Ultimately, it's a game full of great ideas and some addictive gameplay mechanics, but clashes with some poor pacing and a complete shift-up in the second half that loses all the charm. For an Xbox Game Pass title, there's undoubtedly some fun to be had in the survival space sim if you can look past its flaws. Just don't go in expecting the Lost in Space experience the game tries to sell.

There's plenty of customisation available to keep it fresh and the inclusion of AI opponents and a challenge mode will give this more longevity than other couch co-op titles released recently. However, some will find the controls frustrating and it is likely that the frantic madness of multiplayer will have a limited shelf life once the initial surprise of the silliness wears off.

The key thing to take away with Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 is that even though it has some issues and is essentially more of the same, there is still plenty of fun to be had here.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli isn't a game that you need to play, but if you're a fan of side-scrolling shooters and have a few friends and extra Xbox One controllers in your vicinity, it's worth considering.

What it comes down to is that, even though it's a redesigned version of its mobile counterpart, BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition is experimental and rich enough to justify its existence on a home console.

It'll definitely be one that you'll pick up every now and again for a quick hour of cathartic Survival mode gunplay though, that's for sure.

The mechanics are simple yet engaging, and the merging of tower defence, brawler and castle destruction is the ideal balance of easy-to-play yet difficult-to-master. Simply put, CastleStorm has a lot going for it.

Resident Evil 0 is a worthy entry in the Resident Evil franchise even though it lacks the scares and originality. It's often overshadowed by the first game, but not giving it a spin would be a grave mistake.

Kao The Kangaroo is a hard one to sum up, then, because while it definitely feels low-budget, clunky and frustrating at times, it's also a platformer packed with plenty of fun and memorable moments. It feels like the developer went the extra mile to inject some ambition into the series and craft something that deserves a place alongside the behemoths of the genre, even if it can't meet the lofty heights of a Crash Bandicoot or a Super Lucky's Tale. It's nice to see Kao punching above his weight in 2022, and not just being relegated to an easy cash grab.

There could be more to it, but Cubot is a relatively fun experience overall, with a nice mix of difficulty and frustration.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Master Crafted Edition (that's a mouthful) is a proper 360 throwback, for better or for worse. The game's tight shooting mechanics make this one worth a play for anyone who's into the genre, but its 2011 foundations are still showing here in this modern remaster. If you're properly into your Warhammer lore I'd expect you to get a little more out of the experience than I have, but the game itself is still a fun time, and we recommend giving it a go on Xbox Game Pass. The short and snappy campaign will take you just a few nights to finish, and who knows, maybe the multiplayer will find a cult following here in 2025. I'll be hopping on in the coming days to find out.

Level 22: Gary's Misadventures is a fun puzzler that doesn't take itself too seriously. Even with that in mind, the developer has obviously lavished love and attention on the game and produced a product that, while not the longest or most challenging game in the world, is enjoyable enough.

In short, Pure Pool is an excellent simulation of the sport of pool, but everything outside of the cue-to-ball action itself is lazily done.

Atlas Fallen sees Deck13 make a mostly successful leap to a bright and bold semi-open world that's jam-packed full of excellent combat and some surprisingly slick platforming action. Yes the story is bland, the voice-acting is poor, there are some lock-on niggles and sand-surfing needs work, but ferocious battles, tons of swappable skills and well-designed Metroidvania and platforming elements more than make up for most of the failings here. This is the studio's best game to date for our money, and if you've played The Surge series you'll know that's saying something.

Double Fine has given us another charming Xbox first-party title in the form of Kiln, which might be light on content, but nevertheless is a fun time both on and off the battlefield. The pot-creation system is a genius take on a character creation suite, matches are frantic but offer plenty of room for strategy, and the overall presentation is really high quality. Moving forward though, it's going to need regular new content to remain fresh and give players a reason to keeping coming back, otherwise I fear this online-only game might get doused a little too prematurely.

