Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch is a fun homage to the world of Kevin Smith. Packed with jokes that capture the spirit of the stoner duo, it blends elements of the View Askewniverse into an enjoyable beat ’em up. With its surprisingly deep combat, the game keeps you engaged throughout its short runtime. Even though bugs and the conventional level design prevent it from feeling essential, fans of Smith will still find plenty to love.

Astro Bears is incredibly easy to learn, play, and provides a good amount of challenge depending on who you are playing against and how you work together (or against each other). The best part is that even though the levels are nothing too special because you are playing with other people, no two rounds will ever be the same. While most of its elements feel repetitive and lacks adventure, Astro Bears is really just a no-frills, fun family game. It is nothing spectacular nor extraordinary, but its playful colors and the atmosphere it creates in the room shows it is capable of bringing joy to those who play it.

Without my suffering-tinted lenses, Ghostrunner is a fast-paced, tough-ass platformer. Every stage is a non-stop barrage of fresh new challenges. Death is around every corner if you ever stop moving. You’ll experience crushing defeat in a host of different ways, but your victories will be all the sweeter. You can choose your path to victory, with multiple routes available through some of the larger stages. On the aesthetic side of things, more or less every stage is drenched in cyberpunk minutiae. The neon, the grime, and the violence lend an electric urgency to your already death-defying exploits. My only warning is this: know what you’re in for first. First-person action platform games aren’t for everyone. Of course, I had to play one to discover this, so who knows! Maybe a new favorite subgenre is waiting in the wings.

Overall, The Bridge gets by well on its unique influence, style and on its difficulty. It’s a perspective bender that will leave your brain hurting and really challenges you in the puzzle solving genre.

Conarium does a fantastic job on the atmosphere and giving players those fearful moments of panic where you are holding your breath at every turn. The gameplay; however, is somewhat unchallenging and puzzles are few and far between. While the story and plot are good, Conarium is quite short. This being said, those who love anything inspired by Lovecraft and his creatures should surely enjoy this title.

Like the visuals and the sound, my recommendation for PUSS! is a complex, chaotic beast. On the one hand, it’s a beautiful, brilliant game. I haven’t heard a game soundtrack this unique in literal years. The visuals will haunt your dreams for days after you’re done with this game. And yet, the challenge is either insurmountable or woefully insufficient. After a moment of weakness, I decided to look up some let’s plays on YouTube. It turns out I’m just not good at maze games? A man hands as shaky as these should have seen this coming, but still. My evaluation of the difficulty is tied to my skills in the genre overall. To that end, if you’re a maze gamer? This will be an absolute blast. Conversely, if you’ve got no patience for high precision movement and constant dodging, PUSS! might be a pretty bad time. Either way, you’re unlikely to see a game quite like this for a very long time.

Needless to say, the co-op mode is incredibly fun to play.

Pathologic Classic HD is certainly an improvement on what was already an instant classic, but players shouldn’t expect a hugely different experience from the 2005 version, and the flaws from back then have become even more obvious with age. That being said, it’s perfect for people who’ve never played the original, or who just can’t wait for the remake.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China takes a bold new step for the franchise. While I did have fun, I spent most of the game frustrated by buggy controls and A.I. that seemed to forget what its limitations were.

Star Overdrive is a gorgeous and ambitious indie third-person adventure game. It has lofty dreams of being Breath of the Wild with SSX-style hoverboard traversal. The exploration and board riding feel great. I loved the gameplay loop of travelling to new areas and gaining powers from dungeons. But the combat is way too simple, and obviously masked by a way too forgiving difficulty. A lot of the RPG mechanics are light and work well, but the hoverboard crafting system is an unexpected, overly complicated mess. There are a lot of interesting ideas in Star Overdrive. Even though they’re not all well-executed, I urge anyone curious to give it a try.

I liked the look of Winter Ember and its dark Victorian vibe, which meshed well with its revenge narrative and story. There’s more to a game than atmosphere, though, and that’s where Winter Ember is a mixed success. The levels are filled with confusing repetition and uncertain goals. Stealth and close-up combat aren’t equally viable, despite upgrades to both. As a result, Arthur never quite becomes the all-around badass protagonist you want him to be, and the game’s elements never fully come together. That said, stealth action fans should find something to enjoy about the game.

Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered is awesome in so many ways, but it’s annoying in a lot of ways too. With the steep learning curve at the beginning, I can’t imagine anyone enjoying it who’s not a JRPG veteran. But for those of us that love the genre, there are some cool experiments to shake things up, and a massive world to explore with multiple protagonists. It’s a ton of content; easily over 100 hours’ worth. Anyone curious about the roots of modern JRPGs like Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default should really give it a try.

Overall, Battlefield Waltz is a pretty good time. Don’t expect something revolutionary, but do expect some fun romance. And the visuals are very nice.

The Charnel House Trilogy sets up an intriguing mystery but doesn’t quite complete it. While some issues hold the game back somewhat, there is no question this was an enjoyable five to six hour diversion akin to reading a good story.

Its story is certainly not bad – it is just that it is very safe, and doesn’t take any risks – and it misses a real opportunity to be great.

Like so much of the Warhammer 40K universe, Necromunda is a richly imagined world filled with the potential for conflict and storytelling. Using it as the setting for an action-filled shooter makes total sense. Although its mechanics are essentially a greatest-hits collection of ideas from other shooters, Necromunda: Hired Gun is a competent introduction to this particular slice of the Warhammer 40K-verse. At some point, however, repetition and fatigue with the one-note approach to pacing and the relentlessly hopeless nature of the world set in. You begin to desperately hope for some humanity, emotional depth, humor, or variety…which I guess ultimately is the plight of the Underhive’s residents. It just shouldn’t be that of the gamer.

I think that if you translated Lost in Random's dark narrative and engagingly strange visual style into a stop-motion animated style film, it would be a powerful exploration of a harrowing and at times poignant journey through an upside down world ruled by disorder. There's a lot of that in the game, too, but it's made less effective by tepid mechanics and tedious, unrewarding combat. The story and setting are absolutely worth experiencing, but there's probably a chance you'll be as disappointed by the gameplay as you are enchanted by the tale.

Underneath the catchy soundtrack and neon art style is a game that is made for the hardcore gamer, but it’s also very accessible for a newcomer. The pick-up-and-play control scheme is simple and intuitive but it’ll also take patience and some luck to overcome the high difficulty.

The Bozak Horde is a fine endeavour by Techland. Not going with the safe, bonus missions DLC again, they decided to branch out and give you a whole different way to experience Dying Light. Unfortunately, a new way to play isn’t always enough. The lack of storyline to it left me wanting more and the timed trials eventually became more of a ‘how well did I memorize each level’ instead of how skilled I was with a machete while performing intricate parkour.

Metal Slug Tactics injects fresh energy into the tactics genre with its dynamic, fast-paced systems. While the game introduces a range of compelling mechanics, their lack of clear explanations can hinder your strategic choices during missions. However, the thrill of initiating sync attacks encourages a more aggressive playstyle, making battles feel exhilarating. Leikir Studio has successfully reimagined a classic franchise for a new genre, and despite some issues with system clarity, the addictive gameplay loop offers a fun and innovative twist on tactical strategy.

There’s a good formula hiding somewhere in Agents of Mayhem, I just don’t think the solution was ever found. Perhaps in time with some improvements, my mind will change, but right now I don’t know if I’ll enlist with the Agents of Mayhem again.

The story is a bit dull, featuring a “mysterious Pokemon” that really isn’t that mysterious, even to casual fans like myself.

Castle of Illusion is a beautiful game in imagery and sound yet we are left with some control issues that need some fine tuning and maybe a couple more options to make it a tad more robust. All in all Castle of Illusion is a solid game that Disney fans and those who might be looking for their next platforming fix will enjoy.

There’s no way this will ever be a mainstream fighting game, but it’s still a blast to play.

Layers of Fear: Legacy has some flaws, but the central experience – exploring an ever-changing mansion as you descend into madness – is solid and exciting. If you don’t mind a few cheap scares, there’s a good horror game here.

While nearly all aspects of the game shine, it’s the collective story that is supposed to bring the cases together that is lacking.

While Mother Russia Bleeds is a competent brawler with a nice variety of punishment to extoll, it clings a little too tightly to old school mechanics and ideas about gameplay and narrative. The slick presentation is nice to look at, though, so you could do much worse for an afternoon on the couch with your buddies.

It takes a long time to do anything in Portal Knights. And when doing things begin to land on the side of tedium rather than fun, it becomes quite difficult to see the silver lining. That being said, Portal Knights surely isn’t bad. It’s just the type of game that appeals to its niche audience; in this case a younger crowd itching for some minecrafty sandbox fun. There’s definitely some to be had, you just might have to do a bit of digging.