It can be fun getting so good at a twin-stick that you can stay static in the middle of the screen. This just isn’t the game where you are going to want to invest the time to hone your skills to the point you can do it.

A dark premise that, like most uncomfortable experiences, deserves to be told. A few technical issues knocked my pacing back slightly, but didn’t stop me from seeing this through.

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? is a fine albeit one note quiz show game that won’t necessarily please the fans of the franchise. That said, it may be welcomed by casual players that want to play a party game with friends/family.

Whilst occassionally suffering from the “being unfair doesn’t make it a challenge” issue, Gripper is nonetheless a fun ride. A gripping take on the boss rush style of game, pair this with a controller and headphones for a throttlin’ good time.

What’s good about Black Legend is very good. The gloomy atmosphere and the novel turn-based combat based on 17th century medicine are well designed and smartly implemented. Everything else about this game is either bland, rough around the edges or straight up poor. Diehard fans of turn based strategy games that can overlook the issues will still get something from Black Legend. For everyone else, there are better alternatives.

Exploring the intrinsic link between creation and destruction, Dreams of Another hints at hidden depth, but fails to deliver it in a clear and understandable way. Repetition and disjointed storytelling undermines the narrative which is otherwise propped up by interesting art direction and a top quality soundtrack.

I’m sure it will please its target audience but for me, Waifu Uncovered is a simple, functional yet characterless shoot ‘em up that rewards the player with lewd images that are far too stereotypical. There’s less than 3 hours of content in the game across all 3 game play modes and you’ll have to work to get to play on the game’s best mode, “One Finger Mode”.

For shooter enthusiasts, there is some fun to be had with Nova Strike thanks to the weapon upgrade system but mostly we’ve seen it before and done better. The roguelite style makes it fresh, but it’s still unlikely to keep gamers amused for more than a day or two. Due to this simplicity, it’s not really a game for those who like to visit bullet hell.

Green Hell VR comes along with all the same challenges of surviving in the tropics you have come to expect from the game. However, the PSVR2 controls haven’t improved the experience, and unfortunately exploring the lush landscape is a boring chore as you only have a few small areas and terrible loading times.

With a bit more time and budget, King’s Bounty II could have been one of the pinnacles of the fantasy medieval genre. The turn-based combat is deep, rewarding and challenging (though sometimes unfairly balanced), while the world of Nostria is artistically interesting and well-realised. If only the developers had been afforded the time and money to actually get the title running properly to overcome all the technical problems. The story is lacklustre with shamefully bad dialogue and voice acting, with everything other than the core combat system feeling under-developed and lacking the quality of life elements that have become the norm. King’s Bounty II ends up a decent prize, but a rather hollow haul of treasure that had so much more potential – a bounty more fit for a nobleman than a king.

As of version 1.0.7 of the game, there’s a number of mildly frustrating bugs and issues which take the shine off of To The Rescue! Hopefully, Little Rock Games has the opportunity to patch these as beneath its hiccups, it feels like there’s a good game here. The concept is cute and original, the art style is clean and the game play loop can be quite moreish, so long as you can push though its core annoyances.

A modern, “retro-inspired” title in the shape of Shovel Knight and Ghost ‘n Goblins, Sword & Bones is clearly a small team’s love letter. Once that veil drops, however, it just devolves into a needlessly hard platformer that doesn’t feel like persevering with.

Papertris doesn’t reinvent the wheel of the puzzler Tetris, but does act as an interesting evolution to the classic formula. The game’s layered depth is an interesting element with new rules and tactics to discover. It also has a visually appealing look, and a soundtrack that has no business slapping that hard for an arcade game. A decent price makes it an easy recommendation if your looking for something fun, familiar and simple to sink your teeth into.

Negatives aside, Gungrave G.O.R.E is a blast when it gets going. The cutscenes are over the top, as are the bosses and the main baddies of the piece. If you can put up with the archaic rust that comes with old-fashioned games, there is fun to be had in here.

A charming, if simple, Zelda-like full of pot throwing and weirdness, Lila’s Sky Ark will fill a few hours, but fails to really differentiate itself in a crowded modern market.

Splatter Zombiecalypse Now feels lost in time. It plays solidly enough but it lacks innovation and feels dated, surrounded by better games in the genre on Switch. If you look past the presentation and concentrate on the modes you can enjoy, it could make for a decent evening of entertainment.

While it has its issues, Clive ‘N’ Wrench is a charming, cheeky and fun 3D platformer that pays homage to the greats that came before it. It doesn’t even attempt to innovate, instead attempting to replicating aspects of the 90’s classics with varying degrees of success. If you’ve got fond memories of Banjo-Kazooie, this one’s aimed at you.

Killsquad’s attempt at a twin-stick shooter unfortunately falls flat in almost every aspect of its design. The competent but bland combat, aesthetically interesting but boring presentation and poorly balanced mechanics lead to a functional but ultimately lifeless video game. It’s not bad, it’s just not a lot of fun to actually play.

Another drop in the vast ocean of action RPG’s, The Last Oricru brings nothing new to the much-treaded waters. Worse still, it lacks the refinement and polish to make it a barely passable romp, feeling as rough around the edges as Alpha Protocol did back in the day.

Wanted: Dead trips over itself trying to tell a coherent story, but its intense blood-spattered limb-slicing combat is satisfying, rewarding and demands mastery. It’s full of ambition and ideas, drenched in personality, but stumbling to deliver. Despite its quirks and failings, it’s got cult classic written all over it.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is too little, too late. Instead of innovating, it instead takes ideas already popularised and doesn't even pull them off properly. Lacklustre visuals and a flat future aesthetic don't do anything to bolster its chances, not when better contemporaries are available.

Mechanic Battle has an internal battle of wanting to be a halfway average game or a terrible excuse for a cash grab. Either way I hope the lessons learned from the making of this game is that you get as much love as you put in, and this one is still waiting for their parents to come back with the milk.

Epic Chef leaves much to be desired when encountering a game breaking bug that stops progression completely so early on. It has potential with unique cooking experiences, but don’t expect to be the next Gordon Ramsay anytime soon if you hit a game ending glitch.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons is a basic my-first-adventure, that rarely lifts itself above mediocrity. Turns out having the power of seasons can’t stop the game being a disappointing rainy day in summer when you’d planned to go to the beach.

As it stands Tennis World Tour 2 has a chance to wear you out more than an actual game of tennis.

It may have some technical issues that highlight the indie budget, but the good in Winter Ember outweighs the bad. It has all the stealth trappings; the frustration, the patience, as well as the stickiness of the combat, to harken back to the olden days. It may not be original, yet it doesn’t matter when it looks this nice and plays like the classics.

A satisfying game play loop is the strongest aspect of Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness. Resource management and balancing your character’s needs gives the game a risk vs reward angle that makes it feel more like a survival game than an action RPG. There are issues – frequent texture pop in and a lacklustre story being the most severe – but despite them, Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness is a rewarding experience.

The best frag grenades are cooked and as such, Modern Warfare 3 needed a lot more time in the oven to create something explosive. This is the series at its lowest point with uninspired missions on repurposed maps and a story that feels moot after the conclusion. Not to mention an online mode that feels closer to a DLC pack and a Zombies mode that whilst in theory was promising, overall feels incohesive and lacking a stable direction. There’s no bad luck, only bad plans and this one was operating without a blueprint.