Playing with perspective is at the core of Superliminal. While manipulating the environment has its limitations here, it is nonetheless an entertaining puzzler that forces you to see things differently than in many other puzzle games.

Age of Mythology: Retold not only lets a game that was already extremely fun at the time shine with a largely contemporary look, but also adds many useful improvements, most notably the multiple-use god powers, the villager priority system, significantly more accessibility options and a really well thought-out controller layout. All this is flanked by thoughtful balancing adjustments, tons of quality-of-life additions, cross-play, mod support and a map editor.

Emio: The Smiling Man is not only a great example of Nintendo keeping a close eye on the wishes of its fan community, but also a really exciting detective story with several twists that we didn't see coming. In addition, like in a good novel by Agatha Christie and co., the developers manage to make us play games of thought as the story progresses about who the culprit is - only to discard them and replace them with others. It is precisely this aspect that keeps us on the edge of our seats to solve the case right to the end.

Visions of Mana scores above all with its charming look and loveable characters. The new elemental powers are also quite impressive. Although various facets prevent the action RPG from unleashing its full potential, the return of the legendary game series is a success overall.

Concord isn't a bad game. It's a solid hero-shooter with appropriate gunplay and movement. With the right squad by your side, the 5v5-matches are solid fun. Yet again, Concord plays it very safe and doesn't stand out in any department against free-to-play-competitors like Valorant or Apex Legends.

Star Wars Outlaws isn't a high-flyer both, as an open world action game and a Star Wars title. For that, the game is too usual in combat, stealth or world design. But Massive Entertainment still does a god job with a high variety in gameplay, an interesting, versatile story and with a friendly main hero and not at last one of the most loveable sidekicks in gaming history.

The world design is fabulous and the creatures are lovely. The story is moving and topical and the characters have a lot of heart. Despite all of this Creatures of Ava becomes very repetitive very quickly. Puzzles and platforming aren’t especially exciting and the taming of the creatures can become frustrating due to an unwieldy camera. Very soon rescuing the cute and well made critters becomes a chore because it feels like you are just doing everything to check off a list of things you must do to progress further and unlock more areas.

Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a game with a very strong vision. It puts players in a world almost comically oversized with no direction and just the sound of footsteps on metal floors. Later an impressive orchestral soundtrack paints a picture of a past long decayed while players are left alone, disoriented and lost. While combat is mostly mediocre, Bleak Faith: Forsaken has managed to capture the atmosphere of Warhammer 40k and the very first Dark Souls and somehow has woven them together into something new.

As an overall package “Dustborn” is an absolute delight. Believable and lovable characters are combined with an intriguing story and a wild mix of gameplay variation. While the combat is mediocre and gets stale quick, the variety of little vignettes is outstanding. The voice acting is stellar and the music might be more Pop-Punk than Punk-Rock which doesn’t make it any less awesome.

As a package Super Woden GP II is an absolute love letter to the last three decades of racing games. It offers smooth and fun racing as well as a ton of tracks and cars. It is old-school by design, with all its pros and cons. Thankfully the gameplay is as good as it is because the menus are frankly a bit of a mess and the AI of the other drivers is stubborn and destructive. Yet it is a great racing game for a low price from a clearly talented developer that loves the genre, warts and all.

Cat Quest III is an extremely charming pirate adventure that will quickly cast a spell over you and reward your thirst for discovery. Due to some weaknesses, the action RPG may not be purrfect, but the Purribean will certainly give you a good feeling.

Being a simplistic game doesn’t mean that “One Btn Bosses” is boring and simple. It has a surprising amount of depth and can offer an enormous amount of replayability if you’re into chasing highscores or the roguelike-mode. The campaign is a fantastic tutorial but the story and the presentation of it are rather lacking. It plays fantastic on a Handheld-PC and can offer fun for hours and hours if you’re willing to dive into the additional challenges of beating the five floors of R&D.

Unfortunately, "Cygni" didn't really convince us. Yes, the game looks incredibly good and conjures up a real fireworks display on the screen. And yes, the snappy bullet hell battles are fun. Nevertheless, we felt that the spark of genius that is necessary for a game of this genre was missing. The balance between the difficulty levels isn't really right. The pacing within the missions isn't right for our taste either: "Cygni" keeps us stuck at certain points too often, and far too often these snapshots drag on too much. Then the action game is almost boring despite all its qualities. And the upgrade system and its options could also be more intuitive. All in all, "Cygni: All Guns Blazing" turns out to be a solid action game with some clever approaches and a first-class presentation. However, it is nowhere near as good as classics like "Gradius" and the like.

