Cat Café Manager entices you in with hopes of cute kitties and a bustling management sim but sorely underachieves. There are a lot of awesome and inventive ideas, however the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I found myself enjoying the game with its chilled vibes and laid-back style, but also felt frustrated at all the missed potential. Whilst the representation of diverse characters gives the game several bonus points, unfortunately there are a lot of features missing to help make Cat Café Manager a timeless simulator classic.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is not the best version of the GameCube original, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad experience. The story still holds up, combat is still exciting, and the characters are some of the best in the series, but all these systems take getting used to compared to newer games. Worst of all is the Switch version, which brings several new technical issues to the game, includes short but repetitive loading screens after you do almost anything outside of menus. It may be a deal breaker for some, but for others it might be a small price to pay to play an RPG classic on modern consoles.

King’s Bounty II has all the ingredients of a great strategy game but is held back by a counterintuitive UI and generic story elements. While the overworld offers a beautiful open environment to explore, often there’s not enough there to hold your attention as a player, and you’ll find yourself wandering around aimlessly. Added to this is that your character’s travel is particularly slow, the game has a sleepy pace at times that holds the overall experience back. While its strategy battles feature some interesting ideal mechanics that might appeal to die-hard fans of the franchise, if you’re looking for a broad roleplaying strategy experience, King’s Bounty II might not be the best fit for you.

Neurodeck offers up an interesting premise and beautiful visuals. Story-wise and gameplay-wise, however, the whole experience feels like an Early Access release; many areas of gameplay are repetitive, and it’s easy to encounter the same enemies multiple times in a single run. I’m convinced this could be a stunning game if given a bit more love by the developers, but it doesn’t match up to the giants currently dominating the card-game genre. If you’re looking for a deck-building challenge, it’s best to keep looking a little longer.

I’m a little sad about how Maiden of Black Water resulted in Project Zero’s pause as a series. Great photography gameplay is on offer and had me frantically thinking on the fly to snap some solid (and horrific) photos. Poor pacing, voice acting and less than admirable treatment of female characters is present though, which can at times be tough obstacles to overcome. Still, the eerie atmosphere the game sets up for itself remains throughout. It is a thrilling, quite pleasurable experience that, while the answers may not always be satisfying, will leave you guessing until its conclusion. I can only hope this remaster is the start of a new turn for the series. Flaws and all, the Project Zero franchise is more than worthy of another shot in the spooky spotlight.

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees is a fantastically paced game seemingly designed to be experienced in bite-sized chunks with challenging controls that could be mastered by those willing to put in the effort. With all the thought and care put into representing these beautiful creatures and their heartbreaking lives, the game’s issues appear to stem from a lack of resources, not passion. Despite the repetition and technical struggles, it’s a short, sweet experience whose positive elements are more memorable than its faults.

While the Iron’s Hot offers diverse gameplay packed with an immersive narrative, innovative ideas, and crafting depth. However, there are some quality-of-life improvements needed, mini-games lack challenge, and you may find yourself with an overflow of work orders without incentives to complete them. Overall, the game delivers a captivating blacksmithing experience with some limitations that may unfortunately impact player satisfaction.

Considering the game’s notoriously troubled development, Skull and Bones is definitely not as bad as it could have been. With many of its tweaks to the naval combat pioneered in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, the game is often fun, particularly with a friend. However, those moments of fun are sometimes hard to find, and are buried under boring travel, glacially-paced harvesting and looting, and a rather shallow world to explore. If you’re a fan of other multiplayer live-service titles and are looking for a new kind of game to check out with friends, Skull and Bones certainly brings something new to the table that Destiny 2 and The Division 2 do not, but it is not all smooth sailing.

Chocobo GP could’ve been a simple kart racer that draws players in with beloved characters and tracks from the history of Final Fantasy, but instead, Square Enix boldly chose to make a sequel to an unpopular PS1 game. Bolder still was the choice to gate the promise of a more interesting game behind season passes and premium currencies. Mechanically, Chocobo GP is sound, and has enough ideas and potential to stack up to other franchise racers. However, I’m anxious to see how long this game lasts after release. There’s every chance it’ll develop a loyal playerbase large enough that Square will continue to support it, and maybe even rebalance the game to make that price of entry less steep. But as it stands, I don’t think Chocobo GP offers enough at launch to justify the effort and money required to keep playing it.

SLEEP AWAKE is an experience that doesn’t allow itself enough time to become the piece of art it desperately wants to be. It features all the elements of a beautifully intense and unique audio and visual experience, and has a decent story it’s trying to tell, but feels diluted overall by its short runtime. It almost feels like a game that was playing it a bit too safe, even in its experimental style, and it would have benefited from heavier auditory exploration and more content to properly develop its intriguing narrative.

