If you have never experienced Rhythm Paradise, this one comes with a hearty recommendation. Snatching cake with your mates has never been so fun. [Hands-On Impressions]

By deftly combining its stealth-sim expertise from the Hitman franchise with big-budget, blockbuster sensibilities, IO Interactive has crafted a stellar action espionage romp. Most of all, it’s a reverence for the source material, and a willingness to tell new Bond stories, that elevates 007 First Light to greatness.

Replaced’s jaw-dropping pixel-art visuals elevate the slower plodding place of the 2.5D platforming, with a beautifully realised dystopian setting aiming for the high-concept of Bladerunner but perhaps landing on the enjoyable romp of Total Recall.

With my eyes, ears and fingers plunged deep into Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, I came away with relative awe at what the team was managing to put together. Any revisit to something beloved can be fraught with peril, but the mastery on display from the team here shows that they know how to navigate those choppy waters. It’s more than a cutting edge overhaul of visuals, it’s a carefully considered enhancement to things that were deserving. My only gripes came from the gameplay session, where my fast-forwarded journey put me deep into late-game piracy, and I didn’t quite grasp the amount of Assassin’s tools at my disposal alongside some of the more fearsome enemies, but that isn’t Edward’s fault – it was mine. I hadn’t quite found my sea legs yet. [Hands-On Impressions]

Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen is a safe, cozy, and distinctly Bluey-styled adventure that understands its audience perfectly – even if it trades adult-sized thrills for a perfectly calibrated, frustration-free quest for the little tackers.

Directive 8020 is Supermassive’s most ambitious choose-your-own-adventure in both tone and gameplay to date. Disappointingly, poor voice acting, boring characters and a simple gameplay loop means that it doesn’t live up to its potential.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a brilliant, quirky experiment that proves being a dinosaur-shaped scientist can easily give traditional platformers a run for their money. If a cosy, unsupervised science fair full of "Eureka!" moments sounds like your jam, prepare your tongue for a new career in book-based ecology.

Legacy of the Dark Knight’s excellent combat and stealth systems, fun open world, and clear reverence for the World’s Greatest Detective bring it close to plastic perfection.

Mixtape’s style, soundtrack and unique storytelling flair all combine to elicit feelings both new and long forgotten. Simple moments make you appreciate life for what it is: a continuous evolution rather than a static state of being. Our adolescent selves relished in that freedom, and Mixtape seeks to recapture the magic.

Despite some stunning visuals and an excellent soundtrack, Aphelion sadly doesn’t have the narrative prowess that DON’T NOD is known for. Bland characters and a story that doesn’t deliver on its promising premise, plus a tedious gameplay loop makes this sci-fi adventure a disappointment.

Pragmata is a surprisingly great homage to late-2000s survival horror and platforming classics with enough identity and sauce to shoot for the moon.

Whether you're a fighting game veteran or someone who usually avoids the genre, Invincible VS offers an intuitive fighting experience that is hard to put down. It’s flashy, it’s bloody, and most importantly, it’s really fun to play.

Advancements in progression, narrative delivery, and player engagement, as well as refinements made to a near-perfect set of gameplay fundamentals, see Saros eclipse its predecessor and ascend to a throne above all others in the genre.

Easily the game with the highest meme potential of 2026, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream’s combination of zany (if repetitive) writing and player input makes for a memorable time. The open-ended play is balanced with a steady flow of bite-sized activities for structure, and while the game could have used a bit more substance, it’s surprisingly addictive nonetheless.

Generic boomer shooter gunplay and a stretched-out runtime could be make this a cold case for some, but the incredible rubber hose aesthetic and entertaining noir setting should help see most detectives through to the end.

An artistically striking interpretation of Arthurian canon that isn't quite able to draw its sword of convoluted card-driven systems from the slow and cruel stone that is the turn-based combat.

With its fusion of heartfelt narrative, giant robot combat and flexible flavour-driven cooking system, Dosa Divas serves up a hearty genre mashup that more than lives up to its ambitious premise. It’s a beautifully crafted journey where the only thing more satisfying than the snappy dialogue and deep character bonds is the undeniable joy of saving the world one home-cooked meal at a time.

Bungie successfully makes a grab at the extraction shooter crown with Marathon. Rook is a revelation for solos, and Cryo Archive is the best endgame experience in the genre. It is mean, yet fair, with more than ample flair. The biggest issue is that you’re currently not playing it, hence my matchmaking woes.

The Occultist has a strong premise, interesting narrative, and engrossing atmosphere, but unfortunately it fails to capitalise on this with some pretty tedious gameplay, a lack of scares, a boring protagonist and out-of-place voice acting.

People of Note is an ambitious turn-based RPG which shines in many ways but ultimately fails to hit all of its high notes. While the soundtrack and turn-based combat are individually strong, there’s a persistent disconnect between the gameplay experience and the power of song that the narrative is trying to sell you, leading to a weird sense of musical emptiness that undermines the core selling point of the game.

Charming and occasionally engaging, Darwin’s Paradox! Is an uneven and sometimes irritating stealth platformer with a few too many quirks and inconsistencies to outright recommend.

An addictive and lovingly crafted adaptation of Star Trek Voyager that will keep fans on the hook. Expect a lot of reading, menu diving, and a steep learning curve, but the payoff is an experience that puts you in the captain’s seat for one of the franchise’s most unique stories.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a loud, proud, and stylistically sharpshooter that shines brightest when you're tearing through hordes of gunk zombies with a group of friends.

Set in a vibrant cartoon world and exploring relatable themes, Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale is a hidden gem in the adventure genre that sees you saving the Kingdom of Yogurt while finding out more about yourself in the process.

ICARUS is a fantastic game, but the console experience is let down by frustrating UI and controls. If you have likeminded friends, the limited multiplayer will still deliver hours and hours of fun and satisfaction, but if you

Tight controls, excellent fighting-game-inspired mechanics and an anime aesthetic that can't be overlooked are all reasons to start the engine, so it's a shame Screamer's story mode is so stuck in first gear.

Proving that looks aren’t everything, Crimson Desert’s stunning visuals and strong performances aren’t enough to save it from being a disappointing experience. Jam-packed with content and systems that make it feel like a Jack of all features, master of none with an unenjoyable gameplay loop, Crimson Desert is really just a single-player MMORPG in all but name.

Nioh 3 makes minor updates to the formula that was so successful in Nioh 2 but transplants it into a time-travelling open-world adventure. Asset recycling is a little egregious, but it's a tough new Nioh outing that fans of the series will eat up.