In terms of what it does well, the level of ambition when it comes to trying to define what interactive entertainment should be is just staggering. My biggest issue with the game is the amount of optional padding (is there really a need to put a collectible in each of the 400+ new caves?) but as long as you put a bit of effort into managing what content you’re moving between, it’s not much of an issue, especially with liberal use of the manual map marker system. I admit, though – and I think this is reflective of GC’s review – if I hadn’t deliberately spent so long avoiding a revisit to Breath Of The Wild after getting all shrines twice (and all Korok seeds once) it might have felt a bit too familiar.

The boring answer for this topic is also the correct one, so Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom is my favourite game of the year so far. Such a shame it didn’t do well (even though I’m part of the problem, since I was waiting for the Switch version). The card-based combat is really easy to get into, in part because the game explains it well as you go. And the modern controls scheme option means I don’t entirely suck at Street Fighter for the first time ever!Īnd an honourable mention, since I think it was a 2022 release, but I just started playing Marvel’s Midnight Suns and that’s pretty special so far. I’ve been having so much fun on World Tour, walloping randos in the street, and the arcade mode. I haven’t played a load of new releases but I really like Street Fighter 6 (Xbox Series X). I’ve loved the originals of those latter two, so unless there’s some awful change to them they should be great. Wonder and the Star Ocean 2 and Super Mario RPG remakes. Per that, for the second half of the year, the games I’m really looking forward to are from those genres: Super Mario Bros.

But that’s not a knock on the quality of recent games, it’s just that the genres I really love haven’t much changed since the 90s, and those aren’t really in vogue anymore.

There’s nothing this year, thus far, which really comes close to my favourites.

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