SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated seems directly targeted at those with a real nostalgia for the original game. Improved visuals and audio aside, it’s hard to recommend to a new audience when the platforming genre has had some truly outstanding remakes these past few years, let alone new entries.

Infliction is nightmarishly scary, but it lacks innovation and relies on some tired and problematic tropes in order to deliver. While it excels in its puzzle design and general atmospheric spookiness, an unsympathetic protagonist and audio problems lead to an overall lacklustre experience.

While Windbound failed to shake my sails, being too repetitive and pressured, it should appeal to survivalists. Respect must be afforded to the interesting sailing mechanics, which elevates the exploration.

If you don’t think the idea of becoming best friends with horses and just hanging out with them on an island sounds fun, you won’t enjoy this game. But if it’s going to tap into that same part of childlike wonder that I felt from the moment I loaded it up and chose my first horse, then it could be for you.

Haunted House takes a classic, and brings it into the modern age, by introducing stealthy elements to a Roguelite. It almost pulls it off too, if not for its repetitive room design and a few too many bugs which pull players out of the game a little too quickly.

The Ascent opens impressively and displays a solid core, which regrettably starts to sour early, especially if you play on your own. Load times, illegible text and repetitive structure mean that the console experience is lacking.

Ray’s The Dead has a tonne of potential, and I’m thrilled that Ragtag stuck with their work and didn’t allow this game that already centred on the dead to die in real-life too. There are rough edges, many of which can be easily rectified with some patching, but there’s something to Ray’s adventure that will constantly put a smile on your face.

Summerland is a fascinating little game from a budding young creator wanting to make games about something. Living ethically in a world where ethics can never be set in stone is something we have to do every day. Combine those two things into a short game with a thoughtful story, which you can play for free right now? Why not?

While My Hero: All’s Justice does a great job of putting the player in the climactic battle against Tomura Shigaraki, All for One and the remaining members of The League of Villains, having to trudge through the disappointing Team-Up Missions to access the Archive Battles and the one dimensional combat that reduces controls to spamming a single button makes this game hard to recommend to all but the most die hard MHA fans.

Empire of Sin successfully captures the atmosphere of the roaring 1920’s, but some solid narrative elements and an innovative character relationship system are tarred by slow game progression and an unbalanced tactical battle system. If you’re specifically craving some gangster goodness, give it a go, but be prepared for some hiccups and frustrations along the way.

The Switch version of Doom Eternal is ultimately a complex beast to recommend. If you’re someone wanting to take on some demons on the go? The lack of an adaptable UI makes it tough to recommend based on the amount of text which is unreadable when in handheld mode. For those players who primarily play Docked, especially if the Switch is one’s primary system? It makes for a far better prospect.

While I believe the story could have been delivered more smoothly, there is no faulting the effort gone into voicing all conversations and making sure that the simple gameplay loop remains engaging for many hours. There’s an amateurish, almost cobbled-together feel about Cloudpunk in general, which luckily connects with its aesthetic, coming together in a nice, shiny, pixelated indie pie.

I have no doubt that after another month or so, this game will be in a much better place but as it is, I cannot in good conscience recommend this to anyone who doesn’t have an absolute beast of a PC. The experience is just too compromised on anything less than the latest and greatest gear.

I really don’t know if the time Cris Tales has taken from my life was fully worth it. There were definite ups throughout my adventure, but the frustrations mitigated my excitement somewhat.

No Way Home takes the frenetic action of a twin-stick shooter and marries it to a space-faring adventure, but while these two concepts should make for a thrilling experience combined, the final result is sadly less than the sum of its parts.

Unfortunately, while there are moments when Party Animals shines and is a fun competitive mini-game experience, these moments were brought down by some confusing design choices that hampered my enjoyment while playing.

Am I happy I played Suicide Squad? Yes, I am. There was enough here for me to get enjoyment out of proceedings. Am I happy to keep playing Suicide Squad? As it is, no way.

It can oscillate a little wildly at times, almost leaving you in the dust as it rushes to its next beat. But it’s a story that wants to talk about something, with a neat mechanical twist on the old branching narrative game to boot. For a freshman effort by a budding French team, it’s a neat experience worth paying attention to.

Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires isn’t as good as the sum of its parts. Everything that’s here has been done better in the past, and I truly hope the next one is better. Still, it scratched the itch for a while.

Sadly, a series of missteps along the way means it never reaches its true potential and is left languishing behind other more accomplished titles in the genre.

It is a case of close, but no cigar for King’s Bounty II. It makes a valiant attempt at creating an grand RPG but constantly trips over frustrating design choices.

An adventure that doesn’t stand out in anyway. Embracelet isn’t buggy, broken or busted, but it is decidedly average.

I feel torn about House of Ashes. I’ve been overly negative here, but it isn’t by any means a bad game, it just didn’t gel with me in the way that Little Hope, for example, did.

Unlike its predecessors, WWE 2K Battlegrounds does what it claims, providing an arcade-style take on wrestling that can have anyone pulling off gravity-defying moves in minutes. Sadly it lacks the depth to be more than a fleeting piece of brawling fun.

Where it does succeed is in its original intention – to bring this story to a new, modern audience. I finally understand George Orwell’s Animal Farm a bit more, even having still not read it. Despite my frustrations, I still spent yet more hours outside the game thinking about the ramifications and meanings of this Orwellian tale. In that at least, Orwell’s Animal Farm realizes its potential.

If you’re after a game where the challenge is turned up to 11, then Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection is more than ready to take you on. For everyone else? Unless you’re ready for the frustration, then you might want to stay away.

The DioField Chronicle doesn’t nail the landing but I think that there is still some fun to be had here. I’m just not convinced it’s worth the full price of entry.

FixFox isn’t a game for teens or adults who act like teens (you know who you are). There isn’t enough challenge or engaging gameplay to be had. For the pre-teens out there though, FixFox is adorably cute, enjoyable and fun with a story that they can follow! The developers knew the audience that would enjoy this and delivered well.