David Jenkins
Even as a beta release this is an impressively entertaining, and accessible, combat flight simulator, and a welcome break from the shoot 'em-up norm.
One step forward in terms of story and two back when it comes to gameplay, Black Flag's first story expansion has its heart in the right place but that's about all.
A great idea that fails to capitalise on the full extent of Nintendo's 8-bit legacy, although whether that's through greed or foolishness isn't yet clear.
Still essentially the same game as released on mobile, but at twice the price and with microtransactions that are even more cynically-designed than usual.
Plenty of honest effort has been expended here, but Mario Party has never seemed like a sensible kind of game to turn into a portable title.
Exactly as entertaining as you'd expect from a collaboration between two of Japan's most talented developers, and a relatively good – if extremely belated – PC port.
A competent and unexciting update to a competent and unexciting puzzler, which is not nearly praise enough to forgive the optimistically high price.
Extremely short, extremely dull, and extremely expensive for what it is. Dead Rising 3 may not be the greatest launch game ever but it deserves better than this.
Clever, funny, and thought-provoking, but even without the weight of expectations this is a surprisingly insubstantial and ephemeral experience.
Authentically retro but then many games are these days and Legacy's dungeon-crawling action is not nearly as entertaining as the best of its rivals.
A great cinematic action adventure, with one of gaming's great lead performances, although its Tomb Raider DNA seems fragmented and even degenerative in parts.
A highly competent 2D platformer, but one utterly devoid of any new ideas or any reason to buy a Wii U in order to play it.
It goes completely against the spirit of the movie but at least the game is able to celebrate the creativity of its developers, if not its players.
The mixture of old school, new school, and Metroidvania works surprisingly well – even if Strider's long-awaited reboot still feels slightly too safe.
Still one of the best action games ever made and although this is technically the best-looking version it still doesn't really feel like the definitive one.
Still the same lacklustre combination of Left 4 Dead with a twin-stick shooter, where only the status of PlayStation Plus freebie prevents further criticism.
It could do with a few more ancillary options, and a more interesting backstory, but in terms of online gameplay Titanfall is now the game to beat this gen.
About as new as a fossilised dinosaur egg and just about as fast and exciting, this is a depressingly poor degradation of a once great original.
Probably the most satisfying video games crossover ever made, and one that plays with the conventions of both franchises and still delivers a funny and touching story.
The graphics are a great advert for the power of the PlayStation 4, but in terms of gameplay and story this hasn't moved on at all from the previous generation.