Table of contents for June 2020 in Edge

Developer/publisher Matt Makes Games Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Release 2018 When assembling this selection we tried, as a rule, to avoid games that were too difficult: there is more than enough stress in our lives already. Yet this list would be incomplete without Celeste. Tough as it surely is, its difficulty level is perfectly pitched, and chimes perfectly with its central theme of triumph over adversity. Instant restarts numb the pain, and you always know exactly what killed you – the dash button pressed a few frames too early, the errant diagonal input, the unseen spike hazard you’ll remember next time. An industry-leading suite of accessibility options lets you tailor the punishment, or lack of it, to your liking; a raft of collectibles, hidden levels and the brutal…

Developer/publisher Onion Games Format PC, Switch Release 2017 In hindsight, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. With the likes of Moon, Chulip and the brilliant Little King’s Story, Yoshiro Kimura had previous for marrying eccentric ideas with deceptively clever design. And so it made perfect sense that the first game from Kimura’s indie studio Onion Games should be a quietly ingenious semi-autobiographical tale of a middle-aged bedroom coder in his underpants making an RPG. Dandy Dungeon’s game-within-a-game conceit lets it gradually introduce – and tutorialise – new mechanics, framing them as protagonist Yamada’s own epiphanies. These are inspired by offbeat encounters with a range of characters, including his neighbour, Maria-chan, whom Yamada immediately casts as a damsel to be rescued from the titular dungeon. Yet the cliché is neatly…

Developer Ape Inc, HAL Laboratory Publisher Nintendo Format SNES Release 1994 Those of us who lived through the 16bit era will remember learning the value of patience. Six-month delays were the norm. A year wasn’t uncommon. Two decades? Even by Nintendo’s standards, that was a bit much. EarthBound’s scarcity was part of its legend, of course – even in America, which only had a little over nine months to wait. By the time it arrived in Europe, courtesy of Wii U’s Virtual Console, it had amassed a reputation to which no game could have lived up. That it held up at all was remarkable enough, given its best ideas had all been done to death since – though the ability to survive fatal attacks by defeating an enemy while wounded…

Developer Playground Games Publisher Microsoft Studios Format PC, Xbox One Release 2016 Forza Horizon is the hottest summer you can remember, the loudest party, the fastest car, the prettiest sunset – moments exaggerated by your memory the way Horizon exaggerates the entire world. There’s a meticulous driving simulation in there somewhere, but here you are bombing through a forest in a Ferrari made of Lego with all your friends driving beside you whether they’re online or not. Horizon has been all optimism and excess from the beginning, and while the third game is our pick of the four, each is worth revisiting. The canyons of Colorado offer a dusty, orange Americana that still feels vibrant in 4K on Xbox One X. The Mediterranean coasts are the millionaire’s holiday you never…

Jason Roberts’ astonishing debut loses little of its power to dumbfound on a second playthrough. It’s the puzzle game as an act of construction and deconstruction: the world’s most elaborate jigsaw, perhaps, where every piece can snap into more than one place. Illustrations become tangible objects, gaining a third dimension. Doorways become portals, letting you cross vast distances and travel through time. Compasses and temperature dials are repurposed as clock faces. Here, you’ll discover that the energy of a star can be held within a desk lamp. To play it is to marvel at a dozen tiny miracles, to shake your head and ask simply, “How?” There’s a spiritual undercurrent to the story, involving a boy in pursuit of a vast and colourful dragon. If its deeper meaning is beyond…

Developer/publisher Necrophone Games Format PC, PS4 Release 2014 Videogames, as a general rule, are not funny. At least, not deliberately so – we’ve chuckled at many an unintended glitch, from physics mishaps that catapult enemies into space to Assassin’s Creed’s disappearing faces. Six years ago, Luis Hernandez and Jess Brouse set out to make a game that would prove the exception to that rule. Jazzpunk might ostensibly be an alternate-universe Cold War spy thriller, but its real aim is to make you laugh. It does so, frequently. Its approach is simply to fill its world with people and objects any curious player would want to interact with, and produce a gag in response to just about every mouse click or button press. Before long you’ll find yourself wandering away from…

