Hellboy: Web of Wyrd looks the part. It’s a gorgeous game and I was really hoping that it would deliver the vision for the character and comic in the same way that it captured the aesthetics. Sadly, instead, we got a stodgy roguelike that largely misses the point of what either Hellboy or the roguelike should offer. Equally sadly, we continue to wait for a truly great Hellboy game.

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.

There is plenty of fun to be had here with friends, but just make sure your expectations are in line with what you will be getting here. It is fun for a while, and well made for what it is, but for a game that relies so intensely on the multiplayer action, it's just not quite up there with the best in the genre.

I was hoping for more from Zengeon. “Chinese Diablo” or “Hades but Asian” are keywords that should have translated into one of my favourite games of the year. Unfortunately, while the effort on the part of the developers is clear for all to see, and the aesthetics are there, Zengeon otherwise struggles to meet the highs of its peers. It is a perfectly workable game, and I could easily see a better-resourced sequel from this team delivering, but as it stands, this is a touch too shallow and mundane for its own good.

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.

Spacebase Startopia is not completely without merit, but it does lack in charm and depth, and simulators need one or the other (and preferably both) else they're in big trouble. With that being said there is a very specific audience for this game; it works as a competitive simulator where you learn the perfect order for doing things and then execute on that to cruise through to easy victories. In almost any other context, however, Spacebase Startopia lacks the creative whimsy and data-driven depth that we usually expect from a great simulator.

Warsaw is an interesting concept which does do quite a few things right, but its inconsistency of vision prevents it from achieving the same greatness as the games it was clearly inspired by. Pixelated Milk are at their best when they are holding players in the desperate struggle for survival, where each tactical decision matters a great deal between life and death. But it takes real concentration on the player’s part to make these systems work, compounded by UI issues on the Switch which only further exhaust players. There are plenty of games which set out to do things similar to what Warsaw does, but more effectively.

The biggest issue with Guild of Dungeoneering is that the gameplay never really evolves. Your deck of cards does grow and you'll get new and better cards, but the overall experience in hour two really is not all that different from hour ten.

The presentation is charming and the power ups are fun to use. The problem is, of course, that it's not necessarily a game that you're going to want to play on consoles.

It has a style of play that allows it to be incredibly challenging if you are going for as many stars as quickly as possible, but it also allows you to feed Om Nom and move on to the next level - handy for younger players.

It may sound like I’m being harsh on Ginger, but as I played through its many levels I felt the game struggled to live up to its influences where it might have been better off trying something new. Judging by the animations, the level design and the slowdown the game occasionally experiences, Drakhar Studios were held back by resources and production time, and so couldn’t deliver a polished experience.

Rise Eterna is not terrible by any means. It's a perfectly playable effort to emulate Fire Emblem. But it's also incredibly shallow, lacks character and meaningful narrative, and misfires in several critical areas with the gameplay. On the other hand, since Nintendo and Intelligent Systems are showing no haste in announcing a new Fire Emblem, I guess we've got to take what we can get.

Of course, Red White Yellow is a micro-scale project by a developer, being sold at a minimal price. It feels almost cruel to be critical of it, but this game does have flaws that undermine its very premise, and while it's a technically proficient little puzzler, there's already a much better-realised effort that pitches in this space, called Akihabara: Feel The Rhythm. That is, of course, if you're not going to simply buy Lumines.

The basic mechanics are all there, and though the game features bigheaded anime-like characters and super shots and the like, it has got a focus on the three key techniques of beach volleyball; a need to time ball strikes well, a need to position spikes as close to the net as possible, and the need to be able to hit gaps in the court with those spikes...It’s not perfect, of course. There’s very little content beyond playing teams of increasing difficulty, and earning points to level up your own characters.

The problem that Total Wars: Battles faces is that it is just far too aggressive in demanding players cough over real money or be content with a snail’s crawl of a game. And this, it’s difficult to keep the momentum going after those spectacular early impressions.

AdVenture Capitalist absolutely achieves what it sets out to achieve, and in principle, I actually think that people should play it, because the messaging that it’s putting forth is important, both as a reflection of the video game industry, and capitalism as a whole. But on the other hand we had everything that we needed from this genre with the original Cow Clicker, and I sincerely do not understand where the value is in having this on console.