Blood Bar Tycoon is an overall enjoyable experience which is hindered from being great by small bugs that add up really fast. It’s got a clean and fun art style, and light humour that compliments the darker tone of the game. With the lack of an overall bigger story to pull you in and keep your interest, it falls victim to the ‘tycoon game turned idle game’ where you’re simply waiting for your machines to make stock. There’s not a lot to keep you coming back once you’ve achieved three stars in each bar; while it’s a relatively fun experience while you’re playing, the somewhat repetitive gameplay loop doesn’t offer much incentive for a repeat visit, even if the drinks are bloody delicious.

The DioField Chronicle is an enjoyable experience for players who are interested in games with political drama and intrigue. It thrives on being vague and secretive, which fits the themes encountered in the game. Combat can also be fun to play around with, and it forces you to think differently when enemies can move around. Unfortunately, the game can take complexity too far, and it isn’t a game for casual players. The battle system can feel repetitive with a lack of variety, and the only thing propelling you forward is your desire to know how it all ends. But if you are willing to put some time into the game and understand it, you will walk away with a decent experience that is enjoyable in its own right.

Squirrel with a Gun has a janky charm, from its crazy attack animations to occasionally ridiculous physics-based challenges. The concept of a platformer where the player character is so tiny that their gun is used to propel them into the air is a clever one that I wish was used in a more enjoyable game. However, despite some occasionally fun challenges and crazy cutscenes, Squirrel with a Gun feels overstretched across its roughly eight-hour playtime, with an overall lack of technical polish that goes beyond funny and becomes frustrating to play. It isn’t bad overall and certainly has its fun moments (particularly the boss fights), but the bugs and general jankiness of the experience hold it back from reaching its full potential.

SkateBIRD is an adorable action sports game with a lot of charm and funky beats. Setting aside minor control and camera issues, the unique perspective of being a teeny bird helps bring a refreshing look to the skate game genre. From dirty cereal bowls to server cables, travelling across 5 different levels to help your human come home was enjoyable and engaging. Meeting several interesting and pun-filled birds who help you on your journey just added to the quirk and charm. Glass Bottom Games has done a commendable job making this accessible for all gamers, allowing for a unique player experience.

Fashion Dreamer is a game that tries to do too much at once and fails to focus on making the game satisfying in the first place. With all the different forms of currency, different ways to get free clothes, gacha games and bingo games, it is completely unfocused and doesn’t put enough effort into the important stuff: the fashion and a tangible sense of growth as you become more and more popular. There are plenty of older and much better fashion games out there, so Fashion Dreamer really shouldn’t be at the top of your list.

Survival Kids doesn’t take any big risks in its kid-friendly approach to survival games. Yes, it is technically kid-friendly in mood and scope, but that’s also underselling the maturity and capability of children playing games. Its level-based approach doesn’t evoke a sense of wonder and exciting exploration that its counterparts are known and beloved for. Its tasks are monotonous and very quickly become repetitive, almost as if they’re not trusting you to understand the same thing they’re teaching and showing you every few minutes. With only nine levels, but with rough pacing in those missions, it’s an experience that somehow passes you by in a flash, but also feels like a slog. There’s fun to be had if you’re with friends in the silly and chaotic gameplay moments, also working together as a refined, well-oiled survival production machine. Still, at the end of the day, Survival Kids isn’t all that much of a successful return, remaining hardly a splash in the ocean.

Whether you want to take the righteous route or become the true menace of Nottingham, Hood: Outlaws & Legends is certainly one of the best Robin Hood games to play. The art and world design care are impeccable, representing a grim and gory version of the English folklore. It’s empowering to play as legendary vigilantes and decimate the establishment or opposing forces with strategy and stealth. Although, it doesn’t come without its fair share of problems. The winching mechanic, and currently the only objective type in the game, is unmistakeably frustrating and poorly conceived. Without a proper refresh of the goals, the community might take their gold elsewhere. Not forgetting technical bugs that need squashing, Hood: Outlaws & Legends may let you steal from the rich but not without taking a little bit of your patience first.

LONE RUIN is a game that’s simply too short for its own good. A lack of content means the experience is over long before it ever should be, and any additional difficulty modes and a survival mode don’t do enough to justify the small scope. The experience is saved somewhat by good gameplay and a great spells/upgrades system, though not enough to call this one a real must-play.

