A stunning game. Super Mario Odyssey is the best of the 3D Super Mario titles and a Game of the Year contender in a properly stacked year.

God of War has grown up. It is violent, but it’s not excessive. It is angry, but there is something to contrast it against. There is a flash of nipple, but it’s Kratos’s. Kratos is older, and he feels remorse for his past, but it feels like Sony Santa Monica also wants to atone. If that was God of War’s goal, the studio deserves a standing ovation. This isn’t only the best God of War game, it’s one of the best games of the current generation.

With an everything but the kitchen sink approach, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lives up to its name - it's the best gaming cross-over experience ever.

Comfortably Xbox’s best 2018 exclusive.

Minor as the additions the Plus expansion brings, Sonic Mania is still one of the best 2D platformers in recent memory, and is definitely the best Sonic game in a very long time. I can’t help but wish there was more of it, but there’s no denying this is an excellent package – and yes, it’s still a must-play.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is the perfect blend of nostalgia and the new, marrying a classic game with contemporary game design.

This rebuilt vision of Monster Hunter feels like a truly smart, forward-thinking improvement to the series. It’s an impressive leap forward.

Sekiro is a game a lot of people are going to bounce off. It’s one for the “git gud” crowd – for people who want a feeling of accomplishment, rather than the fake achievement you feel from finding some Level 20 Pants in most modern triple-A experiences. It’s FromSoftware at its most confident, at its most unapologetic. It’s Bloodborne but faster, with fewer crutches yet somehow more fair. It’s also one of the best games released so far in what’s already looking like a strong 2019.

The Switch continues to be a great place for ports of fantastic games, and my feelings around Bayonetta’s Switch Collection are much the same as they were for Skyrim and DOOM; this is the perfect excuse to either replay these games or to experience them for the first time if you missed them the first time around. Bayonetta might be a strange outlier in Nintendo’s game library, but she deserves her place: her games are absolutely modern classics in the action genre.

Iterative sequels are obviously pretty common in video games, but when a game is built around user-generated content it’s plainly more difficult to get right. Super Mario Maker 2 nails it, however, mashing together the joy of 2D Mario and the frightening ingenuity of a huge community of players to make for a Switch game we could easily all be playing in a decade. It’s difficult to think of a more compelling argument than that.

It’s a confident sequel, then, and does enough work to fill in the gaps through discreet bits of exposition that it could probably be enjoyed as a standalone adventure, too.

Capcom is a master of the genre it spawned.

Capcom has done a great job iterating on what was clearly an unfinished shell of a game with excellent foundations. In the last two years they’ve built something really special, and Arcade Edition’s soft relaunch makes this the ideal place to jump back in or make your SF5 debut.

Spider-Man is at its best when you’re mid-flow. It’s a game that can capture that awesome trance-like feeling where you’re so in tune with the rhythm of swinging and hopping between buildings or dodging, countering and attacking enemies that everything else melts away. That’s when it feels most special, and it’s then that what Insomniac has achieved here is most plain. Much of its design is familiar, but it appears here in a refined, polished form that makes it an easy recommendation.

The important thing is that the core game behind this port is brilliant, mind. It’s difficult to actually add much new content to a game like Tropical Freeze because the original version of it is so close to perfect – so instead you end up with the same fabulously choreographed levels and challenges recreated on a new, better platform. While punishing, it largely steers clear of frustration, a perfectly-pitched mix of challenge and reward.

Civ 6 is a decent port, but the reason it’s grabbed me so thoroughly on Switch even after hundreds of hours logged on PC is because this game is perfect for this sort of handheld mode play. Civ’s turn-based nature makes it perfect for quick pick-up, put-down sessions, and the Switch’s nature as a dedicated gaming device means that this is now arguably a better shout for a few turns of Civ on the go than a larger, more cumbersome laptop.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a groundbreaking game not just because of its unique design, but also because of how it shakes up the standards we’ve been judging games by for years.

It plays like Dragon Ball. While it plainly owes a lot to MVC3, Dragon Ball FighterZ manages to strike a balance between tag versus fighter ideas and the iconic imagery and designs of its license to create the best Dragon Ball game there’s ever been – and arguably one of the best licensed games ever.

If you’re new to the series, I’d still absolutely recommend starting with the original. For fans, though, it’s more Valkyria Chronicles, and that’s reason enough to pop a giant red exclamation mark above your head with excitement.

If you liked any of the Witcher games, novels or Gwent, then I would implore you to buy Thronebreaker. It’s like a 30-hour long easter egg, filled with references, inside jokes and an engaging story with an empowering lead.

In spite of all the niggling problems, for Pokemon fans, those who skipped Sun and Moon or kids looking for their first Pokemon experience this is a fantastic package.

These games include a stupidly large amount of content and Sun and Moon remain the most compelling, charming and interesting world Pokemon has presented since it was brand new back in the the 90s. For its audience, this enhanced edition is well worth the price of admission, though I’d be lying if I said my eyes weren’t firmly towards the future when Pokemon arrives on the big screen via Switch.

The PC version of Nioh is the very definition of functional. It works well enough that you can enjoy your time with it, but it’s unremarkable everywhere that matters.

The Nintendo Switch port is impressive, and the game is perfect for a spot of grinding on the go, with only occasional frame drops to let it down in certain cities. Otherwise, Tales of Vesperia is a classic JRPG that goes back to the roots of what made the series shine. Despite its flaws when it comes to its setting and style, earnest storytelling, a fantastic combat system, and memorable cast of characters make the game worth that ten year wait.

The management sim is on the up again, but Parkitect might be my favorite game of the genre’s revival yet.

This is a game to be savoured slowly and enjoyed as much for its questionable qualities as its obvious ones. Where other franchises seek to shave off rough edges, Yakuza has opted to not only keep them but to celebrate them.

The game still plays great on a controller on PC, and no amount of exclusive content will matter when you see it running this well. Sure, you’ll have to stomach the upfront cost of a PC, but I am willing to bet you’ll find other uses for the new machine than just playing Destiny 2.

A beautiful, challenging and often utterly brilliant throwback to the golden age of Japanese RPGs that somehow scuppers its chances of being a true classic through an ambitious but ultimately flawed narrative structure.