Developer/publisher Popcannibal Format PC Release 2019 As cheesy as it sounds – and yes, a lot of this special edition is going to sound cheesy, but it doesn’t make it any less true – words have power. (If they didn’t, we probably wouldn’t be writing a magazine right now.) Kind words can’t put food on the table, or money in the bank, but they can help us feel less alone in a seemingly hopeless situation. This anonymous virtual pen-pal experiment feels more essential than ever, then. From a safe and cosy room floating in a starlit void and soundtracked by lo-fi beats, you pour your thoughts, worries, hopes and dreams into a short letter, then send it out for thousands of strangers to see. In the meantime, you’re free to…

Developer Megagon Industries Publisher Thunderful Publishing Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2019 This was, appropriately, the game that set this issue of Edge’s wheels in motion. We recommended it to an anxious friend who we knew had a Game Pass subscription, and so was minutes away from settling down in front of one of the most relaxing games of the generation. There isn’t much to Lonely Mountains: Downhill. It is best explained as sitting somewhere in between the precisely modelled physics of Trials and the immaculately translated controls of Skate: it is a game in which you hare down a mountainside, marvelling at the sumptuous feeling of your bike’s handling, and fall over a lot. The setting helps tremendously, its titular descents taking place on a range of airy,…

Developer Die Gute Fabrik Publisher Akupara Games Format iOS, PC, PS4 Release 2019 As hobbies go, it doesn’t get much more therapeutic than gardening – there’s something about watching a barren space blossom under your care that’s good for the soul. And in Mutazione, your plants sing to you as they sprout: of melancholy, or tranquility, each one playing its part in the various compositions you grow as the story unfolds. It, too, is a tale of the messy, but freeing, business of getting into the weeds. As Kai, you’re spending your summer on the mutant isle of Mutazione learning to tap into your green-thumbed powers. The strange community’s blighted by a catastrophic event; the memorable soap-opera cast of characters needs tending to as much as your gardens. Spend enough…

Developer AM2, Sumo Digital Publisher Sega Format Arcade, Xbox Release 2003 Traditionally in driving games, manual gears are for the purists, the wheel and pedals crowd who unironically wear special gloves as they seek to trim hundredths of a second from their best lap times. We are not judging anyone: in these times more than ever, you must do what brings you comfort. OutRun 2 certainly offers us plenty of that – and while we’re still happy with an Xbox controller, we do use manual transmission, since it’s key to gaming’s most delightfully satisfying drift mechanic. You can still drift with automatic gears, sure: just brake as you enter a corner and the back end will eventually slide out. But manual transmission is a (passing) breeze, a quick shift down…

Developer Enhance Games, Monstars Publisher Enhance Games Format PC, PS4, PSVR, Rift, Vive Release 2016 When all else fails, we suppose there are always drugs. Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s spellbinding techno mixtape always benefitted from being played in an altered state: at the very least, the Dreamcast original demanded that you turn down the lights, crank up the volume and push your speaker system’s subwoofer to breaking point. Rez has forever been a narcotic experience, then, regardless of whether you’ve ingested anything consciousness-altering. In VR, the feeling is elevated to an even higher (apologies) plane. Area X is its apex, an all-new stage custom-built for Infinite that offers free 360-degree movement, replaces all the old wireframe models with countless thousands of particles, and builds to a climax of such beauty and emotional…

Developer Simogo Publisher Annapurna Interactive Format iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Release 2019 Having spent a number of years challenging the definition of ‘videogame’ with the likes of Year Walk, Device 6 and The Sailor’s Dream, Simogo returned with one that didn’t just wear the label proudly, but in giant capitals, illuminated in dazzling neon. For a game it feared might be a farewell tour (its recently announced partnership with Annapurna thankfully confirms it’s anything but) the Swedish studio gave us a tale of a young woman’s heartbreak within a whistle-stop journey through the medium’s history – with a particular focus on Sega’s back catalogue. At times it’s Rez, at others it’s Space Harrier, with OutRun-style interludes besides, and even hints of Sonic at his fastest and most freewheeling.…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch Release 2017 This one caused a small argument at Edge HQ. There are guns in competitive multiplayer shooter Splatoon 2, and guns are a nasty business. But, as Nintendo rather successfully posited, an AK-47 and a pistol full of squid ink are very different things. Competition can be healthy, and it’s possible for violence to be cathartic – it merely has to be handled in the right way. And, look, there is a certain thrill that comes with slapping someone up with a paintbrush that you just can’t get in a nice platformer about feelings. Splatoon 2’s curling bombs and bubble wands feel less like weapons than practical jokes, anyway, the general vibe of a Turf War being about level with a water fight on…

