Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is, honestly, a bit of a disappointment. It’s a perfectly competent tactics game, and there is a solid 10 hours of narrative here for you to explore. However, it’s mostly upsetting because of the flecks of brilliance that don’t quite fit together, and the good ideas that aren’t explored enough.

As a collection it’s hard to fault the amount of content you get in Mario Sports Superstars. However, all five sports are lacking in key areas. Accept these for what they are and you'll find it easy to pump numerous hours into this package, but go in with hopes of this 3DS title rekindling the glory days of Mario sports titles and, sadly, you’ll be disappointed.

A meaty and highly distinctive package which should delight cartoon-obsessed youngsters and those who live to play Japanese RPGs. But, despite the Disney involvement, it doesn’t feel likely to challenge the mainstream. In certain respects – albeit in the grand tradition of Japanese RPGs – it’s so complex as to be baffling.

Warmind represents Bungie finally getting its PvP house in order after a rocky start, but this success comes at the cost of an underwhelming PvE offering. The campaign is a one-note run through a handful of missions that boil down to run here, kill dudes then throw a magic space javelin at more dudes for the big finale. The Escalation mode and Raid-Lair are nice little additions, but Warmind really does offer staggeringly little for its price tag.

Telltale wraps up its Batman story in mediocre fashion, but the series as a whole is still worth your time if you consider yourself a Dark Knight fan.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided could – and should – have been amazing. All the ingredients were there: an intriguing premise, engaging and mature narrative themes, solid gameplay foundations and a beautiful look. However, the rushed plot, nonsensical conclusion, under-developed characters and continued shortcomings in combat mean this is a title which fails to live up to its potential.

Fishing Sim World welcomes those who want to take its subject matter seriously, and throws its arms open to players who don’t mind life slowing down. But if you’re here for unbridled fun and explosive action? This probably isn’t even the right genre for you.

Team Sonic Racing is fun yet ultimately underwhelming kart racer. It’s innovative team-based mechanics can make the solo campaign a joy, but aren’t fleshed out enough to prevent things becoming repetitive. Combine that with finicky handling alongside performance issues and you’ve a package that fails to live up to what came before it. Although, given its budget launch price, hardcore Sonic fans could find something to love here.

On the one hand, it’s lost the look and feel of the original classic, so if you’re looking for a slice of RPG history, look elsewhere. On the other, the core, combat-heavy gameplay doesn’t really work for a modern audience; the fighting’s either aggravating or plain dull. Put it all together an you have a retro RPG that’s fun in places, but that wears away at your enthusiasm over the long haul.

Featuring reworked combat and open-world story mechanics, Dynasty Warriors 9 is a definite step in the right direction. But even without the technical issues around its framerate, Dynasty Warriors 9 feels like a fundamentally compromised game that lacks depth.

A very well put together retro collection that takes a group of games that are well remembered and drags them into the 21st century. It’s not going to overly surprise, but nor is it meant to.

Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is a competently crafted hack ‘n’ slasher that suffers from the same issues of repetition as its contemporaries. While making attempts at customization and depth, the core combat never rises to the challenge to match it. For hardcore fans, there are oodles of playable characters and plotlines waiting to be discovered. For others, there are better games out there.

The Crew 2’s evident ambition to encompass cars, planes and boats into a seamless sporting experience is admirable, but constantly undermined by the bland, unattractive shell in which it’s contained.

There is a charmingly competent puzzler here, yet it’s hard to recommend without an abundance of caveats. If you’ve yet to play the Captain Toad and solving cute and charming puzzles, it could be worth a shot if it drops in price, even though the asking price is lower than most to begin with. If possible, and if you own a Wii U, you would be better off dusting that system down and playing it on there.

A nice return for the series as it continues to be as light and easy as before. The perfect next step for families who love Mojang’s absurdly successful creation.

Journey to Batuu is an enjoyable game pack for The Sims 4 and a worthwhile glimpse into the Star Wars universe, but it sadly lacks ambition when it comes to doing something new with the property. At times, it feels like a glorified tourist attraction, and the lukewarm narrative doesn’t pull you in enough to feel worthwhile. But for hardcore fans, this is possibly a journey worth taking for the price.

Got an Aim controller? You might want to look at Bravo Team. It’s a horribly flawed but fun lightgun blaster with some cool co-op cover shooter twists.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is an underwhelming start to a miniseries that still has plenty of promise. Deck Nine has shown it can create lovable characters and believable drama, yet fails to cohesively implement them into the experience. That being said, things could easily improve from here.

Dead Island 2 has been long in the making, but it might’ve been a little too long. Various aspects of the game, from the semi-open world to the tongue-in-cheek characters are reminiscent of zombie titles from 8-10 years ago and do little to reinvent the overly-used zombie trope. The only real saving grace is the combat, which when paired with the gory flesh system provides visceral, satisfying melee combat that’ll keep you entertained throughout the otherwise dull campaign.

I can understand Volition wanting to reboot the Saints Row series given the original launched all the way back in 2006. But the latest entry feels like a backwards step for the developer, with this release misses out on the over-the-top satirical humour that made the series so beloved. As a result, Saints Row now feels like a mediocre open-world action game, becoming just like all of the games at which the series used to poke fun. Mission objectives are bland and repetitive, while the story is boring and lacks cohesion. Worst of all, the slapstick jokes rarely land and are arguably more cringeworthy than they are funny. You can still have fun if you simply want mindless chaotic action, but I’d argue you’d have a better time with the likes of CyberPunk 2077 or even Saints Row The Third Remastered.

As far as smartphone ‘uplifts’ to consoles go, Aces of the Luftwaffe: Squadron is one of the better I’ve seen. It isn’t going to challenge shmup fans, but it does gain some points for at least trying to do something original with the formula.

The addition of PSVR is gimmicky, but fun, with VR shining in cabin-based games like this one, was re-jigged to be. The rest of the game despite showing its age heavily in places manages to feel a fresh experience, as surprisingly nothing has really come out in all this time that comes close to how slickly agile aerial mech combat feels here.

Code of Princess EX is a bit of a mixed bag for. It looks great, never missing a beat no matter how action-packed things get, and it’s certainly very accessible. And it’s fun – for a time. It simply isn’t a game that will stay with you for any length of time. It’s more a palate cleanser between meatier fare, or for those times you want to relive your youth with some Streets of Rage-style bashing.

Not Tonight proves that the Papers Please formula can work in a less soviet setting, but the experience is slightly diminished by the transplant. Yet it’s eccentricities remain endearing, with characters, landscapes and a haunting sound of muffled music that will be rambling around my skull for a little while yet.

This isn’t the smartest, most exciting or most imaginative 2D platformer you’ll find on the 3DS. In fact, Sega seems hell-bent on hobbling its chances with a selection of tedious or frustrating mini-games...Yet, overall, Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice isn't bad, dishing out the kind of rollercoaster looping, spring-heeled madness that first made us love the little fella. It’s a high-speed sprint in the right direction; it's just a shame about the missteps on the way.

Danganronpa is lunacy personified where games are concerned but does do a very good job in keeping the series going and make it accessible to newcomers, too. A crazy RPG experience.

It feels like PlayStation VR Worlds has two very good games buried within it that have been stripped back to demos. Rather than being amazing, indulgent main courses, they’re bite-sized chunks thrown into a pick-and-mix. Each experience is fun, yet far too fleeting and lacking in replay value.

The Walking Dead’s third season finale does what it has to do to tick all the expected boxes, and while not as high as the series has been, it’s still more than solid.