For a game where much of the entertainment value comes from watching semi-autonomous avatars live out their semi-independent lives, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a surprisingly addictive experience. While the repetition in the writing really underscores just how much of the game’s substance comes from you personally, the offbeat humour leads to some truly hilarious moments, and the scope for creativity makes the world a canvas limited only by your imagination – and your Miis’ pseudo-free will.

Tomodachi is back, and it’s never been better. While the character creation is so nearly perfect, Living the Dream is a welcome trip down memory lane for fans of the original. It builds upon everything that made the 3DS original so special, creating an upgraded adventure that’s filled with even more odd interactions, silly situations, and laugh-out-loud lines that will have you coming back to view this microcosm of the weird and wonderful for countless hours to come.

Like its predecessors, Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is an entertaining collection of ridiculously random set-pieces, tied together in an easy-to-play life sim. It does start getting repetitive after a few weeks, but the exceptionally localised dialogue and the scope for heavy customisation makes it a game the entire family can enjoy regardless.

GamesRadar+ Verdict Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is a worthy sequel that I can't put down. It's weird, surreal, and a great evolution for Nintendo's iconic social simulator - even if it feels repetitive at times.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream provides you with the constant feeling of seeing something really funny happen, but not being able to tell anyone about it. Not only has Nintendo removed the ability to share Miis via QR codes, but the developer also blocks players from sharing screenshots and videos you take from the game using the native Switch capture functionality. This is a game that is built on its oddball moments, and not having an official way to share those is massively shortsighted.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but its wackiness, creative design, and silly gameplay still make this adventure stand out against the cozy competition.

On paper, Tomodachi Life is something like Animal Crossing mixed with The Sims, perhaps with a bit of Tamagotchi thrown in. But that doesn't really convey just how wonderfully oddball the series is. And after blasting through Living the Dream's demo on Switch last night, I'm ready for more of its weird.

It’s this enjoyment my 7-year-old has had playing the game with me that makes me think Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream could be an even bigger hit than the 3DS game if Nintendo markets it properly.You’ll occasionally be asked questions about various topics, which will then be brought up during conversations.This is the most she’s been excited about any game we’ve had in the house so far – she sits in eager anticipation every time she gives a Mii a new food to see if they like it, she bursts out laughing every time a weird cutscene plays out, and she loves picking clothes for each character.

Although I can identify areas where Replaced falls a little short, I’m still walking away from the game impressed and satisfied. Its visuals are stunning, its story is risky and full of heart, and what its gameplay lacks in complexity, it makes up for in variety, never feeling complacent even despite occasional pacing issues. Replaced is a terrific experience, especially for the price and hopefully, it’s also just the beginning for Sad Cat Studios.

So, while I will get into more detail about all of that in a moment, if you will humour me for now, I want to talk about something which took me by surprise when I got to go hands-on with Replaced during a visit to publisher Thunderfall last month - the sheer amount of heart there is to be found in this dystopian and cruel world.

As part of our Invincible VS cover story, we got to spend exclusive hands-on time with Dupli-Kate, the latest addition to the roster. Arguably, the most unique fighter in the game, her ability to spawn clones of herself during battle makes her a particularly fearsome opponent.

If the rest of the game is as good as the small taste I’ve played, we’re potentially looking at one of the year’s best. We’ll have a review of the full game nearer to its release, but at this stage everything’s on track to give Forza Horizon 5 a run for its money and take over pole position as the best open-world racing game around.

But the heart wants what it wants, and it turns out that my heart wants a 1989 Nissan Silvia K's. Here is a slick urban delight, its body the colour of evening skies that announce the arrival of a summer storm. It's the car that I chose when the campaign started, and I quickly grew to love its air of 80s-tinged menace.

Pragmata, somehow, manages to take this concept to some sort of illogical conclusion. The core conceit of this game - outside of the weirdly beautiful story about loneliness in space, what it is to be human, and the perils of rampant, irresponsible usage of AI - is that you control a human and a robot, and must engage in action-packed skirmishes whilst shooting, dodging, and solving grid-based puzzles, all at the same time. A 'hacking grid' pops up when you aim at an enemy, and from there you must strafe, hit weak spots, jump or dodge attacks, and work out the most efficient way to disable robot foes in a melee of sparks, shells, and sabotage.

There’s something distinctly 2008 financial crash about Pragmata.Perhaps it could be down to protagonist Hugh, who simultaneously sounds like both Troy Baker and Nolan North, and wears armor reminiscent of Platinum’s Vanquish.Whatever it is, Pragmata feels like a remaster of an early Xbox 360 game that never existed – and that’s great.

Pragmata certainly starts strong, but it doesn't have quite enough to stay completely engaging all the way to the end credits. It's a highly-polished sci-fi game with fun combat and exploration, but its lackluster story and characters keep it from reaching its full potential. Still, it's exciting to have a completely original IP from Capcom, and while Pragmata doesn't live up to the high bar set by some of the studio's other efforts, it's a mostly worthwhile adventure.

Short and sweet, Pragmata is a snazzy late aughts throwback elevated by a terrific sense of feedback and momentum.

Pragmata is the kind of shooter you just don’t get anymore. It packs a lot into a relatively short runtime and makes the most of every single second. The combat is brilliant from start to finish and doubles down on the hacking gimmick to deliver fast, frantic, and tense fights that never get old.

Pragmata is nostalgia wrapped in a shiny new spacesuit with plenty of cool tricks up its pressurized sleeve. It's good to see Capcom returning to its quirky action beat, with an impressive host of weaponry, upgrades, combat hacks, and base-building as the sci-fi adventure moves through beautifully-conceptualized biomes. The visual and stylistic elements definitely give me deja-vu at times, and I could do without its heavy-handed themes battering me over the head, but beneath all that polished titanium sits a profound tale of humanity I'll not soon forget.

That’s what makes original IP Pragmata such an intriguing prospect. Everything we’ve played so far feels distinctly throwback, in a way that most other developers would attract scrutiny. But that’s OK: The idea of a simpler, linear third-person shooter, with a sprinkling of Sad Dad narrative, feels pretty compelling amid today’s abundance of online shooters and RPGs, especially with the Devil May Cry house at the controls.

Overall, this new experience with Pragmata solidified my impression that Capcom’s ambitious new game has firmly found its footing. They significantly amped up the difficulty, added more variety in how you can tackle enemies, and built an exciting new world to explore. It’s great fun, and I can’t wait to play the full game in April.

Another argument for Olden Era is that there aren't many directly comparable games, even though it's been 10 years since the last proper HOMM – Songs of Conquest, I guess? Heroes of Might and Magic is very much its own style. I'd say Unfrozen are off to a good start with this comeback project.