Blue Fire walks a fine line between fair challenge and downright frustrating. Tight controls and a wide variety of tricks at your disposal mean you are never short of something new to try, but its punishing gameplay and frustrating checkpoint system drag the game down. If you like a decent 3D platformer and are willing to be frustrated as often as rewarded, Blue Fire is worth checking out.

Rhythm n’ Bullets is a solid arcade shooter that’s more bullets than rhythm. It’s fast fun but it can be a bit overwhelming as the challenge increases.

Crash Drive 3 is simple, honest fun that’s easy to pick up and play with its variety of game modes and maps.

Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is a challenging experience filled with plenty of memorable moments. If you’re a long-term fan of the Akiba franchise, you won’t be disappointed. Just be warned: it will get weird.

Cris Tales is a classic example of a game that serves as a homage to games of the past, while managing to forge a path all of its own. Solid and satisfying combat merge with a storyline that moves things along nicely and if you enjoy turn-based RPGs, Cris Tales is definitely one to play.

Open Country does get a few things right with its hunting, exploration, and character growth. Where it falls down is that it tries to be a jack of all trades but ends up a master of none.

Get ready to be zapped back to the 90s with Indigo 7: Quest for Love. This colourful hexagon puzzle game has an incredible art style and a genuinely funny coming-of-age story filled with great characters to meet and new ‘foes’ to defeat. Don’t just enjoy this alone as the multiplayer can be played with up to three friends as you compete against each other in a variety of fast-paced puzzle modes.

Streets of Rage 4’s first proper DLC is a certifiable banger. The Survival mode alone is worth the asking price with its robust perk system that makes every survival attempt feel fresh, fun, and frantic.

If you’re a fan of the TV series, there’s little reason to play truant from this one as Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing will keep you entertained with its fast-paced races, gorgeous cutscenes, and a delightful cast of characters.

If you enjoy simple, calming platformers, Minute of Islands should be right up your street as Mario it is not. What it does, it does well, but in trying to be deep and meaningful it all feels a little bit short and shallow. Gorgeous to look at and quick to play, this is maybe one for the art critics and those who like their games with something to say – even if I missed what exactly that was.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a beautiful adventure where it’s your job to splash life back into this colourless world with the help of your magical paintbrush. You may not be the next Van Gogh or Picasso, but you will have a great time exploring what this land has to offer. With an endearing protagonist and a fantastic cast of characters, this experience will make you profoundly rethink art and mental wellness.

Where The Heart Leads is a one-of-a-kind experience that will stick with me for a very long time. It’s not often that a game can reach beyond the screen and get me to look around and think about my place in the world and what I could do to be a better man in it.

Sniper Elite VR is a great first-person VR shooter wrapped in the familiar camouflage of Rebellion’s famous franchise. The story is nothing to get excited about but the moment to moment gameplay, whether you’re going for thrills and kills or sneaky silenced shots, is more than worth the budget-friendly asking price.

Song of Horror has the potential to be a great game for fans of dark, gothic horrors. There’s a great story to be told and the ominous atmosphere, randomly generated scares, and some genius puzzles will keep you coming back time and again – providing you can overlook the janky controls, camera, and some technical issues.

Outbreak Endless Nightmares is poor on every level with no redeeming features. The gameplay is dated, the systems are ridiculously convoluted, and the general presentation is poor to the point of insulting.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, especially when you’re part of a literature club. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! brings the cult classic back with improved visuals and six enduring side stories that explore the characters’ backdrops. What first may appear as a lighthearted dating simulator will quickly spiral into a psychological horror experience that will leave a lasting impression on anyone who plays it.

Curved Space is a poor game that frustrates and confounds more than it entertains. The irony is that in a game about killing bugs, bugs kill much of the game’s appeal. Poor design choices and weak gameplay kill the rest.

Alex Kidd is a tough platformer that lacks a lot of the user-friendly features we have all grown accustomed to. Back in my day, games used to be tough – or so Alex Kidd would have you believe anyway. For such a difficult game that is pretty linear, it is surprising that so many of us hold Alex in such high regard, and it is largely why I would only recommend this one to fans of the original.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 pushes the series forward without making any great changes to its core. The writing is rubbish but the sniping is brilliant, and everything else in between is good enough to warrant this shooter a second glance.

Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance spins a lot of plates, and while some of them quickly come crashing down, others keep right on spinning. The moment-to-moment gameplay is just about good enough to overcome the few shortcomings that hold Dark Alliance back from being a great game.

War Dogs Red’s Return is fun but woefully short and shallow. There are worse games in the genre, but sadly for War Dogs, there are plenty of others that do it better. The poor story and lack of any real challenge means that this is one game I am unlikely to play ever again.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunt is an enjoyable hunting simulator that gives you the chance to hunt something different with its use of pre-historic beasts. However, with the limited number of dinosaurs and tedious, grinding progression, you might tire of this one before long you’ve filled the trophy cabinet.

Rise of the Slime attempts something new in the deck-builder genre with mixed results. The core gameplay loop is fun and engaging, but it’s let down by the positioning system that more of a frustration than a gameplay elevation.

Chivalrous by name, but certainly not by nature. This team-based medieval multiplayer offers a bloodbath of gore and carnage across several fun modes with tactical combat that’s brutal, fun and satisfying.

Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is the best way to play through Ryu's blood-soaked, over-the-top adventures. New trophies, lots of content, and a modest visual upgrade make this a must-have package for hardcore Ninja Gaiden fans.

Green Hell ups the ante by combining survival, storytelling and ultra-realism to create a tense, tough, and terrific game. It’s brutal but fun, and even better if you can rope a buddy into playing Survival mode.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is the definitive collection of what is one of the finest gaming trilogies ever released. With an extensive list of tweaks and improvements under the hood, this is how the Mass Effect trilogy should be played.

Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is more of the same, and for fans of SEGA’s long-running fighting franchise, that should be enough. For those shy of online encounters, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown doesn’t offer much by way of single-player content.