The Great Indoors: New video games picks

Art for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

Most gamers have a Pile of Shame on their shelves or hard drives - a stack of titles bought on special or on impulse that for some reason they've not dived into. These folk should really ignore this and get stuck into that. If, however, you're one of the few gamers with a clean slate, here are some picks from the new releases.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Nintendo Switch
Offering an escape raft from reality is Nintendo's charming life-sim which is out on Friday. This new instalment in the long-running series offers a chilled-out and calming experience with no winning or losing conditions; just you and your character living his or her best life in a new town. You make friends with the anthropomorphic animals who live there, decorate and upgrade your house and go fishing. Sounds a bit lame, yes, but the gentle nature of the gameplay, the frequent and wonderful surprises and its delightful art direction completely suck you in, and the next thing you know you're bug-hunting, gardening and digging for fossils every spare moment you get.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX
Nintendo Switch
This spin-off from the ever-popular Pokemon series is a Rogue-like dungeon crawler that sees you exploring, recruiting and, of course, battling other Pokemon. The formula is flipped here by making the player a Pokemon instead of a trainer. You'll venture forth into danger to rescue lost Pokemon, receive a reward and then do it again. With a pleasingly painterly art-direction and the randomised dungeons, this will keep you levelling up for a long while. Right now there's a free demo on the Nintendo eShop so you can try before you buy.

Dreams
PlayStation 4
Why play other people's games when you can play your own? Dreams is less of a game itself - although it has levels you can play - and more of a game creation system that gives you all the tools you need to create your own playable games. You can then share them online with others or hoard them for yourself. But you're not limited to games. With Dreams, you can create movies, music videos, even animated shorts. If you can dream it, well, you get the idea. Of course, if you're not the creative type you'll be able to busy yourself for yonks experiencing the endless game creations uploaded by the community.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps
XboxOne
You'll need quick reflexes and plenty of brain power to navigate this platforming-puzzler. As you navigate Ori, a guardian spirit, through the maze-like forest you'll gain new powers that allow you to conquer previously unpassable challenges. It builds upon the mechanics and story of its predecessor, the popular Ori and the Blind Forest, but offers plenty of new quality of life improvements, like an especially handy autosave. The game's fairytale-style graphics and challenging but fun gameplay promise a captivating adventure that has seen it will its way to the top of the gaming charts.