A usefully improved version of what was already one of the most successfully ambitious action games of the last several years, with the second screen functions proving an unexpected bonus.

Far Cry is a series that’s gone on to much better things since the flawed original, and revisiting it 10 years later almost feels like pointing and laughing at the afflicted.

A vastly better game than Lords Of Shadow 2, that smooths the rough edges from the 3DS original and proves that Castlevania need not revert back to a niche retro franchise.

A nice idea in theory but the super shallow gameplay and micro-budget presentation make this portable strategy game only marginally better than its home console namesake.

One of the great champions of offline multiplayer returns, and although it brings nothing new to the table at least it lets you race along it once again.

Despite its one glaring flaw this is one of the most enjoyable co-op shooters for some time, even if it is top-down rather than first person.

A great 2D shooter in its own right, but the customisability and four-player options make it one that even non-fans can enjoy.

A loveable slice of 90s nostalgia, but compared to shooters both new and old it’s surprisingly limp and inappropriately difficult.

Half the price it originally was, but now twice as good – this third person take on Metroid Prime has been remastered into the game it always should have been.

A perfectly competent Advance Wars clone, but until the free multiplayer DLC turns up it’s only the half the game it should be.

When the local parish church won’t absolve you of immoral acts committed elsewhere, you need to re-commit each of the seven deadly sins within the bounds of its diocese. So begins this work of delightful absurdity that brings together baroque music, Renaissance painting, and the spirit of Monkey Island; in a point and click adventure that feels like being stuck in an interactive Terry Gilliam animation. Its puzzles are not sophisticated, and the multiple fourth-wall-breaking references and meta-jokes won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but picking your way through cheerfully animated Hieronymus Bosch canvasses never loses its charm.

Rogue Hearts is a dungeon crawler in which your hero stalks the hallways of its randomised levels smashing absolutely everything to reveal tiny, incremental quantities of gold and occasionally fighting monsters using melee weapons, magic, and a selection of special moves. Unfortunately, the dungeons are unerringly dreary, the relentless smashing of furniture, appalling translation of its turgid dialogue, and poorly explained mechanics add to an overwhelming sense of futility. To make matters even worse it monetises like a free-to-play game despite costing actual money. It’s peculiarly awful and you should on no account download this catastrophic mess.

It has very high production values and its colourful, cartoony visuals have a matching zany sense of humour. Unfortunately, despite splashing some cash on the user interface, the combat is primitive and rapidly becomes boring; the chance encounters on each planet repeat ad nauseam and its whacky comedy is nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is.

Pocket Build’s approach to world making is unusual in that there are no goals or enemies, your time and effort freed up for aesthetic concerns and the mellow process of terraforming and building towns, villages, and parks populated by humans and goblins. Your tiny denizens will fight each other, but fallen combatants can easily be revived. It’s the essence of relaxed geniality for those with a high boredom threshold.

Taking its cues from laid back infinite sand-boarding game Alto’s Odyssey and its predecessor, Ava Airborne has you attempting to keep hang-glider pilot, Ava aloft as long as possible. Graphically it’s pretty sparse and the flight dynamics are simple-going-on-remorselessly shallow, but there’s a world of upgrades to unlock at the usual snail’s pace of freemium titles.

Siege Of Dragonspear takes you and your plucky band of adventurers crawling dungeons, having detailed conversations with non-player characters s and generally attempting to overthrow evil using weapons, magic, and light tactics. If you missed the original this will be incomprehensible, featuring no training whatsoever, but if you played Baldur’s Gate you can import your party and just carry on. It’s not as good, but then there’s really nothing else quite like it.

The balloon popping sub-game isn’t up to much, but the rest of Ultrawings is a dream come true for fans of Nintendo’s charming slice of amateur aviation.

Like the ineffably dull Battleships, OIL has difficulty providing interest when so much of your success depends on luck.

It’s not perfect and although you could argue that the typos reflect a slightly lower standard of proof reading in mid-21st Century news publishing it’s still a satisfying read, even if some sort of player agency would have made it even better.

Original Journey is a twin-stick shooter-meets-platform game, with Tower Defense-style fixed guns and an upgrade system more reminiscent of a role-playing game. adly though its gameplay loop of shoot, loot, and retreat is just a tad too tight, rapidly feeling repetitive and restrictive.

Mysterious, whimsical and intriguing, this is one to take your time over.

It’s an interesting mix, and despite moments that require ultra-specific placement of Magibot’s power circles, and a fair bit of dodgy translation into English, this is a mostly successful blend of mental and dexterity-based challenges.

The deadpan humour is complemented by deliberately B-movie style acting, but the formula-making mechanic is undermined by ever-stricter time limits which make it feel like a chore well before its relatively brief eight acts are finished. On the plus side, half its profits go to charities actually searching for a cure for cancer.

It’s a strangely meditative process though, thanks to the plinky-plonky music and ambient sound effects; along with the slow pace of the game supplying an almost ASMR feeling as you fiddle about with the number of spots on each hexagonal tile to get them to add up, whilst feeling absolutely no time pressure whatsoever. It’s a great little game, even if it occasionally dances over the fine line between tranquillity and dullness.

Beautiful and elegiac are not normally adjectives you’d use to describe a golf simulation, but that’s what this is, and a highly unusual and peaceful experience.

The action is a bit basic, but it’s the way it’s framed that destroys the atmosphere. The messy, cluttered interface proving to be a constant assault on the senses. It’s not helped by the banality of the characters and stories, with the patchy translation making that problem even worse – the turgid dialogue adding to a sense of not trying very hard. Although not a dead loss it would be hard to recommend this even to die-hard role-playing fans.

There’s the core of an interesting game here, but it feels like an idea that’s been only partially fleshed out.

Puzzles involve picking your way through the darkened maze using walls of light to separate your spindly stick woman from aggressors and guiding her to pads in the floor which trigger the next door to open. It’s not a terribly good summer game, the perma-darkness making the action almost impossible to make out on a sunny day, but it’s a well made and atmospheric game with interesting puzzles and a distinct personality.