Tharsis is a time-waster. Nonetheless it is a time-waster that's thoroughly recommended wasting time on - particularly good for fans of strategy and decision-based titles. The difficulty will occasionally peak unfairly, as chance dice requirements can cripple a play-through, even on the lowest difficulty setting, often, though, and probably intentionally, requiring one to make a lose-lose decision to progress. Dice physics may also seem to be working against the player on re-rolls, though it's a small niggle. Whether it's despite or because of this, Tharsis kept this reviewer coming back for more. It is compelling attempting to make it to week 10 and the planet Mars - with just enough variance and those difficult choices that it doesn't get boring seeing the same story beats over and over. It's probable that this will stay loaded, on console, for return visits for quite some time to come.

The veteran series has sadly been outgunned by newer rivals such as Total War, which breathes greater personality and more engaging gameplay into this time period. This one suffers badly from poor game design choices, and a visually dull style, which will put many potential buyers off. While the scenarios are detailed and historically accurate, sadly there is little in the way of control in the overall gameplay loop. Battles are disappointing and confusing affairs, while the turn-based chore of filling up hexes to conquer areas gets old very quickly. With a raft of DLC already available, when there are some basic features missing on release, it is a hard title to recommend to fans of the genre or time period. The best word to describe this? Lacking.

Truberbrook's handcrafted backdrops are strikingly beautiful, and its delightful to see such craftmanship woven into a video game. When it comes to the rest of the experience, though, there's very little to sing praise about. As a point-and-click adventure, this fails woefully. As a story-driven mystery, it tediously chugs along without offering anything of substance. Die-hard point-and-click gamers might be able to find some signs of life, but for everyone else there's little here to admire beyond the handcrafted environments.

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee adds one more dimension, but throws what made the original a classic out of the window. Not only this doesn't have the beautiful visuals of the PlayStation duology, or its fantastic atmosphere and narrative strength, but it's also far from a fun, cinematic puzzle-platformer - in fact, it's not even a puzzle-platformer, but just a collection of boring tasks sewn together, and masquerading as an adventure.

It is LA Machineguns that makes Gunblade NY & LA Machineguns Arcade Hit Pack worthy of a look.

For the fun gameplay alone, Iron Combat: War in the Air comes highly recommended. The learning curve is not too steep and it's a joy to play. However, it's not without a few flaws, so it is unlikely to appeal to everybody.

Steven Jenkins does have some interesting ideas and he really should continue developing more because High Strangeness does show promise. Perhaps with a bit more careful planning and more focused management, he can deliver a game that satisfies all his narrative goals, since this seems surprisingly rushed.

Minus a couple hiccoughs here and there, ACA NeoGeo: World Heroes Perfect is a flawless, and 100% faithful version of the original arcade effort. However, this cannot change the fact that World Heroes Perfect was, and still is, nothing more than a generic fighter that pales in comparison to the strong competition in the genre, and even compared to SNK's more famous The King of Fighters line. In other words: this is nothing more than a collector's item product.

Polygod definitely holds some potential, but is lacklustre in its current state. The often unstable frame-rate, unwieldy gyro controls, and lack of polish in general, hurts the experience considerably. Its mechanics do feel unique enough to keep experimenting with, and there's plenty of replay value, but there's so much that brings it down. Fans of first-person shooters will likely get some enjoyment out of it, but it's otherwise hard to say that it's worth checking out.

2D games are enjoying a resurgence on Nintendo's home console this generation, and with its unique premise, Drawn to Life could have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them. It's unfortunate, then, that the series' transition to disc has brought about new problems that have, if anything, made the basic platforming ever more apparent, and made it rely even more on the editing tools, which cannot hold the rest of the game up.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash should, quite frankly, not exist. It is an embarrassment with next to no content, absolutely no strategy involved, and feels like a blatant cash grab more than anything.

Nightmare Boy is a fun experience for a few hours, and a lot of the glaring design choices around the gameplay can be overlooked or ignored for the most part. While Billy may feel heavy to control, he does almost always make it to the platforms, while the fighting systems are quite basic, but it allows for the focus to be on the exploration side of things instead. In terms of the aesthetic of the various areas as well, The Vanir Project has done a terrific job in stylising the different sections and making every area feel fresh and new, without getting bogged down with repetitive enemies. While the platforming-based abilities work well, the combat-based abilities leave a lot to be desired, as they lack any flexibility within the combat arena, and even when those abilities are fired off, they do little damage to be worth its while compared to the base attacks. While this can be replayed, there's very little incentive to do so.

Third time's not the charm in the case of Darksiders III, which is a - mostly - mediocre third entry in a line of games that weren't really that great to begin with. The quality of the Switch port doesn't help either, not so much because of its downgraded visuals, but because of its severe frame rate dips, and long load times, something that plagued the original versions as well. At least Fury looks cool…

While there's one more chapter left to play, Episode 4: Burning Bridges puts the final nail in The Council's coffin by bringing along the same mistakes, plus some new ones, and with the quality of the storytelling taking a big, sad plunge.

