What happens when a rich family goes down the wrong alley, runs afoul of a mugger and are murdered? You get the perfect recipe for the construction of a legend, as all it took was one bad night to give birth to the Batman. By now, even your grandma knows the origin of Batman, but his legend was one that …

We want to be bold, we want to be brave and we want to throw our own hats into the ring with a few ideas of our own, that will see the gaming industry undergo some radical change this year. Are we even remotely psychic? Not a chance, but we’re feeling pretty confident that none of these predictions will come back to bite us in the ass. None of them.

With one of the best years in recent gaming memory over with, it’s time to look forward and towards a new horizon of upcoming releases. Whether it’s action, puzzles or straight-up brutality, 2019 has plenty of offer even the most jaded gamer on the planet. So with that in mind, here are our top ten picks for the games that …

Despite the cut content, New Super Mario Bros Deluxe remains the most feature-packed, and dare I say fun 2D Mario game in decades. If you missed it on Wii Um own a Switch and love Mario, platformers, fun and just plain good games, there’s no reason not to get New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe.

The world may be burning, society is in chaos and technology threatens to strip us of our humanity, but it’s comforting to know that in the end times, comic books are better than ever. This year wasn’t just a fantastic year for the medium, it was the very best that fans had ever seen. Writing felt sharper than a hotly forged sword, the art on display could put the entire gallery of the Louvre to shame and the resulting combination was an explosion of quality.

2018, in so many ways, is a year marked by controversy. Many great games, mind you, but a level of silliness and backward business practice so astronomically confounding – so very boggling to both mind and wallet – that most of us are still reeling from the impact; or cringing from the taste on our tongues. Luckily then, that particular dumpster fire has more or less sailed. 2019 is geared to deliver a stellar lineup in general. But gaming’s titanic trio in Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo respectively are left in something of an unsure position as they either look to the future, try to find their place in the present or both.

Treasure’s esteemed vertical shoot-em-up Ikaruga remains one of my favourite games. Though it, and other games like it have a lineage that’s nearly a straight line back all the way to Space Invaders, Ikaruga’s colour-switching mechanics presented something new to an iteratively derivative genre that mostly saw innovation through added enemies and more on-screen bullets. Rival Megagun, a split-screen competitive …

Road Redemption is a surprisingly sincere and brutal love letter to the past and its inspirations. It may look like a junker if you glance at its battle-worn chassis, but underneath the fairing is the heart of a surprisingly addictive and fun road warrior game.