You’ll need persistence and patience to get the most out of O—O. It’s a tense and challenging retro inspired arcade game that’ll grate on the nerves long before it delivers any satisfaction. A convoluted, unnecessary plot is offset but pleasing yet basic visuals, smart single button game play and a toe tapping soundtrack. There’s glimpses of real ingenuity in O—O. The rest of the game occasionally feels like it’s overtly challenging in order to make the content stretch further.

Dungeon Escape is a fun 2D platforming game with solid mechanics and a challenging but rewarding series of levels designed to test your patience and your reflexes. Despite its short length and decidedly inconsistent difficulty curve, it certainly merits its existence and will likely give you a couple of hours of enjoyment. It may be an imitation of a superior game, but sometimes, imitation can be flattering.

A pale imitation of Call of Duty’s Zombies mode, Aliens is an asset flip, pure and simple. There’s no purpose or intention to the design of this game. It’s a collection of Unity store assets that have been slapped together with no artistic intent or thought for the player’s enjoyment. It’s functional but it’s an abject failure in every other regard.

An absolute cluster of poorly written dialogue, terrible technical misses and infuriating puzzle mechanics, Protocol is a dreadful experience that will test your patience along with your capacity to put up with absolute trash to see a somewhat satisfying ending to a story you’re barely paying attention too. You deserve better.

Strike Daz Cans is cheap in every sense of the word. It might cost less than a large Caramel Macchiato but, as is so often the case with budget Nintendo Switch titles, you get what you pay for. This game feels like a barely functional tin can alley tech demo that has had a start menu slapped on it. It’s devoid of charm or personality and has frustrating, progress halting content. With so many free mobile games providing a better experience than this in the same genre, it’s very difficult to recommend Strike Daz Cans to anyone.

Fossil Corner was released during the Wholesome Direct showcase and it certainly epitomises that type of game. Built around a gratifying puzzle and a moreish game play loop, it’s a chilled experience that ticks a lot of those dopamine releasing boxes – it’s short lived however. The narrative fades away and repetition sets in. It’ll fill a few nights but past that, it’ll start to grate.

It might be overwhelming for newcomers, but stick with it and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries offers some surprisingly deep and rewarding giant robot combat. The management side might confuse, but stick with it, and you’ll enjoy the ups and down of mercenary life.

To put it bluntly, Spectrewoods is undoubtedly the worst walking simulator I’ve ever played. It feels like a tech demo built for mobile phones that has been ported to the PS4 before the narrative was finished or the game play finalised. The asking price might be tiny but unless you’re after a cheap and quick platinum trophy, there’s no artistic content to appreciate here.

Imagine Earth is a sometimes overly complex management sim with a laudable penchant for sustainability and green tech, even while it forces you through all the bad tech to get there. It lacks much life and personality, but if you need a new coloniser sim in your life, it’ll scratch that itch.

Little more than a Platinum trophy with a price tag, Funny Truck is a glib and dull experience. With no progression or reward system, game play that wouldn’t cut it as a mini-game in any other title and unpleasant visuals, it’s a poor game. Aside from a few cheap laughs, there’s very little content here and you’ll have seen everything this game has to offer in a matter of minuets.

A much better shoot-’em-up than the first game in this series, Super Destronaut DX-2 looks like Space Invaders and plays like Twin Bee. It only has a few hours of content but there’s enough variety here so that those hours feel like they’re well spent. Score chasers might find some longevity but there are much better titles in this genre to spend your time with.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a relaxing, explorative crafting adventure game. The game invites decompressing and immersion into the fun Island of Gemea. If you’re here for cute animals, luscious environments and exploration, building farms, crafting ingredients and structures, then this is the game for you. The main story feels as if it ends a bit abruptly and the fast travel component is not ideal. However, with lots to do and lots to see you shouldn’t get bored quickly.

Initially, Timothy vs the Aliens appeals with its funky aesthetic and take on the noir/vibrancy crossover trope. Yet that soon wears thin and you’re stuck with an at-times frustrating and extremely bland platform/shooter after a while. However, if old school frustration and cheap games are your bag, this will entertain for a few hours.

Pile Up! Box by Box is a 1-4 co op platform game. It can be played solo or with friends with four worlds to explore. This game is a fun entertaining friendly game that I would recommend to anyone who likes co-op or is new to co-op. It has a few quality of life issues, such as a lack of a map, and the jump button not quite being up to par when crucial, but has lots to do for it’s short run time that can still pack a good night in gaming.

