Super Mario Odyssey

Switch, Nintendo, cert: 7
★★★★★

Mario’s latest adventure opens from a familiar point – Bowser kidnaps Peach, yet again – but this time the rescue effort takes the agile plumber in exciting new directions. This is largely thanks to Cappy, a living hat and Mario’s new partner. Throw Cappy at practically anything, from enemy Goombas to snoozing T rexes, and Mario takes control of it, offering new ways to play and explore. Many of these transformations are crucial in hunting down “Power Moons”, the game’s main collectible.

While the platforming remains as precise as ever, the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers give players more control. Coupled with Cappy’s other uses as a ranged weapon or hovering jump pad, Mario springs around like never before. A good thing too, as the colourful, imaginative and keenly designed worlds they visit will test players’ skills to their utmost with fierce challenges to get the tougher Moons. Packed with inventiveness and simply joyous moments of gaming, this is an essential Switch purchase. MK

Golf Story

Switch, Sidebar Games, cert: 7
★★★★

This apparently straightforward retro golf title puts an absolutely delightful curve into its swing by adding  a combination of murder mystery and rags-to-riches adventure to its fairway. It is all done with an impressively energetic glee, as the golf itself provides the backdrop to all manner of unlikely scenarios. Each course is full of characters who need things fetched, carried or fixed in return for funds and experience. This, as much as hitting the green, is how progress is achieved to gain new kit and improve skills. At times the in-jokes and bizarre side-quests can obscure the well executed golfing gameplay. Give in to the incessantly zany world though, and there is a well-written and funny adventure at its heart. A multiplayer mode cuts straight to the golf but that rather misses the point. Delight in the sheer madness of it all, and this is a golf game like no other. AR

Gran Turismo Sport

PS4, Sony, cert: 3
★★★★

The Gran Turismo series has always placed the cars at the centre of its virtual experience; not the driver, nor the subculture of racing. For GT the vehicles are the characters of the games, their personalities writ large in their handling and the physics of their engines. Gran Turismo Sport is no exception to a formula that has proved so successful. The cars here boast a almost tangible quality in their behaviour on the road, and the visual and aural polish is exceptional, making each feel impressively real. However, there are fewer cars and tracks than in recent iterations. As a result, this is a game with more focus and consistency, and far less bulk. Long revered as an encyclopedia of the automotive, with Sport, Gran Turismo has been rewritten as a thriller devoted to competitive racing. There are those that will miss the series’ eccentric vastness, but the core tenets of GT’s quality persist: nuanced, sincere racing that feels and looks wonderful. WF