Disgaea 7 Complete clearly is the ultimate version of Vows of the Virtueless. The story is as quirky and fun as ever, and the bonus content is an absolute must for die-hard fans. Being able to play it on the Switch 2 on the go is also great, with the game looking and feeling fantastic in both handheld and docked mode. The only knock is the uphill struggle for newcomers with reams of tiresome tutorials – hopefully NIS will have figured out by the time Disgaea 8 rolls around.

LEGO Party is everything you want for a Friday night in with the family. Silly, funny, and accessible, finally Mario Party has some competition.

Silly, creative fun, LEGO Voyagers is just like the toy it's based upon. If only there was a bit more to it, then we could have had a real contender for a great Lego video game.

Discounty just misses the mark for me as a cosy game. While actually running the supermarket can be pretty enjoyable, it's wrapped up with frustrating busy work, NPCs who are so routinely annoying and unpleasant. It's like moving into the town where Hot Fuzz is set: something is off; people are weird and standoffish; and I just want to go home.

Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny does have entertainment value to it, especially for a younger audience, but those looking for a nostalgic trip revisiting Nickelodeon characters might be a bit disappointed due to how basic the gameplay and levels are. There are also technical hitches that need to be addressed.

I really, really like Digimon Story Time Stranger. While it's hardly upending the monster collection and battling genre, it's a really comfortable and enjoyable game that feels reminiscent of watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid. It's an awful lot of fun, and is right up there as one of my favourite games of the year.

UBOAT is fascinating and ambitious in its concept to faithfully encapsulate the experience of being a World War II submarine captain. Like any sim, it’s a slow burn: this isn’t one for action lovers or casual players wanting to fire a torpedo every five seconds. Boffins will delight in the attention to detail, but the inherent plate-spinning and fiddly console controls drain some of that potential fun factor.

Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are proper remasters of two all-time platforming greats. With tasteful graphical improvements, more integrated gameplay tweaks with better controls for handheld, they’re a solid, sensible way to celebrate a 40th birthday.

I have a tonne of respect for Blippo+ and the work that was put into it. It's weird and creative, which all my favourite things are, but it's so niche that it's hard to think of someone I know that I could recommend it to. Then again, I expect the developers and actors don't really care too much about that.

EA Sports FC 26 is a better game than FC 25 and can give you a good game of football, especially when Authentic mode in single player comes together properly. However, for that to happen you need to play on World Class difficulty, as anything below that exposes poor defending by the AI. There has been evolution here, but FC 26 is still only a step towards getting the balance right, and not the final stop.

Hades 2 is an undoubtedly excellent game, but it can't quite escape the shadow cast by the original – I just know I won't be playing this one as much as the first. That's okay, of course, but it has me once again looking forward to Supergiant's next new idea, not what they're doing now.

Does Claws of Awaji finally provide a more fitting ending to Assassin’s Creed: Shadows? Kind of. In an irritating and distinctively Ubisoft way, enough is left open to require at least another dose of DLC. Still, if you really haven’t had too much of a good thing, that’s certainly no bad thing.

Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian doesn't exactly carve out it's own path - you can tell it's part of a bigger picture, and it's a shame that bigger picture is inaccessible due to the fleeting nature of gacha games. Still, taken on its own, this is an incredibly fun Atelier entry with an exciting new shopkeeping system that I hope is a major and bigger focus in future entries.

Ghost of Yōtei is an excellent game with an engrossing story, a great lead, deep combat and a land that has so much to discover with a lot of details. This is a truly worthy successor to Ghost of Tsushima.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles faithfully and lovingly remasters this deep and complicated classic for modern console. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it, and it has been amazing sinking back into the world of Ivalice. If you can get past some of the retro gaming pitfalls above, you will see a game that absolutely loves the franchise it’s in, with nods to Final Fantasy lore scattered throughout. If you’re a fan of either Final Fantasy or Tactical RPGs, we strongly recommend you pick this up.

Although the new 1970’s setting and bland, dark visuals leaves Poirot a little out of place, Agatha Christie - Death on the Nile gives video-gaming detectives a fresh perspective on a well-known plot and some fantastic mystery-solving menus and maps to get stuck into.

Strange Antiquities is a fantastic sequel, taking all the cosy charms of Strange Horticulture and improving on the game's presentation, puzzle design, and more. If you loved the first game, you'll love this too, and will eagerly await whatever occult theme Bad Viking can concoct for their next title.

Silent Hill f isn’t just a return to form, it’s a landmark entry in the series. Konami. NeoBards and Ryukishi07 have knocked it out of the park. For me, this isn’t just Game of the Year material, it’s an integral piece of Silent Hill history.

Formula Legends is a love letter to F1, and for fans of the sport, you can’t help but fall for its charms. However, it is a small-scale arcade racer, and you need to temper your expectations when getting into the driver’s cockpit.

I really like Borderlands 4. I like it on the story front, gameplay front, mechanical front, and just all of it really. I have every intention of coming back to it and replaying it with the DLC characters in later playthroughs, and while the endgame stuff isn't that fleshed out yet, I have faith that it'll improve as time goes on. Let's just hope everyone else can enjoy it without bugs soon too.

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree might look like it's following in Hades's footsteps, but looks can be deceiving and there’s a lot more to Brownies Inc.’s latest than a cursory glance would suggest. Stuffed with intriguing, if regularly overwhelming, ideas and demanding mechanics, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree does enough to stand apart on its own merits.

While it gets plenty of the fundamentals of right, the dimension hopping, character roster and some of the extra modes don't quite stick the landing. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds isn’t the best karting game out there, and thirteen years on from Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, it’s not even the best karting game with a blue hedgehog in it.

Frostpunk 2 remains one of the most compelling city builders and survival games in recent memory, and it's survived the transition to console in remarkably strong form. That said, if you have the option of playing on PC, that remains the best place to play.

Misc. A Tiny Tale is a real hidden gem. The quality of the level design, the amount of emotional heft in the narrative, and the sheer joy of exploration in the game make it feel like a true successor to Chibi-Robo. Even if it doesn’t quite have the scope of Nintendo’s title, it's a pleasure from beginning to end.

Class of Heroes 3 Remaster is the kind of repetitive, dense, and often punishing dungeon-crawler that won't be for everyone. For the people who enjoy that kind of experience, though, it's a must-play blast from the past.

With its gorgeous visual style and some fun origami transformations, Hirogami has some high points to enjoy, but it sadly does have a few too many paper cuts that become consistent frustrations. It's not overly challenging, but lowering the difficulty does lend itself to a kind of relaxing, almost meditative experience at times, at least when the camera and other quirks aren’t getting in the way.

Sword of the Sea is a visually stunning and atmospheric game, incorporating some of the most flawless water graphics and satisfying sound effects found in games today. With a heart-warming narrative, fun snowboard-style tricking, rewards for those who love exploration, and the occasional ride on the back of a marine animal, this is an experience to be savoured.

Hellclock is a solid game that offers something new to both the roguelike and Diablo genres but may not have the wider appeal of titles such as Hades due to its focus on min-maxing and DPS over skill. The confused approach of offering game modes that actively undermine the title’s central gameplay mechanic, and the current performance issues in the latter stages, are real negatives but the first can be avoided and the second is being worked on. If the idea of a roguelike Path of Exile appeals, then Hellclock may well be the game for you.