Ascendance is a nostalgia-filled title that is not even worthy of borrowing the titular name of the franchise, let alone be the title that the fans waited decades for: it’s an unredeemable abomination.

A promising idea ride with poor implementation and rife with AI.

OneTry is a third-person horror shooter from indie developer Domynyo that drops you into a zombie-infested world where you only get one chance to survive. The game is brutally unforgiving, with fast, relentless enemies, clunky controls, and a dark, poorly lit environment that makes every step a struggle. Despite its rough mechanics and glitches, there is a strange, arcade-like appeal in trying to push a little further each run and seeing how far you can get.

Gridz Keeper is a simple, grid-based puzzle game with classic Lights Out-style design. Its clean presentation and accessible difficulty make it a good entry point for younger players or puzzle newcomers, even if experienced fans will find it far too easy. While functional and mildly enjoyable, the lack of depth, variety, and meaningful use of its zombie theme keeps it from standing out.

It’s hard to feel nostalgic when you’re having a miserable time, and that’s what Montezuma’s Revenge – The 40th Anniversary Edition is. It’s just like its namesake. You can remember what you had to eat, and you’re sure you enjoyed it, but unfortunately, now that time has passed, your body is violently rejecting it.

If you were a fan of Paws of Fury: Legend of Hank, you should avoid this videogame sequel. The action is functional, but besides this it's an atrocious wreck and a cat-astrophy. What is dogmatic though, is Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury is an unfinished mess, the challenges are hollow and there's very little story substance here. You're better off watching the animated film with the star-studded actors than suffer through this dreck.

The game’s low price and moments of charm give it a modest appeal. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to elevate an experience that feels thin and undercooked. In the end, it’s a diluted take on a genre already crowded with far stronger competitors.

Ultimately, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is an errand-laden bore despite its well-meaning and laid back gameplay experience. The island isn’t fun to explore, the characters interact with you in the same ways, and there’s generally not much to enjoy here. While there are some nice backstories and secrets to uncover, the fact Alex is nothing more than a quest monkey sours the game’s exploration appeal. The map design is tougher to navigate than you’d expect from an island paradise, and the repetitive banal objectives will make you roll your eyes. There’s a lovely good-natured temperament about Mythwrecked, but too often it encourages boredom because of how samey it all is-and that really is a shame.

Hungry Meem is a quirky and chaotic strategy sim that blends resource management, exploration, and creature care into a deeply layered, if sometimes frustrating, experience. Its unique systems feed into one another in interesting ways, creating a gameplay loop that can be both rewarding and overwhelming. While technical issues and repetitive pacing hold it back, there's a strange charm to helping your oddball Meems rebuild their world beneath the World Tree.

Death Relives is an ambitious survival horror game that blends Aztec mythology with immersive gameplay concepts, but its execution is uneven. While the atmosphere, sound design, and mythological elements stand out, the overuse of artificial intelligence, particularly in the companion app and character imagery, undermines its sincerity and immersion. Despite some clever mechanics and moments of real tension, technical issues, clunky design, and awkward storytelling keep it from fully delivering on its potential. It’s a unique experience with strong ideas, but one that ultimately falls short.

If you’re hoping that Tamagotchi Plaza has something worth playing on your new Nintendo Switch 2, you’ll be royally disappointed. All you’re subjected to here are a series of minigames that don’t offer fun, rather they’re more likely to offer disappointed sighs because there’s no challenge here, and more criminally than that there’s no juicy meat on its bones, just dissatisfying morsels. Tamagotchi Plaza would be forgiven if there was more going on and if it didn’t feel so unrewarding to play. There is some charm to the characters and the dialogue, and you might find the rap battle to be a tad cool, but everything else is so workmanlike that it seems to peel itself away from the audience it is most-likely to entertain-children. You might come into Tamagotchi Plaza feeling like you’ll be lightly entertained, but all too soon you’ll reach the conclusion that there’s barely anything here that’ll keep your attention for long.

CRPGs are a difficult genre to do well, and are often clunky. Neverwinter Nights 2 is both clunky and old, making it hard to enjoy today. This version has not made meaningful updates to the game, so it remains a pain to play for all but the most hardcore CRPG fans.

Gore Doctor is a short, atmospheric horror game with a strong environmental presence and an intriguing premise that blends medical horror with occult themes. While its exploration and mood are engaging, the experience is held back by stiff controls, repetitive audio, technical issues, and a narrative that never fully develops. It’s an uneven but occasionally compelling experience best suited for fans of low-budget horror, ideally at a discounted price.

