Left Alive is a bundle of genuinely brilliant ideas, let down by frequently shoddy execution. A resoundingly anti-war war game, with a deep understanding of the way that war complicates personal and societal morality, Left Alive asks all the right questions that a game about war should. It also does a great job of making that sense of survival as desperate as it should. If only there was the technical competence behind it, to support those great ideas.

Crystal Rift possesses all the potential in the world, and I certainly hope the game performs well enough that the development team is able to go back to the drawing board and come up with a more comprehensive and nuanced structure for another crack at the VR dungeon crawler.

I love that games like Fluster Cluck are leading the charge of local, social, multiplayer, and I hope it continues indefinitely. Being able to experience actual living room mayhem again as you did back in the day when friends would come over for epic SNES and N64 sessions is still a blast 15 years later.

I’d like to see another Fight of Gods, with improved development competence, but is still happy to be an absurd, irreverent bit of fun. We need those games too, else what would we have to play by the time we got to the second bottle of wine?

There are some great ideas at the core of this though, and it would have been nice to see how they shaped up with a bit more direction and some extra time in the oven.

It's a B-grade Dead Space clone that follows the "rules" of horror without actually understanding any of them. Sure, it's a good thing that developers want to continue that "horror in space" tradition of Dead Space, but this team simply wasn't up to the task. On any level.

I genuinely love Balan Wonderworld because it caught me at just the right moment to indulge its whimsy. I don't for a second think it's a great game or platformer, but then I also just don't care. It offers something much more viscerally engaging; raw creative energy, and I would rather a hundred games fall flat like this one has and at least give me something different than play yet another highly refined copy of something I've already played a hundred times. Sometimes, just sometimes, raw creativity is enough in itself.

That being said though, this is not a fantastic game by any account and while there’s a little fun to be had in a frantic online match, there are much better ways to get your competitive shooter fix.

It isn’t what I was expecting, and initially it was confounding, but the more time I spent with it, the more I came to love it for its grungy underground spirit.

Eternity is a misfire. It's such a pity to see a project that had such good intentions fall to the wayside, but it's hard to share the feeling that for a new developer, making its first game, Eternity is an overreach in just about every way. I'm sure we'll see something much more refined and mature next time around.

With all of that said, like I said at the start of the review, this is the Plan 9 From Outer Space of video games, and taken in that context, it's still a weirdly good time, and may well end up earning itself a similar cult classic status for it.

The fact that this is a terrible port on the Nintendo Switch only makes things worse. All I can hope for at this point is to have a developer show up with a vision, a way to turn the WWE series around and begin from scratch. Perhaps next year. The Nintendo Switch would be a perfect platform to start from scratch and create something truly magical that does the art of pro-wrestling the justice it deserves.

But, again, I found the soul of Langrisser to be well and truly in the right place, and while I don’t believe it is a classic game, I also don’t believe for a moment that it deserves the commentary it has been getting to date.

The game has an intriguing premise and I want to believe the developers had some intelligent ideas behind what they're doing, but between the painfully shallow strategy, the laboured (via translation) writing, the mundane, uninspired presentation and the shonky interface and UX, there was nowhere left for me to go to find something I admired about this game. For story-driven roguelike strategy, I highly recommend Thea: The Awakening (also available on Switch). Mittelborg is a different game to it, but the energy and intent does cross over between the two. It's just that Thea is also made exceptionally well, and this is not.

It's never fun to play a game that's so fundamentally uninteresting that you really struggle to even watch the screen as you're playing.

The gameplay gets quite repetitive after a while as there isn’t much change from one level to the next especially after the first ten to fifteen levels of each campaign. Frankly, Warhammer does deserve more rounded games than this.

What makes Gollum stand out is that most other developers and publishers then use their creative teams to try and hide the crass cynicism and capitalism. Daedalic didn’t bother with Gollum. This game represents the games industry with its mask off.