Developer Monstars, Resonair Publisher Enhance Games Format PC, Rift, PS4, PSVR, Vive Release 2018 Tetris has a knack for inducing a trance-like flow state like few other games can. Play it late in the day and it would provide the perfect hypnagogic distraction in any of its many guises. But Mizuguchi’s masterful reinvention of arguably the greatest puzzle game ever made is the most transportive version of all – its synaesthetic light shows and soundscapes making for a sensational experience in every sense. Sure, those building stacks can become gently stressful, especially when the pace picks up. Yet even here you’re given the opportunity for respite. Hitting the zone button slows things to a crawl, letting you make line after line at relative leisure, the satisfaction of a Perfectris –…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EAD) Format Wii Release 2009 Eleven years ago, Nintendo briefly seemed to take its ‘blue ocean’ strategy rather literally, giving us a sun-kissed haven surrounded by clear and sparkling seas to fly over and surf across. Wuhu Island was supposed to be the setting for a series of games, including a Miyamoto-directed mystery story. While that never quite materialised (though it did cameo in the likes of Wii Fit and Mario Kart 7) this almost aggressively benign resort setting made for a wonderfully welcoming activity holiday. If not as revolutionary as its predecessor, it’s a better game, the bundled Wii MotionPlus add-on providing more nuanced motion control without losing any of Wii Sports’ immediacy. You could, in other words, shoot hoops with your gran – and basketball isn’t…

Developer/publisher Adamgryu Format PC Release 2019 Claire is at the base of a mountain – she’s anxious to get to the top, as she needs phone reception for an important call. In A Short Hike, the goal is always in the back of your mind, but the road up to it is paved with good distractions. Merry little animals bumble about, engrossed in their day-to-day: a rabbit jogs by, a walrus fishes quietly in a pond. Stop to talk, and you’ll be asked to help locate a particular item, or even to stay a while and join them in a spot of fishing, or a round of stick volleyball. Sometimes you’ll simply be furnished with a diverting piece of dialogue – it’s well worth repeatedly returning to see how the…

Developer Blue Tongue Entertainment Publisher THQ, Universomo Format iOS, Wii Release 2008 There’s a lovely story behind De Blob: originally made by a small team of Dutch students, it was snapped up by THQ, and five members of the group later went on to found Awesomenauts developer Ronimo Games. The story of the game itself is, in the current climate, at once chilling and uplifting. A military dictatorship has mandated that people stay indoors, and stripped Chroma City of colour, life and happiness. As the titular, colour-shifting blob, you’re tasked with restoring all three to the world by splattering the scenery in paint. Years before Splatoon, De Blob proved that the simple pleasure of colouring something in translated wonderfully to the TV screen. Your avatar takes on the colour of…

Developer Omega Force, Square Enix Publisher Square Enix Format PC, PS4, Switch Release 2018 To play Dragon Quest Builders 2 is to finally understand what it means to be rewarded for all your hard work. Sure, it has XP bars and quest-completion trackers, like all the rest. But finishing a project here causes all the local residents to come sprinting over to inspect it, their joy given form in the torrents of plump yellow hearts that spill out of them. You built a small hut? Amazing, thank you! You irrigated a field? Wow, terrific! We now have a single toilet for the 30 of us to share? We are overjoyed. That alone makes DQB2 a tonic for these troubled times, for all that you’ll flinch when you see a dozen…

Developer Level-5 Publisher Nintendo Format DS Release 2008 Before the DS got really popular, Nintendo’s promise of ‘new ways to play’ seemed to ring true for every other game coming out of Japan. That combination of two screens and a stylus gave rise to an array of experiments, and Electroplankton remains one of the weirdest and most invigorating of them all. There are ten species in total, each occupying an aquatic micro-universe that doubles as a musical toy. Luminaria dutifully follow arrows like the mice in Chu Chu Rocket. The tadpoles of Hanenbow leap out of the water, bouncing off plant leaves you can angle with the stylus before disappearing back down below with a plop. Rec-Rec’s formation fish are a simple four-track sampler, recording and playing back real-world sounds…

