Ghost Blade HD comes close to being a very good shoot ’em up but visual issues and a lack of ambition hold it back. That said, there aren’t many bullet hell shooters on the PS4 and this isn’t a bad option if you fancy sacrificing your thumbs and retinas to the cause.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight ticks all the boxes. It is a game with bags and bags of charm and the animation is wonderful to look at. With excellent weighty combat and some particularly memorable bosses, every aspect of the game feels crafted and tailored to near perfection. Whilst the short running time and 2D graphics will put some people off this is a game which I can easily recommend.

2Dark delivers on a dark story but struggles with the gameplay. The visuals soften the horror a little but the developers should be applauded for the premise. The stealth gameplay works but the trial and error nature of it may start to grate, thankfully the story is intriguing enough to pull you through to the end.

NeuroVoider isn’t going to stand out in a sea of retro-flavoured roguelikes but it’s one of the better ones. While the shooting mechanics aren’t perfected, the upgrade system is pretty addictive and makes a fairly ordinary game hard to put down.

Talisman: Digital Edition offers a very full package, including as it does the main game plus all the expansion packs. If you’re a fan of the boardgame this is a faithful conversion and an excellent way to play more of it, if you’re new to the game this is a good way to play it as the PlayStation 4 automates much to make the experience user friendly.

LEGO Worlds is a game about playing with LEGO and it works really well. It is very easy to pick up and play and in many ways the enjoyment you’ll get out of this game is limited only by your imagination.

Sure, we’d rather they just remastered GRAW 1 and 2, and this is yet another open-world Ubisoft ’em up. But get over the initial deja vu, and lack of GRAWness, and fire this up with your online mates and you’ll get one of the best co-op games on the PS4. A high quality title but one that we reckon will be forgotten a lot sooner than its predecessors. In the meantime though, Wildlands has its hooks in us.

Darknet is a simple and fun puzzler that comes closest out of many to providing a fun hacking game. It may not be the best showcase of the PSVR hardware, however it does make for a good diversion for whenever you are stuck between games and have the visor affixed to your face. One for puzzle fans who are looking for something a bit different on PSVR.

Loot Rascals then is a decent roguelike with a very unique sense of humour. The sci-fi setting and the absurdist characters allow this to stand out from the general swords and sorcery crowd and give it a memorable style. The very random nature of the levels and pickups means that far too much of the game is dictated by luck, but the ability to seed specific levels to replay is a brilliant addition.

Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride is another hidden object puzzle game from Artifex Mundi. If you’ve played any before then you know exactly what to expect here as not a lot has changed. If you haven’t then if you can get over playing a game that would not look out of place on your phone on your PS4 then you can gain some enjoyment out of the sedate gameplay and light puzzles.

Sublevel Zero takes the lost six degrees of freedom genre, injects some roguelike elements and leaves you with an entertaining but very short shooter that knows how to give you just enough rope to hang yourself. This is a clever little arcade title and we’ve enjoyed it but there are questions over the value for money.

A graphically impressive game Horizon Zero Dawn offers an engaging open world and an interesting story. The combat is nuanced and taking down the larger beasts feels really rewarding. This is a must buy.

Blue Rider is the latest example of a sub-sub-genre of shoot ’em up that has never really worked. With its overly long, samey levels, it all starts to feel like a chore pretty quickly but there is a level of challenge here and some arcade fans may get something out of it. But, with better options out there, this is a game that is tough to recommend.

Forma.8 puts its best foot forward with a minimalist, abstract style that works wonders. More direction would be nice and the plot quickly vanishes but the pull of exploration offers enough to propel curious players deeper under the surface. It’s a great addition to a much-loved genre which carves its own place with some striking aesthetic choices.

Ys Origin may be over a decade old by this point but the quality shines through. It plays very well, moves at a fair pace and there’s enough content to keep you busy for a long time.

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is a fun, bite sized package that once again brings back the brilliant voice acting and characters that made the original game so special. The two hour game length will be a sticker for some but it doesn’t outstay its welcome and gives us a cheeky morsel of the things to come in Psychonauts 2, which cannot come soon enough.

Torment: Tides of Numenara is a text heavy CRPG with great writing. The world is surreal and interesting and the many characters are rich and varied. The huge amount of choices and interactions you make have consequences both big and small which help to enhance the feeling of a living world. The battles aren’t great and it doesn’t run perfectly on the PS4 with slight hitching and long load times but it’s certainly an adventure worth taking.

Typoman is a game that looks a bit like Limbo but just isn’t as good. It does do some very interesting things with word puzzles, but the short running time and the way the later puzzles tail off in quality stop this being a true gem.

As a bit of a super fan of the original, Chime is overly familiar while being ever so slightly worse thanks to visual improvements that slightly mar the gameplay at the highest level. The additional modes, and number of levels, offer a fleshed out package though and Chime is still the uncrowned king of the genre as far as we are concerned.

So Many Me executes well on some clever ideas. The platforming is tricky and tight. Whilst there’s not a lot of time to the package, what’s here is engaging. Sometimes it frustrates and demands intense dexterity but the charming visuals work as a calming influence. Definitely worth recommending if you’re after a compelling platformer with plenty of character.

Vaccine gives a good initial impression for fans of old school survival horror, but a bad first impression gameplay-wise. Stick with it enough to achieve a good run and you might just see the appeal, but it will depend entirely on luck rather than skill.

Sky Ride is an incredibly vacant experience. It lacks the basic features that you would expect a game in 2017 to have and does nothing to make up for it. You only get one game mode, one map, no menus and a predictable loop that repeats with no variety. It is incredibly shallow for the price and certainly not as exciting as it may seem on paper. Best to avoid this one.

Nioh has been a pleasant surprise. There’s a thoughtful consideration to its level design and, whilst they sometimes look uninspired, the strength of the combat maintains my attention. The difficulty might feel uneven but this is a challenge which anyone curious should undertake. It’s been a long, careful road that could’ve seen many things derailed. Thankfully, the final product is outstanding.

Monster Loves You! is a very short visual novel style game with a story which never quite hits the mark. It has a very pleasant style though and bags of charm. How much mileage you’ll get out of this depends on whether you're willing to replay for the multiple endings.

Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found is a highly addictive rogue-lite game, though it does have some problems. Depending on your luck the quest system can slow your progress and you will be seeing the same locations over and over, but upgrading your character and the base makes one more go turn into another hour.

Trials style gameplay but with the hardcore aspects taken out and replaced with fun stunt-based gameplay. MX Nitro is polished and fun and offers great arcade thrills for those of us who like our motorbike action dumbed down a little.

There is an awful lot going right in Vertical Drop Heroes HD. As a roguelike, it works really well and the gameplay loop is both rewarding and enjoyable. Vertical Drop Heroes HD is a game which is easy to recommend.

Semispheres is an elegant mix of stealth and puzzle solving that doesn’t overstay its welcome. The levels are short and well-designed and will give your brain a decent workout without dragging out the experience. You might ultimately want more variation and length from the game but for us the game’s bite-sized levels work great.