Taken as a simple and cheap "solitaire" (i.e single player) game, Poisoft Thud Card is enjoyable, easy playing. I do say that as someone who spent many, many hours playing Hearts on my old Windows PCs over the years, though. I like time wasting card games. As such I'll probably keep coming back to Thud Card as long as I have my Switch. Or, at least, until a developer releases a Hearts game on the console.

Weeping Doll had a lot of potential, and it’s genuinely disappointing that it wasn’t able to follow through with it. This one you can’t chalk up as developer teething pains with VR; this game would be every bit as flawed, regardless of the platform it was on.

Overall Zombeer has the potential to be much much better if the mechanics can be fine tweaked in a patch to make things smoother. The lack of story in a first person shooter isn’t the end of the world, zombie apocalypse or not, but how well you can move through the apocalypse could well be.

Give me a quality plot, or an interesting setting, or something to impress me enough to work through its weaker elements. Magus doesn't offer any stand out feature, which makes it difficult to get too excited over.

It’s an insult in existing at all. I'd rather castrated myself with a rusted spoon than think about this game any longer.

While Carbon Fire Studio has demonstrated it has real talent behind it in its first game, I find it to be a lot of effort wasted because I can't look past the fact that this game costs money.

Tiny Racer is a bad game. Its premise is a fairly uninspired circuit racer, its physics system is constantly failing and its design choices seem to suggest the developers knew the physics system doesn’t properly work, and yet leaned into it. It does have multiplayer, so if your friend group goes out of their way to play janky games, this could be worth a laugh over a beer or keg. But it’s not memorably bad, rarely does your car glitch so spectacularly that it creates a response. Most of the time, you’ll be placated, maybe interested in the bold course design, but also hoping to play some better racing game instead.

It's not without its issues, but these are the kinds of experiences that really stick in the mind, and I'd rather that that yet another stock-standard action game that neatly fits within structures that we've already seen dozens of times before.

Sadly, I can't imagine a single scenario that I would actually want to play Awkward with anyone. None of the questions I came across are either things I want to learn about a friend in a party setting, or they're things I already know and, whether I agree with them or not, I just don't find the subject matter amusing.

Good intent doesn't cover for a game this poor though. I would love to see the developers learn from this one and come back with something more, because there is a lot to admire about Decay of Logos. Enough so that I don't think I've ever felt quite as deflated having to give a game a score like this.

Even if Bloober Team manages to fix every single issue in the game, it's still a conceptual mess that just doesn't work.

Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle is not broken. But it lacks even the slightest hint of creativity or effort within it. To say corners were cut to quickly cash in on the license is an understatement, and by extension this is nothing short of sheer exploitation. That's offensive.

It saddens me to say that even though Afro Samurai 2 had potential, it felt rushed and may be one of the worst games I have played this year. It's poor enough that even die hard Afro Samurai fans should stay away from this mess of a game.

Rugby 15 squanders an opportunity to build on the popularity of a sport that is slowly gaining ground in the US, and won't be pulling anyone away from their annual Madden games.

Steel Rivals is irredeemably flawed and should never have been made. I try to find the good in games, even when they are bad – if a game doesn’t work, I like to think that perhaps the concept is sound but poorly executed, or perhaps the development team is young but shows signs of promise. But Steel Rivals has none of that.

Most damning, however, is that there’s nothing that actually saves Orc Slayer. There’s no real attempt to even do something interesting, different, or creative. This is a game that actively sets out to be a generic FPS with a medieval humans-vs-orcs theme. It doesn’t even try to be a good one. The developers know, surely, that the game isn’t remotely competitive with the better examples of the genre – even in the indie FPS space. That they clearly didn’t care enough about the player to try and do something even slightly different is an absolute insult, and the fact it can’t even get the basics of the genre down means that it deserves no respect from anyone.

I have famously low demands when it comes to fan service games. I genuinely enjoyed Hentai Vs. Evil, and that is a game that you have to have an enormous tolerance for fan service to find entertaining on any level. I know who I am and I roll with it. But Waifu Impact is just beyond terrible. A beachy homage to Genshin Impact with bikinis and water pistol fights could have been a lot of fun. This, however plays more like a very first prototype of that excellent idea that someone actually dropped on to the Switch store about three years too early into development.

