STILL PLAYING

Nier: Automata PS4 Judging by the feedback we’ve received, Automata was one of the most surprising omissions from E315’ s The Edge Awards, so we dispatched an absolute Nier novice to the frontlines of Yoko Taro’s emotive actionRPG. And our embedded reporter believes, ten or so hours in, that we made the right decision. Automata’s story may be brilliant, but it takes a little too long to show its hand. We’ve insisted our correspondent continues, however, and we’ll keep you posted.

Super Mario Odyssey Switch The longer you play Odyssey, the more you start to notice the seams; at some point you’ll wonder whether the similarity of your to-do list reflects a Nintendo running out of ideas in its desire to give you 999 things to do. Yet each feels different enough, precisely because of those worlds: tracewalking on ice is different from grass, as is a foot-race across water versus one in the desert. Here, familiarity breeds incentive – you’ve done it elsewhere, so you can surely do it here – rather than contempt.

Super Meat Boy Switch The launch-day Switch sales of Team Meat’s platformer came very close to its Xbox 360 debut numbers. Indeed, multiple years, ports and completions later, it’s still hard to resist yet another mad dash through the buzzsaw gauntlet – especially as the format so perfectly suits the Switch’s pick-up andplay design. Sadly, Danny Baranowsky’s original soundtrack is absent, but this version does offer two-player Race Mode. After eight years of practice, however, we’re running out of willing victi- er, opponents.