Overall my impression is that Creature Keeper has a lot of potential, and is an impressive accomplishment for a sole developer – and needs more time. However I was left disappointed by how significantly the bugs I experienced impacted on my gameplay, which is such a pity given how much Fervir has managed to achieve already. I would not recommend this in its current state and instead suggest we all wait and see.

Captain Blood is an action adventure game that fails in its attempt of vindication after already struggling to stay above water. It doesn’t do anything new, exciting, or fun being released in this modern era of gaming and even it’s archaic style and influential takeaways can’t keep it afloat with issues such as audio inconsistencies, bland level structure, vexing enemy A.I., graphical hiccups, and pure negligible combat and upgrade systems. Captain Blood should have been a great comeback story, but has sadly been released with no substance, style, or grace.

On Your Tail hooks you with its charming seaside mystery, reeling you into a world where every clue is a breadcrumb and every suspect has something fishy to hide. An imaginative world and characters with phenomenal design are impressively expressive, but the shortcomings of the Switch's power as a system drags the gameplay and graphics through the mud and sheds a negative light on this creative whodunit.

A poor port of a lacklustre game, that fails to accurately depict the true horror of the Chernobyl disaster.

With a few adjustments and a little more time in the oven, Bloodhound could have been a fun if janky shooter, but everything feels so rote, so slapped together, so inconsistent, and ultimately bland that I can’t recommend you sniff this one out.

While none of Crown Wars’ gameplay is particularly bad, none of it’s particularly exciting, either, and other games have done it before and much better. If you’re looking to turn off and play a few rounds of generic turn-based strategy, there’s probably something for you here, but for the most part, Crown Wars: The Black Knight is a disappointing addition for a genre crying out for quality entries.

A VR survival game that tries its best to craft something special, but ultimately gets caught in its own web.

Clean the Sea! is a game filled with potential to tell an interesting story that conveys an important message that unfortunately fails to do anything with it beyond the bare minimum.

Warhammer 40,000: Dakka Squadron: Fly Boy Edition on Switch is a lot like the Dakka Jets that the Orks pilot; a shabby contraption comprised mostly of scrap and spare parts that should be avoided in case it spontaneously combusts.

With the lack of originality or innovation both in gameplay and storytelling, in a year packed with great indies such as Dredge and Cocoon, I’m afraid Undying leaves the table empty-handed.

Flashback 2 is a slapdash sequel that trades heavily on nostalgia, while misunderstanding everything that made its predecessor a classic.

Down and Out does a superb job of showing what life as a homeless person is like. It's a miserable, depressing existence you wouldn't want to inflict on your worst enemy, much like this brawler.

Dolphin Spirit Ocean Mission is edutainment for younger gamers about saving our precious environment from rubbish and pollution that is a definitely a family friendly game.

Tenebris Pictura is a game brimming with fantastic ideas hamstrung by poor execution.

Little Friends: Puppy Island certainly has lots of adorable dogs to care for, but sadly spends way too much of its playtime having the player repetitively walk them through boring and visually unappealing areas.

A missed opportunity given a second chance or something that should have stayed dead? American Hero is FMV choose your own adventure with bad acting and horrible writing. It's either so bad it's good or it's just bad.

The Last Oricru is a cynical attempt at a Dark Souls successor. So many aspects of the game fall short to capture the same thrills within the series and its other imitators. With unsatisfying gameplay, a cliche-ridden story, and poor graphics, The Last Oricru is a difficult game to recommend.

Gloriously gory visuals let down by an unoriginal and scarce story, by-the-books gameplay and minimal replayability.

In theory, using the Dragon Ball universe as a setting for an asymmetric multiplayer game is an innovative idea, but The Breakers executes poorly on this idea, with a tedious gameplay loop and technical issues.

A nostalgic trip down memory lane marred with aiming issues and a very short play time.

Eternal Threads fails to deliver anything worth the player’s time, money, or efforts. The main vague plot is surrounded by dull subplots and lacks a decent closure. The story-driven gameplay is repetitive and devoid of any mental or physical challenge except for exhaustion. The characters are badly written and their actions add little to no emotional content to the game. The only good thing about this game was the idea behind it but the lack of a good execution has turned the Eternal Threads into a “nightmare of a world” just like the future it portrays.

