Pounding beats, smart but breathless action, and a learning experience that extends throughout your first play through. Roto Force is a classic in the making.

Experienced players will find it patronising, but it’s a non-intimidating start for beginners.

It’s unique while it lasts, though, its idle gameplay proving as engaging as ever, and its wilful misunderstanding of Stephen Hawking’s ideas, along with a peculiar obsession with potatoes, making it one to savour.

Accompanied by ambient trance music, it’s one of those games where you can slip into the zone and not realise an hour’s passed, making this a somewhat dangerous distraction on public transport.

The remake adds improved visuals, new sea creatures, and a few more fishing power-ups at the shop. Plus, there’s the Pro Tour, a sizeable chunk of progression to work on once you’ve fished all the species from the other regions.

For devout fans, the writing in collectable log entries might be more appealing than the main branching narrative. Some connect back to familiar characters like Anderson Dawes, while one particular voice note suggests cameo appearances from the TV series might be weaved in throughout future episodes. It’s fan service but it makes sense in the context of Drummer’s journey at this stage, heightening the atmosphere rather than pandering to replicate it.

An occasionally interesting attempt to update the Double Dragon formula, which understands the appeal of the original but fails to offer any longevity or variety.

A Disney-infused Metroidvania Jr., with a gradually increasing challenge that’s ideal for children and, in its latter stages, offers enough inventiveness for grown-up players as well.

A significant improvement on the last game and one of the best Soulslikes of recent years, with excellent use of procedural generation and so much variety it’s almost impossible to see everything.

Far more than just a match-three puzzler, Clash Of Heroes is a unique strategy role-playing hybrid that has a massive amount to offer in terms of both its solo campaign and multiplayer.

Nintendo successfully reinvents Pikmin as a Stardew Valley style cosy game, that’s both much bigger and more approachable than ever before.

A very peculiar online shooter that manages to be both quietly original and shamelessly derivative all at the same time. It does have dinosaurs in it though and that counts for a lot.

A highly imaginative puzzle game whose clever concepts are frequently used in the least appealing way possible – although they’re imaginative enough that the game remains engaging despite itself.

Chaotic, brightly coloured, and with an immense profusion of power-ups, heroes and abilities, which are gradually unlocked through a series of different levels and one-off events, it’s a long term challenge that’s extremely moreish right from the start. The upgrade path means you’ll slowly start to take on higher difficulties as you gather more monkey towers to your cause, making for a compelling difficulty curve in this near-perfect genre exemplar.

Graphically beautiful and abounding with references and Easter eggs, it’s a not-quite-driving adventure that’s overflowing with charm and wit.

Each level has a strictly limited number of squares in which to undertake your merging antics, deploying a small supply of tactical powers – swap two squares, delete a tile – to correct mistakes or reverse bad luck. You get a small number of moves per day for free, but you can watch an ad to earn more or pay to unlock the full game and all its maps, in this neat little puzzler.

There’s a lot of text to read, from newspaper articles to the majority of dialogue being unvoiced, but its great looking setting and unusual detection gameplay loop make this every bit as engaging as it was on PC and consoles, and just as prone to getting you stuck if you don’t spot the small detail you’re supposed to.

This slightly spooky sequel continues its tale of real people in strange situations, picking up the story and characters of Oxenfree and retaining its style and puzzle-adjacent gameplay.

Classic co-op party-gaming fare that’s unpretentious and very quick to pick up. It may be just a little too similar to Overcooked. but given how rare local co-op games are this is a welcome riff on a familiar theme.

Three great 2D shooters, lovingly recreated and, in the case of RayStorm and RayCrisis, updated for the modern era – even if some corners have been cut.

A beautiful and exquisitely violent ballet of gunfire and telekinesis, that feels incredible to play but lacks the challenge or variety for long term play.

A wonderfully strange and imaginative indie adventure that delights in terms of its visuals, storytelling, and enjoyably unpredictable gameplay.

A midcarder to the WWE 2K23 main event, AEW Fight Forever lays down some solid foundations and is fun to play, but without much depth it falls short.

A game whose very existence is absolutely baffling, with a tiny collection of completely uninteresting mini-games, that remain dull and unimaginative no matter how many people are playing.

The overall package doesn’t quite match up to any of the Danganronpa titles, but Rain Code’s storytelling and characters make up for its minor shortcomings.

Time has been surprisingly kind to Ghost Trick, with its bizarre plot and gorgeous graphics, and while some old problems remain, they’re very easy to excuse.

A crisply drawn futuristic racquet sport with consistent and nuanced physics that’s let down by a user base too small to support online matchmaking.

Turning Crash Bandicoot into a MOBA is certainly a choice but not one that’s paid off, in this paper thin platformer that has little to offer either franchise fans or newcomers.