Crazy Strike Bowling is a fun little game but with a lack of features and online play, it's hard to recommend.

Match-3 games are dime a dozen, so it’s hard for any of them to really stand out. Boost Beast is another example of that. It’s adorable and cute, but with well over 200 levels, the grind becomes real and tiring with three quarters of the game still to go.

The concept of Panty Party is hilarious, though once you move past making jokes about finally getting your hands on Hatsune Miku's underwear, the humour of the game doesn't exactly sustain itself either.

A brutally generic and uninspired game that's let down mightily by hardware that is simply no good for it. It works, and as a tech demo for a Gears of War clone on 3DS it would even be exciting, but as a product to pay real money for, there's nothing that redeems IronFall as something worth playing.

If you’re within the niche that A Bastard’s Tale is targeting, you’ll find it plenty rewarding. It takes the “fail better” approach to game design and distills it to its very essence, taking the often repetitious process of dying and retrying and turning it into something captivating enough to endure the occasional frustrations that always come with repeated failure. “Just one more try!”

Colin Thiele’s Storm Boy on the Nintendo Switch is a refreshing take on a classic tale, backed by high production values and a keen eye for beauty. Its brief runtime and interactivity could make it a great resource in the classroom as a companion to a study of the book, while parents are also recommended to pick this one up to play alongside their children.

Ciel Fledge could have been more robust... indeed, it really should have been. There's just not enough substance to go with the charming presentation and concept. However, it's still one of those things that's difficult to put down, not least because its gameplay loops and feedback are tight and engaging. Like the daughter you're tasked to manage, there's room for this fledgling series to grow, and plenty of potential if it's managed well.

As a fan of the Muppets, I am disappointed that there wasn't more done with the license in Movie Adventures. It's a perfectly workable game, and does have a sense of humour that anything to do with the Muppets needs, but at the same time, it's nothing more than that and whether you're a child or a nostalgic fan for the Kermet and the gang, you're probably going to left wanting after this.

Syberia 3 feels like a game that was made because everyone involved in the project felt an obligation to make it. It has its moments, and as a fan it’s great to see Sokal’s work reach a proper conclusion, but it’s also difficult to see how this game will find an audience; even among existing fans of Syberia, tastes change over 13 years, and it’s hard to see how this game has done anything to encourage people back for one more spin with Kate Walker.

I'm legitimately upset that I didn't enjoy I Saw Black Clouds more. It seemed to have so much promise. There were glimmers of hope – I really enjoyed the classic ghost story until that was yanked into another direction, one that I still don't think makes a whole lot of sense. Unfortunately, the entire story seems too far-fetched, minus the supernatural aspect of all things. As far as I can tell, there's only one general direction it ever takes in the end, although I remain hopeful for those other endings. The biggest problem with the game is that choices are literally the entirety of gameplay but they don't seem to matter half the time anyway, so the entire thing feels like an exercise in futility. And all that nonsense and non-decisions really dragged it down.

Cocoro is a difficult line defence title that might turn a lot of people away from it because the sheer difficulty doesn't gel with the art style.

Unlike the PC version, which has been on Steam for a few months, there is no online component or a track creator. There’s not a big sense of creativity in the track design or even the game design, it’s all run of the mill kart racer, which is disappointing as the Xbox One has the most limited range of games in this particular genre.

Extinction is a game which just feels bad to play. It’s technically proficient, looks good and has everything it needs to be a functional game, but it never goes beyond that and assumes the player will be engaged just by the act of killing big monsters.

Here’s hoping Wales Interactive are able to keep working on Soul Axiom, because these game-breaking bugs are holding back a game that’s otherwise creative, intriguing, and utterly gorgeous.

A short and fun game that I felt was paced well and can be picked up even when you only have a few minutes to spare before heading out to do something else. This in turn is a good thing because the difficulty spikes in the game In some ways this was a great idea because sometimes having to spend 30-50 minutes on a level to only fail in the last few minutes and then need to restart the level would not be fun.

