Shovel Knight (PC/Mac/Wii U/3DS)

I normally lead into these reviews by setting the theme or laying the foundation for a punchline, but this time this time I'll cut the (now traditional) waffle I'm famous for by simply saying that Yacht Club Games' Kickstarter-hit Shovel Knight is an absolute work of art. It's not the kind of indie game that wants to be famous for its 'message' or 'deepness of expression', it's instead the kind that polishes an established set of formulas and delivers a diamond-solid package.

Mutant Mudds (3DS/iOS/PC)

A moment, please, for the radical kids of videogameland. Where would we be without the likes of Alex Kidd, Ash Ketchum, the infant with the huge head from BC Kid, Chuck Rock's double-hard baby son or even Diddy Kong?

We'd be screwed, because in videogameland the planet's salvation is often in the hands of precocious, occasionally violent kids who do things like hang out with weird unemployed animal trainers (I've got my eye on you, Brock), scour continents looking for Master Swords of Mass Destruction and, in the case of Mutant Mudds' protagonist Max, immediately respond to an alien invasion of Earth by kicking off bigstyle.