Guardian's Reviews
Dreamy vistas of the country's natural beauties are stunningly delivered – but won't distract from thrilling high-end driving adventures
The drunken antics and first kisses of a trio of tenacious teens make for silly yet undeniably enjoyable gameplay, framed by a playlist of bona fide bangers
An innocent-looking charity shop find draws you into a compulsive world of demons, ogres and retro delights
As a fast-firing spaceman, one minute you're invincible, the next you're dead – with every battle like watching a firework show through a kaleidoscope
This pulpy sci-fi thriller is a beautiful, if deferential, homage to the genre greats, with a poignant real-world echo
Work together with a bunch of lovable Pokémon to restore a long-abandoned town in this novel, absorbing game that's quite unlike others in the series
Fear, fights and feverish fanservice collide in this celebration of Resident Evil's recent and retro legacy
Short but very sweet tale asks the player to compile a scrapbook of mementoes telling the story of a heartfelt bond that frays over time
This ruthlessly competitive game will have everyone from your granny to semi-pros trying to set fire to their opponent's side of the court with powered-up 'fever rackets'
Childhood terrors come to wretched life in a grim fairytale of a puzzle-platformer that's as beautifully macabre as it is hard to put down
After some dumb fun hacking at zombies, legendary developer Suda51's first original game in a decade sadly only delivers a host of incoherent disappointments
This mischievous roguelike escapade featuring utterly fiendish felines is compelling, and impressively tasteless
A punishing, beautiful survival game that turns mountaineering into an intimate test of endurance, fixation and emotional resolve – you'll be in tears by the end
The UK game developer's latest is a database mystery constructed from an archive of fictional books. Their combined contents threaten to crack the code of reality
An exquisitely fluid game of tricks, grinds and manuals is framed by a story that uncovers the poignancy of the infamously painful pastime
It takes some getting used to, but this Mario Kart challenger soon reveals a satisfyingly zen, minimalist approach to competitive racing
After a two-year wait, Football Manager 26 upgrades every aspect of the football sim, but it may take some getting used to
An atmospheric folk-horror adventure combines colonial guilt, spiritualism and supernatural chills in a tale of secrets and seances on Ireland's haunted west coast
Most of all, this is that rarest of things: a horror game that actually has something to say. Rather than simply throwing jumpscares and black-haired ghost maidens at you until you submit, it uses rural mythology and superstition as a lens through which to examine the harms of patriarchy and the rigidly gendered expectations it thrusts on to teenagers. It also proves that the survival horror genre still has so much to give, 30 years after its inception. You must come to Ebisugaoka as soon as you can, and stay at least a week, maybe longer.
This whimsical action-adventure game sees you stomping through nature as a life-giving lighthouse – and it only gets weirder from there