WILL: Follow the Light offers a few glimmers of promise amidst its fog of missed potential, but they are too few and far between to recommend. Stiff delivery, rough writing and uneven puzzles all would have been better served by being thrown overboard so WILL could focus on its atmospheric sailing strengths. Instead, WILL is better left adrift at sea with only its lost promise to keep it company.

Invincible VS is a bloody, brutal, and bombastic tag fighting game that perfectly nails the vibe and violent visuals of the comic series and the animated television series. It reminded me why I love fighters, but it also reminded me why I sometimes hate them. There’s a level of depth here that gives Invincible VS the sauce players are always looking for, and made the fast-paced and action-stacked matches a delight despite cheesy strategies and wishing I had more agency in my playstyle. But this sauce still needs a little more time simmering in the pot, because its taste profile feels a little barebones and unfinished. While I can’t say how happy it will make the tag-fighting game community, I can say that it is a fun game that pays homage to its source material while serving as a love letter to the titles that inspired it.

After an initially positive impression, Aphelion fails to achieve liftoff. Shallow and outdated climbing mechanics, coupled with an abundance of boring stealth sections, make the narrative the only hope for this mission. However, with a lack of compelling characters or performances, the gravity of two unlikeable leads proves too strong for Aphelion. Despite strong visuals, instead of reaching for the stars, this sci-fi journey ends up falling back to Earth.

Tides of Tomorrow is a textbook example of mechanics that would be better served in a stronger game. Its story-link system is compellingly eerie and smartly iterates on the social aspects of choice-based adventure games, and its resource management shapes player choices in clever ways, but neither can fully escape the leaking ship of flat writing, characters and setting. While I hope that games on future tides can better capitalise on these ideas, for now, Tides of Tomorrow doesn’t deserve much more than a day trip to its rusty water park attractions.

REPLACED feels simultaneously over-scoped yet under-designed. An incredible visual style and rich world immediately catch the eye, but only the former holds up across the entire adventure. Likewise, the gameplay is initially rewarding, but fails to expand its simple foundations over a journey that’s far too bloated. REPLACED’s repetitive gameplay holds back the gorgeous aesthetics, but there’s still a charming core underneath the grime that may just win you over.

Although my time with Regions of Ruin: Runegate was anticlimactic and sometimes turbulent, it had its high points. From its lovely retro art style, satisfying character progression and the enjoyment of rebuilding a gorgeous dwarven keep from a pile of rubble, there are certainly aspects that I enjoyed. However, many of those aspects had downsides, including the rather short and repetitive main quest and very dull resource grinding. If you like 2D hack and slash combat and can tolerate a somewhat simplistic and linear town builder aspect bolted onto it, there is fun to be had with Regions of Ruin: Runegate.

Super Meat Boy 3D isn’t the grandiose translation to 3D as fans were perhaps hoping for. Though there’s competent enough level design and plenty to see and do with its many challenges and unlockable characters, it quickly goes back into old habits, be it with its immature and dated humour or its penchant for the 2D. Featuring generic Unreal Engine 5 3D work and level design that doesn’t quite prop itself up on its own, Super Meat Boy 3D is challenging and quite ugly to look at, but not in the ways I’m sure the developer intended. Not the worst platformer ever made, you could do much worse with Super Meat Boy 3D, but you could also do much better.

A number of cool cephalopod-themed abilities and a focus on stealth set Darwin’s Paradox apart from other linear platformers, though it’s let down by imprecise controls and sluggish loading states between deaths that lead to much of its gameplay feeling frustrating. Its focus on a satirical hyper-capitalist world is engaging, but its bleak environmental design leaves its dystopian world feeling bland rather than enticing to explore. Despite this, some neat puzzles that make clever use of the unique traits of the octopus still make this a decent adventure for mollusc-maniacs.

Raccoin is the newest addition to the ever-growing list of gambling-themed, roguelike, combo-building games, made popular by Balatro’s success. While unique in its use of a coin pusher as its base theme, its other core mechanics feel like a cutesy new coat of paint on top of the same systems the genre has been pumping out for months. Fundamentally sound and with nothing truly wrong with it, Raccoin is a strong contender for one of the better titles in the genre, but it doesn’t provide anything truly new or exciting to help it stand apart from the rest.