Rainbow Six Extraction is a spin-off that earns its place with tactical, co-operative PvE gunplay, and a level of detail and narrative unseen in other PvE shooters. [Provisional Score = 80]

Reviewing this game in the shadow of Green Hell, perhaps also sets an impossible benchmark for Open Country to meet. But in reality, Open Country is just a painful-to-play game, that generates annoyance without enjoyment. Hard pass.

Star Wars Republic Commando could be a very interesting game for the Nintendo Switch but due to glaring performance issues it will be hard for me to recommend the game in its current state. For its flaws it does have interesting gameplay and I for one would like to revisit this game once the performance patch has been released and proven to be working correctly.

I think the main problem with Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 as a whole, is it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It gets stuck somewhere in between wanting to be an arcade style racer, and a Monster Truck Sim, and because of this, it fails in both categories, and leaves no one happy. Skip this one.

Overall for £30, Taxi Chaos is too limiting to really recommend picking at the minute. Even on sale I could not recommend it unless you are a mega fan of arcade taxi games. The framework is there for a good game and it unfortunately feels incomplete in its current state.

If you’re a farm-sim aficionado, there’s more titles than ever in the genre, but that doesn’t work in favour for the latest Story of Seasons entry. Compared to its competition, it lacks personality and, most importantly, heart. That’s not to say it’s a lost cause, and with a little finnese and love, Story Of Seasons could easily return as the darling of agricultural simulators, but right now, it’s nowhere near the cream of the crop.

Overall, the game is a mess in its current state and desperately needs patches.

This game is very much suited to younger children and anyone who enjoy puzzle games. There is no foul language or inappropriate themes, and the puzzles are presented in a constructive and entertaining way. Overall A Fold Apart is a job well done.

The overall experience is limited and pretty shallow, however, as mentioned at the start, it has points for originality and educational purposes. This game would be perfect for those who are interested in the topic area of Christianity, but for everyone else, you may want to pass on this one.

Unfortunately, it seems that Tokyo 2020 did not live up to my expectations. The Event selection is fine, if not a bit lacking, but there’s no flare in the game itself. Tokyo 2020 is bested by every Mario & Sonic game that came before it, and that’s disappointing to see from a game that could have, and should have been the best game yet. All I can hope is that maybe Paris 2024 will be better.

A trash game that had promise. Looks like a games executive got his kid to make a game in his spare time and published it.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a great game. The familiar tactical combat is fun, challenging and offers genuinely thrilling gameplay. The lore of the world is fascinating and the characters are well-written with charming personalities. Plus the exploration and upgrade cycle of the gameplay loop is thoroughly engaging. Unfortunately, for the Nintendo Switch version of the game all of this is spoiled by blurry visuals, ugly textures and various performance issues. I heartily recommend picking up Mutant Year Zero on the PC or your console of choice, however the Switch version just isn’t worth your time.

All things said and done Fade to Silence is not a game that will inspire you to keep playing it. There are just too many issues with graphics, control and hit box contacts. It looks and feels clunky, and I am not sure it can be saved with a patch any time soon. Sadly I would suggest that eventually this game will do what its title suggests; Fade to Silence.

I wanted to like this so badly and was truly excited for it. I hate to say this but it is a waste of your time and money. Give this one a miss.

A buggy Action RPG, that tries to be more than it needs to be, rife with repetitiveness and lack of incentivised play.

All things said and done, Darksiders is a game that you might buy when it goes super cheap. Far from a triple A title, it lacks depth and sadly pretty much any real enjoyment playing it. If there is to be another game in this series they are going to have to do heaps to win me back. I’d give it a miss.

To sum it all up, I recommend Dakar 18 for the hardcore racing fans that are up for a challenge, rather than someone trying to have some casual fun. The visual aspects are great within a 10m radius especially the vehicles but further out into the distance it becomes horrendous. The gameplay is almost impossible to master due to the inconsistent vehicle handling, which causes you to veer off the straights and completely miss corners. With little to no navigation help beyond the beginner level, it really is a difficult game to play. Unfortunately, this all makes Dakar 18 a bit of a let-down.

Daybreak is a mindless horde mode expansion to State of Decay 2 that will only appeal to players seeking more outlets for zombie slaughtering co-op madness. There’s a serious lack of exciting new content or variety offered here that fails to capitalise on the areas of the main game that work best and could use expansion – such as story content, more community management mechanics or new maps – and what we’re left with is a monotonous combat-focused distraction that misses the mark for true replayability as intended.

