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.

Hellboy Web of Wyrd isn’t the worst video game adapted from comics I’ve played, but it certainly could’ve been better. Lance Reddick delivers a wonderful performance in what is one of his final roles. Similarly, the Hellboy universe is as tantalising in its grim dark fantasy as ever before. It too has some fun brawler combat with upgrades that will make or break your run. This should be a roguelike foray made in harmony with one of the punchiest and most unique adaptation spins we’ve ever seen. Instead, Web of Wyrd is never in pursuit of anything all that meaningful. Narrative threads aren’t all that engaging. The Mike Mignola art-style charm only lingers, ruined by the repetitive level design and jaunts through the same narrow hallways and combat scenarios. Never invigorating itself, Web of Wyrd is another in a long line of IPs adapted into video games that is, at most, a damn shame.

Kejora is a short and simple game with an animated art style reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films and the books I read in school to help me learn different languages. Despite its efforts and how much I thoroughly enjoyed the introductory act and the larger themes, questions, and ideas, the limitations of its clunky gameplay, declining quality of its story, frequent bugs, and an immersion-breaking lack of sound effects left me less engaged, indifferent, and bored by the end of it all.

Gungrave G.O.R.E is overall a bit of a misfire, and evidence that some franchises should stay in the early 2000s. The game is a spectacle action game that has failed to learn anything meaningful from 20 years of game design evolution, from the importance of having an interesting or charismatic lead to gameplay which gives the player options and which evolves over time. The levels show a strong disposition towards dark and grey, and the plot won’t do much to engage you either. If you’re a diehard Gungrave fan who has been longingly awaiting the franchise’s revival, there might be something for you here; for anyone else, there are far better offerings out there.

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.

Hotel Barcelona is a messy but ambitious experiment that often feels like it’s trying to do too much at once. Its style and inventive ideas, like Slasher Phantoms, branching levels and absurd characters, show flashes of brilliance, but the clunky combat and overstuffed mechanics make many runs more testing than enjoyable. In the end, it’s memorable for its imagination, but not for being a satisfying or polished experience.

Rendezvous is a beautiful-looking game let down by some unfortunate gameplay design decisions. It has a stunning visual aesthetic, blending retro pixel art with modern lighting and rendering effects to create a suitably atmospheric and moody cyberpunk vibe. However, it is held back by bland combat, cheap instant-fail stealth segments, and puzzles that vary between overly-simple and frustratingly unintuitive. While the city of Neo-Surabaya is vibrant and intriguing, the action-movie main plot doesn’t leave much space for exploration or immersion. There are some neat ideas in Rendezvous, but fans of adventure games will be left wanting.

Truth is, as a whole, Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle feels like a cheap imitation of Resident Evil’s recent output, which is really sad when you consider that its precursor managed to do its own thing, even if it had flaws of its own. The fact that the franchise managed to take both a step forward AND back at the same time is certainly confusing, and as a follow-up to a title I genuinely enjoyed for its earnestness, it’s disappointing to see a franchise full of potential squander it to become a lesser imitation of what inspired it.

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.

Visually, this is a cosmic horror fan’s fantasy. Nameless creatures and an accursed world are all procedurally generated for a unique experience in each run. The downside is the incredibly disappointing gameplay often layered with grinding, camera and control issues, underwhelming combat, terrible UI, and repetition beyond the norm for a roguelite. Accompanied with a few haunting bugs here and there, Source of Madness is merely a shadow of more enjoyable games.

Neon Blood, on its surface, is a stunning pixelated cyberpunk adventure that boasts an intriguing plot. However, players will unfortunately find that when they spend more time with the game it is riddled with clunky traversal, uninspiring combat and the lack of accessibility features. Though Neon Blood looks like it would be an exciting cyberpunk adventure, the issues make it visually gorgeous but not a super fun experience.

Lost Ruins is a retro-inspired cautionary tale. For every Metroid or Double Dragon back in the day, there were a hundred clones that just did not get it perfectly right. Even 30 years later, developers can’t always figure out the secret sauce or how to make it all work. In some ways Lost Ruins is a proper testament to the classics, they were just so much more nuanced than their visuals let on. This game has some great ideas and a concept that works on paper, and from time to time it works in the game too. But all too often it stumbles when it should have soared.

NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS is quite the disappointment. Presenting as a step back for the series in many ways, there are simply better adaptations to spend your time with. The game comes with a middling story combined with a lack of spectacle that serves as a mediocre attempt at celebrating the IP. Whilst some fun can be had with the stacked roster and it’s easy to jump into, you’ll often be reminded that there are greener pastures elsewhere.

A silky, suave graphic novel art-style and engaging Cyberpunk world can’t save Sunday Gold. With every strength on offer comes some weird design choices or bugs that will ruin your fun at every turn. This game is an experimental risk, blending both the point-and-click genre with turn-based combat, peppering in RPG progression. That mixture shows promise at the start but ultimately ends up being an average net loss. A gamble that’s not worth taking. Don’t place your bets on this one. Go all in elsewhere.

