A series as imaginative and as entertaining as Trollhunters deserved a better tie-in video game. Defenders of Arcadia has a few enjoyable moments and it certainly looks the part but uninspired combat, tired level design and a story which feels more like a TV clip show than a cohesive narrative means it falls well short of fan expectations.

Ben 10: Power Trip delivers an adult sized game with a child friendly veneer. The co-op might be partially hamstrung with technical issues and a large chunk of the game might feel mundane but this is the best Ben 10 game to date with an open world that kids love to play around in.

A visual novel that stands shoulder to shoulder with the giants of the genre, Along The Edge is a fantastic and fantastical story that’s delivered eloquently and masterfully. It’s missing some modern quality of life innovations but that doesn’t spoil what it one of the most majestic hidden gems I’ve ever had the pleasure to review.

Well crafted and responsive, Terror Squid is an addictive one-stick dodger through a bullet hell of your own creation. It does it’s one thing really well, but with just a single mode and a single gimmick, there’s not really enough to justify the price tag. This is one for the score-chasers.

In Tyd wag vir Niemand, abstract yet repetitive puzzles make way for frustrating challenges that manage to make time manipulation boring and irritating, something I thought impossible. It can be easy on the eyes at times but that’s little consolation for a game that actively encourages the player to give up through overtly aggressive and clumsy game design.

Death Ray Manta SE is laser targeted to a very specific group of players. If you long for the heydays of the Llamasoft games, this game gives you the feeling you had playing these games back in the day but with spruced up visuals, a plethora of fish puns and a more accommodating nature. There’s some required repetition and the visual presentation might immediately repel some, but for those it’s aimed at, Death Ray Manta SE is an excellent “just one more go” game. Only now, it’s “just one more go, on the go” with the Switch version.

It’s hard not to admire what Nova-box attempt to accomplish with Seers Isle. There’s some narrative devices used in this game that most visual novel games would shy away from and there’s a cast of characters that beg to be explored further via player choice. It’s easy on the eye and tells some entrancing stories – but a few of these tales trip up over the complexity of essentially having 8 lead characters and being unable to give them all a satisfactory arc without repetition.

You’ll need dogged determination and the reflexes of a cat to get anything out of Double Pug Switch. It’s inventive dimension switching mechanic is lost in a sea of spikes and overtly difficult levels that are tough to fur-give.

A charming bubble popping puzzle games that replicates most of what worked back in the 90’s, Rusty Spout Rescue Adventure is a fun if limited game. There’s nothing wrong with emulating the classics but when a game does this without bringing anything new to the table, it’s hard to see it as anything but inessential.

It’s not a massively deep game, with a skills-and-stars upgrade system cribbed from many a game. That being said, Red Wings: Aces of the Sky is a fun little adventure in a First World War mold. Taking to the skies has never been so colourful.

There’s much to love in 9th Dawn III: Shadow of Erthil but it requires such an investment and patience from the player in order to pay off that many won’t push through to see the game’s best moments. The plot could have been tightened up, the presentation will be divisive and the combat lacks meaningful depth but the game world and activities it contains will have you busy for many, many hours if 9th Dawn III gets its hooks into you.

So Speed 3: Grand Prix could be a fun F1 arcade game if you take away the game’s main selling point. It would have been a nice spiritual successor to Virtua Racing, but only if you don’t play the game as intended. You can have some fun bashing up other cars but it’s all rather pointless so it kinda makes this nothing more than glorified dodgems.

Often as generic as its name, Battle Hunters needed a far more nuanced plot to really make use of its bloated 28 strong cast of heroes. That being said, the game world and it’s combat (despite not working as it should) are entertaining enough to fill it’s 15 hour length.

Fight is one of, if not the single worst fighting game on PlayStation 4. A few saving graces mean there’s maybe an hour of car crash entertainment here but beyond that, this game is a pale imitation of the classics in the genre. It either demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of the design tenets that make for a fun and competitive fighting game or that Sabec just didn’t care enough to implement them. I’d prefer to get punched in the face than play this game again.

