The original Super Mario Maker, released last year, was a playful, intuitive peek behind the mechanics of building levels, with programming complexity and design leg-work cleverly handled in the background. ‘A huge creative success’: Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS. The combat and stealth mechanics remain strong, although nothing novel is introduced to the existing foundations, and last year’s Definitive Edition of the first game remains the best way to experience this unique and fascinating world. What few appealing design elements there are, such as one delightful level set within a clockwork mansion, are over as quickly as they begin. Level design is mostly repetitive and unchallenging, full of nonsensical dead-ends and time-sink collectables that feel entirely unrelated to the environments around them. Unfortunately, almost all of the game’s charm is carried over wholesale from its predecessor, while the numerous failings are all its own.Ī tale of revolution and revenge – exactly like last time – the narrative is rushed, undernourished and yet relentlessly dull. PC/PlayStation 4/Xbox One, Bethesda, cert: 18ĭishonored 2 is a peculiar beast, entirely unlike anything else on the triple-A market today: a first-person stealth title with action elements, set in a steampunk fantasy world with an economy based on whale oil. The world can also feel peculiarly lifeless, entire streets barren of people and cars, but these are small complaints against an overall joyful experience. The controls are loose and spongy, with travel on foot and in vehicles often resembling gliding on ice. It’s campy, colourful and extremely entertaining, though it is also a sugary treat that’s easy to forget about after the event. Leaning heavily into the inherent silliness of internet culture, it casts a gang of self-indulgent young adults as its misfit heroes, traversing San Francisco to promote their counterculture brand by hacking into everything in sight and generally making a nuisance of themselves. The sequel, thankfully, makes up for that shortfall, and then some.

Its big hook – the ability to hack into cars, mobile phones or various municipal outlets and utilise them in combat – was novel but underused. The original Watch Dogs lacked significant innovation in a marketplace oversaturated with open-world crime capers.

PC/PlayStation 4/Xbox One, Ubisoft, cert: 18

Super mario maker 3ds review