What is especially impressive about the game though is its love for side distractions.

The story takes far too long to start making sense and as enjoyable as the gameplay is, the game isn't as fun as it should be because, for a good while, nothing makes sense.

It's a competent chain reaction game backed by lacklustre design and writing. The excessive violence might turn off some and the lack of challenge will turn off others, but for people looking nothing more than cheap fun can do worse than OMG Zombies!.

Aside from the shoddy visual style that is actively counterproductive, Bloody Trapland does a decent job of offering challenging level design in a manner that is less cynical than most.

While I won't expect it to be a Mario Kart killer, I do still have hope that those console versions of the game, at least, fix the technical flaws and are free of hostile microtransactions. If they can do that then I'd have no problem recommending this to Kitty and My Melody fans.

As a purely single-player experience, Art Of War compares poorly to those games with robust multiplayer features, such as Ticket to Ride or Agricola. It looks the part of a premium board game on the App store, however, so if the idea of a more complex version of Risk appeals to you, you can't really go wrong here.

The game is ultimately over far too quickly for its own good, but that's the sign of a truly entertaining game; I simply wanted more. I really can't see anyone not enjoying this, regardless of your tastes as a gamer.

For something that looks like a college project that aspiring game developers pulled together to hook its claws into you, you really do need to give it a solid couple of hour's play first. Screenshots just don't do this one justice.

It's one of the most compelling stories to come from a videogame in years.

Pure Chess on 3DS boasts a decent presentation and plays far more competently than many other video game adaptations, but I suspect this port may be the poorest version yet of an immaculate experience.

Between the permadeath aspect, the random floor layouts of the dungeon and the smooth gameplay with retro style graphics, Quest of Dungeons is a blast to repeatedly play through.

3 Stars of Destiny is a perfect example of what of a classic styled RPG should be like in this day and age as well as exactly what can be achieved with something like RPG Maker when in the hands of talent.

Though Dire Grove achieves its goal of offering a hidden object game mixed with the point and click adventure genre, it fails on almost every level; it's unattractive, inconsistent, and technically flawed. For a genre as simple as this, such flaws are unforgivable.

I'm surprised Konami hasn't taken the opportunity to develop a free-to-play Yu-Gi-Oh! game, given how well suited the free-to-play model is for the genre, but as a very old-school approach to digital CCG, this is a decent effort that will appease Yu-Gi-Oh fans, and perhaps even convert one or two new ones.

These kinds of traditional luck-based board games have a mixed audience. Honestly I would prefer a bit more strategy in mine, but I have enough fond memories of Battleships with my friends as a kid to give Sea Battle a bit of nostalgic credit, but beyond it is a difficult game to recommend to most people.

Agarest Generations of War Zero is a solid title for those who seek that niche, otaku brand of charm and fans of retro-style grinding. It's a relatively new genre for PC gamers, but it's one well worth getting on board with.

After the previous successes that Aldorlea has had with the Steam release of both 3 Stars of Destiny and The Book of Legends, I hope to continue seeing the team release its catalogue on the platform. These are games that deserve to be experienced, and without being on Steam it's far too easy for them to be lost on the sea of the Internet. Even with all the little issues I had with Millennium: A New Hope, I do hope to see the next chapters re-released in this manner to see the story through to completion.

Rube Works is a well made and well thought out game. It's go a strong, entertaining art style, and it aims to be more than a simple time waster. Apparently it’s also been released on iOS and Android, and I can't see this game failing on those platforms either thanks to its clear, simple interface and point-and-click play style.

It’s maddeningly difficult and lots of fun, and there's not much else I can say about it.

I would have preferred to play this on my iPad, where the portability and form factor makes it more ideal for long stretches of reading text, but nonetheless this is a refreshing, intelligent, and rich experience on the PlayStation 3, and I couldn't recommend it enough to anyone who appreciates games as something more than brainless action skill testers.