Inexpensive and familiar physics puzzles with a quirky art style will grant any King Oddball player with a few short hours of mindless entertainment. The lack of any new content or utilisation of the DualSense controller means if you’ve already played this on the myriad platforms it’s already on, there’s no need to double dip. This one’s for those that have already completed all of the PS5 launch games and are scratching around for anything else to play.

It will mentally tax you at times, but Bridge Constructor: The Walking Dead is a treat to play. A couple of technical issues here and there don’t ruin the experience, and any faults usually fall on your shoddy workmanship.

While it has lost some of its uniqueness in the 2 years since it launched on PC, BFF or Die still has the capability of lighting up an evening with friends on PS4. 1-4 player co-op puzzles that are more to do with your group dynamic than what’s happening on screen deliver equal doses of hilarity and chaos despite a few frustrating levels. This one would be perfect for a gaming group or as part of a playlist of party games sandwiched between Gang Beasts and a Jackbox game.

Controlling like a more leisurely-paced Geometry Wars, Sparkle 4 Tales is a languid affair which could have used a little more focus and drive to make it something you’ll want to stick with until the end. As it is, it’s an aesthetically pleasant experience that I struggled to care about after the first thirty minutes.

For new players, Concept Destruction on PS5 will provide 2 hours of no frills car smashing before it gets dry. The structure of the game, emphasising survival rather than the cathartic crashing, feels at odds with the fun the game can deliver elsewhere. For PS4 players, the upgrade here can barely be described as such and beyond an easy Platinum Trophy, is hardly worth a download.

Ponpu is weird, wacky and regularly wonderful. It’s a slick take on Bomberman that understands what made the original games so great and evolves it for the modern day. It’s a shame that the multiplayer modes are undermined by ineffective identifying marks that make it difficult to see who’s who. Thankfully a decent sized and suitably challenging single player campaign makes up for that.

After overcoming some issues in its launch week, Poker Club has stabilised as an ambitious, functional yet unremarkable poker simulator. The innovations that aim for increased immersion manage to slow down the action to the point they become almost tedious. There’s more than a few issues that still need to be remedied in Poker Club and Ripstone have promised fixes are on the way. The potential is not yet realised but there’s every chance this game might fluke a win at the river.

Free-to-play it may be, but Rogue Company is a high-quality title that’s among the best shooters I’ve played this year and a welcome alternative to the more standard shooters you find on console. I’d highly recommend it, even if it had cost me money. For the grand total of nothing, it’s almost essential.

Your mileage with NO THING will depend on how much patience and thought you’re willing to give it. There’s a story buried in a trippy, simplistic autorunner that actively works to frustrate the player at times. A cool vaporware aesthetic and a hand full of decent songs don’t make it any less aggravating to play or help the delivery of a tale that needed clarity.

The quality of the mechanics, a cool take on those of 1982’s Pengo, are the star of Crawlco Block Knockers, a cheap, erotic puzzle game that’s only a few hours long. It’ll titillate its target audience and there’s some replayability here for them. For everyone else, a genuinely enjoyable puzzle game is combined with anime cleavage that’s poor, even for budget eroge standards.

Neoverse is a deck-building roguelite with some impressive systems and lots of room for intricate strategy, however its presentation, lack of modes, narrative or personality really make it feel a few cards short of a full deck.

CRSED: FOAD probably won’t ever see major numbers like at the very height of PUBG and its revamp may have just come a little too late for the masses to really be all that bothered, but it’s a fun quirky indie distraction from the mainstream support acts that looks better than ever before.

As it is, Drunken Fist is a nice proof of concept, but little more than that. If you can find it on sale (the game has been available on other platforms for over a year now, so that shouldn’t be difficult), you can probably glean a couple of hours of enjoyment from its shambling nonsense. Otherwise, it’s a shallow experience that doesn’t quite pull off its one trick well enough to recommend.

Like trying to solve your way out of a puzzle box that’s persistently creepy and occasionally nightmarish, Darq is an artistic game that leverages perspective to have your cogs turning and your head spinning. There’s a number of puzzles that rely on trial and error and stand our as low points but the rest of the game, including the 2 additional chapters, make this an easy recommendation for puzzle game fans.