Sonic Origins is a fantastic celebration of 30 years of SEGA's spiky blue mascot, offering four of the best platformers money can buy and chucking in a bunch of great extras that long-time fans can appreciate. Regardless of where the Blue Blur head next, Sonic Origins is a reminder of just how damn good these timeless classics are.

The Quarry is a pulse-pounding teen slasher packed with strong characterisation, amazing atmosphere, and scrumptious visuals. Yes, it's not exactly the most challenging game thanks to dumbed down QTE events and interactions, but with a great story and heaps of replay value, you won't really care. If you're a fan of Until Dawn, then this is a must-have.

Despite its small steps toward evolution and innovation, Final Vendetta feels like a wistfully romantic and well executed, if ultimately conservative take on those side-scrolling brawlers that held our attentions (and quarters) so rigidly in years gone by. Nonetheless, despite the fact that Final Vendetta doesn't push the genre forward with any sort of strident vigour, it's certainly true that it's still a lot of fun all the same and that enjoyment is only amplified when played with another friend locally.

Tribute Games and Dotemu have officially brought back the beat-'em-up genre into the spotlight. Shredder's Revenge channels the greatness of arcade beat-'em-ups from the 80s and 90s to create an exceptional experience. Teaming up with friends and taking on the Shredder and his ninja Foot army will definitely put a smile on your face. With plenty of quality-of-life additions like unlockable skills and mission-to-mission quick saves, the only thing holding the title back is the lack of any unlockables and only two game modes to play through.

Spiral Circus creates a spellbinding world of undersea dread and wonder with Silt. From the distinct hand-drawn visual style to the ambiguous mystery of its protagonist and setting, this is an engrossing experience only marred by sparse checkpointing.

Kao the Kangaroo is a fairly decent, if unspectacular, platformer that harks back to a golden age of the genre’s 3D era in many ways. Sadly, it falls short of being a notable addition to a heavily stacked part of gaming’s history. That could well be its strength when it inevitably becomes an unexpected platforming touchstone for a new generation of young gamers in the way Croc, Gex, Crash, et all did for previous ones.

Sniper Elite 5 is the series at its strongest to date. It's not a radical paradigm shift by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't need to be. Instead, it builds on what Sniper Elite 4 did so well by expanding on the scale of maps, stuffs them full of things to do, and polishes its already-compelling combat. If you're looking for a tactical, rewarding World War II-era shooter, Sniper Elite 5 comes highly recommended.

Salt And Sacrifice is every bit the sequel I could have wanted for Salt And Sanctuary. Everything about the gameplay has been elevated a polished better than any previous title from Ska Studios. With excellent combat, and a flexible progression system that lets you alter your build and playstyle how you like, mixed with amazing art, creature design, and atmosphere, this is the latest must-buy indie title.

In the end, despite its penchant for occasionally boring puzzles, rough character animations and wildly varying voice performances, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is nonetheless a roundly fulfilling detective adventure with a vampiric twist that will appeal greatly to anyone that follows the World of Darkness setting. For others, Swansong makes for a fine, if occasionally clunky introduction to that sprawling world of supernatural politics and generation spanning stories.

It’s not the biggest multiplayer experience you could find right now, but Evil Dead: The Game makes use of its streamlined nature to deliver a darkly joyous romp that taps into everything Evil Dead with great success. Saber Interactive follows up its solid World War Z game with another well put together multiplayer horror title.

Dolmen attempts to add some potentially good ideas into the Soulsborne formula. Unfortunately, it misses the mark far too many times in important areas to make it worth the effort you need to play it. Great level aesthetic and enemy design are wasted on far-too-flawed combat. With so many other Soulsborne clones available, Dolmen can easily be passed up.

Unpacking is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket as you gently watch the years roll away in front of you. Though much too short, the relatively brief experience that you'll have with deconstructing the emotional narrative of characters that you'll never see via its block fitting puzzles, cements the fact that Unpacking won't quickly be forgotten and will be an experience that you'll likely go back to time and again whenever you need a precious smidgen of soul affirmation.

I cannot overstate how much fun I had with Soundfall. It has a few shortcomings along the way, but absolutely nothing stopped me from jamming out while I shot up baddies. Drastic Games combined two different genres into one engaging and entertaining package. Soundfall is a 2022 sleeper hit.

As battle royale efforts go, Bloodhunt is surprising; which is more than other like-minded efforts can lay claim to. Though cross play remains unbalanced against more capable PC players and concerns over balancing and map variety remain, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodhunt nonetheless brings a scintillating blend of furious traversal, inspired PvE design and neat lore from the World of Darkness setting to fashion one of the most refreshing battle royale efforts in quite some time.