Much like the character you create, Biomutant feels like a Frankenstein creation of various ideas. Some are good, some are bad, but the end result is a misshapen product which feels messy and buried in its own ideas. Areas of the game that should have received more attention feel relatively barebones, while others feel overly complex. The repetitive nature of looting, levelling up, and looting some more never truly evolve and make the beautiful world often feel lifeless. We really wish we loved Biomutant, but unfortunately, it's a game with many ambitious ideas, but lacks the conviction to fully utilise them.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a lazy, generic platformer. It's five hours of content that feels like it was made by people who watched some footage of a bad 90s platformer and decided that was how they wanted to proceed. This writer's kids love SpongeBob, they were done with this game in about ten minutes.

The Lamplighters League is a stylish and smart turn-based adventure from a team that absolutely knows its way around this sort of tactical action affair. There's plenty to like about this game's melding of XCOM-styled combat with a tarot card system that gives you lots of variables to play with as you build out your team of misfits and rogues. However, as things currently stand on Xbox, there are some fairly notable performance issues here that drag the experience down from one we'd love to recommend to something that's a harder proposition in its current form. With a few patches in place you're looking at another decent addition to Xbox Game Pass, but for now we recommend hanging back and waiting for these Lamplighters to receive a little more polish post-launch.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game feels like another excuse to cash in on the SpongeBob name. The game doesn't do anything offensive, but it's so barebones that it doesn't even really feel like a complete experience, particularly for seasoned gamers. If you absolutely have to try anything with the animated sponge's name on it, then frolicking around in Jellyfish Fields for a few hours or so could be fun - but otherwise, don't bother. It's probably worth just booting up Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated again if you're in the mood for some SpongeBob gaming in your life.

Somerville is a super-stylish slice of sci-fi that nails its aesthetic and provides a solid narrative that comes to a pleasingly surreal and fantastical end. However, all of this good stuff is bogged down by dull gameplay, performance issues and the addition of a third dimension that, while certainly very cool to look at, leads to awkwardness as you attempt to solve puzzles and interact with environments. If you can make peace with the gameplay, you'll still find a story worth experiencing here, it's just a shame there wasn't as much creativity in those puzzles as there is in every other aspect of what Jumpship has served up.

Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns is fun to play through but the quick runtime and light amount of gameplay on offer means you’re far better off waiting until it’s at least half-price or less. Part two only lasts for a handful of hours and Havik's timeline shenanigans never really feel like a high-stakes main mission. The new fighters are a redeeming aspect of this expansion, but the whole package seems overpriced at launch. For now, you might want to save your koins.

There are some truly fantastic ideas here, some super-smooth parkour, brain-tingling puzzle challenges and occasional flashes of brilliance when it's time to get down and dirty in combat. Some ideas haven't been explored as thoroughly as we'd have liked, and there are a few rough spots, though.

Luckily, the game is not overly pricey at $7.99 and the alternate modes help to keep the interest up, with score chasing on the leaderboard always available to be relied upon to add some interest. With that said, match-3 games are generally good for relaxation, but with the control gremlins to contend with, this isn't one that we found to be terribly restful.

Oozing charm and potential, this really is a great example of what a small development team can achieve and Brainy Studio's pride in their creation is alluded to throughout the game. It's undeniable that TurnOn does a lot of things right, which makes it sadly all the more noticeable when something doesn't quite hit the mark.

High On Life combines sloppy shooter action with Justin Roiland and all of his pals being incredibly annoying. You're either going to love it or hate it, really, so it's lucky this one's hitting Game Pass so you can check it out and decide for yourselves. Personally, this reviewer hated the humour, there's something very off and deeply troubling at the heart of where this game is coming from, it feels as though it's looking down, sneering and hateful. But that's the comedy style it's going for so we guess we need to relax, bro. Some people are going to eat this stuff up, regardless of what we think, so it's a shame that it ties this sneering attitude to bland gameplay, tired puzzles, dumb AI and a world that just isn't fun to explore or inhabit in any way. Dude. That is harsh.

Despite having quite a few moments of frustration, Schrödinger's Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark features enough high points to make it a very enjoyable experience.

Even at a budget price, players new to the franchise can safely avoid the set as there's much better gameplay to be found elsewhere, such as in the likes of the Metro: Last Light or even Techland's own Dying Light, both of which outshine Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide in almost every area.

A missed opportunity to exploit the exciting cyberpunk environment and story that was developed for it. The shooting is unsatisfactory, and the whole game has an old fashioned feel to it that doesn't sit well in comparison to other, more modern games.