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It makes a lot of sense realising that Miyamoto directed this game. It also makes more sense that this was the last console game he directed. His arcade intuitions and desire to try strange new things is reflected here; so too is his grip on the past. Star Fox has had more redos of the Andross vs Corneria story than any original stories combined. Some complain that this is one re-imagining too many. To me, though, this is in fact its definitive version; not without room for improvement in the details, but Star Fox Zero brings to life the classic story of Fox McCloud vs. Andross in a more thrilling and beautiful way than any other. For the most part, where its detractors see oddity, I see innovation; where they see reuse, I see homage and reimagination. This is not to say Zero is perfect - far from it - but it was the wrong game at the wrong time. It was released in unfavourable circumstances, on a life support console for a dormant series, and managed to be simultaneously too different and too reheated. But today, I think its execution was far better than it was allowed credit for at the time. It did not just scratch a nostalgic itch for me, it genuinely improved on a classic game I considered a foundational part of my gaming childhood. As far as I'm concerned, it's mission accomplished.

High highs and flat lows, XVI shows flickers of epic cinematic glory held together by crummy structure and superficial aesthetics.

Last Window took the best of Hotel Dusk and brought it to a new level. With quality of life improvements and an expanded scope, married by the excellent characters and art direction, Last Window is a game any respecting DS owner must play.

The Bouncer is the closest thing the video game world has seen to "The Room"; writing bordering on parody, gameplay bordering on non-existent, and its only redeeming quality is that it's over shortly after it begins.

Brawl is a celebration of video game history unlike any game that came before it - and in some ways, unlike any ever since.

Despite the valid criticisms of FFXV, the game's world is impossible not to love.

Skyward Sword deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest games Nintendo has made.

This special edition of OutRun 2006 turns a great package into one of the best arcade racers in history. Drawing on everything OR2006 did right, 2 SP includes full wheel support, fixes to performance and song loops and even more new music.

Final Fantasy X's story has moments of impact, but not enough to outweigh padded and often miserable game design.

Square Enix have truly outdone themselves to remaster a game as good as Final Fantasy X worse than the original.

To be a candidate for the best Super Mario game of all time, you'd have to be a candidate for one of the best games of all time. Super Mario Galaxy is one of those games.

The PlayStation 2 version of World at War is an entirely different game that insults the World at War name to its core. With no splitscreen, online or zombies and a pathetic, low-budget campaign, this game can be described as nothing more than a cash grab; an attempt to scam unknowing grannies into buying their kids an awful version of Call of Duty.

I'm glad that the PS2 version exists, but the poor performance is a real hindrance; the game cannot be considered much of an upgrade over its predecessor.

A visual spectacle, BLACK has moments of glory that have seldom been replicated in a shooter since. This truly feels like a blockbuster action game in a way that few games on the PS2 ever managed to achieve, and a celebration of guns and explosions. However, the lack of multiplayer and short campaign with no story is a serious boon.

A game with incredible scope and scale for the PS2, BF2: Modern Combat excels at really feeling like a battlefield. The singleplayer campaign is straightforward, but the hotswapping system is a great fresh concept; the multiplayer is functional and can actually be quite fun, even if the spawn points can leave something to be desired. The whole package is really quite impressive for the PS2.

Enthusia has its faults. The visuals are inconsistent, ranging from gorgeous to low-budget, the unlocking system for new cars is pure lottery, and it feels like half of the courses are recycled variants. Despite that, Enthusia's physics are remarkable, if brutal, and there are moments of stunning music and visuals. You have to experience a lap of the Nurburgring in this game; the atmosphere lent by this soundtrack is superb, and unique even to this day. Enthusia has earned its right to be more than just a Gran Turismo clone.

The PS4 release is good, insofar as it brings this classic to modern systems, but it can't help but feel like the worst version yet. The updated framerate is not enough to save the ugly updated visual direction and the gameplay is no better - if not worse - than it was on PS2 and PS3.

Shadow of the Colossus isn't a perfect game, and even in 2005 there were some criticisms to be made of the gameplay. However, credit where due - the music, direction, design and ambition of this game are absolutely remarkable.

Lifeline's voice action is its biggest strength and weakness. Lifeline's combat is absolutely awful - the voice commands are not good enough for real time combat, even for the time, and Rio's AI is unaware of all but the most obvious enemies in front of her - you'll lose lots of health over the course of the game just trying to tell her where the enemies beside or behind her are. It's not an exaggeration to say that at times, Lifeline offers some of the worst gameplay on PS2, even by 2004's standards. Other blunders include the absence of subtitles - a crime in an audio-driven game. Yet the microphone draws you in and builds a real connection with Rio - it makes you build a connection with her that feels much more engaging than text or a button could offer. Furthermore, the music has some really good tracks, the visual design is generally good and the story has some surprisingly good moments that I was not expecting. There's a very enjoyable and unique game here that is hindered by not just technological but design flaws that are just too difficult to overlook in its PS2 state. If the voice input was perfected, the combat was fixed and some basic quality of life improvements were added in an updated release, this game could be as high as an 8/10 for me. But at the end of the day, Lifeline is a very good game trapped in an unforgivable cage.

FFXV Royal Edition does not fix everything, but the final package is still a strong story that will remain with you for a long time. The characters and music are particularly standout; what it does right rivals the best JRPGs of all time.

Galaxy 2 deserves a place in every Wii library. It’s solid in length, while offering plenty more to return to later, and with one of the greatest orchestral soundtracks the industry has ever produced. A worthy successor to one of the greatest platformers of all time.

In spite of its shortcomings - weak storytelling, large performance drops and some gameplay quirks - The Last Story prevails as one of Sakaguchi and Uematsu’s new classics. The multiplayer is simple, but adds great replay value, and the single player experience offers replayability while offering a satisfying, streamlined length. It’s all topped off by some generally really good music by music legend Nobuo Uematsu.

The Awakened, ultimately, feels like a downgrade from Chapter One; its deductions have less risk, the environments are less inspired and sometimes the solutions are just too arbitrary. - Investigations are too bland. There’s only ever a single perpetrator and there’s no risk; unlike previous games where you could accuse the wrong person or reach alternative conclusions, Awakened is a matter of trial and error. - The plot is uninspired. Though there was a good twist in Edenweiss, much of the writing feels tangential, stringing together locations optimistically and quickly discarding them once the main plot has rinsed them in an hour or two. The focus on occult feels misplaced, and the story fails to deliver an engaging narrative in terms of otherworldly experiences. - The plot can often feel a bit lost. At one point, I confused two characters with names beginning with “A”; there was no way for me to check their profile or a clear objective, so when one of them turned up dead all I could say was “Oh, *that* was the other guy.” Without clear indicators, the game feels confusing at times without much to put you back on track. - The puzzles were sometimes boring. Sherlock’s mental palaces feel like cookie cutter puzzle sequences intended to pad out the game, and the ending has a light puzzle that feels exceptionally arbitrary. You can only press A to walk through the crowd in the spots the game wants you to, and in dialogue choices that could have set up alternate endings, the game simply fails you if you don’t feel or think the way Sherlock does about the situation. I must commend the studio for working in difficult circumstances, but it’s hard to ignore that Awakened feels like a facade of previous efforts; a mechanical downgrade from Chapter One that fails to find its spark.