Developer Nomada Studios Publisher Devolver Digital Format PC, PS4, Switch Release 2018 ‘Self-care’ is a buzzphrase that’s thrown around a lot nowadays. The trendy form of it is turning off your phone, pouring yourself a drink (stiff or otherwise), running yourself a bath, doing a facemask and tweeting about it later. But the self-involved stylings of Gris (although its pastel-hued trappings, much like those of many Instagram stars, hide a few flaws) relay a message that cuts to the core of what self-care is really about: please put on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others. You play as a waif of a thing in a magical dress, who has fallen into a derelict, monochromatic fantasy world. The discovery of each level – a memory? A trauma? – colours…

Developer Foam Sword Publisher Double Fine Productions Format PC, PS4, Switch Release 2019 It’s hard not to indulge in nostalgia in times like these. But from its opening sequence, a spoke-rattling downhill race soundtracked by the excited yelps of two young girls who just want to ride their bikes all day and all night, it’s clear Foam Sword’s charming debut is more than just a wistful wallow. It reminds you what it’s like to be young again, without being blinkered enough to focus exclusively on the good bits. So yes, there’s an undercurrent of sadness that lends a sense of pathos to the adventures of young friends Nessa and Demelza. There’s grief in their past, and impending loss, too, with the rundown seaside town of Penfurzy bereft of life. Then…

Developer Inis Publisher Nintendo Format DS Release 2005 To begin, you must help a schoolboy studying late into the night for his exams. These days the exams have been cancelled and we set the homework, but we appreciate the sentiment. Backed by Asian Kung-Fu Generation’s Loop & Loop, we hit targets and trace patterns on the DS’s lower screen, and the boy gains confidence. His mother brings him dinner, the pace of his pen picking up. Before long he’s scribbling furiously, lifting dumbbells with his free hand, doing press-ups while his little brother dances on his back. Finding focus amid the chaos? Keeping a healthy body and mind while chained to a desk? Leaning on your family in a time of great stress? It is all too perfect. We could…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EAD) Format Wii U Release 2013 Okay, it might be a little on the nose to include a game about a mindless herd blundering unwittingly into dangerous situations thanks to their inability to follow orders. Apologies, too, to anyone with a group of unruly monsters at home, to whom this will seem like too much of a busman’s holiday. But Nintendo’s uniquely adorable realtime strategy sends out a timely message about what we can achieve if we all work together towards a common goal. It also happens to be a powerful reminder of the value of effective planning. The third game seems particularly apropos, what with its three-strong crew scattered and encouraged to work remotely. There are deadlines, too, albeit a little more forgiving than the ones to…

Developer Rare Publisher Microsoft Game Studios Format PC, Xbox One Release 2018 An uncomfortable truth in this time of global anxiety, but a truth nonetheless: people are shits. Few games illustrate this as neatly as Rare’s multiplayer pirate simulator, in which you’re only ever moments away from multiple hours of hard labour being snatched away by two teens in a rowing boat full of gunpowder. Fortunately – we say through gritted teeth, as we watch from our sinking ship while Liam and Wayne gleefully cash in our rare treasure chests – it’s not about the loot. Whether you’re pottering between islands in your sloop in search of a pet parrot, or fully crewed up with your friends ready to take on a Skeleton Fort, it’s the unexpected things that lead…

Developer Red Storm Entertainment Publisher Ubisoft Format PC, PS4, PSVR, Quest, Rift, Vive Release 2017 Ubisoft’s cooperative VR adventure occasionally feels as shaky as the sets of the original TV series. Yet despite its limitations, Bridge Crew remains an absorbing and strangely heartwarming multiplayer game that espouses the importance of clear communication at times of crisis. You’ve only ever got part of the picture – your crewmates’ input is vital in filling in the blanks. Whichever role you’ve been assigned, you merely need push the right buttons and sliders at the right time. But Bridge Crew gets the Star Trek look and feel so right that you’ll buy into it completely – whether you’re transferring energy to shields to protect yourself from incoming attacks as the Aegis’s engineer, or beaming…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch Release 2019 If Dreams is aimed at empowering dedicated creators, Super Mario Maker 2 is designed for the dabbler. Through osmosis – or perhaps it’s the simple ingenuity of those original building blocks – just about everyone who plays videogames innately understands how a Mario game should work. There is no such thing as a blank canvas here. A background, a sound effect, a lone Goomba: just one ingredient can spark an idea around which you can build an entire course. That isn’t to say it’ll be any good, but this time Nintendo is much keener to help you learn how to make a great Mario level. Story mode offers practical examples of how to make the most of an individual hook, with that classic…

