The Switch version of Okami HD – with its portability, its motion controls, its touchscreen paintbrush and its compact charm – is hands own the definitive version of Okami.
Monster Hunter: Generations Ultimate has some of the best kineticism and game feel of any game you can play on handheld consoles right now. Its graduation from 3DS to Switch is nothing short of mind-blowing.
Resident Evil Village is an essential horror experience that shows off what Capcom is capable of when it doesn’t compromise its vision in any way. The developer uses subgenres like puzzle pieces, clicking them into place on a grid to reveal the bigger picture: a survival horror collage, realised with remarkable production values and a deep love for its extensive roots. Resident Evil Village will be held high by Lady Dimitrescu and her peers for years to come, to rest head and shoulders above its genre rivals.
Titanfall’s now-classic speed works so well in this game - Respawn has studied everything that made the original game so enjoyable in multiplayer and built a solid story experience around those elements. The multiplayer is evolving, and whilst some may argue it's getting top-heavy, we truly believe that every alteration Respawn has made to the core Titanfall experience has been for the better, resulting in a stronger, better and more robust sequel.
There are a couple of ‘100% completion’ style things in the list, but for the most part the trophies and achievements are inventive and fun - generous rewards for progressing through the story, and smart little bonuses for taking part in the online and side ops. Hope you like boat racing!
NieR: Automata is unlike anything else you can play on Xbox One - all the best bits of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta mixed into a narrative that tastes like what you'd get if Lewis Carroll wrote Ghost in the Shell. A thought-provoking, self-aware romp. Recommended.
Horizon: Forbidden West does a great job of building on the foundation that Zero Dawn laid out
I promise you, it’ll leave you charmed and hungry for more.
Metal: Hellsinger is a good time, if not a short time. Hard as nails, rewarding as they come, and fuelled by some of the best names in heavy music, The Outsider and Funcom have made a game that’s worth every second of your time it takes up – even if that’s only about the length of one of the more epic prog albums out there. A knowing and fun take on the rhythm shooter genre, plagued with some calibration and UI issues, this romp through Hell is as satisfying as it is frustrating – and not even hearing the dulcet tones and throaty growls of Trivium’s Matt Heafy can offset that.
This is a top-tier rhythm action game that’s pitched as a love letter to the Final Fantasy series, brimming with content and packed with love and care. But – like some of the more ambitious double-albums out there – it sometimes feels like quantity over quality, as you trudge through some of the less well thought-out note maps in order to get to the ones you know will inspire you. Some will have more patience for that than others. Given that I’ve already played through Blue Fields about 20 times, I’ll leave you to figure out where I land on that.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an excellent action game, and a tightly-focused, well-executed example of why Team Ninja is often mentioned in the same breath as FromSoftware. Razor-sharp combat that wields the power of momentum with deft ease, supported by intricate and well-designed levels, against the backdrop of an over-the-top historical fantasy? It’s just a shame about the quality-of-life aberrations that constantly chip away at your morale.
Mirage represents the past, present, and future of everything Assassin’s Creed stands for – and you can feel it in the game’s bones.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a smart game that makes you feel even smarter. It’s a Metroidvania that’s learned from the best, but without sacrificing any element of its own personality – for better and for worse.
Flush with flash new tricks, simpler action and a bulging roster of hostile creatures, the latest instalment of the enduring series is an absurd delight
This is a great game for RPG fans to get their teeth into: over 20 hours in, you'll notice the story only just starts gaining traction, and you may only just start getting familiar with the game's myriad systems. The game is unforgiving, often mercilessly so, but if you have the patience to penetrate the density and crack open the core gameplay, there's such a wealth of well-written RPG content, it's impossible not to recommend.
The Remaster is essential for anyone wanting to sample Dark Souls for the first time, but have exercised caution in jumping in thanks to the inevitable time commitment it will take: the Switch version will undoubtedly have an active online portion, it allows you to take the game at your own pace with the wonderful suspend/resume feature, and the reworked visuals make things that bit easier to read (at the cost of atmosphere in some cases).
Halo Wars 2 is a worthy follow-up to one of the most underrated exclusives on the Xbox 360. The game makes a point of proving RTS games have a place on consoles with a smart, intuitive control system and a campaign that puts older RTS stories to shame. The Halo universe suits the units/base system so well, and if you’re a fan of the series we recommend this game to you - even if you’re not an RTS nut: it’s easy to pick up, it’s fun to play, and it gives a wonderful new perspective on the Halo universe.
Toys for Bob has done an exemplary job of bringing Spyro into 2018, and we hope to see Activision continue to experiment with remasters like this and Crash.
Fluctuating like a Geiger Counter between nihilism and utopianism, this game’s muddy morality is a thing of beauty in the current climate and could be one of 2019’s most important games as a result.
A stripped back hit of nostalgia ideal for Pokemon Go aficionados