While Nuclear Corps has promise as a modern take on the puzzle style of Lost Vikings, the clunky game mechanics and buggy environments really let it down.

Vera Blanc: Full Moon is a clunky visual novel with easy puzzles and a forgettable plot. It's not terrible, but neither is it easy to recommend.

InkSplosion's combination of very basic twin-stick shooting and distracting visuals is problematic but there's an hour or two's worth of fun to be had here if you're a fan of the genre.

A chronic lack of difficulty turns this shoot 'em up into a well-made but ultimately meaningless platinum trophy factory.

This just doesn't want to click for me. Skautfold: Into the Fray has some intricate pixel art but the combat is hampered by a small selection of guns and enemy variety. The shooting prioritises precision and I don't think the analogue sticks quite supply it. How you engage with combat rarely changed over my time with it and that results in something frustrating and a little tedious.

Knightin'+ is a simple hack and slasher that takes no chances with the genre whatsoever but may appeal to adventurers looking for a simple to understand retro-themed challenge.

Many Faces' simple, short-lived gameplay and even simpler visuals mean that you'll likely forget this basic platforming shooter as fast as it'll take you to finish it.

Super Jagger Bomb is a Bomb Jack clone where the classic gameplay does its best to shine through despite the visuals and controls letting the side down.

Pandaball is a bare-bones multiplayer five-a-side football game with pandas. Not really much to it. Poor value, especially when you consider the competition.

Super Onion Boy 2 should probably be called Super Onion Boy DX as it doesn’t really amount to much more than a port of the original browser-based game with added trophy support. It’s not very good but neither is it terrible. Bang average.

With its low-poly aesthetic and appealing retro flavour, Thunder Kid has the hallmarks of what should be a solid indie game that apes the classic PS1/Saturn 32-Bit era. Much like Renegade Sector's Breakneck City though, it doesn’t meet the mark of even the most basic games from that time. Instead, it feels like a facsimile, with the only true retro callback going to the poor tanky controls and limited design scope.

Apple Slash is a basic top-down, maze-based hack and slasher set in a fantasy land but it's too short, simple and plainly presented to really be something we can recommend.

It's not Trash Goblin's fault that Trash Goblin is the way it is. It's your fault. It's all our fault. Games shouldn't try to be jobs. I think we should have realised that a while ago.

Akiba’s Beat is a disappointing follow up to what was a flawed but entertaining game. The majority of gameplay involves walking to a location to button through some dialogue or progressing through tedious and repetitious dungeons. What content is here is stretched to breaking point as you’re asked to do the same thing over and over. If you enjoyed the characters from the last game you may find some joy here but others may struggle through the fifty hour playtime.

Has-Been Heroes is just not a great game as it has very complex and confusing controls and a battle system which feels punishing and difficult. There are far better roguelikes out there and Has-Been Heroes just doesn’t have the chops to make it a worthwhile purchase.

Exp Parasite is a challenging platformer with plenty of mechanical variety. Unfortunately the bosses are a weak point and there are some major bugs that need to be endured on top of the difficulty in order to reach the end and complete all those level goals.

Get your head around what this is and Harmonix Music VR is a fun little tool to play with but it has no real value and after thirty minutes, you’ve seen everything. It’s close to being something good but Harmonix need to support this with new modes to make it at all worthwhile.

Spacewing War does a good job of pretending to be a Game Boy shoot 'em up but its low-fi approach, weak level design and complete lack of challenge make it a tough sell even if the extended content does give it some extra value.

Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator has potential, but in its current state, that’s all it is. The diagnostic system that underpins the game was broken by the day one patch and remains in a state where the game is effectively unplayable. The gameplay itself is a bit repetitive but no less so than the nine to five grind. We just hope a future patch resolves the issues, because as things stand, we can’t really recommend this.

Cat God Ranch is an odd thing. We suspect the concept was solid when it came to the project brief but the execution leaves something to be desired. Mechanics aren’t well explained at all and you’re guaranteed to hit a solid difficulty wall after a while. Yes, the animals are all very jolly and vocal, but can’t carry this beyond the initial couple of hours. The problem is the game mechanics aren’t clear and bafflement is likely to be your default state rather than enjoyment. For now, avoid this.