In this day and age, it's actually quite refreshing to see a game like Peggle 2 being released. As much as I am a fan of open-worlds and thrilling narratives, Peggle 2 offers a bright cheerful alternative to most of the games on the market today. You just have to be willing to give it a chance.

Candy Match 3 truly offends me. It's a nasty, exploitative game that contributes nothing to this industry beyond taking money from consumers that could have gone to a game that deserved the support.

Supreme Ruler 1936 gets all the basics right. It has engaging combat, a robust economic model and plenty of entertaining gameplay. Newcomers will find that there’s challenge enough in just getting on with the war, while old hands will enjoy managing the game’s many microsystems in a time of global conflict. It’s the ideal entry point for the series, and a solid, rewarding game for strategists who aren’t afraid of a challenge.

This is a big download to have sitting on the iPad, but it's well worthwhile, both in terms of sheer quantity, as well as the quality of the game's mechanics.

The difficulty creates some unnecessary grinding, and finding materials to craft some spells is a pain, but short of these two aspects Sweet Lily Dreams is a well worthwhile adventure.

It’s worth delving into the multiplayer, since after a multiplayer game you will win experience that will level you up and allow you to buy even more things from the shop.

As a time waster good for short bursts of play between more meatier games, EPOCH does a great job.

Concave have made a game which, while it isn't broken by any means, just barely meets the tenets of its genre and rarely aims to go past that. In being no-nonsense, Pulstar also throws away its sense of individuality and its lasting appeal, making it a hard sell unless more content is added in the future.

Fantasy Grounds isn't a game in and of itself. But it's almost certainly going to end up being my most valued piece of Steam software.

I floated through the campaigns without ever feeling too taxed. An online multiplayer mode would have helped mitigate this by allowing people to pit wits against other armchair generals, but alas Panzer Tactics is one of the rare strategy games that forgot the importance of online multiplayer.

I think you'll be surprised with just how addictive this very simple, but weirdly addictive game can be.

If you are a fan of Peggle 2, the couple of bucks you would be putting down on this DLC is probably well worth it, but I cannot help but get the feeling than PopCap's efforts would have been better served in creating an original news character.

Frontline: Road to Moscow won’t win any prizes for originality, and it’s not quite in the same league as genre heavyweights such as Battle Academy or Unity of Command.

As a game Contrast works, but has a few flaws. As a creative narrative, Contrast succeeds on almost every front.

Xblaze didn't have the same emotional impact on me as games like Hakuōki have, and I wasn't as invested in the narrative as I was with Danganronpa, but anyone who has played a BlazBlue game knows that the writers behind the series are quality, and confident enough in their craft to put more energy into the plot than most fighting games get. As an extension of that confidence, Xblaze is a worthwhile experience indeed.

End of Serenity is proficient as an homage to the genre’s earlier days, even if it lacks standout qualities and often feels like it’s going through the motions.

A puzzle game that will frustrate you with its inconsistencies. You will scream toward the vaulted ceiling after your little rescue bot perpetually explodes as though any pressure to his feet triggers his self-destruct sequence. But you will also rejoice every time you defeat a puzzle with your patience and brilliance, and that makes what frustrations there can be definitely worth the effort.

The thing is, there's an enjoyable little game here. Strip the gimmicks, and you have a fun little paid title that could be beaten from start to finish in a few short hours. But instead, repetition drags down the lasting fun-factor and the comical satirical narrative of the game ends up self-refuting itself.

Even if the game ran at a slick 60 frames per second, or whatever number is meant to be standard these days, Skeleton Rider would still be a mess of a game.

Fearless Fantasy tried something different and it more than worked well. It's a great satire of the whole JRPG genre, while also managing to be a big creative and throw some of its own ideas into the ring.

Having played some incredible indie JRPGs already this year, Alpha Kimori takes the lead by perhaps being my number one. While part 1 may be a bit short, it more than makes up for it with its well written story and believable characters.

