Outcast: Second Contact is an eighteen year old game that’s been given a makeover. This is absolutely fine if you’re a fan of the original and want to play it again on modern hardware, but if you don’t have the nostalgia quality there’s absolutely nothing that you won’t find here that’s done far better elsewhere.

Mantis Burn Racing is a solid top-down racer that really just wants more tracks and less repetition to be considered great. As it comes to Nintendo Switch, VooFoo have done a great job with the port, making a handful of sacrifices to hit the 60fps target the vast majority of the time, and preserved local split-screen for which the Switch is so well suited. It’s just a shame that there’s barely a pulse when looking to play online.

More importantly, it’s proven that traditional games, no matter how big, can work in VR.

Sadly, there’s one control scheme for Worms WMD on the Switch does get a bit cumbersome, though really this isn’t the fault of the developers. Moving the camera if they’re using the Joy-Cons turned sideways requires players to adopt a rather interesting position with their hands, positioning one finger behind the controller as it were. It’s probably more convenient to have the game as a hot-seat experience if you’re running low on controllers.

There’s some good ideas in how PlayLink can be used to let a group of players (and non-gamers in particular) join together and shape a filmic story, but the actual interface feels clumsy, and the story and scripting leaves plenty to be desired. It’s safe to say that Hidden Agenda is an obvious disappointment.

Knowledge is Power makes good use of PlayLink to open the door to those more familiar with tapping on phones and browsing the internet than knowing where that Square button is meant to be, and that’s its real strength. Outside of that, it has a few other ideas, but ends up as a fairly middle of the road quiz game that’s easy enough to put on the telly and your phones for a quick test of knowledge.

The easily outrun and overly simplistic combat is a major blow that Road Rage never manages to recover from. The basic open world design, ugly visuals, and various bugs become harder to tolerate knowing just how deeply unfulfilling the core gameplay is, even when you factor in the budget price tag.

If you like charming platformers then Wuppo may just be for you. The game offers a fun, though at times frustrating experience with a number of challenges to overcome. The world of Wuppo is quite unlike any other and filled with a lot of neat little touches, and though the story may be predictable it is well-told, likeable and easy to pick up.

If the combat were just a touch more dynamic, Hand of Fate 2 would be essential. As it stands, it’s still a great sequel and perfect for anyone wanting the thrills of an RPG without feeling loss. Defiant constantly prod players into the unknown and the results are always fun and rewarding.

Being able to take this huge adventure with you everywhere you go is fantastic, and, if you thought that Skyrim took over your life before, now it actually can.

A Hat in Time has certainly been well worth the wait, and is easily recommended to platformer fans across all formats. It sits nicely alongside Yooka-Laylee and offers a different take on the N64 nostalgia that both titles share. It’s unlikely to knock Mario off his perch as king of the 3D platformers, but it is a more than acceptable pretender to the crown. It also has a central antagonist called Moustache Girl who is a girl with a bushy moustache. A Hat in Time opens up to be a real standout in the recent renaissance of the 3D platform game.

While a fun distraction, there’s little to recommend wholeheartedly when it comes to Kirby: Battle Royale. Its mini-games are well designed, but with a short Story Mode and limited replay value for its other modes, it becomes clear that this is not a stellar addition to an already bulging line-up. Kirby fans are probably better off saving for a Switch as the pink puffball is heading there next year.

Rocket League is still a fantastic game, and one that I’m glad I’ve taken the opportunity to return to with a port that ticks all the boxes. Playing online has been as compelling as ever, even if I’m just as vaguely bad as usual and spend entire matches marvelling at some people’s rocket car skills. Of course, then there’s the ability to pull out your Switch on the train and get a couple rounds in against bots on your daily commute.

If you can look past the steep difficulty curves, unimpressive visuals and unwieldy controls, then you will find a deep and compelling historical strategy experience that will keep you engaged for many weeks.

Despite it’s flaws, I still found Need for Speed: Payback quite a likeable arcade racer. Just having a narrative sets it apart from the other, more serious offerings this year, even if it’s not delivered with much panache. Sadly its attractive visuals, and alternate take on the genre, can’t disguise a gamut of poor design decisions, some of which serve to make the enjoyable racing less than enjoyable.