VR has been around for a while now and just being in VR isn’t enough. Like any other kart racer we want interesting levels, tight controls and fun power ups. VR Karts doesn’t deliver any of that. The VR is welcome but without it, there would be literally no reason to own this.

Whilst it tries to do something interesting with it's pro-trucker story, time on the road is filled with irritants. The behaviour of the other road users is erratic and obeying the laws of the road only seems shorten your driver's chances for survival. The long hauls only seem to showcase a large, bland map with very few points of actual interest. Truck Driver: The Dutch Connection is a something of a dull mess that doesn't quite stack up.

Sonic Forces may have impressive elements such as high-speed spectacle and graphical fidelity, but it completely falls flat in just about every other area. It fails to better 2011's Generations and to learn from past mistakes in the franchise. Stick with Mania.

It’s quite difficult to ascertain what Riot: Civil Unrest wants to be. The dull and uncontrollable action would fit quite well as a simulator with something to say. However, the title is bogged down with gamified elements that suggest that this product was built for entertainment, with its guitar laden soundtrack and high score chasing elements. Unfortunately, it becomes a mess of both worlds that fails to be either thought provoking or an enjoyable gaming experience.

From Russia with bugs. A below average run & gun platformer you'll tire of quicker than a cold weather front.

Super Destronaut DX is a colourful take on the Space Invaders formula but is so devoid of challenge and fresh ideas that it becomes impossible to recommend, despite being reasonably well put together.

Diorama Dungeoncrawler definitely tries to do something different in its attempt to mine some nostalgia from its retro-themed presentation and gameplay and we do appreciate that. The problem is that there's a reason why games in the '80s and '90s didn't look or play like this and that's because it doesn't look nice and it's not much fun to play.

A pretty sloppy port of an unimaginative platform shooter. This game's mobile roots are pretty evident and while the game has a couple of decent ideas, it isn't executed at all well.

There are very few games that live up to their name better than Defunct. The experience is short lived, marred by gameplay issues and is generally unworthy of note.

Truckzilla - Monster Truck Mega Ramp Mania is a game of two halves, the campaign mode is passable but the ramp stages are an unmitigated disaster. Pop-up is very evident, the likes of which we’ve not seen since the original PlayStation. Oh and while there’s a slider for music volume, there’s no music. A bit of a mess all told.

I simply cannot trust Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, at present. For as tense as combat can feel, it can't match the fear of a game seconds from breaking. At the time of writing nobody has finished this game. My save is broken to the point where there are two levels I can't even finish due to scripting errors. If you have to check it out, PC seems to be where the support and community is. Out on Playstation consoles, it's toast.

Graven is a console port stricken with a fatal save bug. For anyone wishing to persist, the remaining product is lacking in a few key areas. I love how the levels are designed with clever shortcuts but the encounters can begin to feel stale. The lack of new enemy types and a small selection of weapons really brings the mood down. Magic doesn't really feel special and can often operate like another key, rather than a tool for combat. There's a good atmosphere but the potential this game wants to invoke doesn't really come to fruition.

MX vs ATV Legends is a shambling corpse of a game struggling along on life support. How it passed testing and got approved for release is anyone's guess, but we figure THQ Nordic probably release so many games that the Sony approval team will rubberstamp literally anything these days. Don't bother, we really wish we hadn't. This series is effectively dead to us now. Hopefully it’ll be patched to a playable state, but at the moment it simply isn’t.

Tennis World Tour 2 is a great example of how not to make a tennis game. Virtua Tennis on a Dreamcast VMU gives a more satisfying experience. It fails wholesale to learn the lessons of the game it's a sequel to and isn't much fun to play. At least there's no microtransactions.

Despite what many would say, Fallout 76 could have worked on paper. What could have been a brilliant coop adventure in the Fallout world however, has turned into a wasteland of poorly executed ideas and flat, dated mechanics. Ironically, despite the a multiplayer focus, the wastelands of Fallout has never felt as barren or lonely as this.

