This carefully crafted feel extends to the player as well; there’s a definite feeling of weightiness to your actions, and consequences will rear their ugly heads should you make rash decisions.

Forged of Blood is ambitious well beyond its means, and it has so many systems at play at once that there are moments where, mechanically, they fall down. Thematically, however, it’s a gorgeous blend of complementary fantasy genres and approaches, and it's done differently. We need to see more original and different games being made, and it’s great to see something of this vision and presentation coming out of emerging game development nations like Indonesia.

An interesting title that almost looks like an old-school point-and-click adventure game, but its mix of platforming and exploration make for a deeper if flawed experience. It is unfortunate that the controls and some of the more vague environmental puzzles are not more refined, because they hold back what otherwise is still a memorable game. Even with those blemishes, the way the world is woven together and the interesting premise are more than enough reason to spend some time exploring.

Wrack is fairly similar to the games many of us have played at some point or another, albeit with a cel-shaded art style and a tweaked combat system thrown in for good measure.

I would define this game as a nice game that was very well cooked and served. No, it wasn’t one of those rare breed that practically forced me to sit and play. Mystralia's is a more down to earth experience, gaining most of its credit through its adorably vivid presentation. It also does very well in the puzzle department.

The Gap is in an intriguing and compelling idea. Unfortunately, it’s underdeveloped, and structured in a way that undermines something critical for any psychological thriller: if you’re not connected to an invested in the characters, then you’re not going to care about what they’re going through enough for it to chill you. The Gap also comes across as something that is badly trying to be analysed in intellectual terms, but fails to land on a distinctive theme that it can call its own. It’s great to see projects like this, from a games-as-art perspective, but it’s not one of the finest examples of that, either.

There's fun to be had in Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, but it's a dialed-in action shooter game, which is a mistake since there was never a chance that this game would compete with the big budget games in the genre, such as Destiny, Call of Duty, or Titanfall.

I hope Rideon continues to produce Mercenaries titles. They’re genuinely entertaining as “no-frills” examples of the tactics JRPG genre. However, the Switch has so many of them now. Recent years have brought us the incredible remake of Tactics Ogre, the stunning Triangle Strategy, and earlier this year we got, arguably, the finest Fire Emblem to date. I don’t expect Rideon to get to that standard, and I think there’s plenty of room for a “no frills” and inexpensive little experience in between the big guns, but I would still like to see the series continue to evolve, rather than simply find ways to continue to repackage the existing assets.

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

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.

While Earth Defense Force 2 offers a lot of repetition over the course of its missions, it’s a fun distraction for fans of bad science fiction that want to indulge in a bit of wanton destruction. While it may not offer depths of narrative or even the real semblance of one, the gameplay more than speaks for itself, and it’s quite easy to see why this series has managed to develop the core fanbase that it has over the years.

I genuinely enjoyed this game. It's no Bloodstained, but it plays really nicely, and offers up the kind of B-tier delights that we just don't see much of any more.

There’s not much else I can say about St. Dinfna Hotel. If you’ve played horror games then you know what you’ll be getting from this one. If you haven’t played many horror games in the past then the clumsiness of the combat, and the lack of assistance through the puzzles, makes this a poor entry point to the genre. Indeed, if you’re not familiar with the classic horror titles St. Dinfna is in homage to, the entire experience is almost pointless. I do think the developers have talent and passion for the genre, and I hope that this is successful so they can get a second run at it. If they do, all they need is to have their own voice and the confidence to add to the genre, rather than parrot it, and I do think they have it within them to create something special.

A very competent, but ultimately unremarkable game.

I do think that the game is one or two elements and patches away from being a truly enjoyable party experience, so while I’m putting it aside for now, hopefully this will be one worth coming back to.

It's rough around the edges, but it's an intense and even emotional experience, and still one of the better examples of a zombie survival game.

Given that this is a port to a console, and the Switch has consistent hardware specs across the board, it’s clear the game’s stability wasn’t re-examined prior to its Switch debut. No cheeky philosophical quip is going to make that look anything short of lazy.

It sets out to offer a nostalgic JRPG experience, and it achieves that. It might lack the style and substance of a truly good game, but I can think of worse ways for JRPG veterans to eat away a lazy Sunday or two than this.

The visuals and music deliver as always and it is great to see some more times spent on actually developing the story and fleshing out our three protagonists. However, in giving the heroes a better story, they somehow have even less to do in the game. Perhaps more frustratingly, the story is short and incomplete, making the game feel rushed or like the development team has unannounced DLC planned for down the road.

Silk is a noble idea, presented nicely, and once you get the hang of it, the sheer scale of the game, as well as its exotic themes, make it a wonderful blend of history and adventure. As with many ambitious indie games, however, its ambitions clearly outweighed the capabilities of the team. While this may well be one of the largest environments ever created, and it's a rare example of a game that does that for a reason other than just providing content to players for the sake of content, a lack of refinement and context to the exploration leaves Silk feeling like a far lesser experience than its ambition deserves.

The historical setting, the devotion to detail and colourful artstyle are sure to draw its share of fans, and the gameplay is also a perfectly functional modern reimagining of 80’s era beat-em-ups. It is my dream that there forms a devoted fanbase who appreciate both of those things, but for now this is a game divided between two aims.

There are 80 tracks to painstakingly unlock in I*CHU, and by the time you have them all, you’ll also have a team of pretty boys who are powerful enough to make hard mode for these tracks playable. At that point, it’s finally a full-scale rhythm game, and indeed more generous with the content than many of the others on the Switch. Unfortunately, it really needed to be redesigned to remove all the mobile game elements from it and leave players with a simple, straightforward, but enjoyable rhythm game. That core heartbeat of I*CHU is a lot of fun and very worthwhile, but it’s let down by an annoying gacha system being kept over from the mobile original (despite no longer costing players anything) and an infuriating series of visual novel “minis” that you need to spend hours in to unlock all the music.

For all my disappointments with what LUNA The Shadow Dust could have been, there was a fair share of impressive moments that kept me going. I did want to see what each next puzzle would look and play like, and the mysterious tone did keep me wondering if there was going to be a big payoff at the end. I think that with a proper story, perhaps with some dialogue or written text, LUNA could have been a far stronger game. It feels like the puzzles are the lengthening elements to what could have been an epic narrative. But as it is, LUNA The Shadow Dust is very pretty, plays well, but unfortunately doesn’t do anything meaningful with its high production values.

Minutes is a simple, minimalist, but high-action arcade game. It's an impressive, creative and enjoyable indie game, though it lacks the brilliant high thinking and narrative that went into like-minded arthouse games like Hohokum and Entwined.

Technical issues and a lack of training to ease in newer players conspire to hold the title back from being as good of a game as it should be.

Damascus Gear is fun. It’s clean, well-playing fun. It could have been an awful lot more, and it’s a little frustrating that the game didn’t make better use of the opportunities that the setting provided it. It’s also not a game that you’ll remember a year down the track, let alone feel nostalgic for in a decade. But it’s, again, good clean fun, and if you’ve got a weekend to kill, this one will do it.

So, again; fried chicken is awesome. Choc mint gelato is delicious. Combining the two is not the great experience that does justice to either flavour.

I have no doubt that when everything is said and finished, this chapter will prove to be important to telling the story as a whole, it just lacks the depth and impact I have come to expect from The Wolf Among Us up until now.