Developer Neversoft Publisher Activision Format GameCube, GBA, N64, PS1, PS2, Xbox Release 2001 Even now, all these years later, there are few things as satisfying as a long THPS combo. Diving back in for the first time in a decade, long-dormant muscle memory kicks in, flips transitioning into grinds and manuals, from kerbside to rooftop to bowl-lip to quarter-pipe, our thumbs a blur, operating on instinct we thought we’d lost. Up pops the text: high score complete, pro score complete, sick score complete. ’Twas ever thus. We’d be just as happy playing either of the first two games in the series – indeed, for pure nostalgia value we’d likely plump for THPS2. But the third game is the most generous of the trio, both in terms of things to do…

Developer/publisher Thekla, Inc Format iOS, PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2016 A popular technique for managing anxiety involves stopping to observe what’s around you, quieting worried thoughts by noting what you see, hear and feel in the present moment. The Witness is one such meditative exercise. Although they are brilliantly varied, every one of its logic puzzles adheres to the same rule: you must draw a line through a maze to solve it. Doing so requires not just focus on the task at hand – generally, a single puzzle panel takes up almost the entire screen to mandate this – but the ability to tap into the environment around you, and uncover the clues it might be offering. There is something reassuringly solid about puzzle-game logic; the promise that there…

Developer/publisher Sega (RGG Studio) Format PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One Release 2015 Yes, we realise this seems incompatible with this issue’s guiding principles. Yakuza is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a non-violent game. On the streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori, confrontations come frequently – although many, if you’re quick, can be avoided. And yet, crazy as it may sound for a series in which you can smash bicycles over people’s heads, where you can hear a thug’s nose break as you stomp it into the pavement, Yakuza is not a game with a particularly violent spirit. Kazuma Kiryu never starts a fight, only ever beating up thugs to teach them some manners or save his friends, while in the many, many sidequests he’s basically the most benevolent gangster…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch Release 2020 The famous ‘zen garden’ series has always been a balm for the soul, but perhaps never more so than in New Horizons. Here, you’re starting a town from scratch, building up a deserted island from mere sticks and mud into a vibrant, thriving community. It is, in other words, a control freak’s dream. A little bit of chaos has always served Animal Crossing well, but in times of uncertainty, the ability to perfect a tiny, self-sufficient paradise feels essential. No more will villagers move in unannounced on top of your prized rose garden. Fishing up a rusty can or a tyre can be a boon, as the new crafting system means that trash can become treasure. The very layout of your little island,…

Developer/publisher Amanita Design Format iOS, PC Release 2019 In the pantheon of angry videogame protagonists, Kratos has nothing on Chuchel. This sentient scribble might be small in stature, but within him boils a righteous fury that’s perhaps second only to Asura – as his single-minded mission to eat a delicious cherry is thwarted time and again, we see him frequently explode with rage. Fortunately, the angrier he gets, the funnier the game becomes; here, Amanita adapts its idiosyncratic point-and-click style into a vehicle for physical comedy that turns trial-and-error to its advantage. Chuchel is amusing when things go right, but when they go wrong? That’s when the real belly laughs come. Think the acorn-chasing squirrel from Ice Age crossed with the babbling slapstick of Pingu, shot through with a dash…

Developer Freestyle Games Publisher Activision Format 360, PS2, PS3, Wii Release 2009 It may, after all, be some time before we set foot in a nightclub again. DJ Hero was a curio at launch, has been a relic ever since the demise of the plastic-instrument genre and now, in a world of social distancing, becomes a time machine as well. It remains, however, one of the most effective games of its kind. Its controller – a single turntable, a crossfader and a few buttons – brilliantly condenses the art of turntablism to a single, modestly sized peripheral. Its soundtrack, an array of mixes and mash-ups made by some of the finest DJs in the business, with Eminem and Jay-Z among the line-up of superstar consultants, is put together in such…

