Ghost Of Yotei (PlayStation, £69.99)
Verdict: Familiar but still fantastic
I’ve been here before. Not specifically to the Japanese island of Ezo — an old name for modern-day Hokkaido — but to places like it.
Because Ghost Of Yotei, set in feudal Ezo, is much like dozens of other big-budget, open-world adventure games. If you’ve played Horizon Zero Dawn or Red Dead Redemption 2 or this year’s Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, then you, too, have been here before.
This isn’t necessarily a complaint. It’s just that there’s something so comfortable about Ghost Of Yotei, despite its violent setup.
You play as Atsu, whose whole family is murdered by a local warlord and his gang of masked lieutenants in a fiery prologue.
Beauty to make you gasp: Ghost Of Yotei shares some qualities with other big budget, open-world adventures like Red Dead Redemption 2. But the settings will sweep you off your feet
Now, all grown up, you’re seeking revenge — which means exploring the map, performing side-quests, upping your skills, the usual.
That said, Ghost Of Yotei does distinguish itself by its sheer quality, starting with the impressive setting. We’re used to these sorts of games being beautiful, but this one is really beautiful. Like, all-timer beautiful. Watching cranes glide across its lakes, or butterflies flit from its grasses, is practically a meditative experience.
Warrior woman: Your character, Atsu, has seen her family murdered. Now, all grown up, she’s out for revenge…a mission that takes her through some of the most impressive settings ever
Making a point: Atsu starts off with a single samurai sword, but as the game progresses, she acquires more weapons. Meanwhile, you’ll still be admiring the surroundings
Then there is its combat, which starts off straightforward — Atsu has a single katana with which to slice up her enemies — but becomes progressively more involved — and customisable. New weapons, new techniques, extra fun. As samurai swordplay goes, it’s several degrees better than even Yotei’s predecessor, 2020’s Ghost Of Tsushima.
In fact, by the end, I wasn’t even sure that I’d been here before. Atsu’s story takes her — and us — to some weird and quite wonderful places. Besides, which other game lets you stroke the controller to play songs on a shamisen?
Super Mario Galaxy 1+2
(Nintendo Switch, £33.99 each or £58.99 for the pair)
Verdict: Out of this world
We all have gaps in our gaming experiences. The difference with mine is that you could fit a whole galaxy into them. Or even two.
Which is to say, I never played Super Mario Galaxy after it came out for the Nintendo Wii in 2007. Then I missed its 2010 sequel as well. What can I say? I love Mario games and I knew these were meant to be among the very best… but we all have gaps.
Or do we? Thanks to a new enhanced collection of both games for Nintendo Switch, I have now visited these twin galaxies. And gosh — news flash from almost two decades ago! — they are stellar.
It’s a-me, Mario…in outer space! The little plumber has to bounce from space rock to space rock in the new, improved versions of Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2
What distinguishes Galaxies 1 and 2 from most Mario games — from practically all other games, in fact — is that they don’t just take place in 3D space. They play with it.
By shooting our moustachioed hero into the cosmos, to bounce from space rock to space rock, everything comes under question. Up. Down. Gravity. The laws of physics themselves.
This makes for, at times, some quite challenging gameplay. Especially in the Switch’s handheld mode, which struggles to replicate the Wii’s original control scheme. But you’ll never get frustrated, since you’ll be marvelling at the zip and colour and imagination of it all.
Best Mario games? Almost certainly. Best games ever? Perhaps. Which is the context in which the relatively steep price tag — particularly for lightly improved versions of two old games — should be seen. When Mario shoots for the stars, he reaches them.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £64.99)
Verdict: Bolt from the blue
Fair play, Sonic. You’ve not had it easy, always living in the shadow of a particular moustachioed plumber (see above) who acts as another company’s mascot.
And yet you always keep going, fast and undaunted, from one release to another — including this, a kart-racing game launched in the same year as the brilliant Mario Kart World.
And do you know what? The blue hedgehog might just have pulled off something special here. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds isn’t good enough to supplant Mario Kart from the front of the grid, but it is good enough to offer an alternative. I’ll be swapping between them for the foreseeable.
Of course, they are similar games. They’re both about racing around colourful tracks in crazy vehicles that pick up various power-ups along the way. Except, in this case, of course, the drivers aren’t Mario, Luigi, Peach and all their friends, but Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and all theirs.
The other guy: Who needs Mario when you’ve got Sonic? Well, we do, obviously. But CrossWorlds is pretty darned fun, too – particularly in the airborne racing segments
But CrossWorlds does distinguish itself — not least through the world-crossing aspect suggested by its title. You’ll be racing on one track when an interdimensional portal will suddenly whisk you to another. It’s an impressive technical feat, but also a new strategic consideration: will your vehicle be suited to the new landscape?
Because it really does matter how your vehicle is set up. There are amazingly extensive customisation options, so you can make your kart, say, faster at the start of races — or better when it’s gliding through the air.
Speaking of which, the airborne segments of CrossWorld’s tracks deserve special mention. They’re one of the things that it actually does better than Mario Kart; so much so, in fact, that part of me wishes there was a whole Sonic flying game.
Which, no doubt, there one day will be. That hyper-speedy hedgehog just keeps on going.
