to meet a deadline.

For multiplayer aficionados, Overwatch is essential. It’s the kind of game worth sacrificing entire evenings to play and the kind of game you won’t be able to stop thinking about, even when you’re away. Although the lack of a singleplayer component will deter some, there’s more than enough mileage to be had from twelve maps and 21 heroes available.

Kirby: Planet Robobot is a great addition to the franchise, adding a mechanic that doesn’t feel forced and is overall not a terribly shallow package. But looking under the hood the game uses a lot of the same tricks that Kirby Triple Deluxe did and will probably captivate your time about as well. It’s certainly one that younger audiences will get a kick out of, but it’s no Kirby’s Fun Pak.

Lumo is full of well thought out puzzles, but it lacks certain gameplay touches that could have pushed it into being a great game. My main gripe is that the jumping feels awkward and, coupled with perspective issues, means you can fail a simple puzzle dozens of times.

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is as lethal as it is lovingly crafted, with challenging tactical gameplay that will push series veterans to the edge.

With four strikingly different races, Creative Assembly have done a fantastic job in bringing the Warhammer tabletop game’s fantasy setting, variety and tactical trade-offs to life.

Shadwen feels like it needed more time in development, both to work on its core ideas and bring them to fruition. The bland environments, the lack of an interesting plot, the technical issues, and the various gimmicks makes Shadwen a poor stealth and assassination game. At the very least, it tries to do something a little bit different, but simply doesn’t pull it off.

Expectations may not have been through the roof to begin with, but it’s difficult to walk away from Homefront: The Revolution without feeling disappointed. There are some genuinely enjoyable bursts of gameplay to be found, but for each one you’ll need to wade through a sludge of repetitive mission designs and annoying bugs.

Storytelling annoyances aside, it’s a solid and polished game with just the right amount of nostalgia for us oldies.

Doom is a truly spectacular bit of ultraviolence, but it’s deceptively smart in how it goes about it. It knows that all you want to do is blow stuff up in increasingly more brutal ways, leading to a single player that is probably the best FPS campaign since Wolfenstein: The New Order. While multiplayer is almost a damp squib, Snapmap allows for those with creative minds to unleash their creativity with an easy-to-learn map editor. To describe Doom in two words: Bloody brilliant!

Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation offers more of the same fantastic gameplay found in Birthright and Conquest. Fans of the series will be well served by the extra campaign, and for anyone that’s already played through at least one of the other storylines, it’s an essential addendum to one of the 3DS’ finest titles.

Yet the single player was a bore in its core gameplay loop, the two multiplayer modes have issues with their map design, and the gating of characters and abilities just feels unnecessary for a MOBA. However, it is still possible to get a kick or two out of Battleborn.

Although very enjoyable in small doses, Table Top Racing: World Tour doesn’t carry quite enough substance to make it past the finish line with flying colours.

Walking around a fun fair for an hour with a shouty, sweary woman who is only interested in herself is about as much fun as it sounds. I suggest you save your money for a ticket to a real fun fair and hope you get stuck on a rollercoaster for an hour. That would be much more thrilling than The Park.

There’s a few minor niggles, but it’s compelling and it’s easy to lose yourself in Stellaris for hours at a time, as you build your empire and explore both the galaxy and the stories that it can contain.

The Magic Circle: Gold Edition is a humourous and satirical look at the complexity of game development. At the same time, it’s a fun game that encourages you to experiment with different combinations to reach your goal, leading to a number of bizarre creations, but The Magic Circle: Gold Edition is brought to life by its comedy.

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright is amongst the best tactical videogames of all time. While it’s not the wholesale reinvigoration that Awakening was, it is the refinement of three decades worth of game development, from a team who have fundamentally defined the handheld tactical genre.

Uncharted 4 is more than masterful, bearing the hallmarks of a true system seller. What struck me most as an ardent fans of the series is how much it breaks away from the original blueprint yet manages to amaze on every level. Where many studios step safely from one sequel and into the next, Naughty Dog has taken a gigantic leap, proving yet again they’re the best in the business.

Rival Games started something very interesting with The Detail in the first two episodes. The story was immersive and the characters engaging. But because of budgetary constraints episode three undoes what the first two set up, with plot lines left abandoned and bugs that are very detrimental to a game based on choice.

Neverending Nightmares doesn’t go for the big set pieces, but relies on you to fill the gaps with your own imagination before unleashing some horror on you. Its slow pace combined with ominous sounds and music help to build tension in environments that gradually fall apart, as Neverending Nightmares masterfully gives off a sense of dread in its short playtime.

Maybe it comes down to how easy and accessible Coffin Dodgers is as a racer, but there’s definitely something that’s clicked with me. Even so, it’s a disappointing effort overall, but Coffin Dodgers may prove to be a guilty pleasure of sorts for a small minority.

It’s great to explore the background of one of the comic’s more popular characters, but doesn’t significantly push Telltale’s games on from their previous highs.

LOUD On Planet X is a good rhythm game with a great track listing, but some of the issues within do need fixing.

Across Severed’s seven or so hours, you get to experience some of the best touch screen gaming around.

Alienation is a slick and polished twin stick shooter, filled with huge explosions and seemingly endless enemies to kill, but it’s let down in a lot of little ways. It’s still a great game, but I didn’t fall as madly in love with it as I did with its predecessor.

When played with a friend, some of its issues become easier to overlook, but the fact still remains that those hoping for a triumphant return will be left disappointed by this rather one-dimensional arcade rehash.

Stories: The Path Of Destinies is a charming and colourful game that is well presented with good narration. The number of paths that can be taken allow for a lot of replayability, and there’s some well crafted combat. However, there comes a point where the game does become repetitive, which can make drumming up motivation to unlock all the stories tough.