Hozy, while a short experience that can be completed in one sitting, is an enjoyable title. With beautiful, realistic graphics, lighting that feels luxurious to bask in and a smooth jazzy soundtrack that helps tie it all together. The attention to detail in the weight of an object, the way the wind blows through an open window, and the ambience that layers when you turn on a fan or a radio, all help build an aesthetically impressive game. Though it lacks in replayability and doesn’t push much farther than a room decorator in its mechanics, Hozy will likely be a hit for fans of titles like Unpacking or any decorative cozy game.

MLB The Show 26 provides a decent baseball experience, but it’s not easy to learn compared to previous entries. It also doesn’t feel like much has changed since the previous release, giving you an almost identical experience. That makes it harder to recommend since you could just play previous entries and have more fun. Instead, you get a more gruelling and difficult experience that does resemble baseball but isn’t enjoyable to play through.

Marathon is a technically brilliant and satisfying shooter that nails the fundamentals but struggles to build beyond them. It delivers incredible moment-to-moment gameplay, yet lacks the depth and long-term pull to match its ambition. Right now, it feels less like a fully realised experience and more like the start of something new waiting to be expanded, a game that will live or die by how Bungie supports it from here.

Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is a gorgeous-looking roguelike that presents some fun gameplay elements over different stunning backdrops and challenging platforming locations. Some of its elements, like the possession system, are fun, but the devs needed to put more time into making other gameplay elements work and flow throughout. It leaves Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse as a mixed bag, but it’s a fun experience if you don’t care too much about clunky basebuilding or rich environmental lore.

Crabmeat is a solid experience overall, nailing the feeling of isolation one might feel while stuck in the open ocean all alone. The unique point-and-click mechanic, while an interesting choice, does leave room for some difficulties navigating in stressful situations. Sound design is nailed in this short, two to three hour experience, and while I enjoyed it for what it was, I think a little more length and some deeper mysteries to uncover would have added a nice layer of depth. Fans of titles such as Iron Lung and Loan Shark will definitely find enjoyment out of Crabmeat.

Toxic Commando is ultimately fine, but there are many better co-operative shooters you could spend your time with. Perfectly competent shooting is brought down by repetitive missions and an absolutely threadbare campaign. If you absolutely must play a new zombie shooter, you might find some fun here, but if you’re looking for something more fulfilling than video game junk food, look elsewhere.

I ended up enjoying Greedfall: The Dying World quite a lot; however, I recognise that it won’t be for everyone. The Real Time with Pause combat was more manageable than I expected, but I still think I’d have preferred either a straightforward action combat system like the first game or a proper turn-based combat system if the developers wanted to go in a more tactical direction. The large and diverse cast of companions is deep and interesting, and it’s just as well, as the main plot isn’t quite as compelling. If you’re looking for a return to the highs of Real Time with Pause RPGs, like the old Dragon Age or Baldur’s Gate games, Greedfall: The Dying World doesn’t quite get there, but it comes damned close. There’s a fascinating world out there to explore, just be aware that the journey won’t be free of storms.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is a modern rendition of a certified classic survival horror game, and while I believe it should be praised for building a solid atmosphere with superb sound design, the game itself, as it is on console, is a tough task to recommend. In many ways, this remake is a distant departure from what made the original game so breathtakingly horrifying, sacrificing all the subtlety that made you feel at unease and replacing it with cheap tricks. But ultimately, it undermines the oppressiveness of its story with a repetitive gameplay loop filled with constant backtracking and a lack of challenge in either combat or puzzle solving.

There are a number of neat ideas in Mirage 7, from its mysterious meta-narrative to its Resident Evil-style exploration and problem-solving. A rich lore and mythological backdrop help draw you into its vibrant desert world. However, it’s unfortunately held back by tedious combat and frustratingly inconsistent puzzle solutions, as well as a pretty unsatisfying narrative conclusion. Under a few layers of cumbersome design, there’s a unique adventure game here to be enjoyed – if only for a little while.

Scott Pilgrim EX is nothing more than satisfactory. Brawling through dozens of adversaries can be quite enticing, especially with a friend. However, every other element falls flat with areas, enemies, bosses and levelling ending up a big regression from other contemporary beat ’em ups. Likewise, fans of Scott Pilgrim will be pleased by the plethora of visual tributes. But the narrative and dialogue of EX come across as purely referential and lack a heart of their own.