A fairly enjoyable experience, coupled with an interesting take on the Wii-remote fighter experience.

Nintendo Switch owners looking for their next platforming adventure need not pay this game any attention. Though it is pretty to look at and plays well, it is so forgettable that anything done right is overwhelmingly overshadowed by how unenjoyable and uninspired it is. From its level design, enemy encounters, and platforming sequences, to its lead character, collectables, and soundtrack, there is nothing worthwhile in Stitchy in Tooki Trouble. Just go buy Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

Sadly this DS version of Boogie fails to spark as much interest as the Wii version, partly due to the lack of singing elements and lower quality music, but mainly due to awkward control system that more often than not fails to register your movement properly, as well as the annoyingly random mini-games thrown in.

Overall, it is an impressive free-to-play title with fair micro-transactions that speed up the experience yet are in no way necessary to enjoy the game.

There are more enjoyable mech games made on much older hardware that still hold up, like Gun Hazard or Metal Warriors, which were made with Super Nintendo specs. It does not take much to realise an enjoyable mecha game, just some imagination. Damascus Gear Operation Tokyo, sadly, copies the most trite aspects of Diablo without understanding what the appeal was.

Hell Warders won't even be remembered as the sloppy low-budget experiment that it is. It won't be remembered at all. It is much too rough to meet the standards of average gamers, and not weird enough to be interesting. It certainly is a huge hassle to play for more than four hours, but those first few moments before the balancing gets out of hand are actually enjoyable.

Multiplayer is a really positive experience, and it becomes very easy to sink hours into just exploration and small side quests, with no attention being paid to the main story. Pick up and play is a feeling so rarely found in JRPG titles that it feels like a really positive step towards what should be seen as the new normal. What is baffling, then, is hiding such a great feature, along with all the other main parts of Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris behind 12+ hours of repetitive story. The honest truth is that players with a passing interest aren't going to put the hours in to get past the initial chapter, and in doing so, are going to miss out on an enjoyable experience with a lot to offer for both casual players and hardcore fans. Stick with it.

Warm Lamp Games has delivered an interesting premise. The only way to progress is to dip toes into the murky grey area of the world. Fight against the State too much and Carl himself becomes a target... or he doesn't earn money - money he needs when his son gets in trouble or his daughter gets sick. It seems promising, but it quickly becomes rather dull. Once the basics are understood, they're repeated ad nauseum, and while the story has some interesting elements, the monotony of the gameplay is indefensible. Few will be able to power through enough to see the many endings hidden here.

Ritual: Crown of Horns is an enjoyable twin-stick shooter, with not much variety, but plenty of challenge - something that may or may not annoy some, due to how it's all executed. Moreover, while the occult gets mixed with a Wild West setting in here, in terms of presentation and atmosphere, Draw Distance's creation is underwhelming at best.

Fans of the series will feel at home with the handling model, which recaptures the feel and behaviour of the original in a new modern context with surprising success. It's not a sim-heavy experience, but it is an appropriate challenge that asks more of the player than the average arcade rally affair does. The car list is lacking in terms of modern options, but existing fans will have a soft spot for the classics on offer. It's just a shame that the career mode fails to distinguish itself, and the online multiplayer is sparsely populated. Any future iterations will need to be more inventive, but V-Rally 4 is a surprisingly fun throwback.

Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson is a very competent brawler, with numerous refinements over its predecessor and a lot more content, making it the better game overall, by far.

Super Yum Yum Puzzle Adventures is able to stand proud amongst its DSiWare counterparts in the same genre, offering a seemingly basic colour-matching gameplay mechanic, but proving to actually be a deeply engrossing, highly engaging puzzle-strategy piece of entertainment that all DSi owners should try out.

For short, nostalgic blasts of fun Venture Kid succeeds in almost every respect. While there's fun to be had here, it's painfully clear that, just like playing the game itself, everything is just going through the motions. The excellent soundtrack may even be enough to warrant a dabble, but with nothing new brought to the table, there's no reason to spend your hard earned cash, when the games that this owes so much to its design and creation can be purchased. There are a lot worse than this, sure, but be aware that once completed the first time, multiple revisits are unlikely. Fun? Certainly, but with little variation in gameplay or level design there is not enough for this to stay interesting in the long term. With a little more risk-taking in development, a craving of individuality, and a creative spark, Venture Kid could have gone far.

Wanted: Dead is a great action game, it has flashy visuals, violent combat full of blood and dismemberment, and mostly it has a great interesting if unusual story, carried by interesting characters, external influences and sinister plot. The world is built in a cool, refreshing way and the moment-to-moment gameplay is engaging though sometimes simple. It promises something unique, and it delivers something not only unique but recommendable to fans of futuristic worlds and action games.