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon surpassed my expectations. There were things overly familiar in more ways than one, but it’s not fully covering old ground. Plenty of new features and details will make fans of the franchise very happy and while I still mourn for the DexNav to this day, the new content is well worth becoming Alolan Champion once more.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is a fantastic Lego game. A fun narrative, a list of well-known characters a mile long, and further refinement on the series’ classic gameplay mark this out as the best Lego game yet. Admittedly, it’s still another game in a well-trodden franchise, and one which doesn’t reinvent the (plastic) wheel, but few brands can claim the consistent quality on show here.

Having flirted with the dark side in the run up to launch, Star Wars Battlefront II has had its reputation sullied by its underlying business model and how that is tied to character progression. That distracts from how much it improves on the first game though, with much better variety in Galactic and Starfighter Assault, character classes and team play being gently encouraged, and a broader and deeper player progression. Perhaps the greatest irony is that fear, anger and hate were Star Wars Battlefront II’s path back towards the light.

I was so ready for an action RPG entry in the Neptunia series to come along and scratch my itch, but instead it puked on my lap and barely touched the itch. I had so much fun with the story and characters, but with better combat and more consistent performance, this game could’ve been something special.

Despite some interesting additions like Headquarters and War, Call of Duty: WWII is arguably the most reserved entry we’ve had in years, but is already proving a hit among fans. There is still that sense of fatigue, however, and if Call of Duty is to soar to the top once again, Treyarch and Infinity Ward will need to change something more than the time period in the coming years.

There is such a thing as being too laid-back and Morphite is most certainly that. With visuals that are too basic and lacking in character, an almost sleep inducing pace, and some technical issues on Switch that can’t be ignored, there are few redeeming qualities for this utter snooze-fest.

Far from being a bad adventure, game but it is nowhere near as good as some other recent releases. Neither the story or the characters really grab you, and some main characters even become unlikable. One of the few saving graces are the puzzle designs themselves which are put together really well. The balance is skewed toward the puzzles, while the story it is wrapped in becoming quite a forgettable and a boring affair at times.

The saying “Too many cooks spoil the broth” certainly rings true with Sonic Forces. It’s a game where despite it’s many level types none of them quite leave a lasting impression. As a result, it comes off as merely average in all departments with the sole exception being the visual design. Sonic Forces is far from the train wreck that Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric was, but it doesn’t come close to reigniting the series’ magic in the way Sonic Mania did.

Hopefully Bethesda can get some more oomph out of the Nintendo Switch in the coming months, particularly in docked mode, and show that the Switch can be a home for major third parties. However, I know that I’d personally have held off given the daunting compromise in visuals and performance, even if it is a really good shooter on the go.

Episode Five brings the season to a positive close, and while we all like a happy ending, it does perhaps paper over a few of the more negative choices you’ve likely made. The character-driven aspects of the series have been brilliant, as has learning more about each of the Guardians’ pasts, but it’s still been foisted by Telltale’s creaky engine and often dull interactivity.

Demon Gaze 2 expands and improves on everything from the first game, but when the first game was the video game equivalent of 3am fast food, though, those improvements don’t amount to a ground-breaking new title in the genre. Demon Gaze 2 is just a fairly decent, quirky JRPG.

The Frozen Wilds enhances an already excellent game. The improved dialogue for a number of the characters shows that Guerrilla have clearly taken onboard the criticism levelled at Zero Dawn, while the additional enemy creatures are welcome and make the game feel well rounded and complete. I really enjoyed returning to the world of Horizon Zero Dawn and simply can’t wait for the next game.

I long for tense, atmospheric experiences that get me shivering and shaken and Yomawari: Midnight Shadows shook me to my core. It’s a masterful horror game that tops anything else on the Vita, and rivals many other things on the PS4 as it blends detailed sound-design with rich art and a somber narrative to craft a breath-taking horror experience. Some puzzle segments can be obtuse, and the ending lacks the same sense of accomplishment of the first game, but despite all that, Yomawari continues to perfectly define horror.