Developer Media Molecule Publisher SIE Format PS4 Release 2020 A few short weeks ago, we weren’t particularly enamoured with Dreams talking to us in the kind of gooey tone you might use to address a toddler who’s eaten all of their spaghetti hoops. How times have changed. Now when we load up Media Molecule’s astonishing creation software, we rather appreciate the gentle approach. “Amazing!”, the narrator coos as we successfully manage to follow simple instructions in a basic tutorial. Our eyes prickle suspiciously. Look, it’s been a hard month. Not for Dreams, however, which has remained an oasis of creative brilliance and relentless positive energy. The curated feeds of your homepage offer something silly, calm or inspiring to play – if you’re looking for the Edge seal of approval, we…

Developer David OReilly Publisher Double Fine Productions Format PC, PS4, Switch Release 2017 Oh, to be a slice of pepperoni pizza, trundling down the street without a care in the world. When being a human doesn’t appeal, there is Everything, an existential collect-athon in which you can play as – well, everything, from a discarded bit of street food to a patch of clover, a strand of DNA to an entire continent. You might find yourself in the body of a grizzly bear, the low-poly model front-flipping across a forest as you gather others to you through song. But with the press of a button, you’re able to ascend or descend into whatever’s nearby – a tree, perhaps, from which you’re able to slip into the form of an insect…

Developer Ko-op Mode Publisher Double Fine Format iOS, PC, PS4 Release 2016 Remember the fidget cube? Designed to alleviate stress, the plastic desk toy had a variety of switches, buttons and scroll wheels to occupy nervous hands and help calm the mind. Such ‘worry toys’ have been around since time immemorial, but this one had a moment in 2016. In the very same year, Ko-op Mode released Gnog – a game that can neatly be described as “fidget cubes with feelings”. Each level is set inside a giant novelty robot head, and half the fun is figuring out which combination of chunky switches to flick and knobs to turn in order to crack it open. Inside, vibrant dioramas wait to be fiddled with, and mini-narratives guide progress: a slumbering log…

Developer/publisher Jackbox Games Format 360, Apple TV, Fire TV, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Release 2014 When it comes to a night in with friends, you honestly can’t go far wrong with any of the Jackbox Party Packs. Players connect their smartphones to consoles, PCs and televisions via a room code, using the touchscreen to play a clutch of inventive, often stitch-inducingly-funny games. Quiplash is perhaps the one it’s best known for, available in packs 2 and 3: participants are asked to provide humorous answers to prompts such as “A fun thing to yell as a baby is being born” or “Jesus’ REAL last words”, which are then voted on by the others. Fibbage has you invent fake answers to trivia questions to fool your friends; in Fakin’ It,…

Developer/publisher Namco Format PS2 Release 2004 Perhaps, in a way, this is a little inappropriate. It starts out innocently enough by asking you to declutter a living room, rolling a sticky ball around to gather up drawing pins and pencil erasers. By game’s end, though, you’re hoovering up entire landmasses, the rolling ball a cacophony of shrieks, mewls and sirens from the people, animals and vehicles that now comprise it. But Katamari Damacy is, and has always been, a light-hearted meditation on the futility of the stuff we amass in the course of our busy lives, suggesting we focus instead on what matters the most. Think about it – what do you value more right now: the family car, or the stars in the sky? While as funny as ever…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EAD) Format GameCube Release 2002 Picking a Zelda was easier than singling out just one Mario. Breath Of The Wild came close: during its calmer moments it has a quietude so few of its sandbox peers share, letting you close your eyes and absorb the stillness, as the breeze brings in just a whisper of soft piano. But that peace doesn’t always last. And while Wind Waker might not be the series’ finest hour, it is suffused with a childlike joie de vivre, something that feels particularly apposite today. Its zeal for adventure is reflected in its hero. This is Link at his most bright-eyed and open-faced, filled with the vigour of youth, and more expressively animated than ever before. The same goes for the series’ returning enemies:…

Developer Mojang Publisher Microsoft Game Studios Format 360, Android, iOS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Release 2009 Minecraft endures. Billion-dollar acquisitions, upstart battle-royale sensations, years of videogame innovation – Mojang’s brilliant block-builder has weathered it all. Its foundations, after all, are reassuringly solid. You craft tools to mine resources, with which you craft more things. The spaces in between it all are filled with adventure, challenge and possibility. Minecraft’s wide-open, procedurally generated environments aren’t just the setting for a grand quest – although surely more people than ever will set about working out how to face down the Ender Dragon and finally see the credits – but limitless arenas for creativity. With enough imagination and redstone, you can build anything: working computers, theme parks, multiplayer minigames, a to-scale replica…