The whole idea of playing as a blind person could be interesting but navigating the house just feels frustrating given that you’ll spend a vast portion of your time looking at a silent black screen. With a weak story and unsuccessful horror elements Perception is probably best left in the dark.

Submersed ultimately makes some key decisions which will frustrate. Enemies are relentless and inventory management feels botched, leading to you require prior knowledge to advance. Stealth is functional but, more often than not, you're tasked with running from foes that are simply quicker and deadlier than you. There's a punishment on offer here that doesn't fit the crime and, whilst the game tries to do well with a small budget, it can't execute on much of it.

On paper, the battle engine should provide an interesting scrap with a varied, albeit small, roster of characters. Unfortunately, the AI feels brutal to fight and the lack of a manual means you're fumbling in the dark until you figure out what works. It's needlessly uninviting with the slim choice of modes and the lack of an online community meaning this game really underwhelms.

I Want To Be Human has a cocky swagger about it which screams of rebellion and teenage angst. Whilst it has a striking visual style the gameplay suffers for this. It is also dogged by poor controls and a reliance on frustratingly difficult platforming sections which means this is a hard game to recommend, even at the low price point.

Freddy Spaghetti 2 is a poor sequel. It's a straightforward platinum and while it's not devoid of quality, it's just so average with it. If you've not played the first game, we'd recommend you play that instead.

There's a bright and cheery look to Roarr! Jurassic Edition but beyond the surface, it's a little flat. Your moveset doesn't provide a lot of depth and there's not much to look forward to beyond score chasing. Co-op with friends certainly does liven the mood but technical issues like inputs dropping brought more frustration. For all the good the presentation does, the action itself feels a little stale.

While we're always happy to see obscure retro games get a new audience, it's hard not to be disappointed when they get a lazy port like this. As retro fans, we did enjoy aspects of this lesser-seen Mega Drive title, the enjoyment was fleeting and tempered by some core gameplay issues and problems with the emulation.

Turret Rampage might have worked better on something like a Nintendo Game and Watch back in the '80s but this level of simplicity, from both the gameplay and presentation, probably doesn't cut it in 2024.

Timber Tennis Versus suffers greatly from a bare-bones approach to the sport. The ultra simplified controls and lack of content left me bored fairly quickly. There's a nice rhythm to the rallies but your lack of any real influence means you're hoping for a power-up to finish the job for you. Whilst there's balls and heroes to work towards, they offer only cosmetic changes to a game that badly needs some variety to its gameplay. It's a weak, short-lived experience.

At a short runtime, Dawn of Fear feels like a shell of something far grander. Every good aspect feels somewhat cut short in a rush that seems to hamstring any chance of expansion. Whilst the passion for the genre is very evident, the lack of execution and style results in something flat, hollow and just not all that interesting.

Hunting Simulator 2 might as well be called Misery Boredom Simulator as we spent ten+ hours playing it and came away wanting shoot ourselves to end it all.

There was enough about I Hate This Place to keep us engaged right to the very end, but the longer we played it, the more it annoyed us. It feels dated, confused and amateurish in everything it tries to do, and it's such a shame because you can tell there was heart and vision behind it. It just needed more time, talent or maybe both.

Subaeria is a novel take on the rogue-lite genre. Trying to make enemies kill each other by outsmarting them can be fun and there is plenty to unlock. However at the moment the technical problems take all the fun out of playing it, sometimes making it literally unplayable. Hopefully these issues can be fixed with a patch as the concept deserves better.

It’s hard to reason why All-Star Fruit Racing is a game that exists, let alone a game that exists on the PlayStation 4. It’s utterly uninspiring in every single way, from the title to the shallow, vacuous characters who lack any kind of personality. There are brief hints of some good ideas within the gameplay, however these do not detract from a myriad of problems that makes the whole experience feel rotten.

One More Dungeon doesn't do anything well enough to justify the tired graphical and gameplay style choices it has. The core gameplay isn't great and the roguelike elements don't give you much of a reason to keep playing.