It is in face a thinly veiled excuse to look at pictures of anime style characters in various states of dress/undress. If this is your thing then maybe it’s worth the price, otherwise perhaps at least wait to see if more features are added… especially a settings menu to turn the music off… because it will get annoying after a while.

Perhaps this review seems a little harsh but please bear in mind that Extinction is a terrible game that is retailing close to one hundred dollars. That is, without question, day-light robbery. This mess isn’t even worth close to half of that, in fact, I wouldn’t even recommend playing it for free.

Save your money and treat the opposite sex as humans instead of objects.

Overall, Metal Gear Survive is an instantly forgettable, drab and insulting entry in the Metal Gear series that isn't worth your time.

If you put a good amount of time, effort, and have an amazing eye sight, then you might be able to get some good results from the game. It does have an unfinished vibe and there are a few bugs that need a lot of fixing so hopefully the developers will be able to fix this soon (even though they have already started on Shoppe Keep 2).

These graphical issues are profoundly disappointing because I think Rime is a great game, but the Switch version is a technical mess with no signs of future improvement. The gameplay is fun and relaxing, the soundtrack is phenomenal and when it’s running on anything other than the Switch – the visual design is gorgeous. You could play Rime on the Switch, but I strongly recommend getting it on a different platform to save yourself the headache.

The repetition and painfully irritable audio had me moving onto my next title that much quicker. If I were to give a few pointers to the team in the hopes to reclaim my attention, I would say a bigger diversity in mission types and more content, perhaps, no, definitely a better sound team on hand for the future. I don’t normally give bad reviews, normally I can find a little something to keep me going, sadly however not this time. It was a shame too, I’ve been so looking forward to the potential new Road Rash, maybe I just need to try more of the game but it’s just not winning me over.

Summary: A below-average Japanese hack 'n slash with repetitive combat and an over-reliance on fan-service and titillation to carry players through its cliche story and several cringe-worthy character interactions.

If gathering resources, exploring, and “go get this for this, or find an item or persons for this” kind of quests are your deal or if you just want a change of pace, Yonder: the Cloud Catcher Chronicles is just for you. More experienced players may find some of the shallowness of the story and game play to be a little off putting. However younger players and those that desire a passive bit of simple gaming away from the loads of violence driven games with no choice but violence in them will have a good time with Yonder: the Cloud Catcher Chronicles. Though I must give this warning… you may smile.

Troll and I has a pretty big price tag so I wouldn’t be rushing out to purchase it any time soon as the quality of the gameplay doesn’t justify it.

Adventures on the Polluted Islands is a throwback game perhaps better left thrown away. It feels unfinished, is monotonous in its game mechanic, and arguably only for kids who don’t mind killing times via endless rinse, wash, repeat. Even Sebastian the Crab wouldn’t like this boomerang yielding adventure.

8Days is a game inspired by better ones in the same genre, and fails to deliver on its promises. Poor aiming, cheat AI, and texture difficulties create a frustrating experience that is more hair pulling than deliberately challenging.

Professional Farmer 2017 (perhaps too accurately) requires you to do a lot, just to get one crop.

The literal definition of a cash grab, this is a blatant attempt to take advantage of the hype surrounding the latest film and prey on the nostalgia of the franchise's fans.

A super-deep zombie survival crafting simulator ruined by a sub-par PC-to-console port effort, resulting in endless bugs and glitches and an ugly game which struggles to run competently.

Homefront - The Revolution is spectacularly broken in a way that very few games can get away with and offers very little redeeming features to justify playing through it.

With a time consuming upgrade system and lack of variation in the levels despite the procedural generation, Neon Chrome is, forgive the obvious pun, ultimately neither bright or polished enough.

A change of pace from the running and gunning games, though with slight blemishes in the armor.

Arslan Warriors of Legend is a car crash that you simply shouldn't even slow down to look at!

Nostalgia with a visual upgrade but gameplay stagnation.

All in all, there may not be enough substance for a gamer to really stick around and play the game more than a few times in curiosity.

Ultimately Sid Meier's Starships feels like a game that might have been great in VGA back in the 90s.

Unfortunately Drum Dash Deluxe is neither deep nor long enough to be worth the $7 asking price it stands at currently.

WWE 2K15 for XBox One is definitely different from the previous games but is easily the best looking game in the series to date.

Singstar Ultimate Party is a true dichotomy and ultimately gives the player a half-baked karaoke game on the PlayStation 4 that is saved by its cost.

