Release Date: 28/01/2022
Platforms: Switch
Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds
Components: Day and Night, Open World and Weather
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the latest game in the longstanding Pokémon series of role-playing games where you collect and battle Pokémon. Like those previous games, you compete in turn-based battles and try and collect as many...
Release Date: 18/02/2022
Platforms: PS4 and PS5
Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds
Horizon Forbidden West is a post-apocalyptic action-adventure where you explore an overgrown landscape with now-crumbling remnants of modern life. The story of Aloy continues as she sets out to investigate a plague terminating from an arcane frontier...
Release Date: 02/02/1998, updated in 2022
Platforms: Mac, PC, PS2, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds
Components: Open World
Age of Empires is a strategy game where you command an ancient civilisation in real-time and must develop from hunter-gatherers to advanced forms of defence and war. This is similar territory to Civilization but focuses on...
Release Date: 24/03/2003, updated in 2013
Platforms: GameCube and Wii U
Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds
Components: Day and Night and Open World
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is an adventure game in the Zelda series. This one is set on a group of islands in a vast sea, and follows Link as he attempts to save his sister from the sorcerer Ganon. This soon develops into a struggle to find the...
Release Date: 23/04/2013, updated in 2017
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS
Don't Starve is an open-world survival game. Here it’s the environment and enemies, rather than other players, that you work with. You need to find and develop food, weapons and shelter to survive. It’s enjoyable because it’s hard, so repeat-plays...
Release Date: 01/03/2017
Platforms: PC and PS4
Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds
Horizon Zero Dawn, and the follow-up game Horizon Forbidden West, has a post-apocalyptic feel familiar from movies like Planet of the Apes. It plunges you into an overgrown landscape with now-crumbling remnants of modern life where animalistic machines...
Release Date: 19/06/2020
Platforms: PS4
Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds
Components: Day and Night
The Last of Us Part II is an action-adventure game set five years after The Last of Us. You control two characters in a post-apocalyptic United States. Ellie is out for revenge after suffering a tragedy, and Abby is a...
Release Date: 11/04/2016, updated in 2018
Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Subnautica is an open-world adventure where you explore the ocean on an alien planet after crashlanding. You collect resources and fight creatures to survive. This enables you to establish an underwater base, gain new craft and equipment and explore...
Release Date: 17/07/2020
Components: Open World and Weather
Ghost of Tsushima is a stealth and action adventure set in 13th century Japan, where you play as a clan leader and samurai warrior trying to protect your people and the Tsushima Island against Mongol invaders.
Release Date: 28/02/2018
Platforms: Mac and PC
Stormworks is an open world adventure where you design, build and pilot your own air sea rescue service. You create programmable vehicles using it's block-building system and pilot them into dangerous situations to rescue stricken vessels or...
Release Date: 25/05/2021, updated in 2022
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Biomutant is an open world role-play adventure game where you play a Raccoon warrior in a large world filled with mutated animals. Exploring this living breathing ecosystem has the feel of Zelda Breath of the Wild, but in a broken down steampunk...
Release Date: 10/04/2020
Final Fantasy VII Remake is an action role-playing game set in a decaying cyberpunk metropolis. It is the first in a series of games that remake the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. You play the role of a mercenary named Cloud Strife who joins...
Release Date: 18/08/2020
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One and iOS
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Spiritfarer is a boat building exploration game. Unusually though, you play Stella, ferry master to the deceased and the boat you manage takes them to the next life.
Release Date: 21/01/1999, updated in 2018
Platforms: DS, GameCube, Switch and Wii U
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Super Smash Bros. in its various versions offers real-time brawling battles. The tens of characters are drawn from other video games and each has bespoke moves to learn and perfect.
Release Date: 27/09/2020
Platforms: Android, PC, PS4 and iOS
Genshin Impact is a role-playing adventure set in a fantastical open world you explore by walking, climbing, swimming and gliding as necessary. Like the Zelda games, you can collect items, and craft new weapons. However, in this game to create a party...
Release Date: Coming soon
Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One
Smalland is a survival adventure where you are a tiny character in an overgrown wilderness. The world is dynamically changing, not only with the weather, seasons, day and night but also in response to what you do. It's as beautiful as it is intimidating...
Release Date: 01/01/1997, updated in 2019
Platforms: Android, DS, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS
Skill Rating: 15+ year-olds
Grand Theft Auto is a series of action-adventure game where you travel around one large location taking part in different criminal activities: pulling off heists, with lots of shooting and stealing and driving a variety of cars and other vehicles.
Release Date: 12/06/2018, updated in 2019
Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One
Hollow Knight is a game where you run, jump, and battle your way through the underground kingdom of Hallownest. It’s not uncommon for platform games to invest in the environments through which you pass, but the haunting depths in this game contain...
Release Date: 17/10/2001, updated in 2017
Platforms: DS, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS
Zoo Tycoon is a zoo simulator series where you take charge of a zoo business, build the park, care for animals and attract visitors. You can build, expand, and upgrade the zoo by purchasing animals, creating suitable animal habitats, and allocate staff...
Release Date: 18/06/2019
Platforms: Mac, PC and Switch
Littlewood (coming to Switch soon) is a town and farming simulator a little like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. Here though, the twist is that the game is set after a grand adventure. You...