This is the kind of game you want to have on your iPad. It's perfect for sitting down at the pub with on a lazy afternoon and plowing through a few in-game months of strategy while chugging through a beer or ten. It gets even better if you can also jump online and patch strategic wits with another human armchair general.

Few games are this intelligent, and even fewer hold the player in such high intellectual regard. Plus it's fun, and nearly impossible to put down.

Hunt the Grey Wolf gives fans of the game a reason to don their rifle one more time so they can try to hunt down one of history's most notorious figures. It is a decent, if unspectacular diversion worth playing if you are a fan of the core game.

Granted, the worst of Zen Studios pinball tables is better than almost anything similar pinball games have managed, but there are better offerings for Pinball FX 2 than Guardians of the Galaxy as well.

Overall Gravity Badgers is worth the time and thankfully the levels that cause the most frustration can be overlooked and forgotten thanks to the exceptional boss battles.

Really this is an expansion pack, and it's going to cost you almost as much as a new game, so if you are a veteran of Diablo 3, be aware of that.

If the developer spent more time with this game, it could have been something great but it feels rushed.

If you're a fan of old-school Wizardry, and don't mind delving into the B-grade of the genre, then like me you'll get a kick out of this even as you grumble about its faults.

While there is some action to be had here, do not play Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut looking to score perfect headshots or cheap scares. The pace is slower and as a result the sense of horror is more palpable, memorable experience.

Prophour23 is clearly not a game built for the mass market - it's for the gaming equivalent of mad scientists, treasure seekers and cult-genre lovers.

Taking a mobile free-to-play game like this and copying it wholesale to the console was a ridiculous error in judgement by the developer. Someone in the team should really have understood better the difference in what works for console compared to mobile, and understood that this kind of game just won't sit well with the kinds of people that like playing console games.

A charming, entertaining, and effectively endless game offers the same kind of value and quality that has made Puzzle & Dragons such a highlight of the mobile and free-to-play markets. This is certainly my favourite mobile game of the year.

Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One - Zero Sum is ridiculous, but a lot of fun. I have not laughed this much at a video game in a long time, but the over-the-top situations and incredibly likable voice cast help to sell what seemed like an odd couple into what could very well turn out to be the perfect marriage.

Technical competence aside, Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom should not have been a full-retail title. The game is far too short. It's over in around 10 hours, and isn't the most difficult 10 hours you'll ever experience.

When you start to feel like luck is determining the result of a game it's difficult to really enjoy what you're playing.

An example of what happens when a developer takes Minecraft and clones it in such a manner that is loses everything that made it something special in the first place.

Overall, it's a decent trilogy for the price, but length of play time is rather short once you've memorised the patterns and can overcome each game's arcade-style tricks and traps.

Between the mix of visual styles, characters, story, and the enjoyable exploration and combat, Alphadia is an RPG worth the visit, and I can only hope that Kemco brings more of its catalogue to the PC in the future.

At times, Survivalist feels more like work than a game, as Joe scrambles for supplies with no real sense of progression. If you're in the camp which feels that a good survival game needs to feel like work at times, Survivalist is a good choice for its price.

King Oddball should appeal to players who are looking for that next Angry Birds fix. The presentation and length are quite threadbare, but the physics engine and addictive qualities hold up well enough to make it worth a go.

If you've got the patience for a game that does absolutely nothing to encourage you to play it, then Chivalry's combat is nuanced enough to keep you interested for a while. But on the PlayStation 3 this looks and behaves very much like a budget game released on the console in its dying throes.

I really wanted to enjoy Legend of Candlewind, but there were just too many things done wrong compared to most other recent entries into this genre. It is sad because the experience could have been so much more because it does have some interesting ideas behind it.

With a running length of several dozen hours (and that's if you're rushing), Agarest: Generations of War 2 is one of the biggest, most ambitious JRPG's on the market. Despite being held back by a poor opening sequence, Compile Heart has created an epic, sprawling world for players to sink months of their time into.