Resident Evil 7 was a return to form for the franchise, and while one could argue that a horror game is best experienced on a big screen, being able to carry this horror masterpiece around in your pocket has a charm of its own.

Time (and updates) will tell if Zenless Zone Zero has what it takes to become the next big thing. But so far, it is already an excellent action-packed RPG with lots of other elements and mechanics sprinkled in and is well worth your time.

Yes, Outlanders 2 is in many ways just more Outlanders, but that's not a bad thing at all. With plenty of improvements and an engaging yet relaxing gameplay loop, this is definitely a game Apple Arcade subscribers should check out.

A tribute to British culture and its unique humour, which is unfortunately over far too quickly.

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is a visual treat for fans of the Metroidvania genre. Though it may have a few rough edges, it definitely provides a challenging yet fun experience.

Building your own team could be a huge benefit for F1 Manager 2024. But because of the too risky finance system, is too easy to run into problems you cannot correct later. Beside that, F1 Manager 2024 is more or less the same game like last year, but with some minor improvements on- and offside the track, making it just a little bit better than its predecessor.

Fate Seeker II is simply overwhelming in most aspects. With 20 fighting styles that each sport an enormous amount of attacks and combos, a plethora of side activities and a main story with more important characters than I could count it is just a lot. But a lot of this works surprisingly well despite all of this. The puzzles and investigations are especially great as is the main story and its cast once you start to see how everything and everyone is connected in one way or another. Unfortunately the combat itself is mostly dull, the English translation feels a bit shoddy and the technical aspects are middling at best. And yet it is an oddly compelling title that offers an interesting look at a different type of game from China.

Flintlock: Siege of Dawn is solid action-adventure-fun, but barely manages to deliver anything really special. While the combat-system and Not's quick movement is the key strength of the game, bland story, characters and enemies harm the overall impression.

Dungeons of Hinterberg' combines three genres into a lovely package. The smart and varied puzzles are very entertaining without ever getting too complex or samey. The action-RPG is very solid but the unwieldy camera and rather boring gear system make it an uneven and only sometimes uninteresting aspect of the game. The social-sim isn’t very deep but makes that up very easily with a super charming and well written cast of characters. If somebody is into all of these things then Dungeons of Hinterberg is a very easy recommendation because it combines them with a good anti-capitalistic story, pretty visuals and a very soothing soundtrack.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition delivers a very nostalgic challenge. If you have the option to play against other players in local multiplayer with up to eight participants, you can have many hours of fun. If you're close to pro level, that's additionally the case in the two asynchronous challenge modes Survival and World Championship. But if you play solo (not being a pro) after maybe five hours you've seen anything the game has to offer.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is the much needed risk so much of the games industry refuses to take. It’s an artistic gem that despite some rough edges bursts with creative ideas and a very strong vision. While it may not appeal to everyone, this has all the ingredients for a cult classic.

Darkest Dungeon 2 forgoes the traditional route of making a sequel by adding more of the same and instead turns the entire formula on its head. It addresses some criticism of the first title with its changes, while creating frustration in new places with the overhaul. It’s far from a perfect game, but the dripping, gothic atmosphere and presentation still make it more than worth the while to at least try and bring a glimmer of hope into the endless darkness.

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail is a great expansion that has a lot to offer. The graphics update is really good and the Final Fantasy music is still a masterpiece. The main story questline is okay, but unfortunately not as outstanding as players had hoped. Nevertheless, the new world of Dawntrail is worth a look for every MMO fan, as there are new dungeons, new jobs, new decorative items and much more.

With Return to Monkey Island+ coming to Apple Arcade, there is now one less excuse to not play this gem of a game in the legendary series. While the graphical style drew some criticism, there is no denying that Ron Gilbert and his team have delivered what fans were hoping for.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit delivers more of what made the first game so enjoyable, and then some. Relaxing gameplay, a dreamy atmosphere and just an overall cozy feel make this a great game if you are looking for something to unwind.