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.

NBA 2K24 is another installment in the annals of sports game history. In the moments that it works, it works well. But it’s not welcoming for newcomers, and the insipid practice of MTX is about as subtle as a ball to the face.

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.

Micro Pico Racers is a perfectly fine attempt to replicate the Micro Machines formula. It’s nowhere near as charming and the formula has aged quite a bit in the intervening 30 years between when it was first realised and now. If you’re hankering for a budget racer with a 90’s feel though, this will certainly fit the bill.

While the path might be pleasant to look at, the traveller isn’t. While the road can be interesting, it can be equally as dull. While the ability to conjure rain with music should be an interesting hook, it’s used too infrequently. A Winding Path is a short, sincere but decidedly mediocre adventure that’ll leave you wanting more.

Let’s Sing 2022 offers next to nothing new from last years iteration, save a pretty decent playlist of songs to sing. You have to wonder what’s next for the franchise, if they’re already bored of adding modes. Save your money, this song has already been sung.

Redout Space Assault feels like two games; an enjoyable arcade shooter on rails, and a free-movement space-sim with no exploration. Glitches, unbalanced difficulty, and a lack of any worthwhile story weigh down what could have been much better.

Whilst initially having the potential for epic battles, Big Helmet Heroes swings for greatness with its fun concept and co-operative gameplay, but bugs and frustrations turns victory hits into misses.

For a game about spirits, Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story is pretty soulless. A by-the-numbers backtracking horror game in the vein of Clock Tower, it’s structure and content feel lacklustre and a little disappointing if you went in expecting cyberpunk themes.

A series of challenging, varied boss battles are the saving graces for Teratopia, an action adventure game that’s repetitive and uninspired far too often.

Post Void will assault your retina’s with flashing lights and colour clashes that’re both hypnotic and headache-inducing. The old school, fast paced shooter action tied to a system which demands you kill, kill, kill are almost impossible not to enjoy but this is a punishing game that’ll need the player to have a lot of patience with the repetition it’ll put them through.

Whilst it captivates with its beautiful aesthetic and whimsical score, TASOMACHI: Beyond the Twilight offers little else. Awkward platforming, directionless plot device and lack of any real substance leaves little to the imagination, let alone drive to continue.

When Demon Skin works, it works pretty well – it’s a nice-looking title with an interesting story and some combat mechanics that set it apart from other similar games. Unfortunately, its missteps are just too impactful on the overall experience to ignore. If you have the patience of a saint, you might find enough here to enjoy. If time is at a premium, and you don’t fancy the slog, I just can’t recommend it. A real shame.

Bake ‘n Switch is a multiplayer couch co-op which strangely works better as a solo journey. Adorable yet mighty, it can not be denied this game has a lot of content with 100 levels under its belt. However, this game comes with frustrating mechanics that let the party vibe elements feel lackluster. It does not hold up against the party favourites such as Overcooked or Jackbox.

Featuring a gorgeous soundtrack and sumptuous visuals, A Musical Story certainly has everything going for it, but the experience as a whole feels as hollow as an acoustic guitar that was played once and never picked up again. Once it’s done, it’s done. And you won’t feel the need to return.

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.

Lumote: The Mastermote Chronicles is adorable with clever logical puzzles that may appeal to the masses who love a good puzzler. Despite being filled with Bioluminescent beauty though, the lack of direction and repetitive environment holds it back from being anything more than ordinary.

A novel take on interactive fiction, Delete After Reading can’t quite capitalise on its uniqueness. Tonally conflicted, lacking puzzle consistency and missing some technical aspects that are expected in 2023 (like an auto-save function), this is a missed opportunity to truly evolve the genre.

An atmospheric detective mystery, The Last Case of John Morley is a compact tale with surprisingly high production values for a game of this size. Unfortunately, it undermines itself by telegraphing its twisting narrative and lacks those 'eureka' moments you'd find in other, similar titles. Still, if you're in the mood for a one-and-done 'whodunnit' that you can start and finish in a single sitting, this is still worth your attention.

Alone in the Dark returns with a refreshing take in terms of its setting and atmosphere. However, it never gets to shake off its nostalgic cobwebs to be a fulfilling game that can go toe-to-toe with survival horror peers. With lacklustre gameplay and uninterested protagonists dampening the experience, you can’t help but feel this game is from a bygone era.

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.

In reaching for the heights of the Silent Hill's of the world, EMOTIONLESS: The Last Ticket impresses with its atmosphere and engrossingly unnerving sense of place. Sadly, that all disintegrates away with a plot that's poorly voiced and lacking in substance, while the walking simulator gameplay will have you trying to overcome boredom more than terror.

Lydia is an interactive story telling point and click, the story of a young girl surrounded by substance abuse. The game is short, and from that, the scenes of the narrative can blur and become confusing in which message it is trying to convey. Visually pleasing, and delivers a good atmospheric dark tone, but difficult to recommend for ‘fun’. However, this is an important game in the awareness of substance abuse.

South Park: Snow Day! is a pale imitation of the series’ previous titles, and falls short of the imagination and hilarity they produced. Whilst it’s certainly fun to run around South Park and interact with your favourite characters, the laughs are few and far between, the gameplay is deeply mediocre and if you were wanting more after the end of The Fractured But Whole, this certainly isn’t up to scratch. But hey, it’s £25. I’ve had worse takeaways that cost more than that.

Anomaly hunting in the style of Cabin In The Woods sounds like a great premise on paper, but The Cabin Factory falls foul of malfunction thanks to overly repetitive and bland gameplay, with too small an environment to maintain any form of tension. It does attempt some semblance of a story and it may do well as a quick experience for streamers, but there's little else beyond that to recommend it above established cult classics like Exit 8.

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.

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.

An interesting, unreleased relic from the 90’s, American Hero is a “so bad, it’s almost good again” FMV game that probably would have been ahead of its time if it had released when originally intended. Today, it’s corny, cheesy and clunky but that’s why it’s funny. FMV enthusiasts and those who would like a laugh will get something out of this.