Magic 2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers fails to reach the heights of previous games

As a next-gen title, Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark is an embarrassment

It is unfortunate that my first experience with Dynasty Warriors was so disappointing, but as a newcomer the bland gameplay, bland environments and bland AI doesn’t make me want to come back.

A show as delightfully zany as Adventure Time deserves much better that this bland and uninspired pastiche of top-down dungeon crawler mechanics and the brief flashes of irreverent humour and charm that appear throughout can’t save this rushed and dull waste of a license.

It’s hard to expect great things from a movie-tie-in title, but Turbo Super Stunt Squad wasted an opportunity to be a harmless kid racer and instead became a unsatisfying skateboarding game that can be sometimes too challenging for its target audience of young children.

For the hard boiled gamer with very old style gaming, you may find something hidden in Face Noir that can hold your interest.

Poor design choices and a lack of content result in R.I.P.D. the Game fitting the stereotype that movie tie-in video games aren’t worth your time and money. While there’s some cool looking weapons (such as a banana) to unlock as a reward for continuous play, after playing for a few hours nothing really seems worth the trouble.

My final thoughts of the game are... Pick up something better. There are way better titles that do this sort of gameplay all day long even in the bargain bin.

While Orion: Dino Horde has potential, it will certainly fall short of even modest expectations. If it weren't for there already being quite the track record of bad Jurassic games, I'd suggest that fighting dinosaurs has never been so dull. A shame, since it's evident that the developers put a lot of time into it... it's just too bad they didn't focus on making it fun.

Fans of the Rollercoaster Tycoon series may find some level of nostalgia playing Tycoon 3D, but if they were waiting for a genre defining entry, this certainly isn't what they're looking for.

Borderlands Legends doesn't live up to the Borderlands family name. The game could've been good, since it fits perfectly in the Borderlands style. However the game never succeeds in finding the right balance between shooting and tactical gameplay. Also the game is never really challenging and has some annoying technical issues.

So while Panic in Paradise is largely a better game than its progenitor in terms of structure, delightful hats and sensible pricing, this elaborate sandbox for sadists is not a great deal more enticing than it was last time. It's as trashy as ever, without nearly enough charm or sharp humour to balance its unpleasant, vengeance-driven narrative.

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission suffers from a classic case of 'Duke Nukem syndrome'. This game had a rather extensive development period (news of a remake has been buzzing around for about a decade) and just too much hype for anyone to expect that it would live up to all of their dreams. It sports quite a lengthy campaign so you won't be finishing it in a day, but with the poor gameplay, bugs and issues you'll face along the way, you may not even end up finishing it.

The game has some great potential but in its current state, it is limping along. The gamer who have the patience to hang on through the fixes may find a really great WW2 game here.

As combat plays an integral part to Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor and if the Kinect controls worked flawlessly, this game would have been a blast as you fought your enemies. To make matters worse, checkpoints between deaths are far too long which makes it an effort to continue.

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series begging for a good, in depth RPG. This just isn't it. The story may be of interest to some, but most will not want to have to slog through the game to see how it ends. Go watch the first two seasons of Game of Thrones, or read the books and forget Mors and Alester ever existed.

Maybe down the track this game will be patched in order to make it play better but I have a better idea; get it right the first time because this reviewer will never download a patch to make a game playable, that's why I bought a console, games should work every time straight out the box. This one does, barely, and that is why sadly I wouldn't bother with it.

NeverDead could have been something interesting. Instead it squanders this with poor design and a story that is hard to care about. If the designers had worked on the combat, or some of the potential that could have been explored with the dismemberment, it could have been a sleeper hit. Instead it is a game that will hopefully be ignored and quickly forgotten, as there is very little here to recommend about it.

A spectacular show and its fan base were given a huge black eye with this one, and someone committed Murder on the franchise as a game when they released this game.

Overall, Thor feels like it is a rushed movie tie-in game with seemingly little thought about the core mechanics of the game, it feels too like there was little in the way of play testing prior to release. To sum up, this game has poor graphics, bad gameplay, average sounds and most likely will only see one play through, if that. At the end of the day, the game feels exactly like what it is, a rushed movie tie-in game.

Saw II: Flesh & Blood tries to bring a great deal of emotion into a game, this is something that developers have been trying to do for years and very few games have accomplished this effectively. Saw II fails to deliver this, it is difficult to become attached to the lead character and without this attachment it is difficult to be overly concerned about the characters.