If Bowser's Fury was the initial hint that Nintendo have struggled to keep their production line on-track during the panny d, Super Rush is the outright confirmation. Uniquely fascinating in the sense that it's probably the most unpolished, uncharming and unfinished game Nintendo have ever put their seal of approval on; the UI would looks like it came from a McDonalds self-service kiosk and the characters in the story mode keep referring to game mechanics that don't exist, like sleeping to restore stamina and eating to get buffs. With Birdo repeatedly forcing you to go to bed in the middle of the day for no apparent reason, the Golf Adventure mode makes for a surreal experience - it's almost as if one of those dodgy mobile game developers who make Pokemon knockoffs somehow managed to get their hands on the real Super Mario IP and are now sharing their Early Access build with Kickstarters.

So how in the heck is this a 3-star game, I hear you ask?? Well, the golfing is still absolutely rock solid. Aside from committing the cardinal sin of removing the third tap from the holy three-tap trinity, there's nothing here I'd really change when it comes to good old-fashioned arcade golfing gameplay - it's all mechanically on par with Everybody's Golf at this point, if not better in some cases. The addition of the range/elevation finder is a neat little feature for golf math nerds, and ironically it feels a whole lot more important and worthwhile to the experience than the Super Rush gameplay gimmick they chose to slap on the game's title.

Super Rushing isn't outright terrible (Yoshi turns into an egg! Toad bounces on his head!!), but it does often feel like you're punctuating your shots with those moments from Breath of the Wild where you had to make Link jog-sprint-jog across an open field for 10 minutes while mindlessly balancing a stamina wheel. That you can't combine rushing and jumping feels like a ridiculously constrictive oversight, and I'm surprised that a free-roaming golf game with Super Mario in the title doesn't encourage players to do some fun platforming. Being able to track, analyse and anticipate your shot in-flight is pretty fundamental to a golf game, too - so it's a little disappointing that the main mode pushes you to just forget about all that and book it to the fairway instead.

On the whole, this isn't really worth the ridiculous £50 price tag that's been slapped on it - Everybody's Golf was a budget title for the PS4, and I feel like it had a ton more content, polish and character. That Nintendo feel comfortable putting out a kneecapped title like this at full price just goes to show how hard they're now dominating the marketplace, perhaps even at the expense at their own reputation for quality. Like with Monster Hunter Rise, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the development team are going to use DLC to bring the game up to version 1.0. A real sad thing to have to type.

Ｉｆ ｙｏｕ’ｒｅ ｕｐ
ｔｈｉｓ Ｅａｒｌｙ
ｙｏｕ’ｒｅ ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ
ｇｅｔｔｉｎｇ Ｍｅｄａｌｓ…
Ｇｏｏｄ Ｍｏｒｎｉｎｇ
Ｐａｒｔ－Ｔｉｍｅ ＵＦＯｓ

Came to this just expecting a solid cutesy HAL micro-game, but was pleasantly surprised to find a (fairly sweet-toothed) exploration of gig economics and the trials + tribulations of working life. In a Nintendo game, no less! Wow!

Probably the closest a game has come to recreating the feelings I had while playing WarioWare, Inc. for the first time ever while sitting on the floor of a Spanish airport 20 years ago - it flies so delicately along that fine line of wackiness that a lot of games overstep, never allowing the preposterousness of its situations and characters and animations to become overbearing or insincere.

Co-op is a true delight, and I was so pleased to discover that many of the levels are re-designed to include at least one or two elements that require genuine co-operation - in the trickier levels, you have to lift heavy objects together, co-rotate pieces in mid-air and use each other as ballasts and counter-weights. It’s very well thought-out, and understands that co-op games should be about more than just two players playing at the same time.

It’s a small shame, then, that the single player missions don’t require quite as much foresight and planning. They’re still real fun, but most just require you to pick things up and drop them into another thing. I get that adding much more than that would undermine the beautiful simplicity of the premise (and also maybe undermine the game’s thinking on the repeated monotony of labour), but I want to keep playing this! Full-Time UFO please, HAL…

When I started this, a friend described it as a great game, but a bad Metroid. An absolutely bang-on description.

It runs at a good clip with straightforward linear progression and is just very satisfying. Creepy as shit being pursued almost by the spectre of how you're perceived. Suddenly powerless before yourself with no option but taking flight.

I can totally understand why this is many folks' fave entry, as the usual exploration and backtracking the series is known for isn't to everyone's taste. Just a tight few areas that you can plow through in no time. Where the other games kinda force you to tread carefully, this really feels like it's running behind you with its hands on your back, propelling you forward and screaming "YES! YES! YES!".

Great game. Samus owns.

Hollow Knight has ended up being one of my favourite games of all time. I'm a big insect guy, I mean I studied them for my master's thesis. I'm also a big action adventure guy. This game has both :)

It's an ABSURD amount of game for the price. I think I paid £15 for it and I clocked in 47 hours. That's beating the real boss but not beating Grimm. The latter im determined to get back to.

The animation, character designs, level design are all top notch. The last stag is the coolest mofo on the planet. The soundtrack is also fantastic, especially when tied with boss title cards.

Let's be real it is a little slow to start, as you don't have a lot of abilities. But very quickly it adds charm upon charm and then you'll be hooked.

Play this game

I've tried. I've really tried. I've put hours and hours into this. But The Last Guardian is a truly hateful thing. You may think cos it's got a big stupid dog in it that it's cute or cuddly. But the truth is that it hates ye. It doesn't want ye to have a nice time. It doesn't want ye to be in control of things. It doesn't want ye to have any idea about what's going on. It hates ye. It hates everything about ye. It hates your family and your clothes and the way you brush your teeth. It just hates ye. Fuck The Last Guardian.

It hurts to only give 3 stars to a Taiko game that’s this good, but locking it behind a subscription-only service gives the whole experience a somewhat uncomfortable feel, like I’m just borrowing the game from a friend or the library or something. Why not let me buy it outright? C’mon Apple! I only want to play this and Clap Hanz Golf! I don’t want to be stealthily docked six quid every month for the privilege of being able to access a bunch of Thoughtful Annapurna Flat Design Bullshit! I’ve had Neo Turf Masters on my iPhone for seven years and still play it every other week - by my maths, it would have now have cost me approximately £500 if it was an Apple Arcade Exclusive.

Get the free trial, play the Gen Hoshino songs on Extreme a few times, cancel your subscription and then try to pretend this isn’t the best Touch Taiko game around. It’s too sad to think about for long, especially in this “Sony kills PS3/P digital” moment.