But in the end, it becomes hard to recommend The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to anyone but the most devout of webhead fans, because it's a game that squanders all that potential.

I wish farm life in Harvest Moon 3D: The Lost Valley was more gratifying because its fundamental ideas are all there. With the franchise essentially split in two going forward, I encourage Natsume to continue its experimental ways, because it's likely that the other guys will churn out the most traditional experiences possible.

It's laudable that, as a tiny indie production, the developer decided to get that right so that the game plays nicely, before worrying about anything else. Sadly, that "anything else" is also what elevates a game. Getting the core mechanics right is expected. Giving players a reason to care and to want to continue playing on is where success comes from and so, while I admire the Aussie spirit in taking on something this ambitious, it really is a game that could have done with a lot more resourcing.

Primal Carnage: Extinction certainly sets itself apart from other online multiplayer shooters out there. With a few different modes and a couple of maps for each mode thrown in, there is some degree of fun to be had in the game. How long that fun lasts though is simply based on how much enjoyment a person can get out of online shooters in general, and just how much patience they have for balancing issues and mechanic design flaws.

Because Arc of Alchemist is such a short JRPG, the more draining elements of it don't end up being exhausting. Because the game moves at such a snappy pace it's easy to focus on and enjoy its strengths - the narrative and characters. Over the last couple of years Idea Factory has really broadened its horizons. Where once it focused almost exclusively on pervy humour, stuff like Arc of Alchemist show a different side of the studio. It's creative, different, and interesting, and respects your time so don't feel like you've made some epic commitment just to play through it. I love it.

The problem is that the game all-but mandates that you buy into the microtransactions, because otherwise progress is so incredibly slow that you’ll get bored well before you get anywhere.

Zenith’s gameplay issues don’t stop it from being a very workable system in a very entertaining genre. If it was devoid of its plot (or, better yet, with a more interesting narrative), I’d actually be arguing that it’s an enjoyable little game. However, the relentlessly juvenile attempts at humour never let up, and I didn’t laugh once. I think that says all that needs to be said about Zenith’s fundamental issues.

I’m going to hazard a guess and say that the potential audience for Sacred 2 Remaster is very small. It’s a very simple, grindy, button-masher action RPG with a totally irrelevant plot. If you’re going to play and enjoy this, it’s because you get hooked on that simple, basic gameplay loop. And if you do… well, welcome to dozens upon dozens of hours of it. If you’ve never played Sacred 2 before, but enjoy Diablo-likes or Eurojank like Risen, Gothic or ELEX, then there’s every chance you’ll find this one amusing (and in the right way).

Soulblight is a largely disappointing experience. Hopefully My Next Games can take what works here (namely the morality-based systems) and apply it to a future effort, but this current action game isn’t enjoyable in the slightest. It doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and isn’t polished enough to stand besides the better offerings already available.

Being so critical of indie games never makes me feel good. There's just no hiding when you're an indie - games like Make War are crafted by a tiny team of developers and it's always deeply personal to everyone involved. And yet, when you think about all the masterful, creative, deeply artistic indie games that have been crafted by equally small numbers of people - Papers, Please, Tokyo Dark, Untitled Goose Game, Mini Metro, Undertale, and so many more - it's so hard to resolve Make War. There's the genesis of a good idea in there, but the execution is so far beyond uninspired that there's simply nothing that can redeem it.

It's simple enough for people of all ages to enjoy, and, as I've already mentioned a couple of times through the review, it's utterly adorable.

All the levels have the same basic objectives; kill all the goons, destroy all the drugs, and repeat. In later levels the game will add hostages who will get in your way. Killing hostages will understandably lower your score, but have very little value to add to the experience beyond that.

Sadly, Busby: The Woolies Strike Back barely meets the quality standards and expectations of the genre in its infancy, let alone all these years later.