Adding a story-driven mission structure to the humble auto-shooter is a pretty cool idea and infusing that with some Lovecraftian horror should produce a game that's better than this.

Stranga bring us Red Bow which proves underwhelming. Trophy whores are well served despite that, moreso with the double platinum.

There's a fun shoot 'em up here but it's very short and incredibly basic.

Chess Knights: Viking Lands is a chess-themed puzzle game that has an okay core concept but the lengthy, complex puzzles stop being fun after a while and the controls are abysmal.

It was inevitable that the retro-revival part of the indie scene would turn its attention to the low-poly, 32-Bit era for inspiration. Breakneck City tries to bring back the glory days of playing Die Hard Trilogy Arcade and Virtua Fighter. However, it lacks the feel and polish of both. It has some moments to shine, but these are fleeting and cannot shake the overall ropey feeling that permeates throughout.

A hardly noticeable PS5 facelift does little to elevate one of the least fun tennis games we've ever played.

South Park: Snow Day is a slight effort that feels somewhat underdeveloped. The combat has a chaotic feel to it without any real nuance or precision. The few missions that are here follow a familiar path and it misses some much needed variety. The random card drawing can deliver some variables but not enough for encounters to feel different. South Park's humour is here but it's in much smaller doses and simply can't carry what's a mediocre offering.

Unbox: Newbies Adventure is a cute and somewhat original concept wrapped in technical issues that make it hard to recommend. While it can be occasionally fun; Unwieldy movement, infuriating combat and glaring graphical foibles make it a less than stellar package.

Virtuous Western is a (very) cheap and cheerful puzzle game dressed up as a retro Wild West shooter. It has its moments but you're looking at a thirty minute game here with a pretty trivial level of difficulty and as such you'll be done with this before you know it.

Custom Mech Wars clearly shares some DNA with the EDF games but it fails to deliver on the promise. If you see it a lot cheaper, there's some fun in seeing what sort of mechs you can make but taking them into combat is such a flat, empty experience that in the end you'll wish they took the combat out and just made this a mech-designing sim.

Inside ZOE Begone! there's a good idea but it doesn't really come together as a game and feels like it's a few patches away from being its best self.

Wearing its inspiration on its sleeve, Dolmen is a clear attempt at bringing the Souls-like to a sci-fi setting. However, the experience is hurt thanks to shoddy execution in almost all aspects. Featuring a non-committal narrative, poorly paced difficulty, and a general lack of polish in both single and multiplayer modes. Dolmen is difficult to recommend, especially when considering the competition out there, whether that be from more capable clones or From Software. We can only hope that the rare, good aspects are carried over into more proficient titles which are no doubt coming in the future.

Tamiku borrows heavily from a few arcade classics but manages to do its own thing and that is admirable but this simple platformer is over pretty quickly. Not bad for the price but not a game that'll last in the memory.

Gutwhale feels like a game in concept. With some responsive controls, there is an enjoyable loop on display that quickly ran out of steam, for me. Content is all too slight and, whilst it's a game that feels best suited when you have a couple of minutes to spare, I'd seen it all in ten minutes more. If it was expanded upon with more levels, hats and enemies, I would have been more inclined to recommend it. As it is, by the time I got into Gutwhale, it was already over.

Ninpo Blast combines ninjas and shoot 'em ups to make a game that's oddly unexciting.

If Epic Dumpster Bear: Dumpster Fire Redux could match its humour with more competent presentation and gameplay then it would be fantastic. However, this is not the case and while the game is definitely played for laughs, these soon run out when mundanity sets in.

I've said all I can about Takorita Meets Fries. My biggest fear is to be shown a game I can struggle to talk about. This culinary non-adventure has so little on the table that it's hard to recommend. It certainly feels geared towards a younger audience but even children have higher expectations. The incredibly brief narrative leaves me completely unsatisfied and the impressive presentation can't really save it.