Princess Maker 2 remains an incredible and addicting game, but Regeneration is a disappointing remaster, offering barely any gameplay changes and an inconsistent art style. It misses obvious quality-of-life improvements that Princess Marker 2 sorely needed, leaving us at a loss as to why they bothered to remaster the game at all. Play Princess Maker 2 as it’s a fantastic piece of gaming history, but there’s no need to pay for this particular version.

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.

Destiny 2: Lightfall falls short of expectations, leaving players with unanswered questions and minimal impact on the Light and Dark saga. The introduction of Neomuna and Cloud Striders has little purpose to the overarching plot. However, the powerful Strand toolset is a delightful addition, though it raises concerns about balance with weaker elements. While quality of life improvements are positive, the removal of certain content makes the game challenging for new players. Overall, Lightfall feels rushed, as if it was a flustered effort to fill a gap before the final hurrah.

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.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is an interesting package; despite doing a number of things fairly well such as gameplay tweaks and refreshed visuals it’s hard not to feel a little let down. When you consider all of the possibilities or additional improvements that could have been made, it just feels like Rockstar could have gone further and created some truly memorable remakes or high-quality remasters. All of the games here do look better and play better than the originals, which technically does make these versions the definitive ones, but it feels like a missed opportunity at the end of the day. A few patches will likely take care of some of the more obvious issues, but at this point it is hard to recommend to anyone other than the GTA faithful.

Sifu is a game that could have been something amazing, with its fascinating premise and superbly crafted and fluid combat mechanics and animations. However, the game’s frustrating need to make the gameplay ridiculously hard just left me tired and annoyed. Sloclap really needs to think about how they can make this game more accessible, possibly by including more shortcuts, an adjustable difficulty setting, or just lowering the impact of health lost from fighting your average foe. Hopefully they will bring in some patches that will address these issues, but as it stands, I’d wait before investing time in the world of Sifu.

The Companion presents a compelling premise that just manages to fall short of an engaging experience. While it showcases some beautiful artwork in its visuals and creates a magical atmosphere with its environments and sound design, the actual gameplay becomes repetitive and frustrating over time. Issues with pacing interfere with what could have been a more streamlined walking-sim experience, and arbitrary padding makes the fragmented narrative difficult to appreciate. Those looking for a compelling story might want to wait a few months for some developer updates, while folks keen to lose themselves in a gorgeous fantasy realm might still find joy in The Companion in its current state.

Buildings Have Feelings Too! is an incredibly quaint and gorgeous game that also fills you with absolute rage, which is honestly quite a feat. The confusing connection between whimsy and frustration doesn’t entirely feel like the desired intention of the creators. This game has amazing potential to be a unique and engaging building management simulator but instead falls short, burdened by its own rules and regulations that rival the dullest of body corporate committees. Go in expecting great dialogue, visuals and sound, but be aware, there is little room for management and experimentation here due to the tight constraints and restrictive solutions to the puzzles.

Blightbound is emerging from a year in Steam Early Access, but it might be doing so too early. Lingering issues with visual elements overlapping each other, uneven party balance, repetitive loot with lacklustre stats, and a bare-bones levelling design suggest that this game could do with more fundamental development work before hitting the big stage. With its creative art and engaging voice talent, there is definite potential here for a fantastic dungeon crawler, but the elements have not come together yet.

To The Rescue! delivers a meaningful message about animal welfare in a family-friendly package. An inoffensive tycoon game full of cute dogs and happy moments makes running a dog shelter a cheerful task. Yet, that task becomes painstakingly frustrating with a poor interface, micromanaging dozens of pups with a limited inventory and clumsy controls. It doesn’t help that there are many, many glitches and game-breaking bugs. Little Rock Games might be biting off more than they can chew with To The Rescue!.

Disney Illusion Island may be striving to be a flashy and exciting 2D Metroidvania experience, but its depth remains one-dimensional. It starts at a snail’s pace with its drip-feeding of basic and essential abilities and from there it never really picks up. This is unfortunately thanks to floaty platforming that will disinterest most along with the most uninspired Metroidvania-level design I’ve seen in some time. Though there are classic and picturesque Disney flourishes aplenty, it’s not enough to make the game an enjoyable experience to investigate every nook and cranny for secrets. Be warned, this is an island voyage not all that worth taking.

For game preservation reasons, it’s important that Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is available to play on current-gen hardware. However, this remake does little to address the original title’s core gameplay issues, which have only grown more egregious with time. Its janky controls, lackluster visual updates, and frustratingly repetitive busywork detract from an otherwise charming Halloween adventure. There’s a quirky, silly little game somewhere in here that has unfortunately not been given the attention it needs to be very much fun. Ever the forgotten brother, Luigi isn’t likely to win any fans with this spooky escapade.

Godstrike is, at its crunchy centre, a boss rush game built around a somewhat interesting mechanic that, no matter how flawed, certainly gets the adrenaline pumping. Each of the encounters feels well designed but immovable to the average player. There are only so many times the player can try at an encounter before they feel disheartened at the difficulty. Not feeling like one can sacrifice time for abilities is disappointing too. The game also refuses to acknowledge that not allowing the player any way to recoup lost health disadvantages players unfairly. It’s a game that means well with a new challenge for high-skilled players of twin-stick shooters, but casual players won’t need much time to realise just how tedious learning these controls can be.

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.