Developer Mobius Digital Publisher Annapurna Interactive Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release 2019 You might say that Outer Wilds’ travellers are the masters of self-isolation. Each on their own planet in Mobius Digital’s pint-sized solar system, huddled next to their respective campfires, they play: one plucks thoughtfully at a banjo, while another coaxes a tune from a harmonica. Outside, the end of the world threatens to rain down fire. And it does – every 22 minutes in an endless time-loop, as you pilot your ramshackle spaceship between celestial bodies and try to figure out what might be causing it. Exploration is an exercise in information-gathering: through careful observation and graffiti courtesy of a lost alien species, you become attuned to the rhythms peculiar to each environment. It pays to know…

Developer Level-5 Publisher Nintendo Format DS Release 2008 Even back in the late noughties, Hershel Layton felt wonderfully off-trend. Blending logic puzzles with the kind of genteel mysteries more commonly associated with Sunday teatime drama serials, Level-5’s series captured the imaginations of the Brain Training crowd and scored a huge hit with 2007’s Professor Layton And The Curious Village. Successive sequels sensibly didn’t mess with the formula, but refined it: the third game, with its genuinely touching finale, remains the standout. It’s a trilogy-capper that still satisfies, even if it wasn’t quite the end of the adventures for Layton and his young apprentice Luke. These days, it feels even more quaint, a relic from a more innocent time – one that makes us oddly nostalgic for the endearingly rose-tinted version…

Developer/publisher Nintendo (EPD) Format Switch Release 2019 The gamification of exercise is certainly nothing new, but rarely have we enjoyed squats quite so much as in Nintendo’s latest (and probably greatest) effort to encourage a more active lifestyle. Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration – given the choice, we’d rather pick 40 reps of the overhead hip shake – but we’ve certainly found it easier to stick to a regular routine with Ring Fit Adventure than we ever did with Wii Fit. It’s an on-rails JRPG, in effect, with the genre’s most physically demanding combat to date. And with 23 worlds (and that’s before New Game+) it’s a JRPG in size as well as structure. It really does make you sweat, too. The first stage alone is proof Nintendo isn’t…

Developer/publisher Thatgamecompany Format iOS, Android Release 2019 Disneyland’s shut, so what better time to revisit Jenova Chen’s heavenly theme park? Granted, its frequent encouragement to hold hands and stay within close proximity of others would appear to set a bad example. Then again, slipping our hands into those of a stranger sporting a wolf mask and a purple cape gives us a welcome feeling of direct human connection. All the more so when we both take off, soaring together towards an island on the horizon – and then again when we get there and join in an impromptu jam session with two other children of the light. We’re no angels, but we do play a mean harp. A return to these sumptuous skies reminds us of the substantial debt this…

Developer ConcernedApe Publisher Chucklefish Format Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Vita Release 2016 Farming sims have long been a source of calm in a hectic world. The Harvest Moon titles popularised the genre, perhaps, but Stardew Valley perfected it. It’s a fantasy that Eric Barone explicitly delivers on within minutes of your starting the game: what if, one day, you could pack in the office job for a life in which your biggest problems are making sure the vegetable patch is watered and the chickens are fed? The only time pressure comes in the form of the passing seasons, with many crops suited to particular climates. And although there is much satisfaction to be gained from constructing an empire upon naught but mayonnaise and wine, the game truly…

Developer Media Molecule Publisher SCE Format Vita Release 2013 We’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: you’ll struggle to find a game that so snugly fits its host platform this side of Super Mario 64. Tearaway actively embraces Vita’s curious quirks, making a virtue of its broad feature set rather than being daunted by it. Take that rear touch panel: on the (reverse) face of it, this was little more than a gimmick, one most developers ignored, with others grudgingly including it as an alternative control option. Media Molecule makes it essential, letting you poke your fingers into its world to ‘play’ bouncy drum platforms and squash scrappy little enemies. Its camera, meanwhile, allows us to see ourselves within the game, peering down into this beautiful papercraft realm. By…