If you are an animal lover who doesn’t mind a little jumping, climbing and lighthearted cat fighting, you will surely fall in love with the Disney-esque short but beautiful Stars in the Trash.

With its eerie tone, abstract logic, and distinctive aesthetic, Discolored 2 is another atmospherically rich puzzle game that builds meaningfully on the foundation of its predecessor.

The Midnight Walk is a stunning achievement in visual, audio, and narrative design. It may not present much challenge in overcoming its trials and tribulations, but the touching journey of The Burnt One and Potboy through a dark, disturbing hand-sculpted world of clay will surely light a spark that warms your soul.

Clicking through the short, experimental visual horror story Without a Dawn is so chilling that you’ll probably be willing to overlook the complete lack of gameplay usually found in a Jesse Makkonen adventure.

With a whole new setting and loaded to the gills with royal subterfuge, The Lemurian Phoenix is a fun prequel that gives us something very different from The Rise of the Golden Idol while still delivering what returning players are after. Slightly outshone by the base games and prior series DLC, it’s unlikely to be remembered as a high point in this stellar franchise, but series fans would be seriously missing out if they skip it.

Near-Mage will cast a powerful spell on fans of narrative-driven adventures. While it may not challenge puzzle wizards, it will enchant players with its beautifully vibrant locales and heartfelt tale of finding one’s place in the world.

While player choice is largely illusory and the gameplay elements feel a bit underused, The Operator is a short but great cyberthriller that makes it fun to be the “person in the chair.”

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those looking something unlike anything else out there, Promise Mascot Agency offers a bizarre flavor of storytelling that feels inventive and fresh. It doesn’t have the staying power to keep its repetitive gameplay interesting throughout, but the richness of the world and unapologetic insanity more than make up for its excesses.

Our hopes for a wonderful sequel have come true, as Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer balances a great dialogue-based serial killer mystery with entertaining puzzles in another sublime point-and-click pixel art adventure game.

CollectorVision’s dedication to recreating an authentic nostalgic experience is clearly evident on every screen, but whenever Dead Tomb goes out of its way to make the experience as cumbersome as possible, this jaunt to Ancient Egypt will leave you parched for a more robust experience.

With Your House, Patrones & Escondites return to their unique style of interactive storytelling with a prequel to Unmemory, offering another intriguing combination of book-style text and visuals in a thoughtful tale of drama and mystery.

Its short length prevents Neon Hearts City from shining as brightly as it could, but slick production values, solid writing and simple but entertaining gameplay make for an intriguing enough tour while it lasts.

Don’t let the bright cartoon world and cute animals fool you: Magret & FaceDeBouc, with its poop jokes, blood and snarky characters, is definitely not for children. But if you’re okay with that, and the occasional bug, it packs a twisty tale and some satisfyingly old-school puzzles into its brief runtime.

There are no grand mysteries for Sherlock Holmes to solve in The Beekeeper’s Picnic, but rather a cozy, charming, easy little adventure about the world’s most famous retired detective dusting off his deduction skills for worthwhile personal reasons.

If a bedtime story and a classic point-and-click adventure game had a child, it would be Stories of Blossom. If you have kids you can play together with, or even to give them to play on their own, it is well worthwhile. It’s highly accessible for all, and even with a few noticeable cost-cutting measures, it’s a heart-warming and simple trio of fairy tales that any young child (and parents) should enjoy.

The updated Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy is a beautiful experience through a fantasized rainforest on a quest to save a dying race of birds that will leave you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled.

Thrilling, darkly funny, and full to the brim with brainteasing goodness, The Sins of New Wells DLC gives players more of the same outstanding gameplay loop that made the Golden Idol series so addictive in the first place... and sets the stage for a promising future with the three upcoming chapters.

Beneath some technical flaws and a few design shortcuts, Brassheart contains an adventure game heart of gold, offering a globetrotting point-and-click battle between good and evil in glorious dieselpunk style.

Old Skies takes the well-worn concept of time travel and shoots it back through history to make it fresh again. It’s a beautiful, wonderfully written and acted tale both epic and personal, with enough time-bending conundrums to keep even the most jaded adventure gamer guessing.

Don’t Nod spins a thoughtful yarn about friendship and trauma, but Lost Records can’t find the right tonal balance to guarantee a hit.

The Extrication is still far from a masterclass in horror, but this better sophomore effort in the Bridge Curse franchise has shown it’s learned a few lessons along the way.

Blue Prince took my breath away more times than I could count. Its brilliant mix of genres, intricate puzzles, addictive loop, emotional story, and fascinating setting all work together in harmony to create an absolute classic.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center’s bold art and an even bolder concept isn’t quite enough to spice up this slow-burning mystery visual novel with limited detective elements.

It’s nice to finally have ASYLUM in our hands after so long, but while it has the makings of an interesting story at its center, the vast size and emptiness of its namesake hospital overwhelm everything else about it, and it never gets a handle on how to balance narrative and gameplay or to deliver the horror it promises.

A bewildering story is content to leave players floundering in the dark, but KARMA’s commitment to nonstop weirdness provides some gloriously unhinged nightmare fuel.

Don’t let its delightfully cartoonish appearance fool you: Elroy and the Aliens is a wonderfully heartfelt point-and-click journey across time and space, about family connections and the lengths we’ll go to reunite with our loved ones.

Its obstacles may not put up much of a fight, but Rosewater’s sharpshooting lies with its wonderful production value and freedom of choice in this character-driven Western, earning itself a big “Yeehaw!” for fun and replayability.

With only two of five planned Backrooms-inspired liminal spaces to explore, Dreamcore tries so hard to avoid stimulating the player that playing it feels less like an experience and more like a chore to navigate its endlessly maze-like environments.