With a mechanically flawless flat screen experience, an EDM soundtrack that is packed with bangers and chaotic visuals that emulate the style of your favourite arcade machines, Spin Rhythm XD is a great experience. The VR aspect isn’t as brilliant and the game doesn’t offer much else from the base gameplay but it’s hard not to recommend for rhythm game fans.

Another crazy entry to Devolver’s catalogue, Anger Foot fits right in like a well-worn shoe. It’s violent, it’s daft, it’s challenging and like most others in the stable, it’s so instantly one-more-go-again that it becomes addictive. Lace them up and go kick it. Hard.

An earnest effort at recreating the puzzling contraptions of an escape room mixed with an Outlast-like antagonist, Scholar’s Mate falls victim to the most insipid storytelling, boring gameplay and obtuse puzzles. While it may look the part of a horror game, the only true terror will stem from the fact you could have just gone to a real escape room, and gotten more value for your money.

Expanding on Elden Ring’s already impeccable legacy in meaningful and spectacular ways, Shadow of the Erdtree is another triumph from FromSoftware. Some of the series’ best boss battles, visually stunning vistas and a leaner yet equally deep narrative lend this expansion the right to be considered one of the best pieces of DLC money can buy.

As one of the most unique video games and individually arresting visual styles I’ve come across this year, Chaotic Era comes unstuck thanks to its abstract approach to gameplay systems, poor performance problems and a lack clear, functioning mechanics. In these times of chaos, there’s only so much obscurity that can be tolerated, before it just becomes a dysfunctional era.

SCHiM is the perfect example of pick-up-and-play puzzlers. A neat concept of shadow hopping, paired with the minimal style of Echochrome and Untitled Goose Game, SCHiM fits that genre for those after something cute and progressively challenging.

DROS has honest goals to be a unique duo platforming adventure but adding too many elements has created something varied but not lasting. The world is interesting and the characters have cool designs but anything outside of its presentation is just fine.

A rollercoaster of such highs only to be undone by flying straight off the tracks, Parkitect: Deluxe Edition has too many game-breaking issues to recommend taking a chance on. Its building gameplay, visual and sound design set it to a rip-roaring start, just so the technical performance and save-deletion issues cause this entire ported rollercoaster to derail.

Graven is another slice of the nostalgic pie that Slipgate Ironworks have been dishing out. A fantasy game crafted from the engines of old, it’s functional if you’re craving that old flavour. But its taste may not be alluring enough to new players.

Bloodhound takes inspiration from the Doom’s and Quake’s of the video game pantheon but fails to deliver anything more than lukewarm decency. The fires of hell are muted, dimly lit and unfortunately repetitive, holding back what may have been a more thrilling boomer shooter entry. A cheap and underwhelming way to spend an afternoon, Bloodhound offers something for retro shooter fans, but won’t be achieving true satanic infamy anytime soon.

Visually lacklustre, poorly designed, riddled with bugs and painfully dull, Favela Zombie Shooter is a turgid entry into a genre that’s on the cusp of yet another resurrection. Let this one shuffle quietly into the night.

A cheap clone, Difficult Climbing Game is attempting to cash in on the popularity of a much better game. Short, unfulfilling and lacking complexity, this pale imitation is best left falling down.

Trails Through Daybreak takes the series to new heights of drama without losing any of the series’ strengths or structure, and features a fun double battle system that somehow doesn’t get in the way of itself. It’s also a viable jumping-in point that hasn’t come along in a while for those looking to dip their toe into this long-running series and finding it daunting. The dawn of a new era.

Created by just a single person, Dystopika distills the essence of the visual appeal of cyberpunk worlds into a small but creative package. What’s here is simple and accessible, even if it feels a bit light in terms of content to play around with. Despite this, it’s hard to deny the inherent appeal of erecting the perfect futuristic metropolis as you kick back and take in the sights and sounds.

Upgraded graphics, fast travel, and a slew of quality-of-life upgrades that track items and improve combat flow, make Echo Generation Midnight Edition the definitive version. However, they feel like incremental gains rather than a wholesale re-evaluation, as the base game remains largely unchanged.