You probably know already if you fit within the Venn diagram of Reigns fans who also love the world of The Witcher. Outside of the hit-or-miss combat, Nerial hasn’t exactly revolutionised its patented Reigns formula with Reigns: The Witcher, but it also doesn’t really need to. The trademark swipey narrative puzzle gameplay suits The Witcher very well, with its focus on moral choices and dark sense of humour. I had a good amount of fun with Reigns: The Witcher. If you’re a fan of The Witcher or enjoyed the previous Reigns games and want to see a twist on the formula, so might you.

Lovish is a cute and sweet 8-Bit retro-inspired action game that parodies the hero-saves-the-princess trope. Each puzzle room is filled with challenging obstacles and enemies that are constantly changing and evolving throughout your playthrough. Though there are some issues, such as the game’s stores stocking useless items, there being no way to pause the game and boring boss fights, Lovish makes up for this by including a lot of secret levels to find and explore, meaning that there is a lot for players to discover and experience after the base game is beaten.

God of War: Sons of Sparta really does try to tackle a different approach to the series while also retaining the feel of God of War. There was so much potential for a new perspective on the characters and their pasts that have yet to be properly explored, which made it all the more dissatisfying when the game came to an end and fell short on all these opportunities. The focus on the primary objective really didn’t leave much room for any other characters to be expanded upon, and the gameplay and storytelling weren’t compelling enough to keep me invested all the way to the end. If you really want to know what happens for yourself, or you’re desperate for a new Metroidvania, wait for some patches to fix the bugs and give it a go. If you don’t, then you will be fine to skip this one.

Mario Tennis Fever is yet another Mario sports game that gets by on being passingly entertaining, while failing to do anything particularly new or exciting. I think I like it a bit better than 2018’s Mario Tennis Aces, but the two games share so many similarities, both good and bad, that it’s hard to tell for sure. If you love the Mario Tennis series, you’ll probably like this. But for everyone else, I’m hard-pressed to tell you there’s anything special about Mario Tennis Fever.

Though there’s a bit of rockiness and jank under the hood, MY HERO ACADEMIA: All’s Justice is a rock-solid 3D anime arena fighter in a series of incredibly middling ones. There’s some real tacticality and dexterity you pick up with how much you’re cycling characters in and out, countering attacks and building up towards constant finishers. No one fight feels the same; I’ve done battles in and out of the Story Mode or exhibition mode that saw me dominate the competition or pull back a victory by the skin of my teeth after being knocked about for a good while. It’s not without its technical issues and padding in the campaign, but plenty of meaningful additions and lessons brought forward from prior entries make it a fitting enough send-off that stands out well in the crowd. Not quite a Detroit Smash hit, but a punchy good time, regardless.

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check is a more-than-competent zombie border security game. It invites players to focus on the small details, providing enough strategic options and management systems to feel rewarding for the player. The game stumbles, or perhaps shambles, in its implementation of certain systems, not always feeling like a cohesive or perfectly thought-out experience. With more depth added to the character interactions and less focus on perfecting security checks, Quarantine Zone: The Last Check could have risen to new heights.

Romeo is a Dead Man is a loud and inventive action game that prioritises style and spectacle. Its combat may be basic by today’s standards, and its systems occasionally bloated, but the confidence behind its strangeness may carry it for some. It can feel very dated, but it’s unapologetic and unmistakably Suda51, and for the right player (you know who you are), that’s more than enough.

The remake treatment of one of Yakuza’s more underrated entries gets marks for its story, world and fan service to the great Kazuma Kiryu, but all of that praise and credit only comes from the original Yakuza 3. What’s within Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a regression in the timeline, as it resets and retcons crucial parts of the world and greater with its new story. Additionally, unoriginal and reskinned minigames that become a bore, along with the messy politics of disastrous recastings, simply make this an inferior version. The dark horse of the series didn’t get its time in the sun here, and that’s a damn shame.

While sometimes feeling like a pastiche of better things, Dead Pets still offers some fun jams about the challenges of the contemporary life of a punk and female artist. Its management systems accentuate its otherwise tropey storytelling, its minigames are eclectic and varied, and its music is nicely interwoven into its narrative. It might have been a bit more punk to break some new ground, but as adult slice-of-life videogames go, Dead Pets is still one to chuck on the record player if you’re so inclined.