Release Date: 30/05/2014
Forest is a survival horror game where you are the only passenger to live after a plane crash. You explore a mysterious forest to find food, shelter and safety but soon have to battle strange cannibalistic people.
Release Date: 10/08/2016, updated in 2022
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
No Man's Sky is a space simulation about exploring endless planets and galaxies. It invites you to take your spaceship to explore and colonise a universe rich with diverse planets, creatures and fauna. Facing so vast a space is daunting at first, but a...
Paralives is a simulation game where you build houses for people and then control how they live. It's inspired by games like the Sims, however, you have complete control over every aspect of the design of the house and its residents. Its balance of...
Release Date: 20/04/2006, updated in 2017
Platforms: DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii and Xbox One
Okami (Okamiden on Nintendo DS) is an unusual action-adventure. Combat is via interactions that are achieved with brush strokes rather than weapons. It has a unique visual style that invites you to inhabit its painted world with brushstrokes of your...
Release Date: 15/07/2003, updated in 2021
Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, Switch, Xbox and iOS
The Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is a series of hard narrative-driven role-playing and combat games set in the Star Wars universe, 4000 years before Luke Skywalker and the Empire. You fight enemies and discover secrets by talking to the...
Release Date: 11/08/2000, updated in 2020
Platforms: 3DS and 2DS, DS, GameCube, Switch, Wii and Wii U
Paper Mario is a role-play game featuring Mario and other Nintendo characters. Although cute and cartoon-like in appearance, these games are known for the quality of writing and the well balanced and enjoyable turn-based combat.
Release Date: 03/09/2018
Platforms: DS, GameCube, PC, PS2, PS4, Switch, Wii and Xbox One
Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a running, jumping, bashing and exploring game. It’s a re-release of the classic platform games featuring the purple dragon, Spyro. The attraction is the well designed levels, collecting and exploration. It’s an amiable...
Release Date: 25/02/2020
Two Point Hospital is a light-hearted healthcare simulator. You take charge of a hospital, similar to Theme Hospital, where you must construct and maintain wards, machines and staff.
Release Date: 21/09/2018
Platforms: PC, PS4 and Switch
Little Dragons Cafe is a strategy game about running a cafe. Unlike other farming and friendship games you don't have to earn money or toil to gain ingredients. Simply explore, collect and cook. It's a farming gaming without the stress.
Release Date: 21/10/2016, updated in 2019
Civilization is a long-running strategy game where you develop a society from hunter-gatherer to space travel. There are many ways to approach this challenge; socially, militarily, politically or perhaps by building wonders to impress other nations.
Release Date: 09/09/2006
Platforms: DS, PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Viva Pinata is a strategy garden-simulation where you tend and care for 60 different piñata animals. Play involves interacting with the Pinata themselves, but also creating the right environment to attract new creatures and helping them thrive. It...
Release Date: 11/11/2011, updated in 2017
Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
The Elder Scrolls is a series of action role-playing games that take you to detailed open worlds with free-form gameplay. The series has sold more than 58 million copies.
Release Date: 21/11/2013, updated in 2013
Platforms: Switch and Wii U
Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds
Super Mario 3D World (known as Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury on the Switch) is a platform game you can play with up to 4-players in the same place. While all Mario games are good for families, this co-operative and competitive play makes it great...
Release Date: 28/07/2022, updated in 2022
Platforms: PC and Switch
Bear and Breakfast is an adventure strategy game where you build a bed and breakfast in the woods. You play as an aspiring bear host, renovating a dilapidated area in town into one fit for tourists. However there is an underlying darkness in the woods...
Release Date: 16/03/2007, updated in 2019
Platforms: DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, Switch, Wii, Xbox One and iOS
Puzzle Quest 3 is the latest in a series of games that combine role-playing with tile-matching puzzles. Set in a fantasy world, you move around the map, encountering monsters and other enemies. When you go the battle are played out as tile puzzles where...
Release Date: 05/10/2018
Platforms: PC, PS4, Stadia and Xbox One
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an action role-playing game set in the years 431–422 BCE during a mythological history of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. You play as a male or female mercenary fighting on both sides and attempting to...
Release Date: 17/10/2006, updated in 2016
Platforms: Android, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS
Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds
Bully (Canis Canem Edit in Europe) is a role play adventure from the people who make Grand Theft Auto. You play juvenile delinquent student Jimmy Hopkins who aims to rise through the ranks of the school system in order to put a stop to bullying.
Release Date: 20/03/2018
Starbound is an action-adventure game from the developer of Terraria about the exploration of space. It's a world viewed from side-on, with simple visuals that enable it to offer complex systems and hundreds of items for players to discover their own...
Release Date: 06/02/2018
Eco extends the resource-collecting and building of Minecraft by introducing environmental implications to your actions. Using resources like trees will erode the soil; mining might pollute the river; and each animal depends on another.
Release Date: 10/02/2012, updated in 2020
Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360 and Xbox One
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is an adventure where you set out from the vibrant city of Rathir to rescue a world torn apart by a vicious war. Along with its huge scale, the game offers nuanced character development and a political system where you...