I go through cycles of being really addicted to this game, then forgetting it exists for months at a time. I've mostly played on my smartphone though, so perhaps to play along for the show I'll get it on a machine I actually like playing games on.

I loved Dark Souls and all the sequels and Bloodborne (I've not gone back and played Demon's Souls yet) and was naturally eagerly awaiting Elden Ring. When it arrived, it didn't disappoint. It drew me into its world as much as any of its predecessors, and was also the first game since Breath of the ...

The first games I ever owned were a hand-me-down game boy and a collection of carts - including this. I could tell at the time it was a cut above a lot of the rest, but at 6 years old it was a while before I really came to appreciate Mario. My main childhood memory of this game comes a couple of yea...

I think I'm on the other side of the fence to a lot of people; this game suffers without the time limit. Combined with the less relatable story - rather than an innocent man trying to escape, Olimar is here to profit from the planet - Pikmin 2 lacked stakes compared to its predecessor. The caves add...

I liked this game a lot, and in what I remember as a dry year for Switch, it delivered charm in spades. I don't think it's a game I'd replay, as most sections are about seeing the amusing animations and solving the simple puzzle, but not every game needs to be inifinitely replayable. This was a qual...

When I left feedback for Metroid Prime 3, I said that game was unusual among metroids because I couldn't remember much of it. Well, I forgot this game even existed! I remember thinking the story was a load of guff, which does seem to be the critical consensus, but I also remember quite enjoying the ...

I remember rolling my eyes a bit when this game was first teased, but then hearing enough buzz on podcasts to eventually give it a go. What I found was exactly what I'd been promised, but that was the problem: having heard a few of the jokes already and had the concept explained, I felt a little lik...

I played this game to completion as an excited Wii owner. I was 17, the Wii was my only home console. It was a first-person sci-fi adventure and it had good music and played nicely. I'm sure I convinced myself it was just as good as the Halo games my friends were playing. Since then, I don't think I...

There's plenty to love in many of the Star Wars films, but I think the tension and pacing of the original Death Star run is still something pretty special. Rogue Leader captured that scene perfectly and I've played it again and again since shortly after I first got my Gamecube. Then in Rebel Strike ...

I bloody love F-Zero games. I first encountered the series on GBA. Playing Maximum Velocity via link cable with my mate Rich for hours one night, commenting on how exciting close games were, was when I first realised that a good contest was fun whether you won or lost. I dabbled a little with the or...

This one was a real surprise for me. I hadn't - and still haven't - played the original Luigi's Mansion, but picked it up because it was the latest big Nintendo release. The little 3D dioramas, the slapstick comedy and the simple puzzle solving was a delightful romp. On top of that, the co-op tower ...

Zero Mission was the first Metroid game I played to completion, on an original model GBA over the course of a summer vacation trip to visit family in Cornwall. It was my introduction to metroidvania as a concept, to this cool sci-fi side of Nintendo with an atmospheric musical tone. It isn't quite S...

Ever since the Gamecube original first showed up in magazines, I've had an obsession with Animal Crossing that I can't even explain. I imported that one and played with a freeloader. I played a decent amount on the DS and an obscene amount on 3DS. When New Horizons was finally announced for Switch, ...

I've always had a weird relationship with FIFA and with football in general. I liked it all well enough as a young kid, but then as I grew older I resented football for dragging the local kids away from wanting to play make-believe and action mans to just endlessly playing football. Through my teens...

This is one of those games which Dave Turners banged on about, I thought could never possibly be as good as he said, but then infuriatingly agreed with him about. Packed with charm and with combat action that feels so good to go back to and give one more try, this was a delight from start to finish....

Excepting perhaps the Pokemons, Metroid Prime 2 is my earliest memory of a Big Christmas Game. I was an avid reader of the Nintendo Official Magazine at the time, and for months I was presented with the most luscious looking screenshots and the most effusive praise. Their Christmas issue had joke fe...

Mario Kart 8 might be my most-played game of all time? I have higher game clocks on certain Monster Hunter and Pokemon titles, but add up my time across two consoles and my time playing on other people's copies and its in the runnings. Single party animal with a flat on the High Street? Mario Kart 8...

What an underrated game! Amazing dodge-and-repeat Platinum action with a unique monster companion twist. For the most part, the story was pretty ordinary anime stuff but I felt it was asking questions that Pokemon, Digimon and the like never would. The only issue I had with the game was something th...

I'm a big Dark Souls fan and a huge nerd for Japanese history, architecture and aesthetics. Nioh's mix of real-world samurai figures and brilliantly realised yokai enemies really spoke to me, and I enjoyed it for a while. In the end, though, the difficulty just wasn't pitched right for me; challenge...

I heard a lot about this in the lead-up to last year's GOTY season and decided I had to give it a go. It did very little for me - the game was pretty boring and slow, and the story didn't speak to me. I heard someone say it made them think about impostor syndrome, but I'm one of those obnoxious peop...