Despite the initial promise of an interesting story with a comedic quirk, The Protocol falls flat on nearly every fundamental level. The gameplay is tedious, the comedy doesn’t land and for all of the title’s good ideas; the game fails to live up to or capitalise on any of them.

Zenith isn’t that good and that’s a real shame because on the face of it, things looked promising. The trouble is that the comedy falls flat at every turn and the role-playing elements are so light they’re practically non-existant. Had the developers focused more on gameplay and less on jokes, we might be onto something. Comedy isn’t easy in games and Zenith is exhibit A in the case of how to bad things can get. All is not lost though. The developers have created a functional product and after some more QA testing could have had a fairly average game. I do hope this is a stepping stone onto greater things for them. Don’t believe the reviews giving it zeroes and ones but certainly don’t be fooled into thinking this is anything special either.

Inessential. That's how I'd describe Destroy All Humans!: Clone Carnage. It feels like a placeholder between games to keep the fans simmering over and I'm not even sure they would be satisfied. Online lobbies are already deserted so your chances of any joy might have to stay local. Even when I found a match, the lack of content means I'm struggling for reasons to stick around. It looks nice but some of the maps feel fairly empty.

Super Destronaut: Land Wars is a very basic FPS with a nice neo-retro aesthetic but is let down by a serious lack of challenge.

Space Hulk: Deathwing accurately looks and feels like a Warhammer 40k licensed game. Unfortunately, for what it has in atmosphere and looks it just isn’t that great to play. Instead, the game is a slow and laborious slog mixed with laborious combat that rarely feels satisfying.

West of Dead has a lot of charm, confidence and potential but is currently a bit too flawed to recommend. However, a few patches down the line this one might end up being your huckleberry.

There's a fun game buried away inside Spuds Unearthed's needlessly complicated exterior but even when you figure out what's going on, a chronic lack of challenge kills the game before it ever really gets going.

Neptune Flux is a short and not so sweet package. While it has decent storytelling and a premise that interests, for an open world title it simply feels too claustrophobic. There is some fun to discovering deep sea detritus and the puzzles surrounding them, but unfortunately whether it is because of the murky visuals or the extremely short playtime, there is just not much to see here.

We love twin-stick shooters and we love tower defense games. Unfortunately, Road Defense: Outsiders doesn't execute either aspect particularly well.

It's not that Bubsy is terrible, it's that it never ever tries to be anything other than average. For this kind of price, we expect so much more.

While RobotRiot doesn't have any glaring issues, there's a lack of creativity and excitement that would have even been in a problem in the '90s era that it emulates. In 2017 on a PS4 Pro, this just isn't enough.

Gangs of Sherwood is a hollow effort that, despite the decent visuals, struggles to raise a compliment out of me. For a game so short, it runs out of variety quickly. The lock-on might be a struggle but combat is so without risk it barely matters. Perhaps a robust cast of characters could've saved it but even they overlap in abilities and movesets. I've played worse but those worse games have arguably had a lot more to say.

Dyna Bomb evokes memories of old console and computer games but is reasonably unique. Unfortunately it looks and feels like what it is, a cheap and cheerful port of a 2016 budget PC game.

For everything Hammerwatch II does well, there's a downside. In a series that is now a decade old, this is the worst game in it and it suffers from issues that the studio should have resolved long ago. Maybe it just isn't a good fit for consoles or maybe the developers technical skill doesn't match their ambition but whatever it is, we feel pretty let down by this one.

If you're going to take on a 1981 arcade classic with modern day (almost) cutting edge hardware then you'd better come correct. But if you ignore what made that game a classic and add game mechanics that make things worse, then that's a little embarrassing. Terra Bomber may pander to the fond memories of Scramble fans but ultimately it'll alienate them most of all.

What Handball 21 does well is represent the top of the European table of the sport. Unfortunately, the gameplay and animation can't hold up to the challenge. As a newcomer, I struggled to get to grips with what is a very tactical sport. I find space hard to manufacture and, whilst defensive duties are better handled, the goalkeepers provide a real lottery. I can't complain much about the modes on offer but the clumsy gameplay dampened my enthusiasm. Some training modes could've helped but I found this game tough to penetrate.

