Whether you enjoy creative building and decorating, strategic planning, or just the satisfaction of running a thriving hotel empire, Hotel Architect delivers an experience that keeps checking you in.

Perfect for a single afternoon of gaming, or even a daily commute, Echo Isle is a short, nostalgic experience that looks and feels like the titles it is clearly inspired by, but ultimately offers little more. Aside from the deliberate time/size limitations, Echo Isle doesn’t iterate on what came before, making it difficult to even call it an homage. Charming, polished, and very familiar, I enjoyed my single hour playing Echo Isle, but I wish I had seen some new ideas brought to this little world.

Though I admit, the fatigue is really starting to set in and it might be time for a temporary break. Additions like painting or creating images with stamps aren’t going to entertain anyone for more than a few minutes. Cats & Seek: Tokyo is worth your time for a snack size hidden object game, and if you like the cats, there’s more here for you.

The Wilds of Dacrima is a fun and good humoured puzzling platformer. It embraces its potion ’em up exploration well with smart design choices and satisfying gameplay. For Antler Studios’ debut game, it is an impressive feat, one that is slightly marred by some bugs, and finicky controls. Perhaps a little longer over the bunsen burner was needed.

Causal Loop is a game that occasionally loses itself in its own systems but still delivers memorable puzzle design and an intriguing sci-fi mystery along the way. For players who enjoy puzzle games that reward experimentation, patience, and careful planning, there’s a lot to appreciate.

EMUUROM is a delightful, layered, and intriguing Metroidbrainia, making its narrative just as much part of the puzzle as its mechanics. It has a satisfying gameplay loop that builds on what you have learned, all while creating a bizarrely beautiful ecosystem you must understand to progress in your mission to preserve it. It’s a title that borderline demands multiple playthroughs to uncover all its secrets, and while I can’t imagine ever having a full grasp of where to go or that certain elements won’t prove frustrating, it’s not enough to deter me from returning to its strange world. It’s safe to say that I won’t soon forget EMUUROM.

Yerba Buena is a tale of good and bad. What it does well it does really well. The Oscillator’s copy and paste mechanics and excellent level design make for a fantastic puzzle adventure that will test your puzzle solving skills in every way. However with its ho-hum narrative, boring characters and mind boggling restart level omission it fails to reach that upper echelon of puzzle games.

Ourlands is exactly what it sets out to be: a peaceful, creative little escape. It asks nothing of you except that you show up and enjoy yourself. Its art style is gorgeous, its music is soothing. The discovery loop is genuinely delightful, and its restraint in not overcomplicating things is one of its greatest strengths. The postcard mode could use a gallery feature, and a few small bugs and quirks linger, but these are minor complaints in an otherwise polished package. At its current price point, Ourlands is an easy recommendation for anyone who needs a breather from more demanding games, or from life in general. It feels like taking a breath.

In its current state, NBA The Run is one of the more difficult games I’ve ever had to review. The gameplay is a blast and when you get the right teammates online you can have fun for hours. However if you are a single player gamer looking for a different experience from 2K you will likely be largely disappointed until they fix the AI, or add more single player focused content. The foundation is here for NBA The Run to become its own legend in the streets for years to come, Play By Play Studios just needs to spend some time giving the game more character and depth for it to get its legend status.

Junkster is a well-made, genuinely enjoyable 3D platformer. Its comic book visual style is a great art direction choice, which I feel is a great way to attract players. The building mechanic, while slightly tedious, adds a smart additional layer to familiar platforming foundations. Junkster is not a particularly challenging game, and the build system may need a bit of fine-tuning (or at least some practice), but neither issue detracts from the overall experience. For fans of non-grindy, collectathon platformers, and shorter accessible titles, Junkster is well worth picking up. Just don’t forget to smash the blue crates.

While the puzzles were a bit too easy, the game’s strengths lie in its storytelling and audio design. BrokenLore: FOLLOW left me wanting to explore more of Serafini Productions’ work. If this is any indication of what the rest of the BrokenLore series has to offer, then it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Alas, it’s the story that relegates Necrophosis from being a good horror indie. Overly complex and, simply, boring this pulls the game apart. There will definitely be something in here for Lovecraftian fans and from the game’s PC launch I know it has resonated with some from that crowd. If, like me, you’re unfamiliar with that branch or storytelling, it’s very likely that this game will drag you to hell itself.