Mr. Prepper could have a good bit of socio-political commentary to go with a kind of casual simulation structure that even the free-to-play Fallout Shelter largely proved to be a good time. Sadly, so many little things went wrong with it in delivery, and it’s hard to put a finger on just how it could fall over so badly in totality. Was it just that the team is inexperienced? Not confident enough in the vision to fully commit? Not sure how to integrate the gameplay and concept together? Whatever it was, Mr. Prepper is a better idea than execution.

I am torn on it because I absolutely loved some of the things that were done, but also came away with the distinct impression that there simply should have been more. More conversation, more depth to the existing mechanics or additional systems that come into play over time, more variety in puzzles and more game in general. I generally enjoyed my time with Armikrog, but came away with the unshakeable feeling that it also missed several opportunities to be a better, more memorable game.

Gothic is getting a full remake, which will release in 2024. I actually expect that to be good, because the developers can use the modern tools they have to modernise and restore the original vision of the game. Unfortunately, though, that’s the final nail in the coffin for the original. Unless you have a very academic reason for wanting to play an artefact of B-tier game design from the early turn of the century, there’s just no reason to play this port.

Mad Games Tycoon is a noble attempt to do something really cool. As someone who loves tycoon simulators, and loves video games, the dream is very much there to have something more serious and deep to replace Game Dev Tycoon. Unfortunately Mad Games Tycoon also struggles to give you a genuine sense of ownership over what you're doing. A very pedestrian presentation, and a sense that you're being pushed to play in a specific way is very antithetical to how the overwhelming bulk of the real world games industry works.

Knee Deep isn’t a terrible game, nor is it as ground-breaking as it wants to be. It definitely gives a unique spin on the interactive drama genre, and it does tell a somewhat dark, noir inspired tale. Folks who approach this as anything other than a slightly more interactive Visual Novel are going to be disappointed, though, and given that it was more pitched towards adventure game fans, I think there might be a few people that are disappointed with their purchase here.

The Charming Empire does a great job of introducing players to the Taishō period; a period that we rarely learn much about in the west. As a period piece it does a decent enough job, but there are so many gorgeous visual novels out there now that the pedestrian presentation really hurts the romance and storytelling of it all.

Vambrace: Cold Soul is by no means a bad game. It's far too derivative and simple to reach the same league as Darkest Dungeon as a classic, but it's an enjoyable time waster, with superb production values and neat, clean, classical turn based combat action. The best way to play the game is probably on the Nintendo Switch, too, since it's the kind of background noise that works while you've got the sport or a movie on TV.

However you slice it, you’re ultimately getting a slavish homage to the early-era Pokémon games, but one that can’t get anywhere near their quality. Coromon is let down by having even fewer monsters to collect than the very first Pokémon, and some amateurish production values and gameplay design that Game Freak, for all its faults with the presentation of its own games, would never let happen. It’s still fun, because it’s so akin to Pokémon that of course it’s fun, but Coromon’s immediate rival, Nexomon (also available on Switch), actually tries to subvert some of the expectations of the genre, and comes off as the most interesting work as a consequence.

Games these days are rarely “finished”, but I’m not 100% certain that a smaller niche title like Speedball will see much in the way of post-release content and patching. If it does, it could evolve into a nice little game for those who fondly remember the original – but as always, I can only review what’s in front of me, and at launch, there’s just not enough of Speedball to make it a particularly compelling prospect at full game price.

Ogre is a highly influential and important game, and on that basis, there might be some value in picking this title up for nostalgia’s sake. However, it is also one of the poorest board games on the Switch. The lack of decent AI, and multiplayer that’s only available offline, are issues that no strategic board game in 2022 is ever going to be able to overcome.

Because the developers were so inept at resolving this tension, I lost interest in Mouse: P.I. For Hire within the first level, and each subsequent stage found me disliking it more and more. It’s a competently and even entertainingly made game, but a dismally cynical work of art, and it never manages to shake the impression that the only reason that it looks the way it does is that the marketing team thought that it would be a good way to “stand out” and shift units.

I respect the developer for what he has done in creating a game to help heal himself. I identify far more than I ever could have expected; Drowning seems to take my thoughts and put them right into the character's head. It's eerie. Accurate. Emotional. Unfortunately, it's also poorly planned, poorly placed, and in some parts, questionably written. There are also graphic choices that remove you from the immersion in emotion that I expected while playing, and sadly, the decent narrative doesn't make up for these glaring issues.