You can't beat the feeling of playing Magic with cardboard in your hands. Still, Arena presents a slick realisation in digital form, and one that should suit both old hands and newcomers.Will Freeman
Ports don't trump arcade hardware originals, do they? M2's elaborate build of Cave's brutal genre masterwork thinks otherwise.
Rival Megagun may fall short of the standards set by genre masterworks like Cave's Ketsui, Seibu Kaihatsu's Raiden Fighters Jet or Raizing's Battle Garegga. But those are some of the finest pieces of game design of all time, and failing to meet their lofty standards doesn't stop Spacewave's creation being a tremendously fun and rather distinct shmup that really does offer something fresh, and serves as a great demonstration of the Switch's multiplayer prowess in the process.
You should play 11-11, and not just because it's a chance to enjoy a captivating piece of interactive storytelling. This game is important, because of the way it makes you think, without ever telling you what to think. Lest we forget.
It's easy to forgive Spintires: MudRunner exactly because it has such an eccentric charisma. It should be dull. It should be frustrating. It should be prettier. But it has its own strange beauty and offers something refreshingly unconventional in the driving genre.
Dakar 18 is a curious creature. It absolutely delivers something truly distinct in the wider racing genre, and though the core gameplay isn't immediately accessible, it can be greatly rewarding to those that take a chance on tackling it properly.
If you like fishing in reality – and are also open-minded to digital pursuits – there's a very good chance you'll be delighted by the detail Fishing Sim World delivers. There's enough reel, bait, line and rod types to keep you busy exploring your hobby for hours, and plenty of reasons to use the gamut of hardware available. If you sit in that audience you'll likely find that Dovetail's creation suits numerous shorter play sessions over many weeks. And throughout, you'll be delighted by all the fishing authenticity.
This is a strange beast. It's devoted fan base might already be satisfied by the PC release, while the console crowd may need a little more help familiarising themselves with the conventions of train operation. There's a good chance that many a player will quickly be bored to the extreme by the gameplay, but for those of us looking for an alternative to intensity and drama,
The best bits of this dino-business-management game roar into action when disaster strikes, but too much of it is repetitive
There is a sense that with just a couple of updates, Lego Worlds could leap from a captivating proposition to an essential purchase. But for now, the very loose framing that allows Lego Worlds and its players to be free from stifling game design conventions has equally made the experience sometimes ungainly and directionless, leaving its protagonists stranded in a world that is as full of confusion as it is ideas and potential.
Raiden 5 is a peculiar, scrappy yet refreshing diversion from the genre norm of bullet hell.
Dimensions may be the best Lego game yet, but like the sweets at the supermarket counter, or those tantalising extras in the latest free-to-play smartphone game, it might prove most talented when it comes to causing friction between parent and child.
That retro approach is Tembo's greatest strength – and weakness. While levels are impressively designed, and the task of defeating every enemy soldier and finding each citizen adds a satisfying challenge, it also feels like a remix of titles you'll have already played. Fantastic animation and great visual humour provide saving graces.
N++ is understated and sharp, while the music capably lends weight and momentum to the action. Certainly, most of the mechanics on offer will be familiar to platformer veterans, but the combination here is a superb blend.
Mortal Kombat X is many things. It is mechanically refined and stylistically muddled; it has a sometimes unpleasantly violent, sometimes charmingly hammy commitment to the traditional fighting game template. It has thrust the series forwards and succeeds in delivering nuance while offering a welcoming genre gateway for inexperienced players.
OlliOlli2 remains very faithful to the template its forbearer set, down to the additional Spot and Daily Grind additional modes that focus attention on deliberately brief scoring challenges. Cautious as its updates initially seem, it is another superb twitch game, obsessed with the currencies of difficulty, speed and score. Best of all, it manages to capture so much of the movement and feel of skateboarding without ostracising players who have never touched a board in real life.
A melding of the established template and something just new enough, RedLynx's creation is a wonderful thing.
Inconsistent Kinect controls dampen the fun once again in this latest attempt to compete with the masterful Wii Sports
It looks great in 3D but there's no getting around the fact that the new Zelda adventure is very much like all of the others