Fun and frantic, it marks a unique take on a well known genre, which, with typical flair, Nintendo have made their own.

As a game that lives and dies on its mechanics, Star Fox Zero is only intermittently successful at selling its dual screen dynamics. It’s at its best during the classic Arwing sections, but the Walker form becomes overly fiddly and the different viewpoints often cause more problems than they solve. Sadly it’s somewhat fitting that one of the final Wii U first-party games still doesn’t convince us on the viability of a dual-screen home console.

While it does not usurp the Pokémon franchise in any way, shape, or form, Yo-Kai Watch is a viable alternative for those who can get past some of the inconsistent design choices.

The Collider 2 is an excellent game when you just want to pick up and play something for a small amount of time, but investing longer stretches of time can lead to a build up of frustration, as you crash again and again.

The Banner Saga 2 doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, it just makes the wheel bigger and keeps on rolling. Even with minor stumbles in the form of slow combat animation and initially overwhelming combat mechanics, it’s a game that excels at what it aims to accomplish.

Enter the Gungeon naturally won’t be for everyone, especially with its high difficulty and the pixel art graphics, regardless of how well crafted they are. It is, however, an excellent blend of roguelike and satisfying bullet hell gunplay that’s easy to dip into time and again.

Stranger of Sword City excels at one thing, and really flounders at the others. It’s a rewarding experience if you’re a fan of challenging RPGs and gameplay depth. If you’re a fan of well-written dialogue, engaging music or proper difficulty curves though…well….there are a lot of other video games out there that may suit you better.

I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a game as much as Ratchet & Clank. From shootouts and platfoming to the practically perfect script. Younger kids are going to love the bright visuals and characterisations, while us big kids will be chuckling at Qwark’s jokes and the sly grin Ratchet gives to the camera when he gets his paws on a new weapon.

As a solo effort, Candlelight is a fantastic achievement and kudos must be given for that.

With much of the game centred around matches and how they play out, Lacrosse 16 leaves much to be desired. Clearly, a lot of dedication has gone into making this the most polished adaptation of the sport you’ll ever get your hands on. However, that’s not enough to gloss over its two largest oversights: frustrating controls and an almost nonexistent learning aide.

Dark Souls III offers more of the same intensely difficult combat, ambiguous overarching story, and some striking locales and bosses in the franchises’ history. The only real objective criticism on the PS4 version is that the combat doesn’t feel responsive enough thanks to the 30FPS cap and frame drops.

At its heart, Stikbold’s a fairly simple game of hitting people with balls, but it has a bunch of fun and silly ideas alongside that which turn it into a manic little party game to while away a few hours.

An engaging and enjoyable narrative experience, and it makes the most of its stellar cast, pushing the boundaries of storytelling in games and presentation. However, it won’t be for everyone, particularly those who don’t like to be led by the hand or don’t want to spend an extended amount of time watching content rather than interacting with it. It also falsely makes you feel like you have a choice, but then, that’s much of its point, and despite a few missteps this is a story well worth experiencing.

Fans of dystopian fiction, or good stories in general, would absolutely adore Hope’s journey. The execution leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s a shame because Kholat has one of the best horror game set-ups we’ve seen for quite some time. Not only that, the team at IMGN.PRO has clearly put effort into sculpting an spooky collection of vistas each dripping in atmosphere. Sadly, wedged between these tense moments is way too much filler. The mind-numbing map reading and navigation would have been easy to overlook if that only made up a small portion of the game. Instead, it forms this drab and unappealing bedrock that threatens to drag Kholat down whenever there isn’t something scripted happening on-screen.

The boring story is filled with forgettable, two dimensional characters, and while there is passion between the main characters, it feels forced rather than natural. The gameplay isn’t ground-breaking either, but it is at least competent at delivering a mindless hack ‘n’ slash that is fun to play and worth a look.

Dirt Rally gets Codemasters back to their roots, with a game that focuses on rallying through and through. It’s tough and unforgiving of your mistakes, but that’s what rallying is about and it makes getting to grips with the car’s handling, measuring your approach to a stage and coming out on top all the more satisfying.

For all the similarities we’ve drawn between the two, the 2D style of combat is enough of a differentiating factor to give this game legs. With these it manages to sprint well ahead, feeling more like a full-bodied homage as opposed to a cheap knock-off.

Sheltered is a well crafted game that is quite tough at first to make progress in, but once you’re used to its systems there can be a rewarding experience.

As a 3D action game, Estival Versus manages to tick most boxes, but it fails to deliver anything which could be labelled as ground-breaking. While in no way poor or unenjoyable, it does little to put this franchise on the map. Still, for fans of previous entries, there’s plenty of meat on the bone, bundled together in a respectably polished brawler.

Some parts of the TrackMania Turbo’s structure feel restrictive or poorly thought out, but there’s little to detract from the compulsive time attacks, the outlandish track design and the gorgeously vibrant graphics.

While nowhere near as ambitious an undertaking as Grim Fandango Remastered, there is obviously a lot of love and care that has gone into Day of the Tentacle Remastered. There are most certainly still the same old gameplay warts that came from that era of gaming that don’t really translate well and some minor rough edges to the remaster, but it’s well preserved and the updates to presentation are marvellous.

As someone who has played almost every MMA game since UFC Undisputed 2009, many of the controls came naturally to me, but UFC 2 features quite the learning curve if you’ve never played a UFC game before. Whether it’s Ultimate Team, knockout physics or improved grappling, EA have made great strides to improve and make UFC 2 the best MMA game on the market so far.

American Truck Simulator may seem a little bare right now, with just two states and three trucks, so it’s hard to recommend to newcomers over the sublime Euro Truck Simulator 2. That said, those that enjoyed hauling in Europe will no doubt find enjoyment on the other side of the pond, with new cargo awaiting them and new cities to explore.