The versatility of wall-running and jumping with the agility of Spider-Man with machine guns is undeniably entertaining. Traversing the excellent dark and brutal world with these abilities makes it all that much more fun. However, it’s clear there are polish and refinements required if this bounty hunter wants to make bank. Necromunda: Hired Gun is messy and not the game Warhammer 40,000 fans or FPS lovers will be speaking about in years to come.

Homeseek is a colony simulator that frequently puts you in uncomfortable situations. Just as you think everything is going well, it pulls the rug out from under you and forces you to react. You must balance short-term survival with long-term exploration to find new livable areas. Instead of building a self-sustaining civilization, you must move to greener pastures while surviving against the odds. The learning curve is steep as you are expected to make several mistakes. Not everything is explained to you either, forcing you to learn as you go. But if you are willing to stay with the game and adapt, you will find a great challenge that forces you to really think.

The kindest thing I can say about Shattered Space is that it’s “just more Starfield”, and if you wanted more missions and story content, then this expansion delivers. However, if you didn’t enjoy the base game very much, Shattered Space doesn’t provide much reason to return. If you wanted a colourful new planet to roam around and a couple of new scripted story missions to expand your experience with Starfield, Shattered Space certainly provides that. However, with few particularly unique missions that stand out from the main game, and an overall lack of new mechanics, interesting new narrative content, or polish, only the most diehard of Starfield fans are likely to get much out of it.

While The Good Life is an often frustrating and dull experience, riddled with annoying mechanics and lacking in polish, I’d struggle to say that I necessarily had a bad time overall. I found the town of Rainy Woods and its mysteries engaging enough to want to see the experience through to the end. There are so many nuggets of potential that are held back by irritating health meters and repetitive side quests. If you’re a fan of SWERY’s previous output or have a lot of patience for fetch quests, there is reason enough to check out The Good Life, but it is a hard sell for pretty much anyone else.

Despite what is clearly an earnest effort, Lost Soul Aside fails to do justice to whatever director Yang Bing’s vision was. It never stops feeling hamstrung by its lofty aspirations, but is derivative in its execution and doesn’t do any one thing particularly well. If you’re the type of player who can forgive an average experience in return for genuinely great combat, then it might still be worth your while to grab it on sale.

Perish offers a great world to explore and a surprising amount of graphical prowess for an indie roguelike. The setting is intriguing and the combat varied and engaging enough. The game stumbles with framerate drops and a gameplay loop that may not have been finetuned to perfection, though if you have a crew to play with, Perish still offers a good amount of fun that’s worth your time.

World’s End Club wanted to be like Danganronpa or Zero Escape, but it doesn’t measure up to either. This game has a pretty cool story sandwiched between aggressively average platforming segments that wouldn’t stand up to snuff ten years ago. It has a cool art direction and likeable characters, but the writing itself is not masterful enough to make the unconvincing plot twists work, nor to make up for the boring and repetitive gameplay.

There’s a decent time to be had in Slitterhead as a blood-wielding badass dealing with some dastardly demons in the striking and grungy concrete jungle of Kowlong. The game finds a satisfying balance of empowerment and challenge as you hijack body after body to topple your foes. Similarly, it’s exciting to use these supernatural powers to traverse the land and uncover mysteries across the city. The game, however, is held back by an obtuse story, a frustrating lack of apt signposting in some missions, and an adventure you never really wrap your head around in its twelve-hour runtime. It may not make a huge mark on the horror action scene, but to the select few that vibe with its freakishness, it’ll be an underrated gem for years to come.

Mato Anomalies has solid RPG fundamentals that can create an enjoyable experience in the beginning. Combat is fun to engage with, the world looks interesting, and the story has an intense start. Unfortunately, the game drags itself down with a narrative that never figures out what it wants to be, throwing in multiple themes which make little sense collectively. Combat requires increasingly large amounts of time investment, which can make you sick of the grind. It’s hard to find yourself continuing to the end, and the game doesn’t make much sense even if you do finish it. If you are looking for an RPG that requires grinding and you don’t mind the repetition, you might enjoy Mato Anomalies. For those looking for a strong narrative that leaves you impressed, look elsewhere.

For fans of the series, or for players looking for a slightly more involved grind during their commute than the usual mobile fare, Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX offer a heap of monster-rearing pleasure. However, this pair of titles is truly a product of its time: a lack of tutorials, janky graphics, and a set of opaque gameplay systems reliant on heavy grinding might prove too high a barrier for the average creature collector. Pick this up only if you’re prepared for a nostalgic romp through the highs and lows of late nineties game design.