Still Wakes The Deep has a hauntingly well-realised setting in its North Sea oil rig, propped up by stellar sound and environmental design. Caz’s story carried some genuinely emotive moments, even if the backstory feels slightly underdeveloped and while the moment-to-moment stealth and navigation lack the depth of an ocean, they’re still deeper than the puddle many in the genre fall into. You’ll come for the nightmare, but stay for the rig.

An aloof Yakuza-sim that rewards those that stick around and pry, Fading Afternoon isn’t without some problems porting over to Switch, namely controls. However, it’s a minor issue in what is an overall unique and inspiring game that’s cinematic and moving if you embrace it.

With an interesting take on the core gameplay of asymmetrical horror and a clear love for the franchise, Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Video Game is dreadfully unbalanced and unforgiving for solo players. Whilst the game has great art direction, the animation and overall movement feels dated. If you like the franchise or indeed Illfonic’s asymmetric outings you can probably dig this, but otherwise it’s not all too memorable.

Baring an incredible set of fangs, V Rising successfully coagulates the blood of multiple genres into a massively compelling, rich and satisfying vampire survival title. Morph into a wolf as you build your gothic fortress, venture out on challenging hunts and team up with or decimate your fellow vampires in a stellar time-sink of a game. Not many vampires can rival Dracula for his throne, but V Rising just might.

Flying into battle with a strong but satisfying difficulty curve, Capes sheds the fluff of more expansive titles to double down on the tactical acumen of an XCOM title. Missions are tough, thrilling and ultimately rewarding. Even if the story behind the carnage is lackluster and the spikes in difficulty can be positively mountainous, Capes proves you don’t need a popular licence to make a grand superhero worthy of acclaim.

Even though Democracy 4: Console Edition is an Excel spreadsheet morphed into a colourful set of menus, it’s tantalisingly engaging. Whether falling foul of commuters for refusing to ban petrol car sales or being ousted from Canadian leadership for attempting to wire-tap homes, democracy is an entertaining beast to tame. The real question is whether outlasting a lettuce as a government is that easy after all.

Contra is back, all jazzed up and offering absolutely nothing new in what it pioneered almost forty years ago. But then, it doesn’t need to, as it’s still a blast for old and new fans alike. Adding four player couch co-op is a nice touch, all the while keeping its retro sensibilities.

The Land Beneath Us has a lot of ideas thrown into the roguelite dungeon crawler that with a bit more fine-tuning could be great. However, for now, it’s just okay. Whether it’s the weapon/perk bloat or lack of executable builds that’ll help you beat the game, it just doesn’t feel fun when mechanics aren’t going your way.

Marred by dysfunctional controls, tired turn-based combat and an abysmal story, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is a dire knight. There are glimmers of the game that could have been within its broken and fractured armour, but this warrior is wounded beyond repair. There are simply too many other games in this genre that are more deserving of your time, and money.

With immediately satisfying, simple yet vast gameplay, a touching story of death and astounding design, Hauntii will be a title you’ll want to take into the afterlife. There are only a couple of minor balancing issues that may be fixed. To some, the gameplay may not develop enough to be fun the whole way through, but Hauntii will stir your soul and is a 2024 highlight.

A short but impressively realised walking simulator that will unnervingly delight many and disappoint some, POOLS is a purely experiential liminal piece of media. Like all of its halls and corridors, you may wonder where the end goal is, or where the purpose lies. But that’s precisely the purpose of the liminal – to focus on emotion and feeling, even if that’s slightly undermined by its structural design.

While Galacticare initially appears to be a mere Two Point clone, it has its own unique and hilarious personality. The gameplay is solid and worthy of merit, even as a more relaxed and forgiving management simulator. It has blemishes in the shape of performance slowdown and occasional completionist bottleneck, but this is a steady surgeon, even if the flailing tentacles suggest otherwise.

System Shock is a classic and Nightdive Studio have not gotten in the way of bringing it to modern hardware. With punishing gameplay, relenting atmosphere and an all-timer villain with SHODAN, it’s an incredible remake. The console experience isn’t the best but it doesn’t totally dampen the grandfather of immersive sims.