An enduringly clever inversion of traditional survival genre tropes coupled with a palpably tragic and gut-wrenching experience, This War of Mine: Final Cut offers up 11 bit studios magnum opus in its perfect form. By packing in all of the DLC released to date in addition to the stellar Stories expansions and providing a pin-sharp 4K presentation, This War of Mine: Final Cut is an ageless, horrifying and inventive survival effort that everybody should play without delay. This is as essential as survival games get and its mediation on the desperate plight of civilians during a time of war has never been more resonant.

A great start to what I'm hoping will be a great franchise. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising doesn't do anything to move the side scroller action RPG genre forward, but it does everything to make it fun. Rising reminded me a lot of old school 2D action platformers but with an entire town-building mechanic. It's also one of the most visually impressive indy titles I've seen in a while. Overall, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a great starting point for what's set to be an epic JRPG, with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes releasing in 2023.

RiffTrax: The Game has all the tools to be a highly entertaining party game experience. Its simple and streamlined approach will make it an accessible option, even if that does make the whole package feel a little light.

Short but ever-so-sweet, Trek to Yomi is a pretty linear affair that respects your time. The combat is nuanced, evolves over time and is entertaining to learn. Small bursts of exploration are rewarded with collectables and upgrades but your main path is never obscured. It's cinematically beautiful and what's done with perspective and setting up each scene is really unique. Trek to Yomi is unlike anything else I have played recently, it's not bloated, pure and I appreciate that a lot.

The simplicity of Lego Builder’s Journey is exactly why it’s the most faithful Lego game of all outside actually putting physical bricks together. A smartly put together little story puzzler that showcases the power of creative thinking and play that is synonymous with the iconic Danish toy. The only thing that betrays its joy is the occasionally clunky controls in tight spots.

I had a lot of fun playing through the game, and exploring all the different locations around the world. The story was interesting, especially the main character being such a blank slate. It took me a few hours to get used to the combat style, and I will admit I got lost a few times during the story. But that was fine because I got to do some dungeons, explored the world and got buffs before falling back into doing the main questline.

The House of the Dead Remake is everything you'd expect from a revamp of an old-school 90s zombie rail shooter. It's fun, all too brief, but still provides enough entertainment solo or with a mate in tow. However, it still feels like a missed opportunity to stuff it full of some worthwhile new content.

A beautifully crafted love letter to Sega's Out Run, until the latter publisher decides to get their act together, Slipstream is not only the closest you'll get to recreating Sega's classic arcade racer on contemporary hardware, but it also adds enough new parts and components to this vintage ride to make it well worth taking in 2022.

Chernobylite gets new life with its release on the PS5, harboring enough improvements to make its fundamental shortcomings easy to overlook. Frame rate, graphics, and performance all get enhanced to the next level, making this the best way to play Chernobylite.

MLB The Show 22 stumbles for the first time in recent memory. This is understandable with San Diego Studios' ambitious goal of releasing the game on five platforms if we count the last generation consoles. Nevertheless, The Show 22 is still the best baseball sim you can buy and one I can't put down. From the attention to detail to the number of different game modes you can play through, The Show 22 continues to improve on last year's game, even though it's not to the degree we are used to. If you're a baseball fan, I cannot recommend MLB The Show 22 more.

I loved my time in Lake and wished it lasted a bit longer. Though mail delivery doesn't sound so appealing, it was nice and relaxing to drive around a small town and take in the sights. Providence Oaks' town is full of people with big personalities that you can interact with however you want. It has some issues with pop-in issues and repetitive musical score, but it's easy to overlook these issues when the people of Providence Oaks are so delightful to talk to.

Deeply emotive, intimately crafted and bursting with freedom, Road 96 takes interactive storytelling to a whole new frontier and provides players with a timely reminder that developer Digixart is one of the most underappreciated studios in the industry today.

Moss: Book II is everything I look for in a game presented in an astounding VR package. While some aspects of the game feel held back by the current hardware of PSVR the journey and world make up for any shortcomings. I truly loved my time with Moss: Book II and cannot wait to see what is next for Quill.

There is almost nothing good about Outbreak: Contagious Memories. From the terrible controls to the lack of simple quality of life issues that were found in previous games in the franchise, Dead Drop Studios want you to believe that all the horrible design decisions were done on purpose. Sadly, it's impossible to actually believe that someone can make something this horrible in hopes of entertaining anyone.