Oscar Taylor-Kent
Every new cog in Sonic Mania looks right at home next to the old ones.
The way Kiwami weaves itself into a symbiotic relationship with 0 enhances the pair as a sequential experience.
Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is a great fighting game right now, but it's just getting started.
Sonic Forces is devoid of hope.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sets a tremendously high bar for the genre.
Episode Ignis is far from a perfect dish, but with plenty of seasoning in the pot, it's possibly the tastiest of the bunch, and adds some much needed flavour to the main game.
It's the best Dragon Ball fighting game, one of the best looking fighting games in general, and a rare welcome entry point for newcomers to understand what competitive fighting games are all about.
When more exciting retro-styled throwbacks like Project Octopath Traveler are on the horizon, Tokyo RPG Factory really need to take a look at what they're going to do with their next game to make it stand out from the crowd.
There's a serious wealth of content in Kikuya.
While The 25th Ward is still a great, gripping sci-fi crime story, it's really only going to appeal to big fans of the first game
Edo Blossoms feels like the weaker of the two halves, which isn't always the best position for a conclusion to be.
Capcom has done it again, re-energising a classic series like never before, and pushing the genre forward in a fresh way. It looks better than ever, plays better than ever. It's Devil May Cry better than ever.
Raising the genre's high bar, Nioh 2 runs and plays beautifully. But perhaps you can have too much of a good thing.
Crash 4 is the kind of retro throwback that actually earns its spot as a successor to the original trilogy. There's the occasional bandicoot stumble, but it's a responsive, precise platformer that looks as good as it plays.
A great but sometimes messy send-off for a decade-long story.
A terrific return to form for singleplayer Final Fantasy that makes the series' future exciting, in a barebones (though functional) PC package.
Endlessly slick, the battles and story are a joy to play through. No turn-based JRPG feels as good as this.
When taking charge of the action, Bayonetta is more fun to rip and tear with here than ever before, with some smart evolutions in how her role as a summoner can add to her combat without taking anything meaningful away. But some of the same issues that plagued its predecessors are just as present here as well, if not more-so
Sonic Frontiers features the kind of lightweight yet engaging storytelling that should easily enrapture fans young and old – though I'd hate to be a child forced to play through some of the abysmal platforming featured throughout. Was taking Sonic open world an ambitious endeavor? Yes. Did it pay off? Absolutely not.
A cute My First Metroidvania with charming characters, wrapped up in some fairly basic and uninspired platforming levels. It's not Illusion at its best, but should entertain kids.