More a reimagining than a straight remake but despite the difficulty of recapturing lighting in a bottle, this is both a loving tribute to the original Resident Evil 4 and a great game in its own right.
A peculiarly pitched spin-off that has almost nothing to interest Bayonetta fans and instead offers an Ōkami Lite experience that is so undemanding it almost seems to run on autopilot.
An effective tech demo but it struggles to be anything else, not least because for the majority of the time it's just a fairly vanilla climbing simulator.
A more traditional Fire Emblem experience than Three Houses, but one that's filled with fun new features and emphasises deep and varied gameplay over dating mini-games.
A fantastically idiosyncratic approach to both superheroes and turn-based strategy, that manages to remain perfectly accessible without ever talking down to its audience.
A significant advancement on Pokémon Sword and Shield and while it's not hard to see how it could be improved further this is the most ambitious and entertaining Pokémon has been in a long while.
After decades of miserable failure, Sonic Team has finally made a good 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game, and it's one of the best open world platformers ever seen.
A more flawed experience than its predecessor, with a sense that the formula is already starting to wear thin, but the character-based storytelling with Kratos and his son is handled masterfully well.
One of the best action games of recent years and an irresistibly entertaining celebration of everything that is joyous and imaginative about video games.
Technically this is the best Splatoon ever, but the complete lack of anything approaching a new idea is profoundly disappointing.
A tragically outdated open world adventure that almost has more in common with Goat Simulator than Grand Theft Auto, despite some moderately entertaining mechanics.
A peculiar mix of cyberpunk dystopia and whimsical platformer that is just about held together by some excellent visuals and a very cute cat.
A work of unbridled ambition and imagination but also a pretentious, contrived, and frequently quite dull gameplay experience – Death Stranding is peak Hideo Kojima.
A wonderful single-player and co-op adventure that’s entirely self-contained and effortlessly charming from beginning to end.
One of the best movie adaptations of all time and an impressively original strategy game that manages to rival even the best action titles in terms of tension and adrenaline rush.
Another promising game is ruined by the lure of procedural-generation, which is a particular shame given Sundered's gorgeous animation and interesting gameplay ideas.
Every bit as intelligent and daring as its predecessor, and if you’re prepared to be equally creative while playing it then Dishonored 2 offers almost endless rewards.
Some may dismiss it as just another pretentious walking sim, but this innovative Lynchian drama is one of the best story-based games of the year.
A co-op Metroid seemed like a bad idea from the start, but while Federation Force has its moments they’re overshadowed by sloppy implementation and bland design.
A stunning technical achievement and a mesmerisingly addictive one, even after you realise how simplistic and repetitive it really is.