Beyond the Ice Palace II is a throwback in the worst possible way. A sequel to a 1988 Amiga game that should never have been greenlit, not to mention the terrible job Storybird did with it. The checkpointing is miserly, the platforming uninspiring and the post-release patch that deleted our save and removed what little enthusiasm we had for the game were nails in the already rickety coffin. Bury and forget.

Ace of Seafood isn’t a great game, but it is sort of ok. There is enough absurd action here to ensure the game doesn’t get boring, and it is particularly interesting to watch. However the low quality graphics and poor controls mean that more often than not this is a game which isn’t all that enjoyable to actually play.

Rabisco+ is a wolf in sheeps clothing, it's cute looks belay its unforgiving nature. Ultimately the challenge and twitchy controls overwhelm any real fun you might have otherwise. The very fact that we can’t be doing with playing again for the PS5 platinum speaks volumes.

This cheap and cheerful BMX game has a solid enough engine but there's no real game hanging off of it. A serious lack of content lets this one down.

Insomnis is a horror-themed, puzzle-based walking simulator but unfortunately it really only nails the walking bit. With no real scares, a lack of engaging puzzles and no real technical proficiency, this is just an average indie game that doesn't really make a case for its own existence.

The Order of the Snake Scale is a small and cheap effort that struggles to serve up mystery or tension. Whilst the music can be atmospheric, most areas are lifeless and combat is sparse. It's an adventure game but the steps you take to progress the story feel strangely disconnected. The tank controls lead to an awkward fumble and the first-person view, whilst making it easier to navigate, is an ugly thing to look at. It's playable but far from cohesive.

Road of Death mixes twin-stick shooting with classic survival horror mechanics but none of it is done well enough. There's a degree of challenge that's mildly interesting for an hour or so but beyond that, the game just isn't any fun to play.

Thunderbolt Collection is an interesting curio for shoot 'em up collectors. There's definitely some value in owning two hard to get mid-'90s console shooters but the games weren't celebrated back then and that's for good reason: they're just not all that good. But as a package, you have to admire QuByte's efforts to bring these games to a new audience.

Crystal Rift on PSVR is about as basic as it gets. The low fidelity visuals, questionable soundtrack and asset choices tarnish what could have been a decent dungeon crawler. Without the VR headset it is even less enjoyable due to poor viewing angles and stiff movement. This just makes Crystal Rift very hard to recommend, even at its lower price point.

Woodle Tree 2: Deluxe+ seems like a good, honest attempt at the sandbox platforming genre. Unfortunately, with this there is a laundry list of issues, such as unresponsive controls, poorly thought out content gating and the odd yet substantial glitch brings the game-feel down to a crash landing. A bit more time in the oven and Woodle Tree 2 could have been something interesting, instead, it just ends up feeling as wooden as the lead character.

In Nightmare has a decent idea at its base and some nice visuals but the fundamental gameplay makes too many missteps to make this one worth playing.

At times, Strawberry Vinegar handles friendship between two children well. There's moments of humour and some good character building on offer. The aesthetics are sickly sweet, twee and a little too much for me. Unfortunately, the good work is undone by some rather awkward, awkward implications. This game takes a rather inevitable turn which I really wish it had the nerve to avoid.

Touhou Genso Wanderer is a very Japanese, and very average, indie roguelite. As this is in the Touhou universe, the same cast of anime characters appear and this may appeal to some people. However, this does little to stand out from the crowd and is vastly overpriced at launch.

Nubla 2 may have been the result of a collaboration between a game developer and modern art museum, but the gameplay is anything but artistic. Wonderful aesthetics and an engaging narrative aside, Nubla 2 is a short and frustrating adventure, thanks in no small part to poor platforming mechanics and snail-like pacing.

Despite a decent setting and story the actual act of playing Black Mirror just isn’t enjoyable. As a result the many flaws stand out all the more for it. For adventure game fans this is maybe one you’d want to look into if it ever goes on sale, but for anyone else there are far better places to start your adventure.