As a regular game, this title would likely have underwhelmed me somewhat with its basic gameplay and simplistic puzzle-exploration nature. The story is intriguing and hits its stride in the second half, but follows some usual tropes, doesn’t land all of its more complex themes and is relatively predictable. As a VR title though, the atmosphere of the forest, the foreboding sense of dread and the feeling of unease is ever present and amplified from the immersion of the headset and excellent audio design. It’s a great experience in VR and worth having a go with if you love all things horror or psychological thriller, just don’t expect to be scared to death or for anything deep gameplay-wise.

Don’t be fooled by its cute visuals and simple looks, art of rally is deceptively challenging. But it’s the fun kind of challenge, that simple plug-and-play style of racing that will have players wanting to unlock the faster cars. Paradoxically paired with one of those most serene game modes, there’s a lot in here to keep gamers occupied for many an hour. Just watch out for the occasional tree popping in.

Star Hunter DX won’t win any awards for originality, Shoot ‘em ups are one of the oldest genres known to man. But where it might win some awards is in the strategy department, with lots of options to tailor the experience to your own personal style.

Super Animal Royale treads on the Royale genre with a twist on the formula, a top-down twin stick shooter with cute animals shooting the heck outta each other. Go in gently and with patience as it’s brutal for beginners, but those brave enough to stick it out will find an awful lot to enjoy. And we ain’t lion.

Embr isn’t going to change your life, but if you’ve ever dreamed of running out of your office job through a window to save innocent civilians caught in a blazing inferno with nothing but a hose, an axe and water bombs, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t sign up to be an Embr Respondr immediately.

It’s not the game it was five years ago, but Super Arcade Football is all the better for it. You can do much worse than use a classic as the basis for your title, and it successfully marries the still solid gameplay aspects of Sensible Soccer with some modern graphical enhancements and general quality-of-life improvements to deliver a football game that offers a cheap viable alternative to the juggernauts of the genre. Well worth a shot (pun only slightly intended).

Nothing more than a few Unity assets thrown together in the barely functioning shape of a game, Tokyo Run is frankly awful. With a Platinum trophy that takes less time to unlock than the time it takes for the game to download, this game offers nothing but a cheap and hollow virtual trinket that won’t offer the gratification you’re looking for.

Ultimately, the Perplexing Orb is a disappointing game. The concept is simple and rather than make the most of that basic concept by realising something impressive or exuberant, it’s just a rudimentary set of obstacles to overcome. There’s a few hours of blasé game play surrounding a handful of levels which really nail this concept. The EU release might have been delayed but we’ve not really been missing out on much.

It might not match up to the genre’s modern day visionaries but Ender Lilies: Quietus Of The Knights is still a beautiful and engrossing Metroidvania title. A convoluted plot and some sections of uninspired combat are offset by fantastic boss battles and a beautiful soundtrack. A worthy stopgap while we wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong.

In My Shadow has all the fundamentals of a puzzle game, but feels lackluster when up against its rival puzzle platformers that have been released this year. Despite housing an engaging story, with a unique premise and lots of levels, it just feels mundane, tedious and repetitive to play, especially with its punishing difficulty curve.

Probably the worst third person shooter available on the PlayStation 4, Lady In A Leotard With A Gun is half an hour of ugly, shallow and facile game. More of an unfinished tech demo than a product that should have ever seen the light of day, the only people that will find any enjoyment in this game are shameless trophy hunters and even that will be short-lived.

It’s short, has little to no replayability and still doesn’t fulfil the potential that the premise has. That said, Bouncy Bullets 2 is a move in the right direction for the series, offering bite sized, first person platform challenges. It’s nicer to look at, has a much better soundtrack and there are a handful of levels that show glimpses of what this series really could be. It’s just not frequent enough to elevate the game out of mediocre trophy fodder.

It’s fun on a basic level, but Bloody Rally Show doesn’t offer much depth after a fashion. The story holding it together is flimsy, as is the wonkiness with randomly generated tracks. However, for those that little simple visuals and lots of customisation, this cheap little racer will suffice.

What looks like a simple arcade affair, The Last Stand opens up into a much deeper roguelike adventure. It seems like it’s putting a lot of eggs in one basket, but once it pans out and you get used to it, it’s a very engrossing game. Just don’t get too fond of the volunteers, they don’t stick around long enough to form a bond with.